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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Trouble in |
| 2006-04-19 |
| EZULWINI VALLEY, Swaziland - King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa's last ruling royal, drives between his various palaces in a $500,000 Maybach 62 luxury sedan complete with DVD player, refrigerator and bar. His 13 wives and fiancees have luxury homes and cars of their own, and his 33 children go to the best schools and enjoy top private medical care and vacations abroad. Outside the royal compound, however, life isn't quite as good for the subjects. Two-thirds of Swazis live below the United Nations poverty line, and 20 percent receive international food aid. Forty percent are unemployed, and the elderly struggle to survive on welfare checks of $13 a month. One in three adults carries the virus that causes AIDS - the highest infection rate in the world - and the sick spend their days waiting fruitlessly for help in long lines snaking out of the country's overwhelmed public clinics. This sleepy mountain kingdom is famous for revering tradition. But these days, hard times are chipping away at support for the royals and their opulent lifestyle and leading to increasingly strident demands for greater democracy and accountability. Balance at the link. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #1 Seens a self-curing problem, I remember hearing that no AIDS patient lived longer than 8 years (May be different now, but not in a backwards Nation) So wait 4 years and the financial base will be cut in third, another 4 years and the infected now will all be dead. No nation can stand a reduction of 1/3 to 1/2 of it's population without collapse, plus the third now infected will surely infect another third or so. They're doomed, stay away if you want to live. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2006-04-19 21:04 |