Mugabe's remarkable comeback
Can someone please explain the reason behind this complete pile of shit from John Simpson? I previously had a fairly high regard for him, but after reading this aparent eulogy on how clever Mugabe is I have to shake my head and wonder... why? Mugabe's remarkable comeback By John Simpson World affairs editor, BBC News, Harare It has been done with great brutality, but Robert Mugabe has achieved an extraordinary turnaround here. Back in March, when the first round of voting took place, he was humiliated by being beaten into second place in the presidential race, and by losing the parliamentary election outright. Now he's the sole effective candidate in Friday's presidential run-off, and he cannot fail to win with an overwhelming majority. His opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, has been completely outmanoeuvred. The outside world, which mostly sympathises with him, can do nothing whatever to help him. (T: why should that be a surprise? When someone has no fear of the law or consequences they are completely free, within the bounds of their conscience, to do whatever they like!) The suburban street outside the Dutch embassy where he's taken refuge in Harare is empty, except for a few security policemen on the look-out. Even his choice of embassy has been turned against him by his political enemies. It might well have been better for him politically if he had chosen an African rather than a European country to ask for help. As it is, MDC supporters are gloomy and resentful. They are also cowed. The streets of Harare are quiet because there is no longer any need for the groups of violent political activists in Zanu-PF T-shirts who have been roaming them, looking for people to beat up. Media bias There will be no demonstrations in favour of the man inside the Dutch embassy. He seems as cowed as his supporters. There are plenty of people here who do not even know yet that Morgan Tsvangirai has dropped out of the political race. That is not entirely surprising. The official media scarcely mentions Mr Tsvangirai or the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) unless they are obliged to. The main English-language television news programme at 8pm each evening on the ZBC is an hour-long paean of praise to Mr Mugabe and his past record. The programme's reporting merges imperceptibly with the frequent election advertisements for Mr Mugabe. If anything, the reporters and newscasters praise him more than his own party hacks. As for Mr Tsvangirai, he only gets a substantial mention on television when he is being attacked. One rather well-made advertisement lists him with Tony Blair, George W Bush and Gordon Brown as members of the "failures club". A long news report on Mr Mugabe's political campaigning contrasts his successes and his likely future achievements with Mr Tsvangirai's inexperience. The reporter, referring to Mr Tsvangirai's past as a union leader, says dismissively that he has merely negotiated about getting more money. Neither she nor anyone else in this hour-long programme mentions that on Monday the Zimbabwean dollar fell to 30 billion against the US dollar. The cost of a tub of margarine in a Harare store on Monday was Z$420m. Chinese support No-one knows how much worse the economic collapse will be after Mr Mugabe wins the vote on Friday. The economy seems to be in complete freefall now. But as long as he can blame it on Western sanctions, even though they are few and mostly aimed at leading members of Zanu-PF, he will remain unscathed. Western powers will be openly angry about the eclipse of Morgan Tsvangirai and the sweeping victory of Robert Mugabe on Friday. Many African governments will be just as angry, but will be more discreet about it. Some countries, China in particular, will continue to help Mr Mugabe quietly and give him what diplomatic protection they can. It all adds up to a remarkable sweeping victory for a man who only three months ago seemed to be on the ropes. The moral is clear: never underestimate Robert Mugabe's ferocious determination to stay in power, nor the ability of his political opponents to destroy their own case. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7470483.stm

Sadly, the ever fatter Simpson is a good example of the current genre of game playing commentators. Andrew Marred is yet another. They lose total sight of the underlying realities and to them politics is a jolly good game. Those of us who have had anything to do with Africa have watched all these completely amoral despots line their own pockets from the idiotic foreign aid which pours in (to their Swiss numbered accounts, mainly) and also monitored the increasing levels of torture and genocide, committed mainly because of tribal hatreds dating back hundreds of years. When Comical Milly was shooting off his mouth to Marred at the weekend, Marred didn't even try and tell him he was a pillock and talking total unmitigated crap. But I suppose that since Marred talks crap much of the time, he couldn't recognise sheer pragmatism if it bit him sharply in the balls: if he has any, of course: another question for another day!

I see what you mean but Simpson shouldn't really be that surprised - after all, there's no oil in Zim and Mugabe seems to be able to do whatever the hell he likes without any fear of reprisal. I was speaking to someone on Sunday who had held a senior post in the Zim Civil Service in Harare a fews years ago. He worked directly for Mugabe, whom he called 'Bob'. He mentioned that Mugabe's first wife was very nice however, after her death, he remarried and his present wife, whose shopping sprees around the world are legendary, is a complete shrew. I often wonder what motivates someone like Mugabe. He had the fate of one of the most productive and I have to say beautiful countries in the world in his hands and, whichever way you look at it, he's screwed up big-time. Whatever the 'well-made advertisement' says, Mugabe's the real failure.

When Comical Milly was shooting off his mouth to Marred at the weekend, Well that moniker seems to have stuck! 8)

Whether oil (or lack of it) is a factor is not that relevant. I think that the biggest factor is that Zim was a Commonwealth country. Even though Mugabe has wrecked it I think that the British attitude is that they don't want to wreck what is left of the Commonwealth and as long as that tosser Mbeki was backing Mugabe I don't think that we were in much of a position to do anything. As for the US, I would expect that they were told to keep their noses out of it. It's not their territory, never has been, unless you consider that a sizable proportion of their population originated from Africa is important...

Interesting this morning that the news has broken about a massive (£100 million) investment in Zimbabwe from Anglo-American. And this, gentlemen, is the root of the problem. Since Super Mac's "Winds of Change" speech (1957 from memory?) and Britain's evermore rapid pull out from its African possessions and as Belgium, France and Portugal did the same, the African Continent has been mired in corruption, civil war and famine. Anyone who has had anything to do with the place knows how it has operated: one powerful leader emerges and his country becomes his personal fiefdom (or perhaps more accurately, thiefdom!): and the external commercial rapists simple add him and his key henchmen on to their "Dash" list. Meantime, despite all these core realities, idiot politicians like Kate Hooey can't wait to demand Government shovels millions in soft aid to repressive regimes when everyone with a brain fully realises most of this aid simply gravitates back to el presidente's Swiss numbered account! Mugabe, of course, as we have discussed herein previously is Mashona; the enemy for hundreds of years of the Matabele, who were the kings leaders and rulers. Problem was there were 12 times more Shona! Thus any democractic election would see the Mashona triumph. Right back at the beginning, Mugabe set up concentration camps in the bush to exterminate the Matabele. Despite this real genocide, the FCO continued to pretend nothing was wrong: and the aid kept flowing; and the senior civil servants at FCO retired to their gongs and obscene pensions. Personally, I would like to see some accountability here: pull back the retired tossers of the FCO and hold them to account!

One thing that is for sure is that the deal they have done with Mugabe will not be the one that shut down the diamond mines: sell only to the government on fixed price contracts in Z$! There is something rotten in the mining world when AA are happy to invest in Zim. IN fact it beggars belief that they would make this announcement now. Mining is not a short term business. It wouldn't have hurt them to wait a few months, unless Mugabe has done a deal that they couldn't refuse. Look out for the zebra's head in the bed...?

Strange, Tony. I have just finished re-reading that book: one of the most powerful and best written novels of the second half of the 20th Cent. IMHO. But then I do like Puzo's style.