I enjoyed reading your post on Zimbabwe. I returned from South Africa 3 weeks ago, traveling through and around Cape Town, Johannesburg, and in the Soutpansberg mountains bordering Zimbabwe.

I, too, was struck by the bone-crushing poverty when touring the villages around Elim, in the remote mountain areas. As a white Westerner, however, I think it’s important to remember I am seeing this through a prism of privilege. Also, I think it’s important not to reduce a country’s problems to a single cause (e.g., a ruthless dictator). [BTW, both of those remarks are just my reflection on my experience, not a commentary on anything you wrote...]

Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is currently on press tour for her new book, “The Challenge for Africa.” I encourage anyone interested in this beautiful country and social justice to check out the Q&A with Wangari on Amazon.com’s website at: http://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Africa-Wangari-Maathai/dp/0307377407

An excerpt: “Quite often in the case of Africa, people will just present one aspect–for example, poverty–without having the time or patience to explain that poverty is manmade and created both by the local leadership and the international community in the way it deals with Africa. A Western person looking at poverty makes a judgment, without understanding that that poverty is partly caused by the way their government is dealing with Africa.”

And thanks for your blog, Chris. The world needs you.

Gail

Quote: (Cabdriver) “Anywhere but here…” His daily life must be an extraordinary grind filled with exceptional bitterness and disappointment.

There is something so very absurd about a million dollar coke. And of course, sad.

This is a very revealing post. You saw the poverty before your own eyes, as a tourist. This is a good reminder on how much work there is to do to help each other.

Nice to meet a Zimbabwean reader, and thank you for your comments. I have tremendous respect for the people there and I really do hope the situation improves soon. (Although sadly, I am not sure it will for a while.)

Thanks to the others as well for your comments – @Kate, @Cheng, @Cheryl, and @Chloe.

@Chloe, yes, the vegetarian thing is often hard to explain in a lot of places in Africa.

Back then we were told Do Not Go To Zambia – we wanted to at least drive over the border for the day and check it out, but everyone said our tires would get stolen in a split second. They also said that if we’d traded a Zimbabwean dollar for Zambian currency we’d need a bucket to carry the loose change. Sounds like their roles have reversed now.

There are a lot of checkpoints in Botswana where we were not allowed to take any meat. They were concerned about mad cow disease. Every few hundred kilometres we were stopped and interrogated. At one veterinary checkpoint the guards asked us if we had any meat, and we said no. They insisted on searching the car. Once they were satisfied that we really had no meat, they asked, ‘But what are you going to have for dinner?!’ They couldn’t believe it. (Couldn’t believe I was a vegetarian, either.)