Zimbabwe at Year's End

Zambia is a neighbor of Zimbabwe, the cholera-ridden and starving African country. It is a victim of its President Mugabe.

Jesuit Father Peter Henriot, Director of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection in Lusaka, Zambia, reflected earlier this month on the relationship between Zimbabwe and Zambia, as well as the impact that the current crisis is having and will continue to have on the region.

Fr. Henriot concluded his reflection with three questions. He called them his "shouts." He had met some Zambians at a meeting in South Africa, and they asked him,

"Put Zambia's problems in context and shout about Zimbabwe's problems,"...

My friends are Zimbabweans, very nationalistic; very patriotic; working for social needs of the people in church-related institutions. They can't be accused of being British lackeys!

Well, I was deeply moved by what they told me and so here are a few of my shouts. I ask you to hear these shouts and then yourselves ask the same questions I will ask at the end of this column.

If a neighbor to Zimbabwe pleaded that, then the problems of the U.S. in 2008 pale by comparison! God bless everyone in 2009!
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Wiki-image of flag map of Zimbabwe is in the public domain.