History and My Story

20 responses so far ↓

• 1    adam paczuski // Nov 29, 2008 at 10:06 pm

  is is because the international comunity won’t help because they want some standards such as to have a market economy set down.

• 2    adam paczuski // Nov 30, 2008 at 8:31 pm

  Damaris could not make it on the computer today so she asked me to first tell her the information from the clips and then to write down this comment for her.

  “The reason why the international community is not helping Zimbabwe is because they want Zimbabwe to set down standards such as to have a market economy before the international community will help.” -Damaris S.G.

  also in my comment it was supposed to start out “is it” and not “is is” sorry

• 3    buell // Dec 1, 2008 at 6:16 am

  Thanks Adam. You are both correct…but why? Do you believe this is an appropriate response by the world given the situation in Zimbabwe. Does the fact that your country’s leaders are willing to spend trillions on “bailouts” for U.S. businesses change your opinion at all?

• 4    Shawna // Dec 1, 2008 at 3:42 pm

  I think that it is awful that there is so much inflation in Zimbabwe and those little simple things like toilet paper costs so much! I hope not, but I think that this problem could ultimately become present in the United States because we for some reason continue to print money even though we know the consequences it could lead to. Especially since we too are in an economical crisis. In twenty years-if this crisis is not fixed by then- toilet paper here may also cost $1,000,000. So at first when you laugh at the fact that a roll of toilet paper costs that much (like I first did) you have to realize that could be us (Americans) pretty soon.

• 5    adam paczuski // Dec 1, 2008 at 5:32 pm

  I think that the international community should help zimbabwe because there are people there that are suffering worse than over here and even on our worst day like when the dow stock crashed it is still better than zimbabwe any day. and if we could help zimbabwe then it would help the people there which may make it a better place to live. like in one of the videos above the people of zimbabwe do not trust their own money enough to buy a car and over here we have at least some trust in our money to at least buy items like car. and a country that is suffering so much should be helped to help the people of that country and to help the economy because it is doing so bad.

• 6    Damaris S.G // Dec 1, 2008 at 7:11 pm

  I will have to agree with Adam, the International Community SHOULD help Zimbabwe, not just today, but every day! there are people that die of hunger and disease; and what are WE dying for? Indigestion? I just dont think of it right, how we can tolerate people dying…. and the worst part is that we CAN help! but we dont want to.
  That is just my opinion, unfortnately there are not enough people that think like that…

  Before I go, I would like to thank Adam for helping me yesterday and posting my comment for me… thanks!!

• 7    Julie Tevenan // Dec 1, 2008 at 7:33 pm

  It’s amazing what is happening in Zimbabwe. I think that the government should allow us to help them with their crisis. Although we are in a recession, we aren’t going around making people millionaires. We’ve already said that we don’t want to interfere with their government so why can’t we just help them get their economy back on track? There is a lot to say about their government. I think that the person Mugabe was running against should be the president. Mugabe has too much power if he decides who is president, especially if the man running against him is the true winner of the election. Mugabe obviously needs help with his job if his people are paying a million dollars for a roll of toilet paper. A change in the government is exactly what Zimbabwe needs.

• 8    Matt Dickson // Dec 1, 2008 at 7:47 pm

  I agree with Julie. But how can we help one country get their economy back on track while we’re in the middle of a recession. I don’t think that America is the best country to be taking economic advise from at the moment. It just doesn’t make sense to take economic advise the U.S. Look where our economy has gotten us! The value of the U.S. dollar is decreasing day by day. Soon, a hundred dollars won’t be worth a thing! It’s a scary thought.

• 9    Andrea McDonagh // Dec 1, 2008 at 10:13 pm

  Wow, the situation in Zimbabwe is pretty extreme, I was shocked when i saw a $50 billion bill! Maybe the reason the government of Zimbabwe won’t accept Jimmy Carter, Koffi Annan, and others is because of Nationalism.. Like the Germans kind of thought with the French like thanks for the help but we don’t want to be French.. Although the situation is pretty bad, I don’t think that the U.S. should get involved. Maybe we should make sure our own economic problems are in check before we worry about others..

• 10    Andrea McDonagh // Dec 1, 2008 at 10:24 pm

  Embedded video from CNN Video

  Embedded video from CNN Video

  idk, kind of talked about this in class today

• 11    buell // Dec 2, 2008 at 12:16 am

  Thank you for the link Andrea. When I clicked on the first one I immediately saw Stephen Colbert and I thought, “Nooooooooo!” But then I realized it was only a brief commercial before the CNN news piece. Very good links.

• 12    Daniel Kelly // Dec 2, 2008 at 5:37 pm

  It think it is the president of Zimbabwe’s fault. We use them as an example of not to just print more money but use it in the economy to refuel itself. Since the president does not want to see the devastation in his country he would not let anyone in. He lets in only a few people. I found this video on youtube ,it is like 25 mins, and it shows an undercover reporter having to sneak into Zimbabwe as a member of a church group. She faces jail and anyone who helps her faces a longer sentence. So obviously the president does not want anyone to see his country. It says that Zimbabwe was once a wealthy nation and now has the lowest lifespan and largest inflation in the world. So we think we have a horrible economy we are wrong. Still personally I think are economy is at least stable enough.

