9/11: Day bullies play great victims

The Herald

Wednesday, 14 September 2011 02:00

President Barack Obama (left) and former US president George W Bush By Caesar Zvayi A decade after the 9/11 bombings of the World Trade Centre and Pentagon; the symbols of America's capitalist dominance and military destabilisation, Uncle Sam once again played great victim at the site on which once stood the monstrous twin towers. Uncle Sam's hallowed ground which he has come to call ‘‘Ground Zero,'' his rallying point for the so-called War on Terror, which is infact a War of Terror. Uncle Sam wept for the 2 977 people who died in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania (excluding the 19 hijackers of course). The place where the two towers of Babel stood until 9.59am and 10.28am respectively on September 11, 2001 has become the theatre for the absurd over the years, a shrine where Uncle Sam perennially seeks to magnify a grief that pales in comparison to the disasters he has wrought on innocent people the world over. The 2 977 who perished on 9/11 are just a drop in the ocean compared to the hundreds of thousands who have been target practice for Uncle Sam's forces the world over. I must give it to Uncle Sam, he sure knows how to grieve and play great victim, how to whip national emotions. The crowd that gathered at Ground Zero gave moving tributes. Quite a number wore T-shirts emblazoned with photos of their loved ones, or held aloft placards with pictures of their dear departed with endearing words. Media reports say it took four and half-hours to read out, in alphabetical order, all the names of the victims. Obama and Bush could not be outdone. The former reading from Psalm 46 - ‘‘God is our refuge and strength'' while the latter borrowed from Abraham Lincoln espousing ‘‘the grief of a loss so overwhelming.'' Interestingly, both men spoke from behind bullet-proof glass screens, a sharp reminder of their own insecurity despite pretensions of might. I was almost moved but then I asked myself who grieves for the millions who have fallen under the might of the American war machine the world over? Do they have a hallowed ground like Ground Zero where they can converge in collective grief? Do they even have the freedom to congregate or will they be pulverised by tons of bombs or fall victim to the notorious American drones, the unmanned, efficient killing machines. It was quite ironic to see Uncle Sam masquerading as a great victim when he is busy trampling on the toes of the innocent the world over spawning severe disenchantment, the very reason that so aggrieved the forces behind the 9/11 bombings. I refuse to call them terrorist bombings but retaliatory attacks. As we speak, Uncle Sam is engaged in several wars of destabilisation in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. As if that is not enough he is also busy threatening Iran and North Korea oblivious to the fact that the more he does that, the more the enemies. This partly explains why Obama and Bush were so insecure that they could only deliver their speeches behind fortified glass screens. Closer to home, MDC-T supporters converged at Gwanzura Stadium in Harare to mark the 12th anniversary of the launch of the MDC, where again a party that brought so much suffering to the innocent not only played great victim but also great saviour. The man who, at his party's launch threatened to ‘‘violently remove'' President Mugabe and his government masqueraded as the great victim of violence. Tsvangirai made his utterances as MDC supporters burnt and tore copies of the Herald on the grandstands heralding the arrival of politics of brawn not brains. MDC-T was launched on a ZCTU platform at Rufaro Stadium on September 11, 1999 following a meeting of minds between the three main British political parties; Labour, Tories and Liberal Democrats. These three parties came together under the Westminster Foundation to launch the MDC on the back of misguided economics that it was better to fund an opposition party to unseat Zanu-PF than fund the land reform programme as agreed to by the Tory administration in 1979. The MDC launch, which was suspiciously timed to coincide with the 111th anniversary of the hoisting of the Union Jack at Fort Salisbury, raised eyebrows. It was not long before people's fears were confirmed when the party began acting like a latter-day Rhodesian Front or its successor the Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe by not only having ex-Rhodesian Front and security forces personnel in its structures but also pursuing a patently foreign agenda aimed at safe-guarding the interests of white former commercial farmers and big business, all predominantly British owned. From his party's inception, Tsvangirai did not make his contempt for the land reform programme a secret. Infact his secretary for education Fidelis Mhashu told the BBC's HardTalk programme that MDC would return all land to white former farmers should it assume power. Mhashu's sentiments dovetailed with the US sanctions law, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act that says, in part, that sanctions against Zimbabwe can only be repealed once land tenure is returned to pre-2000 levels. From inception, MDC leaders called for the imposition of economic sanctions on Zimbabwe, pursuant to visiting unprecedented suffering on Zimbabwe in the hope that people would revolt against Zanu-PF and President Mugabe in favour of the MDC. This is what the then US assistant secretary of state for African affairs Chester Crocker meant when he asked US senators if they had the stomach for what they were about to do to Zimbabweans during a Senate hearing on the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Bill. ‘‘To separate the Zimbabwean people from Zanu-PF we are going to have to make their economy scream, and I hope you senators have the stomach for what you have to do,'' Crocker quipped. And as it turned out the senators had the stomach for it, and Tsvangirai had the zeal for it as well as he asked villagers during one of his rallies in Manicaland, ‘‘mati mune nzara? Hamuna chekudya? Zvino muchanyatsoshaisisa chaizvo-izvo,'' and indeed people really suffered to the extent that I saw the unthinkable when I attended an uncle's wedding in Njanja, Chief Mutekedza's area in 2008 where I was shown a stunted maize field whose cobs hungry dogs ate. Yes, dogs! That which is proverbially impossible I saw with my own eyes in Njanja simply because villagers had no morsels to leave for their mangy dogs. The economy did scream as thousands lost their jobs and livelihoods, with many dying of preventable diseases like Aids-related illnesses as the Global Fund for HIV and Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria was politicised to deny Zimbabwe assistance and where it came it came in negligible amounts. Thousands more died of cholera in Harare and other cities and towns. Hardest hit were senior citizens who saw their pensions and savings wiped out by sanctions-induced hyperinflation that prompted the British government to airlift its pensioners resident in Zimbabwe to the safety of Albion. This is what all those who gathered at the MDC-T celebrations in Gwanzura Stadium were celebrating, self immolation. The MDC-T's 12th anniversary should have been a sombre moment to reflect on the ravages wrought on Africa by its sons and daughters who chose to be used by the West against their own people. Moise Tshombe's escapades in what is now the DRC account for the sorry state the country is in today, the same goes for Afonso Dhlakama's Renamo in Mozambique and Jonas Savimbi's Unita in Angola. Nothing good has ever come out of puppet politics because askaris are put in place to serve empire. There you have it. The past 12 years have shown us MDC-T or MDC constitutes our own 9/11 and we are duty-bound to fight to defend what this party and those behind it seek to undo. It was not coincidental that MDC-T was launched on the eve of the 111th anniversary of the arrival of the Pioneer Column that was a strong message the party's handlers were sending; that Rhodesia shall never die was not just an idle turn of phrase. President Mugabe captured it well in his book, Inside the Third Chimurenga where he said, among other things: ‘‘The MDC should never be judged or characterised by its black trade union face; by its youthful student face; by its salaried black suburban junior professionals; never by its rough and violent high-density lumpen elements. "It is much deeper than these human superficies; for it is immovably and implacably moored in the colonial yesteryear and embraces wittingly or unwittingly the repulsive ideology of return to white settler rule. The MDC is as old and as strong as the forces that control it; that converges on it and control it, that drive and direct, indeed that support, sponsor and spot it. "It is a counter-revolutionary Trojan horse contrived and nurtured by the very inimical forces that enslaved and oppressed our people yesterday.'' To this day, MDC-T leaders are still to prove that President Mugabe got it all wrong in this characterisation. The Westerners have not made it a secret that they not only played a big role in the formation of the MDC, but that they actually bankroll its activities. Former British prime minister, Tony Blair confirmed to the whole world on June 14 2004 that he worked closely with the MDC in his quest to effect illegal regime change in Zimbabwe. While the US State Department has revealed in successive annual reports that it was in bed with the MDC in efforts to unseat the Government. To us, 9/11 should be a day for introspection on the part of all those who have chosen to be ahistorical to the extent of walking on the wrong side of history, running with the hares, and hunting with the hounds so to speak. This land and all the blood that soaked it during the liberation struggle will not forgive you.

