13 November 2008
THE Great Zimbabwe museum is now secure, with state-of-the-art electronic surveillance equipment installed to curb thefts and potential abuse of valuable archeological artefacts.
A statement issued early in the week by the US Embassy's Public Affairs Section says the US Embassy provided the grant and training to secure the national monument.
Implemented by the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ), the funding from the US government enabled the NMMZ to procure CCTV systems, battery backups, computer equipment, alarm and fire detection systems and provided training to staff on the use of the new equipment.
Confirming the development, NMMZ Director Dr Godfrey Mahachi told Independent Extra that the support from the US will enhance security at the historic site.
"African heritage sites have suffered heavy losses of cultural objects to theft, and the state of the art security systems that we now have will prevent trafficking of these rare artefacts and remove the immediate risk of permanent loss if stolen artefacts can be authentically identified and recovered," says Dr. Mahachi.
The support from the US will also result in the creation of an auditable computerised inventory of all collections and specimens and an archive through which every object and specimen in the collection can be identified by museum officials, police, customs, art traders and the insurance industry.
"Heritage preservation projects allow us to work closely with Zimbabwean organisations, and to affirm our respect for Zimbabwe's cultures as we jointly identify sites, objects and forms of traditional expression in critical need of preservation," says James McGee, US Ambassador to Zimbabwe.
"I am particularly happy to be able to support the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe in the preservation of the Great Zimbabwe Museum. Preservation of the artefacts will prevent the tragic loss of these works and preserve this important historical site for future generations" he said.
The Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation assists individuals and organisations preserve museum collections, ancient and historic sites, and traditional forms of expression, helping to reinforce cultural identity and community solidarity.
The Great Zimbabwe site is the most valued and revered in the country and includes a museum and interpretive center. This museum houses many valuable archeological artefacts from the immediate area as well as a collection of stone birds that are a source of national pride and in various forms are Zimbabwe's national symbols.
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Buddhamate, I do not buy McGee's public relations gimmick of purporting to help when he may have been the one actually stealing our artefacts. How much of our cultural heritage did they take out of the Great Zimbabwe Ruins (GZR)to now come and purport to help?
I am not swayed a bit by McGee who obviously want to divert attention away from his interference in out internal affairs. He, together with his predicessor, Christopher Dell, were recently in SA for the SADC Summit in order to influence the decision of the summit. Although they dismally failed in this regard, McGee has again continue to manipulate and "swing" with Tsvangirai so that he disrespects the decision of SADC leaders who ruled that the GNU should formed without any further delay.
Their grand plan - to ultimately take the case of Zimbabwe to the UNSC so that the USA and UK could fulfil their long held desire to invade Zimbabwe and install their puppet, Tsvangirai, as president of Zimbabwe.
This help is another form of cultural colonisation being pursued by the Bush regime. Nothing happens at the GZR now without the Americans knowing as the CCTVs are most likely linked directly to the US embassy in Harare.
What other monitoring equipment, besides the cameras, did they install without the knowledge of those who were "trained" to operate the machines? Who maintains the cameras and all the other secret gadgets installed at the GZR when they breakdown? Who provides spares for these in case of the need for a replacement?
Obviously, America gains far more than it "donated" in the long run. It simply means we can not disentangle ourselves from American imperialism for the next 10 to 20 years while we erroneously believe that this was a genuine donation.
Takunya, my suggestion to you is that every time the United States of America or any Western country sends aid of any sort to Zimbabwe, do the world a great favour by simply REFUSING that aid. You spoiled brats mess up your countries by allowing your leaders, and in your case butcher Mugabe, to crap all over the people looting the country and stashing away money that rightfully belongs to Zimbabwe, then you expect hand-outs. If Mugabe cannot feed your sorry selves for corruption and greed, why should other nations? Return the billions of dollars you have received so far from Western nations and good riddance to you.
Kjrs120; If anything it is the West that should return the trillions of dollars they looted out of Africa since the Berlin Conference and before. They are not being generous by giving us filthy lucre when they took and continue to take, out of Africa, 1000 times more. It is absurd to think that Africa should continue to be exploited at this moment in time. Africa will not tolerate thieving ever again.
