Zimbabwe: behavior change needed (2)
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How condescending of Cecilia Snyder to say that "unlike other African
countries, Zimbabwe is not plagued by ethnic warfare".
If you remember that Africa has over 50 countries, the majority have
no warfare nor other violent ethnic rivalry. Considering only those
"south of the Sahara" - some have an unblemished records of democ-
ratic progress since decolonization (e.g. Benin, Botswana, Malawi,
Mali, Namibia, Senegal, Tanzania and even Eritrea in itself). Africa
is certainly doing far better politically than the first millennium
of bloody struggles among European tribes after decolonization by the
Romans.
As for Zimbabwe, the bloody warfare between ZANU-PF and other politi-
cal parties has a strong ethnic basis (that is not simply black &
white).
As for AIDS, the real point of Cecilia's comments, the prime example
of Uganda turning the tide against HIV/AIDS may even show how coun-
tries can meet the challenge better from the social progress that
follows civil war. So let's be optimistic for African societies
learning fast and gaining from traditional taboos on promiscuity.
Enlightened leadership and appropriate health education (instead of
SA obfuscation) will be much more valuable than chemotherapy in the
long run. By the way, in Zimbabwe the 1999 budget proposed a special
"AIDS tax" to make people more aware of the real costs required for
AIDS/HIV control, but unfortunately this tax proposal was defeated
during parliamentary debate (at least I think that bold plan by the
Minister of Health was not approved).
Graham White
mailto:GrahamBWhite@compuserve.com
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