Whilst I too would dismiss Poloyatonki as a "moron", still I can not help but get the feeling that the hatred of Mugabe the tyrant has blinded most people to Tsvangirai's incompetency. It is the latter’s serious short comings that has helped keep Mugabe in power these last ten years and thus by extension the support of those behind Tsvangirai.
As far back as 2001 the then US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris Dell, described Tsvangirai as a “flawed and indecisive character”. Tens years later with a mountain of Tsvangirai blunders it seems the penny is yet to drop for some people.
Mugabe is the thorny tree we want to cut down but after years of trying and with blistered hands common would dictate that we need a sharp axe! Tsvangirai, the axe, we have been using so far is useless! Those who continue to support Tsvangirai are doing nothing but queuing for a turn to take at the tree with the bland axe. Yes it will help them let out the years pended up frustration. There will be a lot more blistered hands and, worse still, the thorny tree will remain standing. Those who continue to follow this course of action are not morons but they are not far behind.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree,” remarked Abraham Lincoln, “and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.” Very wise advise; I would say!
$$$$$$
Tsvangirai accursed Mugabe of being someone who indicated left and turned right!
“Would the real Mugabe stand up!” concluded Tsvangirai.
The real Mugabe, the tyrant and murderer, has been standing up all these last thirty years. It is Tsvangirai who has failed to see the real Mugabe preferring to see instead an imaginary Mugabe - “a democratic, a great national hero" one he could trust and work with. How many times has Mugabe said one thing and did the exact opposite. How many innocent Zimbabweans has this tyrant murdered in cold blood?
No doubt Tsvangirai thought he was asking a poignant and very witty question; “Would the real Mugabe stand up?” It is in fact a stupid remark totally in keeping with the real Tsvangirai we all know!
Tuesday 28 February 2012
Mugabe government spending three time as much on foreign travel than on 3 000 schools!
The Zimbabwe government spent three times more money on “foreign junkets for top government officials” than on 3 000 schools!
"It's shameful," Coltart said. "The infrastructure in our schools is in crisis. We are undermining the education of an entire generation."
It is refreshing to hear Minister David Coltart saying what he should have been saying all along. The Minister shocked his Australian audience last year during his visit there last year when he started singing the praises of Mugabe.
The GNU was “working” the Minister said. “No, Mugabe is no monster!”
Really here is what kind of regime other than one headed by a monster can spend neglect the education of the nation whilst spending such astronomical amounts of money on luxurious for the ruling few.
To be fair on Minister Coltart, he was not alone in praising Mugabe after joining the pampered ruling elite. Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti told the world Mugabe “was a Victorian gentleman who should be knighted!” The worst bootlicker was none other than Prime Minister Tsvangirai himself. Only two weeks ago PM gave his approval to Mugabe’s bloody diamond mining operations; everyone knows Mugabe is using his ill got fortune to finance the country’s scourge of political violence. How foolish is that!?
There real crying shame is that after the nation had risked life and limb to vote Tsvangirai and his MDC friends into power they allowed Mugabe back into power for a place on the feeding trough!
%%%%%
Chimbido
What you and many others like you who still consider Mugabe a liberation hero have completely fail to grasp is that Mugabe failed to deliver the freedom and liberty. He has murdered thousands of Zimbabweans for no other reason than they dared exercise their democratic right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. He has used all manner of feeble excuses to justify his violent denial of Zimbabweans’ human dignity; the land redistribution was but one of those smokes and mirrors.
How barbaric do we have to be if the extra-judiciary killing thousands of our follow citizens can be justified in any just, free and democratic country.
Mugabe’s pre-independence exploits are heroic but his post independence record is nothing but heroic. His murderous past of the last thirty years should not and must not be swept under the carpet regardless of his heroic past. If Mugabe had murdered any British citizen he would have been locked up a long time ago regardless of whether he had been knighted a thousand times over.
"It's shameful," Coltart said. "The infrastructure in our schools is in crisis. We are undermining the education of an entire generation."
It is refreshing to hear Minister David Coltart saying what he should have been saying all along. The Minister shocked his Australian audience last year during his visit there last year when he started singing the praises of Mugabe.
The GNU was “working” the Minister said. “No, Mugabe is no monster!”
