Tuesday, May 13, 2014
No Food, Yet Still Alive-Heartbreaking Conditions in Zimbabwe
When Now is the Time for Running opens, author Michael Williams describes a poor village in Zimbabwe, South Africa. Early in the book, a point comes when food is discussed. They have very little food, and I was wondering why. I thought there'd be plenty of roles for people to fill in such a small village like Gutu, but I was wrong because when the book was written, the unemployment rate in Zimbabwe was at a staggering 95%; (it's amazing those people could even afford enough food to survive!) America's unemployment rate is currently between only 6 and 7 percent, and we still have a huge amount of homeless/jobless people. I spent a while online searching for a current Zimbabwean number to compare it with, but the country has such a low functionality, that even the CIA World Fact-book could not provide current numbers. This suggests the rate of unemployment is still very high. Also looking through various (and possibly unreliable) sources, I found numbers for today that are close to the 2009's 95%. Basically, what I'm saying is that Zimbabwe had a horrible economy when Now is the Time For Running was written, and still does... Mr. Hopper also asked us to put ourselves into our character's metaphorical "shoes." The main character from Now is the Time For Running is Deo, and he had to run from Zimbabwe after watching his entire village, family included, getting shot. Later, he has to run for two hours across the South African border, once getting chased by a hyena for a period of time. I'm quite certain I would not fare as well as Deo. I don't have the emotional stamina to not break down if my family died, and much less, the physical stamina required to run for two hours straight. (Deo is amazing.) How do you feel about Zimbabwe's condition, and how do you think you'd do in the position Deo's in?
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Great post Adelle! I'm also currently reading, Now is the Time for Running! I also feel that Deo is such an amazing brother and character in this story. After his family death he still strive on for the sake of his brother and himself. If it was me I'd probably be mourning over my families death and get killed instantly. Furthermore, I think that it's amazing on how Deo could run on straight for two entire hours, I'd never be able to do that I couldn't even run a mile without get tired out. Right now, Zimbabwe, South Africa does have a staggering number of unemployed people which leads to many people starving and homeless. This problem is also one of the reasons on why South Africa has a lot of health problems. To add to my point, this problem leads to the death of many children, adults, and elders.
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ReplyDeleteI am reading Facing The Lion, but this book sounds interesting. But about Zimbabwe condition is that, it's terrible that they could let their unemployment rate drop that low. But over the past few years Zimbabwe has made and improvement making their unemployment rate lower than what it was before. If i was in Deos position I would be scared but I would just try to move on and forget about it once I'm safe.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Beery on how Zimbabwe condition and how there ecomony is rising back up but the problem of all the deaths of children, parents, and elders is still present there if I were Deo after I would have run to safety and forget about it all.
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