It is rather ludicrous, the way we have lately been engrossed in the drama unfolding in the ZANU PF camp when matters of real concern are at hand (the threat of ebola for example), the suffering economy hasn't gotten any better, amenities are still in shambles and yet, and yet, everyone takes to speculating over their breakfast tables and online, taking sides with those whose lives currently are set. I think we could do better and take a stand. The reason being that these guys are already well-off. What they are clamoring for is power, the power to make sure they remain at the apex and continue to loot and rule over the us, gullible ones. They are like a cancer which should be exterminated immediately. I have little knowledge of how rulers of the past used to rule, but I believe one thing that they had is empathy. They were in their positions because of the people who marveled them and in turn got political goods delivered in the form of justice, protection and cohesion which gave them a sense of tribal pride. Today, with the advent of westernization and monetary care systems, our leaders have grown so detached from the spirit of Ubuntu and care less about their subjects, let alone their compatriots that they rule alongside with. The main reason we are suffering is because we have abandoned our natural ways, our culture and the mores and values that bound us as people. We can not see that what they are doing is entirely the opposite way of how things should be done because secretly, we covert their positions. They too coveted the white men when he was in power that is the reason they have turned out to be the same way as the white man who ruled before them. It's all vanity and a big comic show whereby the same people who fought side by side in the liberation war are now suspecting each other of betrayal and dethronement, who cares? That should have been a fight kept inside the house, now if you see linen being hung out to dry, that is a sign that there is no being serious by these ZANU PF people. How can we expect sincerity from people who have shown that their primary concern is to be solidly in power, and yet I thought that public appeal is what warranted one's stay in office. And to spectate that is mere folly in itself. In my opinion, the government is decided upon by people and if there is so much squabbling going on then that should send signals to everyone else that the ship is sinking and noone has time to look at budgets, attend to matters of worth because they are first looking out for themselves, what a bunch of selfish hyenas.
I strongly protest against the fact that the whole nation must wait, sit and wait to see the outcome of this possible bloodbath. Who does ZANU PF think they are to hit the pause button so as to tend to matters in the house. We have far more important concerns at hand. It seems like squabbles have taken center hold on Zimbabwean politics. The same happened with the MDC after they were cheated at the elections. Now letters of infidelity are making headlines and ministers holding rallies just to destroy each other's credibility. Is that what people who are at work supposed to do? Are we human or a bunch of puppets who just get involved in affairs that have nothing to do with us just because the president is involved or his wife or whoever it is. For people to attend a meeting and be told that is an insult plus utter disrespect. We go to rallies to be told plans, to ask questions, not to be indoctrinated and bought into taking sides. That has been our problem since time immemorial. We seem to warm up to anyone who rises and takes the reigns. The white men did that and before we could open our eyes, they had taken every square inch of our land, now these lads and girls immature as they are are chasing each other up the street and down another, yet we fail to see that they are doing it for their own interests. So what? If Mugabe dies today, the country has to go to the ballot. It is not Mugabe Republic, that is why we all agreed on the name Zimbabwe and we haven't sold it yet to anyone. So why are speculations of his successor making headlines? Are we not just getting sucked into the vortex of dangerous peril? I think we are and we have long since stopped questioning why is that so? Why are we not asking every clown in this to please, go home and resolve your issues, meanwhile, we are taking matters into our own hands and rectifying what you destroyed. We have been beaten into submission and the only thing we could do is to complain, (just like this) and or just talk about it behind closed doors. I think we all are to blame, giving these people the impression that we owe it to them and hence their asinine behavior. They are like a group of donkeys at an ash heap.
Why should we allow this to happen? Whatever happened to us?
Monday, November 24, 2014
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Is our president capable of demagoguery?
