ONE MAN’S ACHIEVEMENT

During my lifetime, the world’s population has risen from 2.3 billion to 7.8 billion. Almost all of us pass on unnoticed, but a few live on in the collective memory. They may have brought benefit to the humanities – such as Shakespeare, Beethoven and Leonardo, or scientific progress, like Newton, Pasteur and Einstein.
Others leave a legacy that illustrates how one person out of these billions can cause wide-beaspread destruction, misery and death. From Genghis Khan to Stalin and Hitler, a single man has been able to force suffering on millions and leave the world an unhappier place.
The same applies to individual countries. Let’s look at the contribution of Madura to Venezuela’s fortunes and that of the late Mugabe to the economic miracle of Zimbabwe.
By 2000, Venezuela had already declined from a stable, oil rich democracy. Further economic and political damage was inflicted on its people by Hugo Chavez. But when he was succeeded by Nicolas Maduro in 2013, the freefall was spectacular.
Economic mismanagement resulted in severe shortages of food, medicines and other essential supplies. Millions of citizens, facing starvation, restricted movement and rising crime, had no alternative but to emigrate, mainly to Colombia and Brazil. Sanitary conditions in hospitals and prisons are horrific while schools are not fit for purpose. The judiciary is controlled by a corrupt quasi autocracy and there is no freedom of press or protest.
When Robert Mugabe took over from Ian Smith in 1980, Zimbabwe was the pride of Africa. It had the best educational system in Africa (with no school fees) and among the best health systems. There were no children living on the streets. It had an acceptable human rights record and was officially regarded as ‘almost a first-world country’. It had free speech and a free press.
This beautiful country had among the world’s most productive and efficient farms, making it the food basket of southern Africa. The Zimbabwe dollar was fairly stable at US $1.25.
When Mugabe became President in 1987, it immediately started to decline, owing to a number of factors, until by 2008 the currency was worth 688 billion to one US dollar, with annual inflation at 231 million per cent. So, what happened?
Up to 70,000 white farms were destroyed or converted to squatter camps. The farmers were forced out or murdered and food production collapsed, followed by the general economy. There were soon no funds available for schools, hospitals or public services.
Today, children have to scour rubbish tips with their parents for food, hoping to find bones with some meat on them. Babies are born on the streets and homeless children are forced into unpaid labour. One person in seven currently has HIV.
As the USA searches itself to define the true meaning of democracy, it can at least be concluded that, at this stage, there is a limit to the power that can be wielded by one man.
David Worboys’s opinions are his own and are not necessarily representative of those of the publishers, advertisers or sponsors.