The presence of Robert Mugabe at a United Nations food summit in Italy beginning Tuesday has drawn a barrage of criticism from the MDC, western leaders and human rights groups.
The Zanu PF leader arrived in Rome on Sunday accompanied by his wife Grace Mugabe and several senior government officials. MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said Mugabe had no right to represent Zimbabwe in Italy after losing the March 29th election, and that the veteran ruler should have been man enough to accept he had no mandate and legitimacy to be in Rome.
Chamisa however said, 'We also sympathise with him because this is probably his last international summit carrying the burden of the nation before June 27, and after that the country will be in safe hands when he is gone.'
Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said it was 'obscene' for a person who had presided over the starvation of his own people to attend a summit dealing with food issues.
His remarks were echoed by Britain's International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander who also described the attendance as 'obscene,' and said that he was 'outraged' by his attendance. The trip is the first journey undertaken by Mugabe to a Western country since he lost the March 29th election to Morgan Tsvangirai. The 84-year old is thought to have previously flown out of the country for treatment in the Far East. Although there is a European Union travel ban on Mugabe and members of his inner-circle, he is able to travel to UN summits that are deemed neutral territory.
Officials from the Food and Agriculture Organisation confirmed as much when they said all UN member states had been invited to the conference. The state media in Zimbabwe was ablaze with the story as they sought to portray Mugabe as a confident leader who was firmly in control. Only 3 years ago Mugabe attended a similar conference and used it to call US President George Bush and then British Prime Minister Tony Blair 'international terrorists.' A trip to Portugal last December by Mugabe for the EU-Africa summit generated similar controversy. Activists from the UK Zimbabwe Vigil and other groups also travelled to Portugal to demonstrate against his presence.
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U.S. Republican Party and MDC-T alike with "Obscene" Media Spin Deception
Stella Orakwue writes eloquently in the May 2008 issue of NewAfrican magazine It is a pity!: Do you think that if Mugabe, had got the money, the financial credits, that Zimbabwe needed, that Zimbabwes economic situation would not be utterly different, and that the people would not have given him the vast majority he deserved? It is a pity that the people who voted against President Mugabe have no ability to remember the servitude they existed in prior to the last eight years Is it too hard without the white man? Without the Westerner in charge of your resources, your money, looking after you behind the scenes?
U.S. Congressman Robert Wexler is demanding that White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan Must Testify under Oath before House Judiciary Committee concerning devastating revelations made in his new book on the Bush Administrations deliberate efforts to mislead the American people into the Iraq War. In his book, WHAT HAPPENED: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, McClellan writes that Bush manipulated public opinion through a ``political propaganda campaign'' to justify going to war in Iraq. Public officials, whether pro-Anglo Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) or pro-African Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), should be held responsible for any actions that could lead to civil war, social disruption, and or additional economic sanctions. Sanctions are designed specifically to destroy the financial infrastructure of a country.
For years MDC-T has media slandered the people of Zimbabwe with the most savage, filthy, and disgusting language, and disinformation ever written by an African. This is reminiscent of the American systematic dismemberment of a political candidate and a scorched earth strategy.
After reading WHAT HAPPENED it appears Morgan Tsvangirai & MDC-T is imitating the George Herbert Walker Bushs 1988 campaign against Michael Dukakis: On page 68 McClellan writes Instead, they developed a calculated strategy to go negative that had little to do with building their candidate up and everything to do with tearing their opponent down.
The campaign was by most objective accounts full of distortions, misrepresentations, and zero-sum politics, accusing Dukakis of everything from embracing furloughs for dangerous criminals to disliking the pledge of allegiance (the innuendo being that he was unpatriotic).
Mr. Tsvangirai is using all the American political personality deceptions and media spinmiesterism found common among American politicians; fooling a majority. A recent photo of Tsvangirai crying at a funeral is a typical public relations photo-shoot. It is no different from U.S. Presidential Candidate Hillary Rodham Clintons tear jerk response at press time claiming shes being attacked. World media is finally recognizing and stating in their press comments how she, like Tsvangirai, is waiting for a dreadful event for her to become president.
MDC-Ts relentless attack and permanent press campaign against President Robert Mugabe personally can be likened to President George Bush and the Republican Partys media spinmiesterization that White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan regretfully participated in.
