Allegations

Liu Xiabo was awarded the Nobel Peace price his struggle for human rights in China this year. Liu Xiabo is currently a political prisoner for "counter revolutionary behaviour" after calling for political reform and the end of Communist one party rule in China. China has also strongly reacted to the announcement of of the award to Xiabo.

In Harare, media remains silent on the issue. It appears as if events taking place beyond the Zimbabwean borders are not as important as the the country's own problems. Yet, there are many similarities between the situation for members of the opposition in China and the treatment of political opponents in Zimbabwe. Though it is true that media is far from free in Zimbabwe one would expect the discussion to take place on the streets. The fact remains that most Zimbabweans have stopped following the news. As a Zimbabwean friend of mine once said, news are "allegations". It is unfoortunately quite a good description of the media available to describing real or fictional stories about the offences committed by individuals.

Those that dare to contradit the powerful remains to be silenced by government actors in China as in Zimbabwe. Members of the opposition are still imprisoned without a trial. Fear amongst the peeople is widespread. Most Zimbabweans chose to remain silent. On the other hand there are also brave people such as Liu Xiabo risking their life for the rights that every human being are entitled to. People that after spending over 20 years in prison are still able to say "I have no enemies."

The Voice of Bob

The diplomatic community were invited to an inauguration ceremony at President Mugabe’s residence. Most of the diplomats were represented and on time. Yet, they were left waiting to shake the President’s hand for seven hours. No refreshments were provided.

The following day the Herald, a newspaper also known as ”the voice of Mugabe”, published a picture of President Mugabe and the new head of the European Commission on the front page. The headline read ”EU: Zimbabwe press is free”. The picture showed Mugabe shaking hands with the European Commission head. The picture had, however, been manipulated to depict Mugabe, who’s a sort man in reality, stretching high above the head of the European Commission delegate bowing down before him. This must had been quite embarassing for the European delegation in the country. The head of the European commission later apologised to the whole diplomatic community for the unfortunate misquotations in the article.

I find it interesting to discover just how far the diplomatic community can stretch for the purpose of maintaining diplomatic ties. At president Mugabe’s sister’s funeral a couple of weeks ago the diplomatic community were also represented. It gave the President the perfect opportunity to tell all diplomats present to ”go to hell!”. And he did. Several times.

Akon Madness

Akon was in Harare recently. The event of the year in a town where not that much usually happens. So half of Harare showed up to see Akon perform. Akon gave a teary speech about how he had spent a miserable childhood in the slums and now wanted to give something back to Africa (by selling expensive tickets to his concert). The real highlight of the concert was, however, seeing Akon crowd surfing in a huge plastic ball. As you may already have guessed the attempt failed miserably. The problem was that the audience was so excited of having Akon in a plastic ball in their very own hands that they refused to pass it on to others. At one point the plastic ball with Akon inside disappeared into the crowds. Everything went silent until Akon irritatingly screamed from inside the ball ”Get off of me! Get me out of here!” In the end thirty body guards were needed to drag the plastic ball with Akon inside from the hands of the enthusiastic crowds back unto stage. If that wasn’t bad enough, Akon decided to do the exercise one more time. He slowly explained the intention of the exercise as if describing a game to a five year old. The same thing happened again.

Akon's visit raises questions about the importance of good will ambassadors and other celebrities who strive to contribute to development efforts. Are they really promoting change or simply easing their own bad conscience about the state of the world?

Red Light

To be stopped by the police is something that may happen on a daily basis in Zimbabwe. The police may stop you for real or fictional reasons. The other day a friend of mine was stopped for allegedly having driven against a red light. There were no red lights to be seen, which my friend pointed out to the police officer. The police man responded, "Well, surely you must have driven against a red traffic light sometime in your life. See you in court on Monday." This example serves to highlight how engrained corruption becomes in a society where salaries of civil servants is not sufficient to meet their basic needs. The same is true for the judicial system where a lawyer may earn 140 USD per month, which is not much considering the living costs in the country. Still it is easier for the individual to support the system rather than work against it. After all a change must start with the political leaders in society.

A Zimbabwean Tiger Woods Story

Tiger Woods affairs and recent divorce from his Swedish wife, Elin, cannot have escaped anyone's attention. In fact it has beeen quite well covered in the media even here in Zimbabwe. My work colleagues, however found Elin's behaviour difficult to understand when they read about it in the papers. If Elin had been a Zimbabwean woman, they argued, it would had been a different scenario. Elins mother would had immediately paid her daughter a visit and asked:

-Is he a good father to the children?
-Yes
-Does he provide food on the table?
-Yes
-Does he come home at night?
-Yes
-Then what's the problem?

It makes one realise that there are many cultural obstacles remaining before women can enjoy equal rights in Zimbabwe.

The Former Bread Basket of Africa

Zimbabwe used to be known as the bread basket of Africa. Today the country relies on imported goods mostly from neighbouring South Africa. My neighbours, Mr and Mrs Whiteman, used to possess large areas of land outside of Harare. Since President Mugabe's land reform started in 2000 they have been forced off their land. Today they struggle to find the means to survive in a small apartment in Harare. The lack of productivity in the country is also often said to be a result of land reform. The land, it is argued, has been given to people who do not have the means to cultivate the land. Yet the problem is not as black and white as it is often perceived in media. The fact remains that land has not been distributed fairly in the past. Question is, however, how far back one should go in time when determining how land ought to be distributed. Moreover, the land reform which was meant to benefit land less poor has mostly been given to high level government and military officials. In the words of the founder of the Green Belt movement and Nobel Price winner Wangari Maathai “As long as there is no trust and confidence that there will be justice and fairness in resource distribution, political positioning will remain more important than service.” I believe this is true also for Zimbabwe.