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The following is a video clip of a film obtained by Britain's Guardian Newspaper group which shows the vote-rigging and violence leading up to Zimbabwe's election run-off.
A generation from now, when historians look back at today's events in Zimbabwe, one thing will be very clear. It will be evident that if Zimbabwe was an oil rich nation instead of an agricultural one, it would have been included on George Bush's "Axis of Evil" and the world's super-powers would have intervened in its government years ago.
Instead the world has all but ignored an organized and emerging democratic opposition party and allowed Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe and his military leader Constantine Chiwenga to continue murdering and terrorizing people, thumbing their nose at the world and, utterly ruining the nation which was once known as "Africa's breadbasket" and "the jewel of Africa."1 Historians will note, what even today's casual observer can recognize, that the reign of Robert Mugabe has been as harsh and as cruel as that of Saddam Hussein. In fact, Robert Mugabe's dictatorship made be judged to be the worst of the too. Because, while it is true that Saddam and his son's were ruthles and inhumanly cruel to those who opposed them, Iraq as a whole was still an economically thriving nation. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, is in virtual ruins. As Craig Timberg reported in his Wasington Post article, "Inside Mugabe's Violent Crackdown", the process of democracy never really stood a chance during Zimbabwe's recent election. Timberg's article also leaves you wondering just who is really running the Mugabe regime.
The following is an excerpt from that article:
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- President Robert Mugabe summoned his top security officials to a government training center near his rural home in central Zimbabwe on the afternoon of March 30. In a voice barely audible at first, he informed the leaders of the state security apparatus that had enforced his rule for 28 years that he had lost the presidential vote held the previous day.
Then Mugabe told the gathering he planned to give up power in a televised speech to the nation the next day, according to the written notes of one participant that were corroborated by two other people with direct knowledge of the meeting.
But Zimbabwe's military chief, Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, responded that the choice was not Mugabe's alone to make. According to two firsthand accounts of the meeting, Chiwenga told Mugabe his military would take control of the country to keep him in office or the president could contest a runoff election, directed in the field by senior army officers supervising a military-style campaign against the opposition.
Mugabe, the only leader this country has known since its break from white rule nearly three decades ago, agreed to remain in the race and rely on the army to ensure his victory. During an April 8 military planning meeting, according to written notes and the accounts of participants, the plan was given a code name: CIBD. The acronym, which proved apt in the fevered campaign that unfolded over the following weeks, stood for: Coercion. Intimidation. Beating. Displacement.
In the three months between the March 29 vote and the June 27 runoff election, ruling-party militias under the guidance of 200 senior army officers battered the Movement for Democratic Change, bringing the opposition party's network of activists to the verge of oblivion. By election day, more than 80 opposition supporters were dead, hundreds were missing, thousands were injured and hundreds of thousands were homeless. Morgan Tsvangirai, the party's leader, dropped out of the contest and took refuge in the Dutch Embassy.
This account reveals previously undisclosed details of the strategy behind the campaign as it was conceived and executed by Mugabe and his top advisers, who from that first meeting through the final vote appeared to hold decisive influence over the president.
The Washington Post was given access to the written record by a participant of several private meetings attended by Mugabe in the period between the first round of voting and the runoff election. The notes were corroborated by witnesses to the internal debates. Many of the people interviewed, including members of Mugabe's inner circle, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of government retribution. Much of the reporting for this article was conducted by a Zimbabwean reporter for The Post whose name is being withheld for security reasons.
What emerges from these accounts is a ruling inner circle that debated only in passing the consequences of the political violence on the country and on international opinion. Mugabe and his advisers also showed little concern in these meetings for the most basic rules of democracy that have taken hold in some other African nations born from anti-colonial independence movements.
Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, took power in 1980 after a protracted guerrilla war. The notes and interviews make clear that its military supporters, who stood to lose wealth and influence if Mugabe bowed out, were not prepared to relinquish their authority simply because voters checked Tsvangirai's name on the ballots.
