Anti American anti African racist says oh my we are all sinners

From First Post

This needs a "fisking". my words are in red.

After all, the reason this guy is still alive is because a bunch of (overpaid oversexed) Americans kept England from being part of the third reich, and kept bases there to keep them from being liberated into the glories of the Iron curtain. But let's not let reality stand in the way of class snobbery, racism, or anti american rhetoric

For however much locals might dream about liberation, the reality of having foreigners - particularly white foreigners - in charge soon proves deeply humiliating, just another case of the cure often being worse than the disease.

White foreigners? Huh? Twenty to thirty percent of US Soldiers are not white...guess he hasn't noticed. As for "humiliation", yup. Just like my husband was humiliated when our city was cleared of murderous Japanese by the yanks...

So, having turned the Middle East against the West because of Iraq, we would now have given the same kind of offence to Africa and Asia.

The Middle east has been against the west since about 700 AD. So what else is new? IT's Charles Martel's fault...

Nor can we really expect the Africans and Asians to accept our motives for wanting to intervene as purely high-minded, judging by America's present plans to leave a string of military bases behind them when they eventually leave Iraq...

Oh those terrible military bases. Like the ones that have been in Germany, Spain, Italy, and Japan for fifty years, allowing these countries essentially a cheap way to get out of funding their own defenses.

Now, if Europe would get off their asses and start defending themselves, maybe we can close some more of them..

as for Africa, a couple million people are dead in various countries because except for a few small French interventions, the countries that exploited their colonies now look the other way when thugs kill innocent civilians. So why worry about Zimbabwe when Uganda to Dafur to the central African wars are killing more people than Mugabe?

As for South Africa doing the liberation of Zimbabwe itself, that has always been a bad joke since once Mandela has passed away, the likelihood is there will be a South African Mugabe - particularly in regard to the wealthy white minority.

So Americans are evil and Blacks are incompetent to rule themselves. Is that what you're saying?

Africa for the Africans; Asia for the Asians and (what I would like to see) Europe for the Europeans. We Europeans should concentrate on healing our own social and political sores, before trying to put the rest of the world to rights.

Heaven knows, there are more than enough of these, starting perhaps, in England's case, with the savagery on the cricket fields.

So tearing down the houses and making 70,000 homeless, causing 3 million refugees, sending trained thugs to terrorize people to vote correctly is the same as an occassional drunken brawl at a sports match.

I see. You hate everyone except your own upper class friends.

Zuma blasts Mugabe

from SWRadioAfrica:

South Africa’s ANC president Jacob Zuma has again strongly rebuked Robert Mugabe for refusing to step down as president.

The ANC leader, who has recently adopted a radically different approach to the crisis from South African President Thabo Mbeki’s widely criticised policy of “quiet diplomacy”, was speaking at a celebratory ANC dinner in South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal on Tuesday.

In his speech acknowledging an ANC comrade, Zuma said: “In Africa we have some political leaders who refuse to bow out and try to change the constitution to accommodate themselves as in neighbouring Zimbabwe”.

Zuma, who in December had backed Mbeki’s policy on Zimbabwe, has become increasingly critical and outspoken about the crisis and Mugabe’s stranglehold on power there.

Last month he described the situation as “out of control” and called for urgent intervention by the United Nations and the regional SADC grouping. This damning description of the crisis had come a few hours after an unprecedented condemnation of Mugabe’s violent crackdown on MDC supporters, by the U.N. Security Council.

The criticisms however were to no avail, as days later Mugabe was sworn in for a sixth term as the country’s leader following the sham one-man poll on June 27. The pressure has since been building on Mugabe to step down and put a stop to the ongoing violence.

70 year old woman killed

from swradioafrica:

The MDC has announced the death of another victim of the state sponsored violence - a 70 year old woman who died on Monday from burns she sustained when she was thrown onto her cooking fire.

The MDC said in an email; “A wonderfully brave old lady, died from terrible burns to her body. She had fought the agony of her injuries for nearly a month. Attached are the pictures of what 18 Zanu PF youth did to her because she was a known MDC activist in Bindura.’ After beating her, they threw her into her cooking fire.”

This is the second time this week that pictures of badly beaten or burnt victims have emerged exposing the brutal nature of Mugabe’s regime. The decomposing burnt body of MDC driver Joshua Bakacheza was found, adding to the growing lists of widespread killings, torture and intimidation of MDC activists. Over a hundred have been assassinated, tens of thousands tortured and injured and hundreds of thousands displaced. The MDC reports that there are at least 1500 political detainees in Zimbabwe’s prisons.

....

Meanwhile worldwide condemnation continues to grow and a group of African civil organizations have announced the launch of a continental campaign on Saturday, in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe. The group which is made up of the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Amnesty International and the Global Call for Action Against Poverty (GCAP), says the demonstration will be an expression of concern for the violations committed against the people of Zimbabwe.

The group plans to hold vigils outside some Zimbabwean embassies on the African continent and assemble outside government buildings or Houses of Parliament, in their respective countries.

A statement by Amnesty International said Saturday’s event will be the beginning of an Africa-wide campaign at the grassroots level, allowing African voices to speak out about injustice in Zimbabwe.

Adelaide Sosseh, GCAP Co-chair based in The Gambia said: “We urge African leaders to call for space to be opened up so that civil society can play a role in tackling Zimbabwe’s current crisis – we are needed now more than ever as millions of people face hunger through growing food insecurity brought on by mis-governance.”

“The widespread killings, torture and assault of perceived opposition supporters must come to an end in Zimbabwe. Concrete action is long overdue and African leaders must end their silent acquiescence,” said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International....

Zim crisis, real or feigned?

from the African Executive:

.....

Before the Mugabe government started harassing and uprooting the White farmers in 2000, this government kept inflation at 5 per cent, 8 per cent (or 11 per cent in difficult years.) How, then, does a country with all the same factors and leaders from 1980 to 2000 suddenly (because the White commercial farmers have been uprooted) see inflation soar to world record levels in a space of just six years starting in 2000? And how is it that a stable Zimbabwe has an inflation rate 1,500 times higher than Somalia, a country without a government since 1991? Does any of this make sense?

Away from abstract figures, the evidence before our ordinary eyes is even more puzzling. If you have watched news video footage on BBC TV, CNN, and other Western TV networks, without exception, you will no doubt have noticed that the streets of the capital Harare are far cleaner and better maintained than those in Kampala, even during the week that Uganda hosted the Commonwealth summit last November.

Have you seen any beggars on Harare’s streets? Have you taken the time to notice clean and well-painted government buildings in Harare? During the recent presidential campaign rallies, you might have noticed that both the supporters of President Mugabe and the opposition were generally well-dressed, looked and acted cheerful. Nobody wore rags or went about barefooted....

So how come, for all this obvious evidence, nobody has asked the simple question: is this Zimbabwe story real or an orchestrated series of events by the British and American governments and media to punish Mugabe for humiliating the White settlers in Zimbabwe?...

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G8 Decision on Zim "racist"

from the news (Australia)

ZIMBABWE'S government said today that the G8 leaders' rejection of President Robert Mugabe's legitimacy and threats of financial measures against his regime are racist and an insult to African leaders.

"They want to undermine the African Union and (South African) President Mbeki's (mediation) efforts because they are racist, because they think only white people think better," said Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga.

"It's an insult to African leaders," Mr Matonga said.

Mr Matonga insisted that Mr Mugabe, elected last month in a widely denounced one-man vote, was the southern African nation's rightful leader.

"President Mugabe is the legitimate president of Zimbabwe and no amount of force or pressure will reverse that," he said.

The leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) rich countries wound up their summit in Japan rejecting Mugabe's legitimacy and promising "further steps" against the regime over its disputed election.

Mr Matonga accused them of trying to set up a "parallel structure" to the African Union (AU), which appointed Mbeki as a regional mediator in Zimbabwe's electoral crisis....

militia attacks Zim displaced

from the BBC:

Armed militia have raided two camps for people fleeing post-election violence in Zimbabwe, opposition and medical officials have said.

The opposition said several people were killed in Gokwe, north of Harare, but other reports say there was one death.

In Ruwa, near the capital, masked men in army fatigues beat up people who had previously sought refuge at the South African embassy, a witness said.