It is a crime to write or say things against the leader, apparently and yet, it is not a crime to walk over the entire population of suffering individuals many of whom are seeking ways of getting out of the heat. The president's demagoguery has dwelt so much on the badness of western countries who in their own right are bad and also good, just like every other government, a necessary evil to use the very words of one wise guy. He has harassed the ears of his listeners with rhetoric about the sanctions imposed on the country's ruling elite since the beginning of the agrarian land reform programme. The sanctions however, have however destroyed the livelihood of ordinary people leaving the rich band of political leaders ruling the country barely hurt by them. They still travel to other parts of the world to spend lavishly the money they loot from the country while all the faculties of government are going down. These casualties include health, education, manufacturing, taxation, mining and a horde others which we all know of. The three million something people who are out of the country would not necessarily have left if the brood of vipers was not making merry with the vital resources of the nation. Britain and America have constantly been on the lips of our president as the baddest of all nations seeking to overthrow him and install their puppet, then Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC. The MDC leader and his friends including those in support of him have also been the butt of the president's blunt jokes, laughed at only by diehards, or rather, hangers on, or people who had nothing better to occupy their time than sit around in stadiums being fed sadza and beef with cabbage to top it of with his demagogic garbage.
There was Johnathan Moyo (Prof), a character whom the demagogic president ululated when he walked into the political arena, on his side, in the year 2000 till 2005, serving in the Ministry of Information. This scheming man was a genius, more of an evil genius who implemented one of the greatest control schemes known to the people of Zimbabwe. Moyo made it possible for the talent of the country to be put to waste as well as the resources of the same place burnt for reasons of propaganda. Goebbels would have shaken his hand for a scheme well thought and well implemented. The songs by Pax Afro, Nonsi and the rest of them, the jingles like Chave Chimurenga were on every little kid at play out around all neighbourhoods, in the countryside everywhere. It is rumored that Moyo actually penned the songs and jingles himself showing how much of a brainy person he is, but just siding with the wrong guys. Had he stayed, with the rate at which he was creeping into people's souls, he would have hypnotized the whole nation.
Nkosana Moyo once served as the Minister of Industry and International trade for a brief period. Mugabe, sly Mugabe had seen the immense knowledge the man possessed in the field of business and harnessed him to his wagon. Moyo did not last long, apparently appalled by the level of corruption and non-seriousness of his fellow ministers, the rampant attacks on businesses and farms by zealous ZANU PF supporters and perhaps tired of his leader's rhetoric and also sensing that the ship was sinking, he resigned and Mugabe, dear sweet old Mugabe launched an angry tirade against him calling him 'spineless' and not regretting his departure from government. He then went on and descended on one of his speeches about the revolution on that day he lambasted Moyo for growing cold feet saying,
Our revolution.....was not fought by cowards. If some of you are getting weak-kneed, tell and we will continue with the struggle.At the death of every member of the supporters of his party, former freedom fighters who remained loyal to him throughout his mad ride, he always makes sure he attacks those who are not in support of his movement, his corrupt heftily paid bureaucrats, his drunk, greedy compatriots, his non-caring partners, his selfish vision-less brood.
If any man tells you to sacrifice and be steadfast, maybe fast and do without for the sake of the country, if that man is the leader of that country, telling his people to do without money, which they have to use to pay bills and buy food, send children to school and all that, and then he goes on to get into a very lavish vehicle and ride off in a cavalcade to his luxurious residents where servants will rush to serve him a very warm and delicious dinner while those he was telling to take it easy and go slow, sacrifice for the country have to face a ten kilometer journey home to nothing and starving kids, that man is an imbecile, a lunatic who is self-delusional and cruel just like the devil himself. That man must be castrated right away because he has no shame at all. His heart is cold and whatever comes out of his mouth is but filth and rubbish. Apparently, president Mugabe befits this description. The man was telling civil servants who are striking for money to take it easy then blaming the millions who ran away. In other words the man is actually mocking them, for allowing him and his friends to get rich, award themselves hefty salaries while the people who are doing the actual work are living in squalid conditions. It's a pity we have respect for each other in our lovely country, our strikes and demonstrations are peaceful. The only non-peaceful people are the police and soldiers who in panic, try to stop any form of demonstration where nothing is broken like in other countries.
And the people clapped and cheered when the president was done talking, half of them understood what he said. or needed anything to do with it.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Reconstructing a broken nation.