My Turn:- WikiLeaks: Penny for my thoughts

The Herald

Wednesday, 07 September 2011 02:00

Julian Assange the founder of the Wikileaks What you do in that dark can be known in the day, hokoyo! Rinamanyanga hariputirwe; What you think is a secret, can be a gossip everywhere, hokoyo! Rinamanyanga hariputirweImbebebe ziyakhuzwa, Izibobo ziyakubona What you do behind closed doors will be known everywhere! Hokoyo! Rinamanyanga hariputirwe . . . Goes Oliver Mtukudzi's ditty "Hariputirwe," off his hit album Tsivo (Revenge). I just found myself whistling the lyrics to this song in the shower yesterday as my mind strayed to the 3000 plus diplomatic cables from the US embassy in Harare that were uploaded on the whistle-blower website, www.wikileaks.ch, last Friday. Cables that have sent tongues wagging in the streets and shivers down some guilty spines in the corridors of power. Boy oh boy! What riveting reading they make and what insight into the inner workings of some of the political heads in our midst. Some of the cables are quite hilarious, some very explosive, others border on treason, some outright shocking in the extent of the betrayal, double-dealing or treachery exhibited by some politicians. They, however, all serve a very useful purpose; they show us the inner workings of the minds or private thoughts of some politicians. While some, whether from Zanu-PF or MDC-T, remained true to their convictions in their musings with the US ambassadors others appeared to mistake the American envoys for Catholic priests to whom they could lay their hearts bare oblivious to the fact most of the Yankee envoys are spooks on a mission. Yet others came out as schizophrenics in the mould of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, portraying one persona by day and another by night. While the US embassy's diplomatic cables were never meant for my eyes, I can't help some scepticism as they have a bearing on my country's political landscape. Were it not for the ingenuity of Cde Julian Assange who somehow continues "defying" the odds by laying his hands on over 250 000 cables, almost a whole year, after his initial security breach, I wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of seeing even one such cable. WikiLeaks is the talk of the town. Newspapers are feasting on the contents. Even some people who have not seen a single cable talk authoritatively of the contents, albeit from hearsay. WikiLeaks is the new fad, soon to pass with or without some political casualties. Who knows, Zimbabweans being Zimbabweans, WikiLeaks may soon become a baby name. Anyway in all this euphoria, history counsels caution when dealing with Uncle Sam and anything associated with him. Several questions beg answers and bid us to suspend belief. Firstly the cables are all from one source - the US embassy in Harare - which has its own agenda to serve, namely the advancement of US foreign policy. This means the US envoys are at liberty to omit context, doctor quotations and put their own reading to the conversations knowing their sources can't see the final, confidential despatch. Secondly the WikiLeaks began at the end of last year; almost a year ago which means the US would have tightened its intelligence system by now to curb further leaks and potential embarrassment. The fact that the latest releases contain this year's cables raises eyebrows about WikiLeaks in general. The site may since have been compromised with the US giving Assange access to what they want him to have to further their own interests. Uncle Sam doctored intelligence to justify the Iraq invasion, what would prevent him from doctoring cables in a bid to influence Zimbabwe's political process? Food for thought. I personally take anything from the US embassy, at this stage of our revolution, with a pinch of salt. I suspect there are lots of fabrications in some of the cables. Western ambassadors are not exactly known for giving their home countries the real Zimbabwean picture anyway. Third, and to me most importantly, I can't believe that senior Zanu-PF officials - fully aware of the state of Zim-US relations - would badmouth the President or First Lady to the Americans knowing that sooner or later it could be used against them. The cables are by and large the opinion of successive US ambassadors, it is their reading of the political situation in our country at specific times. The contents of the cables are essentially an expression of the private thoughts of politicians and some key stakeholders. Thoughts they wouldn't air publicly and only pronounced when they thought they were speaking in confidence. Each of us, unless we are brain-dead, have our own private thoughts, and the only difference between us and those named in the WikiLeaks cables is that our private thoughts are not known. So let's tread carefully. Like we say in journalism, lets check the interest of the source, the US embassy. Our three main political parties must also self-introspect, why are its senior officials outsourcing what should be vibrant intra-party debate to the US embassy? For the two MDCs I would understand since Uncle Sam is co-owner of their franchise, I do not get it where Zanu-PF is concerned, the grievances being taken to Uncle Sam should be addressed at Shake-Shake Building. Let's promote intra-party debate, it is only through vigorous debate that the supreme view can prevail to guide policy. Don't get me wrong, I am questioning the veracity or lack thereof of the contents of the cables, and just counselling caution in reacting to the allegations therein. I am not condoning midnight meetings with representatives of hostile forces at this stage of the revolution. That is unforgivable, and I hope those who were given to such habits dig a hole and spit in it.

Love that waving flag

 The Herald
January 13 2011 

''WHAT'S happening?

''Why is there a sudden influx of national flags on the streets with almost one in four cars proudly displaying the flag?

 ''Does this have anything to do with the coming elections?'' a friend of mine, who believes the media know everything that goes on in the country, asked me on the phone the other day with reference to the phenomenon that has gripped Harare in recent months where on almost every street corner you come across a vendor selling miniature versions of the National Flag at the ''BACOSSI price'' of a dollar for two.

Almost one in every 10 cars that you pass on the road will have the flag dangling from the rear view mirror or fluttering from the aerial aping the famous Zim 1, the pride of the Presidential motorcade.

Intrigued, I pulled over at one intersection yesterday and one vendor, who told me he answered to the name Amos Mzamba, ran over with a bunch of flags in either hand.

''How many do you want blaz,'' he asked relishing a good sale.

I asked him where the flags were coming from and like a true businessman keen to protect his business from competitors he looked at me warily and was non-committal only saying, ''a shop in town.''

Was anyone sending them into the streets with the flags?
''No,'' was his reply, ''tinotohodha blaz (we buy in bulk for resale, my brother)''

Still curious, I asked him how the business was going and he said the little flags were moving fast.

To what did he attribute the phenomenon?

