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I know very little about Zimbabwe...
After watching this video, smuggled out of the country after last months demonstrations by Trade Unionists on September 13, doing a few brief searches, and a small amount of reading, I know a little more.
I know that Zimbabwe is a country in terminal decline. That it has the highest HIV rates in the world, with malnutrition at very high levels, and that 3000 people die every week. 80% of its population are unemployed, and life-expectancy is 37 for men, and 34 for women. The lowest in the world.
I know also that the country is in the grip of a vicious economic crisis and that inflation has spiraled to 1200%. Many hundreds of thousands of people are now homeless, hungry, and desperate.
The countries President Robert Mugabe has been in power for 26 years, he praises the actions of the Police engaging in the extra-judicial beatings shown in this video footage.
Finally I know that the kind of treatment handed out to these people is both commonplace, and deeply offensive. That if help is not found, or action taken, it will continue to unravel, with even more horrifying and terrible consequences for the suffering people of that country, and the Continental region of Africa as a whole.
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