By Amy Kazmin Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, June 7, 2008; A11
BANGKOK, June 6 -- In the weeks after Tropical Cyclone Nargis battered Burma's Irrawaddy Delta, Burma's most famous comedian -- a dentist known by his stage name, Zarganar, or "Tweezers" -- spearheaded efforts by about 400 Burmese artists to collect and distribute food, mosquito nets, blankets and other supplies to destitute survivors.
His initiative was one of many spontaneous private operations by concerned Rangoon residents -- including businesspeople, students, monks and local journalists -- that brought some measure of help to cyclone victims as U.N. agencies struggled with Burma's military government to get aid into the devastated region.
Long known for sharp comic jibes at the military rulers, Zarganar also spoke publicly in stark terms about the inadequacy of their cyclone relief effort, the physical difficulties and psychological trauma of the victims and the appalling conditions in the delta.
On Wednesday night, Zarganar was taken into custody by Burmese authorities, who insist that the relief phase of the emergency is over. The state-owned New Light of Myanmar newspaper, meanwhile, lashed out at "unscrupulous" elements that it said were exaggerating the problems in the delta.
Human rights groups say the detention of the high-profile figure and the effort to gloss over the extent of the disaster highlight the precedence Burma's rulers are giving to political concerns at the expense of the welfare of an estimated 2.5 million cyclone victims.
"By detaining him, it sends a message of real intimidation to people who the regime thinks could use the humanitarian disaster for political purposes," said Benjamin Zawacki, a researcher with Amnesty International.
More than a month after the cyclone hit, more than 1 million survivors, especially in remote, hard-to-reach areas of the delta, have received no assistance as they try to rebuild their lives, the United Nations says
The Zimbabwean government’s campaign of violence and intimidation against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has extinguished anychance of a free and fair presidential runoff on June 27, 2008, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.
Human Rights Watch urged the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to use its influence and push President Robert Mugabe to take immediate steps to end the violence and hold those responsible to account.
The 69-page report, "'Bullets for Each of You': State-Sponsored Violence since Zimbabwe’s March 29 Elections,” documents numerous incidents of abductions, beatings, torture, and killings by officials and supporters of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the armed forces and police, “war veterans,” and youth militia against MDC activists and perceived MDC supporters. Human Rights Watch has confirmed at least 36 politically motivated deaths and 2,000 victims of violence. The report also examines the Zimbabwean government’s role in perpetrating and inciting the violence for political gain, and its failure to end the violence and prosecute those responsible. Human Rights Watch researchers conducted more than 70 interviews with victims and eyewitnesses to the violence since March in all 10 provinces of Zimbabwe.
“Since the runoff was announced the violence in Zimbabwe has gotten even worse,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Zimbabweans can’t vote freely if they fear their vote may get them killed.”
ZANU-PF and its allies are also engaged in a politically motivated campaign of looting and destruction, slaughtering animals, stealing food and property, and burning down homesteads. “War veterans” and youth militia have set up roadblocks and taken control of huge swathes of the countryside in order to limit the flow of information on the extent of the violence and to punish those perceived to have voted for the MDC. The government has also ordered all local and international nongovernmental organizations to suspend their operations in Zimbabwe, accusing them of politicizing aid distribution.
Watch the BBCNews report on the International aid agencies warning of disaster after Zimbabwe's government ordered them to stop work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxbCUV-CZBw
A Chinese ship carrying 77 tonnes of weapons bound for Zimbabwe has been recalled, China's foreign ministry has said. The decision comes after South African port workers refused to unload the vessel, the An Yue Jiang, reported to be carrying thousands of rounds of ammunition rockets and mortar bombs among its cargo. Zambia, which chairs the Southern African Development Community grouping, had urged other regional states to also bar the ship from entering their waters, saying the arms could deepen Zimbabwe's election crisis and be used in a crackdown on the opposition. Earlier this week the US state department expressed concerns that the arms "could be used against individuals who are merely trying to freely express their political will".
Commenting on the shipment at a regular foreign ministry press briefing in Beijing, spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the decision had been taken by the Chinese company involved to recall the vessel.
She said the shipment was completely legal and fell within the established norms of international trade.
