The absurdity of Robert Mugabe

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s apparent dictator for life, had his official 82^nd birthday party recently. The nation-wide celebration cost his cash-strapped nation $2 million to produce. The handful of citizens who were brave enough to point out that the $2 million might have been better spent helping some of the hundreds of thousands of people in Zimbabwe who are starving or homeless were detained by authorities.

After twenty-six years of ruling Zimbabwe Mugabe should no longer surprise us. His greatest accomplishment in recent years, other than fixing elections so that he wins, is his “fast-track” land reform project. Over the past six years Mugabe has systematically taken some of his country’s most productive agricultural land from white farmers and given it to his political allies—many of whom who had never farmed before. As a result nearly all of these once productive farms have become completely unproductive and this has directly led to a lack of food for many of Zimbabwe’s nearly 13 million residents. Nice going Bob!

Mugabe continues to rail against Zimbabwe’s former colonial master (Britain) and the world’s only current superpower (the United States) and his recent birthday speech was no exception. Mugabe told his young listeners (mostly Zimbabwe school children who had been bused in from throughout the country) that the “monster of imperialism” is “continuously and dangerously lurking.” He also claimed that Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, was an organ for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush to engage in neocolonial activities in Zimbabwe.

Unfortunately a recent schism has split the Movement for Democratic Change weakening the party and further bolstering Mugabe’s position in power. What’s amazing, however, is that despite Mugabe’s constant vicious attacks against Great Britain and the United States it is precisely these two nations that provide the aid—hundreds of millions of dollars of aid—that allows Zimbabwe’s citizens to survive. While Mugabe has led his country to triple digit inflation, 60% unemployment, and a full 80% of his citizens living under the poverty line, it has been mostly the United States and Britain who has bailed him out and allowed his citizens to survive.

In all of the absurdity that exists in African politics Robert Mugabe is clearly the most absurd. We can only hope that one day soon the strong and resilient people of Zimbabwe will be free of his ridiculousness.

Comments

[Student]

when reading the previews of this artlicle I was hoping that it would Zimbabwe's accomplishments, so thanks for nothing