Really here is what kind of regime other than one headed by a monster can spend neglect the education of the nation whilst spending such astronomical amounts of money on luxurious for the ruling few.
To be fair on Minister Coltart, he was not alone in praising Mugabe after joining the pampered ruling elite. Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti told the world Mugabe “was a Victorian gentleman who should be knighted!” The worst bootlicker was none other than Prime Minister Tsvangirai himself. Only two weeks ago PM gave his approval to Mugabe’s bloody diamond mining operations; everyone knows Mugabe is using his ill got fortune to finance the country’s scourge of political violence. How foolish is that!?
There real crying shame is that after the nation had risked life and limb to vote Tsvangirai and his MDC friends into power they allowed Mugabe back into power for a place on the feeding trough!
%%%%%
Chimbido
What you and many others like you who still consider Mugabe a liberation hero have completely fail to grasp is that Mugabe failed to deliver the freedom and liberty. He has murdered thousands of Zimbabweans for no other reason than they dared exercise their democratic right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. He has used all manner of feeble excuses to justify his violent denial of Zimbabweans’ human dignity; the land redistribution was but one of those smokes and mirrors.
How barbaric do we have to be if the extra-judiciary killing thousands of our follow citizens can be justified in any just, free and democratic country.
Mugabe’s pre-independence exploits are heroic but his post independence record is nothing but heroic. His murderous past of the last thirty years should not and must not be swept under the carpet regardless of his heroic past. If Mugabe had murdered any British citizen he would have been locked up a long time ago regardless of whether he had been knighted a thousand times over.
Monday 27 February 2012
Mugage takes a swipe on Zuma over gay marriage - his excuse for refusing democratic reforms!
Mugabe described homosexuality as unAfrican Mugabe said: “We won’t accept it in Africa. But other African countries have put it in their constitutions.” This was a calculated swipe at South Africa and President Zuma, it legalized gay marriages in 2009.
President Zuma has been pushing Mugabe to carryout meaningful democratic reforms before there can be elections in Zimbabwe. For the last three years Mugabe has stubbornly resisted. President Zuma’s own reputation now hinges on getting Mugabe accepting at least some basic reforms and holding a fairly free election. This is something Mugabe simply can not afford to do; after thirty years of gross mismanagement and political repression Zimbabweans hate his with a passion and would love to hand him the biggest electoral defeat in history if the elections are free and fair. Mugabe will resist all manner of democratic reforms with all his worth. His very life and that of his cronies depends on staying in power!
Mugabe has no choice but to defy President Zuma and resist democratic reforms and carryon on his set path of using violence to “win” the next election. But Mugabe is a shrewd politician to know not take President Zuma head-on.
Mugabe is dreaming up his difference between himself and President Zuma over the gay issue beyond reason. Mugabe does not have any phobias against homosexuals, former President Cannan Banana was gay and Mugabe worked with him for years. Even if Mugabe was genuinely anti-homosexuals why business is it of him to say what South Africans can and can not do. By the same token it would be no business of President Zuma if he tried to impose his views on homosexuals on Zimbabwe. But there lies Mugabe’s forte.
To Mugabe there is no difference between President Zuma dictating that Zimbabwe should accept gay marriages and that Zimbabwe should accept democratic reforms. Indeed to him, Zimbabwe can not accept the latter without accepting the former as well. All Zimbabweans demanding democratic reforms are by extension demanding the legalisation of homosexuality. All the Zanu PF thugs involved in the political violence will be fighting a “just war” to stop homosexuals and their supporters.
Zimbabweans will be denied their basic human right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and many will, no doubt, be subjected to all manner of abuse and many will lose their very lives in Mugabe’s game of smokes and mirrors.
Mugabe should not be allowed to ride rough shod of the people of Zimbabwe again!
President Zuma has been pushing Mugabe to carryout meaningful democratic reforms before there can be elections in Zimbabwe. For the last three years Mugabe has stubbornly resisted. President Zuma’s own reputation now hinges on getting Mugabe accepting at least some basic reforms and holding a fairly free election. This is something Mugabe simply can not afford to do; after thirty years of gross mismanagement and political repression Zimbabweans hate his with a passion and would love to hand him the biggest electoral defeat in history if the elections are free and fair. Mugabe will resist all manner of democratic reforms with all his worth. His very life and that of his cronies depends on staying in power!
