As of 20th March 2002 Zimbabwe is a political powderkeg.
An
election has just taken place. It was won by
Robert Mugabe. He has been in power now for over 20 years, a reign in which he has 'staged' elections at regular intervals. Mugabe is essentially a
dictator, but there is still a large base of support for him among the Zimbabwean people, especially in the rural areas.
Zimbabwe's opposition leader is a man named
Morgan Tsvangirai. Purportedly he stands for
democracy,
liberty, equality, fraternity, happy endings, etc but that's the case with most African opposition leaders. They often turn out to be worse than the despots they replace.
Today Zimbabwe was suspended from the
Commonwealth, but the implications of that action are still uncertain. What is certain is that the outcome of the political struggle taking place right now will be pivotal. Western people and leaders tend to lump
African countries together in their minds. If another African nation falls apart it will be rather disastrous for the continent as a whole. International investment and aid will further dry up and Africa will truly become the lost continent.
If not lost, Africa is already
the forgotten continent politically. And that makes sense from a
Marxist point of view because it is quite an insignificant factor in the global
economy. What may be of interest, especially to Americans, is the amount of war and death happening in Africa at any one time. I don't think that casualties in Kuwait topped 5000(0). The deaths (mostly by
hand-made weapon) resulting from the recent and underreported
Rwandan genocide number in the
millions. The international community hasn't had much to stay about it because there's not much to be gained for them. This is the case with most African disasters.
I guess it's unsurprising that the
Rest of the World acts in this way. African nations are equally savage towards one another. But it's still a sad thing to stop and acknowledge the situation.
*sigh*
Pass the popcorn.