Tsvangirai shakes hands with murderers

Morgan Tsvangirai must be a very brave man. Thursday, he met face to face and shook the hands of those who executed Robert Mugabe's murderous campaign spanning three decades.

One can only imagine what was discussed during this meeting but no amount of smooth-talking or smoke-screening will change the fact that these so-called security chiefs have the blood of innocent Zimbabweans on their hands. Talking to Tsvangirai after receiving instructions from South African president Jacob Zuma does not mean that these men will stop conspiring to destroyTsvangirai.

They should be held accountable for their actions. Clearly, if they are going to face justice, the people of Zimbabwe should insist on it because Tsvangirai does not seem to be willing to demand it, probably calculating that that may derail his own plans to succeed Mugabe. To suggest that financial compensation should be given to victims is hardly a solution: why should the people of Zimbabwe have to pay for the sins of their persecutors? Compensation yes, but justice first.

Now, it may be that the people of Zimbabwe could be willing to forgive these murderers if they accepted responsibility for their actions and resigned from their positions so that they can be replaced by more professional people. I do not think that these are the kind of people who would do such an honorable thing mainly because they have been hardened by tasting blood too many times. They think they can get away with anything, including murder. They yet may, unless we demand justice now!

What now, Nigeria?

About one out of every four Africans is Nigerian, if one believes that Nigeria's population is 140 million and the continent's is 600 million.It may not be exactly true that when Nigeria catches a fever, Africa catches influenza; that saying may be true in the case of South Africa, four thousand miles to the south. Nevertheless, what is happening in Nigeria is of tremendous significance for the stability of the West African region and other parts of the continent where there are significant Islamic populations.It appears at this stage that what is happening in northern Nigeria is not religious strife in the classic sense of the word, pitting one religion against another. We seem to have a challenge to secularism as represented by the Abuja government. In fact, we understand that economic grievances are a better explanation for the current violence.One can only hope that other Islamic populations elsewhere in Africa are not moved to get involved in this crisis, otherwise we would have to brace up for a regional conflagration which will inevitably lead to inter-religious strife.So far, the Nigerian government does not seem to be doing a good job of handling this matter, judging by reports of executions and indiscriminate shootings.Barely a decade after emerging from military rule, Nigeria must not be allowed to stray from its already meandering route towards towards a more prosperous future for all its peoples through the actions of an inept federal government.

Making peace with murderers

A spade is a spade is a spade is a spade. Let there be no doubt: Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are trying to make peace with murderers. They may, yet, succeed mainly because history is on their side. Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF have made a living for three decades by murdering innocent people, sometimes on a genocidal scale.
Among some plateau Bantu tribes, such as the Mashona, murder is a serious matter for which full compensation is required. The murderer and the survivors of an innocent victim will sit down and talk, talk, talk until they reach an appropriate compensation agreement. It is believed, rightly or wrongly, that failure to pay will result in massive vengeance by the spirit of the deceased.
Now, since I do not think that the dead know that they are dead, I suggest that it is up to the surviving victims to seek and obtain justice. ZANU-PF will try to pretend that nothing has happened that needs to be addressed in a more comprehensive manner than declaring a few days of national healing. One gets the impression that the government is trying to pull wool over the people's eyes using an empty so-called national healing process. Will the victims of Mugabe's crimes be lulled to sleep like babies or will they demand more substantial justice for the perpetrators of a murderous purge lasting thirty years?
Zimbabweans should demand justice for Gift Tandare, Tichaona Chiminya, Talent Mabika and countless known and unknown victims of Mugabe's murderous venture.

Nothing wrong with a diaspora

While it may be viable for politicians to preach to the dispersed urging them to return to rebuild Zimbabwe, those of us in the diaspora should not be naive about this complex matter.
We will never know exactly why our Bantu ancestors dispersed south-eastwards from West Africa. They could have been escaping conflict of sorts or a degrading environment exacerbated by an encroaching Sahara. What we do know for sure, is that they did not return to West Africa. Instead, they went on to populate much of sub-Saharan Africa, even founding one of the most celebrated civilizations of ancient Africa at Great Zimbabwe.
Two thousand later, we have followed in their footsteps, so to speak, in divergent directions across the globe. It may be that some of us will return to the beloved land of our birth and upbringing. Should most of us, as I suspect, remain in our adopted homelands, that should not be interpreted to mean that we loved Zimbabwe less, but that we were regular human beings.
There are real obstacles in the way of those who want to return to Zimbabwe, not least of which is that the country is not ready to receive them and put them to gainful employment. Given a life expectancy in the mid-thirties, one can see why the prospect of going back home may not be a pleasant one for many in the Zimbabwean diaspora. Moreover, who is to say that we should not have our own diaspora community, as virtually every other major and minor country seems to have?
Nobody should feel ashamed if they decide to hang on in the Diaspora. After all, since its emergence as a species two hundred thousand years ago, homo sapiens sapiens has conquered every piece of terrain on this planet, in multiple migrations originating in the African savanna.

MDC embraces dual citizenship

Yesterday, I attended a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan where the party was once again trying to set-up a new Michigan branch after experiencing some setbacks in recent years. To be fair, the recent mass exodus of Zimbabweans to neighbouring Canada took a toll on the MDC community in the USA in terms of numbers but the situation seems to be stabilizing and it may be about the right time to try again.
I went there to observe the process and learn a few things about the party. In the end, what struck me was the interest of so many people to drive huge distances across the Midwest to be part of this process. Unfortunately, Zimbabwean women were nowhere to be seen, represented by the American spouse of a Zimbabwean man and a native Zimbabwean woman who arrived towards the end of the gathering.
But the real news of the day was the announcement by a member of the MDC USA provincial executive that the party would work to make dual citizenship possible under the proposed new constitution. As you know, this is an issue that I feel rather strongly about. I just do not know how representative this particular official's views are of the movement's official position on this matter, perhaps the most important issue for Zimbabweans in the diaspora.

The teacher's plight!

Both my parents were school teachers. Naturally, I yield first place to nobody in terms of supporting the interests of the profession. Outside the family, I can barely think of anybody who had a profound impact on my life who was not a school teacher, the most influential being my sub-standard A teacher, Miss Tambandini. I remember a time when teachers enjoyed not only one of the highest standards of living of any large group of Africans in Zimbabwe, but also the admiration of their fellow citizens. I am told that fortunes have been dramatically reversed in recent years, reducing the profession to the laughing stock of the country, ironically all under the watchful gaze of a former school teacher of my parents' generation, one Robert Mugabe.
I feel very badly for Zimbabwean teachers. But I find some of the statements attributed to teachers' unions in recent months troubling, to say the least, particularly those demanding unrealistically high remuneration for teachers. Granted, these demands may be little more than bargaining positions, but they are so stratospheric that they border on the ridiculous. If teachers have no sense of where the country's economy is right now, then may be they should not be teaching any one's children.
I expect teachers to be the most enlightened members of society; they should demand improved conditions of service by all means, but they should show leadership by making demands that are in tune with the parlous state of the economy. Teachers must realize that any salary increases that have no foundation in economic growth will quickly dissipate, leaving them worse off than they are today. High standards of living cannot be plucked out of thin air, as we have all learned from our recent experience under the myopic and misguided policies of Mugabe and his ZANU-PF.

