Zimbabwe: Tyranny at its Finest

Fire of Liberty

With the March 31, 2005 Parliamentarian elections in Zimbabwe fast approaching, there has been a considerable amount of articles in the The Times on the upcoming "elections." According to this article in The Times, Tyrant Bob Mugabe and his minion are finding a bevy of excuses for Zimbabwe's decline in agriculture production, gargatuan inflation, unemployment and starvation levels, which is Tony Blair. That's right, Mugabe in the fashion of similar dictators has decided to pull the Wizard of Oz trick of putting a great show and telling the people not to pay any attention to the man behind the curtain. It's very reminiscent of the way the various dictatorships like the Nazi's, Soviets, or even Saddam's Ba'athist regime in Iraq. Such a show seems to be having an affect on the hinterland especially when the forces of Mugabe and his joke of a party Zanu PF control all mechanisms of communication. Just read what The Times wrote about such control:

In rural areas, where more than 60 per cent of people rely on radio for their information, they are fed a daily diet of Zanu (PF) propaganda. Since election coverage began on February 26, Zimbabwe Television Network, the country’s only terrestrial television station, has given 82 per cent of its time to Zanu (PF), and 18 per cent to the MDC, according to Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe. The newspapers are scarcely any better. Under the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, four independent newspapers have been closed since 2003, including the Daily News, which had become the most popular newspaper in the country.

I guess when you seal off a free and open press, that people in the Free World take for granted, you develop a myopic view on life and your surroundings. While the people in the countryside might lack the information on who to blame for their problems, the can see through their own eyes whose more at fault and that's Uncle Bob. They know why they starve and its not Blair and the British but its Mugabe's security forces who guard the food supplies and will only alot them such supplies if they vote for Zanu PF. When it is either a vote for Mugabe or starvation, a considerable lot of people will chose food in their bellies rather worry about who wins. Just look at how bad the starvation has gotten in this article in The Times by Christina Lamb. In fact, the callapse of the food supply and zero to no harvests might ignite a wave of change towards Mugabe. It seems the "hungry, hungry" campaign might catch on and launch a thousand ships to destroy the mighty Battleship Mugabe in the upcoming election. (We'll see if it happens, Mugabe might have a greater grasp on Zimbabwe.)

Also see these articles on Zimbabwe here and here. I wish the opposition and the people of Zimbabwe good fortune and hope they can throw Mugabe to the curb a end his 25 year tyranny.