Now there are two options Fresh elections or millitary intervention. Which is better? I say intervention will see less people killed.

iTS LIKE BANGING YOUR HEAD AGAINST A BRICK WALL THE, THE EU ARE PROTECTING SHIPS AGAINST SOMALI PIRATES, THIS SHOULD BE THE JOB OF THE AFRICAN UNION BUT SOME WHITE RACIST IS DOING THE JOB!

So why dont you ask the African Union to start doing it then? What a ridiculous comment. The white man tries to protect civilians of all nations that pass through the area from piracy, theft, kidnapping and potential murder and they are racist for this? You're pathetic.

An exceptionally concise and indisputably factual argument against the continued "reign" of ZANU-PF/Mugabe.

Whatever anyone else is "doing" to Zimbabwe, ZANU-PF/Mugabe is responsible for the current state of affairs in Zimbabwe, it is under their direction and guidance that Zimbabwe has arrived in the state she is in. This is yet another example that shows ZANU-PF/Mugabe are no longer the rightful rulers of Zimbabwe, they are not even providing clean water, medical care or education to their people! Maybe someone else in charge (ANYONE!, the UN, the AU, the MDC, the NCA) might be able to bring better living conditions to the people of Zimbabwe! Why not give it a try?

Zimbabwe can not do worse than they have these last 28 years.

I disagree, vehemently.

I suppose "The New Times" is to be construed as the voice of the people of Zimbabwe. Never: nothing, this Old Times, but the sublimated voice of the REACTION; nothing else but trhe relay graphe from Westjokers and Paris and ....

Moreover, the AU is no imperialist institution. Confirmation thereof can be gotten from the ignoramus, ODINGA, the tail of the REACTION in KENYA.

We don't care about the OPINIONS of shadows of the REACTION.

Cheers from Harare.

You are off topic once again PLEASE SEE ME

An excellent article but I would beg to differ on one point. The situation in Zimbabwe is not only the fault of Mugabe and ZANU-PF. All of Africa and The African Union have failed to act when they could have and should have, to remove him, and also the European Union allowed him to travel to Europe and then failed to arrest him and deliver him to The Hague. Mugabe has severely damaged Zimbabwe and brought down tremendous suffering on the people he is supposed to protect, but he has also damaged Africa, and up to now Africa has done nothing about it. How much more suffering does there have to be?

Ed in Spain, to make a whole sale blame on 1 billion people of Africa (a continent not a country) for the failure of Zimbabwe is way too hyperbolic! Zimbabweans are largely to blame for the mess in Zimbabwe and specifically the SADC region, tasked to look into Zimbabwean affairs are to blame. If Africa (54 countries, 3 times the size of the USA) were to put up the list of the most failed state, Zimbabwe would be probably behind at least 4 countries I can think of , namely DRC (5 miilion people dead), Somalia (no function gov’t), Liberia (no infracture), Sudan (2 million people displaced) etc. What I would like to see is for Mbeki to admit that he has failed, that would set in motion for AU to mandate a broader approach than just SADC.

More unenglightened comments from the REACTION.

We don't care about the rash judgments issuing from the 'higher understandting' of the disparate 'European' cultural traditions.

Moreover, we are cognizant of the tensions, the inconsistencies and, frankly, the CONTRADICTIONS in those traditions.

Look, let me put it on the line: I, for one, have nothing to learn from Euorpean pundits. They can go hang, reflectively, that is.

Bottom line: Europe has no VIABLE solutions for Afica's problems, and vice versa.

Simple and crisp and clear: Europe, back off!

I find jallohlaw's analyses very accurate once you take away the sarcastic remarks. The only shortcoming is the failure to recognize that both Mugabe and Tsvangirayi share the blame for Zimbabwe's misery. The correct position to argue from is in defence of the ordinary person's welfare - not to defend the indefensibble politicians playing games while the people are dying.

"The only shortcoming is the failure to recognize that both Mugabe and Tsvangirayi share the blame for Zimbabwe's misery."