China has been under pressure to use its close relations with Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, to help mediate in the election crisis.
However William Hess, country manager for China with the consultancy company, Global Insight, said such pressure runs against a key pillar of Chinese foreign policy - not to interfere in domestic political issues of other countries.
Officials from Mugabe's Zanu-PF have said Zimbabwe has a sovereign right to defend itself and buy weapons from "any legitimate source worldwide".
"I don't understand all this hullabaloo about a lone ship," Patrick Chinamasa, the country's justice minister, said in Harare this week.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has approved legislation giving local owners the right to take a majority share of foreign companies.
Mr Mugabe's formal approval of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill comes three weeks ahead of his country's presidential elections.
Under the legislation, every company must have at least 51% of their shares owned by black Zimbabweans. If not, the government will block new investment, mergers or restructuring. The new law means some of the country's biggest businesses - such as the mining giant, Rio Tinto, and Barclays Bank - will have to find local partners.
The bill will give black Zimbabweans the power to share in the wealth of their country, according to Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Mr Mugabe's information minister.
"It is an historic economic empowerment bill that has been signed," Mr Ndlovu told the BBC. "It is the first of its kind in the whole of Africa."
But to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, the law is a cynical attempt to buy public support ahead of elections scheduled for 29 March.
And rather than helping the economy, independent economists suggest the new law is likely to cripple foreign investment badly need to help stem the country's inflation, which is now officially running at more than 100,000%
This year, more than 50 million new TVs will be purchased. Flat screens, high-definition plasmas and LCDs -- Americans buy more than anyone else.
But have you ever wondered what happens when you throw away an old TV? You put it in the trash or out on the street and then what happens?
You won't believe the answer.
Chances are your old TV will end up on the other side of the world in Africa or Asia. Once there, workers strip out any useful metals and other components and then set the pile on fire to make room for more waste on the next barge. You can't imagine the scene as black smoke full of dangerous chemicals fills the sky and pollutes the water supply.
TVs are often the center of American households -- but on the other side of the world, they're creating an environmental and health crisis that can't be ignored any longer.
Today, Just 12 percent of electronic waste in the U.S. is recycled. Other first-world countries, including all of the European Union, Japan, and Taiwan require manufacturers to collect and recycle their old products, but here, TV manufacturers are not held responsible at all. That needs to change.
Join the Take Back My TV campaign today by sending a letter to the executives of TV manufacturers telling them to take responsibility for their hazardous waste:
Each one of those millions of TVs headed for the garbage contains large quantities of dangerous chemicals. Older cathode ray tube TVs contain between four and eight pounds of lead apiece, and newer flat-panel TVs contain high levels of mercury. When TVs get dumped into landfills, these chemicals seep into the surrounding soil and water supplies. Just 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury can contaminate a 20-acre lake and make its fish unfit to eat.
The problem is only getting worse. Soon, an FCC-mandated transition to digital TV signals will make millions more TVs obsolete, and Americans will begin discarding them even more quickly.
TV manufacturers have a responsibility to help deal with this waste safely. They earn billions of dollars off these electronics, so they must play a major role in their disposal.
Sony has already committed to the first television take-back program in the United States. That's a major step in the right direction, but the rest of the TV manufacturers have resisted the producer responsibility movement in favor of programs that shift the burden to consumers.
Tell these TV makers to help safely dispose of their products:
Most of the Shortfall Will Hit Peacekeeping Missions in Africa By JUSTIN ROOD
Feb. 12, 2008—
On the eve of President Bush's trip to Africa, his administration has decided to drastically cut money for United Nations peacekeeping missions in war-torn countries there.
According to White House figures quietly released this week, more than $193 million for U.N. troops would be cut for missions in Liberia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire and elsewhere. A State Department official who would not be named confirmed to ABC News Monday that the cuts could be even worse.
For the record, State Department officials disputed cuts would be as deep as what the administration's documents showed.
"We don't yet know what the overall [funding] figure is for 2009," said State Department spokeswoman Jessica Simon. Though its official budget says funding will be cut, the administration may ask Congress for more money through a supplemental bill later this year, she explained.
