Do Something! Thousands Dying Right Now & Everyone Looks Away... OK, I'm pissed off! I can't hold back on using bad language because this is just, well -- F**ked Up! I've been reading about this a**hole dictator in an African nation called Zimbabwe for a couple of years now. First he tore down and burned all the homes of his country's inhabitants, then he forced them off their farm land so the whole country starved to death, and now there's a cholera epidemic and he closes the hospitals and shuts off the water wells. This guy makes Hitler look like Mother Theresa. He's so blatant about what he does that he now will not allow anyone in to the country to see how f**ked up he's made things. Not even the UN can help. Meanwhile thousands -- likely hundreds of thousands -- are right now dying of starvation and cholera because of his policies and what's the world doing? Is it because these are people with black skin? Is it because it's happening in Africa, far away and easy to forget? Look at this little girl's face. She's human and suffering. Suppose it was YOUR little girl. What would you think if the whole world knew this was happening but they did absolutely nothing... Do you feel anything now? Anger? Sadness? Will you simply let it pass or will you decide to make a stink about this! Are we humans or what? -- Gary Vey / Viewzone JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Thousands of Zimbabweans are dying, uncounted and out of sight in a silent emergency as hospitals shut, clinics run out of drugs and most cannot afford private medical care, health groups say. Even as deaths from a cholera epidemic climbed into the hundreds, international and local organizations say many more are dying needlessly in a disaster critics blame on President 's government. The toll will never be known, according to Itai Rusike, executive director of the Community Working Group on Health Ñ a civil society network grouping 35 national organizations. "Zimbabwe used to have one of the best surveillance systems in the region," Rusike said in a telephone interview. "But phones are not working, nurses are not there, so their information system has collapsed. ... It is very difficult to tell how many people have died." "These are symptoms of a failed state," he said in a telephone interview. "Nothing is working." The British charity Oxfam agreed with estimates of thousands of unreported deaths due to the collapse of the health system and says the situation will get worse with the onset of the rainy season, which lasts until February. "When you look at people who are already weakened by hunger, many already weakened by HIV and AIDS, and with rainy season comes malaria, and we know anthrax is spreading, it's really just a recipe for disaster," spokeswoman Caroline Hooper-Box said in neighboring South Africa. She said many people Oxfam interviewed in Zimbabwe say they have cut back to one meal in three days. Some are trying to survive on insects and berries. Once a major food exporter, Zimbabwe has been crippled by shortages of necessities including food and medicine as Mugabe [right], the leader since independence in 1980, clings to power. As businesses collapse, unemployment has risen to 80 percent with the majority of the population depending on handouts from a growing diaspora; more than a third of a population has fled, many to South Africa and former colonizer Britain, but some as far as New Zealand. In a new health report published last week, the civic group Women of Zimbabwe Arise recounted the case of an 8-year-old boy who fell in a school yard and twisted his knee. "A week later, he was dead," the report said. "The death certificate cited cause of death as 'swollen knee' ... But the real cause of death is clear criminal negligence of the worst kind on the part of the ZANU-PF government." The report was dedicated to two of the group's own leaders who it said died needlessly. One was Thembelani Lunga, a 32-year-old in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo who was HIV-positive and had problems accessing life-preserving antiretroviral medication. Lunga died after being jailed for four days in Bulawayo Central Police Station, where she was denied access to AIDS medication, the organization said. To the cholera deaths, the report said, it was necessary to add people with diabetes who run out of insulin, appendicitis cases, asthma attacks, bleeding ulcers and septicemia Ñ "all treatable conditions from which thousands of deaths are now occurring." Save the Children, a British charity, said hundreds, if not thousands of pregnant women and their children "stand a very high risk of death." Zimbabwe director Rachel Pounds said the United Nations reported that 700 women were recently turned away from hospitals in Harare that are no longer able to provide maternity services. Last week, Health Minister David Parirenyatwa appealed for help from international organizations. "Our central hospitals are literally not functioning. Our staff is demotivated and we need your support to ensure that they start coming to work and our health system is revived," he was quoted as saying in The Herald. Both Rusike, of the community health group, and Women of Zimbabwe Arise said the cholera epidemic could be linked directly to the government's failures. The disease is caused by contaminated water and food, in Zimbabwe's case the collapse of water and sewage services. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. would continue to press the international community to take action on Zimbabwe but also stressed the importance of pressure from the country's African neighbors. "We made extensive efforts in the (U.N.) Security Council to get the international system to act. And we're going to continue those efforts," McCormack told a press briefing on Monday. "But, quite frankly, some of the states of the region need to step up. They need to use their leverage." Rusike warned in June 2007 that Zimbabwe was in danger of suffering epidemics of cholera and malaria when he called for Parirenyatwa to intervene as water supplies became more erratic. Mugabe's government took control of water supplies from city and town councils when the councils were taken over by opposition politicians in elections three years ago. Rusike said the government officials fired water engineers and other staff and replaced them with "friends and relatives with no qualifications in water management." Last week, water authorities cut all supplies in Harare, the sprawling capital of about 2 million people and the epicenter of the cholera epidemic, saying they had no purifying chemicals and feared piping contaminated water would help spread the disease. Let's Do Something! UPDATE: December 2008 Zimbabwe’s misery prolonged by two unlikely partners By Wayne Madsen Online Journal Contributing Writer (WMR) -- WMR has learned from a source within Zimbabwe's opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), that Zimbabwe's authoritarian president, Robert Mugabe, is being propped up with the help of two unlikely bedfellows: Israel and Libya. A knowledgeable MDC source told WMR on background that the opposition has evidence that Israel's Mossad helped rig Zimbabwe's presidential and parliamentary elections to forestall a decisive victory for the MDC. Mugabe has violated a power-sharing agreement with the opposition that was agreed upon after the opposition won a majority of seats in the parliament. On April 28, 2008, WMR reported on Israel's assistance to Mugabe. WMR reported: "Mugabe's relations with Israel have grown close even though Mugabe has favorably compared himself to Adolf Hitler and has been a strong supporter of the Palestinians. "According to U.S. Defense Department sources, the Zimbabwe opposition blames Israel more than China for propping up Mugabe with security assistance and military equipment. "In 2002, prior to contested elections, Israel sold riot control vehicles to Zimbabwe. These vehicles assisted in putting down opposition demonstrations against what was then called a fraudulent election rigged by Mugabe. Israeli security firms also provide assistance to Mugabe. "Recently, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) accused an Israeli software company with Mossad links of changing computerized voter registration lists to rig the recent election in Mugabe's favor. Tendai Biti, the MDC’s Secretary General, accused Cogniview of helping Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) of rigging the election. Cogniview’s CEO, Yoav Ezer, called the allegations 'science fiction.' The Zimbabwe Guardian in London reported that Ezer had contacted Phil Matibe, an MDC official in the United States, to pressure MDC officials to retract the allegations about Israel's role in fixing the election." WMR has learned that the Mossad does not primarily operate out of Israel's small embassy in Harare, located on the 6th Floor of Three Anchor House on Jason Moyo Avenue in the Causeway district of Harare, but out of the large Mossad station in the South African embassy in the South African capital of Pretoria. Mossad agents, using diplomatic passports, regularly travel between South Africa and Zimbabwe to assist Mugabe's security and intelligence agencies. Israeli security companies provide Zimbabwe’s police and military with tear gas, water cannons, anti-riot gear, and anti-riot armored vehicles. Mossad has also reportedly assisted Zimbabwe intelligence agents spying on Zimbabwean opposition activities in Botswana. The small Mossad station in diamond-rich Botswana operates out of the Israeli Consulate in Gaborone, the Botswana capital. Recently, Botswana's Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DISS) caught a number of Zimbabwe CIO agents disguised as refugees. Botswana deported the agents back to Zimbabwe. Mugabe's intelligence and security services are also being supported by Libya, making Israel and Libya odd bedfellows in their joint support for Mugabe. Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi owns a number of houses in Harare, including a large house in the Belgravia district of Harare. The homes are suspected of being used as "safe houses" for the CIO. In a bizarre twist, joint CIO and Mossad activities in Zimbabwe occasionally involve the use of Qaddafi's safe houses. In return for support for Mugabe, Israel has access to Zimbabwe's gold and diamond resources, as well as those in the Democratic Republic of Congo over which Zimbabwe has control. ### Back to Viewzone || Comments? Comments: You know, we often pray for good things to happen and sometimes it seems to work. In this case maybe we should pray that this horrible man would die of a sudden heart attack or something. -H. Sorroco I don't understand why the world has allowed this to happen. We certainly wouldn't just allow it if it were happening in, say, Ireland or even Poland. I believe it's because the victims are black and humanity as a whole is guilty of racism. What other excuse can we make? The UN should send everything they have in to this nation, take out the leaders and help the people. Otherwise what the hell good are they? -Ed Nagle I have just written a letter to my State senator and will send one to President-elect Obama. As an African American I am disgusted with the lack of attention poaid to this problem by the present Bush administration. And Bush brags about being a Christian! He should remember that Jesus once said, "When I was hungry, did you feed me?" Shame! Onnie Rising I can't get the image of that little girl's face out of my mind. Every human life is valuable. It just breaks my heart. I don't know what enyone can do? I feel so helpless. I suppose if politicians and corporate greed could use their crafty minds and find a way to tax these poor people then, they would not be left to starve. Society as a whole, and its blatant disregard for life has reached an all-time low. It is almost embarrassing to be a part of a race, a race of humans that treat the less fortunate like scum. However, the scum has risen to the top and its time to be cleaned off. I pray for the day that church bells ring around the world, its coming very soon and these poor people will be given their precious water back. MB, AZ i have no wish to support the Mugabe regime but i feel to view Zimbabwe in isolation (and to take media/humanitarian reports at face value) obscures the problems of Africa as a whole and plays into the hands of global capitalists and their client states. first world markets care nothing for the starving and diseased, they see only resources and commodities and their objective is to gain access - a 'humanitarian crisis' is an ideal opportunity. this is not to be dismissive of the dire and heart-wrenching situation in Zimbabwe - it turns my stomach - but, let us not forget in Kenya and Ethiopia MILLIONS are threatened with starvation and in the Congo MILLIONS have already been exterminated, with no end in sight. How much better off is South Africa now than under apartheid? not one jot. most of this never gets a mention in the mass media, except perhaps as sympathy and rhetoric. why? because, while it is true, across Africa there are terrible atrocities in process, for the large part Africa is a farm - check out your supermarkets. while Kenyans, Ethiopians, South Africans... starve our supermarkets remain packed with their produce: tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, peas, beans, avocados, apples, grapes... and flowers (FFS). Africa, in terms of resources (not money), is by far the richest place on earth. of Africa, the Congo is undoubtedly the richest region. consuming and manufacturing economies prefer to see it kept as a war zone where children will hack its minerals from the land then carry them across the border and sell them for the price of a meal. imagine how much we might have to pay for our mobile phone or pc if a stable government were installed and coltan were valued as gold, not your next meal. A couple of links worth checking out: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21124.htm http://mothandrust.tk/?p=63 jack I am 70 years of age. My husband died on 30th May this year and I was left destitute because his only child, from a previous marriage did not want to share any inheritance. Suffice to say, I had no option but to survive and the only way I could do so was to sell my furniture, my jewellery and anything else I had just to earn some valuable USD. The house in which I live, was purchased by my husband's company and with careful saving, growing my own vegetables and limiting myself to one meal a day, I've kept going. I am luckier than most, but only because I still have the ability to 'make a plan'. I couldn't afford a dentist, so I pulled my own teeth. I couldn't afford a doctor, so I stitched a dog's bite on my arm with needle and thread. I look after an African family who have nothing - all seven of them -- ensuring they get food, medication and whatever else I can find to keep them going. I have a young white family living in cottage, with their two babies - and a young bachelor, living in a thatched rondavel, whose salary doesn't even cover his basic needs -- and together we form a 'family' keeping our eyes out for each other and doing the best we can can to keep going. And -- yes, we old biddies ARE PROUD! We have every reason to be. The only thing I have plenty of, is loneliness and spare time, and I have already put out feelers to join up with some NGO to go to the rural areas to help with the cholera epidemic. I am not a qualitified nurse -- but I care deeply and I know how desperate the situation is outside. I have not