That's like saying both Adolf Hitler and Anne Frank shared the blame for the Holocaust.

in shows how idiot he can be! Even Mugabe was cornered to ask European help to fight cholera! Who is this Jallohlaw to claim Zimbos do not need help from Europe? I bet Jallohlaw has not given even one broken cent to alleviate the sufferings og Zimbos. Instead, I am suspicious he is getting paid by the CIO to write rubbish in praise of a bloodstainedc monster. Anyway, dirty money does not take one far before a fatal crash occurs!

Watch out!

"have nothing to learn from Euorpean pundits."

Pity one of these "pundits" can't teach you to spell or form clear, coherent sentences. For someone who so readily accuses others on AllAfrica of poor English you are doing a rather poor job of articulating yourself.

One thing Africa could learn well from Europe is the harsh lessons of rule by dictatorship. Many African countries are ruled by tyrants who are no more than self-styled royalty. Even Mugabe has likened himself to King of Zimbabwe. In many ways Africa is going through the growing pains of the Dark Ages in Europe.

Mugabe cannot blame the West for the ruin of Zimbabwe. Likewise Zimbabweans cannot look to the West for salvation. It is up to Zimbabweans to stand up to ZANU-PF and topple the evil regime.

The latest about idiot mugabe!

Aid groups slam Mugabe's cholera comments

By Africa correspondent Andrew Geoghegan and wires

Posted 21 minutes ago

Aid groups and western leaders have condemned comments made by Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe that the cholera crisis in his country is over.

The latest United Nations assessment in Zimbabwe puts the number of deaths from cholera at 783.

The expectation among health workers in the country is that the death toll will soar in the coming weeks.

However, President Robert Mugabe has declared that the crisis is over and that there is no cholera in Zimbabwe.

"I am happy we are being assisted by others and we have arrested cholera," Mr Mugabe said in a speech in which he also attacked what he described as Western plans to invade Zimbabwe and topple his government.

"Now that there is no cholera there is no case for war."

His comments have astounded aid groups, while America's ambassador to Zimbabwe says the comments show how out of touch Mr Mugabe is with reality.

Ambassador James McGee describes the health crisis in Zimbabwe as grim and western leaders have called on Mr Mugabe to resign from his position.

Meanwhile, South Africa has been criticised for not doing more to help end Zimbabwe's economic and humanitarian crisis.

Britain's Africa Minister, Lord Malloch-Brown, has been in South Africa meeting government officials and Zimbabwean refugees.

He told the South African Government that it could do a lot more to put pressure on the Zimbabwe regime of Mr Mugabe and that it needs to do it now the country is being ravaged by cholera and food shortages.

South Africa has been reluctant to interfere in Zimbabwean affairs, despite being the economic and political powerhouse of the region.

Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has tried but failed to mediate a political solution to Zimbabwe's woes.

Goon? That is a derogatory term derived from 'coon' - another derogatory racist term to describe people of the colour that your name suggests you are... If someone defecates in your plate of food and then runs to tell the world to come and see you eating faeces - then they all condemn the steaming mound on your plate... who is the villain? That is what the west is doing to Zimbabwe. I'm glad you mentioned 'ebola' - by the way a UN report says over 8000 people in Guinea Bissau have died of cholera too... so 748 casualties in Zimbabwe warrants all this negative world attention and Guinea Bissau's epidemic does not? Mozambique has more cholera than Zimbabwe right now and has had for over half a century. Did Mugabe take it there? Your summation of BBC propaganda is tired, over-parroted and has nothing to do with the real situation. It's as bad as suggesting the Hutus killed the Tutsis in Rwanda 'because they were better looking and more intelligent' when there is more to the situation than that... It's just not that simplistic - who fuelled that?

Wow, you're determined to find racism anywhere aren't you! Perhaps you should try consulting a dictionary:

Goon (n): a silly, foolish, or eccentric person Origin: America, mid 19th century, influenced by "Alice the Goon", a cartoon character of an 8 foot hairy woman

veree pistoff, you are in Australia or have been. Two things give it away, 1. Coon as its the disgusting word used by scum{the low life few red neck type people} in Australia for the indigenous. 2. You talk of defecating in food and your description is exactly what cost the hotel in Sydney a lot of money.

