Opinion / Blogs
Mugabe has been very bold against former colonial powers
03 Nov 2011 at 07:53hrs | Views
Robert Mugabe is a controversial figure and seemingly not a few people have been praying for his demise. Mugabe has been very bold against former colonial powers, and some would say recklessly bold.
His volatile temper has done him and his country a disservice. There are rules in this world, and unfortunately colonial powers still call the shots in international forums and institutions, with Africans reduced to penury and poverty, much due to the legacy of colonialism but a lot more due poor leadership.
While Robert Mugabe has survived everyone from Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, George Bush and Gordon Brown, the country has paid a heavy price. It just shows that you cannot show the middle finger to the United States, Britain etc and expect to get away with it.
Pragmatism would have served Mugabe and Zimbabwe well. Now millions of Zimbabweans are suffering because Mugabe could not demonstrate "smart power" by dealing constructively with those more powerful than him, while respectfully pressing for his demands for land. However, eventually Robert Mugabe is going to go the way of all flesh.
The question is whether he will be remembered as a butcher or liberator? The number of people he has supposedly killed in Matebeleland has been revised from earlier figures of over a 1000 to what some people now want to believe to be over a 1 000 0000. After all 000=0 except when its behind a number equal or greater than 1.
The millions of Zimbabweans in the diaspora testify to a story that has gone horribly wrong. With Gaddafi's demise at the hands of people financed by the West, one wonders what Mugabe's end shall be.
Robert Mugabe himself would have noticed Gadaffi being frog-marched yelling helplessly for his life to be spared. Yet the irony is that this old man who has also brought so much misery and suffering (with the help of others), still walks with a spring in his footstep, and may well die peacefully in his sleep.
Life is extraordinary and amazing!
His volatile temper has done him and his country a disservice. There are rules in this world, and unfortunately colonial powers still call the shots in international forums and institutions, with Africans reduced to penury and poverty, much due to the legacy of colonialism but a lot more due poor leadership.
While Robert Mugabe has survived everyone from Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, George Bush and Gordon Brown, the country has paid a heavy price. It just shows that you cannot show the middle finger to the United States, Britain etc and expect to get away with it.
Pragmatism would have served Mugabe and Zimbabwe well. Now millions of Zimbabweans are suffering because Mugabe could not demonstrate "smart power" by dealing constructively with those more powerful than him, while respectfully pressing for his demands for land. However, eventually Robert Mugabe is going to go the way of all flesh.
The question is whether he will be remembered as a butcher or liberator? The number of people he has supposedly killed in Matebeleland has been revised from earlier figures of over a 1000 to what some people now want to believe to be over a 1 000 0000. After all 000=0 except when its behind a number equal or greater than 1.
The millions of Zimbabweans in the diaspora testify to a story that has gone horribly wrong. With Gaddafi's demise at the hands of people financed by the West, one wonders what Mugabe's end shall be.
Robert Mugabe himself would have noticed Gadaffi being frog-marched yelling helplessly for his life to be spared. Yet the irony is that this old man who has also brought so much misery and suffering (with the help of others), still walks with a spring in his footstep, and may well die peacefully in his sleep.
Life is extraordinary and amazing!
Source - iol
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