Opinion / Columnist
US building $200m new embassy, 'future is bright', says Ambassador - could not be any brighter
26 Jul 2017 at 09:41hrs | Views
"We hope the future is bright and I will highlight why the United States government thinks it is. Our commitment remains to Zimbabwe," announced USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Harry Thomas.
"We are building a $200 million embassy; we have 700 Zimbabweans working every day who get paid in United States dollars, $32 million each year is for Zimbabweans as salaries. We give $150 million (annually) to PEPFAR (the United States President Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief); we have reduced deaths due to HIV from 25 percent to under 12 percent in the past decade or so. And with another $150 million we are feeding 2.4 million of the 4.1 million food insecure people in Zimbabwe."
The announcement draw anger and happiness in equal measure Zanu PF apologist, Bernard Bwoni. He clearly wanted the statement to be an endorsement of Washington's confidence is Zanu PF's rule, hence the happiness. Yet deep inside, even he can see that President Mugabe's days in office are numbered and is angry with the Americans' optimism when he and his friends in Zanu PF are worried sick!
"The negative portrayal of Zimbabwe from the eyes of the Western world is intense and one would think that they have already packed their bags and closed their embassies in a hurry to leave," fired Bwoni. "But nothing could be further from the truth.
"The fact of the matter is that they are busy fortifying and increasing their presence in the country. The USA is building a new $200 million embassy compound in Zimbabwe and this has been billed the largest embassy compound in Africa. This beggars belief. For a country that is constantly labelled a rogue dictatorship, it is surprising that no one is in a hurry to leave."
The trouble with apologists like Bwoni is that they have been brainwashed by decades of Zanu PF propaganda and the regular doze of anti-west rhetoric from President Mugabe himself. When the tyrant thundered "Zimbabwe is mine!" His minions party followers took that to mean Mugabe is more important than the country just as the tyrant owned Zanu PF and was more important than the party.
Bwoni could hardly miss Zimbabwe's economic and political decline after 37 years of President Mugabe and Zanu PF misrule. The people have suffered greatly because of the mess and President Mugabe's reputation, being the author of the demise, has gone down the tube. Whilst the country can recover from this mess there is every reason to believe that Mugabe will not recover.
What Comrade Bwoni is failing to appreciate here is that Mugabe is not Zimbabwe and therefore the demise of the tyrant is not the demise of the country. Indeed, the setting of Mugabe's star is heralding the sun rise of a brighter future for the country!
Zimbabwe's economic decline took a serious knock at the turn of the century, when President Mugabe seized the white-owned farms and gave them to his ever demanding but wasteful Zanu PF cronies. The move backfired badly as it resulted in the total collapse of the country's agricultural sector, the engine of the country's economy, which in turn dragged down the economy.
The Zimbabwe economy since shrunk a staggering 80% to what it was before the farm seizure started in 2000! Unemployment has soared to 90% plus and the regime has admitted that 72% of the people now live in poverty. Zimbabweans are now the poorest people in Africa. All these bad economic figures point to bad governance and, in spite of all his attempts to distance himself by blame everyone and everything else, are weighing on him like the mile stone round his neck.
The economic hardship brought on by the economic meltdown has affected the ordinary people as well as the Zanu PF ruling elite; poverty has no respect for political rank. Zanu PF grandees like the late Nathan Shamuyarira, a cabinet minister for 25 years, died a pauper. President Mugabe, with typical Animal Farm cynicism, repaired to potholes on the road to Shamuyarira's and painted house the afternoon he died. A furtive act to hide the decades of neglect, rot and decay which mirrored the poverty of the dearly departed.
It is the fear of the certainty of poverty that is fuelling the serious in fighting for power in Zanu PF as the members fight over the ever-shrinking national wealth. When the centre cannot hold, things fall apart; Zanu PF is imploding. President Mugabe's hold on power is as shaky as ever.
The one thing that once cheered Mugabe greatly was the chaos in the opposition camp. He has been both very cunning and very lucky to have had Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends for political opponents. How he managed to con the opposition to do nothing about implement the democratic reforms for five years during the GNU showed just what a cunning politician Mugabe is, there is no question about it. Still, it must be said the Mugabe was very lucky that the MDC leaders also happened to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent, there is no way he would not have pulled that off otherwise!
