With Zimbabwe still waiting for the election results, there is a lot talk about how cruel and bad President Mugabe is. Naturally, I was curious to know about this nation which seemed to get so much attention. I was astonished to find that a currency could have 100000% inflation. Apparently, if someone finds a wad of Zimbabwean currency on amounting to about 10000 Zimbabwean Dollars, he would not pick it up, for it is not worth the effort. Such is the uselessness of the older currency caused by the hyperinflation.
While I was rubbernecking the election in this highly educated African nation, I suddenly noticed something. "UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, meanwhile, called for the results to be published 'immediately'." I was benumbed by the imperial audacity with which a foreign person, demands election result from an African Nation. Maybe Gordon Brown lost his frame of mind and thinks he is Queen Victoria living Eighteenth century. I immediately grew cautious of the website I was reading the news from: the BBC. I realized all the information I knew about President Mugabe was tainted with the British anger.
I did not believe it previously, but apparently, the US also has very strong opinions about President Mugabe, and Mr. Bush thinks that the Zimbabwean people need a change. We need to thank him for being so outspoken about his opinions, how else will we know why he might next nuke Zimbabwe?
It so happens, the British anger at this country started in 1965 when Iam Smith, a white politician
unilaterally declared independence of the then Rhodesia from England. Wait, who is getting independent again? I thought it was a country with a black majority. Apparently it was. Ian Smith, the son of a Scotsman, had his own plans for this fertile country. Well revolutionaries threw him out, and formed what is now called Zimbabwe.
Hmm... Interesting. I thought England gave away all colonies after getting battered in the WWII. Now I understood what England's problem was. It wants its rich colony back. Now that makes sense. But I have no idea what Bush's problem is. Maybe he thought this country had some oil.
Well, here is the first black President of the country, who is hailed by many as a hero not just by his countrymen but by the whole continent, and who inspires South Africa to give up apartheid. He comes to power, and sees large swathes of land being owned and operated by a small White minority. In his overwhelming patriotism, took away most of the land owned by the whites. Britishers cry foul. They did the one thing they learned from WWII: they Hitlerize Mugabe. Trade is disrupted between this new African nation and England. Soon, the economy takes a hit, and the Westerners in their schadenfreude, blame it solely on his aggressive "Land Reclamation Project". His popularity is explained with
poll rigging and accusations of gerrymandering.
Whether or not his Land Reclamation policy was legal or ethical is a an important issue. But I do not think that the economy going down can be entirely blamed on this one aspect. I get the feeling the West has been colluding to take Zimbabwe down, economically.
Perhaps, the British expected the Mugabe to be as toothless as Gandhi, or as potent as a Mandela in jail for 18 years, praying and fasting for the English mercy. Mugabe, in a show of brilliant defiance towards the selfish West introduced "
the look east policy", an unprecedented policy of ignoring the West. The British scared of this new strategy, where the world ignores the West and continues to live, is into passive coercion. The West is trying desperately trying to undermine the efforts of Mugabe, and also at the same time, replace him with a more subservient dummy leader in its place.
I for once would like to see Mugabe's speech on Youtube, and know exactly what he accuses the West of. I want to see him speak in the UN. Only then will I believe in real freedom of speech. I am tired of the British imperialist journalists trying to spoon feed their ideologies of why he is bad.
I am not convinced I am seeing the whole truth, anywhere on the internet. I get the feeling that a good fraction of it is propaganda. Even the accusations against Mugabe were true, nobody should be interfering in other countries' internal affairs. It would be very interesting, if the country's economy recovers in the next 10 years.
Labels: politics, zimbabwe
