Mankind is a creature of reason, it is our ability to think that have made us the most dominant creature on earth.
But just as having feathers is the common characteristic that has enabled birds to fly; it is common knowledge that not all birds have the same mastery of the air. So too with the human brain; not all humans have the same mastery of thinking. The individual, groups, nations, etc. who have shown to be marginally more rational, systematic, etc. had the edge over the competition and fared better.
It is said that the couch potato is more fat than muscle because muscle tissue, if not exercised, atrophies to fat. Brain tissue may not atrophies to fat, still there is no doubt that an unexercised brain is not as quick, dexterous and capacious as a well exercised one!
“International Monetary Fund’s most recent edition of the World Economic Outlook indicates that Zimbabwe is one of the poorest countries in the world,” wrote Steve H. Hanke, Professor of applied economics at The Johns Hopkins University, in an article in Spotlight Zimbabwe.
“Zimbabwe’s collapse shows up in every international rating of the economy. In the World Bank’s Doing Business 2018 index, Zimbabwe ranks 159 out of 190; in the Cato Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World listing for 2018, Zimbabwe is 127 out of 162; in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2018, Zimbabwe ranks 128 out of 140.”
Yet 38 years ago, Zimbabwe was a middle-income country with the potential to be the South Korea of Africa. What happened?
“We have had the great misfortune of being stuck with an incompetent, corrupt and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship that rigged elections to stay in power against the people’s democratic will!” is the standard answer to that question.
But that has to be the lazy-minded’s answer because it provokes the follow-up question: why was the nation stuck with the Zanu PF dictatorship for 38 years?
Whenever the devil and his imps closes the door to imprison mankind; the Lord always opens a window. It is inconceivable that in the last 38 years, the Lord has failed to open the window to allow the people of Zimbabwe to end the Zanu PF dictatorship.
There have been many golden opportunities for the people of Zimbabwe to end the de facto one-party dictatorship but they have all been wasted. During the 2008 to 2013 GNU the nation had the “get out of jail” card and failed to use it.
SADC forced Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs to agree to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms design to dismantle the dictatorship. All Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were tasked to do was implement the reforms. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years.
To blame the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders for why the country has been stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship will a partial answer because it too beggars the question: why did the nation risk life and limb to elect and entrust the sell-out MDC leaders with the important task of ending the Zanu PF dictatorship?
The answer to that question is that we, the ordinary Zimbabweans ourselves, have become the intellection couch potatoes. We have lacked the mental capacity to understand what Zanu PF has doing in systematically corrupting the country’s democratic institutions, much less the mental agility to do something to stop the regime.
It took 20 years for many Zimbabweans to finally understood the need for democratic change as the only way to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. Still many, even to this day, have no clue what these democratic changes are hence the reason MDC leaders were able to sell-out on reforms and get away with it.
In the long run, the people get the government they deserve; Zimbabweans certainly deserve this corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of corrupt and incompetent opposition parties. Zimbabweans deserve to be one of the poorest nations on earth.
Worst of all, there is nothing to suggest Zimbabweans are ever going to get out of this hell-on-earth the nation is now stuck in because there is nothing to suggest an desire to question pertinent questions to show a willingness to fire-up their brain and start thinking.
Zanu PF has just rigged the recent elections confirming the country is still a pariah state, for example. This has dealt a hammer blow to all hopes of meaningful economic recovery because the much hoped for inward investment will never come. No one invests in a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. None of these political and economic realities have even registered in minds of most Zimbabweans.
The EU, the Americans and other outsiders are more interested in holding President Mnangagwa to account for failing to hold free, fair and credible elections than most Zimbabweans. Whilst every thinking human being would consider the individual freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country and the right to life sacred and worth dying for Zimbabweans consider them to be privileges, at best.
In many other countries Mnangagwa and his junta will be is serious trouble for the wholesale looting, blatantly rigging the elections, staging a military coup, multiple murders, etc.; in Zimbabwe they are heroes because the people have yet to register these activities as unlawful much less treason.
Zimbabwe is one of the poorest nations on the planet but only because we allowed ourselves to become couch potatoes mentally. And, until we snap out of our mental slumber, there will be no escaping from our self-inflicted poverty.
13 comments:
Speaking at the MDC Anniversary Celebrations in Harare at the weekend, opposition pressure group Tajamuka/Sesijikile and ZINASU leaders gave Mnangagwa the ultimatum to step down by November 1.
Mnangagwa rigged the recent elections, he is illegitimate and, yes, he must step down. But tell us what will happen next.
It is all very well calling on Mnangagwa to step down what or who will take his place? The nation should have a clear idea what went wrong, how is it going to be corrected and what measure will be taken to ensure we do not remove one tyrant only to replace him with another tyrant!
Zimbabwe is one of the poorest nations on the planet and it is all self-inflicted poverty borne out of failed leadership on both sides of the political divide and also on the people themselves. Man is supposed to be a creature of reason; thinking is just not our thing!
“The RBZ (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) introduced the nostro FCA and RTGS FCA account as a way to ring-fence nostro funds and following this announcement black market rates started spiralling out of control as uncertainty gripped.
“The nostro FCA accounts have since been implemented, however, because the RBZ, in essence, admitted that there was a difference between the hard currency and RTGS balances as opposed to the previous mantra of a 1:1 rate, the public has become aware of that their RTGS balances are not worth as much as they believed they were.
