Via Richard Hall comes a link to an article about the plight of the people of Zimbabwe this Christmas:
The harsh impact of a crumbling economy, meagre salaries and food shortages will combine to ensure that Zimbabweans have the most miserable Christmas ever. Unemployment is approaching 90 per cent and inflation has topped 500 per cent, and there are now so many zeros on most price tags that calculators, designed for only eight digits, are useless for our daily calculations.
This is one of those situations where, to quote U2, “if you need someone to blame, throw a rock in the air - you’ll hit someone guilty.” Obviously, Mugabe’s strong-arm tactics have destroyed what little existed of his economy prior to 2000.
But that’s not the whole story. For even in 2000, unemployment ran 70 percent. And extreme poverty and this part of Africa are no strangers.
The fact is, the international community shares the blame for tragedies such as those in Zimbabwe, Malawi, and much of sub-Saharan Africa. Until we can finally step up to the plate and end extreme poverty in the world, we condemn the poorest of the world’s poor to live on the knife’s edge between simply living in poverty and starvation.
We should strive to create a world where the terrible decisions of one man (Mugabe) cannot condemn so many to suffering and death.
