Orphans of the Empire

In the run-up to last week's controversial elections in Zimbabwe, The Lancet published two excellent articles about deteriorating health care and human rights conditions in the struggling Southern African nation. At this moment it looks like Robert Mugabe -- Zim's despotic leader since independence in 1980 -- has lost the election by a fairly substantial margin, but has thus far refused to drop out of the race. Both sides have floated allegations of vote tampering, and the election totals are perhaps close enough to warrant a second round of voting in a few weeks time. Whatever happens, let's hope that conditions begin to improve in Zimbabwe, where inflation has recently surpassed the 100,000% mark and infant mortality rates are the highest in the world.

Here are links to the two articles from The Lancet, and a third from the New York Times about the ongoing saga surrounding Bob Mugabe and these current elections.

//
Zimbabwe’s health-care system struggles on
To download:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2436041/Lancet-Health-Care-and-Zimbabwe
//
Health and human rights under assault in Zimbabwe
To download:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2436042/Lancet-Human-Rights-and-Zimbabwe
//
Mugabe Party Seems Poised to Fight for Presidency
//

In other -- far less important -- news, I still wish I could be more diligent about my writing. That's all for now.