had much luck, because possibly they think me 'too old'. But I am not! My whole life has been directed towards looking after disabled servicemen, orphans, and now the indigenous folk of this country. The author of this article must not forget that there are those of us who are fighting -- not only for our own lives -- but for those of our countrymen. Most of the posh cars seen on the roads belong to Government personnel who have more than you can imagine to spend on themselves. How did I manage it? Well, let me tell you. Before my husband passed away, he decided to sell his antique furniture and only one cabinet was sold. I held onto that money, even though it meant going hungry and bit by bit over the months that followed, I was able to keep adding to that money by painting and selling my work. I heard of two old people who lived in a disused staff quarters. They used to own a house and a car, but found themselves with nothing when they had their land and their home stolen. A kind African let them live in a shed on his property. On their anniversary the wife went out and sold her jewellery and her wedding ring. She and her husband of over forty years decided they would have one last night out on the 'town' and they went to a hotel and had a great dinner, dancing to music of their past. When the 'party was over' they returned to the broken down shack, curled up into their blankets on the stone floor, and shared a glass of the wine they had left from their night out, and the left-overs. They poisoned themselves and they were found together holding each other in their arms as they couldn't bear to see another day. Remember, every story is different. I am still here. I refuse to let go. There are too many people left in this country who need compassion, care, and hope to go on. There are organisations and charitable groups who try to help, but the solution lies with all of us here -- black and white and coloured -- to start caring for each other and we try! It takes more than courage,.it takes fury and grief to explode into action. I have taken in people who have had their families murdered in cold blood, and experienced such fear you cannot imagine it the enormity of it. I have sat up through the nights watching the house and listening for intruders. There are so few of us left now -- hardly even 2000, as you state. But we are still here and we won't leave until this is done. Today, in the main city of this country I ventured, and I saw a populace of 'stick figures' robotically going about their business, faces closed and dull. Starvations, AIDS, cholera, anthrax,. extreme poverty, has robbed them of all hope. It was not all those years ago, we saw glossy fat women with their babies. Today I did not see one small child on the back of a mother. The High Court was empty today. No staff. So I could not get along with the Estate of my late husband, but that no longer seems so important. Everywhere we see the portrait of Robert Mugabe in every government building, but nobody looks at it much any more. Fly speckled and faded from the sun, he just hangs there as a reminder of the horrors he can impose if we don't do what he demands. I live not far from Government House, and in the past we could hear the screeching, wailing sirens of his entourage proclaiming 'the master' is in our presence. Today, there is less fanfare and more secrecy of his journeys because he is afraid -- and that's good! We've been afraid for too damn long. And that fear has persisted as babies died, wives abducted and hideously bludgeoned to death in nearby fields. This is Zimbabwe. I am a white widow. I have no intention of leaving this land in which I have spent my entire life. I belong here as much as my darker skinned country man. I love this country, and the people who inhabit it. And that is why I am a proud Zimbabwean. Every day we receive a small gift -- be it a couple of tomatoes from someone's garden, or a small bunch of flowers -- that's Christmas. We are poor -- but we are richer in other senses nobody can understand unless they go through the torments this country has faced over many years. We yearn for some light at the end of the tunnel, but we refuse to pick up arms and kill others as we have been killed. We wait for justice, but not from us; from a Power beyond our capacity. It will come! Perhaps the world can learn from us???? To all those who live elsewhere and who have never experienced the deprivation that just one man can dole out to millions, let me tell you, it is a testing experience that does not scream out for compassion, nor for money, but hope of a better time one day. From the bottom of my heart I thank you for caring for those who cannot care for themselves. It's this that makes the world a better place. There are many here who do what they can to make the 'oldies' leave this vicious world, feeling loved regardless of their colour. This is just my story. Multiply it a thousand times -- and include the human greed that makes it harder for us to withstand the hardships, but which is prevalent in all humanity regardless of race and creed. Above all, learn from it, because -- but for the Grace of God there goes You." An old White Zimbabwean! With warmth Sue.