Hope for Zimbabwe: a student's view

The strength of Zimbabwe lies within her people and the riches in her land. Multi-national companies have shown that there must be something of worth in the country because for what other reason would they stay? Why do countries in the more developed areas of the world keep bothering us about our internal affairs? The answer is crystal clear, Zimbabwe has something wonderful to offer and is a great benefit to many countries around the world. If all these other countries can see this then why can Zimbabweans themselves not realise it?

My country used to be ineffably beautiful. The sun would shine with an amazing brilliance that would dazzle even those accustomed to its radiance. The land in all its splendour was rich and the dark red soil held all the rain and mist which seeped into the ground feeding the crops that grew in abundance.

Now we can no longer boast about the riches of our land because they are gone. Now photographers and journalists from all around the globe only take pictures of the desolate red soil that sticks out in every landscape and is painfully bare and only comment on the starvation of our people. It makes us look pitiful and pity is not something that we want, we want respect.

I urge Zimbabweans to take heed of the words of singer and cricketer Henry Olonga who sings the well-known Zimbabwean 'anthem', Our Zimbabwe. In it he sings that 'The time has come for us to stand, to stand as one. We need to stand to build our nation so that our flag, our nation's glory, can fly high and so that pride can once more be installed in our hearts'.

For all those despairing, despair no longer. We may be experiencing our darkest hour but is not the darkest hour the one before the dawn?

In conclusion I leave you with something to ponder upon. I was once told that man can only survive at most a few weeks without food, only a few days without water and only eight seconds without hope. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one ... hope. We must cling to it for only then can we as Zimbabweans begin to work towards being partners in development.

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