Tag Archives: Zimbabwe

You Mean Genocide and Corruption Aren’t Good for the Economy?

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Speaking at a conference in Ethiopia, United Nations investment analyst stated the obvious — investors don’t want to put their money into Africa when they see genocide in Sudan, civil war in Ivory Coast, and the sort of endemic corruption in countries like Zimbabwe.

According to the BBC, Africa as a whole only sees about $15 billion total each year. That’s just pathetic.

Moreover, even in countries where there are not ongoing wars or endemic corruption, there is plenty to trouble investors. South African president Thabo Mbeki’s close relationship and support of Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe, for example, must surely give some investors pause.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no end in sight to such problems, as Africa seems unable to get itself off a vicious cycle of war and corruption.

Source:

Africa conflicts ‘scare investors’. The BBC, November 22, 2004.

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Zimbabwe: We Don’t Need Food Aid . . . Oops, Hold On A Second, Yes We Do

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In May of this year, Zimbabwe’s corrupt president Robert Mugabe made a grand show of refusing food aid. He told Sky News TV,

Why foist this food [aid] upon us? We don’t want to be choked, we have enough.

But in early July, Zimbabwe was making backdoor appeals tot he World Bank for millions in aid, especially to its agricultural sector. Zimbabwe’s agricultural output all but collapsed after Mugabe forcefully displaced the nation’s white farm owners.

The World Bank refused Zimbabwe’s request, saying that it would only consider aiding Zimbabwe when that country takes care of servicing its outstanding $280 million World Bank debt.

Source:

Government secretly pleads with World Bank. Savious Kwinika, Zimbabwe Standard (Harare), July 4, 2004.

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Swaziland Government Demonstrates Its Support of Free Speech

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About 2,000 protesters turned out to highlight the lack of democracy in Swaziland in August. Swaziland was being visited at the time by heads of state as part of an international conference on sustainable development.

Swaziland made the protesters’ point for them by using what the BBC described as “heavily armed paramilitary police and soldiers [who] fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets to disperse” the crowd.

Of course the sustainable development conference included such stalwart supporters of democracy as Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe — perhaps Mugabe was taking notes on Swaziland’s technique for later application back home.

Source:

Swazi protesters and police clash. The BBC, August 13, 2003.

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Finally, Some Honesty out of Mugabe

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The Daily Telegraph reports on a rare instance of Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe actually telling the truth. Here’s how Mugabe chose to describe himself at the recent state funeral of one of his cabinet ministers,

I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective, justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people, and their right to their resources.

If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold. Ten times, that is what we stand for.

For once, Mugabe is absolutely right. He’s even using Nazi-style tactics, deploying elite units of his army openly to assassinate and sexually assault key members of the opposition party according to the London Daily Telegraph.

One other thing Mugabe shares with Hitler — thanks to spineless multilateralism by the usual suspects, he and others in his government are free to move as they want across Europe. Ah, the fresh smell of appeasement.

Source:

‘Hitler’ Mugabe launches revenge terror attacks. Peta Thornycroft, Daily Telegraph, March 26, 2003.

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Food Shortages Abate — Except In Zimbabwe

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The World Food Program reports that food shortages are coming to an end in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, but such problems continue to worsen in Zimbabwe.

James Morris, head of the World Food Program, told The New York Times,

A serious humanitarian disaster has been averted. Food has been put in place over the last several months in such a way that mass starvation and death has not occurred. We’re seeing significant progress in Malawi and Zambia. We don’t have that same optimism in Zimbabwe.

In Zimbabwe, the WFP’s estimate of the numbers of people facing food shortages jumped to 7.2 million in December, up from 6.7 million in August.

Source:

African food shortages ending everywhere except in Zimbabwe. Rachel L. Swarns, The New York Times, January 31, 2003.

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African Nations Squeezing Congo

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The United Nations didn’t make any friends in releasing a report accusing highly placed political and military officials in the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe of setting up criminal cartels to exploit mineral and gem resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe withdrew their armed forces from the DR Congo as part of an agreement to bring a halt to that country’s civil war. But the United Nations report maintains that the military officials who were using their armies to strip DR Congo of precious minerals and gems have simply set up deeply entrenched criminal organizations to accomplish the same thing in their absence.

According to the report,

Three distinct criminal groups linked to the armies of Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe and the Government of the DRC have benefited from overlapping micro-conflicts [and] will not disband voluntarily even as the foreign military forces continue their withdrawals.

. . .

The looting that was previously conducted by the armies themselves has been replaced with organised systems of embezzlement, tax fraud, extortion, the use of stock options as kickbacks and diversion of state funds conducted by groups that closely resemble criminal organizations.

The report cites 54 specific individuals and recommends a variety of actions be taken against them, such as freezing their assets and barring them for travel, if they do not cease such activities within a few months.