A BBC correspondent says the raids could threaten moves to share power.

At least eight of those attacked in Ruwa were taken to hospital and about 14 people - mostly from a patrol that camp occupants had organised to maintain security - were missing, the witness said.

Missing

About 400 people have been sheltering in local squash courts in Ruwa after being moved on from the South African embassy.

At the G8 summit of the world's leading industrialised countries in Japan, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Zimbabwe's political parties to work together to restore the rule of law.


George Bush and Jakaya Kikwete in Toyako, Japan, 7 July 2008
We are saying no party can govern alone in Zimbabwe and therefore the parties have to work together
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete

The US and the UK want the UN Security Council to tighten targeted sanctions against Mr Mugabe and his close allies this week, as well as impose an arms embargo.

But Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete, who also heads the African Union, said African leaders favoured some sort of power-sharing government.

The Zimbabwean government blames interference from Western countries for delaying a solution to the country's political impasse.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said "meddling" by Britain, the US and the European Union was complicating the dialogue between Mr Mugabe's party and the opposition.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says 5,000 of its members are missing and more than 100 of its supporters have been murdered since elections in March.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced.

The MDC accuses the army and ruling party militias of being behind the violence - charges denied by President Robert Mugabe.

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Yup. fair and balanced. and without news reporters on the ground, they can't call Mugabe a murderous liar.

Bush is hero to Africa

from the UKTelegraph


In the last year of Bill Clinton's presidency, America's direct bilateral assistance to Africa was only Pounds 700 million. Mr Bush has almost quadrupled this sum.
Combating Aids once played virtually no part in America's development policies. Mr Bush has established the biggest fund ever devoted to fighting an epidemic.
...Mr Bush has also made America the biggest single donor to the Global Fund for Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, contributing one third of its Pounds 5 billion.
No other leader has given as much money to the World Food Programme as Mr Bush. America now provides about half of all the emergency food aid distributed across the globe.

African leaders call for dialogue

from pbs:

RAY SUAREZ: It took two days of meetings before the African Union adopted a resolution calling for Zimbabwe to form a government of national unity.

Throughout this summit, Robert Mugabe remained defiant, standing by the results of a run-off much of the international community labeled a sham. Earlier today, his spokesperson told the world to stay out of Zimbabwe's affairs.

GEORGE CHARAMBA, Spokesman for President Mugabe: They can go and hang. They can go and hang a thousand times. They have no basis, they have no claim on Zimbabwean politics at all and that is exactly the issue.

RAY SUAREZ: Mugabe ended up running uncontested last Friday. The major opposition party, the MDC, withdrew. Its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, said he couldn't continue to run in an environment in which his supporters were beaten up, arrested, and killed by Mugabe allies.

Sunday, Mugabe again took the presidential oath.

...
RAY SUAREZ: Why won't African leaders publicly pressure Robert Mugabe to leave office?

AKWE AMOSU: Well, I think that several members of that heads of state assembly who are themselves no paragons of virtue when it comes to democracy. There are members of that community that have been in power for 40 years. They probably see elections pretty much as a rubber stamp and are not highly motivated to see change in Zimbabwe.

But I think, while I really agree with what Briggs has said about the deficit in the A.U. position, I think one thing it is important to say is that you've seen for the first time in my recollection open dispute between members of the A.U., including countries like Botswana, like Sierra Leone, like Benin, like Kenya, Senegal, coming out and saying quite publicly this man should not be sitting in our hall, he should not be accredited as a member of this heads of state assembly, and that he should not go on being a member of the government of Zimbabwe.

And I think that's really quite unprecedented in African politics. And much as I would have liked to see stronger action today, I think we should acknowledge that there is change happening.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, the word "unprecedented" was used. Hasn't there been a long tradition in post-colonial Africa of not publicly calling across countries' borders for change inside fellow African states?

BRIGGS BOMBA: There certainly has been. If you look at the guiding strategy of the A.U., it's really quiet, behind-the-scene intervention. There's an over-emphasis on respecting national sovereignty and a lack of readiness to interfere in what is seen as internal conflicts.

So I think we have seen the A.U., you know, adopting a hands-off approach. But we have the case of Mauritania, where the A.U. withdrew the membership of Mauritania following a coup there.

So there's been that action taken place, but for, by and large, we look at cases like Ethiopia, where you know you had the sham election, you had thousands of activists arrested, some of them for two years, but the A.U. did not come out saying anything.

You look at Nigeria, where we had the same situation, as well, and the A.U. did not take a decisive step. And I think it's because of this history that the A.U. is limited, you know, on the extent of what they can do today when they're facing the question in Zimbabwe....

Miliband slates SA failure to recognise Zimbabwe's crisis

from the Scotsman

DAVID Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, visiting South Africa for talks on the Zimbabwe crisis ahead of the G8 summit in Japan, yesterday started a political row with the president, Thabo Mbeki.

Mr Mbeki has resolutely asserted that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe. But Mr Miliband publicly demonstrated the British government's stark differences with Mr Mbeki by visiting some of the three million refugees who have fled into South Africa from Robert Mugabe's terror campaign – something Mr Mbeki has refused to do, describing the fugitives not as "refugees" but as "temporary shelterers."

Mr Mbeki, whose eight years of "quiet diplomacy" in Zimbabwe on behalf of the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community have come to nothing, returned from yet another failed negotiation in Zimbabwe with his lieutenants blaming Britain for the breakdown.
....

Vote rigging the article

From the UK Guardian...see video posted on link below:

....As he shot his clandestine film, Yuda was aware that it might never be seen in the outside world and that his reward could be nothing more lasting than an unmarked grave in the Zimbabwean bush. By the time he and his family were safely out of Zimbabwe yesterday, Yuda had a record of how the votes have been stolen and how those who have dared to oppose Mugabe fear daily for their lives.

The film shows how he and his colleagues at Harare Central prison had to fill in their postal ballots in front of a Mugabe supporter, how voters had to pretend to be illiterate so an official would fill in their ballots for them, and how terrified Zimbabweans were using felt tip pens to colour their fingers to pretend they had voted, lest they be murdered by Zanu-PF gangs. ...

Thousands more have been severely beaten, many too frightened to go to hospital for treatment.

"I had never seen that kind of violence before," said Yuda. "The impact has left a lot of orphans, it has left a lot of people displaced. You cannot expect that from your government. You expect that from a rebel group. How can a government that claimed to be democratically elected kill its people, murder its people, torture its people?....

Yuda did not realise then that he would be privy to the cynical manipulation of the electoral process. His testimony, made for Guardian Films and broadcast on guardian.co.uk and BBC Newsnight last night, shows how he and his prison colleagues had to fill in their ballots in front of Zanu PF supporters. "This was the most difficult moment of my life," he said of marking his cross beside the name of Mugabe. "This is a terrible moment."

They had all been told that they had to use postal ballots which they then had to fill in surrounded by prison officials who checked their electoral register serial numbers. Superintendent Shambira, a war veteran and Mugabe supporter, checked how he had vote...

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Part two article:

"I don't regret doing this, although it is a painful decision I have taken," he said. "We can live without the memories of seeing dead bodies in the prison, dead bodies in the street, dead bodies in my family.

"I've lost my uncle. My father was also beaten by Zanu-PF. I am praying to God: please God deal with Zanu-PF ruthlessly."

Mugabe has now been sworn in for a sixth term as Zimbabwe's president, a process which Tsvangirai described as "a complete joke". More than 130,000 voters spoiled their ballot papers in the election.

International pressure is mounting against Mugabe. It emerged yesterday that a US draft resolution to the UN will call for sanctions against Mugabe and demand that his government immediately begin talks with the MDC.

If adopted by the Security Council, the resolution would freeze the financial assets of Mugabe and 11 other Zimbabwean officials and ban them from travelling....

Mugabe vote rigging caught on film

200 seek refuge in US Embassy

from the AP

U.S. Ambassador James McGee said the group was from the opposition headquarters in Harare, which had become a refuge. He said by telephone that embassy officials were working with humanitarian organizations to find accommodation for the group.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said embassy staff did not see the group as a security risk and that they were outside the building's security perimeter.

