Bloggers Unite is a wonderful website that encourages bloggers to support worthy causes through their writing and networks. Participants can add their own events and encourage their networks of contacts, friends and fellow bloggers to support their cause. On, or before, the day of the event the bloggers are encouraged to write articles that represent their take on the cause as a way of raising awareness.

Unfortunately, as seen from this part of the world, this specific cause has an American slant. The reality is that the very worst conditions exist right here in Africa. And a lot of the problems the direct result of megalomaniacs like ‘Bob’ Mugabe. Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Southern Africa is dying. And its people are dying with it.

We as South Africans (with our own problems with hunger) have to take a lot of blame for the situation in Zimbabwe. Our former president, Thabo Mbeki, seemed to help drag the negotiations for power-sharing. The vast majority of hunger is the result of man-made catastrophes. Whether it be wars or overspending by western consumers, the result is the same. People don’t have the means provide foods for themselves and their families.

Here is one mainstream newspaper Taiwan News that can tell the story better than I can. I have asked if they could re-publish the article to coincide with this promotion.

So, is there hope? Not a realist question. There has to hope. There has to be a promise. This a case of solutions having to be found. And with a crisis at this level, it is a case of providing sufficient food so that people can survive. There is no time to fix the structural issues in the hope this will help the survival of these starving millions. But it also does not mean that we can afford to not work at the structural issues. They need to go hand in hand.

Five million (the estimated number of Zimbabweans requiring daily food aid, almost half the population) rolls off the tongue very easily. It sound a lot and it is a lot. But it is nothing but a big number that masks the reality of the suffering. It is easy to disassociate from big numbers. So look around you and find a loved one, and then imagine that they are one of those five million, with a shortened life expectancy and potential ongoing health problems for most of their lives, survivors of families that have already lost members, usually children, people who are always at risk of contracting any one of a number of diseases because their bodies are weak and their environment is not fit for human habitation.

Now wipe the tear from your eyes … and do … something.

Tags: charity, hunger, robert mugabe, thabo mbeki, zimbabwe

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Causes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.