Mugabe has no choice but to defy President Zuma and resist democratic reforms and carryon on his set path of using violence to “win” the next election. But Mugabe is a shrewd politician to know not take President Zuma head-on.
Mugabe is dreaming up his difference between himself and President Zuma over the gay issue beyond reason. Mugabe does not have any phobias against homosexuals, former President Cannan Banana was gay and Mugabe worked with him for years. Even if Mugabe was genuinely anti-homosexuals why business is it of him to say what South Africans can and can not do. By the same token it would be no business of President Zuma if he tried to impose his views on homosexuals on Zimbabwe. But there lies Mugabe’s forte.
To Mugabe there is no difference between President Zuma dictating that Zimbabwe should accept gay marriages and that Zimbabwe should accept democratic reforms. Indeed to him, Zimbabwe can not accept the latter without accepting the former as well. All Zimbabweans demanding democratic reforms are by extension demanding the legalisation of homosexuality. All the Zanu PF thugs involved in the political violence will be fighting a “just war” to stop homosexuals and their supporters.
Zimbabweans will be denied their basic human right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and many will, no doubt, be subjected to all manner of abuse and many will lose their very lives in Mugabe’s game of smokes and mirrors.
Mugabe should not be allowed to ride rough shod of the people of Zimbabwe again!
Saturday 25 February 2012
Tsvangirai appease Mugabe over Chihuri only to be kicked in the teeth - a "sorrowful experience"!
Prime Minister Tsvangirai is right; Zimbabwe’s power sharing unity government has been a “sorrowful experience”. The question the PM should have asked himself a long, long time ago is sorrowful to whom?
In the last two weeks alone the PM has given his thumbs up to the diamond mining in Chiadzwa and Marange although all the mines are in Mugabe loyalists and thus most of revenue from the sell of the diamonds will continue to go into Zanu PF coffers. The scourge of political violence has hung over the nation like the Sword of Damocles. The PM and his MDC party should have demanded the dismissal of Police Commission Chihuri and other Senior Police Officers for their deplorable failure to maintain law order especially in the period April to June 2008. The very fact that Chihuri served his full term was a glaring failure on the part of Tsvangirai. To allow Chihuri to continue in position even in an acting capacity was outrageous. Tsvangirai did all these things to appease Mugabe and yet that was not good enough for the tyrant!
As soon as Tsvangirai announced that Chihuri would continue as Commissioner “temporarily”; Mugabe’s spokesman said the latter would serve till 2014. Everyone knows it is the latter statement that continues. Of course that must be a sorrowful experience for Tsvangirai; Mugabe and his cronies must be laughing their heads off, again!
In the last three years no one has done more to keep Mugabe and his cronies in power than Tsvangirai. But true to form the tyrant and his thugs have “thanked” Tsvangirai by kicking him in the teeth at every turn!
In the last two weeks alone the PM has given his thumbs up to the diamond mining in Chiadzwa and Marange although all the mines are in Mugabe loyalists and thus most of revenue from the sell of the diamonds will continue to go into Zanu PF coffers. The scourge of political violence has hung over the nation like the Sword of Damocles. The PM and his MDC party should have demanded the dismissal of Police Commission Chihuri and other Senior Police Officers for their deplorable failure to maintain law order especially in the period April to June 2008. The very fact that Chihuri served his full term was a glaring failure on the part of Tsvangirai. To allow Chihuri to continue in position even in an acting capacity was outrageous. Tsvangirai did all these things to appease Mugabe and yet that was not good enough for the tyrant!
As soon as Tsvangirai announced that Chihuri would continue as Commissioner “temporarily”; Mugabe’s spokesman said the latter would serve till 2014. Everyone knows it is the latter statement that continues. Of course that must be a sorrowful experience for Tsvangirai; Mugabe and his cronies must be laughing their heads off, again!
In the last three years no one has done more to keep Mugabe and his cronies in power than Tsvangirai. But true to form the tyrant and his thugs have “thanked” Tsvangirai by kicking him in the teeth at every turn!