More than 300 opposition supporters who last week sought refuge at the South African Embassy in Harare have been taken to a camp outside the capital.

History lesson

from wikipedia.

Samatha Powers of Time magazine (previous link) has all sorts of nonsensical reasons why no one could invade and overthrow Mugabe.
Her main reason is ideological, as seen by her ridiculing of "neocons" in the middle of her essay.
Nope, suffering people don't count, only politics does.

However, she might want to read about when one African country actually did overthrow a tyrant.

The bad news: Because no one wanted to mop up the problem, things got worse in many ways.

The lesson of the US in Iraq is that no one wants to stay the course to establish democracy (although this year things seem to be turning around).
And the other lesson is that good leftists prefer to hate America (especially with a president who is republican) than to love Africans.

Saving Zimbabwe

from Time magazine

The ruthlessness and savagery of Mugabe have given rise to two basic reactions in Africa and around the world: fruitless hand-wringing by committed multilateralists who want to solve the problem through "constructive engagement," and consequence-blind militarism by zealous moralists who call for regime change by force. Neither approach offers realistic hope for the people of Zimbabwe. Ending the Mugabe nightmare is still possible, but it will require a more radical diplomatic strategy than the world has tried so far....

Translation: You can remove murderous dictators for oil, but not for chrome and asbestor and gold.
Besides, if you get rid of Mugabe, there are half a million worse places you'd have to go...

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should appoint his predecessor, Kofi Annan, fresh from brokering a power-sharing deal for Kenya, as the U.N.'s envoy to Zimbabwe. One by one, those African and Western leaders who claim to be disgusted with Mugabe should announce that they bilaterally recognize the validity of the March 29 first-round election results, which showed the opposition winning 48% to 43%, though the margin was almost surely larger. The countries which do would make up the new "March 29 bloc" within the U.N. and would declare Morgan Tsvangirai the new President of Zimbabwe. They would then announce that Mugabe and the 130 leading cronies who have already been sanctioned by the West will not be permitted entry to their airports.

Tsvangirai and his senior aides should do as South Africa's African National Congress did throughout the 1960s and '70s: set up a government-in-exile and appoint ambassadors abroad--including to the U.N. That ambassador should be given forums for rebutting the ludicrous claims of the Zimbabwean and South African regimes.

If "the U.N." is disaggregated into its component parts, Mugabe's friends will be exposed. "June 27" countries will be those who favor electoral theft, while "March 29" countries will be those who believe that the Zimbabweans aren't the only ones who should stand up and be counted. This can be a recipe for gridlock in international institutions--but the gridlock won't get broken by lamenting its existence. It will get broken when the heads of state who back Mugabe are forced out into the open and when constructive engagement of the new President of Zimbabwe begins.

Yup. As if it will make a damn bit of difference. But it looks nice on paper.

Calamity in Zimbabwe

from strategypage:

July 1, 2008: Zimbabwe is run by a deranged tyrant, Robert Mugabe, who has ruined the economy, caused massive starvation, and refused to relinquish power. Zimbabwe is broke, and there has not been an armed revolution because Mugabe has established, over the last two decades, an effective police state. Recently, China has helped out in this department, and before that Mugabe hired North Koreans to help with security.

....Life expectancy has dropped from 63 to under 40 years in the last 18 years. Infant mortality (deaths of children by age five) has gone from 76 18 years ago, to over 110 today.....Current per-capita GDP, even counting food grown by families for their own consumption, is under $500, a loss of 70 percent over the last six years. Only 20 percent of the population (originally 12 million) has jobs, and 30 percent have fled to neighboring nations in search of food. The government controls most of what is left of the economy, and uses it to take care of the army and security forces (both uniformed, and irregular street gangs that do the governments bidding).

China: no support for arms embargo

from the Zim Guardian (London) via Allafrica:

CHINA has indicated its unwillingness to support a United States call for a UN arms embargo for Zimbabwe.US plans to introduce discussions this week at the UN Security Council which include both an arms embargo and extension of travel bans on President Robert Mugabe's government....

According to reports from Beijing China -- one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council along with Russia, the United States, Britain and France - did not show enthusiasm for an arms embargo and could use its veto power to block a resolution on Zimbabwe.

"The most pressing task now is to stabilize the situation in Zimbabwe," said Yang, the Chinese foreign minister....

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well, if China continues to sell them arms, the situation will "stablize" because the terror will get worse.

Was Ghana Right in suggesting military intervention in Zim?

from the CheetahIndex blog:

was Ghana right when its parliament called for military intervention in Zimbabwe? This is what must first be taken into consideration...

Mugabe is very astute at skirting the lines of the Geneva conventions and of the UN accords to the extent that military intervention there is not an option. In order for the UN forces or AU forces to do anything there genocide, ethnic cleansing, and/or war crimes must be clearly evidenced. This is not the case in Zim.

Mugabe has the support of Mbeki and this will not likely change even after the S.Africa elections because:
1. S. Africa leases their electricity from Zimbabwe and if not for that they would be in dire straights with their massive energy shortages.
2. S. Africa is one of the only countries that is selling anything to Zim, right now.
3. A distant third is the fact that Mbeki feels a moral indebtedness to Mugabe because of the liberation struggle that you documented from 20 + years ago.

The SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) is like a baby or a toddler in comparison to ECOWAS. Thus, the SADC does not have a military apparatus like ECOWAS’s ECOMOG, with which to dispense help to the Zimbabweans.

Before international bodies use interventionist strategies in Zimbabwe they would first have to adjust the guidelines for intervention, based upon the fact that although Zimbabwe is in an extremely severe situation the necessary legal tools that would allow for military intervention are not available. This would likely set a legal precedent for future cases, as well.

So there are some, like myself, who would argue that morally Ghana is probably correct. However, legally they are probably not. Are there any thoughts?

I apologize again

our internet is going on and off for the last month, which means I might not be able to find links because we're off line. At other times, I will have a post ready and the internet disappears. Sometimes the electricity goes off and I lose the computer data also.

Presumably readers are aware of the election travesty which is all over the news.

That's why I named the blog Mugabe Makaipa.

And yes, I will repost the link for the protest of the world cup...Reverend Hove reminded me I had removed it...his blog has a link so go there and sign...

BBC Stop fanning flames of war

From The Post via All Africa:

Zimbabwe had been a very peaceful country before the coming of Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai as a political party leader.

He came through the British to disturb the government of President Robert Mugabe because of his land reform policy.Mr. Tsvangirai is a rebel whom the British want to use and kill Mugabe to take the land from the blacks and hand it over to the white minority again.

I strongly advise Mugabe to arrest Mr. Tsvangirai and not only jail him, but try him for treason, murder and the displacement of innocent Zimbabweans.Those African leaders and the West who are in support of Mr. Tsvangirai are not doing any good to Africa and Zimbabwe in particular.

Mr. Tsvangirai's form of democracy is rebellious.Listening to BBC radio, I heard President Dos Santos of Angola calling for Mugabe to stop the violence whereas the perpetrator to me is Mr. Tsvangirai, who seems to be scheming to get money for the acquisition of arms and probably dole out some of it to his family abroad.

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There is more at the link, if your stomach can take it...

Tsvangarai asks AU to invalidate Mugabe win

from the VOA

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai Monday urged the African Union to reject the outcome of the presidential run-off election held Friday that led Sunday to the inauguration of President Robert Mugabe, and dispatch a special envoy to Harare to help put in place a transitional government.

Tsvangirai's call has been backed by a group of statesmen called the Elders, which includes former South African president Nelson Mandela, the eminent South African cleric Desmond Tutu, former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, mediator in Zimbabwe for the Southern African Development Community since March 2007, is continuing with his efforts. Sources in Pretoria said Mbeki is pushing for a Kenya-style national unity government.

....
Matonga told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the Harare government does not take instructions from anyone on how to deal with the crisis - even the African Union.

Washington Post says: Zimbabwe, who cares?

The Washington Post "POST GLOBAL" link is usually full of left wing cliches.

But when it comes to Zim, they prefer to tell people in zimbabwe to "lay back, close your eyes, and think of England"....
as the saying goes.

My stomach is already turning over, but if you can stand it, I've included links:

(again, sorry for the lack of posts: internet problems due to a typhoon).