"America's reputation and standing are not helped when we call and vote for -- but don't pay our fair share of -- new and bigger U.N. peacekeeping operations in places like Darfur and Chad," Deborah Derrick, executive director of the Better World Campaign, told ABC News. "Great nations pay their bills."
Derrick's group and others say the administration's figures understate the cuts. Because the United States has already been underfunding U.N. peacekeeping operations, next year's belt-tightening will actually mean the U.S. government will fail to pay more than $600 million it will owe.
More than $500 million of that shortfall will hit peacekeeping projects on the African continent, according to BWC and Refugees International, which conducted the study.
But privately, a State Department official said that no one could say whether there would be peacekeeping money included in any supplemental, and added that if spending this year increases, the shortfall in next year's spending could appear even more dramatic.
The U.N. did not respond to a request for comment.
Year after year, the United States has failed to pay its assessed share of dues for U.N. peacekeeping efforts -- so-called "blue-helmet" missions to pacify hotspots that might otherwise require U.S. military intervention, as politicians from both parties have noted. Total arrears are now nearly $1.2 billion, the advocacy groups said.
News of the proposed cuts come at an inconvenient time for the White House, which is preparing for a rare seven-day trip to Africa beginning Friday. In preparation for the visit, White House officials have presented the image that, as one unnamed official recently told a reporter, "The president really cares about Africa."
With so much attention being paid to the US presidential election campaign and the precarious global economy, it's easy to let other important stories slip into the shadows. However, all too often the story that you choose to ignore today becomes the crisis that you can't ignore tomorrow.
So on the eve of the South Carolina Democratic Presidential Primary here are a few excerpts of news items from Thursday's UN Daily News which should help us keep perspective.
AT WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, BAN KI-MOON PLEDGES ACTION ON WATER RESOURCES
Cautioning that a shortage of water resources could spell increased conflicts in the future, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos today that the United Nations will take action to address the problem in the context of reaching global anti-poverty targets.
“Our experiences tell us that environmental stress, due to lack of water, may lead to conflict, and would be greater in poor nations,” Mr. Ban told leaders from governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, industry, academia and the arts attending the annual meeting in Davos.
“Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon,” he warned.
The Secretary-General cited a recent report by International Alert identifying 46 countries, home to 2.7 billion people, where climate change and water-related crises create a high risk of violent conflict. A further 56 countries, representing another 1.2 billion people, are at high risk of political instability, according to the study.
“This is not an issue of rich or poor, north or south,” he said, pointing to examples of water problems in China, the United States, Spain, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Republic of Korea. “All regions are experiencing the problem.”
The Secretary-General emphasized that water resources must be protected. “There is still enough water for all of us – but only so long as we keep it clean, use it more wisely, and share it fairly,” he said.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which call for halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015, are key to this effort, he said.
Mr. Ban announced that he would gather world leaders at the UN this September “for a critical high-level meeting on the MDGs, focusing in particular on Africa.”
While emphasizing that “governments must engage and lead,” he said the private sector also has a role to play in this effort.
* * * * *
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL CALLS FOR END TO ISRAELI RESTRICTIONS ON GAZA STRIP
The United Nations Human Rights Council today called for immediate international action to force Israel to allow fuel, food, medicine and other essential items to be sent to the Gaza Strip, to reopen the border crossings and to end its “grave violations” in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The statement passed by a roll-call vote of 30 in favour with Canada voting against it and 15 countries abstaining, following a special session that began yesterday. In it, the Council expressed its deep concern about “the series of incessant and repeated Israeli military attacks and incursions,” which it said had killed and injured many Palestinian civilians.
The resolution demanded “that the occupying Power, Israel, lift immediately the siege it has imposed on the occupied Gaza Strip, restore continued supply of fuel, food and medicine and reopen the border crossings.”
* * * * *
UN AGENCY RELOCATES KENYAN REFUGEES IN UGANDA
As security conditions deteriorate in Kenya, the United Nations refugee agency is in the process of relocating an estimated 6,500 refugees who fled across the border to Uganda to a transit centre farther inland.
