“Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us
into space, we didn’t deny Sputnik was up there,” admitted President Barack
Obama in his 7th and last State Of The Union Statement.
“We didn’t argue about the science, or shrink
our research and development budget. We built a space program almost overnight,
and twelve years later, we were walking on the moon.”
In three short sentences President Obama
summed up what has made America great! And, without saying so, what has held
back Zimbabwe.
Whenever America has had any problem; and it
has had many problems throughout its history from the fight for independence,
the fight to end slavery, the 1930 economic depression, Second World War, etc.;
it has not denied the problem but rather acknowledged it and confronted it
head-on! In contrast Zimbabwe has sort to deny the problem and what better example
of this than the economy.
Other than the first few years after
independence, the Zimbabwe economy has been in steady decline for the last 36
years. The root causes of the decline were mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness
as exemplified by the violent seizure of the white owned farms to give them to mainly
Zanu PF loyalists and the shameless attempt to extend this thievery into private
sector with of the indigenisation law in 2008. Instead of addressing these
causes the Mugabe regime has even denied the very existences of these problems
and blames the economic problems on sanctions, drought and many such feeble excuses
and scapegoats.
The denials have only given the problems the
time and cover to grow and spread. So after three and half decades of doing
nothing to end mismanagement, corruption, etc. these problems have spread to
every sector of the economy and overwhelming us all. Today the Zimbabwe economy
is in such a mess many companies have closed down, unemployment has soared into
the stratosphere of 90% plus, the nation is failing to supply basic needs like
clean running water, millions are living in abject poverty.
The Americans were able to send a man on the
moon and have chalked a lot more other achievements since and will continued to
do so in future because they have the “can do” attitude.
Short changing Zimbabweans has been easy
because the great majority of them view themselves as helpless victims who
cannot do anything to defend what is rightfully theirs and nowhere is this more
graphically illustrated than in politics.
Zimbabwe has been independent now for 36
years, has the benefit of centuries of world history and yet the nation is
still failing to define what it needs done for free, fair and credible
elections. The need for a Police force who will enforce the rule of law without
fear or favour, for example, is not rocket science and yet Zimbabweans have
failed to demand this during the GNU when the political leaders were called
upon to implement democratic reforms.
Zimbabweans know the Zimbabwe of criminal economic
waste of resources and brutal political oppression and vote rigging is not the
Zimbabwe they want. They would have voted Mugabe out of office a long time ago
but have failed to do so because the tyrant was able to rig elections time and
again, the nation has been stuck with the regime for 36 years now. There were
many opportunities for the nation to end Mugabe’s dictatorship, the best chance
being during the GNU, but none of these chances were seized and made to count
because Zimbabweans lacked the “can do” attitude.
“I believe
in change because I believe in you, the American people,” concluded President
Obama. “And that’s why I stand here, as confident as I have ever been, that the
state of our Union is strong!”
Zimbabwe
is in serious trouble and unless we, the people, seize this opportunity and embrace
change, discard our helpless victim mentality and be masters of our own
destiny, this country will continue to sink into poverty and hopeless despair.
7 comments:
In Bulawayo, the situation is dire as Mpilo Central Hospital has below 50 percent of its require-ments, a situation that is affecting the health delivery system in the city.
Most patients have to buy their own medicine which most of them cannot afford.
Zimbabwe's economic situation is socially and politically unsustainable. The regime has been struggling to find enough money to pay civil servant wages let alone other necessities including drugs. If a major hospital like Mpilo Hospital has no drugs what more of the district hospitals and clinic in the rural backwaters? There is no doubt that many people are now dying already be-cause they have no access to a simple drug like High Blood Pressure tablets of malaria tablets. The question is how long are people going to continue quietly bury their dead, go back home and wait their turn to suffer and die?
Mugabe, tongue in the check, praised the Zimbabwean people for their “resilience”. Who is he to say that when the nation has spent $3 million a trip to send him to the Far East for even something as simple as an eye check-up. In 2012 he made no fewer than 12 such trips.
Not that he needed the nation to pay his medical bills; he could have paid it himself given that he has been pocketing $2 billion from all the looting and plunder going on in Marange. He is keep-ing the looted wealth to pay for his wife’s endless political rallies and to finance the next vote rigging schemes.
So Zimbabweans are paying for Mugabe to rig elections with not in billions of dollars of looted treasure but now the nation is paying the ultimate price in human misery and human lives! Until the people wake-up to the reality that this is a clear cut case the abuse of State power and national material and human resources this is not going to stop but instead get worse.
@ Musiyanwa
Mujuru and the rest in PF have played their part in creating the de facto one party state and have taken their share of the spoils. For the last 34 years she has been "who she really is" - cor-rupt, lazy, incompetent, tyrannical, etc. If she did agree with what was going on why did she stay?
She not only stayed but was defending the system. As recent as February 2014 she was denying there was no corruption and stories of the $500 000 salary of people like Cuthbert Dube were "lies from those with a regime change agenda" she said.
Just because she is now seeking our vote and that image will not help her get our vote does not mean that image is not the true Mai Mujuru.
