I'd like to make sure everyone here has heard the news about the Zimbabwe cholera epidemic. This has been covered very well by contributors at Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Zimbabwean_cholera_outbreak ). To summarize very briefly, most sources are saying that approximately 600 people have died, 12,000 people are infected, and the death rate of the infection is 10%. It is transmitted by impure water, and the water supply system has run out of treatment chemicals and the capital stopped receiving piped water on December 1. Only one of four major hospitals remains open and has no medicine. Cases have been reported in wards throughout Zimbabwe except in the far west, and cases have been reported in Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. Clearly this is a catastrophe of the first order, yet it is only a small taste of what is to come.
I can't guess at what is the best response here - fixing Zimbabwe seemed next to impossible without a deadline. Maybe we need people to talk to Zuma (who seems as well placed as anyone to get something done), try to get through to Mugabe, load a few cargo planes with chemicals, medicine, and bottled water and get them to Zimbabwe... and explore any other ways to end the wider humanitarian crisis in that country.
Even the most heartless Republican should realize that any case of this illness in Africa could become the source for a biological weapon that we could meet up with in our own cities at any time for decades to come. If people can dream that Mugabe and Tsvangirai could get together and arrange a power-sharing agreement, then surely Bush should be able to work with Obama to get some useful response under way before January 20. Stopping a great plague is in everyone's national interest.
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