Jan 11 2009
No Love in the Time of Cholera
Cholera in Zimbabwe has taken almost 1,800 lives since this past August. This is difficult to imagine in western nations, as our only acquaintanceship with cholera is a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. But cholera is a horrible epidemic, it is a virus that produces a toxin in the lining of the small intestine, which causes ridiculous diarrhea. It is transmitted usually through contaminated drinking water.
Cholera can kill a person in a few hours, or a few days if not treated. In Zimbabwe, President Mugabe has re-priced the health care system in American dollars, making it virtually impossible for people to pay for treatment. Seems like a bad time to be doing this, as the more cases of cholera that break out, well, the more likely this thing will spread even further. In a country where a doctor makes less than $10 a month, how can the populace, mostly unemployed in the first place, pay for medical treatment?
Mugabe has been in power since 1980. He has been criticized for his intense racism against the small white population, and blames the country’s problems on the legacy of imperialism. Perhaps it is the legacy of the colonial era that allowed someone like Mugabe to take power in the first place, and that is why it is the fault of imperialism. The country has been dealing with rampant inflation for decades, as well as corruption and repression.