Sunday 19 February 2012
Tsvangirai's greed once again gets the better of him over Chiadzwa diamonds
Ever since the discovery of these fields in late 2008 there have been stories of human suffering and exploitation akin to the gold mining scenes in the Legend of Zorro movies. Mugabe and his cronies were the chief owners and beneficiaries of the diamond operations and all outside scrutiny was not allowed. Even the country’s Members of Parliament and Prime Minister Tsvangirai were barred from visiting the diamond fields.
For a long time Zimbabwe was stopped from openly trading the Chiadzwa and Marange diamonds until the human rights abuses stopped.
The Kimberly Process (KP), the international watch dog tasked to stop the trade in bloody diamonds, has since lifted the trade in Zimbabwe Chiadzwa because of the disunity within the KP membership but, worse still, because of the increased pressure from Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his MDC party. Tsvangirai wanted the ban lifted even though he was still not allowed to visit the diamond fields.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai was finally “allowed” to visit the Zimbabwe’s bloody Chiadzwa and Marange diamond fields on Thursday 16 February 2012. As expected, Tsvangirai gave his thumbs up to the operations although it is still clear Mugabe and his conies are still the chief beneficiaries of the diamond sells.
“We regard diamond revenue as a major contribution to the fiscus,” PM Tsvangirai argued. But with Mugabe and his cronies still in firm control of the diamond operation and the revenue from it; no doubt most of the revenue will go to Mugabe and not the public fiscus!
Tsvangirai is well aware that Mugabe and Zanu PF are using the money from the sell of Chiadzwa diamonds for their selfish gain including funding political violence. Mugabe has stubbornly refused to give up control of the Chiadzwa and Marange diamonds and he knew that Tsvangirai would relent soon enough and let the tyrant have his way. And that is exactly what has happened. This is not the first time Tsvangirai has done this; Mugabe refused to give up his demands to have the lion’s share of the political power resulting in current power sharing arrangement in which Mugabe is the boss and Tsvangirai is the office messenger!
Zimbabwe will never get out of this political and economic mess with individuals like Tsvangirai leading the charge for change, democracy and justice!
For a long time Zimbabwe was stopped from openly trading the Chiadzwa and Marange diamonds until the human rights abuses stopped.
The Kimberly Process (KP), the international watch dog tasked to stop the trade in bloody diamonds, has since lifted the trade in Zimbabwe Chiadzwa because of the disunity within the KP membership but, worse still, because of the increased pressure from Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his MDC party. Tsvangirai wanted the ban lifted even though he was still not allowed to visit the diamond fields.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai was finally “allowed” to visit the Zimbabwe’s bloody Chiadzwa and Marange diamond fields on Thursday 16 February 2012. As expected, Tsvangirai gave his thumbs up to the operations although it is still clear Mugabe and his conies are still the chief beneficiaries of the diamond sells.
“We regard diamond revenue as a major contribution to the fiscus,” PM Tsvangirai argued. But with Mugabe and his cronies still in firm control of the diamond operation and the revenue from it; no doubt most of the revenue will go to Mugabe and not the public fiscus!
Tsvangirai is well aware that Mugabe and Zanu PF are using the money from the sell of Chiadzwa diamonds for their selfish gain including funding political violence. Mugabe has stubbornly refused to give up control of the Chiadzwa and Marange diamonds and he knew that Tsvangirai would relent soon enough and let the tyrant have his way. And that is exactly what has happened. This is not the first time Tsvangirai has done this; Mugabe refused to give up his demands to have the lion’s share of the political power resulting in current power sharing arrangement in which Mugabe is the boss and Tsvangirai is the office messenger!
Zimbabwe will never get out of this political and economic mess with individuals like Tsvangirai leading the charge for change, democracy and justice!
Wednesday 15 February 2012
Incompeyent Tsvangirai has failed to end dictatorial rule in Zimbabwe!
MDC is letting the people of Zimbabwe down by their failure to properly document the Zanu PF inspired political violence and the Police’s failure to arrest the thugs responsible. Two MDC supporters were murdered last week alone.
We all know that the Police do nothing to investigate and punish all Zanu PF inspired violence including murder and has happened here. But has MDC itself done enough to pressure the Police to do their work?
Did MDC gather all the necessary evidence; a doctor to certify the cause of death, get sworn statements from the witnesses, take the photos of the victim and scene, the name of the Police Officer(s) to whom the murder was reported, what follow up has been carried out locally and with other relevant authorities, etc. It is not enough to say that the Police are not doing anything to end political violence; we need documentary evidence to prove it beyond all reasonable doubt.
