Introduction

There is nothing as glorious in the history of resistance to colonial oppression as seeing one man being able to successfully combine the will to resist, the ability to resist and the opportunity to resist, to finally win independence for his country. This is how heroes are created in a scenario of upheaval. There is also nothing as devastating in the history of a flourishing country as seeing a hero fall from fame because of blind and unbridled love for power, and dragging along with him the life of the entire country and the fate of millions. These are the two worlds of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

Mugabe has remained in the spotlight of the international media for a long time. He has divided public opinion, generated unprecedented debates, created friends and foes. He has made history for reasons that are both good and bad, and shown unimaginable defiance to outside pressure. He has displayed a remarkable ability to swim through hot water, once again reminding the world about a statement he once made that while a cat has nine lives, he has ten.

Regrettably, in this political charade, Mugabe has gone to extremes to keep power. Like his peers in Africa, he has shown again that brutality against defenseless masses is only an instrument of policy, upholding the Machiavellian doctrine that “the end justifies the means.” To this, he has on many occasions alluded to the sacredness of his power from which “only God” can remove him. Power to Mugabe is not only a birth right but a divine right as well.

The story of Zimbabwe is the tale of a protracted struggle over land. When cut to size, it becomes the story of brutality and butchery short and simple. This circle of carnage has gone through two main phases. Before independence, it was cruelty and bestiality on blacks by whites. After independence (or precisely after the mid 1990s), it was “history reversed.” Blacks also turned against blacks as the politics over the land became increasingly complicate. As Zimbabwe’s crisis continues to undulate, it becomes increasingly clear that the politics surrounding this country’s land and resources is beyond the comprehension of the ordinary mind.

The world has watched Zimbabwe burn. And it continues to do so. What aggravates the situation is the interlocking and overlapping interests of outside players involved in Zimbabwe. This clash of interest has reached the Security Council of the UN where a fine line has been drawn between the anti-Mugabe West and the pro-Mugabe east. The debate over Zimbabwe has evolved from theme to theme, the latest being the renewed call for sanctions against Mugabe by the West.

Prelude to sanctions: Key milestones

Many debates about Zimbabwe have been laced with lies. Others have been coated with ignorance and many others have been interest-driven. Many more have been overtly biased while some carry very racist connotations and go as far as deliberately distorting history in to justify claims that are false, economic or political. This debate has been picked up by the media which has played a significant role in shaping public opinion about Zimbabwe both positively and negatively. This falsehood exists at both ends of the Zimbabwe debate. While Mugabe uses the state media to justify his claims to power, the more powerful western media beamed on Zimbabwe paints him as a devil with a tail and two horns. History along has the truth about Zimbabwe.

   Story continues below

From the 11th of February 1880, when John Cecil Rhodes duped the Ndebele King, Lobengula, to affix his signature on a document that deprived him of his land and authority, to independence on 17th April 1980, the history of Southern Rhodesia centered around land excision by successive white governments. After independence, it was a mixture of stories – independence, reconciliation, prosperity, constitutional amendments, land restoration, economic collapse, political unrest, regime change and then sanctions.

Before it came to sanctions, all was quite rosy between Mugabe and the West especially when the Zimbabwean President showed readiness to respect the Lancaster Constitution, the supreme document that defined the way forward for the new Zimbabwe. The “willing-seller, willing-buyer” clause of this constitution had restricted the government’s ability to interfere with private land. This clause was to run for ten interrupted years. Because of Mugabe’s compliance, he received friendly responses from the West. He was hailed as a good example of leadership in Africa and the West showed readiness to support land reforms. The U.S and Britain had earlier made very firm commitments to provide financial assistance at the Lancaster Conference. Added to these praises, mugabe was showered and adorned with honorary degrees and awards from British and American Universities. With this came his knighthood in 1994.

When the ten year period of Lancaster elapsed, Mugabe came under increasing pressure to respect his promise of restoring land to blacks. This period marked the beginning of trouble as Mugabe was caught between satisfying white land owners to ensure the support of western aid donors and meeting the demands of dispossessed blacks. Many other misfortunes added to this pressure. In 1991-1992, a catastrophic drought almost totally ravaged maize production. Another dry period followed in 1994-1995. Western sanctions started creeping in in 1998 and for the first time in his political life, Mugabe saw the birth of an opposition party the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) in 1999.