Takunya, I also believe the thief is the one who has the most locks on his door.But in this case maybe there might be a little gratitude shown for what is being done to preserve something for future generations of Zimbabweans.America now has a president who has genuine empathy for Africans and for that matter just about any culture that might be under siege from oppression of the peoples basic human right to happiness and a fair go.It's educated people like you Tak' that should be embracing the opportunity of being able to build a real free and fair Zimbabwe.So please give some insight as to why Zanu is so determined to hang on to home affairs.Is Morgan being a puppet of the west by wanting to stop the violence that has been unleashed upon fellow Zimbabweans?Mugabe has no longer a dream to share, only the nightmare remains.There is a better way,peace is not the absence of war but the result of heart to heart dialog and acceptance of every man's right to that"Fair Go".P.S I wish to offer my condolences to all of free Africa as to the sad loss of "Mama Africa".A gentlewoman who took the plight of poor africans to the world and was heard.Bless you Mama.
Takunya, I also believe the thief is the one who has the most locks on his door.But in this case maybe there might be a little gratitude shown for what is being done to preserve something for future generations of Zimbabweans.America now has a president who has genuine empathy for Africans and for that matter just about any culture that might be under siege from oppression of the peoples basic human right to happiness and a fair go.It's educated people like you Tak' that should be embracing the opportunity of being able to build a real free and fair Zimbabwe.So please give some insight as to why Zanu is so determined to hang on to home affairs.Is Morgan being a puppet of the west by wanting to stop the violence that has been unleashed upon fellow Zimbabweans?Mugabe has no longer a dream to share, only the nightmare remains.There is a better way,peace is not the absence of war but the result of heart to heart dialog and acceptance of every man's right to that"Fair Go".P.S I wish to offer my condolences to all of free Africa as to the sad loss of "Mama Africa".A gentlewoman who took the plight of poor africans to the world and was heard.Bless you Mama.
Takunya, Mugabe just stole millions of dollars from the Global fund for aid to Zimbabwe and yet you say 'Africa will not tolerate thieving again." Come on. Do you really mean it? So what are you going to do with the thief in your front yard that is Mugabe? You all talk about foreign countries looting Zimbabwe or Africa as a whole, and I say there is no such thing . Why? Because NO foreign nation enters without the knowledge of your leaders. It is your leaders who are so bloody corrupt that they receive kick-backs worth billions of dollars belonging to your respective countries. How do you think your leaders manage to accumulate the billions of dollars stashed in foreign banks? Look at Mugabe for instance. He not only has billions that are currently frozen as part of his targeted sanctions, but own diamond mines in the Congo where he has sent Zimbabwean soldiers as we speak. But Zimbabwe is stone broke. So unless you guys learn to read your leaders, you will stupidly continue putting all blame on foreign nationals whilst your leaders are laughing all the way to their fat banks, leaving your countries poor and people starving and dying from various diseases for lack of medicines. Zimbabweans dying from cholera - Why? Nothing to do with Mugabe's sanctions but everything to do with the man himself, if I can call him even that.
Kjrs120, It is true that 'Africa will not tolerate thieving again.". This was true yesterday, it is true today and will be true tommorrow.
But to answer you directly, I have addressed the issue of the Global Fund in my previous posts but being what you have always been - a propangandist - you will always want to refer to an issue that is a non-issue at all just to satisfy your ego. I will not behave like Awt_independent who tells everybody to ignore what he himself cannont ignore, I will keep on explaining until thick headed Kjrs120 understands.
Money for the Global Fund was not stolen by anyone. The spokeperson, who is a CIA operative embebbed with the NGO, just wanted to blow the issue out of proportion for his own selfish ends and for those of western imperialists whose grant plan has always been to demonise Zimbabwe with the ultimate aim of making Zimbabweans suffer under the sanctions they have imposed on us.
NGOs, companies and individuals do not open accounts with the RBZ but with commercial banks. Money (forex) collected by commercial banks is then deposited with the RBZ which is the custodian of all forex in Zimbabwe and this is a common practise all over the world.