If not you read a lot of news about Australia!

Mindpower, I agree with you that Africa can learn from European dictators and what their fate was. Europe has become more aggressive toward dictators or racists in Europe. However, I doubt if countries easily learn from others. Zimbabwe for example can learn from Botswana how it has managed to be a democratic country or how Ghana turned around a dictorship into democracy. Maybe that is why invading a country and impossing democracy does not work. What seem to work is when people within the country fight it out, kill each other and then come to their senses! I'm not so sure that Zimbabweans have come to grips with Mugabe to a point of wanting to overthrow him or send him to the Hague

Too true Phiri, we as humans very rarely learn from the mistakes of others.

Mindless Crapish Critique

Mindless cannot distinguish a typo from a grammatical mistake.

Nothing less could be expected from MINDLESS.

Silly.

Ah, Jallohlaw, I see that you are really just a child using big words in your writings to make yourself feel grown up. Your childish name calling has no effect on me so feel free to resort to those tactics if it helps you deal with your insecurities. :-)

MEMORANDUM OF CAPITULATION FROM LUNATIC MINDLESS

"JALLOHLAW, with his big words, has completely demolished my self-esteem. The dude is simply awesome. I give up; I throw in the towel. His chidish name calling has no effect on me because he has rope a doped me in the ring of rheorical prowess.

Accordindly, I sue for mercy, and I know that jallohlaw, a decent African, will grant it.

May God answer my prayer, because this dude is awesome and is the emobodiment of THE COOL.

Shallowhead, you are off topic. Come see me!

Thanks for sharing another of your delusions Jallohlaw. I look forward to your next tirade; they're always good for a giggle :-D

Phiri, I agree with you about the SADC and AU being largely resposible for this mess in Zimbabwe but also Mugabe has to take a lot of blame along with Tsvangirai b/c no of them care about the starving people of Zom or their medical conditions but only themselves... Their days of reign will one day come to an end and unless they change their ways it will be a hard fall!

Good grammar - but find out a little more before you write about an issue.

No country rich or poor can survive without credit (never mind the badmouthing)

Read the Zimbabwe democracy bill - it is about starving the people, NO worse, making sure that they cannot do anything but wait for someone to give them handouts

The real clever bit about the sanctions is something I hope you will figure out yourself.

greetings from the usa my brothers and sisters. everyone only mentions cutting off the head of the snake, the entire snake must die. remember the head of the snake has many cronies and lackies such as his cousin the head of the air force who calls himself the "black jesus"... my love, thoughts and prayers are with you

What is this? Here, my people, is some hellish crap from the USA.

Down with metaphysics; down with Farakhan obscurantism.

Yo: we don't want to "burn the house down," as your hero F has stated.

We are Africans. We don't want to destroy the USA, Britain, France, etc.

No. We just want to be left alone.

"Africa for Africans" is our war cry, not "burn baby, baby burn."

Cheers from MAMA AFRICA.

if you want to be left alone, why do you complain about 'sanctions' (Which you wrongfully claim) as these are effectively the same thing... leaving you alone. Why?

Or else what? You will be waiting a long time before ANY of the AU so-called leadership agrees to commit an African force to any function in respect of Zimbabwe.

A thoughtful and well written article. It says what is the truth. Mugabe and Zanu-pf are the pirates of Somalia. They need to be treated as goons and pirates. Come on people of Zimbabwe...rise up and throw the Goons out. Show some backbone for a change.

Dude from DixieTexas and lover of "Rhodesia" what stops YOU from putting a dip in your hip, strengthen YOUR BACKBONE, AND MARCH ON HARARE.

I'll tell you why you won't even think of it.

YOU WILL BE CRUSHED, and you know it.

Prove me wrong: march on Harare, NOW. DixieRhodesia.

Cheers from the CITY OF THE WILL TO POWER, HARARE.

"Cheers from the CITY OF THE WILL TO POWER"

Jallohlaw, you come from the City of the Won't Learn Grammar. ROFL!