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Charles "Mase" Onyango-Obbo a Ugandan author, journalist, former editor of The Monitor and political commentator of issues in East Africa and the African Great Lakes region. He writes a column, Ear To The Ground in The Monitor, and a second column in the regional weekly, The EastAfrican. He is currently managing editor in charge of media convergence at the Nation Media Group in Kenya. Born in the town of Mbale in eastern Uganda, Onyango-Obbo studied at Makerere University in Kampala, and the American University in Cairo where he obtained a Masters degree in journalism. In 1991, he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. On May 1999, during the Second Congo War, Onyango-Obbo and other editors of The Monitor – Wafula Ogutu and David Ouma Balikowa – were arrested and charged with "sedition" and "publication of false news"´, following the publication of a photograph of a naked woman being sexually abused by men in military uniform. Ugandan officials insisted that the assailants might be soldiers from Congo or Zimbabwe (who where also involved in the Congo war), and could not possibly be Ugandan soldiers as the photo caption claimed. Onyango-Obbo and the other editors were acquitted on March 6, 2001.

To Save Zimbabwe, Do Nothing

The best way to save Zimbabwe is to let matters get worse.

Charles Onyango-Obbo, Kampala, Uganda | 53 COMMENTS
Jun 27, 2008 at 11:21 AM

Njoroge is a journalist who formerly worked for the Kenya-based People Daily. He was Africa Correspondent for the Science and Development Network (SciDev.net), a UK-based web site highlighting science and technology issues from developing countries. He also freelanced for the Switzerland-based Bulletin of the World Health Organization (WHO). Njoroge was a press fellow at the Wolfson College, University of Cambridge for four months in 2003, where he researched the role of alternative press in the democratization process in Africa. Njoroge currently lives in the U.S. He has studied Journalism and Technical Communication at the graduate level.

Hold South Africa Responsible for Zimbabwe's Mess

Njoroge Wachai, Kenya | 23 COMMENTS

William M. Gumede is Associate Editor at Africa Confidential. He is Research Fellow at the School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He recently released the bestselling book Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC.

A Way Forward for Zimbabwe

William M. Gumede, South Africa | 11 COMMENTS

Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar is the Consulting Editor of The Economic Times, India's largest financial daily. He writes a popular weekly column, titled Swaminomics in the Times of India. He spends roughly half the year in New Delhi and half in Washington D.C., where he is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and an occasional consultant to the World Bank. He has been the editor of India's two main financial dailies, The Economic Times (1992-94) and Financial Express (1988-90). He was also the India Correspondent of the British weekly, The Economist, for most of two decades between 1976 and 1998.

No Moral Ground to Oust Mugabe Alone

Swaminathan A. Aiyar, New Delhi, India | 127 COMMENTS

Ali Ettefagh

ALL PANELIST RESPONSES »

sorry for the lack of posts

between the heat and the typhoon/rain the internet goes on and off...

Crowds in London mourn the death of Democracy

from all africa:

Boycott world cup games

NYTimes editorial asks the world to boycott South Africa's hosting of the world cup...

Rev. Hove's petition has been on line for awhile...and the site had someone later post a similar petition...

have you signed it (look to the right side of the blog)

But of course, no one will notice.

Zim opposition leader in Dutch Embassy

from the LATIMES


HARARE, ZIMBABWE -- Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai sought refuge in the Dutch Embassy here just hours after he pulled out of the presidential runoff election scheduled for Friday, citing rising violence by supporters of longtime President Robert Mugabe.

Despite the opposition's withdrawal, the Zimbabwe ruling party's crackdown continued unabated Monday, with 60 opposition activists arrested by riot police in a lunchtime raid at the opposition headquarters. Curfews and door-to-door searches also continued in suburbs of Harare, the capital.

Many of those arrested at the Movement for Democratic Change headquarters had been injured in recent outbreaks of political violence and were sleeping at the office for their safety. More than 80 activists with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change were admitted to clinics in Harare on Sunday, severely beaten by ruling ZANU-PF party operatives when they tried to attend a rally.

In New York, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to condemn the violence and intimidation by Zimbabwe's government and said that "a free and fair election" is impossible at this point.

Nevertheless, Zimbabwe's U.N. ambassador, Boniface Chidyausiku, said after the session that the runoff would proceed as planned and that the Security Council had no business meddling in his country's elections.
....
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Also LATIMES;

Blanket of fear covers Zimbabwe:


.....But the biggest change is the almost tangible sense of fear.

It infects everybody, from Tsvangirai, who cited the rising political violence in explaining his announcement, to one of his brawny supporters.

"These people don't scare me," the activist said with a grimace. "But this time, they've got me spooked."

Two months ago, people sported opposition T-shirts, their cars were covered with posters expressing their anti-President Robert Mugabe views. Now they wear ruling party bandannas and T-shirts (though many privately say it's no more than an insurance policy against violence.)

The hunger for change that spread across the country like a wind blowing everything before it has now shifted. The new wind has the population terrified.

Armed Mugabe supporters chant the slogan "Win or war" while launching attacks on known opposition activists.

Human rights groups say at least 86 have been killed and 3,000 injured. In private clinics around Harare, the capital, dozens of people such as James, a 60-year-old from rural Karoi, are recovering from horrific injuries.....

SWRAfrica interview with Rev Hove

wma file link

Zim opposition pulls out of election

from the CSMonitor:

Harare, Zimbabwe - Political commentators and ordinary Zimbabweans applauded Sunday's announcemnet by opposition Movement for Democratic Change that it would pull out of Friday's election runoff, saying the decision will save many lives....

Given the substantial level of violence used by both government forces and pro-government militias – including attacks on opposition protesters trying to hold a rally in the capital Sunday – pulling out of the election was a logical decision, says University of Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masunungure....

"In my view it is the right decision because the so-called election had ceased to be an election at all," he says. "So the MDC is right to abandon the election. They valued lives more than power.",,,,


------------------

another editorial here:LINK

essentially spouts nonsense...if everyone was sweet and nice, we'd all get along...

Tsvangarai pulls out of run off vote

reuters:

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew on Sunday from the June 27 presidential run-off election, citing political violence and an unfair poll that would favour President Robert Mugabe.

"We in the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process," he told reporters in Harare, before urging the United Nations and African Union to intervene to prevent a "genocide".

sorry for no posts

typhoon passing by has messed up the internet...which has been shaky for the last two weeks due to monsoon thunder storms...

observers slashed

from swradioafrica

The independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network says out of 8,800 local monitors accredited to cover the March 29 poll, only 500 have been approved to monitor the June 27 presidential run-off. The deliberate cutback in numbers has heightened fears that Mugabe’s regime is planning to rig the upcoming election. ZESN submitted the names of 23 000 monitors to the Ministry of Justice but were told the presence of observers, ‘disrupts the smooth flow of voting.’ In an interview with the UK Financial Times, Noel Kututwa, ZESN board chairperson said, ‘the idea is to make it impossible to do what we did (in the first round). It will be very difficult but not impossible.’

After the first round vote ZESN director Rindai Chipfunde was arrested by police as she arrived at Harare International Airport from abroad. Police claimed they wanted to question her about the elections results collated by her group. Since then several ZESN observers have been brutally murdered, attacked and tortured. Various countries, including Tanzania, Swaziland and Angola have come out to declare that the elections will never be free and fair. Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe, representing the 3 countries, said some of the observers in the country had seen two people shot dead in front of them. ‘We have told the Government of Zimbabwe to stop the violence,’ he said. ...

State agents hunting down MDC agents in rural areas

from swradioafrica


We have received disturbing reports from activists and MDC supporters who were hounded out of their rural homelands and are living a life of hide and seek, pursued by ZANU-PF agents. One activist who fled from his rural home and is in hiding said state agents are referring to the campaign as “Operation Tsuro ne gwenzi”, meaning hunt both the targets and those who shelter them. He said that he has not slept in the same house twice in the last few weeks and has to leave very early in the morning. Otherwise those who provided shelter will be victimized....

In the Mbare high-density area of Harare, the notorius Chipangano gang has been terrorising innocent civilians....

The MDC activists from rural areas are fleeing to nearby towns where they find it easier to hide in the crowded high-density areas. But now state agents are victimizing their families and hunting them down in Harare, Bulawayo and other urban areas....