Thats why you often hear Tito Mboweni, the SA Reserve Bank Governor, saying that the country has, for example, three months import cover. Mboweni will be referring to this money that belongs to individuals, companies and NGOs. The RBZ just like the SA Reserve Bank, has the right to use this money as it sees fit but always tryihg as much as posssible to ensure that the money is available on demand.
Where the concerned account holder cannot access his money, an explanation is given and this is what happened in this particular instance. But because the CIA agent had a hidden agenda, he took advantage of the none availability of forex in Zimbabwe to demonise the govt. There is nothing amiss or unusual about going to the bank but being unable to withdraw your money, it is happening everyday in Zimbabwe where we are reeling under sanctions that Tsvangirai called for.
If I may ask you, how many companies and individuals, as we speak, cannot access their funds from their FCAccounts? The answer is EVERYBODY, but then the Global Fund wants to make it an issue as if it is unique. And this does not mean that the money has been stolen but has just been channelled towards some more pressing issues like importing food for the nation.
So, therefore, there is no question of what I am going to do with ".... the thief in your front yard that is Mugabe?" because there is none. President Mugabe and Dr Gono and indeed the whole govt, are very honest people who would not steal a mere 7 million US dollars. What is 7 million dollars to the money that govt, through the RBZ, receives from all FCAs in Zimbabwe. It is just an insignificant amount and therefore should not raise any eyebrows at all.
This is why the RBZ, despite the hardships the country is going through (caused by sanctions that Tsvangirai called for), managed, in a very short space of time, to make the money available to the GLOBAL FUND.
While it is true that there is no investor who comes into the country without the knowledge of govt, this is not the stage at which looting takes place. Looting takes place when the mining company ships our raw minerals to their mother countries and under-declare the value of the goods exported and keep the difference outside the country. Of the little that the company brighs back into the country, only a small amount goes to govt as taxes.
But we know that the govt would have long been prejudiced by the under-declation of the value of the raw minerals exported. Add to this the value that is declared, less tax to govt and you can see that there is massive looting of African resources which we should never tolerate.
From what I have explained you can see that there is no corruption of our leaders as you would like the world to believe but plain looting of our riches by western imperialist companies. PERIOD. Corruption, where it takes place, contributes a very small and insignificant proportion of the resources looted out of our country. And in the case of Zimbabwe where corruption is discovered and proved beyond any reasonable doubt, it has been delt with harshly by the govt of President Mugabe.
This is not to say there is no corruption in Zimbabwe but that being as dificult as it is to prove, I would challenge you to give any proof of same so that the culprits can be prosecuted and severely purnished.
You also accuse the President of having had "his foreign accounts" frozen in western countries. I want to challenge you, as the President has done on numerous occassion, to identify those and if you find anything, plse do us the favour of giving it to charity.
Infact the President told Blair then, that if he gets a pin that he can link to President Mugabe, he (Blair) was challenged to make it public and then auction it and give the money to a charity of his choice. This is different from just unileterally freezing accounts belonging to Zimbabweans who legitimately worked outside the country and made genuine investments there.
Since 2000 up to this day, Blair and now Brown, and Bush have not come up with any evidence although they have deployed thousands of CIA, MI5 and MI6 operatives to trace his interests. Most patriotic Zimbabweans today find no need to put their money in foreign accounts because they have been empowered first with education, second with land and now with the 51% stake they can acquire in foreign companies.
Why then would anyone want to send money outside when opportunities are unlimited in our motherland? The only people who can do that are Tsvangirai and those in MDC who are getting filthy lucre from their handlers and stashing that ourside the country. The money they are given was looted in our country in the first place and so if their accounts were to be froozen, it is these which are going to be found with billions of our money.
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Funny thing Mugga hasn't bothered to protect the cultural heretige of Zimbabwe.He leaves that up to the west to look after Zimbabwe culture. He is certainly too busy looting the rest of the joint at the momentAlso maybe Mugga sees it as a bit of superannuation for later. So of course it's to keep Mugga's mates, who would pinch the eye out of a needle from getting their hands on it.Crafty old devil.