Out of Africa

A view of AIDS, Politics, and Health in Zimbabwe

opinion by Dr. John Ruhland, Free Press contributor

orruption in government is universal. In Zimbabwe, people warn that speaking out against the government may lead to one's disappearance, but this doesn't prevent them from discussing the corruption of President Mugabe's administration. The consensus is that Mugabe's days are numbered and many think he has lost his mind. First, he spent $50 million dollars daily on a neo-colonial war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo while Zimbabweans were struggling to survive, then he spent millions on a two-week Christmas shopping spree in Europe.

Although Zimbabwe is rich in gold, platinum, and other natural resources, most of the people live in poverty. Foreign companies, with the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, extract the wealth, while those who have jobs often work six ten hour days a week. Before disbursing a loan, the IMF and World Bank require that the government wanting the loan must sell off any publicly-owned businesses or property. To make the interest payments, the IMF and World Bank implement Structural Adjustment Policies (SAP's), which eliminate schools, medical facilities, and other social services, such as programs to improve sanitation and provide clean water. The loan money is disbursed to the government officials, who live comfortably while the majority of people continue in abject poverty. Eventually the leaders die or are exiled. Those who were part of the government typically leave the country with the money they embezzled, while those who remain are stuck with large loans and interest payments.

Because the government has been forced to sell its assets, it has no income other than taxes to pay the interest payments. When the people aren't pushed to their limit by the SAP's, the IMF and World Bank cause the national currency to be devalued in relation to the hard currency the loan must be repaid in. The IMF and World Bank can make a perpetual nation of slaves through continued currency devaluations. Most of the people have no bank accounts or social security, and unemployment is 50 percent.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

People's health greatly suffers from the process described above. Poverty causes disease through malnutrition, a lack of sanitation, and a lack of clean water. Corrupt leaders use the misery as justification to call for international aid in the form of loans or donations. The money comes in, but the people and the health clinics receive little. Statistics in Zimbabwe indicate that 700 people die of AIDS each week. Those with serious but treatable illnesses are turned away from clinics if they are unable to pay for care; when they die, they are added to AIDS statistics. The numbers vary for different countries in Africa, but the pattern is the same.

"Over 70 percent of positive HIV tests are false positives in areas of endemic diseases," UCLA African history professor Dr. Charles Gesheckter said last year in Seattle in a lecture titled "The Myth of AIDS in Africa." AIDS is often diagnosed by the presence of four symptoms: weight loss, persistent cough, diarrhea, and fever. These same symptoms are also caused by simple malnutrition in impoverished areas, exacerbated by TB, cholera, dysentery, malaria, and parasites. Healthcare workers who say that poverty rather than a virus is the main cause of diseases that are attributed to AIDS lose their jobs. After all, corrupt leaders want to assure the influx of aid money, so they demand that everyone play along with the aid agencies and call for international funds to treat AIDS. Money to treat malnutrition is less available than money to treat the current issue emblazoned in minds worldwide by the media-- AIDS. With the exception of H.E.A.L., AIDS advocacy groups in the U.S., such as Act-Up, have been similarly co-opted by drug company funding.

Economic aid to Africa has several purposes. The bottom line is that someone is making a great deal of money. AIDS is used today as hunger was used in the past-- to stimulate public support for sending money to Africa. This is extremely successful, because it is such an emotionally powerful tool to convince caring people to help.

In Zimbabwe, most working people live in townships or ghettoes. Small homes house at least 13 people. Many people survive on corn flour made into a gruel called sadza. For the very poor, this is eaten with sauces or soups three times a day, seven days per week. Eating the same food every day contributes to food allergies and causes a condition in which the white blood cells react to food proteins as if they were foreign invaders. The process is identical to the process producing antibodies against viruses, and is hypothesized to contribute to auto-immune disease. Most of the people in Zimbabwe and other parts of Africa hardly eat enough calories to survive, and they rarely eat vegetables to provide essential nutrients. Malnutrition is perhaps the main reason people's immune systems are unable to fend off illness. Drug use and alcoholism also contribute significantly to disease, and certainly AIDS must be counted among the diseases of Africa.

People are clearly dying, but the cause of their death is blamed on a virus rather than on the true problem. The best way to decrease disease in Africa is to eliminate poverty. The best way to eliminate poverty is for us to stop interfering with other countries' autonomy, and to stop subsidizing companies and those they corrupt, who together rob the resources from the people.