Life Getting Worse In Zimbabwe

Fire of Liberty
Ryan Truscott has a good article in the Christian Science Monitor which points out that not only do the people of Zimbabwe have to worry about being pushed off their farms, homes and jobs for Mugabe's stooges, starvation(Zimbabwe is not the breadbasket of southern Africa because of state controlled farms), 1,000% inflation but they also face a very grim future when it comes to establishing a family and growing old. One only has to read the following to understand the horrific lot that the folks have been immersed into under the iron boot of Mugabe and his fellow thugs:

Brian Mutenda is an energetic 30-year-old with a vision.

He wants to establish a flea market on the outskirts of his home city of Mutare, on Zimbabwe's border with Mozambique.

The best thing about his flea market project is that it won't take years to set up.

"A flea market is not a long-term thing," he explains. "Anything that would take me three, four, or five years [to establish] - I'm not very comfortable with, because at the back of the mind you say: 'At 40, I'll be no more.' "

Life is short here, and that's official.

According to the 2006 World Health Report, published recently by the World Health Organization (WHO), Zimbabwean men on average can expect to live only to age 37. In the past 12 months, life expectancy for women plummeted by two years to 34, the shortest in the world.

Behind the statistics is a grim tale of AIDS, financial hardship, and stress. But it wasn't always this way in what was once one of the most prosperous countries on the continent. Between 1970 and 1975, Zimbabweans could expect to live to the age of 56. The sharp decline in life expectancy has drastically changed the outlook and aspirations of people here.

One would have to say that if Zimbabwe continues such a glidepath of decline we could see the country becoming another Sudan or Somalia(Thankfully Zimbabwe isn't Muslim thus the Al Qaeda threat is slim)in the near future. So if the we want to avert such a disaster, then we should step up our support for the democratic opposition and press Mugabe to step down from power(We can make our desire of change via the UN, who are currently talking to Mugabe). The people of Zimbabwe deserve a far better life than what they've enduring under Mugabe and ZANU-PF.