The USA (and the rest of the world) is fascinated by the US Presidential election primaries – mostly what’s going on between Hillary Clinton and “upstart” Barack Hussein Obama right now. This is democracy at its best in what is probably the only country left in the world where democracy works (It’s a sick joke in England).
Meanwhile in Africa, Kenya is the latest country to make the headlines – hundreds of people have been killed (some burned alive) in the aftermath of yet another election fraud. Since independence in 1963 this “model of democracy” in Africa has been ruled by a succession of corrupt leaders, all from one tribe (the Kikuyu), for the benefit of their own, Kikuyu people. The other 47 long suffering tribes, led by the Luo (a minority tribe) opposition leader, have finally had enough and Kenya is in turmoil.
Zimbabwe is scheduled to have yet another election rigged in favour of one tribe this year. President Mugabe (of the majority Shona Tribe), after 28 years in power, is likely to be re-elected president. But he’s been smarter than the Kenyan leaders; he’s been conducting quiet genocide, starvation and deprivation against the large minority Matabele Tribe for nearly 30 years. As an ethnic entity the Matabele – once a powerful and proud nation – have been all but destroyed, and they’re far from able to take the sort of action taken by the Luo people in Kenya.

Mugabe is likely to win again despite the fact that he and his cronies have destroyed what was once the most successful and prosperous country in Africa south of the Sahara, barring only South Africa. Zimbabwe’s inflation is incalculable, because of the lack of goods (including food and other basics) in the shops. Education has gone “30 years backwards” (I’d argue more), and students at the University of Harare now have to “fight for a chair, a plate of sadza (staple food), a textbook…”

More than 3 million Zimbabwean people depend on UN food aid. On January 03, the BBC reported that “China ships food aid to Zimbabwe”, much to the delight of Mugabe and his cronies who say that China is a “reliable friend of Zimbabwe”. China has just shipped 5,000 tons of food aid (the UN provides 1 million tons a year – no doubt most of it from the USA and EU). But China gets the praise, while the USA and other western countries are condemned as enemies of the (Zimbabwean) state.
What are western liberals doing about this? Well, the ever-so-politically correct green grocer to the liberals of England, Waitrose have decided to import fish from Zimbabwe because it comes from a “fair trade supplier”. Readers will forgive me for reminding them that Zimbabwe is a landlocked state, where its people are reliant on imported food from the United Nations; England is part of the British Islands and surrounded by fish and food. Yet this British supermarket is importing fish 5,160 miles by air from a country whose people are starving… Yet another example of woolly headed, so-called intellectual thinking from the liberal elite of the west.

I take this opportunity to wish my readers a happy and successful New Year. Please think of those pensioners in Zimbabwe who are short of food, water and other basics.

END

Author, Peter Davies was a soldier in Rhodesia from 1963 to 1975, where he took part in the capture and interrogation of terrorists. His novel, Scatterlings of Africa, is based on his own experience during Rhodesia’s war on terror, and personal observations of how terrorist activities impacted Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and its people.

Readers who would like to make a contribution to help innocent pensioners, who are unable to buy food and other basic necessities in Zimbabwe, should please contact Patricia Williams by email patashnix@btinternet.com.