Saturday, September 22, 2007

Crisis In Zimbabwe

Imagine standing for hours in a queue ,that stretches for blocks, in the hope to buy a loaf of bread which is only rumored to be arriving and costs 50 times the amount it did last year. What about waiting five hours for transport to get to work or having to walk the many miles there. For the people of Zimbabwe this is not a dream but rather a day to day reality. The repercussions of the 1999 land grab are still being felt by everyone and increasingly so. All merit can go to President Mugabe, whose plan to give the black Zimbabweans a presumably just share of the country’s economic pie, by stealing farms from the whites, successfully backfired. Today Zimbabwe has the highest inflation rate in the world so as the dollar value increases the price of goods skyrockets. Basically what this means is that the country is falling to pieces as food and fuel become scarce or unavailable, clean running water is a faint distant memory and electricity is an absurd luxury. Once renowned in Africa for its superb medical care, Zimbabwe’s hospitals are in shambles and people especially babies are dying. The future looks grim for Zimbabwe for many of its citizens are fleeing to the safety of South Africa. The irony of this ongoing crisis is that President Mugabe violated the rights of the white Zimbabweans in hopes to gain more for the black ones only to succeed in taking away from them many of life’s necessities. How could a country like Zimbabwe, which has struggled for equal rights for all, expect to achieve that by granting rights to some and denying it to others?

4 comments:

yanks23 said...

The question at hand is, How could a country like Zimbabwe, which has struggled for equal rights for all, expect to achieve that by granting rights to some and denying it to others? It is simple, countries that do this can not accomplish any type of equal rights. Zimbabwe, is in a terrible situation right now, and denying people some rights in order to give more to others does not help fix the situation, but only creates a larger problem. By taking away rights from whites, it can only lead to racial and civil problems. Right now i think the best idea for Zimbabwe is to look to the global economy/market to help build up their country. It is definetly impossible to rebuild overnight, but it is possible to do it over a large period of time, without restricting rights from people.

Kiki L. said...

I have to disagree that opening up the global economy will help Zimbabwe. First of all, they have nothing to trade. Although they used to be the breadbasket of Southern Africa, they cannot feed their people right now and malnutrition and starvation is a serious problem. They need to find the means to find the people again before they trade with other countries. Second, the corruption rates are so ridiculous that chances are very little can reach the hands of the people who need it now. Also, inflation in the country is sky high which would make trade that much more difficult.

The reality is that things are only going to get worse from here until Mugabe dies or the international community presses for him to be removed for power. Once he is gone, reform can begin to happen but with him there is absolutely no hope. The article mentioned how Mugabe is a “very, very happy dictator,” and why shouldn’t he be at this point? While his people starve, I am sure he is dinner table is covered with food. No one is complain about him, or at least not loud enough. The international community once again needs to step up and demand for Mugabe to stop ruining his country and killing his people. I doubt giving what we have seen in Darfur that the international community is going to jump to help another African country. Fortunately, Mugabe is getting quite old and nature may have to be the one to help this country when he finally dies.

RobbieCano12 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RobbyCano23 said...

This is a perfect example of why human rights can not be universal for the time being. This was a tough decision for the Zimbabwe because by trying to establish equal rights the entire country has been thrown into turmoil. For the government it was a loose, loose situation. The government attempted to help the black Zimbabwean citizens by giving them white farms. However, what gives the government the right to take white Zimbabwean farms and give them to blacks? Yes the government needed to find away to help out the blacks, but they should have found a way to help out everyone not just one race. As a result of the governments poor decisions the whole country is now falling apart economically.

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