MDC leaders' incompetence was a blessing in the past but now it may well be a curse to Mugabe.
Before the 2013 elections, SADC leaders warned Tsvangirai & co. not to contest the elections with no reforms in place; but the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders had bee-wax in their ears. President Mugabe rigged the vote. SADC leaders accept the result not because they believed the elections were free and fair but to punish the MDC for ignoring their warning.
Zanu PF has resisted all demands to implement democratic reforms since the rigged July 2013 elections and the regime is set to rig the vote as before. The nagging question Mugabe and Zanu PF cannot ignore is will SADC be fooled into accepting the result again, especially when the opposition has all but lost credibility because they failed to come up with any plausible excuse why they are once again contesting flawing election.
SADC leaders are rightly worries that Zimbabwe's economic meltdown will lead to social and political instability. Another rigged election will do nothing to help with the economic recovery given that Zanu PF has no clue what to do. So, approving another rigged election would be a very foolish thing to do.
President Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections and got away with it but it is now certain that SADC leaders will not let him get away with rigging 2018 election. "Tsuro haiponi rutsva kaviri!" (The hare will not escape the veld fire twice!) as one would say in Shona.
Bernard Bwoni knows President Mugabe is in deep trouble this time because will not rig the vote and get away with it. Regime change, that dreaded phrase in Zanu PF circles, that the party has rigged the vote, beaten, raped and even killed over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to avoid is now as certain as the sun rise.
The certainty of regime change would have Mugabe, his family and many of his cronies, especially those who have shed innocent blood, rigged elections and/or committed other heinous crimes "have already packed their bags" ready to flee the country, if only they had somewhere to go. The world has become a small place, there is nowhere for criminal to hide.
Bwoni is angry that the American are too not packing their bags and leaving Zimbabwe is the face of this regime change nightmare. What the apologist cannot accept is that Mugabe is not Zimbabwe and the certain demise of the tyrant and his corrupt and tyrannical regime is in fact the start of a bright future for the country.
After 37 years of corrupt and tyrannical autocratic rule, Zimbabwe is finally going to have regime change, severe all the dictatorial and corrupt laws and practices, restore all the individual freedoms and human rights and give our people their human dignity and mastery of their own destiny. Ambassador Thomas is right, Zimbabwe's future is Zimbabwe is very bright; the more so after nearly four decades in the dark ages!
"We are building a $200 million embassy; we have 700 Zimbabweans working every day who get paid in United States dollars, $32 million each year is for Zimbabweans as salaries. We give $150 million (annually) to PEPFAR (the United States President Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief); we have reduced deaths due to HIV from 25 percent to under 12 percent in the past decade or so. And with another $150 million we are feeding 2.4 million of the 4.1 million food insecure people in Zimbabwe."
The announcement draw anger and happiness in equal measure Zanu PF apologist, Bernard Bwoni. He clearly wanted the statement to be an endorsement of Washington's confidence is Zanu PF's rule, hence the happiness. Yet deep inside, even he can see that President Mugabe's days in office are numbered and is angry with the Americans' optimism when he and his friends in Zanu PF are worried sick!
"The negative portrayal of Zimbabwe from the eyes of the Western world is intense and one would think that they have already packed their bags and closed their embassies in a hurry to leave," fired Bwoni. "But nothing could be further from the truth.
"The fact of the matter is that they are busy fortifying and increasing their presence in the country. The USA is building a new $200 million embassy compound in Zimbabwe and this has been billed the largest embassy compound in Africa. This beggars belief. For a country that is constantly labelled a rogue dictatorship, it is surprising that no one is in a hurry to leave."
The trouble with apologists like Bwoni is that they have been brainwashed by decades of Zanu PF propaganda and the regular doze of anti-west rhetoric from President Mugabe himself. When the tyrant thundered "Zimbabwe is mine!" His minions party followers took that to mean Mugabe is more important than the country just as the tyrant owned Zanu PF and was more important than the party.
Bwoni could hardly miss Zimbabwe's economic and political decline after 37 years of President Mugabe and Zanu PF misrule. The people have suffered greatly because of the mess and President Mugabe's reputation, being the author of the demise, has gone down the tube. Whilst the country can recover from this mess there is every reason to believe that Mugabe will not recover.