We already know Mai Mujuru is corrupt and incompetent we do not need to give her another chance to see if she is not what we know she IS. This is the argument put forward by those too lazy to accept we made a mistake and think of a way out and so they want to recycle the same failed leaders.
You should pedal your stupid arguments in Herald - if they would let you now that Mujuru is no long a Zanu PF member.
@ Mukanya
We are talking about ending the Zanu PF dictatorship but must be careful we do not replace it with an equally corrupt and incompetent regime or worse. Electing corrupt and incompetent op-position leaders, is not being progressive but dumb and worse still if we already KNOW these leaders are corrupt and incompetent.
I know little minded people like you can only have one idea in your head and that idea is remov-ing Mugabe but if we are ever to get out of this hell hole we need to think of removing Mugabe but also think of whom we will replace him with. Thank God there are a few people with the mental ability to deal with the two issues. In this case, three issues, the third one is having to explain everything to half-wits like you and, if necessary, put you in your place by telling you to go skin the goat (i.e. shut up).
Read what Patrick said above and one theme rings true throughout and in all his past articles - implement the GPA reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. How can Patrick be a CIO or working for Zanu PF if he is calling for Zanu PF's demise. Your intellectual capacity, or rather lack of it, is shocking; you do say some of the most stupid things only a five year old would say!
Zimbabwe has wasted many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship; we are going to get it right this time even in the face of all these corrupt and incompetent leaders and their herd of wildebeest following them blindly! Take that as read!
@ Tano
I agree with you Tano, it seems that having failed to get quality leaders we have gone for quanti-ty. We have taken after Mugabe and his obsession like quantity we now have colleges and uni-versities everywhere but all of them so poorly equipped and staffed that the quality of education they are providing is so poor it is not worth it.
I interviewed some "O" and "A" level students a few years ago and none of them could tell me what a verb is! I later learned that two of those students went on university and one graduated with honours even. Every year Mugabe has capped - he the Chancellor of all the country's Uni-versities (I have lost count how many) - 50 000 plus university graduates and, sadly, many of them still do not know what a verb is!
Many of these mediocre university graduate go on to join political parties and become ministers or deputy ministers like our MDC friends Obert Gutu and Douglas Mwonzora. In all their years in the MDC I have yet to hear those two say something sensible!
In our disparate effort to remove Mugabe we, the public, have overlooked the need for quality opposition; that is the only excuse why we have gone over the moon in our praise of a village idiot like Morgan Tsvangirai. Over a party of village idiots would have failed to implement even one reform in five years; MDC did just that.
I agree the lack of quality leaders in Zanu PF and the opposition is lamentable; we are in this hell-hole because we, the people, have not taken the business of electing competent leaders with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands. Worse still, we are not getting out of the hell-hole until we finally take the business seriously.
PDP criticize the British for re-engage Zanu PF in the face of the worsening human rights violations by the Zanu PF regime.
This is rich coming from the party that failed to end Zanu PF dictatorship. If PDP was concerned with ending human rights abuse then why did its leaders when they were in the GNU implement the reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship? They had five years to do this and yet failed to get even one reform implemented!
PDP are issuing these statements out of the need to remain politically relevant given they falling political fortunes! Ignore PDP!
You are just arguing in a circle; no start point and no end point.
Here is a start point; we have an undemocratic political system that has allowed Mugabe to rig elections and denied the people their democratic freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections.
There end point is to end Mugabe's ability to rig elections so we have free, fair and credible elections.
We have a road-map to take us from starting point to end point; we must implement all the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA. SADC, MDC and even Zanu PF cannot deny that not even one reform was implemented during the GNU.
We still have the same start and end points and so the 2008 GPA road-map is still as relevant now as it was back in 2008. To reject it on the grounds that it is a historic document is childish and foolish. We are not going to waste time reinventing the wheel to placate a mentally challenged person like you; we have more pressing matters to attend to like getting reforms implemented!
@ Nhamodzenyika
The net is closing in even on Mugabe himself.
When Nathan Shamuyarira died he was a pauper. The family was so poor the wife could not afford the bus fare from Borrowdale to Avenue Hospital to be with him at his death bed. Their house was in such an advance state of rot and decay Mugabe had it painted the afternoon Nathan died in a cynical attempt to hide the poverty of the family. Shamuyariya was a Zanu PF grandee, as you know.
The late Enos Nkala is another party grandee who died a pauper.
The in fighting in Zanu PF is as ruthless as it is unstoppable; it is being fueled by the fear of abject poverty. Any party member who fails to secure a place at the feeding trough, with the fast shrinking national economy the number of places is being cut by the day, no wonder it is a fight to the death.
Mugabe promised his hardliners that they too will soon have a steady source of income from holding 51% shares in foreign owned companies. As you know foreign investors have shied away from Zimbabwe and reducing the demands of the indigenisation law has not resulted in a flood of foreigners queuing to take on these Zanu PF parasites. Meanwhile the hardliners are losing their patience with Mugabe. The tyrant is feeling the heat alright.
This year things are going to be tough for povo, real tough, but one hopes that this will spur them to demand change because that is the only way things can change for the better in Zimbabwe. The people must demand the implementation of the GPA reforms followed by free, fair and credible elections.
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