Opinion / Columnist
Chamisa's bullet trains are but an escape from implementing reforms and 'povo's opium for false hope for millennia'
04 Jun 2018 at 17:11hrs | Views
Do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with Nelson Chamisa's 800 km/hour bullet trains (faster than the current world record holder 431km/hour maglev train), spaghetti junction at every growth-point, Wi-Fi for goats and every village will have its own airport! Many provinces much less village have a barely functioning hospital but who needs a hospital or clinic when every village has an airport!
"They have helped to fire people's imagination!" many have argued. There is nothing wrong with firing one's imagination as long as that does not become the excuse for burying one's head in the sand in the vain hope that ones' problems will all go away. They never go away but only get worse!
In 1980, when the country attained her independence, Zimbabwe was one of the top five richest countries in Africa with all the potential to do even better. Today we are the poorest nation in Africa with unemployment rate soaring to dizzy heights of 90%, ¾ of our people live on US$1.00 or less a day, etc. The root cause of our economic meltdown is because, for the last 38 years and counting, the country has been stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime that has systematically rigged elections to stay in power.
After the two decades of blundering from pillar to post the people of Zimbabwe finally came to the consensus decision in the late 1990s that the nation needed democratic changes designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. The people have risked life and limp to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends in power on the ticket they would deliver the democratic changes the nation was dying for. Sadly they have failed to bring about even one democratic change in their 20 years on the political centre stage!
MDC leaders are the golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when all they had to do was implement the democratic reforms SADC had managed to force Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies to sign onto. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years.
SADC leaders wanted the 2013 elections postponed until reforms were in place. "If you go into next month's elections, you will lose; the elections are done!" they warned Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC leaders.
As we now know, MDC leaders participated in the July 2013 elections and, as we also know, Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections, as SADC had predicted.
Initially MDC leaders have said they will not take part in any more future elections until reforms are implemented. "No reform, no elections!" they said repeatedly. True to their party resolutions no MDC faction has ever contested any of the many by-elections from 2013 to date. However they have all decided to contest the national elections although not even one reform was implemented.
Nelson Chamisa is on record claiming MDC has "stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!" He has failed to name even one such measure; it is all hot air, to impress the naïve and gullible! Still the question of why was MDC taking part in the elections they know will be rigged kept coming back again and again.
However, ever since Chamisa started talking about bullet trains travelling from Bulawayo to Harare, a distance of 400km, in 35 minutes; spaghetti junctions at every growth-point, etc.; he has certainly captured and captivated many people's imagination! They have all but forgot about the immediate need to implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections as the pre-requisite for any meaningful political and economic change.
Zimbabwe is in a real serious economic and political mess and the only way out of the mess is for the country to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. Chamisa and his MDC friends have failed to carry out this important task but rather than admit they a corrupt and incompetent to carry out the task they want to divert the people's attention away from the important and urgent task in hand and talk of the imaginary sugar-candy-mountain where elections are free, fair and credible.
On the morning of 31 July 2018, the people of Zimbabwe will wake up to the news of another Zanu PF landslide election victory because in the real Zimbabwe, as contrast to Chamisa's sugar-candy-mountain imaginary world, Zanu PF will blatantly rig the elections. So let us talk of the real Zimbabwe.
What the Zimbabwe needs right now are competent leaders who will accept the country needs to implement the democratic reforms and address the problem head-on with the single-minded and unwavering resolve the matter demands.
Ever since the nation decided the nation needed democratic reforms in the late 1990s the choice before us has not changed. Either, we bite the bullet and implement the reforms and thus give ourselves and posterity a real chance of getting out of this hell-on-earth Zanu PF has landed us. Or, do nothing about the reforms, content with twiddling our fingers and listen to MDC's empty promises, and thus condemn ourselves and generations to come to Zanu PF misrule.
"The 19th century German thinker Karl Marx, the founder and primary theorist of Marxism, had an antithetical and complex attitude to religion, viewing it primarily as "the soul of soulless conditions", the "opium of the people" that had been useful to the ruling classes since it gave the working classes false hope for millennia," explained Wikipedia.