And he said: ''Mudhara people were looking for these things but they could not find them, and now that they can, they are buying the flags like nobody's business. Those without cars buy them from the kombi windows to display at home. Displaying this flag shows everyone who sees you or visits that you love your country.

''I think it all started with the World Cup craze in South Africa. We saw a lot of cars coming here displaying the SA flag. Some had stickers, others had wing-mirror covers, yet others had seat covers in national colours. I believe many of our people admired that but they could not find Zimbabwean equivalents.''

The vendor said he had been asked about the availability of lapel pins, tie clips, cuff links, even earrings in the national colours, and he wished he had the means to produce them on a large scale.

Well, well, well, someone somewhere has not been doing his/her work to give citizens these symbols of national pride.

I do not know which ministry exactly should promote this, it could be David Coltart's ministry, it could be Walter Mzembi's; whichever ministry it is, must get off its laurels.

Judging by what's happening in the streets, ostensibly courtesy of some enterprising businessman, whom I hear is of Chinese extraction; Zimbabweans are mighty proud of their country and are keen to show it.

So what does that say of us as a people if we leave it, assuming it’s true, to an outsider to produce these national symbols for us?

Where are we getting it wrong?

What does this interest in the National Flag tell us about our people?

What else are we not giving them that they would rather have?

Last week I touched on the issue of recording the history of our struggle, and I hope that powers that be will do something about it lest we leave future generations at the mercy of any good storyteller.

Again, out of curiosity, I sauntered into Kingstons, the national bookseller, looking for serious books about our history as Africans and how our heritage was bastardised by European invaders in a bid to portray us as a hopeless, uncivilised people who should be thankful to Western conquest for putting clothes on our backs and food on our tables.

I came across a lot of works of fiction but nothing much educational by progressive writers like Amilcar Cabral, Ayi Kwei Armah, Franz Fanon, Cheikh Anta Diop or Walter Rodney. There are lots of romance novels by Danielle Steel, Barbra Bradford, etc, a lot of espionage work by Robert Ludlum, Jeffrey Archer, lots of Shakespeare; books that do not add value to the national psyche or consciousness.

In fact, Kingstons has since diversified to music and selling other paraphernalia. That, in a country with the highest literacy rate in Africa? There is definitely something wrong with us, and I hope that whatever it is, we will find an antidote soon lest we lose future generations to the reactionary who are spinning unbelievable yarns about Zimbabwe and its history.caesar.zvayi@zimpapers.co.zw

Burying more than men

The Herald

January 5 2011

One by one the venerated nationalists have crossed to the other side of silence with their precious memories, and only on Sunday another freedom fighter Cde Mukanganga “Sharpshooter’’ Nyashanu, was laid to rest at the National Heroes’ Acre, and with him a wealth of information on his wartime experiences. We buried more than just a body that day, but a valuable part of our history that has been lost for good.

ONE incident that occurred as I was doing my Upper 6 at Oriel Boys High School always comes to my mind when I read a story about any achiever.

The A-Level results for the past year had just been released; and one male student from Mt Pleasant High had been featured in this newspaper after acing four subjects at A-Level with As in Mathematics, Economics, Accounts and Management of Business.

His comment on being asked if he had at one point been anxious about the exam results was, ‘‘Not really, my greatest fear was just a string of Bs!’’ Ah ah! How we, poor mortals, admired that “demi-god” as his story was read to us at assembly by my then headmaster, the late Samuriwo, may his soul rest in peace, as he urged us Sixth Formers to burn the midnight oil so we could emulate the Mt Pleasant whizkid the coming year.

Mr Samuriwo was, however, not completely taken in by the dude’s comment as he, after putting the paper aside on the rostrum, quipped, ‘‘Aiwa kwava kutaura kwewabaya, nyangwe akati ndaisvetuka makwenzi akakura kunge miti ndichitandanisa mhuka hamuzvirambe nekuti nyama munenge muchiiona!’’

There is an African proverb that aptly captures that proverbial situation of the return of the triumphant hunter. It goes: ‘‘Until the lions learn to write down their own stories, the story of the hunt will always be told from the hunter’s perspective.’’

Hunters were a select group in the pre-colonial halcyon days. They, and the warriors who protected the kingdom, were a venerated lot that married the nicest women, held court with kings, ate the nicest meals, wore the trendiest kilts and often had great stories to relate about their exploits in the bush or on the battlefield. These mystical men were serenaded by praise songs especially when they brought home big game animals.

Even though listeners hung on the hunter’s every word about how the beast had come to meet its maker, some knew that they were getting one side of what went on in the forest because the beast was not in a position to counter the hunter’s narration.

For instance, the lion a hunter would claim to have subdued after a fierce duel would probably have been sleeping when he sneaked upon and impaled it with his spear. The deer he claimed to have outran would probably have been caught in a snare. But then the hunter had the bragging rights because he possessed the gift of speech which the lion or game didn’t.
So what’s my point?

My point is there are two sides to a story, and we have not done much to tell our own even as Western presses roar night and day churning out literature that belittles our struggle for independence and democracy. In fact, the Rhodesians we vanquished and their kith and kin all over the world have been busy playing the hunter while we dutifully remained mum like lifeless prey.

Our nationalists, national heroes and former freedom fighters have not done much, if anything to record their wartime experiences for the post-independent generation and posterity

One by one the venerated nationalists have crossed to the other side of silence with their precious memories, and only on Sunday another freedom fighter Cde Mukanganga “Sharpshooter’’ Nyashanu, was laid to rest at the National Heroes’ Acre, and with him a wealth of information on his wartime experiences.

We buried more than just a body that day, but a valuable part of our history that has been lost for good.

The bottom line is our national leaders have let us down by not writing books detailing the history of the struggle. Ironically, ex-Rhodies and their kith and kin like Heidi Holland of the Dinner with Mugabe fame have been churning out books by the year, painting Zanu-PF and President Mugabe in bad light while portraying themselves and those of their ilk as the wronged ones.

A visit to any bookseller at OR International Airport or any reputable Western bookseller will show row after row of Rhodesian or European interpretation of Zimbabwean history and its leadership.

Add to this the attempt by the MDC-T leaders to re-invent themselves and their quisling agenda as a logical extension of the liberation struggle and what remains is a dangerous attempt at revisionism that needs robust countering. The likes of Morgan Tsvangirai who lasted no more than 24 hours in a liberation war camp claim to be qualified to select national heroes. Even little Chamisa who still had milk on his baby nose feels he is competent to select heroes of the struggle. Yuck!
The best way to counter these reactionaries is to record our history so that future generations will know the source of the cloud that does not bear water.

Why don’t we have books on or by President Mugabe? The late Vice Presidents Joseph Msika, Simon Muzenda? Why don’t we have books by or on Mai Joice Mujuru, General Solomon Mujuru, Josiah Magama Tongogara, Herbert Wiltshire Chitepo, etc; what’s stopping our writers from interviewing these luminaries and compiling their history? Can’t we see we are being willing accomplices to the West at the nascent revisionism within the regime change ranks?

