Zimbabwe: Can the breadbasket be filled once more?
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I went to a forum yesterday on political developments in Zimbabwe, co-hosted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The event was titled, “Zimbabwe: Time for Hope?” and while there are few promising recent developments, hope remains that this country can emerge from its present situation.
Once heralded as the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe has gone from the fastest growing economy in all of Africa in 1997, to a country embroiled in an acute humanitarian and political crisis. Of the 12.3 million residents, 1.3 million are living with HIV/AIDS (and only 100,000 are receiving life-extending ARTs). The nation has the world’s highest number of orphans per capita, and the life expectancy for women is the lowest in the world. Dr. Jendayi Frazer, U.S. Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, reported that students in public school have attended less than 30 days of full classes throughout the year.
Given all of this, what can be done?
For one, people can help raise awareness about the situation in Zimbabwe. At the beginning of the forum, the audience was shown a clip from the award-winning documentary, “Pain in my Heart,” by Zimbabwe journalist Hopewell Rugoho-Chin’ono. This moving film tells the true story of two adult HIV/AIDS patients living with their disease amidst the strained economy and deteriorating health-care system of Zimbabwe. Mr. Rugoho-Chin’ono’s film puts a human face on a problem that can feel very detached from our everyday lives, and it is journalism like this that can help elevate Zimbabwe’s crisis on the global agenda.
Political change is another option on the table. Dr. Jendayi Frazer remains hopeful about the implementation of the power-sharing deal between Mr. Mugabe’s party and the opposition, and spoke to the U.S. commitment of working to support Zimbabwe regardless of the political outcome.
As a final note, the New York Times has reported that former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and former President Jimmy Carter will visit the country on a humanitarian mission over the weekend.
We’ll be following the situation in Zimbabwe closely, and will let you know what develops.
-Rena Pacheco-Theard
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November 22, 2008 at 1:04 am
Zimbabwe is such a beautiful country with so much oppurtunity. It has been really stuffed yet you find although the people are tierd, well exhausted they are still hoping that things will change. What ever the solution it must not ignore the strong tribal division and loyalty and aslo the interference of many do gooders. The country need help and intervention and Jimmy carter and Kofi Annan sound like good people to try this. We will hope and pray that it can and does return to the days it was the leader in development in the region.