Zimbabwe (Land Of Tears)
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.