More
Zimbabweans expect life to be better in the next 12 months than those who think
it will be worse, according to a survey by African think-tank, Afrobarometer.
Afrobarometer
is a Zanu PF funded outfit there to rebrand the corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe
and Zanu PF regime as a popular and well love regime. One of the common tricks
in the propagandist’s manual is
to make sure in there somewhere are some basic truths and then blend that with
the generous portions of half-truths, lies and damned lies. Only the smart will
separate the truth from the propaganda, the uninitiated will swallow the lot.
Zimbabweans
have a panache for believing that no matter how bad things are tomorrow is
bound to be better. So, there is the truth in Afrobarometer’s finding but it will require a
qualitative analysis on their finding to uncover the sinister propaganda
message behind the report.
Afrobarometer
has come out with all sorts of nonsensical findings such as claiming Mugabe has
a 64% approval rating amongst Zimbabweans. The finds are pure propaganda lies designed
to create the impression that Mugabe and his corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF
regime are popular with the people. The regime has destroyed the country’s economy forcing millions into
poverty and has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans in its 37 years in
power. Many Zimbabweans are simple minded and gullible but they are not that stupid
to love a corrupt and murderous tyrant who has made their lives a
hell-on-earth!
If
Afrobarometer believed their own propaganda lies for even one minute, then they
must explain the glaring contradiction of the Zanu PF regime rigging elections.
A regime that is so popular not need to rig election, and yet Zanu PF is yet to
hold its first free, fair and credible elections. The regime’s vote rigging and use of wanton
political violence in 2008 elections were so outrageous that not even SADC and
AU election observers, known for giving their thumbs up to dodgy election
processes, were compelled to condemn Zimbabwe’s election.
The
reason why some Zimbabweans would think their lives will be better a year from
now, regardless of who is ruling the country then, has more to do with their
eternal optimism. They do not just take the run of the mill optimist's view of
seeing the half full glass of milk; their glass is empty and their view is it
cannot get worse and so it must only get better, the glass will fill up again.
Time
and time again when bad things have happened be it the pot-hole in the road,
the power cuts, local hospital running out of basic drugs, the corrupt in high
places, etc.; Zimbabweans have greeted it all with a stony silence and even
joked about it all. They have tolerated all these things with bewildering
humour confident the nation has hit rock bottom, things will not get worse.
President
Mugabe has even praised the Zimbabwean people for grit tolerance of hardships
and “resilience”.
What
has generally happened is that things have got worse; what the people had thought
was the rock bottom has turned out to be a false bottom. The pot-holes have become
larger, deeper and more numerous, the power cuts have increased from a few
hours a month to months on end with no electricity, whole hospital wards have
been closed, $15 billions of diamonds are now being swindled, etc.
Zimbabweans
are now the poorest people in Africa with an average income of $200 per person
per year. The irony is the country is one of the wealthiest countries on earth
in terms of natural resources and potential and thus it is not surprising then
that we have some of the richest and most wasteful ruling elite in the world.
The
ruling elite's greed for absolute political power and material wealth is
insatiable. They are always scheming ways of creaming off even more power and
wealth for themselves at the expense of the populous. President Mugabe and his
growing family are making regular trips the Far East for their shopping,
education, health needs, etc. that costs money and so they will be seriously
looking at cutting povo’s $200 annual
income. As far as the tyrant is concerned povo are simple people with simple
and cheap needs, they will not know what to do with such a generous income of
$200 per year!
Afrobarometer’s propaganda message is taping on the
Zimbabwean people’s eternal
optimism that the country has hit rock bottom and so they must get better and
they do not need to lift a finger removing this failed Zanu PF dictatorship. Another
rig election next year will not make any difference to their lot.
If
the people of Zimbabwe want to arrest the economic meltdown that has left 90%
unemployed and millions living in abject poverty then they must get off their
backsides and work for meaningful economic recovery. The starting point of the
recovery will be with getting a competent and democratically accountable
government which means making sure there are free and fair elections.
Zimbabweans
must now learn that no amount of wishful thinking will ever fill their empty
glass of milk!
4 comments:
@ ZIPP
"While young voters in the past have been comfortable in apathy neglecting the importance of voting, they should realise that their voice is an important one because democracy doesn’t work without citizen participation. Their vote does matter, so much so because history has shown that a collective youth vote could actually sway an election."
This is just nonsense based on nothing else other than guess work!
Everyone with any common sense will telling you Zanu PF has been rigging elections and one of the ways it has done this is by denying the vote to those most likely to vote for change. Young people and those in the urban centres are certainly more likely to vote for the opposition and therefore would have been the targeted. To then say young people and urban dwellers have not been voting because of voter apathy is nonsense.
We need to implement the democratic reforms and ensure free, fair and credible elections and not waste time on trivial matter such as voter mobilisation, building coalitions, etc. out of cowardice of not wanting to deal with Zanu PF!
Grace Mugabe has two demons who have destroyed her chances of holding high office - her greed and her stupidity.
G40 faction could have done a lot better if it had a better leader than Grace, every time she has opened her mouth she has left no one in any doubt that she would be one of the worst candidates to talk over after Mugabe. She is just a empty drum making a lot of noise!
Grace's greed has made her extremely unpopular in the country. The more she has the more she has demanded. By being so greedy, she has drawn attention to herself and her loot; she will never hang on to all of it when there is regime change!
When Zimbabwe attained her independence few people, if any at all, understood that they had the freedoms and human rights of citizens they had all dreamt of but, more significantly, they also had the duty to themselves and posterity to defend those freedoms and rights if they should be threatened. As soon as President Mugabe walked into office in 1980 he started to systematically erode the people’s freedoms and human rights to lay the foundation of his de facto one party dictatorship. No one protested! It was like taking wagon full of gold, diamonds and slaves in exchange for calico cloth and shiny beads!
Even when it was clear that Zanu PF was dragging the whole nation into the gutter, people still did nothing to stop the madness for the stupid reason that they expected things to get better of their own accord!
Even with the nation now in deep, deep trouble we still have people like Oliver Mtukudzi pretending he does not know what he gone wrong. “I am not a politician!” he said.
After 37 years of this Zanu PF dictatorship we cannot say we did not have the chance to end the corrupt and tyrannical rule; we had many chance but wasted them all for many reasons. People get the government they deserve and we cannot say we do not deserve this one!
Unless we wake up to our responsibility as citizen to reclaim our freedoms and human rights then we are not going to get out of this hell-hole we find ourselves in. That is a fact!
In the last 37 years, we have had many, many golden opportunities to end this Zanu PF dictatorship but have wasted them all. The best chance to end the dictatorship, by a long mile, was during the GNU when all Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had to do was implement the democratic reforms already discussed and agreed in the 2008. MDC failed to implement even one reform in five years.
Worse still, we the people failed to get MDC to do the only logical and critical task. Even now, with the benefit of hindsight, many Zimbabweans still continue to follow MDC blindly like sheep to the slaughter. Zimbabwe needs the democratic reforms implemented and we continue to put our trust to have this important task done on the same corrupt and incompetent MDC politicians.
Instead of MDC finally making amends and push for democratic reforms they have once again sold-out. They have settled for the few seats Zanu PF is giving away, the bribes, to the opposition in return for giving the vote rigging democratic credibility by contesting flawed elections.
We need free, fair and credible elections to get out of the economic and political mess we are in and it is none other than the corrupt and incompetent opposition who are stopping us getting there. It is ironic that the likes of Tsvangirai should continue to pretend they are fighting in the people’s corner when they are nothing more than double agents, fighting hard to keep the Zanu PF dictatorship.
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