Mugabe: The Rogue of Zimbabwe

Fire of Liberty

Well, it looks like Robert Mugabe has taken yet another step forward in strengthening his tyrannical grip on Zimbabwe with his most recent actions. According to this article in today's edition of The Christian Science Monitor, "Uncle" Bob has launched an extensive crackdown named "Operation Restore Order," which has resulted in the arrest of some 10,000 people who are out on the street vending food, exchanging foreign currency and various jobs to keep their family fed. Without learning from the economic fallacy of a command economy - which concentrates the wealth and ownership of property into the hands of the government- from the likes of the former Soviet Union, Cuba, and North Korea, Robert Mugabe has set his own people down this horrible road to financial disaster and dispair.

Instead of seeking solutions to this chaos, Mugabe has followed the path of all past and current dictators which is to remove the problem from the streets either through arrest or intimidation. I guess this is what happens when Mugabe pulls all the strings of the government via his stooges in Parliament and his thugs who use intimidation and violence on the citizenry to get what Mugabe wishes. Just look what The Christian Science Monitor has to say about Bob Mugabe's taking Zimbabwe into an even darker Heart of Darkness with his tyrannical actions:

As a former revolutionary himself, Mugabe knows "the climate is ripe for another revolution," says Peter Kagwanja of the International Crisis Group in Pretoria, South Africa. So he has embarked on a "campaign of containment" that aims to solidify his position of power - and preempt any full-blown dissent. By acting now he can prevent any Tiananmen Square-type protests.

So police have raided flea markets, demolished temporary buildings housing small convenience stores, and set up roadblocks throughout the city. With the formal economy in a tailspin, many people had taken up street vending - selling cellphone recharge cards or loaves of bread - to subsist. And now they're being targeted, with critics noting that urban residents are also supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

So in the once-prosperous capital city of Harare, with its wide boulevards, giant shade trees, and blocks of 15- and 20-story office buildings, people wait in long lines for bread, milk, and other essentials. The price of bread has reportedly doubled in the past two months. ATMs have largely run out of cash, and there are long lines at the few machines still working. Once a major food exporter, Zimbabwe now has several million people on the verge of starvation - and has to import corn and other food from the region."

I just hope someone can find a way and the nerve to knock Mugabe off his dictatorial perch. Before too long, Zimbabwe will go the way of Sudan, Burma, and Cambodia at the hands of Bob Mugabe and his greedy friends. Maybe if we get John Bolton in the UN he can bring this to the UN Security Council's attention but then again we are talking about a body that watched the events in Rwanda, Sudan and Darfur and never lifted a finger to respond. The best we can do now is to continue the support of the democratic movement in Zimbabwe and pray the Bob Mugabe fades from the seen quickly to prevent this slow homicide of a wonderful nation and people as Zimbabwe. Eventually their national nightmare will be over.