Obama gives aid to Zimbabwe
President Barack Obama promised to distribute aid to the African country of Zimbabwe, as economic hardships continue to blast the country.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
The impoverished nation will receive $73 million in humanitarian aid. That does fall short of what Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was hoping to receive in order to conduct rebuilding projects in the country.
Tsvangirai was awestruck when meeting President Obama, then becoming the second African leader to meet him.
The unprecedented meeting between Obama and Tsvangirai was significant as currently the United States has a travel ban on the country, mostly related to the former elections between Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe, which was highly contested and largely labeled as corrupt.
Mugabe has been accused of human rights violations and disregard for democracy, and has refused to leave office even though he officially lost the last elections. They now lead a power-sharing government.
“For the record, (Tsvangirai’s cabinent) as a party has never ruptured relations with the international community and we cannot be held responsible for the negative perceptions the world has about those who thought sovereignty means severing ties with everyone.”
President Obama clearly favored Tsvangirai’s political ideals of Mugabe’s presenting Tsvangirai with a personalized autographed copy of ‘Stride Toward Freedom’ by Dr. Martin Luther King. Tsvangirai gave President Obama Zimbabwe traditional sculpture and artifacts created by Victoria Falls sculptors.
President Obama said Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government “shows promise, and we want to do everything we can to encourage the kinds of improvement, not only on human rights and rule of law, freedom of the press and democracy, that are so necessary, but also on the economic front.”
Tsvangirai is currently on an international tour to advocate for the victims of Zimbabwe’s economic downturn. He is asking for donors to dig deep inside their pockets and give for the needy, who have been overcome by monumental financial inflation in the country.
Though it seems that Tsvangirai has good intentions, critics say there is no plan of structure to implement programs to help the victims in Zimbabwe.
“There are two key problems,” economist Tony Hawkins told IRIN. “The impression is that the power-sharing government is in office but not really in power, so there is the question of who really is in control and frustrating real change.
“The second issue is more technical: Tsvangirai is running around the world passing around the hat for money, but there is no real strategic programme and [development] package [to f
