[Steven Bickford]

[ QUOTE ]
OK, to clear a couple of things up.

The biggest decline in life expectancy is overwhelmingly down to aids. If you look at all the countries in that region, tehy've all seen a drop of 15-20 years in a similar period, so I wouldn't read too much into that.

Secondly, its not justa bout the right to vote, self-determination etc, as if the Rhodesian government was just carrying on peacefully but with no rights for blacks. Their was a brutal civil war, with major atrocieties carried out admittedly by both sides.

And mugabe's not great, but if he hadn't picked on a few white farmers who directly fund conservative lobbies in the UK, no one would have heard of him.

I'm not excusing him, but their are a lot worse dictators in africa who get much more support, so people need to wonder why he gets singled out.

[/ QUOTE ]

People have heard of Mugabe because he destroyed the second wealthiest country in Africa. Nobody talks about the other dictators because they ruled over countries that were already stuck in the dark ages. Mugabe inherited a country with first world infrastructure (built by whom?), and he flushed it down the toilet.