Although hundreds of Zimbabweans have been murdered in cold blood in the last three years and those responsible are known it will be no surprise if even a handful of the Zanu PF thugs will ever be convicted in the future for lack of evidence. Indeed, MDC does not even have an accurate record of the number of MDC supporters who have been murdered let alone evidence to convict those responsible. Mwonzora admitted “we suspect that there are more that have not been reported yet.”
“We are very worried because political violence is on the rise. We are also filled with a sense of hopelessness on the part of the MDC in government, because we are unable to protect our supporters,” Mwonzora said. Typical!
Mugabe and Zanu PF are brutal tyrants and murderers. Tsvangirai and MDC on the other hand are both naïve and incompetent. Of course an incompetent leader is infinitely better than a murderous one but this is not a beauty contest and to view it as such is to miss the point. Tsvangirai and MDC were elected on the ticket of ending the Mugabe and Zanu PF dictatorship and they have singularly failed in that task because they are incompetent!
We all know that the Police do nothing to investigate and punish all Zanu PF inspired violence including murder and has happened here. But has MDC itself done enough to pressure the Police to do their work?
Did MDC gather all the necessary evidence; a doctor to certify the cause of death, get sworn statements from the witnesses, take the photos of the victim and scene, the name of the Police Officer(s) to whom the murder was reported, what follow up has been carried out locally and with other relevant authorities, etc. It is not enough to say that the Police are not doing anything to end political violence; we need documentary evidence to prove it beyond all reasonable doubt.
Although hundreds of Zimbabweans have been murdered in cold blood in the last three years and those responsible are known it will be no surprise if even a handful of the Zanu PF thugs will ever be convicted in the future for lack of evidence. Indeed, MDC does not even have an accurate record of the number of MDC supporters who have been murdered let alone evidence to convict those responsible. Mwonzora admitted “we suspect that there are more that have not been reported yet.”
“We are very worried because political violence is on the rise. We are also filled with a sense of hopelessness on the part of the MDC in government, because we are unable to protect our supporters,” Mwonzora said. Typical!
Mugabe and Zanu PF are brutal tyrants and murderers. Tsvangirai and MDC on the other hand are both naïve and incompetent. Of course an incompetent leader is infinitely better than a murderous one but this is not a beauty contest and to view it as such is to miss the point. Tsvangirai and MDC were elected on the ticket of ending the Mugabe and Zanu PF dictatorship and they have singularly failed in that task because they are incompetent!
Sunday 12 February 2012
Zaka MDC supporter murdered in Mugabe's lattest gutter political violence!
An MDC supporter from Zaka East was murdered by Zanu PF thugs after they burnt had set his granary of fire. “They chopped off Mukwena’s hands and it was a truly gruesome murder incident,” said Honorable Harrison Mudzuri, area MDC spokesman.
As usual the Police have made no arrests although the thugs
MDC have the majority in parliament, right! I refuse to accept that parliament, the law making institution in the land with the power and authority to impeach the State President if need cannot get some-good-for-nothing Police Officers to arrest some murderous village thugs. Why has the MDC controlled parliament been so totally toothless?
The real national tragedy here is that because MDC have done nothing to restore law and order the dark days of 2008 elections are coming back again.
There are those calling on MDC supporters and all Zimbabweans calling for the restoration of law and order and thus targets of Zanu PF thugs to fight back. That is exactly what Mugabe would want us to do; he wants us to come down from our moral high ground and fight him in the gutter, his level. Over 500 Zimbabweans died in 2008 because they voted for MDC. Because they believed in parliamentary democracy and that it would use power and authority to restore peace and justice in the land. They all died in vain not because parliament is toothless but because MDC MPs are toothless!
As usual the Police have made no arrests although the thugs
MDC have the majority in parliament, right! I refuse to accept that parliament, the law making institution in the land with the power and authority to impeach the State President if need cannot get some-good-for-nothing Police Officers to arrest some murderous village thugs. Why has the MDC controlled parliament been so totally toothless?
The real national tragedy here is that because MDC have done nothing to restore law and order the dark days of 2008 elections are coming back again.
