Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe

What Robert Mugabe's rule in Zimbabwe has meant is described in graphic detail by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert:

If you want to see hell on earth, go to Zimbabwe where the madman Robert Mugabe has brought the country to such a state of ruin that medical care for most of the inhabitants has all but ceased to exist.

Life expectancy in Zimbabwe is now the lowest in the world: 37 years for men and 34 for women. A cholera epidemic is raging. People have become ill with anthrax after eating the decaying flesh of animals that had died from the disease. Power was lost to the morgue in the capital city of Harare, leaving the corpses to rot.

Most of the world is ignoring the agony of Zimbabwe, a once prosperous and medically advanced nation in southern Africa that is suffering from political and economic turmoil — and the brutality of Mugabe’s long and tyrannical reign.

The decline in health services over the past year has been staggering. An international team of doctors that conducted an “emergency assessment” of the state of medical care last month seemed stunned by the catastrophe they witnessed. The team was sponsored by Physicians for Human Rights. In their report, released this week, the doctors said:

“The collapse of Zimbabwe’s health system in 2008 is unprecedented in scale and scope. Public-sector hospitals have been shuttered since November 2008. The basic infrastructure for the maintenance of public health, particularly water and sanitation services, have abruptly deteriorated in the worsening political and economic climate.”

Mugabe's "One Man, One Vote"

Not surprisingly, Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe won a one candidate election by garnering 85% of the vote. According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, voter turnout was 42.7% with Mugabe receiving 2,150,269 votes, Morgan Tsvangirai 233,000, and 131,481 spoiled ballots. The latter no doubt cast by those courageous enough to register their displeasure with Mugabe and his sham election.

Mugabe's God

According to the beleaguered Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, "Only God, who appointed me, will remove me - not the MDC, not the British. Only God will remove me." This is the all too familiar "With God on our side" trope, frequently played by religious charlatans, pandering politicians, and doddering dictators who find themselves in desperate straits with few viable options.