Zimbabwe

I do not even know what to say about Zimbabwe. I think I join the throngs in ignoring what is happening on the other side of the Limpopo River. If ever there was a situation I felt powerless to and completely confused about, it is the deterioration of that nation.

In my recent spate of blog surfing I have started reading THIS IS ZIMBABWE. And as a result I feel even more shite. Further saddened and more despondent.

Someamongus said it well in his posting yesterday;

That we pride ourselves on epitomising democracy. Yet we watch our neighbours, people who hold the roots of family trees for many of our citizens, be beaten further & further away from any form of justice, human rights, and majority decision.

How dare we pride ourselves on achieving such plural political systems then.

They stand up, and feel the brunt of what so many determined rainbow-dreaming South African citizens felt during the decades of Apartheid. That of the baton, belt, butt of a policeman’s gun against their stubborn protesting heads.

I admire Morgan Tsvangirai incredibly. To KEEP going at it. He is not even running into that brick wall, he is being dropped off it by Zimbabwe’s police force every time he chooses to again say “This is not right”. He was beaten to the point of unconsciousness, three times the other night, as one blog article details.

These people wished for his death, because he speaks out against an aged disgusting power-gluttoness man, time and again.

If the concept of “democracy” is to be adopted in this region, then the concept of “leaders being benevolent demi-gods” needs first to be discarded. Yes, we can thank Mugabe for helping anti-Apartheid leaders back when it was necessary, but his help benefited a whole nation. Our passive support of his present form of rule, through not saying anything for fear of disrespecting him, is helping to destroy an entire nation.

Our government is urging the opposition to work with the leading Zim party to find solutions - like they are being stroppy spoilt children; that our government "further reiterate [their] call to all stakeholders in Zimbabwe to continue to seek peaceful and inclusive solutions". WHAT?? Did you miss Sunday's inhumane violence?? The one that Mugabe refuses to apologise for. Did you miss the past decade?? While the head of the AU claimed that the African Union has only existed for two years, give them time to explore all diplomatic routes.

Mugabe is a tyrant. He disgusts me. The end of him, and his cronies, and possible inhumane elite successors is something, if I were a religious person, I would pray for.

People are starving. Are being beaten to the point of death. Are risking their lives to get across borders, so to start new lives, and melt into the background of other countries. They cannot get tampons. They cannot get petrol. They cannot get Antiretrovirals. They cannot even live in shacks because their poverty meant they supported the opposition. They live within systems of injustice, fear, & voicelessness.

While humanity prides ourselves on developing the globe, this country is managing to noticeably push itself through the cracks, towards the edges of the margin.

I have nothing new to add to this topic. I think what I am trying to do here is just finally get out the deep sorrow I feel for having witnessed for nearly a decade now the destruction-by-leadership of Zimbabwe.