We need a change of view

A Window:

The Sunday Times reports that council workers in Harare each week find up to twenty corpses of new-born babies in gutters or flushed down drains (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2114280,00.html). The government media response states, “Apart from upsetting the normal flow of waste, it (baby dumping) is not right from a moral standpoint.”

Stark increases in treatment of malnourished children are also being experienced in the Zimbabwean capital, with more than 55% of child hospital admissions resulting from lack of food.

The government has seized control of 95% of the farms in the country, resulting in an exaggerated decline in food production. It steadfastly refuses to appeal for aid, for fear of admitting the failure of its policies.

Those that can find sufficient food for survival amongst the city rubbish are dying in large numbers from HIV infections. The mortuaries are stockpiling bodies which grieving relatives cannot afford to bury.

Inflation in Zimbabwe has reached 1000%. Families of up to 38 people are occupying tiny three-room shacks. Public and social services, including health services, are collapsing.

Each hour, three Zimbabwean children are infected with HIV; three more die of the disease. Countless others starve to death. And each week, the bodies of 20 babies are thrown away like cigarette butts.

The View:

Something that our governments call a War-On-Terr’r, but which we all know in our hearts is more accurately described as a Corporate-Raid-on-Western-Tax-dollars-And-Middle-East-Oil.

No War-On-Poverty.

No ethical consideration about the ‘right’ reasons to reject sovereignty and invade another country.

Empty rhetoric about ‘values’ and ‘security’.

Ideological brinksmanship.

Power and self-interest.