Since August, more than 500 people have been killed from a Cholera outbreak. Cholera is a disease that affects the intestines and causes vomiting and diarrhea. Most of the time, the infection is acute, but some people die from severe dehydration. People usually get cholera through contaminated water. In the United States, and many other developed countries, cholera is not an issue because our water sanitation system is impeccable.
Zimbabwe's health and sanitation system has failed, aiding the spread of the disease. It also doesn't help that the economy is bad, and the government is corrupt. Many parts of the capital, Harare, don't even have access to clean water. There is sewage in the streets,which puts many kids at risk, since they play in the streets. Hospital supplies are quickly running out, and many hospitals and small clinics are closing because they are overwhelmed. The disease is quickly spreading with new cases being reported in Mozambique, Botswana, and South Africa.
The country is deteriorating. President Mugabe has tried (unsuccessfully) to hide the gravity of the situation. He is refusing to declare the spread of cholera a national crisis. David Parirenyatwa, the health minister, suggested that people stop shaking hands to stop the spread of the disease. It is not suprising that Zimbabweans distrust their government. Their rights are being denied and violated. They are being silenced. The situation in Zimbabwe won't get better until Mugabe is thrown out, but his coalition is quite strong. A 23 year-old woman was abused and raped because she supported the Movement for Democratic Change (Mugabe's opposition). The situation in Zimbabwe is not getting better, and something needs to be done about it. The people aare poor, sick, and suffering, mostly because of their government. Mugabe went too far, and I think that more international pressure should be put on him. Nothing is going to get better if he is still in office.
14 comments:
The US government has gotten into too many foreign affair issues. True, these people need help, but when the US help they need to look at the other side. Take the middle east for example, the US allied with Israel and that causes other countries to hate America. USA needs to look closely on how to help. If the president does not want any intervention, then so be it. There is no point in making another country hate the States.
Hmm. That is truly sad, and these people do need help, but I have to a least somewhat agree with Kevin. I couldn't tell you if Mugabe should truly be removed from office, I don't know enough about the situation and I don't know what his next actions will be. It is truly horrible though, and extremely unfortunate at the lack of ability to take action that these people seem to have. It makes me grateful that I live in the US, where I really don't have to live in fear of such circumstances.
Robert Mugabe needs to go. While he has not gone so far as genocide, his policies are racist, despotic, and incompetent. He has ruined the economy (once the breadbasket of Africa), has quashed legitimate elections against Morgan Tsvanigirai, and ignored many basic problems. Now, he is ignoring the cholera epidemic (though after this posting, the Zimbabwean government did acknowledge it was a problem and asked for outside help. While the US has no immediate strategic interest in getting Mugabe out of power, it is necessary simply because such leaders must be held accountable when they have made such a mess and don't even recognize the true results of the election they have held (this is a view held, by the way, by the UK and other western powers).
Team America: World Police
America - f*** yeah
comin' again to save the **********in day yeah
When Mugabe first entered the political scene in Zimbabwe, he seemed to believe in unity. When the Republic of Zimbabwe was created, he even reserved Parliamentary seats for white Zimbabweans, the minority that had ruled Zimbabwe before its independence. In the 1980s, the life expectancy increased. What happened? Mugabe blames white colonialism for the problems Zimbabwe, which is difficult, seeing as all of the problems came after the improvements made during his time in office. Certainly, there are setbacks and long-term effects to colonialism, but Mugabe's claims are ridiculous. While Mugabe may not be as bad as Saddam Hussein, the United States should show some interest in the region. When the United States begins to show more interest in humanitarian efforts, instead of always being on the attack, we will be respected around the world. Any country that wouldn't support helping cholera patients in Zimbabwe would appear to have political motives (think China and the genocide in Sudan). What I am trying to say is that the United States should reorganize its priorities: to help those in need. It would be a step to gaining respect in the world again.
I agree with Jason. This is why we should think about repealing the Clinton executive order that says our government cannot assasinate other leaders. We should at least kidnap him. And of course we should do as much as we can to stop cholera, without trying to infiltrate the whole government like we did with the Middle east countries.
