Not China

Probably you folks know that Google (host of this blog) and Yahoo released user-files to Chinese security agents—with devastating results for dissidents who had been using those Internet services. For that reason somebody (yes, I mean you, Vivian) may be concerned that I could get into trouble for expressing my opinions about the state of “things” in Zimbabwe. But, for three reasons, I’m not worried. First, I’m not going to write much about politics. Second, this material is actually posted in the USA—and not by me—from a South Carolina state institution, where freedom of expression is flat-out guaranteed. And third, however tight things may be here, Zimbabwe is not China. This country was founded upon the premise that freedom and law actually matter. Although it may be a bit tarnished, that tradition definitely survives.

Here’s why I shan’t write much about politics. First of all, I’m an ex-pat Ag-school teacher whose main interests are snakes and frogs. Second—well, most of you know how I feel about George W. Bush. I mean, I resent a President who caroused his way through my alma mater and who shows no apparent sympathy for the environmental stewardship policies of the United Methodist Church (of which Mr. Bush and I are both members). Still, I would not want some ignorant foreigner, with less than two years on American soil, to trash our only President without doing even ten minutes of serious study. As an ignorant foreigner myself, enjoying Zimbabwe’s hospitality, I feel no inclination to insult my hosts by criticizing their country or its politics. The leadership of the current president has been hurtful to many individuals and has probably damaged this nation’s welfare, but the man clearly loves his country, and to blame all of Zimbabwe’s woes on him is pure foolishness. I have already admitted that I’m not very good at praying, but Mr. Mugabe has been in my prayers for quite some time. I would take no pleasure in his distress.

During my c. 15 months in Zimbabwe, I have not put in my “ten minutes of serious study” about national politics. Therefore, I have learned little about the country’s socio-political realities. Nevertheless, I have observed that news media in the Northern Hemisphere sometimes overstate Zimbabwe’s troubles. For example, I once read that HIV infects > 30% of Zimbabwe’s population. As a biologist who had glimpsed the age structure of Zimbabwe’s people, I fretted over this figure and wondered whether such an infection-rate was even possible. Eventually I was fortunate enough to meet the physician-scientist upon whose careful research this ridiculous number was supposedly based. He said that the actual data indicated that about 25% of women who had recently borne children were positive for HIV. Perhaps, my researcher-friend said, the overall infection rate was between 10% and 20%. That’s still horribly high, but it does not approach the one-in-three holocaust so publicly presented by the media. In my opinion, Zimbabwe’s level of social unrest may also be exaggerated by the news people. When I was here in 2000, the New York Times ran a brief note that reported bread riots in Mutare. As a result, I received frantic emails inquiring about my survival. I had actually witnessed the Mutare “riots”; I would have termed them “a moderately loud argument.” Indeed, I considered them about as life-threatening (and about as interesting) as a Wofford faculty meeting.

I do not suggest that Zimbabwe is a prefect country (back in 1993 I had naively believed that she might be headed in that direction): if the Army has to monitor a bread-line, then something is seriously wrong. And I don’t think I’d want to swap Presidents with this place—though I would give the offer some consideration. But I would like to suggest that Zimbabwe’s critics (many of whom are far wiser and more knowledgeable than I) should meditate upon the roles that drought and history and international policies have played in creating her current plight.