I am not expert at matters of local and national government but I can tell if one or both are malfunctioning. It is easy to point this out anyone can do it. If you may, do that now. Traditionally, our chiefs used to converge with the kingdom elders to deliberate on matters of interest in particular those that affected people at large. Ruling back then was mainly to maintain an orderly society and the interests of every citizen were represented. I'm talking from the point of view of someone who learnt about his past mostly from oral tradition; through folklore and written history. The latter however, is laden with bias as it was mostly presented to me through people who observed my forerunners societies from a distance and even if they came too close, they always based their theses on pre-conceived ideas and their own assumptions.
A lot has happened since Zimbabweans took to governing themselves, good and bad. We have experienced both high and rock bottom years in our short life as an independent nation. We have also realized our strengths and weaknesses and now its time to get to move forward. However, for us to move forward, we need to adopt a holistic approach and improve on all the traits we have lately adopted. We were shown that we are not completely independent economically when the sanctions we were slapped with by the Euro-zone and the US crippled our economy. Presently, the tabloids have reported that the minister of finance's efforts to secure funding for the country have been thrown out of the window with our current debt standing at a staggering $11 billion, it is really up to us to again dig ourselves out of this pit and get going. To make terrain even steeper, our creditors have refused to forgive our debts. However the issue of huge spending has been a prevalent trait the entire Sub-Saharan region except that other countries have had a balance stemming from the support their economies got from domestic demand and foreign investment. However, their current accounts have not been sightly either. Foreign investment inflow in 2013 was mainly in the usual mining and oil and also non-extractive industries which is showing that there are improvements on the front. South Africa according to the World Bank report on Sub-Sahara Africa economic highlights had a higher than all growth economy growth of 6%. Other great things that have happened have been deceleration of inflation as well as increased remittances. In all this, the major issues have remained, unemployment and poverty have yet to be dealt with. The major setback being that in most sub-Saharan countries, wealth distribution is still uneven. Foreign investment yields revenue but mostly for investors who repatriate leaving only but a fraction of what was made to benefit locals. This is where Zimbabwe differs with many countries. However, the scene in Zimbabwe is similar except that instead of foreign investment, major cash cows are milked by politicians who have shamelessly stood aside while watching a government they are running starve to a financial death. Whatever happened to all that campaign rhetoric?
When there is no other option, the best way to begin is to bootstrap. As a country with something going on in the mines national and private, manufacturing industries, national and private and farming, there is somewhere to begin. If the mines increase their output, like Hwange Colliery Company is seeking to do, to increase its current output to about 500 000 tonnes per month, it will be a very good thing and perhaps some of that coal could be used to fire up the Bulawayo Thermal Power Station owned by the city of Bulawayo. If this power plant is resuscitated, it is going to be quite a benefit even to the Bulawayo industry where power disruptions due to the country's electricity supplier Zesa has failed to live up to the demand. Residents have been hugely impacted by the supplier's inability to provide for electricity and it has been chaos ever since with the load-shedding. To make matters worse, the top executives of this failing government parastatal have been making the most illogical decisions earning hefty salaries that have not matched up with their performance not even a single day. At one point, to attend to faults, the staff from this institution demanded bribes and other things alike. However, if the expenditure towards salaries of chief whips are shaved off, and realistically, they are paid according to performance of the company and their own, then things may stabilize a little bit. Since Zimbabwe has partnered a global giant of innovation, China, consulting with the Chinese may be the best thing to do so as to look at other ways of obtaining energy for use in homes and the industry such as solar.
What then is needed for local authorities to fully function without any hindrances? I think the best way is for government to relinquish some of the tight controls that it has when it comes to them. Local authorities should be given the executive powers to effect laws which are area specific. For example, the curricula used in schools should be monitored by ZIMSEC but created by lesser bodies that originate from the province of Matebeleland, Manicaland and so forth. This will help out even in grading, as compared to the scandalous affairs that have run a marathon at the one and only national body, ZIMSEC. What needs to be done in this regard is to establish a body, after dissolving ZIMSEC, one that will set the parameters in which to test pupils at all levels so as to maintain national uniformity and then oversea that the bodies that originate from each region of the country complies with their requirements. As for power production and water provision, that also should be entirely left in the hands of the local authorities for they know so well how to apportion their areas and supply adequately.