Mugabe the Obscene

AustinBay at Strategypage:

"Frankly obscene," Australia's foreign minister said.

Australia's Stephen Smith was referring to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe's appearance at a U.N. food conference earlier this month.

Yes, a dictator who uses starvation to scatter and kill his own people making an appearance at an international conference devoted to raising food and feeding the hungry is an obscenity -- though I add, without cynicism, that the situation isn't all that unusual. Petty tyrants, terrorist enablers and tribal killers cluster about the wine and cheese smorgasbords of international community fetes and summits...

Mugabe, a classic Marxist rebel leader, plays this game ( i.e. blame America/blame imperialism for everything) quite well. Toppling Southern Rhodesia's white dictatorship made him a cult hero. The left-leaning internationalists gave Mugabe's mass murder in Zimbabwe's Matebele land a pass. That brutal campaign of the early 1980s, conducted against his former anti-colonial allies, included imported North Korean mercenary-advisers.

But his obscenities are catching up with him.

His greatest obscenity is his war on his own impoverished nation. Mugabe's tyranny has savaged Zimbabwe, making the country yet another tragic example of a nation brutalized by its own government. Zimbabwe is blessed with rich farmland and ought to be an agricultural breadbasket. It was, until Mugabe's "land redistribution" and "farm policies" turned it into a starving basket case....(relates how Mugabe destroyed the country)...

(Mugabe lost his local support and lost the election)...

Mugabe has manufactured a run-off election, scheduled for June 27, pitting him against Tsvangirai. The "war veterans" are out with their clubs and knives. The MDC claims at least 40 of its supporters have been killed since March 29. Moreover, they allege that Mugabe is plotting to assassinate Tsvangirai. Mugabe's police have repeatedly detained and harassed Tsvangirai.

Nobel Prize winner former Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has called for international peacekeepers.... This week, Mugabe said he will ignore the election results. .... The real disappointment is South Africa President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki was supposed to help "mediate" Zimbabwe's political crisis, but his mediation has been a biased farce in favor of Mugabe.

Why? "Old radical solidarity" is one possible reason. Mbeki's memories of anti-colonial struggle produce a soft spot for Mugabe. Pray that it's blarney, but this kind of embedded, selfish bitterness from the political past does scar the present and damage the future. True or not, Mugabe continues to kill and steal, with obscene impunity.

Activist's bodies found

from the BBC:

The bodies of four opposition activists have been found near the Zimbabwe capital, after being abducted, the Movement for Democratic Change says....

The body of Harare's recently elected opposition mayor's wife has also reportedly been found, badly burnt...

SADC observers had witnessed people being shot dead and were now questioning the value of their presence in Zimbabwe, Mr Membe told the BBC.

His comments are the latest in a growing chorus of opinion from across Africa that the elections now appear to be fatally flawed, says the BBC's Peter Greste in Johannesburg.

A senior Western diplomat in the region has said: "The atmosphere remains violent and tense. It [the violence] is not abating and is spreading to areas to where it has not spread before, including the high density urban suburbs of Harare.

"It is time to move on from calling it a campaign of violence. This is now terror, plain and simple."...

road to ruin

Business Day Joburg via AllAfrica:

.....

My concern with this pillorying of Mbeki, rather, is that it may mask laziness in our national reflections on Zimbabwe and what SA should do. I am struck by the poverty of analysis in our reflections on Zimbabwe. Commentators such as Christopher Hitchens have avoided the fundamental issues, offering instead vague unsubstantiated speculation on why Mugabe behaves the way he does.

Others, mainly South African academics and journalists, have preferred to turn their attention to Mbeki, mocking his appeasement of Mugabe and describing it as a national humiliation. But none of this analysis has offered a realistic alternative to Mbeki's strategy.....

Authoritarian leaders, especially wily ones such as Mugabe, can delay their departure for years, with devastating consequences for their country. Remember Sani Abacha, who not only delayed Nigeria's democratisation, but also killed many activists, citizens and leaders before his own death from a sudden heart attack?

How, then, can SA assist in getting rid of Mugabe? Four very different strategies have been proposed by various stakeholders. The most outlandish has been the suggestion SA should consider invading Zimbabwe, preferably in partnership with the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The problem with this strategy is obvious. It assumes SA is militarily much stronger than Zimbabwe. But many military observers would contest this, suggesting that the South African military is too ill-prepared to undertake such a daunting mission....

-------

you get the idea... this bozo is crying little weak South Africa is helpless, so stop picking on Mbeki.

But actually, why not invade?

Actually, it didn't take a lot of Tanzanian troops to overthrow Idi Amin...because like most dicator's bullies, these "veterans" are used to pushing around unarmed farmers...even those who worked as "peacekeepers" in Central Africa rarely fought a real soldier.

And if South Africa no longer has any soldiers, then shame on them...they used to have the best Army in Africa.

NGO crackdown threatens millions

from IWPR:


Zimbabwe’s public service minister Nicholas Goche ordered all NGOs to suspend their field operations on June 5, accusing them of violating certain conditions, yet giving no further explanation.

The directive has been slammed by human rights groups, who say that humanitarian aid for the most poor and vulnerable in society will now be severely restricted.

The relief provided by such groups had been keeping many Zimbabweans alive, since the government’s so-called land reform policies of eight years ago left the former breadbasket of Africa a non-productive wreck.

A crackdown on aid agencies first began after Mugabe’s popularity began to dwindle as a result of the skewed economic policies which pushed the country into recession.

In the volatile area of Matabeleland, a province in western Zimbabwe and an opposition stronghold, all aid agencies were purged after war veterans accused them of working with the MDC to destabilise the country.
....

When he first came to came to power after Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe pledged to work with the many aid agencies which gravitated to Zimbabwe, anxious to assist what was then seen as Africa’s most promising democracy.

The then prime minister identified NGOs as crucial partners in developing and bettering the lives of both urban and rural communities.

A Time magazine story dated September 8, 1980, entitled Mugabe Pleads for Aid, reports that he called for international assistance to help rehabilitate the country, which was suffering the ravages of years of war.

Mugabe received international praise for his impressive strides towards making food, health and education available to all. The rallying cry then was “Food for all by the year 2000, health for all by the year 2000”, and much of this was to be realised through strategic partnerships the government entered into with NGOs.

But Mugabe has over the years fallen out with his development partners, often accusing them of trying to work against him. He now insists despite all evidence to the contrary that the country has sufficient resources.

Addressing the recent United Nations Food Summit in Rome, Mugabe blamed the country’s food woes on a hostile bid by NGOs working with his arch-enemies, the UK and America, to effect what the Southern African strongman terms “illegal regime change”.

The situation in the country continues to deteriorate, making the ban on humanitarian assistance particularly tragic.
...

Mugabe: If I lose the poll we will go to war

from the UKGuardian:

A defiant President Robert Mugabe yesterday vowed he would 'go to war' if he lost the presidential run-off due to take place in less than two weeks.

Describing the opposition as 'traitors', he claimed Zimbabwe would never 'be lost' again.

.. "as long as I am alive and those who fought for the country are alive,' he said. 'We are prepared to fight for our country and to go to war for it.'

The threat was seen as an angry response to the pressure mounting on the government from other African leaders over the regime's harassment of the MDC leadership and supporters in the run up to the 27 June election.

Yesterday, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested again and held for three hours as he tried to campaign in the countryside. There was also a stand-off between lawyers and police in Harare's high court before Tsvangirai's deputy, Tendai Biti, finally appeared before a judge.

....

With the MDC leadership under constant harassment, voters being beaten and killed and what amounts to a curfew in some MDC rural strongholds, the likelihood of the 27 June run-off taking place in any meaningful way seems remote.

Even if the 9,231 polling stations open, there is a shortage of officers prepared to risk monitoring them. The number of international observers the government intends to let in remains unclear. Although the first of the 400 monitors for the Southern African Development Community have arrived, they have yet to be accredited by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, whose own status is weakening - a memo from police chief Faustino Mazango, leaked to the Zimbabwean Independent newspaper, ordered his officers to take charge of the 'whole voting process'. Police had been, he said, 'too docile' during the March poll.