  Here is the link to the aforementioned video:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPKGZreusoQ

• 13    Bridget Jaklitsch // Dec 2, 2008 at 5:54 pm

  I think that if Zimbabwe had outside help from other countries it would benefit the world. Zimbabwe is rich in natural resources, and if we were to help them use those resources and use them for trade Zimbabwe’s economy would get better and maybe gold, and other prices would go down. They obviously need a lot of help in their government, but that would be a hard think to fix, just look at Iraq.

• 14    Julie Tevenan // Dec 2, 2008 at 8:29 pm

  I agree with Andrea and Matt that we don’t need to get involved, but if people like Jimmy Carter want to help, I don’t understand why Zimbabwe won’t let us help them. I found Dan’s comment interseting about how the Zimbabwe leader won’t let people see his country. I also agree that Mugabe is the person that caused all of this.

• 15    Jenna Sartucci // Dec 2, 2008 at 9:10 pm

  I think the situation in Zimbabwe is sad. The life expectancy rate is only 44, and if you think about it, if we lived in Zimbabwe, most of our parents/ older relatives would be dead!It is also unfair to the people that the goverment will not take control of the economy and fix the problems within it. Obviously they need help, so they should accept help from other countries.

• 16    chris heffernan // Dec 2, 2008 at 9:21 pm

  the national economy is in ruins countries can not afford to help
  a third world country in africa

• 17    adam paczuski // Dec 2, 2008 at 9:31 pm

  you know how we talked about the attack on india and how pakistan is blamed by india and how this may cause a war. i found a video showing what the president of pakistan has to say about the attack and how pakistan is being blamed.

  http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/12/02/pakistan.zardari.lkl/?iref=mpstoryview#cnnSTCVideo

  also your welcome damaris

• 18    Shawna // Dec 3, 2008 at 3:26 pm

  response to Jenna-
  I agree that Zimbabwe should accept help from other countries- just not from the U.S. If we were to help Zimbabwe what would become of our already economic crisis. I think that if we help them, our government would pay more attention to their problems and not to our recession. So in a way I believe we SHOULD NOT OFFER A HELPING HAND. Also, who are we to help another country if we can barely manage ourselves, we would probably get them into an even deeper crisis (no offence)…that’s just my opinion.

• 19    chris heffernan // Jan 11, 2009 at 8:00 pm

  Robert Mugabe has been the leader of Zimbabwe for nearly thirty years. Three decades is an awfully long time to have just one ruler because that country will become too dependent on that one leader. Mugabe is 84 years old hes not gonna be around much longer is Zimbabwe going to fall part and resemble something like present day darfur?As for the accustions of voter fraud against President Mugabe, everyone must remeber that long recount proccess the united states experience in florida in 2000? I was only six but i remeber watching Dan rathers coverage of the Florida recount. Up until then the closest electoral presidential election ws between Carter/Mondale and
  Ford/Dole in 1976. When Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter was elected President by a small margin in the Electoral College ( 297 to 241). But the closness of that election was because of two reasons Watergate, and Fords pardoning of Former President Richard Nixon who had left the White House in disgrace after the Watergate scandal and could have faced jail time without Fords pardon. But the closness of The 2000 election rested on the shoulders of two reasons. First off the Monica Lewinsky scandal which angered many conservatives and made them question the Morals of Democratic President Bill Clinton almost leading to his resigntion from office. The other was that the public could not see the difference between Gore and Bush, They were both southerners and sons of poltical fathers. They more or less sounded like the same candidate but they were two different men. On Election night News networks across the country projected the state of Florida and its 25 electoral votes for Vice President Gore. A little over an hour later the y retracted it because it had become too close to call. In the early Morning hours of wednesday November 8th 2000 the news nwtworks projected George w bush would carry the state of florida and hece forth the Presidency. Vice President Gore called Bush to conced and prepared his concession speech. But within the hour Gore called back saying there was a problem with the numbers in florida and that he may win after all. A recount began in Florida that lasted for over a month when the US supreme court finnallly certified The florida recount, Bush had won by 537 votes. But only certain counties in Florida had been recounted if the entire state had been recounted Gore very well may have one if all the votes had been counted. So as you can see Voter fraud just doesnt exist in Zambabwe but also in our great democracy.

• 20    buell // Jan 12, 2009 at 1:56 pm

  Chris, adding to the “scandal” at the time was the fact that Bush’s brother was the governor of Florida. His secretary of state had the authority to call the election. See why local politics is just as important as national politics?

  However, to compare our elections to Zimbabwe’s is a stretch. Gore conceded in 2000—-Kerry conceded in 2004—-McCain conceded in 2008. Bush will leave office on January 20th. Mugagbe refuses to concede and leave office. These American politicians are heroic for stepping aside and allowing other men to take the role of President.

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