Currently, with the government in a de facto closure state, it is time for local authority men and women to go to work to come up with their own budgets and plans to satisfy those by way of tariffs collection and saving the available resources. For at this moment, it is as if there is no government because there is no solution to the problem being presented to the rest of the country and people who suffer most are those to whom local authorities pass on their laws. There is so much to marvel at the inflexibility of councils and municipalities when it comes to creative thinking, mostly because they are caught up in the web of bureaucracy.
Residents have to also play a participative role in the administration of their affairs. It honestly is not a great thing to live with a man or woman who runs a parastatal like ZESA and he gets to be paid too much money while we all live in darkness because of his gluttony for money. ZESA bosses have and live among us and we see them daily in their going in and going out, but for us to stop them and question their morality, we seem to be afraid because of the money aura they emit around them. Money ladies and gentlemen is but just what a person has and does not dignify villainy at all. It is men like these that have continuously perpetrated the destruction of local councils, municipalities, government ministries, schools and every other authority that represents the wealth of Zimbabwe. Corruption scandals have gone on for over three decades now and yet there has not been an effective way to counter that. The main concern our country should deal with is accountability at all levels in terms of control of resources that bring wealth to the nation and people at large. This has to also affect people in higher places such as Police Chiefs, ministers of different departments for it is tradition, that anyone who occupies a government office is superior to everyone else below him and otherwise. Still on the role of citizens, it is a very good thing that we do usually, looking out for each other. The friendships that are fostered in the neighborhoods are not found anywhere else. People actually live together in one big society where children are disciplinable by anyone adult. Lately, there has been so much separatism because of the hardships mostly. Many people have just been looking out for themselves mostly because of the scarcity of resources and money among other factors. On the progressive front, residents of cities like Bulawayo whose water supply is usually interrupted yearly by the lack of better water harvesting methods in the region and primarily low rainfall distribution in the region could participate in helping their city council and themselves by practicing water harvesting methods during the rainy season. These methods may help save a couple of gallons per season. Rain water can be collected from gutters during the rains and stored in plastic containers for later use as well as tanks and reservoirs made out of cement. It can be treated when it is being used or can be used for other tasks such as doing washing and cleaning. Again, water saving methods can be utilized in everyday lives by city dwelling people. Recycling water used in a household is one way and another is sparingly using water. The city councils have to offer incentives that are lucrative to get people to save water. They can slash their bills by half or more for those people who would have significantly reduced their household usage, just to draw more people to like the programme. Repairing leaky taps and pipes also helps. One of the major ways to tackle the water problem that has since plagued Bulawayo is the completion of the Zambezi Water Project. This will go a long way in ensuring a continuous water supply and will sure help spawn a lot water related projects that will help improve the economic well being of people.
This and so much more can be done and may help the country and us its people to get back on its feet, otherwise the foreign investment which is being talked about will not come soon. Part of the reason foreign investment will not be getting here any time soon is because of the reputation political power houses have earned themselves. They take whatever they please with no regards to how hard someone has worked for anything. The people who run them are such individuals who have it all but can not afford to spare a little bit to help alleviate the plight of the nation. It leaves a lot to be desired that a country that has so much academic wealth finds itself without adequate engineers supply, doctors and nurses among other professionals and the irony here lies in the fact that many of the government personnel who are claiming that the government is broke, afford to seek medical attention overseas. We may be respectful but real change and progress will begin once we all are involved in matters of national interest.
And this is just my opinion ladies!