Who will we blame when our children take Heidi Holland’s view of Zimbabwe and President Mugabe? For the life of me, I can’t understand why if an illiterate like George W. Bush can have a book out in a tongue similar to English, our own leaders here seem averse to leaving documented history for posterity?

I challenge them to have, as part of their New Year resolutions, the documenting of our history. They owe it not only to us but our children and their children’s children.caesar.zvayi@zimpapers.co.zw  

Let’s vote to save Christmas

The Herald
December 29 2010

Let’s vote to save Christmas

PHEW! What a Christmas, this was. Like the caress of a returning, long-lost lover, it had been a while since many a family felt that joyous hand of Christmas. This is the time we are all supposed to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. A birth that signified God’s undying love for his greatest creation, man, when he chose to descend from the heavens and live among mere mortals, just to try to save them from purgatory. So there we were in Gweru. The Zambezi was really going down and we were seeing first hand the truism of the adage ‘‘nguruve inokangwa nemafuta ayo’’ as pork chops sizzled on the braai stand. All around us we could see evidence of the return of the good times. Chickens and goats were cackling or bleating as they were dragged home to meet a fate similar to that of the pork chops we were tormenting on the braai stand. All around little kids, smartly turned out were running around, blowing balloons or blowing those noisy, irritating fire-crackers that they love so much. Macheso and Dhewa were competing to drown each other out on many hi-fis. This was what it was all about. A time to be with friends and family, to see and be seen, to eat but not be eaten, to drink but not drown. Let me enlist the help of Musaemura Zimunya, whose gem of a poem, Kisimuso, really captured the spirit of Christmas as we know it. Says Zimunya: The family were gathered The eldest son from Bulawayo Boastful of his experiences in the city of knives and crooks; One son from Harare, a fish pocket who can slang everyone into ignorance with the stupefying s’kuz’apo tongue (the family believe he is the chief mechanic at Lever Brothers!" a sister, latest to arrive from Gutu blue-painted eye-lids, false eye-lashes, red lips bangles gritting in her hands with a European hair-wig above an ambi-proof face. she covers her thighs with a towel when she sits (as for her the family will always believe she is a dressmaker in Fort Victoria) the rest of the family, mum and dad are happy to admire the latest from town. Kisimiso means feasting Dozens of bread loaves, drums of tea, mountains of sadza Rock-size pieces of meat of the he-goat in lakes of thousand-eyed soup And of course, large pots of fizzing, frothy beer. Nothing about the print themes of goodwill and peace Of course goodwill was always here; an old man well-known to me lost half his hair while pulling a tourist out of a blazing car’s wreckage – in June, six months before last Christmas. A child without clothes sat nodding with sleep his belly as big as a muchongoyo drum; buzzing flies were fighting, spinning and tumbling into the smelling parting between his buttocks, Kutu the scraggy dog was retching in front of him; they ultimately gave the mother water that had washed the madman’s beard because she could no longer leave the bush or close her oozing behind and brother s’kuz’apo filled the boy’s hut with urine and vomit and a powerful smell of beer gone stale The next day They talked of the greatest Kisimiso for many years. From Zimunya’s foregoing characterisation, it’s evident that what goes on around Christmas is as similar to what Christ embodies as night is to day. What with the drinking binges, gluttony, adultery, fornication; false-pretences, you name it. It’s all done in the name of Christmas, and much like many other things that are done in the name of love, politics or such similar pursuits, its all in a day’s work. Well let’s hope those who cost innocent families Christmas over the past decade through sell-out politics or ruinous economic sanctions will see the error of their ways, reform and ensure that the nascent stability that we have experienced since the introduction of the multi-currency regime is consolidated so that Xmas 2011 is even better than this year’s edition. WikiLeaks has, to a large extent, confirmed what we have already known that there are some among us who worked with outsiders to cost us many things, including Christmas. Let’s hope now that they have been unmasked, they well not walk their well-beaten path to perdition. I believe progressive Zimbabweans will agree with me if I say, when we shout "Happy New Year" at midnight on December 31, we want that happiness to transcend to each of the 365 days of 2011. When we wish each other "a prosperous New Year", we should not forget that true prosperity does not come from fronting multinational corporations, earning five-figure salaries, driving company cars or living in company houses; it comes from having dominion over our God-given resources. It comes from owning our economy and participating fully in economic production. It comes from pro-people programmes like the indigenisation and economic empowerment drive. It accrues from prospering the nation by building a genuine, wealth-creating middle class that can defend the gains of the liberation struggle that began as early as 1896. And as we head into election season next year, let’s remember the cost we paid to get that ballot, and who was denying us the vote and why. Most importantly let’s not forget that along with one man one vote we were also fighting to be masters of our destiny, to have dominion over our resources down to our rats and ants. The gains of the revolution need to be protected not only for our sake and for the sake of those patriots who paid the ultimate sacrifice, but for future generations in whose trust we hold this country and all that reposes in it. Let’s not prostitute our right to our country and its resources, simply because the erstwhile coloniser has dangled a few dollars before our eyes. Next year’s election should be about a society that has become mature, that has had time to evaluate what is at stake and hence can tell a proxy from a bona fide contestant. Let the next poll be a time for judgment. A time to show that we have not only gone to school but we are also educated, that we have not only heard but listened, that we have not only read but have understood, that we have not only been taught but have learnt. Next year’s election should not just be about punishing those who cost us Christmas over the years, it should also be about ensuring future great Christmases for our families. It should be about telling the Westerners and their lackeys that we want our livelihoods and our Christmases back for good. caesar.zvayi@zimpapers.co.zw This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Let’s vote to save Christmas