Zimbabwe entered the 3rd millennium with a series of economic misfortunes. Britain and other aid donors including the IMF and World Bank had stopped aid to Zimbabwe. The MDC with the support of land owners vigorously challenged Mugabe in a referendum on the new constitution in 2000. If approved, the new constitution would have empowered the government to acquire land compulsorily without compensation. After loosing constitutional support for his reform program, Mugabe resorted to radicalism. Following a fierce wrangling with the judiciary, he made it clear that no court ruling would stop him from implementing his reforms because the issue was political and could only be solved through political means. Such developments culminated in the March 2000 invasions of white farms by war veterans under Mugabe’s watchful eyes. Mugabe initiated his farm seizures with a passionate appeal to history and posterity. “If there be trouble with the Zimbabwe land redistribution policy, let it be my day so that future generations of Zimbabwe may live in peace.” Till this day, Zimbabwe has not known peace.

The road to sanctions

Sanctions against Mugabe were unleashed in waves, depending on the depth of radicalism. The IMF, under the instigation of Britain and the U.S, imposed unpublicized sanctions against Zimbabwe in November 1998. These sanctions were imposed despite an earlier commitment made by this institution to support land reforms at a Donor’s Conference on Land Reform and Rehabilitation Phase 11 (LRRP 11) in Harare, 1998. The IMF embarked on an anti-Mugabe propaganda, warned off potential investors, froze desperately needed loans to Zimbabwe and refused to negotiate Zimbabwe’s debt.

The sanctions diplomacy took a higher gear in September 1999 when the IMF completely suspended its support for economic adjustment and reform in Zimbabwe. This move was followed by the International Development Association (IDA). This multilateral development bank suspended all structural adjustment loans to Zimbabwe. In May 2000, it suspended all other forms of lending, leaving Zimbabwe desperate for badly needed funds. With these strings on Mugabe’s neck, the western press started predicting his imminent collapse. .

When Mugabe refused to fall as soon as was predicted, America rushed to the forefront of sanctions. In March 2000, the U.S Senate passed the Zimbabwe Democracy Bill (ZDB). This bill called for a travel ban and the freezing of assets belonging to President Mugabe, his family and other top government officials. The ZDB sought to deny Zimbabwe access to international loans and credits. It called on Zimbabwe to respect existing ownership titles to property. This bill further aimed to support opposition groups within Zimbabwe and to fund projects aimed at undermining ZANU-PF. It also called on Zimbabwe to withdraw its forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Since the beginning of farm seizures in 2000, America has engaged Zimbabwe in a bitter diplomatic row, characterized by sanctions, threats and verbal exchanges. This period has also been very sensitive in American diplomacy, notably after the September 11 2001 attacks on America. In this bitter state of relations, President Bush ranked Mugabe’s Zimbabwe among the “six outposts of tyranny” in the world. In 2003, his government froze the assets of 77 Zimbabwe government officials including Mugabe. In 2005, Bush signed an “Executive Order” expanding the number of those affected by the U.S sanctions and 33 institutions whose assets where frozen in America. This sanctions list was further widened after the current election upheavals in 2008.

American hatred for Zimbabwe is equal to, or rivaled only by that of Britain. Ancestral home to majority of Rhodesian settlers, Britain stands at the center of Zimbabwe’s crisis. Britain stopped funding land reforms in 1997 on grounds that the land went to Mugabe’s cronies. And since then, there have been more excuses linked to political and human rights issues in Zimbabwe. In April 2001, Britain canceled an aid package to Zimbabwe worth $US 5million. The American-initiated ZDB received the complete blessings of Britain, especially its support for opposition activities. Unwilling to see Mugabe basking in the glory of the knighthood, the Queen stripped him of this title in June 2008.

In the British scheme of things, Zimbabwe will only know peace with Mugabe out of power. “We are likely going to be in for many more years of this kind of tyranny until Preisident Mugabe moves away,” said Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary. When Straw tried in vain to whip African leaders into joining his anti-Mugabe campaign, he labeled the African attitude “a conspiracy of silence.” With this intransigence from African leaders, Britain relied on pressure from the U.S, EU and other European countries. British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, nodded with satisfaction when Zimbabwe was expelled from the Commonwealth in 2003, saying it was important for the Commonwealth to send “a strong signal to Zimbabwe.”