As long as Zimbabwe continues to import more than it earns in exports the pressure on the local currency to lose its value against the foreign currency will remain. Volatility in the whole economy will remain too!
In fact, the opposition should now be preparing for 2023, hoping to double their support base of over 2,1 million in the next election so that the rigging they claim was done by Zanu PF becomes difficult.
Political stakeholders should also work on electoral and other reforms before then.
There is a lot that is happening in the country right now — including unprecedented corruption — as well as an economic tailspin that has made life more difficult for the ordinary majority.
After 38 years of Zanu PF rigging the elections we should all be agreed on three key points at least -
that no meaningful reforms will ever be implemented by Zanu PF, the party will never ever reform itself out of office.
that when we say we want free, fair and credible elections we must mean it and what better way to demonstrate that than punishing those we rig elections. Zanu PF has just rigged this year’s elections, the regime is, per se, illegitimate and it must step down.
If we fail to force Zanu PF to step down before 2023 then we really do not deserve anything else other than another rigged elections and Zanu PF.
Declaring corruption public enemy number one is an important step towards building confidence, trust and the necessary oomph that Zimbabwe requires to deal with the corruption scourge.
We, however, must hasten to say Zimbabweans are not blind to the lack of cohesion within both government and the ruling Zanu PF party.
President Mnangagwa has been in office for nearly a year now, why has failed to arrest anyone over the looting of diamonds n Marange and Chiadzwa if he really want to deal with the problem. He is all talk no action!
For one who has just rigged the elections he must know that his actions have not gone unnoticed. Indeed how many millions of dollars did those looters contribute to his vote rigging activities? ED will never stamp out corruption because he is corrupt himself!
How many times has Zanu PF introduced import bans to protect local companies only to have the ban lifted again a few years down the line. This is a regime that has no clue what it is doing.
"INDUSTRY stakeholders yesterday said while government’s decision to lift the ban on the import of basic goods was a stop-gap measure, there was need for a long-term vision to address deindustrialisation and reviving the agricultural sector, which is seen as the backbone of the economy." Our industrial leaders too have no clue what they are talking about, because they would not be expecting blood from a rock!
Zimbabwe's economy will never recover whilst the country remains a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs!
By participating in the elections with no reforms in place, MDC made is easy for Zanu PF ro steal the elections. So what is Biti complaining about!
I will happily join in the march but what is it exactly we are demanding?
If we are asking Zanu PF to step down only to have MDC take over then we are no wiser than we were a year ago when people marched in support of the removal of Mugabe only for Mnangagwa to take over.
If we are going to march then it must be to demand meaningful political change. We want Zanu PF to step down so we can appoint an interim regime we can trust to implement the democratic reforms leading to the holding of free, fair and credible elections. Nothing else will do!
Zanu PF Member of Parliament for Chegutu West, Dexter Nduna has called for a stiffer penalty on anyone found guilty of calling for sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Nduna said the punishment should be death sentence by a firing squad with automatic machines guns and not small weapons.
So what punishment must be dished out to those guilty of looting, of rigging elections and those responsible for harassing, beating, raping and even murdering innocent Zimbabweans for selfish political gain? Out of your own mouth Nduna comes the Lord's judgement!
Whilst many people support the call for Zanu PF to step down because they rigged the elections no thinking Zimbabwean would ever support Chamisa's call to be appointed president because there is no legal basis for such a move. MDC, just like Zanu PF, claim that Chamisa won 2.6 million votes but have failed to produce any V11 forms to support their claim.
Zimbabwe needs a real solution to the country's political mess and removing Mnangagwa to replace him with Chamisa is just as foolish as removing Mugabe and replacing him with Mnangagwa!
Our people have waited for 38 years for free, fair and credible elections, let us make sure the next elections are exactly what we want!
Zimbabwe's march into the hell-on-earth the country now finds herself in is surreal. It remains me so much of this wild animal clip of four or so wildebeests that walked straight into a group of lions in broad day. The lions were just as surprise to see the blundering wildebeests. The animal in front was clearly not paying any attention why it was going and those behind followed blindly.
Lions are not ones to miss out on a meal presented to them in a silver platter, they attacked and killed two or three of the wildebeests. One of the killed animal must have been the mother of a calf that was seen wondering back. The lions polished the calf off!
Zimbabweans have sleep walked into this hell-on-earth. How is it possible that the nation would allow unemployment to soar to such dizzying heights as 90%, allow basic service like clean running water and health care to all but totally collapse, etc. and still do nothing? It is unnatural.
I agree human being are indeed creature of reason and yet one has to ask why Zimbabwe have allowed themselves to be dragged into the gutter this deep this long? Zimbabweans have not only lost their jobs, homes, family, hope, everything and, last but most important of all, they have lost their self-respect and human dignity! When a human being walks around dizzied like a confused wildebeest he/she may just as well be the wildebeest calf after its dead mother the lions are feasting on.
@ Kathy
Yes those mental patients ruling the country are clearly unwitting the rest of us again and again. Although many Zimbabweans know the recent elections were rigged but ask them how and you will be surprised how few know how. It is easy to see why Zanu PF has blatantly rigged the elections and got away with it; the electorate have no clue what they want in a free, fair and credible elections!
If Zimbabwe does not snap out of its comatose slumber soon the country will drift beyond the point of no return!
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