Sobre Африка – Something peculiar about the Zambezi and the flooding in Mozambique

When I was in Africa these couple of months ago I remember on multiple occasions people in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe talking about the floods coming this year, there was a certain “j’e ne se quoi” in the air, and many had indicated that they are cyclical, and as one individual recalled “they do tend to happen every seven years”; which makes me wonder why the government of Mozambique did nothing to help prevent this, why they did not take precautions after the last floods, or even why the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe have done nothing to alleviate this, in fact working against it by opening the Kariba dam, propagating further flooding.

In any case however, the past is a brick wall, and we must look to the future. Recently, the government of Mozambique indicated that they will not ask for flood relief, but at the same time, I believe that it comes down to us, the international community to help. As such, I ask that those of you with the ability to help in some form or fashion do so; the peoples of this area truly need our help. Some organizations that I saw functioning in the area directly were the International as well as the American Red Cross’, and US Aid. So those of you in the US, write your representatives, and the rest of us, lets donate a € or two, or take 15 minutes out of our day to see how we can help.