A lot has happened since Zimbabweans took to governing themselves, good and bad. We have experienced both high and rock bottom years in our short life as an independent nation. We have also realized our strengths and weaknesses and now its time to get to move forward. However, for us to move forward, we need to adopt a holistic approach and improve on all the traits we have lately adopted. We were shown that we are not completely independent economically when the sanctions we were slapped with by the Euro-zone and the US crippled our economy. Presently, the tabloids have reported that the minister of finance's efforts to secure funding for the country have been thrown out of the window with our current debt standing at a staggering $11 billion, it is really up to us to again dig ourselves out of this pit and get going. To make terrain even steeper, our creditors have refused to forgive our debts. However the issue of huge spending has been a prevalent trait the entire Sub-Saharan region except that other countries have had a balance stemming from the support their economies got from domestic demand and foreign investment. However, their current accounts have not been sightly either. Foreign investment inflow in 2013 was mainly in the usual mining and oil and also non-extractive industries which is showing that there are improvements on the front. South Africa according to the World Bank report on Sub-Sahara Africa economic highlights had a higher than all growth economy growth of 6%. Other great things that have happened have been deceleration of inflation as well as increased remittances. In all this, the major issues have remained, unemployment and poverty have yet to be dealt with. The major setback being that in most sub-Saharan countries, wealth distribution is still uneven. Foreign investment yields revenue but mostly for investors who repatriate leaving only but a fraction of what was made to benefit locals. This is where Zimbabwe differs with many countries. However, the scene in Zimbabwe is similar except that instead of foreign investment, major cash cows are milked by politicians who have shamelessly stood aside while watching a government they are running starve to a financial death. Whatever happened to all that campaign rhetoric?
When there is no other option, the best way to begin is to bootstrap. As a country with something going on in the mines national and private, manufacturing industries, national and private and farming, there is somewhere to begin. If the mines increase their output, like Hwange Colliery Company is seeking to do, to increase its current output to about 500 000 tonnes per month, it will be a very good thing and perhaps some of that coal could be used to fire up the Bulawayo Thermal Power Station owned by the city of Bulawayo. If this power plant is resuscitated, it is going to be quite a benefit even to the Bulawayo industry where power disruptions due to the country's electricity supplier Zesa has failed to live up to the demand. Residents have been hugely impacted by the supplier's inability to provide for electricity and it has been chaos ever since with the load-shedding. To make matters worse, the top executives of this failing government parastatal have been making the most illogical decisions earning hefty salaries that have not matched up with their performance not even a single day. At one point, to attend to faults, the staff from this institution demanded bribes and other things alike. However, if the expenditure towards salaries of chief whips are shaved off, and realistically, they are paid according to performance of the company and their own, then things may stabilize a little bit. Since Zimbabwe has partnered a global giant of innovation, China, consulting with the Chinese may be the best thing to do so as to look at other ways of obtaining energy for use in homes and the industry such as solar.
What then is needed for local authorities to fully function without any hindrances? I think the best way is for government to relinquish some of the tight controls that it has when it comes to them. Local authorities should be given the executive powers to effect laws which are area specific. For example, the curricula used in schools should be monitored by ZIMSEC but created by lesser bodies that originate from the province of Matebeleland, Manicaland and so forth. This will help out even in grading, as compared to the scandalous affairs that have run a marathon at the one and only national body, ZIMSEC. What needs to be done in this regard is to establish a body, after dissolving ZIMSEC, one that will set the parameters in which to test pupils at all levels so as to maintain national uniformity and then oversea that the bodies that originate from each region of the country complies with their requirements. As for power production and water provision, that also should be entirely left in the hands of the local authorities for they know so well how to apportion their areas and supply adequately.
Currently, with the government in a de facto closure state, it is time for local authority men and women to go to work to come up with their own budgets and plans to satisfy those by way of tariffs collection and saving the available resources. For at this moment, it is as if there is no government because there is no solution to the problem being presented to the rest of the country and people who suffer most are those to whom local authorities pass on their laws. There is so much to marvel at the inflexibility of councils and municipalities when it comes to creative thinking, mostly because they are caught up in the web of bureaucracy.