PHEW! What a Christmas, this was. Like the caress of a returning, long-lost lover, it had been a while since many a family felt that joyous hand of Christmas. This is the time we are all supposed to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. A birth that signified God’s undying love for his greatest creation, man, when he chose to descend from the heavens and live among mere mortals, just to try to save them from purgatory. So there we were in Gweru. The Zambezi was really going down and we were seeing first hand the truism of the adage ‘‘nguruve inokangwa nemafuta ayo’’ as pork chops sizzled on the braai stand. All around us we could see evidence of the return of the good times. Chickens and goats were cackling or bleating as they were dragged home to meet a fate similar to that of the pork chops we were tormenting on the braai stand. All around little kids, smartly turned out were running around, blowing balloons or blowing those noisy, irritating fire-crackers that they love so much. Macheso and Dhewa were competing to drown each other out on many hi-fis. This was what it was all about. A time to be with friends and family, to see and be seen, to eat but not be eaten, to drink but not drown. Let me enlist the help of Musaemura Zimunya, whose gem of a poem, Kisimuso, really captured the spirit of Christmas as we know it. Says Zimunya: The family were gathered The eldest son from Bulawayo Boastful of his experiences in the city of knives and crooks; One son from Harare, a fish pocket who can slang everyone into ignorance with the stupefying s’kuz’apo tongue (the family believe he is the chief mechanic at Lever Brothers!" a sister, latest to arrive from Gutu blue-painted eye-lids, false eye-lashes, red lips bangles gritting in her hands with a European hair-wig above an ambi-proof face. she covers her thighs with a towel when she sits (as for her the family will always believe she is a dressmaker in Fort Victoria) the rest of the family, mum and dad are happy to admire the latest from town. Kisimiso means feasting Dozens of bread loaves, drums of tea, mountains of sadza Rock-size pieces of meat of the he-goat in lakes of thousand-eyed soup And of course, large pots of fizzing, frothy beer. Nothing about the print themes of goodwill and peace Of course goodwill was always here; an old man well-known to me lost half his hair while pulling a tourist out of a blazing car’s wreckage – in June, six months before last Christmas. A child without clothes sat nodding with sleep his belly as big as a muchongoyo drum; buzzing flies were fighting, spinning and tumbling into the smelling parting between his buttocks, Kutu the scraggy dog was retching in front of him; they ultimately gave the mother water that had washed the madman’s beard because she could no longer leave the bush or close her oozing behind and brother s’kuz’apo filled the boy’s hut with urine and vomit and a powerful smell of beer gone stale The next day They talked of the greatest Kisimiso for many years. From Zimunya’s foregoing characterisation, it’s evident that what goes on around Christmas is as similar to what Christ embodies as night is to day. What with the drinking binges, gluttony, adultery, fornication; false-pretences, you name it. It’s all done in the name of Christmas, and much like many other things that are done in the name of love, politics or such similar pursuits, its all in a day’s work. Well let’s hope those who cost innocent families Christmas over the past decade through sell-out politics or ruinous economic sanctions will see the error of their ways, reform and ensure that the nascent stability that we have experienced since the introduction of the multi-currency regime is consolidated so that Xmas 2011 is even better than this year’s edition. WikiLeaks has, to a large extent, confirmed what we have already known that there are some among us who worked with outsiders to cost us many things, including Christmas. Let’s hope now that they have been unmasked, they well not walk their well-beaten path to perdition. I believe progressive Zimbabweans will agree with me if I say, when we shout "Happy New Year" at midnight on December 31, we want that happiness to transcend to each of the 365 days of 2011. When we wish each other "a prosperous New Year", we should not forget that true prosperity does not come from fronting multinational corporations, earning five-figure salaries, driving company cars or living in company houses; it comes from having dominion over our God-given resources. It comes from owning our economy and participating fully in economic production. It comes from pro-people programmes like the indigenisation and economic empowerment drive. It accrues from prospering the nation by building a genuine, wealth-creating middle class that can defend the gains of the liberation struggle that began as early as 1896. And as we head into election season next year, let’s remember the cost we paid to get that ballot, and who was denying us the vote and why. Most importantly let’s not forget that along with one man one vote we were also fighting to be masters of our destiny, to have dominion over our resources down to our rats and ants. The gains of the revolution need to be protected not only for our sake and for the sake of those patriots who paid the ultimate sacrifice, but for future generations in whose trust we hold this country and all that reposes in it. Let’s not prostitute our right to our country and its resources, simply because the erstwhile coloniser has dangled a few dollars before our eyes. Next year’s election should be about a society that has become mature, that has had time to evaluate what is at stake and hence can tell a proxy from a bona fide contestant. Let the next poll be a time for judgment. A time to show that we have not only gone to school but we are also educated, that we have not only heard but listened, that we have not only read but have understood, that we have not only been taught but have learnt. Next year’s election should not just be about punishing those who cost us Christmas over the years, it should also be about ensuring future great Christmases for our families. It should be about telling the Westerners and their lackeys that we want our livelihoods and our Christmases back for good. caesar.zvayi@zimpapers.co.zw This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Let’s vote to save Christmas

PHEW! What a Christmas, this was. Like the caress of a returning, long-lost lover, it had been a while since many a family felt that joyous hand of Christmas. This is the time we are all supposed to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. A birth that signified God’s undying love for his greatest creation, man, when he chose to descend from the heavens and live among mere mortals, just to try to save them from purgatory. So there we were in Gweru. The Zambezi was really going down and we were seeing first hand the truism of the adage ‘‘nguruve inokangwa nemafuta ayo’’ as pork chops sizzled on the braai stand. All around us we could see evidence of the return of the good times. Chickens and goats were cackling or bleating as they were dragged home to meet a fate similar to that of the pork chops we were tormenting on the braai stand. All around little kids, smartly turned out were running around, blowing balloons or blowing those noisy, irritating fire-crackers that they love so much. Macheso and Dhewa were competing to drown each other out on many hi-fis. This was what it was all about. A time to be with friends and family, to see and be seen, to eat but not be eaten, to drink but not drown. Let me enlist the help of Musaemura Zimunya, whose gem of a poem, Kisimuso, really captured the spirit of Christmas as we know it. Says Zimunya: The family were gathered The eldest son from Bulawayo Boastful of his experiences in the city of knives and crooks; One son from Harare, a fish pocket who can slang everyone into ignorance with the stupefying s’kuz’apo tongue (the family believe he is the chief mechanic at Lever Brothers!" a sister, latest to arrive from Gutu blue-painted eye-lids, false eye-lashes, red lips bangles gritting in her hands with a European hair-wig above an ambi-proof face. she covers her thighs with a towel when she sits (as for her the family will always believe she is a dressmaker in Fort Victoria) the rest of the family, mum and dad are happy to admire the latest from town. Kisimiso means feasting Dozens of bread loaves, drums of tea, mountains of sadza Rock-size pieces of meat of the he-goat in lakes of thousand-eyed soup And of course, large pots of fizzing, frothy beer. Nothing about the print themes of goodwill and peace Of course goodwill was always here; an old man well-known to me lost half his hair while pulling a tourist out of a blazing car’s wreckage – in June, six months before last Christmas. A child without clothes sat nodding with sleep his belly as big as a muchongoyo drum; buzzing flies were fighting, spinning and tumbling into the smelling parting between his buttocks, Kutu the scraggy dog was retching in front of him; they ultimately gave the mother water that had washed the madman’s beard because she could no longer leave the bush or close her oozing behind and brother s’kuz’apo filled the boy’s hut with urine and vomit and a powerful smell of beer gone stale The next day They talked of the greatest Kisimiso for many years. From Zimunya’s foregoing characterisation, it’s evident that what goes on around Christmas is as similar to what Christ embodies as night is to day. What with the drinking binges, gluttony, adultery, fornication; false-pretences, you name it. It’s all done in the name of Christmas, and much like many other things that are done in the name of love, politics or such similar pursuits, its all in a day’s work. Well let’s hope those who cost innocent families Christmas over the past decade through sell-out politics or ruinous economic sanctions will see the error of their ways, reform and ensure that the nascent stability that we have experienced since the introduction of the multi-currency regime is consolidated so that Xmas 2011 is even better than this year’s edition. WikiLeaks has, to a large extent, confirmed what we have already known that there are some among us who worked with outsiders to cost us many things, including Christmas. Let’s hope now that they have been unmasked, they well not walk their well-beaten path to perdition. I believe progressive Zimbabweans will agree with me if I say, when we shout "Happy New Year" at midnight on December 31, we want that happiness to transcend to each of the 365 days of 2011. When we wish each other "a prosperous New Year", we should not forget that true prosperity does not come from fronting multinational corporations, earning five-figure salaries, driving company cars or living in company houses; it comes from having dominion over our God-given resources. It comes from owning our economy and participating fully in economic production. It comes from pro-people programmes like the indigenisation and economic empowerment drive. It accrues from prospering the nation by building a genuine, wealth-creating middle class that can defend the gains of the liberation struggle that began as early as 1896. And as we head into election season next year, let’s remember the cost we paid to get that ballot, and who was denying us the vote and why. Most importantly let’s not forget that along with one man one vote we were also fighting to be masters of our destiny, to have dominion over our resources down to our rats and ants. The gains of the revolution need to be protected not only for our sake and for the sake of those patriots who paid the ultimate sacrifice, but for future generations in whose trust we hold this country and all that reposes in it. Let’s not prostitute our right to our country and its resources, simply because the erstwhile coloniser has dangled a few dollars before our eyes. Next year’s election should be about a society that has become mature, that has had time to evaluate what is at stake and hence can tell a proxy from a bona fide contestant. Let the next poll be a time for judgment. A time to show that we have not only gone to school but we are also educated, that we have not only heard but listened, that we have not only read but have understood, that we have not only been taught but have learnt. Next year’s election should not just be about punishing those who cost us Christmas over the years, it should also be about ensuring future great Christmases for our families. It should be about telling the Westerners and their lackeys that we want our livelihoods and our Christmases back for good. caesar.zvayi@zimpapers.co.zw This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Let’s vote to save Christmas