What Comrade Bwoni is failing to appreciate here is that Mugabe is not Zimbabwe and therefore the demise of the tyrant is not the demise of the country. Indeed, the setting of Mugabe's star is heralding the sun rise of a brighter future for the country!
Zimbabwe's economic decline took a serious knock at the turn of the century, when President Mugabe seized the white-owned farms and gave them to his ever demanding but wasteful Zanu PF cronies. The move backfired badly as it resulted in the total collapse of the country's agricultural sector, the engine of the country's economy, which in turn dragged down the economy.
The Zimbabwe economy since shrunk a staggering 80% to what it was before the farm seizure started in 2000! Unemployment has soared to 90% plus and the regime has admitted that 72% of the people now live in poverty. Zimbabweans are now the poorest people in Africa. All these bad economic figures point to bad governance and, in spite of all his attempts to distance himself by blame everyone and everything else, are weighing on him like the mile stone round his neck.
The economic hardship brought on by the economic meltdown has affected the ordinary people as well as the Zanu PF ruling elite; poverty has no respect for political rank. Zanu PF grandees like the late Nathan Shamuyarira, a cabinet minister for 25 years, died a pauper. President Mugabe, with typical Animal Farm cynicism, repaired to potholes on the road to Shamuyarira's and painted house the afternoon he died. A furtive act to hide the decades of neglect, rot and decay which mirrored the poverty of the dearly departed.
It is the fear of the certainty of poverty that is fuelling the serious in fighting for power in Zanu PF as the members fight over the ever-shrinking national wealth. When the centre cannot hold, things fall apart; Zanu PF is imploding. President Mugabe's hold on power is as shaky as ever.
The one thing that once cheered Mugabe greatly was the chaos in the opposition camp. He has been both very cunning and very lucky to have had Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends for political opponents. How he managed to con the opposition to do nothing about implement the democratic reforms for five years during the GNU showed just what a cunning politician Mugabe is, there is no question about it. Still, it must be said the Mugabe was very lucky that the MDC leaders also happened to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent, there is no way he would not have pulled that off otherwise!
MDC leaders' incompetence was a blessing in the past but now it may well be a curse to Mugabe.
Before the 2013 elections, SADC leaders warned Tsvangirai & co. not to contest the elections with no reforms in place; but the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders had bee-wax in their ears. President Mugabe rigged the vote. SADC leaders accept the result not because they believed the elections were free and fair but to punish the MDC for ignoring their warning.
Zanu PF has resisted all demands to implement democratic reforms since the rigged July 2013 elections and the regime is set to rig the vote as before. The nagging question Mugabe and Zanu PF cannot ignore is will SADC be fooled into accepting the result again, especially when the opposition has all but lost credibility because they failed to come up with any plausible excuse why they are once again contesting flawing election.
SADC leaders are rightly worries that Zimbabwe's economic meltdown will lead to social and political instability. Another rigged election will do nothing to help with the economic recovery given that Zanu PF has no clue what to do. So, approving another rigged election would be a very foolish thing to do.
President Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections and got away with it but it is now certain that SADC leaders will not let him get away with rigging 2018 election. "Tsuro haiponi rutsva kaviri!" (The hare will not escape the veld fire twice!) as one would say in Shona.
Bernard Bwoni knows President Mugabe is in deep trouble this time because will not rig the vote and get away with it. Regime change, that dreaded phrase in Zanu PF circles, that the party has rigged the vote, beaten, raped and even killed over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to avoid is now as certain as the sun rise.
The certainty of regime change would have Mugabe, his family and many of his cronies, especially those who have shed innocent blood, rigged elections and/or committed other heinous crimes "have already packed their bags" ready to flee the country, if only they had somewhere to go. The world has become a small place, there is nowhere for criminal to hide.
Bwoni is angry that the American are too not packing their bags and leaving Zimbabwe is the face of this regime change nightmare. What the apologist cannot accept is that Mugabe is not Zimbabwe and the certain demise of the tyrant and his corrupt and tyrannical regime is in fact the start of a bright future for the country.
After 37 years of corrupt and tyrannical autocratic rule, Zimbabwe is finally going to have regime change, severe all the dictatorial and corrupt laws and practices, restore all the individual freedoms and human rights and give our people their human dignity and mastery of their own destiny. Ambassador Thomas is right, Zimbabwe's future is Zimbabwe is very bright; the more so after nearly four decades in the dark ages!
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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