There are those calling on MDC supporters and all Zimbabweans calling for the restoration of law and order and thus targets of Zanu PF thugs to fight back. That is exactly what Mugabe would want us to do; he wants us to come down from our moral high ground and fight him in the gutter, his level. Over 500 Zimbabweans died in 2008 because they voted for MDC. Because they believed in parliamentary democracy and that it would use power and authority to restore peace and justice in the land. They all died in vain not because parliament is toothless but because MDC MPs are toothless!
Thursday 9 February 2012
Wake-up call for black Africa; you are lazy - some home truth!
This is a no-holds-barred or “must read” article for all black Africans as my friend put it. The writer hits the nail smack on the head!
“They call the Third World the lazy man's purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent-totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it "the dark continent" for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.
"It's amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die," the man next to me said. "Get up and do something about it." Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year's Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist. "My name is Walter," he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat. I told him mine with a precautious smile.
"Where are you from?" he asked.
"Zambia."
"Zambia!" he exclaimed, "Kaunda's country."
"Yes," I said, "Now Sata's."
"But of course," he responded. "You just elected King Cobra as your president." My face lit up at the mention of Sata's moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S. "I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s," he continued. "I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians." He lowered his voice. "I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off." He smirked. "Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all-the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy."
"Are you still with the IMF?" I asked.
"I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We'll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater."
"No, you won't," I said. "King Cobra is incorruptible. He is ..."
He was laughing. "Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick."
Quett Masire's name popped up. "Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do."
At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.
"Isn't that beautiful," Walter said looking down.
From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably. "That's white man's country," he said. "We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia."
I grinned. "There is no Lake Zambia."
He curled his lips into a smug smile. "That's what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels-crumbs. That's your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that's crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That's what lazy people get-Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World."
The smile vanished from my face. "I see you are getting pissed off," Walter said and lowered his voice. "You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That's how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let's for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?"
"There's no difference."
"Absolutely none," he exclaimed. "Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino,and black people on this aircraft are the same."
I gladly nodded. "And yet I feel superior," he smiled fatalistically. "Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he's a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend."
For a moment I was wordless. "Please don't blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don't give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer."
I was thinking. He continued. "Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense."
I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst. "You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy," he said. "When you rest your head on the pillow you don't dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state."
"That's not a nice thing to say," I protested.
He was implacable. "Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?"
I held my breath. "Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don't. We reserve the evening for brainstorming."
He looked me in the eye. "And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don't care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked-oh, I have a PhD in this and that-PhD my foot!"
I was deflated. "Wake up you all!" he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. "You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country's treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them."
He paused. "The Bwana has spoken," he said and grinned. "As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole."
He tempered his voice. "Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god's sake."
At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston's Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand. "I know I was too strong, but I don't give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty." He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. "Here, read this. It was written by a friend."
He had written only the title: "Lords of Poverty."
Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia's literati-the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed-how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.
Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.
But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line. I believe King Cobra's reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our owncar, he would throw me out.
"Naupena? Fuma apa." (Are you mad? Get out of here) Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter's level let's begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let's dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior.
A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don't be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It's time to change our political culture. It's time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don't be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining few of your beloved ones.
Field Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History.
END
Field, we do not need to invent a water filter to drink clean water! All we have to do is dig proper water well and not drink from the shallow wells or straight from the contaminated river. It is not rocket science. But of course we do not and until some white man from Child Aid or Oxfarm digs a well for us five black African children will die every minute from drinking dirty water!
Field Ruwe has said here what needed to be said; as far I am concerned he has made his "discovery" for Africa which if put to good use could change Africa forever just as any other scientific discovery out there has done for the rest of mankind!
“They call the Third World the lazy man's purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent-totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it "the dark continent" for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.
"It's amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die," the man next to me said. "Get up and do something about it." Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year's Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist. "My name is Walter," he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat. I told him mine with a precautious smile.
"Where are you from?" he asked.
"Zambia."
"Zambia!" he exclaimed, "Kaunda's country."
"Yes," I said, "Now Sata's."
"But of course," he responded. "You just elected King Cobra as your president." My face lit up at the mention of Sata's moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S. "I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s," he continued. "I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians." He lowered his voice. "I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off." He smirked. "Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all-the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy."