Media outlets should denote more resources to fact-checking ideas and information provided by political campaigns, politicians in office, or special interest organizations. When a candidate bends the truth, reporters shouldnt hesitate to point that out. When a television commercial uses, emotional appeals, distorted imagery, or misleading selective facts to promote a particular point of view, news organizations should expose those tactics, even if it means braving the fury of an offended advertiser. (WHAT HAPPENED Page 321)
The dos and donts of the Media Spinmiesters and the journalistic stage they set are well defined in former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellans book WHAT HAPPENED: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception making visibly clear MDC-Ts permanent campaign:
Do not discuss any economic and trade issues, never discuss economic sanctions, never discuss direct investment for agricultural and educational institutions. Never discuss with Zimbabwe citizens the ways and means that white Rhodesians became owners of the best preserved land in Zimbabwe.
Do not discuss the slaughter of millions of Zimbabweans who died in the wars and forced labor mines and plantations. The wars that matched African spears against European cannons and machine guns are crimes against humanity and never to be mentioned.
Never discuss how the British wrote and signed their own land ownership papers and leases in Zimbabwe?
Do not discuss how Zimbabwe farmers ended up in South Africa nurturing a neighbors land and neglecting their own farm land; is it a result of sanctions? If yes, illegally imposed sanctions should be the press medias target for investigation.
MDC-Ts hired political media spinmiesters always direct the topic of discussions and comments to suffering and death issues, the American boogey man, the evil president and the corrupt ZANU-PF and ZEC fear and scare tactics. Do not define the New Zimbabwe in specifics.
Propaganda media-spinmiesters discourage intellectual debates and promote distrust among political opponents by making the opposition the enemy. Emphasize tribal, political, or religious differences.
The media spinmiesters will make Zimbabwean nationalism, self determination, and independence an unknown and unachievable factor by constant media bombardment of government failures. Media spinmiesters never report success events or achievements.
Should President Mugabe and ZANU-PF have responded to MDC-T like the Clintons?
By 1992, Clinton and his political advisers felt they had learned the lessons of the 1988 campaign: answer every attack; counter misrepresentations and distortions of ones record by using the same tactics against the opponent; play by the same rules the opposition plays by, but do it better. the Clinton political machine became famous for its aggressive push back tactics, its subtle and not so subtle intimidation of reporters, its mastery of spin, and its rapid response to charges. (WHAT HAPPENED Page 69)
It was recorded in The Quest for the Presidency by Peter and John Matthews Goodman, the systematic dismemberment of Michael Dukakis based on a scorched-earth strategy (Page 68).
When illegally imposed sanctions began to deteriorate the success of the educational institutions from grade schools to the Universities in Zimbabwe; did MDC-T call a truce at any cost to avoid the near collapse of its educational institutions?
The quintessence of any society begins in the home; it ends in the schools and learning centers that later evolve into scientific research & development laboratories of entrepreneurship. What is the cost of sanctions? Answer: a generation of students and citizens denied the social benefits and fruition of their scholarship.
By MDC-Ts demonization of their head of state and its ruling political party they actually demeaned the citizens of every Zimbabwean.
If American laws are applied to Zimbabwes present state of affairs charges of sedition, treason, and subversive activities would easily be applied to MDC-T top officials and their media spinmiesters.
Zimbabwe is more of a Democracy than America. MDC-T officials are allowed to advocate, solicit, and join foreign forces in their attempt to remove the President and government from existence. This behavior will never be tolerated in America, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the European Union. The support of foreign illegally imposed sanctions is a criminal act.
Media Spinmiester Tendai Biti, secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change, said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) must "play the midwifery role" in easing President Robert Mugabe from power in the aftermath of the March 29 election. Mugabe placed second to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in that vote but has vowed to win a runoff.
If diplomacy fails, "the next thing is a war," Biti told reporters after a news conference here. "It's not an option to us, but one day some [person] is going to say, 'This is the only solution.' SADC must act now before rivers of dead people start to flow, as they did in Rwanda." (By Craig Timberg Washington Post Foreign Service; Friday, May 16, 2008; Page A11)
Writer MacDonald Dzirutwe writes The MDC insists Tsvangirai won outright the first time. We decided to participate in the run-off to give the people of Zimbabwe a second chance to kick out the dictatorship. We have now declared a zero vote for Robert Mugabe," Khupe told supporters on Sunday.
We need to give Mugabe a final blow. On June 27 we will be having a ZANU-PF funeral. We are going to make sure we bury them so that they will not resurrect again.
