Mozambique, an historical calamity

Mozambique, an historical calamity

President Clinton recently praised Mozambique as the fastest
growing economy in Africa. The words were barely out of his mouth
before the rain of Cyclone Eline began to fall. The savage
cruelty which lies behind the terrible pictures of families
clinging with their belongings to tree tops is that in the last
10 years, Mozambique had emerged as one of Africa's most striking
success stories.

For the last three years, it has had economic growth rates of
over 10 percent per annum. It had become the model for countries
trying to recover from civil war as it succeeded in putting the
ravages of a 16-year civil war behind it. Only last August, the
Paris Club of lenders agreed to cancel a large tranche of debt.

Now, these considerable achievements on the part of one of the
world's poorest countries are at severe risk of being wiped out.

Given the scale of the catastrophe, now two weeks in the
making, the response of the international community has been
pitiable. Until recently, there were only a paltry five
helicopters rescuing those stranded; that number has now
increased to 12 but it is still woefully inadequate. Clare Short,
Britain's secretary of state for international development,
insisted in the House of Commons on Monday that the difficulty in
finding more helicopters is logistical not financial; the
ministry of defense says the opposite.

What makes this confusion so depressing is that the urgent
need for helicopters is obvious -- and yet not even that is being
met.

With appropriate and prompt support now, a package of debt
cancellation -- Mozambique is still paying $1.3m a week in
interest payments -- and long-term aid, it could overcome the
floods.

The threat is that after the dramatic pictures have faded from
television screens, the pressure on Ms Short, her counterparts
and the international agencies will be off. Mozambique will be
left to struggle with unfulfilled promises.

The bigger picture confronting the international community is
that climate change is bringing increasingly erratic and violent
weather patterns -- and we know that they hit poor countries
disproportionately hard.

-- The Guardian, London