Why blog? Some people have fun and go to big conferences. Many people simply enjoy putting their words up on the net. Others get the word out about specific topics or interests. And for a few people, blogging is a moral imperative, a matter of life and death, because the truth must be told from within the borders of a country gone mad.
This is Zimbabwe is such a life-and-death blog. Mostly it chronicles the difficulties of life in a poor country inflicted with government corruption, hyper-inflation, and the uncertainty of how to get through day-to-day life when you never know if the local store will have a needed item in stock unless your friends quietly tip you off.
Now and then, something momentous and awful happens, as during a recent protest march by women members of the WOZA movement for International Women’s Day. Below, TIZ follows up on the previous day’s post with a quote from a journalist’s piece, who experienced the brutality first-hand:
“A member from Pumula, Eva Tanyanyiwa, was knocked unconscious by a police baton, then pulled away and arrested. Jenni Williams went to protest, and was herself arrested, as was her co-leader of WOZA, Magodonga Mahlangu.””I then approached a senior police officer, and asked why the police were attacking the march. He said that the protest was illegal and had to be stopped.”
“I saw no more of the march because, as I was reading the leaflet distributed by WOZA, I was myself knocked to the ground from a blow to the head by a baton-wielding policeman, and beaten again around the back and ribs as I ran to escape.”
[tags]Zimbabwe[/tags]