Robert Mugabe...a name synonomous with feckless and corrupt despotism, is at it again. According to the Times, he and his wife recently purchased a luxury apartment, valued at almost US$6m in Hong Kong. Why does this enrage me?
In addition, the President's wife, Grace Mugabe, has recently embarked on a spending spree. She reportedly spent over $80k on marble statues in Vietnam and $12k on a handbag in Singapore. All of this despite the fact that Zimbabwe is in a huge economic crisis. The country has an inflation rate gauged to be close 231m % (that's 231,000,000%), and an unemployment rate hovering above 90%.
In short, the Mugabes epitomize all that is wrong with African dictatorships. Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of Africa as late as the 1990s. The country produced a surplus of food and supplied its neighbours with a significant quantity of their food. All of this has changed and what was once a thriving country is now bereft of food, clean water, and hope.
According to Robert Mugabe, this is all the fault of colonialism and the West. I am often outspoken about the horrors of colonialism and how a significantly high percentage of problems on the African continent stem from the colonial era. I have also argued that this era has not completely ended and that neo-colonialism is an even more sinister force than colonialism was. Mugabe argued that the white Zimbabweans, who owned most of the farms in country, came by these farms illicitly and therefore the farms could be seized and given to the "war veterans."
Personally, I agree that the land in Zimbabwe needed to be re-distributed. However, that desire to have Africa for Africans needed to be developed by meeting the needs of Africans. Mugabe's blatant land grab did not satisfy the desire of the masses for land and only served to plunge his country into a desperate state. What is little known is that Mugabe has seized many farms that were black owned as well. Many of the farms seized by Mugabe and his cronies were purchased legally, under Zimbabwean law (as opposed Rhodesian law) by people who had a vested interest in the upliftment of Zimbabwe. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Robert and Grace Mugabe.
What is really upsetting about this latest episode in Zimbabwe involving the mis-use of state funds by Robert and Grace Mugabe is that in the midst of this crisis, people are dying simply because of the government's inability to purchase water-treatment chemicals. Mugabe is pillaging the treasury of a country where over 3500 people have died because of a cholera outbreak...a preventable disease that is occuring in Zimbabwe because the country does not have enough money to buy the chemicals to treat the drinking water.
Where are the morals in this? How can Robert and Grace Mugabe wake up each morning and look in the mirror knowing that their actions, greed, and corruption are directly leading to corpses strewn around the country. This is a mot juste example of how African leaders have mis-managed their countries post colonialism, and has directly contributed to the dire poverty that currently exists on the continent. Mugabe needs to honestly look at himself and find a way to step aside and let someone with morals lead Zimbabwe back to where it was a decade ago.
4 comments:
My gosh!
No. I beg to differ with Vera and anybody else who thinks the Mugabe's are the prob. To some extent i stopped criticizing him for his duplicitous heinous acts. A guy has a way of making his critics look foolish. My problem now is with organizations like Amnesty International and the UN. Chapter closed!
CKay...I have two questions. I'd like you to explain how he makes his critics look foolish. Basically he lashes out and blames everyone else for the problems of his country except himself. Yet his policies eliminating the single biggest component of his country's economy make little sense, especially since he has turned these viable farms into fallow fields, has been the reason the country's economy has failed. In my mind, this epitomizes a fool. Secondly, in your mind, what is the reason for blaming Zimbabwe's implosion on Amnesty International and the UN? Mugabe is responsible for the murder of thousands in Matabeleland in what amounts to a genocidal binge, (this even before the current decade long crisis). I'd like to know how you feel this can be spun into a problem created by AI or the UN? Chapter closed. Book open. :-)
Well, I didn't say that the AI and/or UN are responsible for the collapse of Zim. What i meant is that they and other a million plus organizations worldwide who bursk in the glossy definition of Human Rights activists esp. UN, which Zim is a member, should have intervened when it became apparent that this guy is unshakable. Atleast someone should have done something. Of what use or purpose are they if they cannot act to stop one of their own from squandering that what belongs to his fellow country men or people they so boast to care about their rights? Irony is that his country under his mis-leadership is still in the UN's list of membership. In my view Mugabe is an alien. He is not one of us. By 'us' i mean he does not belong to mankind. So why do we keep trying to change him to be what he is not and will never be? At this point and time, I really get pissed whenever someone tries to kinda knock some sense into his stolid mind which ends up in a fuddled blame game. Such makes the whole thing look like an argument in hell, with the devil himself, on who has the match box (to say the least on Muga's part) - if you really know what i mean.
Of course I very much know that this organizations cannot act beyond their decree insofaras Zim or any other country is concerned but hell! Does that mean that the very Laws which are meant to bring order or protect us are the same which stab our behinds leaving us to wallow in destitution until our last whiff? And what are Laws for if they cannot be reviewed to suit the interest of the oppressed? Infact why are we not still wearing skin or even eating wild berries and leaves as our forefathers did? Times have changed and so must the goddamn LAWS! I don't understand how one, un, isa, ein, uno, yksi... person can ruin lives of a whole country while they watch from a distance and how many more countries will go down that road while organizations like these whine on their incapacity to take action?
On a second thought. I just figured out that most states which make up the UN are the exact opposite of sovereignty. So how will Barbary macaque show the Horse how to plait his tail?
CKay
What is really unbelievable is the way those presidents in Africa take advantage of their position no matter what. They dont care about the population...they are just "eaters" and greedy.Because of them the continent has a reputation of poverty, war, hunger. They talk about democracy. But what kind of democracy? I dont think that Africa is a poor continent. The problem is who do what? Who controls the natural resources? Always a small minority of the population. They do whatever they want with that money anbd at the same time the majority live in poverty. If Mugabe knows the word Humanity? I dont think so
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