Zimbabwe: What Now?
One of the causes that led me to launch my first site and then Outsider Views about a year ago was Zimbabwe. I have continued to write about the plight of the people of Zimbabwe throughout the last number of years in Outsider Views and my personal site, Ordinary Faces. I still remember the faxes and the emails I used to send to the South African Embassy in Washington, at the UN and the emails I sent forth to the Presidential Secretrait in South Africa. I am not sure what impact it had. I would like to think that every single bit of effort helped in ultimately forcing SADC to force Mugabe to come to his sense. It has been four months now since the Government was formed.
The Zimbabwean PM was given the red carpet treatment as he made the rounds of Western Capitals asking for help. The estimates I have seen are about 150 Million Dollars to be channeled to non-governmental entities. Everyone sang the poor Prime Minister praises, including President Obama. He deserves them and then some. He has been beaten, imprisoned, subject to torture and almost paid dearly with his life. This struggle was compounded by the loss of his wife and the loss of his grandchild. Yet, he somehow finds the courage to go on.
I stayed silent for a while to see how the Unity Government was doing and where things stood. From what I have seen, the Unity Government has been able to stabilize the economy, schools are open and at least some semblance of normlacy seems to have returned. But, Mugabe is still in charge. The idiot who is the Governor of the Central Bank is still in place. Harrasement and intimidation of political opponents still continue. So, what has really changed?
Zimbabwe seems to have been forgotten. Although Failure is not an option, it seems that as long as the butcher Mugabe is in charge, nothing will really change.
Mike Pouraryan