Rini Chipfunde, director of the leading independent monitoring group, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, said the authorities were creating an environment in which only police, soldiers and ruling party officials would be present at polling stations in rural areas. 'People will be too terrified to vote,' she said. 'Others may be bussed in by the ruling party to cast their ballots under the watchful eye of police officers.'

Sources across Zimbabwe have reported an increasing number of roadblocks manned by militias and war veterans, effectively cutting people off and creating a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

James McGee, US ambassador in Harare, said 30,000 potential MDC voters had fled their constituencies. Mugabe has already ordered charities to stop work, leaving millions struggling to find food in the collapsed economy.

US asks UN Security council to act on Zim

from Reuters



HARARE, June 13 (Reuters) - The United States called for urgent U.N. Security Council talks on Zimbabwe because it said President Robert Mugabe had ignored international calls to end political violence ahead of a presidential election run-off.

Zimbabwean police arrested opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai twice on Thursday, making a total of four times in about a week. Tsvangirai's spokesman said the arrests were part of a harassment campaign in the run-up to the June 27 election.

Tendai Biti, secretary general of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was also arrested and would face a treason charge that could carry the death penalty, police said.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, accompanying President George W. Bush on a visit to Rome, criticised the "continued use of state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe and the regime's actions, including unwarranted arrests of opposition figures".

"We believe the time has come for the United Nations Security Council to take up immediately the issue to prevent further deterioration of the region's humanitarian and security situation," Perino told reporters on Thursday.

A group of prominent African leaders joined the international chorus for an end to political violence in Zimbabwe, once a regional bread basket but now in economic meltdown.

------------------------
The left hates the US and especially Bush for removing a murderous dictator in Iraq; as a result, they have spent the last seven years demonizing both, making it impossible for the US or the UK to intervene elsewhere.

And don't tell me "Bush Lied"....until you can tell me where all the nerve gas that Human rights watch and other human rights sites said wasn't destroyed.

But because the elites don't want a strong US, they have eliminated the ability of democracies to intervene against nations that kill their own people, from Zimbabwe to Burma (where US ships with relief supplies and helicopters to land them remained offshore sitting while people died).

And the result is that everything will be left to South Africa, where Mbeki ignores the murders, or to the UN, who is essentially a "paper tiger", won't do a damn thing.

But of course, the left will simply find a way to blame Bush for this too...

Abductions in Gutu

from an email

A group of ZANU PF youths, militia and war vets went on a rampage in Gutu South yesterday in the Makore Village near Gutu Turn-off along the Mutare Road yesterday – 8 June 2008 around 1000hrs in the morning.

The Zanu PF thugs abducted villagers and took away men notably the following:

1) John Murena – a well known businessman

2) Machingambi –

3) Cletos Mundanga – A Villager

4) Llyod Mundanga – MDC Activist

As of today 9 June 2008 – they had not returned home. This place is not far away from Nelson Chamisa’s home where ZANU PF thugs went on a rampage a week ago beating villagers including an 84 year old.

The above might go un-recorded since this is in the remote rural areas.

It hasn't begun, but Mugabe is Winning

from Zimbabwe today/First Post:

Those who fear for the survival of democracy in Zimbabwe will be gratified to know that Mugabe's Zanu-PF are so keen on the process of one-man, one-vote, they've started already. Yesterday thousands of police and associated uniformed thugs voted in the run-off presidential election set for June 27. And, amazingly, they all voted for Robert Mugabe....

The tone of this "vote" was set previously by Assistant Police Commissioner Nyakutsika, who told his men: "You will all do as you are told. Zanu-PF is the only party allowed to rule this country. We cannot surrender to puppets like Tsvangirai. We fought the whites, and we do not want them back here again."....

Just to boost figures, some civilians have also been appointed temporary police officers in order to cast their votes correctly. And similar procedures are said to be occurring within the army and other militia....

the reign of thuggery

from the ny review of books.

.....

---

But it is one of the hallmarks of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe that periods of relative calm and normality can be suddenly, even viciously upended. For days, the opposition—and the press—had been lulled into a sense of security. Mugabe's secret police were still on the payroll, but it was as if they had received orders not to intervene in the democratic process, but had been ordered, perhaps, simply to observe. Then, as has happened so often in the past, the atmosphere palpably changed. I flew out of Zimbabwe, via the southern city of Bulawayo, on April 3, after it became clear that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, clearly under pressure from the ZANU-PF, was determined to drag out the vote counting for weeks. As I waited at Bulawayo's tiny terminal for a flight to Johannesburg, I was approached by an old friend, David Coltart, an opposition leader and one of two white members of Zimbabwe's Parliament, who whispered a warning that it was premature to drop my guard. "This place is crawling with CIO agents," he said. Coltart, who was on his way to deliver a lecture at Oxford University, added: "You can't feel entirely safe until you're on the plane—in the air."

That same afternoon, Mugabe reasserted control and the crackdown on the opposition began. Police raided Haven House, the MDC's dilapidated headquarters in downtown Harare, as well as MDC suites at the Meikles, seizing documents, and arresting and beating up opposition members. At the same time, dozens of riot police and CIO agents surrounded the York Lodge, which I had checked out of only the day before. Two correspondents, The New York Times's Barry Bearak and the Sunday Telegraph contributor Stephen Bevan, with whom I had shared a car for the past week, were arrested on charges of "committing journalism," interrogated, and imprisoned for four days. Tsvangirai, who had emerged from his safe house on April 2 to all but proclaim an MDC victory, was gone again. And hundreds of so-called War Veterans were mobilized by Mugabe and came out in full force in the streets of several cities.

Since then, the ruling party's tactics have taken an increasingly vicious turn. According to the Movement for Democratic Change, forty-three supporters have been murdered and hundreds injured in the past six weeks. Thousands have been forced to flee their homes in a drive reminiscent of Operation Murambatsvina, Mugabe's 2005 "slum clearance" campaign that destroyed the homes and livelihoods of 700,000 people, almost all of them MDC supporters. A report by the US State Department Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor stated:

Soldiers, police, war veterans and youth militia loyal to the ruling party have been deployed in rural areas throughout Zimbabwe to systematically intimidate voters through killings, beatings, looting of property, burning of homes and public humiliation.

On the evening of May 5, ruling-party thugs descended on three villages in Mashonaland Central province, a former Mugabe stronghold that had turned decisively against the dictator on March 29. Repeating a pattern that has been seen throughout rural Zimbabwe, villagers were summoned to a "reeducation meeting," where they were forced to denounce the MDC and pledge their allegiance to the ZANU-PF. Then names were called, and those singled out were hustled into the darkness. "Next we heard the whips and screams," a witness named Bernard Pungwe said, describing a night-long rampage that left six MDC supporters dead and dozens injured.....

the need for good seed

from the African Executive

Despite strong growth in the private seed sector in East and Southern Africa over the last decade, most of the regions millions of small holder farmers still lack easy access to affordable , quality seed of maize, the number one food staple. In 2006 – 2007 cropping season, registered companies produced the bulk of just over 100,000 tons of improved maize seed that were marketed in the region, enough to sow 35% of the regions maize lands.

The farmers who don’t purchase fresh seeds are therefore using unimproved home saved seed and losing out on potential yield. Since the start of this century, efforts have been put in place to harmonize seed policies and laws in Eastern, Southern and West Africa. The core objective of this initiative was to improve access to seed by smallholder farmers because the seed industry in Eastern and Central Africa was facing many different standards and regulations in each country which translated into high transaction costs.

The high cost coupled with relatively low effective demand made the sector unattractive to investment to either local or international seed companies. Harmonization of seed policies and regulations among the countries of the region was expected to help establish a common market with an effective demand large enough to induce needed investment and create the competition required to establish sustainable and efficient seed industry in the three sub-regions. The harmonization initiative addressed 5 specific areas where constraints existed: Variety evaluation, release and registration; Seed certification; Phytosanitary regulations; Plant variety protection and Import export regulations.

