VARIOUS CRISES

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23August 2002


The Nyamandhlovu Cleft Stick and Messenger has received a despatch from an
anonymous correspondent, Mr Phantom Ryder.  The missive appears to be in
some kind of codespeak, and our Editor in Chief, Mr Ballpoint Lumumba, has
been labouring all night to figure out what it means, and what it has to do
with Zimbabwe.

However, with the help of the brilliant Professor Isosceles Vilakazi, the
well-known inventor, academic, political observer and cipherist, we have
established that it has something to do with the fuel crisis, and the
shortage of places to pee in Mashonaland since the "war vets" cut down all
the trees for firewood.

Mr Hyperactive Chizere, the government spokesman on energy affairs, denied
that there was a fuel crisis in Zimbabwe.  "There is no fuel in Zimbabwe,"
he said.  "Therefore you cannot possibly say that there is a fuel crisis.
You obviously cannot have a fuel crisis when there is no fuel to have a
crisis with."

Mr Chizere is leaving his body to science, because there are a couple of
scientists in Argentina wanting to know how a chap with such a large head
can be so incredibly, utterly, stupid.

However, the Chief Sanitary Engineer for Mashonaland Province, Mr Relief
Mbara, welcomed the brilliant solution which Mr Ryder offers for the tree
problem.  Government has moved immediately to import seven container loads
of little plastic bags with compressed sponges in them, which will be issued
free of charge to all ZANU-PF supporters, and stop the country from smelling
like a piss house.

President Mugabe will also be getting one, because continuing appearances of
the ghost of Josiah Tongogara are causing him to wet his pants at
inopportune moments.

Phantom Ryder (a former combat pilot of the US Air Force) wrote

> We carried little plastic bags with compressed sponges in them for the
> necessary times.  However, most flights were only about 1.2 hours long.
> Only in the Gulf War did the average time become several hours.

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