"Are you still with the IMF?" I asked.
"I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We'll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater."
"No, you won't," I said. "King Cobra is incorruptible. He is ..."
He was laughing. "Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick."
Quett Masire's name popped up. "Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do."
At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.
"Isn't that beautiful," Walter said looking down.
From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably. "That's white man's country," he said. "We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia."
I grinned. "There is no Lake Zambia."
He curled his lips into a smug smile. "That's what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels-crumbs. That's your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that's crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That's what lazy people get-Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World."
The smile vanished from my face. "I see you are getting pissed off," Walter said and lowered his voice. "You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That's how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let's for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?"
"There's no difference."
"Absolutely none," he exclaimed. "Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino,and black people on this aircraft are the same."
I gladly nodded. "And yet I feel superior," he smiled fatalistically. "Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he's a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend."
For a moment I was wordless. "Please don't blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don't give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer."
I was thinking. He continued. "Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense."
I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst. "You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy," he said. "When you rest your head on the pillow you don't dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state."
"That's not a nice thing to say," I protested.
He was implacable. "Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?"
I held my breath. "Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don't. We reserve the evening for brainstorming."
He looked me in the eye. "And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don't care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked-oh, I have a PhD in this and that-PhD my foot!"
I was deflated. "Wake up you all!" he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. "You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country's treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them."
He paused. "The Bwana has spoken," he said and grinned. "As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole."
He tempered his voice. "Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god's sake."
At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston's Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand. "I know I was too strong, but I don't give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty." He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. "Here, read this. It was written by a friend."
He had written only the title: "Lords of Poverty."
Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia's literati-the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed-how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.
Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.
But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line. I believe King Cobra's reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our owncar, he would throw me out.
"Naupena? Fuma apa." (Are you mad? Get out of here) Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter's level let's begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let's dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior.
A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don't be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It's time to change our political culture. It's time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don't be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining few of your beloved ones.
Field Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History.
END
Field, we do not need to invent a water filter to drink clean water! All we have to do is dig proper water well and not drink from the shallow wells or straight from the contaminated river. It is not rocket science. But of course we do not and until some white man from Child Aid or Oxfarm digs a well for us five black African children will die every minute from drinking dirty water!
Field Ruwe has said here what needed to be said; as far I am concerned he has made his "discovery" for Africa which if put to good use could change Africa forever just as any other scientific discovery out there has done for the rest of mankind!
Tuesday 7 February 2012
Tsvangirai could well be the worst electoral mistake Zimbabwe has ever made!
Prime Minister Tsvangirai is reportedly seething with anger after his letter to Mugabe was leaked and published in the Sunday Mail.
I am tired of hearing about Tsvangirai "seething" about this and holding "explosive" meeting with Mugabe about that and everything nothing comes out of it all!
Zimbabweans have made some monumental mistakes in the last 30 years electing Mugabe in 1980 and Tsvangirai in 2008 are the biggest. The latter is the worst of the two for three reasons:
1) After making the first mistake of electing Mugabe, Zimbabweans should have been more careful who they voted for.
2) It is Tsvangirai’s incompetency that has kept Mugabe in power for these last ten years. Mugabe was finished after the sham 2008 elections and it was Tsvangirai who got him off the hook by signing the one-sided power sharing agreement.
3) Even if Mugabe was to give up power after the next elections, Tsvangirai is too weak to stop the country slipping into lawlessness or worse. After thirty years of this ruthless Zanu PF dictatorship; thousands of Zimbabweans have gained financially from the system and, worse still, many of them have the blood of innocent people. They have an invested interest in maintaining the status quo and they are armed to the teeth. Tsvangirai would only to keen to appease them! The chaos that has engulfed countries like Somalia and more recently Egypt can well happen in Zimbabwe; yet.
I am tired of hearing about Tsvangirai "seething" about this and holding "explosive" meeting with Mugabe about that and everything nothing comes out of it all!
Zimbabweans have made some monumental mistakes in the last 30 years electing Mugabe in 1980 and Tsvangirai in 2008 are the biggest. The latter is the worst of the two for three reasons:
1) After making the first mistake of electing Mugabe, Zimbabweans should have been more careful who they voted for.
