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Hatred in the Time of Cholera - Zimbabwe collapses as an epidemic sweeps the nation.
National Review Online ^
| November 26, 2008
| Roger Bate
Posted on 11/28/2008 4:37:05 PM PST by neverdem
November 26, 2008, 0:10 a.m.
Hatred in the Time of Cholera Zimbabwe collapses as an epidemic sweeps the nation.
By Roger Bate
While Americans give thanks this holiday season, they warily contemplate what the partial collapse of financial institutions means for them. But for Zimbabweans, simply being alive is reason to give thanks. A cholera epidemic is sweeping across Zimbabwe, with over 9,000 cases and 360 deaths, according to the United Nations. Local sources tell me these figures underplay the seriousness of the problem.
The British charity Oxfam has called for a State of Emergency to be declared in Zimbabwe, a plea that has predictably been rejected by the despotic leadership of Robert Mugabe, which laughably blamed Western sanctions as the cause for the outbreak.
At the town of Messina in the northeast tip of South Africa, seven miles from the Zimbabwean border, hundreds of the sick refugees are stretching the health facilities to the breaking point.Cholera was an ever-present threat in cities like London until 140 years ago. At that time, the first real epidemiological studies were undertaken by London doctor John Snow, which identified poor sanitation — and a single down-river Thames-side water pump in particular — as the cause of the spread of the deadly disease.
Today cholera can easily be controlled by maintaining simple sanitary standards — but there is no running water in much of Zimbabwe today, and sanitation systems have collapsed.
The disease can be treated simply, too — but Harare Central Hospital closed three weeks ago, and Parirenyatwa Hospital was barely functioning at last reports. The hospitals have no supplies and the only things in excess are overflowing morgues. This leaves a few private clinics for treatment but if you have no hard currency to pay for treatment you die.
While the steady stream of four million Zimbabwean refugees who have fled to South Africa over the past two years did not move South African authorities to act, the new leader of the African National Congress (and president in waiting), Jacob Zuma, is now claiming that we cannot “wait and see . . . we must act and act now.” The first act of the ANC-led Government was to withhold $28 million of aid to Zimbabwe until a representative government is formed in Harare.
Negotiations for a Zimbabwean power-sharing agreement — between Mugabe and opposition leader and Prime Minister-elect Morgan Tsvangirai — are ongoing in South Africa. But the talks started three months ago and few expect a swift outcome — after all, Mugabe has called his neighbor’s bluff so often over the past decade that he must think he can always and forever do what he likes, ignoring their increasingly vocal calls to honor election results and share power with Tsvangirai.
Continuing to do its part to sanction those trading with the Mugabe regime, the U.S. government yesterday blacklisted and froze the assets of four people it claims have provided logistical and financial support to the rogue regime: John Bredenkamp, a Zimbabwean businessman; Muller Conrad “Billy” Rautenbach, a Zimbabwean businessman; Mahmood Awang Kechik, a Malaysian doctor; and Nalinee Joy Taveesin, a Thai businesswoman.
The BBC report that Botswana’s foreign minister now argues that “mediation to solve Zimbabwe’s political crisis has failed [and] borders with Zimbabwe should be closed to push Mr Mugabe from power.” But closing the borders, which South Africa might also contemplate, will only ensure an even faster death for Zimbabweans. The United Nations and African Union, led by South Africa’s Jacob Zuma and Botswana’s leader, Seretse Ian Kharma, must put an end to the death. It is time they intervened militarily.
— Roger Bate is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is heading to the region and will be sending updates to NRO.
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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cholera; health; medicine; zimbabwe
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1
posted on
11/28/2008 4:37:05 PM PST
by
neverdem
To: neverdem
manufactured MSM crisis to make outsiders act.
2
posted on
11/28/2008 4:40:39 PM PST
by
bert
(K.E. N.P. +12 . Save America......... put out lots of waferin)
To: bert; neverdem
Okay, stupid question: If cholera is caused by poor sanitation, couldn’t the population be taught to boil water prior to drinking it? Assuming they have access to fire? What am I missing here?
3
posted on
11/28/2008 4:46:30 PM PST
by
oprahstheantichrist
(The MSM is a demonic stronghold, PLEASE pray accordingly. 2 Cor. 10:3-5)
To: neverdem
This is what the US will look like if Obama and the Global Warmists get their way. (Except for themselves, of course, who will have have Robert Mugabe limos.)
4
posted on
11/28/2008 4:48:19 PM PST
by
samtheman
To: oprahstheantichrist
Every one of Rhodesia’s problems are self inflicted by the tyrant in charge. Their only real hope is to rise up and depose him and the thug “veterans” that keep him in power.
To: bert
Cholera can be cured through the simple expedient of tightly controlled breeding practices.
I, for example, an naturally immune to this terrible disease, but I am sure my genes could help millions to breed a new generation.
There are others with similar immunity and I am sure some of them would be willing to "share".
An international program should be developed to "procure" assistance. (/sarc).
6
posted on
11/28/2008 4:51:15 PM PST
by
muawiyah
(uois)
To: neverdem
I see they revalued the Zimbabwean dollar again.
