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Friday, November 18, 2011

International District Zimbabwe

Posted by Charles Mudede on Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 8:08 AM

Over the past decade, tens of thousands of Zimbabwean children have taken quite remarkable risks to smuggle themselves across the border into South Africa. For the most part they are acting illegally, and most travel alone or unaccompanied by adult relatives, but it is the only way that many of them feel they can escape the debilitating poverty, disease and violence they have experienced under Robert Mugabe's regime.

This extraordinary exodus is part of a wider migration that has seen almost two million Zimbabweans leave the country in search of a better life. Some will find it, but many will find that life in South Africa will never be the safe and prosperous existence they once dreamed of.

What they find instead is something that looks a lot like this...

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Even more ironic and sad is the inflow of Zimbabwean refugees into Mozambique, still one of the poorer countries on the continent. Two decades ago, Mozambicans fled in droves to Zimbabwe for education, jobs and to flee the civil war.

Posted by Mr. Happy Sunshine on November 18, 2011 at 8:18 AM

Why hasn't anyone put a bullet in Mugabe's head yet? He's every bit as rotten as Gadhafi was.

Posted by Vince on November 18, 2011 at 8:59 AM

@2: he has a very effective authoritarian regime. think kim. think assad. think hussein, who'd still be in power if we hadn't invaded. gaddhafi is gone because of NATO air cover. absent that, his army & navy would have leveled benghazi.

Posted by Max Solomon on November 18, 2011 at 9:10 AM

too bad there are not enough white run countries left in Africa to provide for the needs of the suffering population.

Posted by emptybelly on November 18, 2011 at 9:27 AM

Mugabe would never had happened if the world (specifically the commonwealth) would have stepped up and didn't turn away from the Rhodesian genocide.

Why don't you ask Chuck Merde about it. His dear old dad was an economic advisor to Mugabe, hope he rots in hell.

Posted by Cascadian Bacon on November 18, 2011 at 8:43 PM