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By: Aleck Cartwright
Zimbabwe - Land of Tears
Zimbabwe has undergone a lot of changes over the last few years and not for the better. President Robert Mugabe has mystified many in his tyranical dictatorial and power hungry governing of a nation once seen as the bread basket of Africa.
In 1980, Zimbabwe got it's independance and after Ian Smith's government Robert Mugabe took power and invited both white and black Zimbabweans to build a new nation together. His fame was not disimilar to Mandela and he was seen as a good thing for Zimbabwe by many.
The nation of Zimbabwe was beautiful, the economy strong for an African nation and it's future bright. The nations flag represented agricultural wealth, mineral wealth, politics and peace, with a bird as the national emblem. This bird came from a legend that spoke of a bird of prey that preyed on other birds and refused to end it's tyrany until it died - extinction was it's end.
Sadly the legend, though it may just be a story, has become somewhat of a reality in the nation. The political fervour is still there, but much of the agricultural wealth and mineral wealth are suffering a the hand of a government that has lost it's peace. Any Zimbabwean, black or white, knows that things have got progressively worse over the last few years.
Many blame the drought for the situation of starvation in Southern Africa, though it is part of the problem, the real factors are a lot deeper than that. To many, mugabe is senile and mad, but it seems that there is method to his madness. He is truly evil and Marxism is his tool to supress black Africans and rid himself of white Africans.
To Western thinking Mugabe is a mad man, a loose cannon, power hungry and following in the steps of Idi Amin. To many other African leaders particularly in Southern Africa, he is a hero, a man who is not afraid to stand up against the world and put the white population and their sympathisers on the run.
For Mugabe this is a battle, he is at war and will clamp down on any and all opposition. The leaders and governments of the surrounding nations admire him and have not verbally disapproed of what he is doing. This is because they admire him. Why do I say this? Zimbabwe is totally dependant upon a link to the sea via Mozambique and South Africa. If there two countries were against Mugabe they could cut off his lifeline of oil, exports and imports and put him in a straight jacket in under a week.
It is obvious that any landlocked countries in Africa are very vulnerable. Even road and rail routes in Southern Africa are unreliable except to Mozambique and South Africa. If South Africa wanted to it could put a stranglehold on Zimbabwe by closing the borders. militaarily, Mugabe is powerful with a huge army, but so are South Africa and Botswana. It can be safely said that no borders will close and no military action will be taken against Zimbabwe.
Sam Nujoma is doing a similar land requisition programme in Namibia and seems to following in his "big brothers" footsteps, he has always admired Mugabe and the same programme may soon move ahead in South Africa where the ANC has strong ties with Mugabe. In South Africa this crises could easily lead to war.
Mugabe is at war against the MDC (Movement For Democratic Change) which he sees as a political party sponsored and supported by the white farmers. The leaders of the MDC are all native Zimbabweans, but Mugabe knows that much of the white population support the MDC and encourage their workers to make their vote count against the Zanu PF government. The MDC has refused to take up arms against Mugabe fearing that he might call a state of emergency and then run the whole country like an army general with no elections or any democratic vote. This is almost the case as it is, but the MDC has still made a stand despite murder, torture and oppression.
Mugabe has made many promises he hasn't kept including free houses, schools and education by the year 2000. The black population as well as the whites is becoming increasingly nervous. Most of the land that has been taken away has been given to goverment officials within the Zanu PF to gain their coontinued support. The army and the police have been given substantial pay rises and many perks. Petrol for Zimbabwe was shipped up to the war in Congo where thousands of Zimbabwean soldiers were fighting.
There has been gross injustice and mugabe has spies everywhere, he has a veryt tight control through a very large inteligence organisation. His goal is to destroy the MDC and the white population who he believes created the MDC.
Any blacks who are friends to the white population are traitors and treated as such. They are beaten, raped, intimidated, tortured and locked up without trial. The justice system has buckled with the firing of any supreme justice who is opposed to Mugabe's rule. No opposition is tolerated and the country is ruled with an iron fist. Many were fired off the cabinet, the Health and Finance ministers were not supporting his reign of terror and were in Mugabe's mind increasingly disloyal.
The big question is, how long will the population of Zimbabwe allow him to continue his detruction of their beautiful nation. It is increasingly hard to buy fuel, sugar, maize meal, rice and bread which are staples. There is already starvation and with the drought coinciding with the abusive government aids continues to spread killing those not already dying from lack of food or health services.
It is a humanitarian disaster and just going to get worse. The west has turned a blind eye with Britain afraid to bring up old hurts of colonialism and America focused on the war against terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. Zimbabwe is not a muslim nation, it's religions are predominantly ancestral Worship, animism and Christianity.
Muabe knows that the time is ticking away on the grace of the people and that civil uprisings are in the future as the people realise enough is enough. Mugabe knows he has nothing to offer the general population and that any investment, entrepeneurship etc. that is encouraged is what will help the country but will also ultimately also benefit the white and educated black population of Zimbabwe who are against him.
It is a dilemma. On the farms that are designated Mugabe sends in war veterans as squatters, often bussing them onto the farms, the police take no notice as the sqatters begin to camp outside the gates of the farm often not letting the farmer carry on his work or go to town to buy groceries for his family. This is exactly what Mugabe is doing to the nation. As the farmer starves he gives up his land or his life wichever one comes first and the squatters move into the house and use the furniture and dress up in the farmers clothes.
Not disimilar to "Animal Farm" the situation can only get worse for all involved. Mugabe may ultimately want to cut the population down to a manageable number so that they can all go back to subsistance farming and slash and burn methods. Training up younger members of the poplulation in agrticulture and farming tobacco, cattle ranching, flowers, fruit and coffee etc. is not in the plan of the government. Cutting down the trees and building temporary huts and reverting back to primitive farming methods is more what they forsee.
Mugabe will make sure that the resources of the state are used to keep as many of his supporters alive, while deliberately starving the opposition to death. The only people to survive will be Mugabe loyalists. Either way Mugabe wins. The population of Zimbabwe may be doomed to mass murder in the next year or so. The only other possibility is that they flee while they can and head for the borders.
Power forever is the name of the game in Southern Africa, not only in Zimbabwe but also in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. In this game Mugabe is a master.
Your prayer is needed for Zimbabwe...the land of our home that is being snatched away from us daily.
About the Author
Aleck Cartwright and his wife are both Zimbabweans who now live in the UK, visit their website at www.god-life.com
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Zimbabwe Land Of Tears
Zimbabwe - Land of TearsZimbabwe has undergone a lot of changes over the last few years and not for the better. President Robert Mugabe has mystified many in his tyranical dictatorial and power hungry governing of a nation once seen as the bread basket of Africa.In 1980, Zimbabwe got it's independan
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