Mothers' Day In Zimbabwe
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
13 May 2007
Today is Mothers Day, but very few mothers in Zimbabwe will have much reason to rejoice. The nation is in chaos.
Zimbabwe has a population of 12,000,000 and used to be the second most prosperous country in the continent after South Africa. Under Ian Smith the whites fought to retain control until independence 27 years ago. This means that there is no living memory of democratic rule as President Mugabe, the president since independence, has become increasingly corrupt and despotic.
Economic life has collapsed. Erratic weather patterns with shorter rainy seasons, the HIV/AIDS epidemic and chaotic government have reduced the country to bankruptcy.
Inflation worsened when 12,000 troops were sent for three years to the Congo, costing $1,000,000 U.S. a day to maintain and 53,000 war veterans, many of them bogus, each received a cash handout of $5,000 U.S. Prosperous and efficient farms of 4,000 farmers were confiscated without compensation and given to government cronies in 2000. Not surprisingly, they are now in ruins.
The inflation rate is running at 2000% a year (and is probably worse in fact) so that 20,000 Zimbabwe dollars are now worth one Australian dollar.
700,000 are homeless, many families eat once every two days and, not surprisingly, more than a million have fled the country, many of them professionals. Unemployment now ranges from 70 to 80%.
If this is not enough the HIV/AIDS epidemic is also raging. Half the population are under fifteen years of age and one tenth of them are orphans. Some parish priests are celebrating four funerals a day, so that life expectancy, which used to be 62 years, is reduced to 34 for women and 37 for men, and babies are dying with malnutrition.
Mugabe is now 83 years of age and has nominated to stand again for president in 2008. While the elections have been rigged since 2002, he maintains power with the help of the army, the police and an immense network of spies and informers.
A few months ago he arrested 600 Opposition politicians, and had them beaten, especially on the feet and with electric shocks. As a master promoter of division and distortion, Mugabe tries to “racialize’ his predicament, so that his opponents are portrayed as Western puppets doing the work of hostile whites. For a long time he managed to divide the Christian churches and their leadership, but those days are almost over.
Last week the Australian Catholic Bishops listened to Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, a brave man, who has decided to speak out whatever the consequences. Criticised, and vilified he is allegedly on a death list.
Australian sporting teams compete in many countries with imperfect political systems, but the situation in Zimbabwe has deteriorated below the imperfect.
Our world champion cricket team should not play in Zimbabwe to be used and abused by Mugabe to prop up his doomed regime.