Residents have to also play a participative role in the administration of their affairs. It honestly is not a great thing to live with a man or woman who runs a parastatal like ZESA and he gets to be paid too much money while we all live in darkness because of his gluttony for money. ZESA bosses have and live among us and we see them daily in their going in and going out, but for us to stop them and question their morality, we seem to be afraid because of the money aura they emit around them. Money ladies and gentlemen is but just what a person has and does not dignify villainy at all. It is men like these that have continuously perpetrated the destruction of local councils, municipalities, government ministries, schools and every other authority that represents the wealth of Zimbabwe. Corruption scandals have gone on for over three decades now and yet there has not been an effective way to counter that. The main concern our country should deal with is accountability at all levels in terms of control of resources that bring wealth to the nation and people at large. This has to also affect people in higher places such as Police Chiefs, ministers of different departments for it is tradition, that anyone who occupies a government office is superior to everyone else below him and otherwise. Still on the role of citizens, it is a very good thing that we do usually, looking out for each other. The friendships that are fostered in the neighborhoods are not found anywhere else. People actually live together in one big society where children are disciplinable by anyone adult. Lately, there has been so much separatism because of the hardships mostly. Many people have just been looking out for themselves mostly because of the scarcity of resources and money among other factors. On the progressive front, residents of cities like Bulawayo whose water supply is usually interrupted yearly by the lack of better water harvesting methods in the region and primarily low rainfall distribution in the region could participate in helping their city council and themselves by practicing water harvesting methods during the rainy season. These methods may help save a couple of gallons per season. Rain water can be collected from gutters during the rains and stored in plastic containers for later use as well as tanks and reservoirs made out of cement. It can be treated when it is being used or can be used for other tasks such as doing washing and cleaning. Again, water saving methods can be utilized in everyday lives by city dwelling people. Recycling water used in a household is one way and another is sparingly using water. The city councils have to offer incentives that are lucrative to get people to save water. They can slash their bills by half or more for those people who would have significantly reduced their household usage, just to draw more people to like the programme. Repairing leaky taps and pipes also helps. One of the major ways to tackle the water problem that has since plagued Bulawayo is the completion of the Zambezi Water Project. This will go a long way in ensuring a continuous water supply and will sure help spawn a lot water related projects that will help improve the economic well being of people.
This and so much more can be done and may help the country and us its people to get back on its feet, otherwise the foreign investment which is being talked about will not come soon. Part of the reason foreign investment will not be getting here any time soon is because of the reputation political power houses have earned themselves. They take whatever they please with no regards to how hard someone has worked for anything. The people who run them are such individuals who have it all but can not afford to spare a little bit to help alleviate the plight of the nation. It leaves a lot to be desired that a country that has so much academic wealth finds itself without adequate engineers supply, doctors and nurses among other professionals and the irony here lies in the fact that many of the government personnel who are claiming that the government is broke, afford to seek medical attention overseas. We may be respectful but real change and progress will begin once we all are involved in matters of national interest.
And this is just my opinion ladies!
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Post election sentiments.
This comes a bit late but the scenario at play is still quite fresh to the people involved and affected. I am talking about the political arena of Zimbabwe, the major players, spectators and the ticks that feed of the unfolding events. With the victory of a party that had a lot of people crying foul over the victor which seemed to everybody to have come too easy. Rigging was the primary suspect tool that Zanu (PF) used and we do not know what else. Blessing-Miles Tendi, a professor of African studies at Oxford spelled out some of the causes that led to Mugabe's landslide 61% victory against Tsvangirai's 34%. Tendi says among the elements at play here is a theory of called preponderance of incumbency which means the advantage the ruling president has over the opposition because he/she has control over institutions such as the media which he uses to popularize his campaign. After the election, the much anticipated regime change turned into just but another pipe dream, a dwindling hope for people who had been dreaming about it since the turn of the millennium when the officials of the government suddenly went into full swing in their abuse of state power among other things. Since then, they have been having an orgy with state resources turning a blind eye to the decrepit state of the nation.
I must say I am extremely proud of the Zimbabwean DNA. Despite the cloud of gloom that descended and settled over our country, our resilience has kept us going. There was nothing wrong with the agrarian land reform except for the brutal way it was carried out. Some people argue that when the settlers were effecting a take-over from our forerunners, they were as brutal as the invaders as the takers-overs of white owned farms were wrongfully termed. However, that is another chapter for there were many elements at play that led to the loss of patience by the people who were expecting the land issue to be addressed. Nobody decried the invasion of African land, until the system established by the setters turned around to haunt them in the sense that the educated Africans, whom they had put into schools so as to exploit them used their knowledge to stage rebellions that spread across the continent like wildfire and soon, they were dethroned. Maybe it was a little too late which brings me to a pertinent issue in our continent's politics.