Australia was among the several European countries to heed to Anglo-American calls for sanctions against Mugabe. Like the U.S, Australia widened its sanctions list to include 127 names, adding to an initial list of people in the Zimbabwe government banned from doing business with Australian firms. Together with New Zealand, Australia lobbied the UN Security Council to indict Mugabe in the International Criminal Court. This European consensus on sanctions culminated in an EU sanction package carrying a travel ban on Mugabe, business and trade restrictions and an arms embargo.

These sanctions as crippling as they are, have not succeeded in achieving the desired goal of regime change. With a thunderous media blitz on Zimbabwe, the West hoped to use the 2008 Parliamentary and Presidential elections to make a good case for what they call the “restoration of democracy” in Zimbabwe. Alluding to western conspiracy and support for the opposition, Mugabe resorted to outright violence and intimidation, forcing the opposition to back out of the run-off elections. This left Mugabe with a “landslide victory” in the one candidate poll. His information Minister, George Charamba baptized this victory with a message to the West to “go hang.”

Though unable to kick Mugabe out of power, western propaganda paid off in the form of a crack that it inflicted on African sympathy and solidarity for Mugabe. A handful of African leaders raised concerns about the conduct of the elections, the violence involved and the credibility of the polls. Former South African President Nelson Mandela, qualified the situation in Zimbabwe as a “tragic failure of leadership.” With this limited diplomatic breakthrough, the U.S, with the support of Britain and France, drafted a sanctions resolution which it carried to the UN.

The recent debate over Zimbabwe in the Security Council marks the height of the diplomatic row between the West and the East over Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. Never before in the history of the UN has the internal affair of a sovereign country reached the Security Council. It is a replay of the cold war-era tussle by Great powers over Africa. “Has the Cold War after all arrived at the UN?” asked Thalif Deen in the Sunday Times. Events building up to this debate date back to Mugabe’s manipulated victory in the last presidential elections. The western powers raised the problem of Zimbabwe at the G8 Summit in Japan and blamed African leaders for not bringing enough pressure to bear on Mugabe. They joined the U.S in tabling a sanctions resolution at the Security Council which was vetoed by China and Russia. “China and Russia have stood with Mugabe against the people of Zimbabwe,” said Zalmay Kalilzad, U.S Ambassador to the UN declared.

The depth and implications of western sanctions

Western sanctions against Mugabe have always been presented as being “narrowly targeted” or “mild.” Such words greatly conceal the full depth, scope and impact of these sanctions. It is true that Mugabe’s mismanagement of the economy, wrong policies and heavy-handedness have significantly contributed to Zimbabwe’s economic collapse. His huge and irrational “compensation” to war veterans, his costly venture into the DRC and the radical nature of his land reforms all struck a deadly blow at Zimbabwe’s once vibrant economy. Mugabe himself acknowledged this fact when he observed, “Having restored land to the people, we have learnt a host of lessons,” Continued he, “Chief among these is that of engaging more scientific methods to ensure greater productivity of all the resettled land….

These failures on Mugabe’s part notwithstanding, any attempt to completely dissociate Zimbabwe’s economic woes from western sanctions is grossly misleading and only enhances the hypocrisy and double standards surrounding the sanctions debate. When the EU unleashed sanctions in 2002 following earlier sanctions by the IMF and U.S, the political adviser to former Nigerian President Olusenngun Obasanjo observed, “They seem to want Mugabe’s head delivered on a platter of gold.” Six years on, the West will stop at nothing to get this head. The combined effects of western sanctions and Mugabe’s political and economic blunders have kept Zimbabwe crawling.

The full impact of western sanctions on Zimbabwe is conveyed in speech delivered to the U.S Congress in 2002 by Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Congress in which he criticized western double standards in his country. “The campaign against my country has nothing to do with democracy, the rule of law or elections as they [the West] claim,” he said. “They imposed informal sanctions on the country, including attempts to prevent oil deliveries from reaching Zimbabwe. This resulted in gasoline queues and the closure of some factories.” He continued further, “They withheld spare parts for our machinery including spare parts for incubators and respirators for new-born babies.” This is what the West calls narrowly targeted sanctions. The effects are quite visible today in the form of hyperinflation. Zimbabwe’s exchange rate stands today at 900 billion Zimbabwe dollars to 1 U.S dollar.

