Tear for Zimbabwe

Over the last few years I’ve been following the unfolding tragedy of Zimbabwe, where millions of people are facing starvation in a country that was just a few short years ago the breadbasket of Africa.

Life expectancy in Zimbabwe has collapsed to 30 years, AIDS runs rampant. Inflation has soared to 800% (expected to run into 1000% in a month), making Zimbabwean dollar all but worthless. The once-prosperous middle class of Zimbabwe is wiped out –once they were the economic pride of Africa, now they are paupers. To give you an idea what has happened to their wages and savings, consider that just a few years ago the exchange rate of the Zimbabwean dollar as 1 to 25 US dollars Today, the Zimbabwean government currently measures the Zimbabwean dollar at 99,210.00 to US$1, however the black market in the country trades at 210,000.00 to 1, which is accepted as the realistic rate. Of course that about doubles every week. Foetuses and babies are flushed down the toilets in Harare, political opponents are deported, votes rigged. The mills of Zimbabwe warn of immediate food crisis. Hell, even Coca Cola has run out in Zimbabwe since they can no longer afford foreign commodities, including syrup. In a word, a total collapse threatens the land that was just few years ago known as a “Paradise of Africa”.

And what does President Mugabe, the man in power for the last 25 years, do? He holds lavish birthday parties for himself, and distributes the occupied land to his political cronies. Though 82 years old, his vigorous training regime and cast-iron health show no signs of waning –who knows if he will live and rule for another 20 years?

The things started unravelling when Mugabe’s government seized the farms of Zimbabwe’s white minority. Now, 4000 people holding the large portion of the national wealth was of course neither fair nor just –the poor landless needed a slice of the pie as well –and indeed the farm owners agreed. Something had to be done. But Mugabe’s actions (based on violence and threats) were nothing but racism political populism –and it is ugly no matter who is the target, black or white –indeed, far more black people than whites suffer because of Mugabe’s policies. Mugabe’s greed for wealth and power has doomed over 12 million people into agonizing poverty and famine since he distributed the land to the people who do not produce anything.

I know how daunting it would be for me to go against such tyrant, but here is for hoping that the Zimbabweans will soon shed the yoke of this tyrant. They still have fertile land, platinum mines, coal, gold, copper, nickel, tin, and much of their infrastructure in place. There is still time, and Zimbabwe can be a paradise once again. Not as a divided nation of blacks and whites, rich and poor, but as Zimbabweans.

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