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50% of net proceeds of the revenues generated from The Autobiography of Mick Star go to Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and their courageous humanitarian efforts in Zimbabwe.
Last updated: December 2007
MSF Activity Reports on Zimbabwe:
2007, 2006/2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001
Recent update:
No Refuge, Access Denied: Zimbabweans in South Africa Struggle to Survive
All articles on Zimbabwe ยป
According to the UN three million economic refugees are estimated to have fled Zimbabwe, a country characterized by 80 per cent unemployment, rampant inflation, foreign currency shortages, food insecurity and a crumbling healthcare infrastructure. in addition to the HIV/AIDS crisis, MSF has seen the rise of epidemic diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis.
Since 2002, MSF has implemented projects in Zimbabwe to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. Despite the efforts of the Ministry of Health and other donors, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among pregnant women in some areas of Zimbabwe is above 30 per cent and the general prevalence is 15.6 per cent, still one of the highest in the world.
MSF has supported the Ministry of Health in decentralizing healthcare delivery to rural and city clinics in Bulawayo, Tsholotsho, Gweru, Epworth and Buhera. Increased proximity has resulted in more patients accessing the treatment and care they need. By the end of 2007, MSF was providing care to 35,000 patients with HIV/AIDS, approximately 16,000 of whom were receiving anti-retroviral treatment (ART).
MSF has seen the rise of epidemic diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis.
The comprehensive approach to the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS includes voluntary counseling and testing, treatment for HIV and opportunistic infections, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, nutritional supplements, medical care to victims of violence and general psychological support. MSF also carries out HIV/AIDS educational programs and trains health workers to manage the different components of the HIV/ AIDS programs and ART.
The effects of price policies, hyperinflation, food shortages, recurrent droughts and poor harvests in recent years, combined with a high prevalence of HIV and TB, have resulted in worrying trends in malnutrition. MSF supports a therapeutic feeding center in Tsholotsho district hospital and, at the end of 2007, set up a day feeding center in Epworth to respond to the increasing numbers of malnourished children seen during the year.
MSF also provided emergency clinical support for diarrhoeal outbreaks in the rural district of Gokwe, the town of Kadoma, the Harare suburb of Mabvuku-Tafara and in the city of Bulawayo.
MSF has worked in Zimbabwe since 2000.
Time slips thru my window under the cross I tangled with love I tangled and lost I remember the doors, I remember the words I remember all I have forgotten I tangled with love I tangled and lost She moves in and out of my window just like a dream Her lips, her legs, her lies Sweeter than cream I remember the doors, I remember the words I remember all I have forgotten I tangled with love I tangled and lost The moon leaks thru my window under the cross Love is no love at all Until love is lost I remember the doors, I remember the words I remember all I have forgotten I tangled with love I tangled and lost
I was seventeen years old when my Daddy passed away
I was not ready for tomorrow
I wore my cleanest shirt, I brushed my hair and then I prayed,
Elizabeth, I was not ready for the sorrow
But these are the things that bring me memories
These things bring me memories
I remember playing games, busting both my balls
So many plays, so many ways to losing
But if I learned I lesson, I learned this lesson well
The ways to win are most times in the choosing
And these are the things that bring me memories
These things bring me memories
I once had a lover, made me feel like Kingdom come
Made me feel like Jesus in that A frame
But then the summer ended and my lover went away
I hitched a ride to Kenmore Square and I found another A frame
These are the things that bring me memories
These things bring me memories
As the circle comes to close and my days number down
My daughter's life in London has me thinking
Memory's nothing more and less than what it ever was
The future of my past is what I'm dreaming
Believe me
These are the things that bring me memories
These things bring me memories
People in my pocketbook People in my rearview mirror People on my Sugar Mountain People in my memory People flying kites at nite People make me hesitate People are a work in progress People make me laugh People hanging fractured pictures People smoking grass People dance in many colors People pray for rain People lose their ways in darkness People come home again People all believe in magic People test their luck People look behind their backs People learn to duck People always look to take
People in my past
People on my first to do list
People on my last
People in my grill
People I would run away with
People I would love to chill
People in my hand
People that I so admire
People that I cannot stand
People fade way
People I can have for free
People I forget to pay
People miss the boat
People take my breath away
People give me hope
People make me pine
People make me take another drink
People blow my mind
People want to give
People will remain a mystery
As long as people live
My head keeps breaking cover
Down in Philadelphiaville
Where the summer washes humid
What the winter bites to chill
My dreams float out on the river
They dance a shimmer 'neath my eyes
From the west bank of the Schuylkill
Watching day float into night
And it all seemed so believable
My poetry was real
The Boggieman sang from the sillouettes
Of the headstones on the hill
And what the man conceived as exodus
You know the woman feels as thrill
Oh, you can see your life as a fairy tale
Down in Philadelphiaville
Once upon a time,
In a land not far from ours
Two men made an evening date
To play beneath the stars
The Weasle and Gallute their names
Strings on wood their trade
And when the stood upright in the naked light
Sweet Posey Music made
Repression first, then second hand
No better friend had I
Tripping up and down the Rocky steps
With the ice cubes in ours eyes
Oh but the castles we could see from there
The ones the waking man leaves still
The dreamers dream and then can touch
Down in Philadelphiaville
Now Philadelphiaville can be just like Hell
Where the Merchants have no heart
All gold to smelt the fatted calf
Maybe a coin or two for Art
"Yes, we'll let you sing tonight
and may your sounds be good
For it's silver that warms my dreary nights
You two can have your stings and wood."
Lonliness so hard to hide
Though Paradise is fair
The Wealse and Gallute had both
Seen enough to dare
They played as though the world would end
With Judgement soon to come
They played for the tears and the dust to mud
Man, they plaayed it all for fun
And what the man conceived as exodus
You know the woman feels as thrill
Oh, you can see your life as a fairy tale
Down in Philadelphiaville
Though Art was born that dreary night
The miser Dobbs looked ill
For the beggars that they sang about
Left nothing in his till
"What good has this that bears no gold
A value that's well known
I'm going to pay you half of what I said
Boys, that's twice what you have shown."
The Weasel and Gallute could see through
Miser Dobbs like glass
Then Weasle said, "Hey, next time you're down
Why don't you stop and kiss my ass."
What happened next was rather grim
As the strongarms soon appeared
The Tribe of Satyr shown the door
Like a head blown off a beer
Oh but the castles that they showed to us
The ones the waking man leaves still
The dreamers dream and then can touch
Down in Philadelphiaville
Those merry men still play around
Down in Philadelphiaville
Where the summer washes humid
What the winter bites to chill
And my dreams still float on the river
They dance a shimmer 'neath my eyes
From the west bank of the Schuylkill
Watching day float into night
It still seems so believable
My poetry is real
As the Boggieman sings from the sillouettes
Of the headstones on the hill
And what the man conceived as exodus
You know the woman feels as thrill
Oh, you can see your life as a fairy tale
Down in Philadelphiaville