Monday, December 8, 2008

Zimbabwe blames Europe for Cholera Outbreak

Cholera — a disease spread primarily by insanitary conditions and easily combated by simple hygiene — has been blamed on Europe by Zimbabwe’s state controlled media.
The outbreak of the disease which has claimed nearly 600 lives, was blamed by Zimbabwe’s Sunday Mail newspaper on “European sanctions.”
“The cholera outbreak is a clear example of the effects of sanctions on innocent people,” it said in its editorial.
“All the victims (of cholera) are as a result of the freezing of balance of payments support, depriving the country of foreign currency required to buy chemicals to treat our drinking water.”
In reality, however, there are no economic sanctions on Zimbabwe, despite the overtly anti-white and murderous nature of its government (once hailed as a bastion of peace and democracy by the crazed far left) and its version of democracy a la African style. The only sanctions which exist are personal restrictions on top-ranking individuals within the Zimbabwe government.
The EU’s sanctions list contains 168 members of the Zimbabwe regime, including Mugabe and his wife Grace, who are banned from entering EU nations and whose European assets have been frozen.
Ironically, some three years ago Zimbabwe begged Britain for help in dealing with the cholera epidemic. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown responded by promising at least £8 million in assistance, despite the fact that the disease, spread by ingestion of faecal-contaminated food or water, is easily containable by basic hygiene.
“Our central hospitals are literally not working,” David Parirenyatwa, Zimbabwe’s Health Minister said at the time. “Our staff are de-motivated and we need your support to ensure that they start coming to work and our health system is revived.”
Britain currently provides foreign aid to the value of £40 million a year to Zimbabwe.

No comments: