Why are children starving to death in Zimbabwe?

Question

Just watched a horrible report on BBC News showing tiny children starving to death and dying through lack of medical care in Zimbabwe. Their fathers being beaten by soldiers when they queue for bread to try and feed them.

Why the hell lis this allowed to happen and when are the US and UK going to oust this tyrant Mugabe the same way they ousted Saddam Hussein?

This man (Mugabe) is an evil lunatic and needs to be removed for the sake of those poor little kids. My God you get rid of one corrupt evil dictator and another pops up!

K Marx iii- if the sanctions are causing this poverty and destitution then how come the elite are still living in great big mansions and enjoying the high life?

Answer 1

They are in the position because of their corrupt goverment that work along side mafias and gangstas to keep a hierarchy... them at the top, the general public at the bottom. Suppressing them and keeping them suppressed allows the regime to carry on.. charity money raised by the likes of Live Aid etc. is disappearing into the governments and mafias pockets, whilst they starve to death. Other governments i.e. the united nations probably won't tackle the corrupt government simply because, it is not their problem.. and they can see no benefit for themselves... unlike Iraq who have large quantities of oil supplies.

Answer 2

It seems the answer to your question is really a one word answer. Bureaucracy.
According to Human Rights Watch, an organization that keeps an eye on the world to defend human rights, President Thabo Mbeki failed to reach any concessions or make any recommendations that would ease human suffering in Zimbabwe. In a meeting with the South African Development Community on August 18, there was only disappointment. The current government and the oppositions talks are supposedly going well, but still, nothing is done. The SADC is said to turn away from human rights and is being pressured by groups to act. As in America today, the government there is arresting protesters, creating laws to prevent people speaking out against the government, and police action is strong and brutal. The government acts above and outside the law to continue this reign of division and death. It may take the world's notice to get action, however. If the U S sent troops there, more civilians would die in the war than are dying of starvation and disease! Look at Iraq. We have killed more people than Saddam ever did. In the 24 years of his reign, he averaged between 70 and 125 civilian deaths per day, totalling around 600,000. According to some sources, the U S has killed that many civilians in 3 and one half years. I don't want to know what that horrific daily figure would be. So, let's find a better solution than killing to end suffering of people under despots. We even need help here in America with this, people here are hungry too.

Answer 3

George H put his finger right on the nub of the problem earlier. There's an old quote, something along the lines of "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; *teach* a man to fish and he will eat for his lifetime."

The West keeps sending in food aid which is vulnerable to theft by the corrupt authorities and is then converted into cash for weapons. We do not, imho, concentrate enough on teaching the needy to *make* food (farming, processing and so on) so that they can feed themselves. We need to be sending more in the way of seeds and tools, and less in the way of "instant cure" rations.

The point made about condoms by another respondent was a good one as well. Not only to keep numbers down but as a defence against AIDS which is rife in Zimbabwe.

According to the news, some 3,000 people per day are making their way into S Africa from Zimbabwe in the hope of escaping their poverty. I can see a time coming when S Africa might consider itself forced to take more drastic action against Zimbabwe to prevent its own AIDS problem being increased by those refugees who take the virus with them across the border. Many end up in the sex trade because there is nothing else for them.

If anyone is going to remove Mugabe, I think it will be S Africa. The USA has no reason to go in; Zimbabwe took independence from UK. Made their bed, so to speak...

Answer 4

Have they got oil? resources? Anything of value? Its not that simple to help them, any aid or food that is intended for the needy must go through Mugabe and his corrupted government officials end result nothing O. Back to square one. If the U.N. has any credibility at all they should send their troops out there to keep the bandits away.
I really don't know why we have a United Nations, its just a waste of time, what have they achieved so far? Its sad really, I know how you feel, sadness, frustration and aggravation all mixed into one pot. The other solution would be the use of merceniaries but at the end of the day, some other dictator will take up Mogabe's place and the children will go on starving.

Answer 5

It is allowed to happen because people in the western hemisphere have jobs which help them pay their mortgage or rent for a place they call home. That's where they go after work, crash for a little while, maybe watch some TV, eat supper and then go to bed and do it all over again until Friday. On Friday they go out and blow money they can afford to lose and buy stuff they don't really need; they often buy booze and pizza. They usually do something similar on Saturday. Sunday, they just hole up and do nothing but recover, until later in the day when they might get inspired to wash their car, do the laundry or fix the back fence. Monday morning it starts all over again. Oh, yeah, the fifteenth of the month they pay their phone and power bills and pay their rent/mortgage on the first or the fifteenth.

Starvation happens because none of these people will ever be personally affected by it. They know the possibility of it happening to themselves is less than nil. They think, "Better them than me." Sad but true.

Answer 6

Its not Mugabe that is evil, its Bush and Blair who set up sanctions to kill them off to prove that they were better run by white masters.

These sanctions are designed to cause starvation and cripple the econony to prove Blairs point, he may no longer be in power but his criminality goes on.

Sick!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1827827.stm

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/sanctions36.13187.html

http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/zimbabwe/zimb.shtml

https://gov.im/lib/news/treasury/customs/financialsanctio22.xml

http://www.cross-x.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1492960

Unfortunately., with the massive media brainwashing that goes on we have come to accept the real evil doers as the saviours. For instance, it is complete rubbish to say Mugabe is a dictator. He was elected in fair elections that were internationally varified. In fact less fiddling there than Bush has. So the truth is the first to go. The people of Zimbabwe (well the majority) are not stupid. Voting for the opposition is like the voting for white rule. You dont have to be too clever to know how absurd this is after the years of slavery they have suffered.

And if we are going to be honest, there will be no change from the Zanu PF party as long as there is no proper home grown opposition rather than a foreign funded puppet opposition. Enjoy!

Answer 7

Because Robert Mugabee and his mob of supporters turfed out all the white farmers who where making a good living off the land and managing it correctly and filling the silos qith food, gave it to the so called soldiers and pensioners who have no idea how to farm and has caused this problem.
The UK has tried to ask for sanctions against Mugabee, but has failed as it is an internal issue within Zimbabwe and not an International Problem and the US has too many fingers in the country with arms, exports and imports of materials.

Answer 8

I have been watching this for a few years now, Mugabe took the farmers land and gave it to his cronies, such a shame Zimbabwe used to be called the 'bread basket of Africa' and now HER people are starving, and as for what are we doing about it? I think you need to ask the Prime Minister of South Africa that question and the other leaders in that region they all know what is happening is WRONG WRONG WRONG

Answer 9

Strange how the British Government at the time of Ian Smith in Rhodesia could not get rid of him quick enough. A fool would have known what would happen. I lived there then and it was a wonderful country and no one starved. Stark contrast to today. Many Africans predicted what would happen when Ian Smith was deposed I felt sorry for those guys, they had nowhere to run.

Answer 10

Decode this lyrics " My way"
Getting kick on the butts with ghostly stories on the glory of idol worshiping the dead Mummy of failures and horrors of the past from the graveyards of different ancestor's culture and custom as casualty of the dead Mummy.
Luke 6.39-40, 41-45,46-49
Decode this lyrics " I will follow him"
Ever wonder who were climbing up the coconut trees and still look green geting kick on the butts by the dead Mummy?
Luke 4.4-7
Ever wonder where is the so-called human intelligent with "Penny wise pound foolish"?
Luke 22.3-6,
The greatest embarassment with the blind in following the blind.