Each nation and each generation has always found its own opium allowing them to escape into their sugar-candy-mountain and justify their false hope for millennia for the people of Zimbabwe – Chamisa bullet trains and spaghetti junctions has sure hit the sweet-spot of those given to escapism! Who needs a real job, clean running water, an end to power cuts, etc. if you can whizz around the country in President Chamisa's bullet trains!
"They have helped to fire people's imagination!" many have argued. There is nothing wrong with firing one's imagination as long as that does not become the excuse for burying one's head in the sand in the vain hope that ones' problems will all go away. They never go away but only get worse!
In 1980, when the country attained her independence, Zimbabwe was one of the top five richest countries in Africa with all the potential to do even better. Today we are the poorest nation in Africa with unemployment rate soaring to dizzy heights of 90%, ¾ of our people live on US$1.00 or less a day, etc. The root cause of our economic meltdown is because, for the last 38 years and counting, the country has been stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime that has systematically rigged elections to stay in power.
After the two decades of blundering from pillar to post the people of Zimbabwe finally came to the consensus decision in the late 1990s that the nation needed democratic changes designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. The people have risked life and limp to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends in power on the ticket they would deliver the democratic changes the nation was dying for. Sadly they have failed to bring about even one democratic change in their 20 years on the political centre stage!
MDC leaders are the golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when all they had to do was implement the democratic reforms SADC had managed to force Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies to sign onto. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years.
SADC leaders wanted the 2013 elections postponed until reforms were in place. "If you go into next month's elections, you will lose; the elections are done!" they warned Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC leaders.
As we now know, MDC leaders participated in the July 2013 elections and, as we also know, Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections, as SADC had predicted.
Initially MDC leaders have said they will not take part in any more future elections until reforms are implemented. "No reform, no elections!" they said repeatedly. True to their party resolutions no MDC faction has ever contested any of the many by-elections from 2013 to date. However they have all decided to contest the national elections although not even one reform was implemented.
Nelson Chamisa is on record claiming MDC has "stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!" He has failed to name even one such measure; it is all hot air, to impress the naïve and gullible! Still the question of why was MDC taking part in the elections they know will be rigged kept coming back again and again.
However, ever since Chamisa started talking about bullet trains travelling from Bulawayo to Harare, a distance of 400km, in 35 minutes; spaghetti junctions at every growth-point, etc.; he has certainly captured and captivated many people's imagination! They have all but forgot about the immediate need to implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections as the pre-requisite for any meaningful political and economic change.
Zimbabwe is in a real serious economic and political mess and the only way out of the mess is for the country to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. Chamisa and his MDC friends have failed to carry out this important task but rather than admit they a corrupt and incompetent to carry out the task they want to divert the people's attention away from the important and urgent task in hand and talk of the imaginary sugar-candy-mountain where elections are free, fair and credible.
On the morning of 31 July 2018, the people of Zimbabwe will wake up to the news of another Zanu PF landslide election victory because in the real Zimbabwe, as contrast to Chamisa's sugar-candy-mountain imaginary world, Zanu PF will blatantly rig the elections. So let us talk of the real Zimbabwe.
What the Zimbabwe needs right now are competent leaders who will accept the country needs to implement the democratic reforms and address the problem head-on with the single-minded and unwavering resolve the matter demands.
Ever since the nation decided the nation needed democratic reforms in the late 1990s the choice before us has not changed. Either, we bite the bullet and implement the reforms and thus give ourselves and posterity a real chance of getting out of this hell-on-earth Zanu PF has landed us. Or, do nothing about the reforms, content with twiddling our fingers and listen to MDC's empty promises, and thus condemn ourselves and generations to come to Zanu PF misrule.
"The 19th century German thinker Karl Marx, the founder and primary theorist of Marxism, had an antithetical and complex attitude to religion, viewing it primarily as "the soul of soulless conditions", the "opium of the people" that had been useful to the ruling classes since it gave the working classes false hope for millennia," explained Wikipedia.
Each nation and each generation has always found its own opium allowing them to escape into their sugar-candy-mountain and justify their false hope for millennia for the people of Zimbabwe – Chamisa bullet trains and spaghetti junctions has sure hit the sweet-spot of those given to escapism! Who needs a real job, clean running water, an end to power cuts, etc. if you can whizz around the country in President Chamisa's bullet trains!
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.co.uk
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