I don't normally do political, or even international, mostly preferring to write about stuff of a watery nature. Even so, as everyone who follows my blog knows, part of my being is still very firmly planted in South Africa, and many of my closest friends and colleagues when I lived there were Zimbabwean. I have listened to, heard and read enough accounts of the rape and destruction of that beautiful land by the madman Mugabe to make me wish for someone to put the whole country out of its misery and despatch the maniac. This article that I have just read in the Economist does nothing to soften my position. When will the suffering of these hapless people end? If economic, political and physical starvation were not enough, now they have disease too...but not according to Mugabe. Oh no, quite the reverse. In fact "“I am happy to say…that there is no cholera” he claimed, just as the World Health Organisation had reported that 783 people have so far died of the disease and that over 16,400 people have been infected. As he spoke, officials in South Africa declared a disaster area in a part of the Limpopo region on the Zimbabwean border, as a result of desperate refugees spreading cholera."
Need I say more?
RIVERGIRL: books, blog and barges: My posts are mini-memoirs about about life on a barge, our travels and the Netherlands. Oh and sometimes about my writing.
Yes, Zimbabwe with Mugabe. A State of Denial.
ReplyDeleteYes, Koosje, and especially of its people
ReplyDeleteoh my. I have to admit ignorance, but I will go and read the article. Right now.
ReplyDeleteI heard that on the news this evening, that the president was saying oh no everything is fine.
ReplyDeletewhaat! wow, what disrespect for the people. I was shocked
As being an engineer it makes me wonder how guys like Mugabe and Kim Jong Il are wired...
ReplyDeleteThere must be something wrong with their schematics.
Grace, it's not only lack of respect..there is no value placed on human life.
ReplyDeleteHans, I agree. It just leaves me speechless!
ok after reading I realize I am not as ignorant of the issue as I thought.
ReplyDeleteit is unforgivable that we treat our fellow men and women and children this way. And sadly, not a new story. But just the same, it fires anger in my soul.
Hi Val,
ReplyDeleteI've been following the story on BBC World all week- it is deplorable that Mugabe is getting away with this and even more so that neighbouring African countries and their governments turn a blind eye lest they be accused of pandering to the colonialists in the west. Nothing will change until they voice their disgust, but too many are afraid to do so and also fear the refugees spilling over their borders. All around revolting.
xx
AM