Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Reason Wafawarova
27 June 2009
(Page 2 of 2)
The US knows well how to make the Zimbabwean people scream for Western help. With Iran and North Korea proving too hot to handle and with somewhat humiliating concessions (by US imperial standards) in Central America and Cuba, there is need for President Obama to produce a face-saving chauvinist hysteria by means of some cheap victories, and it is important that they be cheap and they do not come any cheaper than bullying ravaged little countries like Zimbabwe.
The West is dangling bits and driblets of so-called humanitarian aid so as to incite the population into hysterical hankering for more until as many as possible will come to believe that the West is not the tormentor but the liberator.
The victory, as already said, has to be cheap and President Mugabe has proven not to be such a cheap victory and attention shifted to Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono and Attorney-General Mr Johannes Tomana, who also have proven to be too difficult to remove.
The other target, the ultimate prize, is the reversal of the land reforms, but that also is proving to be too hard to achieve with all parties in the inclusive Government agreed that the process is irreversible.
The West's idea to give aid through their own NGOs is designed to achieve a tacit collaboration between the suffering and hungry people of Zimbabwe and Western elites with the hope that the West will have the last word. And the West does not want Zanu-PF to return.
Britain must be overly inspired that such collaboration with Zimbabwean people is achievable after the appalling behaviour of those 1 000 economic refugees resident in London -- the lot that sought to impress the British Home Office by jeering and heckling the Prime Minister of their own country for daring to say home was now a place of "peace and stability".
The challenge facing the inclusive Government is meeting the demands of the only real donation that came the Government's way through the PM's tour of Western capitals - that pack of abstract benchmarks like "rule of law", "freedom of political prisoners", "restoration of property rights", "Press freedom", "respect for human rights" and "respect for the will of Zimbabwean people".
No one in the inclusive Government can define any of these phrases to the consensus of everyone and, of course, the Prime Minister announced the coming of "Press freedom" by the "first or second week of July" when the "free Press" from the West is expected to be accredited to work in the country.
Whether this is the definition of free Press or not, the truth of the matter is that Western benchmarks are not only vague and difficult to measure, but are also exceedingly patronising and bullish, especially when directed to a country that fought so hard to achieve these basic democratic rights -- denied by the very people who today demand such rights.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai: do not tire in your efforts to seek re-engagement, but please be advised that the country will not be reconstructed by aid. We need to go out there with well-defined packages to attract and stimulate investment in the country, and not with well articulated misery to elicit pity and sympathy from other nations.
Zimbabwe we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!
Reason Wafawarova is a political writer.
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Published by the Government of Zimbabwe?? I think not!! The unity government, if it was working would have this dishrag thrown out and competent investigative journalists working . Instead the have Zanu pf stooges, wringing their hands in despair, are desperately trying to make old senile uncle bob look good. A truly freeely operating press would be asking questions on all aspects of government operations, not trying to justify the unjustifiable.