Zimbabwe

I stumbled across an interesting article from February 12, 2008.  It talks about the reverse racism that is happening in Zimbabwe today.  Whites have always been the minority here but throughout time were primarily in control with British rule.  This all changed when President Robert Mugabe implemented a new land grab policy in 2000.  Essentially this gave the land back to many of the African natives and threw many white land owners off their property.  It was estimated that in 1980 over a quarter of a million white people lived in Zimbabwe, now it is down to around 30,000.  Most of these people are working very low income jobs, which is a new site to see in this area.  The author Nhlahla, sites a story of an old white man who is forced to work for the National Zimbabwe Railway Company because all his ties are in Zimbabwe and was not able to flee the country like most of his fellow peers.  This job is the only thing left that keeps him from being a vagrant and wandering the streets.  With the increasing blame put on whites here for the countries problems continued pressure from Mugabe and the Zanu-PF makes it seems as though whites are the ones being marginalized here now.  It’s no wondering in the upcoming elections many of them will be voting to institute the Movement for Democratic change, which acts as an opposition to Mugabe and his current staff.      

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=14505

Fences and Windows

There is an interesting chapter in the book Fences and Windows that talks about the anti apartheid movement in South Africa.  It insists that although racial segregation has been put to an end here a system of classes has replaced it and continues to play the same role.  Here though it pin points the blame on a specific restructuring program embraced by the current government and nurtured by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.  The chapter talks a lot about how Nelson Mandela dreamed of South Africa being a place that offered economic as well as democratic freedom.  Along with a place that could provide basic necessities for its people such as housing, water and electricity through “massive public work programs.”  The African National Congress couldn’t do this because clear threats were made from international markets that if they underwent these economic changes then they would be punished by the international market and an economic meltdown would ensue along with bringing an end to African rule in South Africa.  This led South Africa having to open up even more of their markets to foreign investors.  Much of the country is run by white owned companies that are there to indulge in South Africa’s vast mineral wealth.  Since the early 21^st century this has led to the exact opposite effects as Nelson Mandela’s dream.  Leading to a population where five million people are HIV positive and nearly eight million people are homeless.  Which makes you wonder if Nelson Mandela’s dreams will ever be accomplished here.  

Malaria in Southern African Countries

Malaria is a disease that affects millions of people every year and approximately causes the deaths of around two million people per year.  Many of these people reside in Africa where finances are low to counter this disease.  There is some progress with this tragic disease and that is the fact that we are trying to bring it to an end in impoverished countries around the globe.  Many organizations such as the World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight Malaria are putting in time and finance to help bring this disease to a halt.  Even in the last two years George Bush took a role in this announcing billions of dollars to be dedicated to fighting this disease throughout Africa.  A powerful chemical called DDT has been used in the past to help keep mosquito’s out of homes in these regions.  This has helped prevent the number of malaria cases to develop in these areas and most of the spraying takes place in low dosages inside homes to help keep its use under control.  This treatment doesn’t come without controversy though.  It is almost like picking your poison because DDT has been linked in some studies to diseases such as cancer and overall environmental degradation.  Bans have been set up in many countries to limit or even stop the use of this chemical due to its adverse affects.  However, in many countries that are located in hot, humid or tropical regions it is still affective to help reduce mosquito transferred illnesses.  This happens to be the case in many South Africa countries and is continued in its use today.  The verdict seems to still be out on this chemical but for now it seems to be doing more good than harm in these disease ridden countries.    

WTO in Southern Africa

In the clinton administration one of the biggest reforms to global trade took place with the Uruguay Round.  Many South African countries took part in this in hope to help with reducing tariffs, and create reforms in areas such as standards, customs and intellectual property laws.  In order to implement this they under went massive amounts of training workers, purchasing equipment and legislative reforms.  Years have passed since the Uruguay Round act and still many of these “Southern African Developement Communities(SADC)” still are having trouble getting their economy underway.  They are countinuously struggling with keeping up adequate finances, institutional and technical capabilities.  Another factor that has slowed their economic growth, is that developed countries refuse to let these SADC’s participate in Uruguay Round negotiations.  Limiting the ability for them to engage in global trade.  The WTO rules on their custom valuation, intellectual property rights, and sanitary measures.  Leaving the SADC’s in between a rock and a hard spot when entering the market of global trade.