Posted on 04/08/2006 3:55:26 PM PDT by blam
Zimbabweans have 'shortest lives'
Zimbabwean women are more likely than men to be infected by HIV
Life in Zimbabwe is shorter than anywhere else in the world, with neither men nor women expected to live until 40, a new UN report says. Zimbabwe's women have an average life expectancy of 34 years and men on average do not live past 37, it said.
The World Health Organisation report said women's life expectancy had fallen by two years in the last 12 months.
Correspondents say poverty because of the crumbling economy and deaths from Aids are responsible for the decline.
Zimbabwean women have the lowest life expectancy of women anywhere in the world, according to the report.
Women in the country are also more likely than men to be infected by the HIV virus.
'Economic meltdown'
According to the report, all 10 countries with the world's lowest life expectancy were in Africa.
People in Swaziland and Sierra Leone are also expected to die before they reach the age of 40, the report said.
Japan was said to have the highest life expectancy in the world, with people there living on average until 82.
According to the BBC's Africa editor, David Bamford, the latest figures are extraordinary for a country like Zimbabwe, which until 20 years ago, had a relatively high standard of living for Africa.
The HIV/Aids epidemic sweeping across southern Africa cannot alone be blamed for this - especially as recent figures show a slight drop in HIV infection rates in Zimbabwe.
Our correspondent says the key reason behind the drop in Zimbabwe's average life expectancy is the fall in the standard of living, triggered by an economic crisis.
Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk by an estimated 40% in the last seven years under President Robert Mugabe.
Then Mugabe became the president/dictator.
Ping.
The only thing that will help Africa is Capitalism.
Rhodesia was prosperous.
Yet one more reason the "censure carter" people have it right. Rhodesia had a shot at electing a republican government in the 1970s but the carter administration was hell bent on getting Mugabe and his commies installed. How loathesome.
Robert Mugabe???
Hey, isn't he a close pal of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Stevens, Kennedy, Breyer, Ginsberg, and Souter? Isn't he the one who gave them the ideas for the Kelo v. City of New London "Eminent Domain" ruling? I know they are fond of consulting foreign law.
All this thanks to that great "peacemaker and statesman" Jimmy Carter. Is this what he meant by "malaise?"
I guess that Lord Owen and the United Kingdom shouldn't be left out of responsibility for this, too.
Geeez... in 15 years life expectancy will be about 3!
This is definitely a symptom of the economic disaster, but the story is silly. The biggest problem there is a now very high infant-mortality rate.
Bring back colonialism and capitalism and you will see the trend reverse.
But I think that instead of throwing there lives away that they should wait until they are 30 to get married.
According to the 1986 World Almanac, which gives the figures from 1981, life expectancy at birth was then 53.3 years for males and 56.8 years for females.
The 1999 edition shows the figures at 39.1 years for males and 39.2 years for females...it doesn't say which year those figures are from.
How old does one have to be to qualify for Social Security?
Way off the subject, but I hear that O puh ruh is making sure her money will go to Africa after she passes. To make sure that orphans taken care of. Talk about throwing money down a hole, she would be better off giving it away to disadvantaged America youths, as scholarships to private schools......... better bang for the buck. Nice to know that the money she makes in America, will go for naught.
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