Hundreds of refugees have already been transported by bus from the border towns of Busia and Malaba to a centre at Mulanda, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said, as part of a five-day relocation operation.
Many of the Kenyan refugees "carried plastic bags containing the meagre possessions they were able to salvage before being chased from their homes in post-election violence across the border in Kenya," the agency said.
By Wednesday, some 200 tents provided by UNHCR had been erected at the transit centre in readiness for the refugees, with another 300 being prepared. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) installed water tanks at the site.
Registered refugees will receive ration cards which entitle them to food, basic household commodities and other services at the transit centre.
Many of the refugees had been living at schools, with women and children quartered in classrooms and men sleeping in tents.
But others who are staying with relatives and friends "may not move to Mulanda because they prefer to stay close to the border where they can closely follow developments taking place on the other side," said a UNHCR official who travelled. She added that they were anxious to return home, put their children back in school and rebuild their lives.
In contrast, many of those moving to Mulanda on Wednesday were expecting to be there for some time. "I have nowhere else to go. We plan to stay here for some months as we decide what to do next," said Rahab Wanjiru, a dealer in electronic goods in Busia, which straddles the border.
Her shop was set ablaze by drunken youths as they hunted down people from Wanjiru's ethnic group after the results of the 30 December presidential poll were announced, sparking violence that has left hundreds dead.
* * * * *
OVER 120,000 DISPLACED BY FLOODING IN SOUTHERN AFRICA – UN
The number of people displaced by recent flooding in southern Africa has nearly doubled in less than a week from 70,000 to more than 120,000, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today.
Unusually early torrential rains in the Zambezi river basin led to widespread flooding in Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in recent weeks.
UN agencies and their partners are continuing to assist flood victims in the affected areas. In anticipation of this year’s rainy season, emergency supplies, including shelter and non-food items, had already been pre-positioned in several strategic locations in flood-prone areas.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is continuing to deliver food via helicopter to a resettlement centre in Mozambique that houses roughly 13,000 people. The agency has also provided Mozambican authorities with three boats to assist in rescue and evacuation operations and some people are stranded in areas that cannot be reached by road. Some parts of three provinces – Tete, Sofala and Manica – are now inaccessible by land.
This is the second time in a year that central Mozambique has been hit hard by floods. Since January last year, when the Zambezi valley was inundated, WFP has provided relief assistance to about 190,000 people.
Earlier today, CSPAN broadcast a discussion between former US Vice Pres. and recent Nobel Peace Prize recipient Al Gore, musician and activist Bono and, New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist, Thomas Friedman on the interrelationship between the efforts to end global poverty and the urgent need to address the climate change crisis.
The broadcast entitled "Poverty and Global Climate Change" was from a session held during the Annual Meeting 2008 of the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. Unfortunately, I was unaware of the broadcast before it aired and at the time of it's broadcast I was experiencing a temporary internet outage. However, I am certain that at some point this program will be either rebroadcast on C-SPAN or on another outlet such as FORATv or YouTube. If you are interested in the subjects of world poverty or climate change and have the opportunity to watch this discussion I highly recommend it.
Activists have been overwhelmingly responsive to the rallying cry of 'save Darfur' since the conflict there arose. However, Darfur is not the only battleground in this conflict. Many families who used to call Darfur home, have fled into neighboring Chad and CAR in a desperate attempt to find refuge. Tragically, they have met the same violence there that they tried to escape in Darfur. Thousands upon thousands of Dafuri, Central African and Chadian displaced persons struggle to survive in the midst of continual armed conflict.
The UN Security Council recently approved plans for the deployment of the UN mission in Chad and CAR, to work closely with a recently approved EU peacekeeping force. This mission is expected to have the authority to take all necessary measures to protect civilians. However, planning to protect civilians in Chad and CAR is not the same as protecting civilians in Chad and CAR. Send an email to the UN Security Council urging swift deployment of the UN multidimensional force.