What goes by the name of sanctions on Zimbabwe is the twin brother of the “regime change” objective of the West. It is Mugabe’s punishment for standing on the way of the West in Zimbabwe. Howard W. French for example recounts a statement made by a former U.S Ambassador to Zimbabwe. “Everyone felt that they had invested something to the success of Zimbabwe, so when it all started unraveling, everyone felt personally disappointed.” This historical statement betrays the hidden agenda of the West on Zimbabwe.

Mugabe may be a devil in the eyes of the West. But these same eyes are blind to, the atrocities of other devils in Africa. There is nothing Mugabe has done which is so strange in the continent. Plunder, torture, corruption, ethnic politics, mismanagement, election rigging and state brutality. Under normal room temperature and pressure, these are characteristics of Africa. These abuses thrive with the support of the same great powers of the West and East who cry foul over Zimabwe. That is why Mugabe recently challenged his “friends-turned-foes” in Africa to “point a finger” at him when some joined in the western chorus against him. As an individual, Mugabe remains firmly unshaken by sanctions as he barks left and right.

Arms embargoes have also helped to strengthen Mugabe’s “look east” policy especially towards China. “Clearly Zimbabwe is looking east,” he said, “and there is no turning back.” Besides its leverage on Zimbabwe’s land and minerals, China stands ready to turn in shiploads of weapons even at the heart of Zimbabwe’s election unrest. For these and other economic advantages, China is ready to veto any sanctions resolution against its proxy, Zimbabwe.

Among the several reasons advanced by the West for sanctioning Zimbabwe are talks about human rights abuses, torture and killing. It is rather unfortunate that these calls came at the wrong time. Not only are these evils common in Africa, but the West itself has its hands stained. The unjustified invasion of Iraq and the cruel hanging of its President in the eyes of the world have cast doubts on the credibility of Britain and the U.S as defenders of human rights and democracy. “Today in Iraq, with all their democracy, the oil pipelines are more secure than the women and children in the streets of Baghdad,” says Yaya Jammeh, President of Gambia and admirer of Mugabe.

Western travel bans on Mugabe have also proven ineffective and counterproductive. In his diplomatic tours around the world (including the West), Mugabe has on several occasions received a hero’s welcome, using this opportunity to present himself as a victim of aggression by the mighty. A good example of how Mugabe has turned this to his advantage was at the last EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon. This summit had been planned since April 2003 but failed to hold because African leaders refused sitting down without Mugabe. The conference finally held in December 2007 with the unmistakable presence of Mugabe while Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister stayed away. Mugabe singled out a “gang of four” which he blamed for arrogance towards Africa. This European arrogance and finger wagging attitude is largely responsible for African solidarity towards Mugabe. “Telling Africans they will be judged by how they line up on Zimbabwe is counterproductive….The West’s constant search for African leaders to anoint or vilify is resented on the continent and its track record, moreover is riddled with spots,” says Howard French.

Conclusion

In 2005, Tony Blair described Africa as a “scar on the conscience of the world.” Zimbabwe today has deteriorated beyond the level of a mere scar. Zimbabwe is a palpitating ulcer that leaves the body without peace or rest. Of all things in this world, what Zimbabwe needs most is peace, and all other things in biblical terms “shall be added unto it.” The ultimate lesson Zimbabwe has to learn from history, is the fact that peace in Zimbabwe will not, cannot come from outside. It has to be cultivated within Zimbabwe and nurtured by Zimbabweans. The evils of the Lancaster Constitution and its obnoxious “willing seller, willing-buyer” clause are enough indications that the West has a better agenda for Zimbabwe than peace. Also, China’s flourishing arms trade with Mugabe does not in any way walk the path of peace.

As the West continues to seek Mugabe’s head, there are very slim possibilities that it will tone down its rhetoric about sanctions even though this issue has hit a hard rock at the UN Security Council. China and Russia will seize this opportunity to dig deeper into Zimbabwe’s bowels for minerals and other economic advantages especially as Mugabe has vowed to look east.

This places the destiny of Zimbabwe squarely in the palms of Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangarai and South African President Thabo Mbeki who stands between them in the ongoing mediation efforts which many see as “a window of opportunity.” Africa awaits a “triumph of reason” in these negotiations. There is no better way of telling the world that “African Renaissance” and “African solutions to African problems” are real manifestations of African independence. These attempts at negotiation will however amount to nothing if Mugabe and Tsvangarai cannot look beyond individual and party differences and unite against outside manipulation. Zimbabwe cannot survive without the outside world but it most choose its friends with care bearing in mind that peace will return to that country only when it works along the line which Mandela saw as being “… partnership with those who wish it well.”

