Why do I feel that the Herald means this literally? They really want to disembowel the opposition, leaving a bruised and battered group of people to vote using fear instead of logic.

Of course prices will be going up, Inflation is estimated by some to be a MILLION percent, and at that rate, prices would have to rise by 2% a minute to keep up, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.Add to this the continuous printing of new $500 MILLION dollar notes by the central bank, and the higher price of basic commodities and petrol this year due to global forces, and you have the makings of the worst economic disaster in history if Mugabe gets in to power. The rate can continue to rise, so the people need to rise and vote first.

Having read the article, one has a choice of either agreeing with the writers viewpoint or disagreeing with it. Firstly lets take the viewpoint of agreeing with the writer, and that in fact all the problems within Zim today are as a result of sanctions and/or actions by Western countries. Point 1. It is amazing to see how powerful these western nations are. They dont come near Zimbabwe, they have not even sent a single soldier into the country but it would seem that they are able to bring the entire Zimbabwean nation to its knees, without lifting a finger. Point 2. If there is a hungry man eating lion in the neighbourhood, and you go looking for him, then dont complain when he eats you. Let me explain, Mugabe knew before hand that when he made the decisions that he made that the consequences that he is facing now would come about. How 'dim'-witted can you be if when the consequences arrive you shout, unfair. To coin a phrase, you must be 'zim-dim'.

Regardless of individual political choices, a question that deserves scrutiny is whether it is factual, as the article claims, that Chester Crocker, whose claim to fame is his support for the apartheid regime in South Africa during the 1980s, revealed a western strategy to distort the economy of an African country to influence the attitude of the electorate toward a political party that Crocker and those who believe what he believes about Africans do not like. This would mean that Zimbabwe is being abused as a test case to determine if African electorates are malleable to the neocolonialist will.This would appear to be consistent with test scenarios suggested by Richard Dowden in the Economist, circa November 1997, which envisaged the probing of possible vulnerabilities in Zimbabwe's trade unions, food security,the military, and ultimately the ruling party, for the purpose of re-entrenching western interests. With such schemes in mind, African commentary-including Zimbabwean-needs to graduate from shallow emotionalism to more informed, Afro-centric and alert opinion. It is worthwhile in this regard to seek out and study a book titled "Confessions of an Economic Hitman".

Regardless of individual political choices, a question that deserves scrutiny is whether it is factual, as the article claims, that Chester Crocker, whose claim to fame is his support for the apartheid regime in South Africa during the 1980s, revealed a western strategy to distort the economy of an African country to influence the attitude of the electorate toward a political party that Crocker and those who believe what he believes about Africans do not like. This would mean that Zimbabwe is being abused as a test case to determine if African electorates are malleable to the neocolonialist will.This would appear to be consistent with test scenarios suggested by Richard Dowden in the Economist, circa November 1997, which envisaged the probing of possible vulnerabilities in Zimbabwe's trade unions, food security,the military, and ultimately the ruling party, for the purpose of re-entrenching western interests. With such schemes in mind, African commentary-including Zimbabwean-needs to graduate from shallow emotionalism to more informed, Afro-centric and alert opinion. It is worthwhile in this regard to seek out and study a book titled "Confessions of an Economic Hitman".