Progress has been made to harmonize seed standards and regulations at different levels in the three sub-regions but implementations of agreements have been very slow by the policy organs. Seed associations in the region have been generally weak in advocating for and overseeing implementations. Instead adoption rate of improved seed is low with numerous factors limiting seed market development

1) Unavailable /inadequate extension service and production risks. The smallholder farmer category has limited production skills in high input farming. Even when productivity-enhancing inputs are availed to them, they cannot realize their full production potential unless extension service is provided which is unavailable in most of rural Africa or where available they are inadequate since extension agents/workers are too few to match the number of dispersed small farmers. This leads to very low adoption rate of seed based technologies that in turn hampers seed market development...

(clipped a long discussion of lack of microfinance for small farmers to borrow to purchase seed and fertilizer)...

Supporting investment in research in food crops, high value crops and research that increases value addition in primary commodities exported from Africa. Financial and non financial institutions should encourage innovation and support programs that develop the capacity of women to engage in the agricultural entrepreneurial process.

outthinking ZANU PF

Mutambara at African Executive

read the whole thing at above post:

Conclusion

In the history of every nation there comes a time when a generation has a unique opportunity to break with the past and define a new direction. Such a momentous occasion currently presents itself in our country. We need to seize the time and deliver change. This requires putting national interest before partisan, sectoral and personal interests. It demands that we apply our minds and outthink the regime. What Mugabe has lost in the electoral battle, he cannot legitimately regain in any election remotely described as free and fair. He is fatally and mortally wounded. The veil of invincibility has been pierced. On the 29th of March 2008 the people voted for change, and that democratic choice must be defended. Our independence will be meaningless without the sanctity and integrity of the one person one vote principle. Those that rule our country must do so with the consent of the governed.

If a run-off or re-run is illegally imposed upon us, the first order of business is challenging and exposing the illegitimacy of the basis of that proposition. More than ever, it becomes imperative for all the progressive and democratic forces in the country to close ranks in pursuit of the collective national interest. We must seek to establish a peaceful and secure environment for those illegitimate polls. In addition to observation SADC, the AU and the international community must be allowed to supervise these particular elections; before, during and after the voting process. The mandate of the external players must include the verification and announcement of the results. Yes, the regime has behaved worse than East Timor. We now need international supervision. Consequently, the notion of regional sovereignty and the doctrine of international responsibility to protect must now take precedence over Mugabe's narrow definition of national sovereignty. We have lost the right to manage our affairs alone internally. We need help.

However, Zimbabwean citizens will be the key drivers of this revolution. The power is in our hands. Let us stand up and be masters of our destiny. On this occasion of our Independence Day, let us rededicate ourselves to meaningful and total political and economic independence. The people should govern. The people must prosper.

We shall overcome.

Independence message by Arthur G.O. Mutambara, MDC co-President.

From bad to worse

Globe and Mail (Canada):

...

In the course of the past week, opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai was twice detained by police for hours while campaigning. Nine supporters sheltering in a rural party office were attacked last Wednesday by a militia, shot at and set on fire; at least three were killed. The party's rallies in several of the most hotly contested areas were banned, and Mr. Tsvangirai is likewise banned from all broadcast media, which are state-controlled.

On Thursday, the government accused aid agencies that provide food and health care of covertly assisting the opposition, and indefinitely barred the groups from operating. It was one more harsh reminder to the populace of the power of President Robert Mugabe's state, which is now run by a shadowy military clique called the Joint Operations Command.

On Sunday, party workers putting up MDC posters on electricity poles in the city of Bulawayo were attacked by police; it was reported that one man's legs were broken with a baseball bat. Mr. Tsvangirai's armoured campaign car was impounded by police last week - and now, the party says, a candidate for Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF is brazenly using it....and it gets worse...

Yesterday, the government announced that it would keep anyone arrested for election-related violence in jail without bail until after the vote:.....the government insists the MDC is to blame for "inciting" most of the violence, and so the move is widely seen in Zimbabwe as a convenient way to jail any MDC organizers who aren't already injured or in hiding.....

That, of course, is the critical question for the MDC: How can Mr. Tsvangirai hope to win an election when his supporters have been relentlessly terrorized since the first poll?

The MDC is, in essence, trapped, with no choice but to contest the election regardless of how many barriers the government throws up, otherwise Mr. Mugabe will simply declare himself president again....

podcasts of the week

swradioAfrica has podcasts HERE:

Grace shops while Zim burns

Robert Mugabe is now 88. He continues to spout nonsense and everyone was surprised when he went to the Rome conference on Food last week.

His wife, however, is only 44. If Robert goes, so might his money. So while Mugabe was busy spouting conspiracy theories on the world stage, his wife Grace, copying our own Imelda Marcos, went on a shopping spree. I guess she just had to have a couple more pairs of expensive shoes.

Photo by AP.

Hmm...she needs to learn some makeup tips from Imelda, an ex beauty queen, but never mind.

Since the long delayed vote count that managed to find a recount was needed, we see the repeat of the "food for votes" and generalized intimidation of rural voters similar to earlier elections. But this time, the level of intimdation is worse than before.

Human Rights Watch has issued a report "Bullets for Each of you" reporting the high level of voter intimidation by threats, attacks and even murder. Much of the violence is in Central Zimbabwe, in areas that previously had been strongholds for Mugabe's ZANU PF party, but whose votes had switched in the last election......

go to link for the rest of my essay.

AFRICA COULD FEED THE WORLD

FROM AFP YAHOO NEWS:

Business people and politicians addressing the 18th World Economic Forum on Africa said while the potential for increased food production in Africa was enormous, farmers lacked information, technology and investment.

"We have neglected agriculture for many many years and we have taken for granted that low food prices are here to stay," said Thorleif Enger, chief executive of Norwegian fertiliser company Yara International.

Improving access to seed and fertiliser for small-scale farmers in Africa was a vital component, participants said.

"We know that this is a very effective way to increase food production," said Enger.

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika said Wednesday that "the world food shortage should be solved here in Africa".....

Obiageli Ezekweseli, vice president of the Africa region for the World Bank, said the continent currently had the lowest yields in the world, as its mostly subsistence farmers struggled to get market access.

Gareth Ackerman, chairman of Pick n Pay holdings, a major South African supermarket chain, said shortening the supply line and providing small farmers with infrastructure and the capability to access markets was key.

No havest, no NGO food either...

from the UKTelegraph

Hours after Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe told foreign charities to stop distributing food, the United States warned that Zimbabwe faced its worst ever harvest.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, an American government agency, said the crop of maize - the country's main staple - was the smallest on record, 60 per cent lower than normal.....

"Unless imports and international assistance are made available, households in urban areas and the more deficit rural districts in the south and west will face severe food access problems beginning in June," said the network....

June should be the height of the harvest, but this winter it is a time of despair. In urban areas no maize meal is available in supermarkets.

Well-placed political sources say Mr Mugabe's decision to bar foreign aid agencies was taken to help him fight the June 27 presidential election run-off against Morgan Tsvangirai, who leads the Movement for Democratic Change.

Political donors have given Mr Mugabe's party the Zanu PF maize to splurge on voters in the run up to the poll as a crude form of bribery.

"There will be masses of food in the next three weeks and for the month after the election which will be distributed by the Zanu PF government," said a former government member.

"They don't want the aid agencies doing it. They want to be the benefactors."...

Army coup in Zim?

UK Times reports:

The campaign of terror sweeping Zimbabwe is being directly organised by a junta that took over the running of the country after Robert Mugabe’s shock election defeat in March.

Details of the organised violence are contained in a report released today by Human Rights Watch, corroborated by senior Western diplomats who describe the situation in Zimbabwe as a “military coup by stealth”.....

The report said that the scale of the attacks exceeds anything seen previously during Zimbabwe’s long history of electoral violence, and that for the first time militias are being armed with weapons such as AK47s, hand-guns and rifles. They have also used military transportation and even attacked from military bases.

A senior Western diplomat traced the military takeover to the days after the March 29 election, when a stunned Mr Mugabe was preparing to stand down before the generals moved in. “The generals didn’t let him go,” the diplomat said. “Afraid that Mr Mugabe’s departure would expose them to prosecution, they struck a deal guaranteeing his reelection....

South Africa: We're number one again

from strategy page:

June 6, 2008: With things quieting down in Iraq (U.S. casualties hit an all-time low in May, 2008), South Africa has regained its position as the most violent country on the planet, with a murder rate of 65 per 100,000 population. The death rate is also high in some other African countries (like Sudan, Somalia and Congo), but those placed don't keep records as effectively as South Africa.