Popularity: 13% [?]

   A USAToday Editorial: Accountability in Darfur

For five and a half years, government-backed forces in Sudan have committed unspeakable acts  — murder, rape, torching villages  — in the vast western province of Darfur. About a quarter of a million people have died, with millions displaced.

In 2004, the U.S. government condemned this for what it is: genocide. But efforts to stop it, even sending in thousands of international peacekeepers, haven’t ended the horror.

On Monday, the International Criminal Court, a tribunal set up in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2002 to prosecute individuals for crimes against humanity, took a bold action. Its prosecutor asked its judges to indict Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on war crimes and genocide charges — the court’s first indictment of a sitting head of state. (Two others, Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic and Liberia’s Charles Taylor, were indicted by special nited Nations courts.)

The value of the criminal court’s extraordinary decision is that it continues a movement over the past decade of putting leaders of countries on notice that they might not get away with terrible crimes against their people. That trend gained momentum after Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, in which the world stood by as 800,000 were slaughtered.

Each new effort can also put new pressure on countries that do business with tyrants. China has lucrative oil deals with Sudan and is its main arms supplier. The indictment gives China additional incentive to use its leverage to burnish its image as it prepares to host next month’s Olympic Games.

The potential downside is that the indictment could provoke a backlash by al-Bashir. He has played a game of promising to comply with efforts to end the genocide, including allowing in foreign peacekeepers.

In reality, he has aided the horror. Now, he could end all pretense. Already, worrisome new attacks on peacekeepers include one last week in which seven were killed and 22 injured. The U.N. said Monday it was withdrawing some non-essential staff.

Al-Bashir certainly won’t hand himself over. He is more likely to model himself on a fellow African tyrant, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, who unleashed a murderous onslaught on anyone who opposes him after it became clear he would lose this year’s election.

Like Mugabe, al-Bashir might be counting on help from China and Russia. Both are frequently accused of human rights violations and fear international moves that infringe on national sovereignty. Appallingly, they used their U.N. Security Council vetoes last week to block new sanctions against Zimbabwe.

One organization might have more influence than the international court or U.N. on al-Bashir and Mugabe. That organization
is the African Union.

Its members, led by powerful South Africa, have behaved more like a cozy old boys’ network.
On Monday, they even asked the court to stop the indictment. They should be more concerned with getting the thugs in their club to stop the killing.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY:

Popularity: 11% [?]

HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe returns to Zimbabwe on Wednesday under pressure from fellow African leaders to form a national unity government in the wake of his re-election in a violent poll ruled unfair by monitors.

   ENLARGE IMAGE

An African Union summit in Egypt, attended by Mugabe, approved a resolution calling for him to negotiate with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who withdrew from the run-off election because of violence against his supporters.

The resolution fell short of the tougher statement wanted by some African countries, but it was an unprecedented rebuff to Mugabe, previously feted as a liberation hero. …[ MORE >> ]

Mugabe Loses His Cool In Cairo

….meanwhile, US President George W. Bush, on June 26, 2008 at the White House in Washington, DC, said he had directed that sanctions be drawn up against the “illegitimate” government of Zimbabwe after a run-off vote boycotted by the opposition.

What?

George Bush has No Business sanctioning Mugabe….for he is as illegitimate, and a worse criminal than the man he condemning.

Both have stolen elections and have “killed” their own people. For Bush — add another 600, 000 innocent Iraqi’s at the behest of 500LB bombs and sadistic U.S soldiers.

Bush’s Operation Iraqi Freedom was a mission of Murder, Rape and Torture, featuring “sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses,” by the U.S Military personnel.

So, G.W. Bush please shut up!

You too belong in JAIL!

REFERENCE: The Criminal “High Cabal” — The American “High Cabal” adopted criminality as their primary strategy when they seized control of the United States in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Gilbert Wandera — Reports From Kenya

One US dollar exchanges at 6.2 billion Zimbabwean dollars — What a ‘Mugabean’ mess!

PICTURE: A child with wads of notes in Harare — 200,000 Zimbabwean dollars exchange at 1US cent.

Zimbabwe continues making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The Southern African country’s future is in oblivion, following political turmoil tied to the leadership of President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

Mugabe’s iron fist and anti-donor policies have left Zimbabwe’s economy in tatters, with poverty, unemployment and political strife increasing by the day.