Of course the real problem is less that these individuals are willing to pay large bribes and use other means to gain access to the DR Congo’s wealth, but rather that the DR Congo government is so weak and corrupt that this appears to be the normal, accepted way of doing business in that country.

The reaction of the African nations was predictable — the report was all lies. After all, who ever heard of official corruption on the African continent?

Source:

Focus on UN Panel report on the plunder of the Congo. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, October 21, 2002.

Africa fury at U.N. looting report. Reuters, October 22, 2002.

States set up cartels to plunder Congo UN. Jonathan Katzenellenbogen, Business Day (Johannesburg), October 22, 2002.

First Quantum denies U.N. accusations on Congo. Reuters, October 22, 2002.

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UN: AIDS Epidemic Still Growing

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UNAIDS released a report in July claiming that the AIDS epidemic is still in its initial phases, and that the total deaths to AIDS in the developing world will grow to horrific heights over the next few decades.

In the 45 countries where HIV prevalence is the highest, UNAIDS estimates that as many as 68 million people will die from AIDS-related causes between 2000 and 2020. From 1980 to 2000, roughly 13 million people died from AIDS-related causes in those countries.

There was some hope that AIDS prevalence rates might begin to stabilize, but in many of the hardest hit countries they show no such signs. In Zimbabwe, for example, HIV rates jumped from 25 percent in 1997 to 33 percent in 2001. In Botswana, HIV prevalence jumped from 36 percent in 1999 to 39 percent in 2001 — and, as a result, life expectancy in that country is below 40 years for the first time since 1950.

UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot told Reuters, “We haven’t reached the peak of the AIDS epidemic yet. It’s an unprecedented epidemic in human history.”

While Africa will be the main focal point of the deaths, with an estimated 55 million dead, Asia will also suffer major losses of more than 10 million AIDS-related deaths. The main fear is that Asia’s HIV epidemic may explode like Africa’s has. UN AIDS expert Sandra Calvani told NewScientist,

The trend [in Asia] looks like the same as the beginning of the epidemic in Africa. One million infections [in 2001] means 3,000 per day, or 120 per hour. These are shocking figures.

Sources:

UN: AIDS will claim 70 million by 2022. Reuters, July 2, 2002.

Global AIDS epidemic “in early phase”. Emma Young, NewScientist.Com, July 2, 2002.

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Measles Vaccination Works in the Developing World

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A study published this month in The Lancet should settle once and for all whether or not vaccination of disease is a worthwhile goal to achieve in the developing world. There has been some skepticism over whether or not poor nations possessed the infrastructure to carry out large scale vaccination programs.

The study looked at World Health Organization efforts to vaccinate for measles in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South AFrica, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

Over four years, WHO and national health agencies vaccinated almost 24 million children in those seven countries. The study found that as a result of the vaccination programs, total cases of measles in those countries fell from 60,000 in 1996 to less than 200 in the year 2000. Total deaths dropped from 160 in 1996 to zero in 2000.

Vaccination can work even in extremely poor countries.

Source:

Measles vaccine’s African success story. Corrine Podger, The BBC, May 3, 2002.

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FAO Warns of Famine Risk in Southern Africa

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The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned in February that parts of southern Africa are at serious risk of famine over the next few months that could threaten as many as four million people.

The famine threat is greatest in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe, of course, has seen its crop production cut in half thanks to the confiscatory and anti-democratic policies of Robert Mugabe.

Malawi has suffered from flooding the past couple years which has waterlogged crops and reduced yields. Food is available in Malawi, but the poverty levels there often make it impossible for people to obtain food.

In Zambia, too, flooding caused a 24 percent decrease in harvests in 2001 as compared to 2000.

Source:

Famine stalks Southern Africa. The BBC, February 19, 2002.

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The European Union Enacts Toothless Sanctions Against Zimbabwe

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The European Union finally took official action against Zimbabwe‘s Robert Mugabe after Mugabe ejected a Swedish diplomat who was heading a mission to observe Zimbabwe’s upcoming election. The EU’s sanctions, however, will have no real effect on Mugabe.

Mugabe is now banned from traveling to European Union nations, any assets he has in the EU will be frozen, and Zimbabwe is barred from buying arms from the EU. As The BBC’s Paul Reynolds summed up the likely reaction by Mugabe,

The European Union has therefore played its card. But it is not a particularly strong card, since Mr. Mugabe is unlikely to be much moved by not being able to travel to Europe.

These sort of sanctions might have been a little more helpful 18-24 months ago, but the situation in Zimbabwe is way beyond being influenced but such tepid sanctions. Or as Reynolds eloquently put it,

The European Union has huffed and now it has puffed.

But it is unlikely to bring Robert Mugabe’s house down.

Source:

Analysis: EU sanctions lack teeth. Paul Reynolds, The BBC, February 18, 2002.

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