This makes the original Zimbabwean dollar currently worth... um... it looks like it would currently take around 7 sextillion original Zimbabwean dollars to make up a US dollar.
But my information may be a bit obsolete. It is, after all, nearly 7 pm.
To: neverdem
Still waiting for Jesse Jackson to demand a total embargo on Zimbabwe till free elections are held. Oh wait, I forgot, it’s ok for blacks to oppress blacks.
8
posted on
11/28/2008 4:53:56 PM PST
by
yazoo
To: neverdem
Zimbabwe collapsed several years ago. MSM and fellow travellers maintain the fiction that it is still a nation.
Can’t let a black marxist run nation collapse officially.
9
posted on
11/28/2008 4:55:32 PM PST
by
dynachrome
(Barack Hussein Obama yunikku khinaaziir)
To: oprahstheantichrist
Don’t be so sure they have access to fire. I imagine at this stage, most of the readily available firewood has already been burnt.
I don’t think mass cannibalism is too far down the pike there.
10
posted on
11/28/2008 4:55:47 PM PST
by
Ronin
To: samtheman
Exactly. Fascism and socialism both result in lower standards of living. For the proletariat. Soon for us.
11
posted on
11/28/2008 4:57:25 PM PST
by
Canedawg
(The media is a ass, a idiot.," said Mr. Bumble.)
To: berdie
12
posted on
11/28/2008 4:59:16 PM PST
by
berdie
To: pesto
13
posted on
11/28/2008 4:59:21 PM PST
by
basil
(Support the 2nd Amendment--buy another gun today)
To: neverdem
Nothing new here - it’s just the usual endgame of socialism.
14
posted on
11/28/2008 4:59:36 PM PST
by
headsonpikes
(Genocide is the highest sacrament of socialism.)
To: johniegrad
"Every one of Rhodesias problems are self inflicted by the tyrant in charge. Their only real hope is to rise up and depose him and the thug veterans that keep him in power." So very true.
I have been following the situation in Zimbabwe via FR for many months now and have confidently predicted a total collapse of the Government followed by a revolution to throw out the current rulers. But I'm starting to rethink that position. It just could be that the people of Zimbabwe may just lie there and take it rather than rise up and fight. And what seems certain: they will get no help from their African neighbors. And they will get no help from the Brits who, one would think, would retain some residual feeling of responsibility for those poor souls who were once the proud residents of a great country name Rhodesia.
To: muawiyah
“I, for example, an naturally immune to this terrible disease, but I am sure my genes could help millions to breed a new generation.”
Interesting. How does one find out they have a natural immunity to Cholera?
A year after the Civil War in Indian Territory/Arkansas Cholera swept through wiping out a bunch of folks. A free slave said this about it:
“”Then come a time of cholera, back in the spring of sixty-seven. People die all that season, and the dead, seem like they pass and pass all the time. Dey was carried in little two wheel wagons pulled by a mule to a burying place. Why, you’d be standin’ there fine one minute and that cholera would hit and you’d be dead in a few hours.”
http://jesusweptanamericanstory.blogspot.com/
16
posted on
11/28/2008 5:05:00 PM PST
by
AuntB
(The right to vote in America: Blacks 1870; Women 1920; Native Americans 1925)
To: InterceptPoint
Ditto on that. Even during the late 1970’s after over a decade of a total embargo and in the midst of a terrorist insurgency, partially brought on by the same embargo, Rhodesia NEVER faced starvation or the return of diseases caused by poor sanitation. What a tragedy.
To: neverdem
Did any flights from Zimbabwe arrive in NY, today?
18
posted on
11/28/2008 5:14:39 PM PST
by
353FMG
(The sky is not falling, yet.)
To: InterceptPoint
I've been watching it for many years now on FR.
To be honest I don't follow it much anymore.
It is totally self inflicted. I don't have much interest in racist tribal people bent on national suicide. Where they were going was self evident many years ago. Now they pay the price.
Venezuela is on the same path, oil or no oil.
19
posted on
11/28/2008 5:18:45 PM PST
by
DB
To: AuntB
There were these plagues back in the 1800s that combined the disease called cholera with that called milk fever. You caught both of them they were almost without fail a lethal combination.
You can find sources on the net that tell you that Abe Lincoln's mother and sister died of either milk fever or cholera. Back in the days of print media, it was just milk fever.
Let me supplement that with the fact that "next door" no one died of either the fever or cholera ~ they appeared to be "immune". For a variety of reasons Abe's mother and sister got buried on the neighbor's farm and not their own ~ maybe because the neighbors were quite healthy and could bury them. I don't know for sure the reason, but that's the folks I inherited my immunity from.
Now, how do you know you're immune. Well, you could be in a cholera ridden area and not get it. Or, you could get a cholera shot in your arm and watch your skin turn black over most of your arm. This happens within just a few hours and is very frightening, but it's symptomatic of natural immunity.
It doesn't help to catch cholera and survive because that immunity wears off in a few months, just like the shots.
This particular immunity goes along with a partial immunity to typhoid fever, black death, and several other viral and bacteria caused diseases, including, apparantly, AIDs.
20
posted on
11/28/2008 5:31:40 PM PST
by
muawiyah
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