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Zimbabwe's children become refugees

It is said we live in a civilised world. It is difficult to accept the proposition given the mayhem, bloodshed, wanton destruction and the consequences of some country's leaders around the globe. Think the latest Israeli "episode" in Gaza, Darfur, Myanmar and Zimbabwe to name but a few.

It is a sorry reflection on the world that in it continues to allow a country like Zimbabwe, with its mad President Mugabe, to go to rack and ruin. Cholera is now rampant, people are starving and lawlessness is rife. There simply is no economy. Is it perhaps that because Zimbabwe is in Africa that the world simply averts its eyes? Whatever the reason, one can only feel for the children of the country, as this piece in the IHT highlights:

"With their nation in a prolonged sequence of crises, more unaccompanied children and women than ever are joining the rush of desperate Zimbabweans illegally crossing the frontier at the Limpopo River, according to the police, local officials and aid workers.

What they are escaping is a broken country where half the people are going hungry, most schools and hospitals are closed or dysfunctional and a cholera epidemic has taken a toll in the thousands. Yet they are arriving in a place where they are unwelcome and are resented as rivals for jobs. Last year, Zimbabweans were part of the quarry in a spate of mob attacks against foreigners.

For those in the know, crossing the border can be a simple chore, a bribe paid on one side and a second bribe on the other. But for the uninitiated and the destitute, the journey is as uncertain as the undercurrents of the Limpopo and the appetites of the crocodiles."

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