Monday, August 29, 2005

Now Zimbabwe's blocking aid

The government of Zimbabwe won't let the UN move forward with a fund raising drive to help squatters who were evicted during Operation Murambatsvina, IRIN News reports. "It's hard to understand why we can't help these people. The government disagrees with the wording of the flash appeal, or with our working with certain NGO's, and it disagrees with the numbers [of people affected]," UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland told the independent news agency.

Alongside this, check out this disspiriting fact: The average Zimbabwean can now expect to live to the ripe old age of 33. Back in the 80s, life expectancy in Zimbabwe was 62. The country's 81-year-old president might ponder this as he continues to prevent poor people from having a home in the cities.

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