Robert Mugabe may be a despotic ruler, but it's not the US's job to fix that. We can't just go into Zimbabwae and demand a new government. It's their country, and even though I'm all for helping those in need, we can't just impose democracy onto everyone we lay our eyes on. Scott said that "Robert Mugabe needs to go"; I don't know enough about him to make that claim, but I do know that it's not the US's right to do it.
And about the cholera epidemic, I think it's gotten way out of hand. If the health minister is advising that "people stop shaking hands to stop the spread of the disease," we know that something has to be done. We need to get world health organizations on the case IMMEDIATELY, and possibly even the UN.
I don't think removing Mugabe will help the situation. The person who ends up replacing him might not be any better. Also I don't think Mugabe is the only corrupt official in the government.
First, I am not advocating the US overthrow Mugabe (though I certainly wouldn't be unhappy to see it). I do believe that when a leader doesn't just perpetuate bad policy, but actually causing severe suffering, the international community should get involved. Any international response should be just that--international. It should be multilateral, preferably with the UN, but also perhaps the African Union.
Second, to those who think that Robert Mugabe is just another corrupt African leader, he is much, much worse. A few of his crimes:
Zimbabwe had the most stable and prosperous economy in southern Africa. Then, in a racist policly, he seized white-owned farms and businesses for "redistribution" to blacks who had been persecuted under colonial rule. This would be all well and good except that he essentially stole property and turned Zimbabwe's breadbasket into a wasteland when the people he gave the land to didn't know how to farm. And guess what? The people who did were white and fled the country. The result: Zimbabwe is now starving with no economy to speak of.
Mugabe has also held "elections" every few years. This year, he ran against Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change. In the first round, it is pretty clear that Tsvangirai won an outright majority, but Mugabe's election commission only gave him 49% or so, causing a runoff. The good news is that the MDC gained control of parliament. However, before the runoff election, Zanu-PF (Mugabe's party) gangs went around intimidating and killing opposition supporters. Hardly free elections. And guess what? Mugabe won. At least he is allowing Tsvangirai to become prime minister, but sill. It is likely that Mugabe lost, but committed gross electoral fraud (It took days to get the final results).
Mugabe is a thug. He has no respect for his people right to an economy, right to vote, and right basic sanitation and health care. I don't know whether Morgan Tsvangirai would do a better job, but he at least doesn't have the horrific history of his predecessor behind him. In short, the world would be better off without him in power in Zimbabwe.
In case anyone didn't understand:
I'm saying that it's not America's job to police the world.
So I pretty much agree with Anastasia.
Scott you forgot printing ridiculous amounts of money, causing ridiculous inflation (done under his government).
Also, there is way too fine of a line between "bad policy" and "causing severe suffering" in my opinion.
Ok people, get serious. Half of the comments don't want the US to intervine. Please, we are wasting money and soldiers in a pointless war. The United States does not care, why? Because it is Africa, and there is nothing worth for Americans there. Believe me, if that country, had oil or something valuable for America, we would have overthrown Magabe a long time ago.
Just to remind some poeple of our past, let's remember Rwanda. When a civil war broke between Hutus and Tutsies. Thousands of Tutsies were massacred by Hutus. The United States just picked up every American in Rwanda and ledft them defenseless. The United Nations sent some troops that were later withdrawn. Thousands died by machetes.
Come on, lets fight the good fight!
Yea I'm going with Anastasia and Ballin4life on this one. There are a lot of problems in this world, this is one of the bigger ones. But we really can't be the ones to make everything better. We have to focus on our own issues before we can fix other people. Selfish? Maybe a little, but hey what can you do? One bad leader at a time please. If we had the resources and the money and the time then sure, why not. We could probably help. But there are a lot of good fights out there and we can't fight all of them. And I don't think that this can be compared to Rwanda.
I just read in the daily journal and as of now, Zimbabwe has declared a health emergency over the cholera epidemic and it destoyed health care. But yeah, it is reallly sad because they are struggling to even find food and clean drinking water. In the end though, this is yet another problem in Africa along with HIV and everything and just sending money is not really enough. They need to make the country self-sufficient and while sending supplies and stuff is good, we need to improve the economy so that more doctors and people will actually want to work there.
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