Against Forecast, The Rain Continues, Medical Update and Early Days in Zambia.

A glimpse of the hazy sun through all the rain.

So we were meant to be having a dry spell, but after one day's break, the rain continues, be it a lot gentler than the previous five weeks. Every day I check the world news channels; the motivation is more to fill my day than a genuine interest in affairs that do not impact on my life. In saying this, I have been stunned by how little coverage has been given to the impact of the storms on everyday life and on state and private infrastructure in Spain and Portugal. As I have recently said, there are just not enough qualified roofers around to repair all the damaged houses and buildings, so make-do fixes are being made before people have to dig into their pockets. Even the main highways and major roads are getting quick fixes, while rural roads and electricity lines to isolated areas will have to wait. It appears the internet is back for most people, so everyone is sharing their personal devastation online. 

One of the many mudslides-this one in Coimbra

“In life, no matter how bad you think your circumstances are, there is always someone worse off. Sadly, no matter the cause, drought, flood, famine, pandemic or even health, this is always true. The rich complain about loss of wealth or business. The poor, their worldly possessions.” - Peter McSporran

Everyone I meet who has suffered severe damage due to the storms complains that the state has not done enough. They all say the promises seen on TV and heard on the radio are just verbal diarrhoea and do not relate to action. In contrast, I must say that locally, the Fire Department and local council workers have been doing their best, working long hours in the cold and rain. 

They say the main highway north will be open this week. Our road to Penela in six months

Those who know you will always look after you better than those who don’t. Their efforts are always accompanied by words of comfort and reassurance, letting their deeds speak for themselves, while the national politicians' promises are just propaganda, blowing their own trumpets and telling you what they could do but never will. Sadly, they believe their own words. I am pretty sure all new tree felling has stopped as the contractors are busy clearing the felled timber and moving it to the pulp mills. Sad they were lost, but at least they are of use and offer some return to those badly affected. I may have mentioned this before, but many of the old smallholding lands in our area, not planted to grapes or olives, are planted to trees as a form of living pension that increases in volume and therefore in value each year. At home in Zimbabwe, I used to always say my cattle were my pension, but that did not work out.

"The valleys around us are filled with a cacophony of chainsaws. Not exactly musical."-Peter McSporran

Just to touch on the medical side, despite a new problem I will tell you about shortly, I had a good week. My urologist, although disappointed in me not being fully continent, appreciates how much the ATOM is assisting me in getting a good night's sleep, and contrary to his expectation following surgery, over two years ago, my prostate cancer has as yet not returned. He says, trying to cheer me up this week, “You had to have the surgery to save your life, the incontinence, while an inconvenience is not life-threatening”. I agree, but I can understand why men do not always agree to radical prostate surgery with its well-known side effects. He suggested we take a break for about three months, then see whether we can improve incontinence control by moving the ATOM or increasing its pressure. I think he took pity on me as the last surgery wound took five weeks to heal, along with the accompanying antibiotics.

Rozanne was on the banks of the Mondego River in Coimbra this week after the level had dropped a few metres, but still very full.

The next positive thing was that my eye has not deteriorated and has remained the same, if not slightly better, since my last injection a year ago. Seven years ago, my first eye specialist gave up on my eye following a course of injections, saying I had an incurable AMD which would progress until I was blind in the affected eye. It was my optician who, about four years ago, said to me when getting my eyes tested for an extension on my driving test, a biennial event for over-seventies in Portugal, suggested I go to another renowned optometrist who rediagnosed my problem as a thrombosis, not AMD. After many injections, his treatment has not only slowed my deteriorating loss of sight but also slightly improved it. No injection, and I only have to go back and see him in six months, it feels like a holiday.