Jallohlaw, you have have gone from lying to just gobbledygook. What childish nonsense! You are just as bad as your illegitimate leader Bobojan Mugabe lying to the world that there is no cholera in Zimbabwe. Well, you cannot hide a disease that kills so rapidly and because it can be so easily prevented, cholera itself is a tell-tale and revelation to the world at large that here lies a a country left to rot by a useless, corrupt and good-for-nothing nincompoop. All this raving and ranting against white folk and the West, what is Africa and its black folk doing to help Zimbabwe? Refusing entry into Zimbabwe someone like jimmy Carter who does so much for those in need is plain stupidity.Talk of shooting yourselves in the foot. Unfortunately it is apparently not those of Zanu-pf fat slobs who are dying but the unfortunate masses.

To J-hollow, AK-47, Phiri and any other defenders of ZANU-PF/Mugabe:

1) 231 MILLION per cent inflation! 2) 80% unemployment 3) How many zeroes did the RBZ take off the currency 3 months ago? 4) Hospitals and major healthcare infrastructure - closed 5) Schools and Universities closed for lack of plumbing/funding 6) Clean drinking water unavailable to 80% of the population 7) Cholera killing thousands in Zimbabwe 8) Intimidation and closure of the free press 9) Intimidation and suppression of the free right to assemble

This is the Bill of Indictment presented against the outcomes of the policies of ZANU-PF/Muhgabe. How do you plead?

Regardless of the "causes" or any blame you would like to assign to the "Imperialist West", take notice that all 9 (nine) Indicments are FACTUAL representations of the state of affairs in Zimbabwe while under the guidance of ZANU-PF/Mugabe's governance. Again, any excuse or blame you would like to use to defend yourselves is irrelevent, as all of the Indictments are internal matters to the people of Zimbabwe!

How do you defend the actions of ZANU-PF/Mugabe? With tired marxist-liberation slogans of the fight against the Capitalist (bourgeois) West!

You CANNOT defend ZANU-PF/Mugabe with FACTS! For Zimbabwe to have reached it's current depths under the "stewardship" of ZANU-PF/Mugabe since the "liberation" is itself, a crime against humanity.

Nor Mugabe nor Tsvangerai none will give peace to Zimbabwean ,I tell you the truth making was in Zimbabwe no matter how weak is will endanger all efforts to save Zimbabweans. I could advise Mugabe to step down peacefully and respectfully and give it the leadership to someone else in his party, I kow there are other competent people Tsvangerai is western puppet who will sell the whole country to the west amd at the end create chaos to his neigbours. Anyone thinking to remove Mugabe by arms is not a strategic thinker with a political myopia. Only let evertyhing go diplomatically , and let solve the Zimbabwe problem on african perspectives and not just mere repeating what you've heard said by the west , who do not care about you who support them I feel sorry for those parrots who just narrate what heard spoken in the west AFRICA IS NOT YET FREE

To J-hollow, AK-47, Phiri and any other defenders of ZANU-PF/Mugabe:

1) 231 MILLION per cent inflation! 2) 80% unemployment 3) How many zeroes did the RBZ take off the currency 3 months ago? 4) Hospitals and major healthcare infrastructure - closed 5) Schools and Universities closed for lack of plumbing/funding 6) Clean drinking water unavailable to 80% of the population 7) Cholera killing thousands in Zimbabwe 8) Intimidation and closure of the free press 9) Intimidation and suppression of the free right to assemble

This is the Bill of Indictment presented against the outcomes of the policies of ZANU-PF/Muhgabe. How do you plead?

Regardless of the "causes" or any blame you would like to assign to the "Imperialist West", take notice that all 9 (nine) Indicments are FACTUAL representations of the state of affairs in Zimbabwe while under the guidance of ZANU-PF/Mugabe's governance. Again, any excuse or blame you would like to use to defend yourselves is irrelevent, as all of the Indictments are internal matters to the people of Zimbabwe!

How do you defend the actions of ZANU-PF/Mugabe? With tired marxist-liberation slogans of the fight against the Capitalist (bourgeois) West!

You CANNOT defend ZANU-PF/Mugabe with FACTS! For Zimbabwe to have reached it's current depths under the "stewardship" of ZANU-PF/Mugabe since the "liberation" is itself, a crime against humanity.