Vote for me or starve

From ABC news (US)

Millions rely on food aid in Zimbabwe, but yesterday the regime ordered that foreign aid organizations cease operations. The Zimbabwean government's own food aid programs are now the only source of sustenance for much of the population.

McGee told reporters during a videoconference from the capital, Harare, this morning that his embassy has solid evidence that in order to receive food aid from the government, Zimbabweans must first show their party registration cards.

If they have a card from Mugabe's ruling party they can have access to food, but if they only have opposition cards they must turn over their national identification cards in order to receive the food they need.

The government holds onto the cards until after the June 27 election, McGee says — meaning opposition party members will not be able to identify themselves when they go to vote.

Vote for me or starve

From ABC news (US)

Millions rely on food aid in Zimbabwe, but yesterday the regime ordered that foreign aid organizations cease operations. The Zimbabwean government's own food aid programs are now the only source of sustenance for much of the population.

McGee told reporters during a videoconference from the capital, Harare, this morning that his embassy has solid evidence that in order to receive food aid from the government, Zimbabweans must first show their party registration cards.

If they have a card from Mugabe's ruling party they can have access to food, but if they only have opposition cards they must turn over their national identification cards in order to receive the food they need.

The government holds onto the cards until after the June 27 election, McGee says — meaning opposition party members will not be able to identify themselves when they go to vote.

US, UK diplomats attacked by state agents

from SWRadioAfrica:

Another diplomatic incident has been reported in Zimbabwe, this time in the town of Bindura. According to Mark Weinberg, an official at the American Embassy in Harare, a convoy of American and British diplomats on a fact finding trip to Bindura on Thursday were stopped by a gang of state agents that included police, intelligence agents and war veterans. They were told to go to the local police station, but they refused.

Weinberg said the diplomatic delegation went on its way but were followed. They were stopped at a roadblock by the same gang, who this time had their guns drawn and pointed at the diplomats....

According to a BBC report, there were 10 US embassy officials and 4 officials from the UK High Commission on the trip. The US Ambassador James McGee was not involved in the incident, but he is quoted as saying that a Zimbabwean driver working with a US embassy security official was beaten up by the group. The war vets stole a camera and a satellite telephone.

McGee said the incident was ‘extremely serious and a violation of all diplomatic protocols’. He warned that the American government would raise it at the very highest levels with the Zimbabwean authorities....

Zim suspends aid operations

from the BBC

Zimbabwe's government has indefinitely suspended all field work by aid groups and non-governmental organisations. ...

The suspension of all field operations by private voluntary organisations (PVOs) and NGOs comes nearly a week after President Robert Mugabe banned some aid agencies from Zimbabwe.

Care International, a UK-based organisation, was forbidden to work after being accused of campaigning for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) ahead of the presidential run-off on 27 June. Care has strenuously denied the accusation.

Other aid agencies have said they have had to curtail what they do, particularly in opposition strongholds.

Some aid workers believe the government fears they might witness intimidation of opposition supporters, the BBC's Caroline Hawley in Johannesburg, South Africa, reports....

Tsvangirai released after Mbeki call

from AFP:

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was freed from police detention after a phone appeal by South African President Thabo Mbeki to the Harare government, Mbeki's spokesman said Thursday....

The phone conversation with unnamed representatives of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government came shortly after Tsvangirai was held at a police roadblock on Wednesday lunchtime. Tsvangirai was released later in the evening...

Zim releases opposition leader

from msnbc

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Police released the Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after more than nine hours in detention Wednesday amid ominous signs that the government is tightening its grip on the country before this month's presidential runoff.

Tsvangirai spokesman George Sibotshiwe said Tsvangirai was released after being charged for a public order offence "on a spurious charge of attracting a large number of people," his party, the Movement for Democratic Change, said in a statement.

He had to sign an official police caution before he was released along with a group of about 14 party officials from a police station in Lupane, north of the city of Bulawayo. One of his security vehicles was seized.
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Protests in Rome

from AFP

ROME (AFP) — The presence of Zimbabwean and Iranian presidents Robert Mugabe and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a UN food summit here sparked international condemnation and protests in Italy on Monday.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith called Mugabe's presence in Rome "obscene". Britain also criticised Mugabe's rare foray out of Zimbabwe where he is fighting for his political future in an election runoff.

"This is the person who has presided over the starvation of his people. This is the person who has used food aid in a politically motivated way," Smith said.

"So Robert Mugabe turning up to a conference dealing with food security or food issues is, in my view, frankly obscene," added the Australian minister, who is also to attend the Food and Agriculture Organization summit.

In London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said: "We think it's particularly unfortunate that (Mugabe) has decided to attend this meeting given what he has done in relation to contributing to difficulties on food supply in Zimbabwe."

There were also protests in Italy by activists, leftist politicians and Jewish groups against Mugabe and Ahmadinejad.

"It is in no way legitimate for the people of Zimbabwe to be represented by a head of state who has been disowned by the international community and who is unwanted by his own people," Sergio Marelli, Italian host of a forum on food sovereignty coinciding with the summit, told AFP.

Tsavangerai flawed leader

NYTimes reports:

....Mr. Tsvangirai, whose thrashing made him an international symbol of resistance to Mr. Mugabe’s repressive rule, returned to Zimbabwe on Saturday for a showdown with his nemesis in a June 27 runoff after six weeks of self-imposed exile. He bested Mr. Mugabe in a March 29 election, then fled the country in the middle of the night on April 8 after his staff said it got word of a plot to kill him.

Mr. Tsvangirai is a flawed leader who has sometimes been naïve and too conciliatory, according to critics and allies alike. And yet, many of them say, he has endured....

In recent weeks, he has come under increasing criticism for staying out of the country while his supporters have been attacked, tortured and even killed in a sweeping state-sponsored campaign to intimidate all who dare challenge Mr. Mugabe’s re-election. William McGee, the American ambassador in Harare, said there was evidence that an assassination plot was threatened, but he said he believed that it was disinformation meant to keep Mr. Tsvangirai from returning home....

Ah, but we pinoys remember Ninoy shrugging off an assasination threat....


“He’s been imprisoned, humiliated and accused of being a puppet of the West,” said George Bizos, a South African lawyer who represented Nelson Mandela in the apartheid era and was Mr. Tsvangirai’s advocate during his treason trial in 2004. “But I believe he is a Zimbabwean patriot in touch with the vast majority of his people. He has shown he has stamina.”

The son of a bricklayer and the eldest of nine children, Mr. Tsvangirai, 56, never went to college and labored in the nickel mines before rising through the ranks of the union movement. He faces a very different opponent in Mr. Mugabe, 84, a university-educated teacher who became the hero of his country’s liberation from white rule and its first and only president since independence in 1980.

Mr. Mugabe contemptuously mocks Mr. Tsvangirai for not having joined the guerrilla struggle in his youth, and the state-owned newspaper — a mouthpiece for the governing party — recently belittled him as a coward and Western stooge with “a big black nose” and “chubby and pimply cheeks.”

BUT Mr. Tsvangirai (pronounced CHANG-guh-rye) can rightfully claim to be the first politician to win more votes than Mr. Mugabe at the polls — and have it officially recognized. On Thursday, he toured refugee camps here in southern Africa’s economic capital where his countrymen — some of the millions who have fled their nation’s imploding economy — have been subjected to xenophobic attacks in impoverished townships....

Mugabe in Rome for Food Summit

from the BBC

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is reported to have arrived in Rome to attend a UN food summit.

State television said Mr Mugabe was accompanied by his wife and senior government officials on the trip.

It is Mr Mugabe's first visit to Europe since the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won a majority in parliamentary elections in March.

Mr Mugabe and his ministers are usually subject to a European Union travel ban - but he is able to attend UN forums.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) summit starts on Tuesday and reports say Mr Mugabe is expected to stay in Italy until Friday.

Mr Mugabe caused a stir at a similar summit in Rome in 2005 when he denounced the then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush.

He described them as "unholy men" at the meeting in Rome - to the applause of some delegates. ,,,

post election violence