Yes, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is in Egypt for UN COP27 Climate Summit. He will, no doubt, be accompanied by the usual high-powered delegation of hangers-on. He will complain of how sanctions are stopping Zimbabwe from addressing the Climate change challenges and call for the sanctions to be lifted. He will also call on the developed nations to honour their Climate Fund commitments; hoping against hope that Zimbabwe will get something regardless of the country’s reputation as one of the most corrupt and wasteful nations.
But most important of all, COP27 is a photo opportunity,
Mnangagwa would hurt to miss!
To UN official COP27 stands for “27th Conference
of the Parties”, to many people it is just a talking shop and to many third
world leaders it is another opportunity to pile on the pressure on the
developed nations for handouts.
UK PM Rishi Sunak says
UK remains committed to £11.6 billion climate fund to help developing countries
to cope with the ill effects of climate change and to transition from present
position of emitting green-house gases to net zero emission.
Third world countries like Zimbabwe’s failure to stamp out
corruption has given some of the developed countries the excuse drag their feet
on their commitments to the climate fund. They know whatever countries like
Zimbabwe get, they will waste most of it. Zimbabwe received the least covid-19 aid
for the same reason – corruption.
Former Health Minister Obadiah Moyo was sacked when details
came out that he was behind the looting of US$60 million, in donated covid 19
funds. The case has been kicked into touch, which is the norm given Zanu PF catch
and release policy!
The Earth’s temperature has increased exponentially to march
the rise of green-house gases released into the atmosphere. warming continues
to rise. The average global temperature has risen by 1.15 degrees Centigrade in
the last 300 years, marking start of the industrial revolution and the increased
consumption of fossil fuel to power the machines.
The increase in the Earth’s average temperature, only 1.15
degrees Centigrade, has cause very significant climate changes. The temperature
rise has resulted in glaciers melting resulting in significant sea level rise and
flood many coastal land and cities. The temperature variation has disrupted the
weather pattern increasing the frequency and extend of extreme weather
conditions such as heat waves, floods, drought, etc.
“We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing … And
our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos
irreversible,” UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres warned in his COP 27
opening remarks.
“We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the
accelerator.”
Like it or not we, in the developing countries have
contributed the least to global warming and yet we are the ones paying most dearly
for it. Whenever those in the developed nations catch flu, we in the developing
world are coughing blood or worse! It is therefore in our interest to play a
more positive role in fighting global warming by making sure every dollar we
receive from the Climate Fund is used wisely and accounted for!
1 comment:
@ Innocent Mpoki
The main opposition will enter next year's election with a new name, Citizens Coalitions for Change (CCC). Hidden in the acronym perhaps not deftly is the personalistic nature of opposition politics in Zimbabwe.
The name comes from the slogan Chamisa Chete Chete (No one, but Chamisa — the current leader of the main opposition.) Opposition politics in Zimbabwe revolves around one popular individual, rather than a programmatic agenda or ideology.
Prior to Nelson Chamisa, opposition political discourses used to revolve around the late Morgan Tsvangirai. People in the opposition rally around a popular individual with the loudest megaphone to stir up their emotions.
The leader's word is the party's manifesto. Because opposition politics is about personalities, this is why there have been many divisions in the opposition. These divisions are often over trivial issues such as personal grudges.
You have hit the nail on the head there, Zimbabwe politics, not just opposition politics, “revolves around personalities rather than a programmatic agenda or ideology”!
It was the great Greek philosopher, Socrates, who said "Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." Zimbabwe is a nation of small minds. Whilst many ancient Greeks, 2 500 years ago, had already made the quantum leap to be great minds – a prerequisite for democracy to work. We in Zimbabwe with the benefit of 2 500 years of human civilization are still failing to make the quantum leap.
It took Zimbabweans over 20 years to accept the simple reality that Mugabe was a corrupt, incompetent and murderous thug. The nation had welcomed him and his Zanu PF friends in 1980 as the nation’s liberators who could do no wrong and so the people refuse to believe their own eyes as Mugabe started ridding roughshod over the people denying them their freedoms and rights.
Other than the simple desire for democratic change to remove Mugabe and Zanu PF the people had no idea what the democratic changes they needed were much less how they were to be implemented. The elected Morgan Tsvangirai to spear head the changes without any idea what the reforms are much less programmatic agenda to implement the reforms.
Politics has become the career path to fleece the public legally, especially in a country like Zimbabwe where the electorate have no clue what they want. Tsvangirai and company were quick to promise to deliver the democratic changes the nation was asking for without knowing that those changes are.
The fact that even now, 22 years after the launch of the MDC, the party has not implemented even one token reform and the people themselves have not even noticed it goes to show the people’s continued support has nothing to do with performance, ideology or anything of substance.
Until we get our people’s intellectual ability to rise above the small mind discussing people level, Zimbabwe will remain a poor nation blundering from one crisis into another, replacing one mediocre leader for another!
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