Mugabe selling us a dummy

When Robert Mugabe says Zimbabwe will not pay for land seized from white farmers under his needlessly rushed and violent land redistribution program which benefited only his cronies and cohorts, he is selling us a dummy. In typically flawed logic, Mugabe says the Brits should pay for the land while Zimbabwe pays for so-called improvements, as if the two could have any value outside of each other. As we have learned over the past decade, a farm is not just a piece of earthly real estate; on the contrary, the most valuable asset on a farm is not the soil, but the people who manage the farm and put the soil to good use.
I know it is not viable for politicians, especially the so-called opposition in Zimbabwe, to take Mugabe to task over this matter. Since I have no plans to run for office in this life, I will try to express what I think is a widely held view among ordinary people in Zimbabwe. If you asked Zimbabweans if they thought it was smart to wipe off the book value of most commercial farmland in Zimbabwe at the stroke of a pen ostensibly to redress the wrongs of the past, you would receive a resounding no. And yet that's precisely what Mugabe's land reform program has done: Zimbabwean land is nearly worthless as an asset which one might use as collateral security to borrow from commercial banks.
It is clear that unless there is a final resolution of questions around the seizure of land by Mugabe and his relatives and cohorts, our country will not be able to restore the value of this vital asset. Morgan Tsvangirai says there will be a land audit to take this matter forward but one wonders what else we need to know about this program other than the fact that it has been a national disaster. We could have had a more just land reform exercise which recognized and benefited the real victims of settler colonialism, not the beneficiaries of it. It goes without saying that there was no wisdom in uprooting the continent's most accomplished farmers.
One of these days, when Mugabe moves out of the way (and one hopes this will be sooner rather than later), Zimbabweans will find themselves with a massive bill in their hands. The only way to pay it will be to negotiate with those who Mugabe says we should we despise. If Zimbabweans are going to pay this bill, we should at the very least demand a more just land reform exercise under which those who already have a means to earn a living (such as the president and his wife and relatives, cabinet ministers, senior civil servants, army and police officers), would be the last to be given land. After all, the poor and unconnected deserve something too.

Zim dollar or US dollar?

Barely half a year after the long overdue abandonment of the hapless Zimbabwe dollar, the government appears to be debating its resuscitation, as if they do not have more important things to do. It is as if these guys absolutely have no idea about the real challenges facing the country at this critical time. Do they really think that the color of money matters to ordinary folk? This sort of conversation is truly silly and has more to do with the oversize ego of Robert Mugabe and the narrow interests of a small group of the well connected and powerful who used to make a killing trading worthless zimdollars for real currencies than with the improvement of the lot of the poor.
The government must focus its attention on creating conditions conducive to the stabilization and growth of the Zimbabwe economy and the creation of jobs for the millions of unemployed young people. Unaccompanied by real reforms, such as the control of wasteful spending (e.g. vehicles for parliamentarians to parade at growth points) , neither the rand nor the US dollar will deliver economic salvation. It is also clear that the government should divest from businesses that would be better run by private concerns (newspapers, television, airlines, food processing, mining). If there is one thing we can all agree on, it is that government has neither the skill nor the creativity needed to run a business of any kind. The main reason why the government has tentacles in every major sector of the economy is for Mugabe to maintain a patronage system in order to shore up his shrinking support base.
Zimbabweans must realize that the only way to bring about a more prosperous future is by making it attractive for those who have investment capital to make money in our country. Much as we may not like the looks and practices of some of the bearers of this much needed capital injection, the nature and size of our needs is such that we have no real alternatives. This is what should be causing the government sleepless nights, not the color of money.

Right path, wrong path

The IMF says the Zimbabwe economy is mending, according to reports. The government says its revenues have grown exponentially over the past six months: from a paltry $6 million to about $70 million. Now that's progress of sorts. We are not told what has been fueling this growth. Is it from excise duty on beer and cigarettes which were identified as the major sources of revenue a few months ago or has the government found other sources of income? As long as these revenues are being raised from increasing economic activity within Zimbabwe, that has got to be good news: after all, where else can the economy go but up?
What confounds some of us are the priorities of our supposedly cash-strapped government, one of which is to buy trucks for members of parliament so that they can go back to the rural areas and parade them at shrinking points. Just what is it that these MPs are supposed to be doing with these trucks in an environment where there is virtually no money for the government to spend on capital expenditure or infrastructural initiatives? What can an MP deliver under these difficult circumstances except endless meetings where unfulfillable promises are made to unsuspecting villagers who have probably been distracted from doing more worthwhile activities?