How very interesting! Zimbabwe on the one hand, India on the other...

there's been front page coverage of the u.n.'s condemnation of robert mugabe, the head-up-his-ass dictator of zimbabwe, for uprooting hundreds of thousands of slum dwellers in zimbabwe's capital, harare...

The Zimbabwean government is facing scathing criticism from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for its massive crackdown on urban slum dwellers, believed to have left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

"I call on the government to stop these forced demolitions immediately," Annan said in a statement after a receiving a report Friday from Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, his special envoy on the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe.

Tibaijuka's 100-page report suggests that as many as 700,000 people in the capital Harare and other cities in the southern African country have become homeless as a result of the government's "indiscriminate actions" against the urban poor.

but, to my knowledge, no u.s. press coverage whatsoever has been devoted to a similarly massive dislocation in mumbai... oh, but wait... india's now a u.s. ally... oops... silly me...

Six months ago, when authorities in this port city, ordered slum demolitions that rendered 400,000 people homeless they were serving notice that it had little further use for the toiling masses that helped build this city into one of the world's great metropolises.

Last week, the new, unabashedly pro-rich, approach was confirmed when a chunk of 243 hectares of prime property owned by defunct textile mills was sold to the very politicians who had made their careers opposing such sales and gaining the votes of the workers.

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