It seems to me as if the current breed of leaders are just vying to be what European colonialists were to people including them. Europeans established classes in African societies, the bottom peasants, the middle class- educated Africans and the top of the pyramid was occupied by them. This was in a century where industrialism was largely involved in economic prowess and progress. The Europeans owned the means of production, they owned the capital that was used to procure the means of production and they controlled the system that fueled economies in the colonies. These systems in turn derived from their mother countries. They also relied heavily on their mother countries and all the produce, raw materials and all the good things were shipped over to countries of their origin where they were processed and sent back to African colonies where poor Africans employed by the rich Europeans were to buy them, further making rich the same. I think the system of exploiting black finance is still large at play in the continent and overseas here in the developed world. Many poor brown skinned people buy exorbitantly priced apparel to keep up with stereotypes while buying from white owned businesses. It is such a sad situation where in Africa, foreign owned corporations run timber, mining and other huge operations expropriating profits while leaving the continent's nature damaged and irreparable. All this is fine with African governments because here is the issue: A reigning president is approached by a wealthy industrialist from the developed world, and he, having reverence for particularly 'white' business people, readily agrees to take whatever is placed in the plate to silence him because he has the power to stop this abuse of his country's resources. When this has been done, the industrialist's company moves in and begins digging, felling and doing all sorts of things to support their empire while the bribed government official flies to the mother country of the industrialist where he buys lavish cars, suits and furniture for his mansions and before he comes back, has medical check-ups and work done to him by foreign doctors. This is the reason why the continent will not progress while all this evil is going on.
So having established that the leaders of African countries are after the glory of the former colonial master and nothing at all about the emancipation of their own, save for a few blessed souls. There may have been fear for such a reincarnation if Morgan Tsvangirai had risen to power in Zimbabwe. Many people like me held a belief that his was a promise for a truly democratic Zimbabwe although I did not necessarily go with what a blind supporter would do, I supported the democratic principles embraced by the party he led, not the man necessarily and my peers saw this as a sign of hatred for the man. For the man, I hold nothing against and will not. The party's late response to strategize and gear up for elections may have been seen approaching during its tenure in the government of national unity established in February 2009. They did not do many things which they could have done to convince the electorate that they were up for the job but again, that may have been caused by the foul play by the opposition ministers and people who otherwise were key to their passing decisions that would have benefited the people. Another reason caused largely by years of Mugabe's demagogic rhetoric and the land reform, many people saw Tsvangirai run back and forth to western governments to consult and seek financial help and were a bit skeptical especially when Mugabe went on to say that the western governments were trying to install him as their puppet and Mr Tsvangirai failed to exonerate himself from those allegations quite fluently. That again is another fish to fry. The way I see it is, Tsvangirai had a promise of good political goods. His was a way that involves everyone in the running of a country, that's what democracy rests on, total involvement of people in that country in the affairs of the same. He met with an electorate that vacillated and was manipulated, beaten, killed and simply had not enough motivation to effect change. It seems we are comfortable in our thorny bed and the prospect of having to transfer to an eiderdown bed involves having to move and pricked further so we might as well lie there motionlessly.
Now, the irony of the situation in the country is indeed saddening as there has not been yet any developments on the government front to prove to people that the promises that bought them over are going to be fulfilled any time soon. The finance minister is expected to work miracles to come up with a feasible budget for the nation and the decline in revenue inflow is disturbing. Outflows majorly civil servant remuneration (about 70%) is gobbling up a large part of the little that is trickling in. While this is going on, there is nothing much being said about the money being obtained from sale of Zimbabwe's natural resource, diamonds which word has it that they have been hijacked by Zanu PF officials to enrich themselves while poking fun at the government's administrative duties. They deny any wrong doing but the question is, how can they afford to live lavishly if the government pays civil servants so measly? It's a case of former colonialists having returned in the form of rich black rulers. What a shame?
I must say I am extremely proud of the Zimbabwean DNA. Despite the cloud of gloom that descended and settled over our country, our resilience has kept us going. There was nothing wrong with the agrarian land reform except for the brutal way it was carried out. Some people argue that when the settlers were effecting a take-over from our forerunners, they were as brutal as the invaders as the takers-overs of white owned farms were wrongfully termed. However, that is another chapter for there were many elements at play that led to the loss of patience by the people who were expecting the land issue to be addressed. Nobody decried the invasion of African land, until the system established by the setters turned around to haunt them in the sense that the educated Africans, whom they had put into schools so as to exploit them used their knowledge to stage rebellions that spread across the continent like wildfire and soon, they were dethroned. Maybe it was a little too late which brings me to a pertinent issue in our continent's politics.
