Botswana & Zimbabwe - A Difference In Government Choices

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/botswana/


If this documentary, produced by Bill Moyers, is not an eye opener to the hard of hearts on the self-inflicted wound that is taking place in Zimbawe then there is no hope of ever convicing folks otherwise.

The economy of Zimbabwe is shrinking 5% each year under the policies of Robert Mugabe. A few decades ago it was Botswana that was desperately poor and Zimbabwe that had relatively abundant resources. The blunt policies of Robert Mugabe have reversed their respective fate.

Today thousands of Zimbabweans flood the border of Botswana seeking work and refuge. In the view of Botswana they threaten the stability of their country because of the increase in low wage workers, criminal activity and AIDS. The administration of the system of deportation is also a financial drain on the country.

We have a situation in which a physical land mass that contains effectively the same race of people is partioned into two seperate countries each with differing policies governing them. The stark differences in the effective outcomes of their economic, civil rights and humanitarian conditions comes down to govenment choices that are incompetent rather than antagonistic forces of racism, legacies of colonialism or Western interventionalism.

To be clear - there is no doubt that on a macro level the legacy of colonialism is a factor in the overall condition of the entire region. This plus the geographic conditions of arid lands make a difficult situation even worse. Still this legacy does not explain the continuing change in fortunes between these two countries.

It is time for the leaders of neighborhing African countries to pressure Mugabe for reform. Their own countries are being impacted by this influx of people seeking to escape the economic collapse and political oppression in Zimbawe.

In the closing interview the African expert blames the situation on the reluctance of certain African leaders to yield power for the best interests of their own people.