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Severe Hunger Looms For Zimbabwe
BBC ^ | 1-26-2007

Posted on 01/26/2007 6:50:37 AM PST by blam

Severe hunger looms for Zimbabwe

Many Zimbabweans look set to go hungry

Zimbabwe is facing a food deficit of hundreds of thousands of tonnes - a third of its requirements - an international monitoring agency warns. The Famine Early Warning System says the cereal balance sheet projects a shortfall in maize - the staple food - of some 850,000 tonnes.

By December only 152,600 tonnes had been delivered, meaning widespread hunger looks set to continue.

The monitors say Zimbabwe's lack of foreign currency is a key problem.

Crisis

The Zimbabwean government has refused to allow outside agencies to carry out crop assessments but the Famine Early Warning System used satellite images.

The government plans to import 565,000 tonnes of cereal - 60% of the projected deficit.

"It remains doubtful that Zimbabwe will be able to meet their import goals," the Famine Early Warning System said.

The monitors said a slight increase in national maize production, higher prices for South African maize and Zimbabwe's shortage of foreign currency due to its economic crisis were the leading causes of the lower levels of imports.

Zimbabwe has been gripped by an economic crisis for more than six years and has one of the world's lowest rates of life expectancy and the highest inflation rate.

Donors blame government mismanagement and the seizure of white-owned farms for Zimbabwe's economic problems.

President Robert Mugabe instead blames an international plot to remove him from power.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: famine; hunger; mugabe; zimbabwe
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To: Myrddin

The Blacks employed by the White farmers were devestated too.


21 posted on 01/26/2007 4:42:12 PM PST by blam
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To: blam
The Zimbabwean government has refused to allow outside agencies to carry out crop assessments...

Then why do they deserve any aid at all? What is to stop that aid from being used for political purposes by Mugabe?

22 posted on 01/26/2007 4:45:32 PM PST by Zack Nguyen
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To: blam
The Blacks employed by the White farmers were devestated too.

Exactly. They enjoyed stable employment. Now they're unemployed. The white farmers are dead or maimed and dispossessed of everything. Unemployment is an inconvenience in comparison.

23 posted on 01/26/2007 5:09:00 PM PST by Myrddin
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To: tet68

http://africantears.netfirms.com/thisweek.shtml

If you will bookmark this page, whenever she posts a new one, you can read it.


24 posted on 01/26/2007 6:47:29 PM PST by Sundog (What are we going to do tomorrow, Brain?)
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To: Myrddin

"For the same reason that possession of a musical instrument does not convey make the possessor a virtuoso."

Mind if I use this in the future - I like it.


25 posted on 01/26/2007 7:21:28 PM PST by edcoil (Reality doesn't say much - doesn't need too)
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To: blam

Amazing, it is like something out of a novel by Ayn Rand.


26 posted on 01/26/2007 8:42:06 PM PST by ikka
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To: ikka
"Amazing, it is like something out of a novel by Ayn Rand."

Yup. All the doer's went to Galt's Gulch. $$$$

27 posted on 01/26/2007 9:01:28 PM PST by blam
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