www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, July 2002
Our Life and Times column by Kevin A. Barry
Southern Africa famineThe specter of famine looms over six countries of
southern Africa: Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
These countries, with a combined population of over 50 million, have seen their
food stocks dwindle, with seven million now facing starvation. Many more,
weakened by AIDS, are extremely vulnerable. How could this be happening in countries that have some
of the world's richest farmland? Climate changes caused by global warming have
resulted in a two-year drought punctuated by occasional floods, which has
devastated crops. The impact of globalized industrial capitalism is clear. Local ruling classes have played no small role in bringing about the crisis, however. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has disrupted agriculture by instigating a near civil war to intimidate the democratic opposition. The corrupt and authoritarian governments of Zimbabwe and neighboring Malawi also took the disastrous step of selling off their countries' emergency grain reserves, by some reports allowing corrupt officials to pocket the profits. |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