Last Sunday gave Harambee Stars players and local journalists an opportunity to experience challenges facing Zimbabweans.

If it had been Nairobi, all those who visited Harare for the national soccer team’s away match with Zimbabwe would be billionaires.

Exchanging US dollars at the airport to Zimbabwean dollars turned the entourage into multi-billionaires.

One US dollar exchanges at 6.2 billion Zimbabwean dollars.

The once vibrant Zimbabwean economy has been hit by hyperinflation. The Kenyan “billionaires” felt cheated while in Harare. They realised prices of basic goods were record high.

Rising inflation

A calling card, for instance, retails at 5.5 billion Zimbabwean dollars. The same would go for Sh50 in Kenya.

Ordinary Zimbabweans find life difficult as the country’s inflation rate tops 165,000 per cent, the world’s highest.

Zimbabweans say prices of goods in supermarkets are sometimes adjusted between the time one picks the items and pays at the till.

Beth and Daniel, a couple who works for an international faith-based organisation in Harare, are a case study of what Zimbabweans and expatriates endure.

For this couple, life is a daily battle. They can hardly afford the basic items used on a daily basis.

According to Daniel, the last time they had a loaf of bread was a month ago, because the cost is prohibitive.

“We cannot afford bread any more since the cost keeps rising. And in any case you can’t even find it,” he said in an interview.

A loaf of bread, which costs Sh35 in Kenya, costs 3 billion Zimbabwean dollars.

Because it is hardly available, scenes of consumers queuing in the streets of Harare to buy bread are commonplace.

Daniel says the emergence of black markets has led to the scarcity of bread and other basic food items.

“When bread comes, traders cashing in on the crisis buy all of it and sell it right outside the bakeries at exorbitant prices,” says Daniel.

Indeed many manufactures prefer to sell on the black market because this helps them get more money,” he said.

Daniel explains how he has to queue for long to withdraw money from his bank account.

According to Daniel, the Mugabe Government has restricted the amount of money one can withdraw to just 25 billion Zimbabwean dollars, which he says is too little.

“Today, I had to queue for three hours to withdraw 25 billion dollars. It is not enough to buy everything I need and so I will come back tomorrow for more,” he said.

Cash crunch

Though most banks have Automated Teller Machines, most have stalled because they are not equipped to serve the many customers who turn up to withdraw cash.

Beth says school fees and medical costs are spiralling out of control.

She says they find it difficult to keep their son David in school in Harare where he attends one of the most prestigious Government schools.

“We are no longer charged school fees per term because it goes up every week. Last month we were asked to pay another 300 billion Zimbabwean dollars as top up to what we had already paid as school fees,” she said.

Beth says two months ago when she was required to undergo an eye treatment, a hospital declined to treat her because her medical insurance could not afford to pay the bill.

“We have medical insurance for 600 million dollars, but I was required to pay 900 billion dollars for the treatment. It did not make sense and we are considering letting go of the medical policy because it does not help,” she says.

Beth says transportation cost in Harare is rising at least twice a day.

“Last Sunday, I paid three billion dollars in the morning to go to town, but in the evening it had shot up to 3.5 billion,” she adds.

Daniel and Beth moved from their rented house and built a wooden structure where they live to save them the burden of exorbitant rent.

Landlords demand that tenants pay rent in US dollars or the South African Rand. Most Zimbabweans, on the other hand can hardly access foreign currency. Figures boggle the mind everywhere.

Fuel shortage

Five litres of petrol would cost 85 billion Zimbabwe dollars. Less than a week ago, the same quantity was retailing at 65 billion dollars.

The energy sector is in crisis. Fuel is only available in the black market. Petrol stations in Harare do not have fuel stocks.

Most supermarket shelves were empty, with basic goods like sugar, milk and bread missing, making many Zimbabweans survive on grain handouts.

Thousands of citizens, including the professionals, have migrated to South Africa and other countries. Social amenities are crumbling down due to limited State financing.

The poor economy and the food shortage have been blamed on the land reform programmes that Mugabe had introduced. White farmers were kicked out of the country.

Mugabe accuses Britain and its allies of sabotaging his country’s economy in revenge for the land redistribution programme.

It remains unknown what the future portends for the people of Zimbabwe as they face one of the most difficult times in the country’s political history.