PHEW! What a Christmas, this was. Like the caress of a returning, long-lost lover, it had been a while since many a family felt that joyous hand of Christmas. This is the time we are all supposed to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. A birth that signified God’s undying love for his greatest creation, man, when he chose to descend from the heavens and live among mere mortals, just to try to save them from purgatory. So there we were in Gweru. The Zambezi was really going down and we were seeing first hand the truism of the adage ‘‘nguruve inokangwa nemafuta ayo’’ as pork chops sizzled on the braai stand. All around us we could see evidence of the return of the good times. Chickens and goats were cackling or bleating as they were dragged home to meet a fate similar to that of the pork chops we were tormenting on the braai stand. All around little kids, smartly turned out were running around, blowing balloons or blowing those noisy, irritating fire-crackers that they love so much. Macheso and Dhewa were competing to drown each other out on many hi-fis. This was what it was all about. A time to be with friends and family, to see and be seen, to eat but not be eaten, to drink but not drown. Let me enlist the help of Musaemura Zimunya, whose gem of a poem, Kisimuso, really captured the spirit of Christmas as we know it. Says Zimunya: The family were gathered The eldest son from Bulawayo Boastful of his experiences in the city of knives and crooks; One son from Harare, a fish pocket who can slang everyone into ignorance with the stupefying s’kuz’apo tongue (the family believe he is the chief mechanic at Lever Brothers!" a sister, latest to arrive from Gutu blue-painted eye-lids, false eye-lashes, red lips bangles gritting in her hands with a European hair-wig above an ambi-proof face. she covers her thighs with a towel when she sits (as for her the family will always believe she is a dressmaker in Fort Victoria) the rest of the family, mum and dad are happy to admire the latest from town. Kisimiso means feasting Dozens of bread loaves, drums of tea, mountains of sadza Rock-size pieces of meat of the he-goat in lakes of thousand-eyed soup And of course, large pots of fizzing, frothy beer. Nothing about the print themes of goodwill and peace Of course goodwill was always here; an old man well-known to me lost half his hair while pulling a tourist out of a blazing car’s wreckage – in June, six months before last Christmas. A child without clothes sat nodding with sleep his belly as big as a muchongoyo drum; buzzing flies were fighting, spinning and tumbling into the smelling parting between his buttocks, Kutu the scraggy dog was retching in front of him; they ultimately gave the mother water that had washed the madman’s beard because she could no longer leave the bush or close her oozing behind and brother s’kuz’apo filled the boy’s hut with urine and vomit and a powerful smell of beer gone stale The next day They talked of the greatest Kisimiso for many years. From Zimunya’s foregoing characterisation, it’s evident that what goes on around Christmas is as similar to what Christ embodies as night is to day. What with the drinking binges, gluttony, adultery, fornication; false-pretences, you name it. It’s all done in the name of Christmas, and much like many other things that are done in the name of love, politics or such similar pursuits, its all in a day’s work. Well let’s hope those who cost innocent families Christmas over the past decade through sell-out politics or ruinous economic sanctions will see the error of their ways, reform and ensure that the nascent stability that we have experienced since the introduction of the multi-currency regime is consolidated so that Xmas 2011 is even better than this year’s edition. WikiLeaks has, to a large extent, confirmed what we have already known that there are some among us who worked with outsiders to cost us many things, including Christmas. Let’s hope now that they have been unmasked, they well not walk their well-beaten path to perdition. I believe progressive Zimbabweans will agree with me if I say, when we shout "Happy New Year" at midnight on December 31, we want that happiness to transcend to each of the 365 days of 2011. When we wish each other "a prosperous New Year", we should not forget that true prosperity does not come from fronting multinational corporations, earning five-figure salaries, driving company cars or living in company houses; it comes from having dominion over our God-given resources. It comes from owning our economy and participating fully in economic production. It comes from pro-people programmes like the indigenisation and economic empowerment drive. It accrues from prospering the nation by building a genuine, wealth-creating middle class that can defend the gains of the liberation struggle that began as early as 1896. And as we head into election season next year, let’s remember the cost we paid to get that ballot, and who was denying us the vote and why. Most importantly let’s not forget that along with one man one vote we were also fighting to be masters of our destiny, to have dominion over our resources down to our rats and ants. The gains of the revolution need to be protected not only for our sake and for the sake of those patriots who paid the ultimate sacrifice, but for future generations in whose trust we hold this country and all that reposes in it. Let’s not prostitute our right to our country and its resources, simply because the erstwhile coloniser has dangled a few dollars before our eyes. Next year’s election should be about a society that has become mature, that has had time to evaluate what is at stake and hence can tell a proxy from a bona fide contestant. Let the next poll be a time for judgment. A time to show that we have not only gone to school but we are also educated, that we have not only heard but listened, that we have not only read but have understood, that we have not only been taught but have learnt. Next year’s election should not just be about punishing those who cost us Christmas over the years, it should also be about ensuring future great Christmases for our families. It should be about telling the Westerners and their lackeys that we want our livelihoods and our Christmases back for good. caesar.zvayi@zimpapers.co.zw This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

PHEW! What a Christmas, this was.
Like the caress of a returning, long-lost lover, it had been a while since many a family felt that joyous hand of Christmas. This is the time we are all supposed to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. A birth that signified God’s undying love for his greatest creation, man, when he chose to descend from the heavens and live among mere mortals, just to try to save them from purgatory.

So there we were in Gweru. The Zambezi was really going down and we were seeing first hand the truism of the adage ‘‘nguruve inokangwa nemafuta ayo’’ as pork chops sizzled on the braai stand.