2) It is Tsvangirai’s incompetency that has kept Mugabe in power for these last ten years. Mugabe was finished after the sham 2008 elections and it was Tsvangirai who got him off the hook by signing the one-sided power sharing agreement.
3) Even if Mugabe was to give up power after the next elections, Tsvangirai is too weak to stop the country slipping into lawlessness or worse. After thirty years of this ruthless Zanu PF dictatorship; thousands of Zimbabweans have gained financially from the system and, worse still, many of them have the blood of innocent people. They have an invested interest in maintaining the status quo and they are armed to the teeth. Tsvangirai would only to keen to appease them! The chaos that has engulfed countries like Somalia and more recently Egypt can well happen in Zimbabwe; yet.
Sunday 5 February 2012
ELECTORATE MUST HAVE SOMETHING MEANINGFUL TO SAY FOR MEANINGFUL SAY!
If we call the tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have? The answer is four; because calling the tail a leg does not make it a leg! A dog with a crippled leg may wish the tail was a leg still the tail will remain a tail regardless of the dog’s desperate need.
By the same token, many people will claim themselves to be champions of justice, freedom fighters, democrats, servants of the people, etc., etc.; they will never be any one of these people just because they said so. But out of folly and our own craving for saviours we, the people, have willingly accepted these people as heroes per excellence never to be questioned by ordinary mortals, us!
After thirty years of black majority rule; most Zimbabweans would now admit that the freedom, justice, peace and economic prosperity they had hoped for and many had died for have not materialised. Of course the explanation why this has happened is simple enough; we trusted Mugabe and Zanu PF no questions asked. What else; they were the country’s liberation heroes. Sadly, we clearly learnt nothing from the blind trust of Mugabe; because now we are doing exactly the same with Tsvangirai and MDC.
It is not so much that Zimbabweans failed to realise what a tyrant Mugabe was until it was too late; they could not. How could they when they were almost blind to what was happening. If Zimbabweans had followed the countless blunders Tsvangirai has made ever since he stepped in the country’s political scene, particularly in the last three years; it is inconceivable how anyone would still support him.
It is one thing talking about the individual right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. But what use is that right if the individual has NOTHING meaningful to say. Zimbabwe’s thorniest problem today is without doubt the Security Sector fuelled political violence, notably the Police and CIO. Few Zimbabweans have an opinion on the matter and thus have failed to push Tsvangirai to address the matter. Needless to say Tsvangirai has no solution on the matter either. This is not rocket science!
Zimbabweans have to take an active interest in what is happening to them and drive the agenda for freedom, justice, etc. and not leave everything to the likes of Mugabe and Tsvangirai. It is impossible to have a functional democracy without an informed electorate.
By the same token, many people will claim themselves to be champions of justice, freedom fighters, democrats, servants of the people, etc., etc.; they will never be any one of these people just because they said so. But out of folly and our own craving for saviours we, the people, have willingly accepted these people as heroes per excellence never to be questioned by ordinary mortals, us!
After thirty years of black majority rule; most Zimbabweans would now admit that the freedom, justice, peace and economic prosperity they had hoped for and many had died for have not materialised. Of course the explanation why this has happened is simple enough; we trusted Mugabe and Zanu PF no questions asked. What else; they were the country’s liberation heroes. Sadly, we clearly learnt nothing from the blind trust of Mugabe; because now we are doing exactly the same with Tsvangirai and MDC.
It is not so much that Zimbabweans failed to realise what a tyrant Mugabe was until it was too late; they could not. How could they when they were almost blind to what was happening. If Zimbabweans had followed the countless blunders Tsvangirai has made ever since he stepped in the country’s political scene, particularly in the last three years; it is inconceivable how anyone would still support him.
It is one thing talking about the individual right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. But what use is that right if the individual has NOTHING meaningful to say. Zimbabwe’s thorniest problem today is without doubt the Security Sector fuelled political violence, notably the Police and CIO. Few Zimbabweans have an opinion on the matter and thus have failed to push Tsvangirai to address the matter. Needless to say Tsvangirai has no solution on the matter either. This is not rocket science!
Zimbabweans have to take an active interest in what is happening to them and drive the agenda for freedom, justice, etc. and not leave everything to the likes of Mugabe and Tsvangirai. It is impossible to have a functional democracy without an informed electorate.
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