Make Tyranny History
So today the BBC reports that the Head of the World Food Programme says Zimbabwe is one of the countries he is most worried about in the world.
In another report today, more people have died in the government’s contraversial urban slum demolition scheme.
Indeed, Zimbabweans don’t only face a bleak future - they are facing a bleak present! I was there in April and I was severely depressed by what I saw. What is even more depressing is that, if the situation there had really been caused by a drought or some other natural disaster, everyone would be clubbing together to alleviate the problem. But instead, for the most part, it has been orchestrated by the country’s despotic President. So even people who want to help find that their efforts are hindered by the country’s own governement.
Britain’s ambassador to the UN, Emyr Jones-Parry, said the government was to blame for many of the problems facing Zimbabwe.
“It is man-made and not a natural phenomenon. The economic collapse in Zimbabwe is the result of bad policies and bad governance,” he said.
Well, good man for speaking up - but pity about the understatement. He almost makes it sound like the Zimbabweans’ predicament it is due to Mugabe’s mistakes - if he weren’t being so diplomatic he would say that most of the problems facing Zimbabweans have been carefully planned by Mugabe in order to control the people and to hold onto power.
In the spirit of Live8 and Make Poverty History I urge you to do something to help the oppressed people of Zimbabwe: visit www.MakeTyrannyHistory.org
August 19th, 2006 at 23:03
better face a bleak future with our land, our resources than continue to be milked by western countries
August 20th, 2006 at 20:18
If I understand you correctly, Mutimba, you are saying that you would prefer to be malnourished and violently oppressed by a tyrant than to be prosperous in a free market economy. From that I can only deduce that you are either an idiot, or a privileged 1st class passenger on the ZANU PF gravy train.
Either way, you are obviously ignorant of the fact that the current ills of Zimbabwe are largely the fault of your tyranical leader, not that of his western scapegoats. Mugabe is very fond of scapegoats; perhaps that is what he keeps on his newly acquired farms.
It remains that Zimbabwe has been independent for 26 years. Yet, over the past five years, the plight of the average Zimbabwean has deteriorated rapidly.