All around us we could see evidence of the return of the good times. Chickens and goats were cackling or bleating as they were dragged home to meet a fate similar to that of the pork chops we were tormenting on the braai stand.

All around little kids, smartly turned out were running around, blowing balloons or blowing those noisy, irritating fire-crackers that they love so much. Macheso and Dhewa were competing to drown each other out on many hi-fis. This was what it was all about. A time to be with friends and family, to see and be seen, to eat but not be eaten, to drink but not drown.

Let me enlist the help of Musaemura Zimunya, whose gem of a poem, Kisimuso, really captured the spirit of Christmas as we know it.
Says Zimunya:

The family were gathered
The eldest son from Bulawayo
Boastful of his experiences in the city of knives and crooks;
One son from Harare,
a fish pocket who can slang everyone
into ignorance with the stupefying s’kuz’apo tongue
(the family believe he is the chief mechanic at Lever Brothers!"
a sister, latest to arrive from Gutu
blue-painted eye-lids, false eye-lashes, red lips
bangles gritting in her hands
with a European hair-wig above an ambi-proof face.
she covers her thighs with a towel when she sits
(as for her the family will always believe she is a dressmaker in Fort Victoria)
the rest of the family, mum and dad are happy to admire the latest from town.
Kisimiso means feasting
Dozens of bread loaves, drums of tea, mountains of sadza
Rock-size pieces of meat of the he-goat
in lakes of thousand-eyed soup
And of course, large pots of fizzing, frothy beer.
Nothing about the print themes of goodwill and peace
Of course goodwill was always here;
an old man well-known to me lost half his hair
while pulling a tourist out of a blazing car’s wreckage – in June,
six months before last Christmas.
A child without clothes sat nodding with sleep
his belly as big as a muchongoyo drum;
buzzing flies were fighting, spinning and tumbling
into the smelling parting between his buttocks,
Kutu the scraggy dog was retching in front of him;
they ultimately gave the mother water that
had washed the madman’s beard
because she could no longer leave the bush
or close her oozing behind
and brother s’kuz’apo
filled the boy’s hut with urine and vomit
and a powerful smell of beer gone stale
The next day
They talked of the greatest Kisimiso
for many years.

From Zimunya’s foregoing characterisation, it’s evident that what goes on around Christmas is as similar to what Christ embodies as night is to day.
What with the drinking binges, gluttony, adultery, fornication; false-pretences, you name it. It’s all done in the name of Christmas, and much like many other things that are done in the name of love, politics or such similar pursuits, its all in a day’s work.

Well let’s hope those who cost innocent families Christmas over the past decade through sell-out politics or ruinous economic sanctions will see the error of their ways, reform and ensure that the nascent stability that we have experienced since the introduction of the multi-currency regime is consolidated so that Xmas 2011 is even better than this year’s edition.

WikiLeaks has, to a large extent, confirmed what we have already known that there are some among us who worked with outsiders to cost us many things, including Christmas.

Let’s hope now that they have been unmasked, they well not walk their well-beaten path to perdition.
I believe progressive Zimbabweans will agree with me if I say, when we shout "Happy New Year" at midnight on December 31, we want that happiness to transcend to each of the 365 days of 2011.

When we wish each other "a prosperous New Year", we should not forget that true prosperity does not come from fronting multinational corporations, earning five-figure salaries, driving company cars or living in company houses; it comes from having dominion over our God-given resources.

It comes from owning our economy and participating fully in economic production. It comes from pro-people programmes like the indigenisation and economic empowerment drive. It accrues from prospering the nation by building a genuine, wealth-creating middle class that can defend the gains of the liberation struggle that began as early as 1896.

And as we head into election season next year, let’s remember the cost we paid to get that ballot, and who was denying us the vote and why. Most importantly let’s not forget that along with one man one vote we were also fighting to be masters of our destiny, to have dominion over our resources down to our rats and ants.

The gains of the revolution need to be protected not only for our sake and for the sake of those patriots who paid the ultimate sacrifice, but for future generations in whose trust we hold this country and all that reposes in it.
Let’s not prostitute our right to our country and its resources, simply because the erstwhile coloniser has dangled a few dollars before our eyes.

Next year’s election should be about a society that has become mature, that has had time to evaluate what is at stake and hence can tell a proxy from a bona fide contestant.

Let the next poll be a time for judgment. A time to show that we have not only gone to school but we are also educated, that we have not only heard but listened, that we have not only read but have understood, that we have not only been taught but have learnt.

Next year’s election should not just be about punishing those who cost us Christmas over the years, it should also be about ensuring future great Christmases for our families. It should be about telling the Westerners and their lackeys that we want our livelihoods and our Christmases back for good.
caesar.zvayi@zimpapers.co.zw
 

Let’s not distort history

The Herald
December 15 2010

I AM tempted, very tempted to delve into the WikiLeaks debate once again. What with the way the cables are leaving some grown men in the nude, as naked as the day their first cry rang out in the village, that day when their now cat’s paw little fists were clenched Zanu-PF style with elders gathered wondering what gifts the little one had brought into the world.

If only they had known then that they had just witnessed the birth of a monster that would invite a goblin against not only their village but the entire nation, I am sure the midwife would have washed her hands Pontius Pilate style and left the rondavel in a huff.

Ah, such is the mystery of life one never knows what the pregnancy will bring forth for as those of old put it: Nhumbu ininga inozvara mbavha nemuroyi.
Be that as it may, let me leave this subject for this week and address a dangerous lie that’s being peddled in some quarters, the claim that elections will bring about economic instability and as such they should be deferred to an as yet unknown date and year.

Such thinking presupposes that the economic instability of the past decade was caused by elections or contested electoral outcomes, an assertion that feeds into the MDC-T rhetoric that the neo-liberal platitudes of electoral democracy accounted for the economic regression of the past decade.

What is shocking about these claims is that they are also being parroted by people who should know better, captains of industry who do not see the irony of making such assertions while acknowledging, in the same breath, that the West’s illegal economic sanctions had a deleterious effect on the economy.
The well-fed men in the boardrooms claim that the inclusive Government has fostered a modicum of stability and elections should be deferred to enable them to translate the nascent stability into growth.

Hearing them speak like this, a Martian would be mistaken to think that some of them had no hand in the economic subterfuge. Some of these pontificators deliberately scaled down production or smuggled their products to neighbouring countries as they preferred the greenback to the increasingly volatile Zimdollar bearer cheques.

It’s not as if industry was not producing over the past 10 years, it was but the goods and the revenue that accrued from selling them were externalised to abet the illegal regime change drive. Some of them even locked out workers whenever the MDC or ZCTU called for their abortive stayaways.
This explains why soon after the then acting finance minister Patrick Chinamasa introduced the multi-currency regime; the goods appeared on shop shelves over night since they could be sold in hard currency locally.

Let’s not try to distort history.