Since before Christmas, I have had an ailment which seems to be getting worse rather than better. I am not sure what triggered it, something to do with my stomach cancer surgery, the possible resurgence of the stomach cancer or it has just developed by some unknown trigger, perhaps the extended courses of antibiotics. It is like an acute wind pain, my daughter says it is like her IBS, and despite changes to diet and medication, it persists. Funnily enough, it only strikes in the evening, except for one exception in the afternoon. I suppose I should have gone to the stomach surgeon sooner, who may have had a solution or even given me a better peace of mind, but at the beginning of March I undertake the tests for my stomach cancer review, I left it. Probably stupidly, I seem to have spent my life in hospitals or doctors' consulting rooms over the past few years, and I have been reluctant to have the cause of this latest ailment professionally identified. After all, it might just be wind. I have dropped these common ingredients in Portuguese cuisine: onions, garlic, beans, and chickpeas, all favourites and found in much of it. As I have said previously, we like to lunch out, alongside the workers and tradesmen, having what can only be termed ‘home cooking’ style food. 

The other good news this week was that Scotland beat England at rugby, pity we cannot do it against other teams, even those deemed weaker than Scotland, no names mentioned.

Getting back to 2002, following the time of the tragic murder of Terry Ford, I now spent much more time in Zambia, with our new base being the ‘Big Brother House’ in Lusaka. This became the basis not only for us but also for many of those farmers considering joining our scheme. It was hectic, Rose Thorne would organise meals for unknown numbers, sometimes exceeding fourteen on a daily basis, while Chris Thorne and I got stuck into vetting farmers, locating possible farms for those farmers to rent and dealt with Universal Leaf Tobacco (ULT). One of the people who tried to convince me I was not doing a good service to Zimbabwe by offering an opportunity to displaced Zimbabwean farmers was Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition in Zimbabwe, who felt that things would come right in that country. As leader of the opposition, he had had his fair share of death threats and beatings. He knew that in the event of what we all hoped would happen, that is; the country coming right, our skills would be needed. My counterargument was: even if it did, what would we do in the meantime? Unfortunately, partly due to lack of support by the international community following each flawed and stolen election, his dream for “Change”' never came about and eventually, in 2009, he joined the Government of National Unity (GNU) that put paid to that happening in his lifetime. I met with Morgan a number of times and we would often exchange phone calls but I never became active in his party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) partly because he was head of the unions who invaded farms in our district back in 1998 when my late friend and neighbour, Henry Beuidenhout and I armed ourselves with shotguns in anticipation of deterring our farms from being invaded under the auspices of his trade union, which he was leader of at the time and had promoted this unrest. In 2002, after losing the Presidential election, Mugabe unilaterally declared himself the winner. Morgan and I exchanged a few mobile calls. I suggested perhaps more militant action, but he sensibly expressed fears for his party members, already being persecuted, and he said he would not be much use to the country dead. By then, he had become a man I admired, not the one whose actions I feared in 1998.

Morgan Tsvangirai, a brave man who fought fr democracy in Zimbabwe until his death

Other than useless utterances from world leaders, nothing was done about that stolen election, which signalled the beginning of the total economic downfall of Zimbabwe under the rule of the ZANU(PF) thugs.

“It seems that even the most well-intentioned politician, when elected, will compromise himself and his ethics in either seeking wealth or political survival. Only he or she can do his or her job, no matter how bad they are at it. The world would be a better place if this were not true.” - Peter McSporran

Meanwhile, in Zambia, the priority areas I identified for tobacco cultivation were Choma and Kaloma in the Southeast. These areas had the same climate and altitude as Karoi and were where most of Zambia's tobacco was grown at that time. Graham Mulder successfully grew tobacco in that area, one of the few Zambians who could match the top growers in Zimbabwe and who had proved, contrary to common belief, that yields as high as or higher than Zimbabwe's could be achieved in that country. The second area was Chisamba, an active farming area with its red soils, but it also had plenty of underutilised tobacco soils in its northern half, and, finally, despite being some 300 kilometres from Lusaka, the Mkushi Block. This is probably the most productive farming area in Zambia, other than the sugar area of Mazabuku, which has mostly soils that are too heavy and temperatures that are too high for tobacco. Choma was three hundred kilometres to the south, Mkushi three hundred to the north. Did I do some huge mileage? Yup! 

Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.