2/10
Okay so Global Studies was fascinating today. We learned about Zimbabwe and the crisis going on there- the woman doing the lecture was born and raised in Zimbabwe before moving to the States- I didn’t realize anything that was/is going on there. I knew there was some type of corrupt government issues with the elections happening recently but I had no idea the extent of it all. I will have to write about it again when I have my notes in front of me so I can write down exact details but there is a huge inflation rate and people are having to flee to South Africa or Zambia. The water is completely poisonous and is causing cholera to spread. There are basically no more schools or hospitals, even though at one point Zimbabwe was flourishing with fantastic institutions- the teachers pay more for a bus fare to get to the school than their salary would pay them so they had to stop going- most people couldn’t make it to their jobs because of this- so the schools and the hospitals fell apart. We saw a picture of a cholera clinic and it showed upturned buckets with a slab laid across them as beds. That’s it. The country is in extreme poverty and disarray.
Okay, now I have my notes. In 1980 when Mugabe took office, he was the Nelson Mandela of his time, he had no animosity and kept whites in his government. He brought hope for the continent, he brought calm and peace, and Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa. At this time, the Zimbabwe dollar was equal to the US dollar. But then disaster struck. In 2000, the inflation rate rose well above 231 million % annually. Unemployment reached 80% and 1/3 of the population fled across the border to South Africa or Zambia. A lot of the population was actually driven off the land by the government because it seems Mugabe wanted to depopulate his land, mostly of the poor people. Inflation rose so high that higher and higher bills were being created, one million, ten million, one billion, one hundred billion notes. Ten billion Zimbabwe dollars bought 20 loaves of bread at one point, and three weeks later, that same amount bought less than half a loaf. We were shown a picture of 100 billion Zimbabwe dollars set next to 3 eggs- this is how much these eggs cost. Then in August 2008, as inflation still got higher and higher, we were shown a picture of a huge pile of bills, like there had been a bank robbery, next to four tomatoes. In January 2009, inflation had reached 89.9 sextillion %. Have you even ever heard of sextillion? I haven’t. It is 10 to the 21st power. This made Zimbabwe the first country in the 21st century to hyperinflate, meaning inflation rate tops out at a minimum of 50% per month. After July 2008, they just stopped counting because it was rising too much. January of 2009, the 100 trillion note was launched. Yes, trillion. This was beyond belief, no one could cope anymore. This is when people stopped going to work because bus fares were costing more than their salary. Awful. The Unity government is to be inaugurated this week and Tsuangirai (is that the right spelling? I hope) is to be the prime minister. Mugabe will remain President, as he refuses to step down. After all he has done to this country, after the high hopes for him (they thought he would be another Nelson Mandela) and the extreme let down -and he refuses to step down. Yet, the country won’t do anything. They are too peaceful to riot, they assume that things will just approve and they don’t seem to try and fight it. And the rest of Africa has paid no attention and has not done anything but sit back and watch. The South African President has finally recognized they need to help, at least financially, proposing to make the South African Rand the common currency but Mugabe has not accepted yet. Desmond Tutu doubts the unity government will work and believes the only solution is to get rid of Mugabe. He is calling the community to use a “threat of force” to get him to step down. But will they?
It’s just awful. We freak out when the US unemployment rate is above, what, like 4%? And here it reached 80%, if not higher. And we complain when the gas prices rise a dollar, when inflation rises a little, but we have no idea. It’s so sad. And it made me really frustrated that I hadn’t heard of this before. How does that happen? How is it that the world is going through so much, suffering through so many different things, and we are not taught it? I feel like I do a pretty good job of searching for world news and trying to keep up, although I don’t seek it out as much as I should, but I still can’t come across something this awful. I just don’t understand why it’s so hard to hear about this. Why isn’t this made a bigger deal? But I could probably say that about so many other things happening. I could say the same thing about Darfur. Or how about Namibia? We were learning about its history and learned about a genocide that killed 250,000-300,000 people. Did yall know about that? Have you ever learned about that? Because I sure haven’t and I am blown away. I was legitimately angry.
This is what I wrote in my art class after I left Global Studies on the day we learned about the Namibian genocide:
“I am really angered by the fact that I have never learned about a genocide that killed 250,000-300,000 Africans in Namibia – nothing ever taught about that. Why? Why don’t we learn these things? I’ve learned about the colonization of Africa, why couldn’t they teach us about this genocide? I am seriously angry, it’s just not right. Isn’t this something we should learn about?
Maybe I did learn it at once but I don’t remember. If this is the case why wasn’t it made to be a bigger deal? I can’t remember, even when I’ve been talking about Namibia for months, and it doesn’t trigger any kind of memory of a genocide- it’s like the genocide going on right now, how long did it take for us to know about it? Does everybody even know about it yet? Why are these things not a bigger deal? Why do we treat them like they don’t matter to us? We learn about things when less people die- what makes those so much more important to us? Why can’t we learn about genocides- they are so important and such a big part of history? And this one is considered the 1st genocide of the 20th century and of the research I did on Namibia before coming on SAS, why didn’t I read about it? Or why didn’t someone know about it when I mentioned I was going there? It just boggles my mind and I am really bothered by it. I just don’t understand why these types of things are hidden from us. And how long until they do matter and we try to help, try to stop it? How long do we continue to let genocide happen while we are alive? Why is it still happening in Africa right now? It makes no sense at all. And I am so angry. I can’t understand why things are the way they are. How do we sit back and let that happen? When do we get involved? How long do we wait before it’s gone too far, it’s become too much? Hasn’t it gone too far already? It’s ridiculous, it really is. And it just pisses me off that we don’t care. Some do, but it’s obviously not enough. And here I am, doing nothing also. I can’t rely on someone else to get it started or to make all the changes. I need to start with me. What can I do? I need to figure it out. I CAN do that. If I’m this angered by it, I have to do something.”
There are so many unanswered questions and I ranted for a good while but you get my point. Now it’s time for a change.
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