The emerging stability has nothing to do with the fact that Tsvangirai now has an office at Munhumutapa Building or moves around in a three-car convoy, "it’s all about the Benjamins", as the young men about town would put it in reference to Benjamin Franklin whose visage adorns the US$100 note.
What the anti-poll lobby should never forget is that the inclusive Government was formed pursuant to fostering an environment of socio-economic stability in readiness for elections.

What makes them think that the elections will not give us another hung parliament necessitating another inclusive Government, if the inclusive Government is so good for the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange?
What is more, President Mugabe put it clearly where he said he felt uncomfortable exercising executive authority under a makeshift arrangement. Who in his right mind would want the current scenario where people who, we are told are flawed, weak, and indecisive and in need of ‘‘massive hand-holding’’ are left to superintend a nation with so many multi-faceted challenges as our dear Zimbabwe?

What is more? WikiLeaks has just revealed that some of these characters treat national affairs like Tizirai’s proverbial basket that on one end is being woven while on another its being undone.

Thanks to Julian Assange, we now know that MDC leaders are not only double-faced but are also fork-tongued as they say one thing during the day, and do the exact opposite at night.

Where can such an arrangement take us?

In fact, WikiLeaks makes the case for elections all the more compelling because saboteurs need to be punished severely in the court of public opinion. We were all told, ad nauseum over the past decade that the answer to our multi-faceted challenges are free and fair elections.

The inclusive Government was put in place primarily to pave way for the much-vaunted free and fair elections though it honestly beats me how an election can be adjudged to be free and fair in an environment of sanctions that were imposed specifically to influence voting patterns.

It’s a good thing that Zanu-PF is actually saying regardless of the effects of economic sanctions and the spectre of protest votes, they are prepared to go for elections. That stance should actually be applauded not derided.
It’s not difficult to see where all the talk of delaying elections is coming from. One WikiLeaks cable revealed as much where it said the regime change drive should look to time to do what it failed to achieve over the past decade. It’s quite clear that the anti-poll lobby believes the only way to realise regime change is to ensure that the Zanu-PF candidate is not President Mugabe.
The call to defer elections, even by those who initially thought the threat of early elections was a stick with which to browbeat Zanu-PF, is premised on the belief that President Mugabe would soon retire leaving Tsvangirai to face a new and ostensibly weaker opponent.

Well, well, such is their fear of a man they claim does not enjoy widespread support.

Be that as it may, those who imposed sanctions claimed they were doing so to promote democracy and good governance. Elections are part of their minimalist conception of democracy.

What better way to expose their double-speak than going for a poll, rout their lackeys openly, and then challenge them to justify the continued existence of sanctions?
caesar.zvayi@zimpapers.co.zw/
http://caesarzvayi.blogspot.com

Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths

The Herald

December 13 2010

By Julian Assange

WIKILEAKS deserves protection, not threats and attacks.

In 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win."

His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch's expose that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch would not be silenced and his efforts led to the termination of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.

Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public.

I grew up in a Queensland country town where people spoke their minds bluntly. They distrusted big government as something that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth.

These things have stayed with me. WikiLeaks was created around these core values. The idea, conceived in Australia, was to use internet technologies in new ways to report the truth.

WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?

Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest. WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption.

People have said I am anti-war: for the record, I am not. Sometimes nations need to go to war, and there are just wars. But there is nothing more wrong than a government lying to its people about those wars, then asking these same citizens to put their lives and their taxes on the line for those lies. If a war is justified, then tell the truth and the people will decide whether to support it.

If you have read any of the Afghan or Iraq war logs, any of the US embassy cables or any of the stories about the things WikiLeaks has reported, consider how important it is for all media to be able to report these things freely.

WikiLeaks is not the only publisher of the US embassy cables. Other media outlets, including Britain's The Guardian, The New York Times, El Pais in Spain and Der Spiegel in Germany have published the same redacted cables.

Yet it is WikiLeaks, as the co-ordinator of these other groups that has copped the most vicious attacks and accusations from the US government and its acolytes. I have been accused of treason, even though I am an Australian, not a US, citizen. There have been dozens of serious calls in the US for me to be "taken out" by US Special Forces. Sarah Palin says I should be "hunted down like Osama bin Laden"; a Republican bill sits before the US Senate seeking to have me declared a "transnational threat" and disposed of accordingly. An adviser to the Canadian Prime Minister's office has called on national television for me to be assassinated. An American blogger has called for my 20-year-old son, here in Australia, to be kidnapped and harmed for no other reason than to get at me.

And Australians should observe with no pride the disgraceful pandering to these sentiments by Julia Gillard and her government. The powers of the Australian government appear to be fully at the disposal of the US as to whether to cancel my Australian passport, or to spy on or harass WikiLeaks supporters. The Australian Attorney-General is doing everything he can to help a US investigation clearly directed at framing Australian citizens and shipping them to the US.

Prime Minister Gillard and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have not had a word of criticism for the other media organisations. That is because The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel are old and large, while WikiLeaks is as yet young and small.

We are the underdogs. The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings.

Has there been any response from the Australian government to the numerous public threats of violence against me and other WikiLeaks personnel? One might have thought an Australian prime minister would be defending her citizens against such things, but there have only been wholly unsubstantiated claims of illegality. The Prime Minister and especially the Attorney-General are meant to carry out their duties with dignity and above the fray. Rest assured, these two mean to save their own skins. They will not.

Every time WikiLeaks publishes the truth about abuses committed by US agencies, Australian politicians chant a provably false chorus with the State Department: "You'll risk lives! National security! You'll endanger troops!" Then they say there is nothing of importance in what WikiLeaks publishes. It can't be both. Which is it?

It is neither. WikiLeaks has a four-year publishing history. During that time we have changed whole governments, but not a single person, as far as anyone is aware, has been harmed. But the US, with Australian government connivance, has killed thousands in the past few months alone.

US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates admitted in a letter to the US congress that no sensitive intelligence sources or methods had been compromised by the Afghan war logs disclosure. The Pentagon stated there was no evidence the WikiLeaks reports had led to anyone being harmed in Afghanistan. NATO in Kabul told CNN it couldn't find a single person who needed protecting. The Australian Department of Defence said the same. No Australian troops or sources have been hurt by anything we have published.

But our publications have been far from unimportant. The US diplomatic cables reveal some startling facts:

-- The US asked its diplomats to steal personal human material and information from UN officials and human rights groups, including DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, credit card numbers, internet passwords and ID photos, in violation of international treaties. Presumably Australian UN diplomats may be targeted, too.

-- King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked the US to attack Iran.

-- Officials in Jordan and Bahrain want Iran's nuclear program stopped by any means available.

-- Britain's Iraq inquiry was fixed to protect "US interests".

-- Sweden is a covert member of NATO and US intelligence sharing is kept from parliament.

-- The US is playing hardball to get other countries to take freed detainees from Guantanamo Bay. Barack Obama agreed to meet the Slovenian President only if Slovenia took a prisoner. Our Pacific neighbour Kiribati was offered millions of dollars to accept detainees.

In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US Supreme Court said "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government". The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth.

Julian Assange is the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks. He has since been arrested and is in custody in Britain. This article is reproduced from www.theaustralian.com.au