Families have crossed borders in search of better lives for their sons than to become child soldiers and higher hopes for their daughters than the daily risk of rape. Don’t let them think that their last chance at a better life is destroyed at the borders that they were forced to cross.
A Darfur rebel group has claimed it has attacked a Sudanese oilfield in the Kordofan region, taking a Canadian and an Iraqi oil worker hostage.
The group, the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), said it attacked the facility, run by a Chinese-led consortium in the Defra oilfield.
Jem said its action was a message to China to stop helping the Sudanese government with their war in Darfur.
China is a major investor in the energy industry in Africa.
But it has faced some criticism for maintaining close links with the Sudanese government in Khartoum as international concern over the situation in Darfur has continued to rise.
The Canadians and the Iraqi both worked on the oilfield run by the Chinese-led consortium, the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company in Sudan's Defra oilfield.
Eleven of Zimbabwe's remaining white farmers are to go on trial for defying a state eviction order after losing a bid to have the charges thrown out.
The magistrate in Chegatu, north-west of Harare, reportedly accused the farmers of delaying tactics and ordered them to leave their land immediately.
A white farmers' group said the ruling was a "farce" and accused authorities of failing to follow due process.
Fewer than 400 white farmers are thought to remain in Zimbabwe.
The seizure of some 4,000 white-owned farms has seen a collapse in Zimbabwe's agricultural production.
Notices ignored
The farmers appeared in court on Thursday, having failed to respect a 30 September deadline to leave their properties, reported the news agency AFP.
Their lawyer, David Drury, put forward two arguments: first, that the charges of defying the government eviction order should be thrown out; second, that if not, the case should be referred to the Supreme Court because it touched on constitutional issues.
Severe flooding across Africa has wrecked hundreds of thousands of homes and left many people vulnerable to water-borne diseases, officials say.
Scores of people have died and much of the continent's most fertile farmland has been washed away in what is being described as a humanitarian disaster.
The UN said more rain was expected and warned that the need for food, shelter and medicine was urgent.
Some 17 countries have been affected in West, Central and East Africa.
( These include: Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda )
UN spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said: "The rains are set to continue and we are really concerned because a lot of people are homeless and infectious diseases could emerge.
"Some of the poorest countries, like Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger - the poorest nation in the world - are badly affected."
The UN said the floods could lead to locust infestations and outbreaks of diseases such as cholera and dysentery.
Villages submerged
Countries in East Africa regularly flood at this time of year, but West African nations are much less able to deal with the deluge, the World Food Programme says.
"In Kenya or Ethiopia, these countries are facing floods every year and year after year, they have set up some contingency plans," the WFP's Pierre Lucas told the BBC.
"In West Africa, the level of awareness is not the same, and the response capacity [is] really different."
Ghana has been hit badly by the flooding, with three northern regions being declared an official disaster zone after whole towns and villages were submerged.
Information Minister Oboshie-Sai Cofie said: "It is a humanitarian disaster. People have nowhere to go. Some of them are just hanging out there waiting for help to come."
She said the Ghanaian government had received considerable aid and hoped the situation would improve.
French military helicopters were helping relief efforts in nearby Ivory Coast, while officials in Togo were dealing with more than 60,000 displace people and a wrecked infrastructure.
Endemic in West Africa, cholera has once again struck in Guinea. The arrival of the rains at the end of May, notably in the capital, Conakry, has created an ideal breeding ground for the disease to spread. Faced with an increasing number of cases, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has boosted its direct support of the local health services.
Since January this year, nearly 2,500 cases of cholera have been recorded in and around Conakry. Ninety people have died from the disease. After only a few hours, infected people can become dehydrated and die. Simple medical care consisting of oral rehydration or a perfusion, depending on the state of the patient and in some cases antibiotics, are enough to help patients quickly recover.
"I am convinced
that the world is not a mere bog in which men and women trample
themselves and die. Something magnificent is taking place here
amidst the cruelties and tragedies, and the supreme challenge to
intelligence is that of making the noblest and best in our curious
heritage prevail." -- C.A. Beard