It seems to me as if the current breed of leaders are just vying to be what European colonialists were to people including them. Europeans established classes in African societies, the bottom peasants, the middle class- educated Africans and the top of the pyramid was occupied by them. This was in a century where industrialism was largely involved in economic prowess and progress. The Europeans owned the means of production, they owned the capital that was used to procure the means of production and they controlled the system that fueled economies in the colonies. These systems in turn derived from their mother countries. They also relied heavily on their mother countries and all the produce, raw materials and all the good things were shipped over to countries of their origin where they were processed and sent back to African colonies where poor Africans employed by the rich Europeans were to buy them, further making rich the same. I think the system of exploiting black finance is still large at play in the continent and overseas here in the developed world. Many poor brown skinned people buy exorbitantly priced apparel to keep up with stereotypes while buying from white owned businesses. It is such a sad situation where in Africa, foreign owned corporations run timber, mining and other huge operations expropriating profits while leaving the continent's nature damaged and irreparable. All this is fine with African governments because here is the issue: A reigning president is approached by a wealthy industrialist from the developed world, and he, having reverence for particularly 'white' business people, readily agrees to take whatever is placed in the plate to silence him because he has the power to stop this abuse of his country's resources. When this has been done, the industrialist's company moves in and begins digging, felling and doing all sorts of things to support their empire while the bribed government official flies to the mother country of the industrialist where he buys lavish cars, suits and furniture for his mansions and before he comes back, has medical check-ups and work done to him by foreign doctors. This is the reason why the continent will not progress while all this evil is going on.
So having established that the leaders of African countries are after the glory of the former colonial master and nothing at all about the emancipation of their own, save for a few blessed souls. There may have been fear for such a reincarnation if Morgan Tsvangirai had risen to power in Zimbabwe. Many people like me held a belief that his was a promise for a truly democratic Zimbabwe although I did not necessarily go with what a blind supporter would do, I supported the democratic principles embraced by the party he led, not the man necessarily and my peers saw this as a sign of hatred for the man. For the man, I hold nothing against and will not. The party's late response to strategize and gear up for elections may have been seen approaching during its tenure in the government of national unity established in February 2009. They did not do many things which they could have done to convince the electorate that they were up for the job but again, that may have been caused by the foul play by the opposition ministers and people who otherwise were key to their passing decisions that would have benefited the people. Another reason caused largely by years of Mugabe's demagogic rhetoric and the land reform, many people saw Tsvangirai run back and forth to western governments to consult and seek financial help and were a bit skeptical especially when Mugabe went on to say that the western governments were trying to install him as their puppet and Mr Tsvangirai failed to exonerate himself from those allegations quite fluently. That again is another fish to fry. The way I see it is, Tsvangirai had a promise of good political goods. His was a way that involves everyone in the running of a country, that's what democracy rests on, total involvement of people in that country in the affairs of the same. He met with an electorate that vacillated and was manipulated, beaten, killed and simply had not enough motivation to effect change. It seems we are comfortable in our thorny bed and the prospect of having to transfer to an eiderdown bed involves having to move and pricked further so we might as well lie there motionlessly.
Now, the irony of the situation in the country is indeed saddening as there has not been yet any developments on the government front to prove to people that the promises that bought them over are going to be fulfilled any time soon. The finance minister is expected to work miracles to come up with a feasible budget for the nation and the decline in revenue inflow is disturbing. Outflows majorly civil servant remuneration (about 70%) is gobbling up a large part of the little that is trickling in. While this is going on, there is nothing much being said about the money being obtained from sale of Zimbabwe's natural resource, diamonds which word has it that they have been hijacked by Zanu PF officials to enrich themselves while poking fun at the government's administrative duties. They deny any wrong doing but the question is, how can they afford to live lavishly if the government pays civil servants so measly? It's a case of former colonialists having returned in the form of rich black rulers. What a shame?
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