Life/Death and a Morsel of Goat Meat

Life and Death
and “A Morsel of Goat Meat”
March 27th, 2005

Recovering from bronchitis this week I had plenty of time in between the recovery naps to watch much more TV than I’m accustomed to. The whole week has been an endless media barrage of debate of Terrie Schiavo’s right to “life” or “death.” While I may have some opinions on these issues, I certainly have no judgment of the family members involved.
Also this week on Thursday, 24th, I waited all day for my brother Zeke to be returned to ICU at Wayne Memorial Hospital --- after the surgeon rendering him inoperable to remove a malignant lung cancer. The doctor’s prognosis, with radiation and chemotherapy treatment, gives Zeke life of two to three years. Zeke is only eighteen months my senior. So this week I’ve had plenty of time to reflect on life and death matters – reminding me again of how short a time we come here to be on this earth. What will I (we) do with that time?
In reflecting on all these matters a thought occurred: What if the same extraordinary mass of energy generated by the citizenry, media, politico, and judiciary put into the Terri Schiavo case could be focused on the plight of humanity in third-world countries? On a daily basis, families face real “life and death” issues when heart-wrenching decisions are made as to which family members get crumbs or maybe a little corn porridge to stave off starvation.
Little attention is being given to the appalling conditions of third-world nations where thousands die daily of civil conflict and starvation. NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, OP-ED COLUMNIST, makes it his business to cover theses troubled areas of the world. His timely article attached, A Morsel of Goat Meat, focuses on the appalling conditions in Zimbabwe. It’s timely because Greg Jenks a local Methodist minister who founded Zoe Ministry (http://www.zoeministry.org/) will in the next few days lead another team to serve Zimbabwean children. On this trip our Centenary UMC Youth Minister, Jay Locklear, will assist in serving orphaned kids from AIDS deceased parents.
Kristof, in his travel of Zimbabwe has captured a unique insight into the economic conditions and dilemma of many Zimbabwean families. I hope you will take the time to read, get a glimpse, and feel empathy to positively witness for effective change --- for the sanctity of life. Copied here is an excerpt from the article:

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“I can't put Isaac Mungombe out of my mind. He's sick, probably dying of AIDS, and his family is down to one meal a day. His wife, Jane, gave birth to their third child, Amos, six months ago at home because she couldn't afford $2 to give birth in the hospital. No one in the family has shoes, and the children can't afford to attend school. They're a wonderful, loving family, and we chatted for a long time - but Isaac and Jane will probably soon die of AIDS, and the children will join the many other orphans in the village.”
‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’
March 23, 2005
OP-ED COLUMNIST - NY Times A Morsel of Goat Meat
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

inga, Zimbabwe — The hungry children and the families dying of AIDS here are gut-wrenching, but somehow what I find even more depressing is this: Many, many ordinary black Zimbabweans wish that they could get back the white racist government that oppressed them in the 1970's.
If we had the chance to go back to white rule, we'd do it," said Solomon Dube, a peasant whose child was crying with hunger when I arrived in his village. "Life was easier then, and at least you could get food and a job." Mr. Dube acknowledged that the white regime of Ian Smith was awful. But now he worries that his 3-year-old son will die of starvation, and he would rather put up with any indignity than witness that.
An elderly peasant in another village, Makupila Muzamba, said that hunger today is worse than ever before in his seven decades or so, and said: "I want the white man's government to come back. ... Even if whites were oppressing us, we could get jobs and things were cheap compared to today."
His wife, Mugombo Mudenda, remembered that as a younger woman she used to eat meat, drink tea, use sugar and buy soap. But now she cannot even afford corn gruel. "I miss the days of white rule," she said.
Nearly every peasant I've spoken to in Zimbabwe echoed those thoughts, although it's also clear that some still hail President Robert Mugabe as a liberator. This is a difficult place to gauge the mood in, because foreign reporters are barred from Zimbabwe and promised a prison sentence of up to two years if caught. I sneaked in at Victoria Falls and traveled around the country pretending to be a tourist.
The human consequences of the economic collapse are heartbreaking. I visited a hospital and a clinic that lacked both medicines and doctors. Children die routinely for want of malaria medication that costs just a few dollars.
At one maternity ward, 21 women were sitting outside, waiting to give birth. No nurse or doctor was in sight, and I asked the women when they had last eaten meat, eggs or other protein. They laughed uproariously. Lilian Dube, a 24-year-old who had hiked 11 miles to get to the hospital, said that she had celebrated Christmas with a morsel of goat meat.
"Before that, the last time I had meat was Christmas the year before," she said. "I just eat corn porridge and mnyi," a kind of wild fruit.
An elementary school I visited had its fifth graders meeting outside, because it doesn't have enough classrooms. Like other schools, it raises money by charging fees for all students - driving pupils away.
"Only a few of the kids who started in grade one are still with me in school," Charity Sibanda, a fifth-grader, told me. "Some dropped out because they couldn't pay school fees. And some died of AIDS."
As many as a third of working-age Zimbabweans have AIDS or H.I.V., and every 15 minutes a Zimbabwean child dies of AIDS. Partly because of AIDS, life expectancy has dropped over the last 15 years from 61 to 34, and 160,000 Zimbabwean children will lose a parent this year.
AIDS is not President Mugabe's fault, but the collapse of the health system has made the problem far worse.
The West has often focused its outrage at Mr. Mugabe's seizure of farms from white landowners, but that is tribalism on our part. The greatest suffering by far is among black Zimbabweans.
I can't put Isaac Mungombe out of my mind. He's sick, probably dying of AIDS, and his family is down to one meal a day. His wife, Jane, gave birth to their third child, Amos, six months ago at home because she couldn't afford $2 to give birth in the hospital. No one in the family has shoes, and the children can't afford to attend school. They're a wonderful, loving family, and we chatted for a long time - but Isaac and Jane will probably soon die of AIDS, and the children will join the many other orphans in the village.
When a white racist government was oppressing Zimbabwe, the international community united to demand change. These days, a black racist government is harming the people of Zimbabwe more than ever, and the international community is letting Mr. Mugabe get away with it. Our hypocrisy is costing hundreds of Zimbabwean lives every day. E-mail: nicholas@nytimes.com