The MDC has alleged electoral fraud in the March election, and Khupe said verification of results in next month's vote should be open to the media and observers and recorded on camera "so that ZANU-PF will not cheat."
Well, MDC-T, in America if the President of the United States, the Commander in Chief, is found to have deliberately deceived the American public for the purpose of going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan the president will be impeached and face federal charges for deceiving the United States Congress. You MDC-T have made explosive statements that ought to be answered and verified to the world public with actual facts.
However, if the statements by MDC-T are to be taken on face value one can conclude the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai is at war with the government and people of Zimbabwe. I hope I am wrong.
The seat of authority must always be respected even if it is a dictatorship or a family ruled monarchy. The respect you show today for the seat of authority will be the respect given to you if or when your time arrives for change.
United States gangsters or mobsters aka the Casa Nostra have a rule of law in there Commission or Board of Directors: it states that whoever (member) calls for the removal of the chairman from his seat of authority cannot then be the chairman himself after the removal. In Japan it is said that one cannot be charged with treason if the foreign collaboration be determined to be in the best interest of the country. Sanctions have irreparable effects.
There is a vast difference in being elected to a position of authority and the demand for the removal of a commander in chief from his or her position of authority. The demand places you in legal jeopardy particularly in association with non-members.
During electoral campaigns, reporters should work harder to pin the candidates down on policy specifics rather than accepting generalizations and rhetorical flair (WHAT HAPPENED Page 321).
Every right minded person is hoping that forgiveness, reconciliation, and power sharing dominate the present and future of Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai, if I had to believe every thing you and MDC-T said about ZANU-PF and Mr. Mugabe and youre still alive, by the grace of God or Mugabe, than respect for you and your party have been demonstrated.
Lloyd Whitefield Butler, Jr. Columnist, The Zimbabwe Guardian Saturday, May 31, 2008
well another Mugabe supporter and he must be buying you off too and all this talk of what Mugabe has did but well apparently you are blinded by Mugabe's dirty money as Zimbabwe has been devastated so who are you blaming for the people that are starving and depend on foreign aid for food and this crazy inflation rate? Of course it must be the USA or Britain's fault!
Regardless of what Mugabe has done in the past he now has destroyed the country he supposedly liberated... Sorry I have no pity for people like him so while he is outside Zimbabwe maybe someone will be man enough and arrest him and whatever counter parts may be with him....
Why is it that everyone who writes something that is true about Zimbabwe is a "Mugabe supporter and he must be buying you off"? How absurd can you get? The fact is the writer made some excellent points, why don't you refute them? Why don't you explain just what Mugabe did to "destroy the country" and how it is not sanctions imposed by two of the most powerful countries existing today that is primarily responsible for the economic hardships that Zimbabweans are suffering from?
If this person had made good points that is different and the paper she write from is a Mugabe supporter or at least afraid to freely speak their mind without being fired or killed..
What has Mugabe done? Look at Zimbabwe and it's people who are starving and well if you support anyone other than Mugabe you will be beaten or killed... The inflation of the country where only thugs like him can afford...
I am sick of you blaming other countries for your problems and the problem lies within the country aka Mugabe....He has destroyed Zimbabwe and is a selfish self seeking old man who has lost whatever mind he may have ever had. His wife goes on these huge shopping trips while people in Zimbabwe starve so do not give me any crap about what he has done for the country..
The west has cut him off b/c of his selfish, dictorial ways so blame him... Zimbabwe needs to stand on it's own two feet and not depend on money of another country for it's survival. This is an African problem you are dependant on the rest of the world to survive.You must make it for yourselves. Mugabe is fast to shoot off at the mouth and denounce the USA and Britian but he has his hand out wanting our money so don't bite the hand that feeds you.
If you want something you must work weith your own two hands but if you do not work then you do not eat..
So stop supporting Mugabe now before he takes you down along with the rest of Zimbabwe..
The USA continues to feed 1mill. Zimbabweans, because they cannot feed themselves, after the farms which produced food were taken from the white farmers and given to Mugabe's friend and family. This is a direct result of Mugabe's Land appropriation policy. Now USA helps to feed the people of Zimbabwe, but Mugabe sees fit to criticise the USA for sanctions and Thabo Mbeki (Mugabe's friend) sees fit to attack George Bush. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!
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