More than 80 people have already died in political violence between Mugabe’s Zanu-PF supporters and the opposition.

REFERENCES:

1. Calm on Criminal ‘Ethiopia’ – Hullabaloo for Zimbabwe: Jendayi Frazer’s Anti-African Lunacy
2. The ‘killing and maiming‘ going on in Zimbawe — WARNING: Pictures are very Graphic.
3. Africa Insight - This Man, Mugabe
4. Mugabe’s war with UK is decades-old
5. The world must treat Mugabe and Zenawi on equal terms

Mugabe Quote:

On Homosexuality: “…Degrades human dignity. It’s unnatural and there is no question ever of allowing these people to behave worse than dogs and pigs. If dogs and pigs do not do it, why must human beings? We have our own culture, and we must re-dedicate ourselves to our traditional values that make us human beings… What we are being persuaded to accept is sub-animal behaviour and we will never allow it here. If you see people parading themselves as lesbians and gays, arrest them and hand them over to the police!”.

….MORE >>

Popularity: 17% [?]

Bob Miller (A Registered Republican) Asks: ‘Democrats…Learned Anything in the Last 8 Years?’

Mentioning John McCain and war hero in the same sentence is an oxymoron.

Since I was shot down twice in Vietnam, I did at one time respect McCain until I started checking with those who spent time with him in North Vietnam.

His nickname was “Songbird.”

McCain didn’t volunteer to be a POW and he didn’t begin to comply with Article III of the United States Code of Conduct after being captured. What he did do was sing like a songbird and whine day and night about being abandoned. This old guy is not bitter at the North Vietnamese, he’s mad as hell at Americans for leaving him in the POW camp for five years while they listened to psychedelic music, wore flowers in their hair, and partied. McCain, like his mentor Bush, will sell our country to the highest bidder, and that bidder will be the United Arab Emirates.

I’m a registered Republican.

I ran for a seat in the US Senate in 1992. I’ve been campaigning against the George H.W. Bush gang since 1976, and I know what I’m talking about. Neither Messrs. Gore nor Kerry would listen. They said that George W. Bush was a nice guy while knowing all the time he was a habitual lying, bowlegged moron. I told Mr. Kerry three days before the election that he was going to lose because he had not gone for the jugular. He not only let Bush push him around, he brushed off the Swift Boat puppets as if their painting him a coward wouldn’t matter to voters…the same voters Bush and Cheney had been reading Chicken Little to day and night since 1999.

Democrats had better remember what these demons from hell did to Max Cleland and tried to do to John Murtha. I believe it’s time they harvested this crop of thorns they have so mercilessly sown. I don’t know what you are going to do, but I’m going to feed this bunch who have disgraced our country and devalued our dollar some of their own medicine; and I’m not going to use a spoon, I’m going to use a shovel.

God and country means nothing to these warmongering sociopaths in the Republican Party.

They would sponsor Robert Mugabe if they thought he could win the Oval Office. Their reason has nothing to do with building a country that can legitimately claim “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Equality is not on their to-do list. I’ve witnessed first hand the George H.W. Bush list that he compiled in 1976 after being appointed the Director of the CIA. It was a short list, but one that has not only turned this country, but the world every which way but loose.

1. Control of the US media.

2. Control of the US Supreme Court and federal judges.

3. Give US Treasury ATM cards to family and corporate sponsors.

Democrats have two choices.

One: You can go on the offense and paint McCain as a dangerous hotheaded old fool who’s eaten up with PTSD and will push the world into WWIII.

Two: You can play fair as Gore and Kerry tried to do and this bunch of ungodly self-serving leeches will wipe their feet on Mr. Barack Obama and his family, destroying possibly our country’s last chance to come out of this death spiral.

About The Author: Bob Miller who writes anti-war articles is one of America’s most controversial writers. www.serveyournation.com and www.bobmillerwrites.com are Millers websites were on can find articles based on anti-war. He has delivered many speeches and written books on Anti-War which has gained global attention.

Biography: Born in Florence, Alabama. Miller served as a pilot in Vietnam in 1968-69 and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. Challenged Richard Shelby for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1992. Produced the television show, The Late Show (BLAB 2001). Worked as the golf pro on Holland America’s ms Westerdam. Bob Miller is America’s most controversial writer. It would be an understatement to say he was anti-war and anti-Bush.

Note: More Articles By Bob Miller Can Be Found Here

Popularity: 16% [?]