Reporters in third world countries know reporting the wrong thing can be dangerous. Here in the Philippines, for example, our press knows that spilling the beans on a corrupt politician may result in being shot at by an unknown hitman on a motorcycle.
But in Zimbabwe, things are more open: according to the Zimbabwe Times, the […]

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People in Zimbabwe are now predicting that Mugabe will use the Cholera Crisis as an excuse to declare a national state of emergency so that he can “legally” impose brutal Military Rule under Martial Law in Zimbabwe.  This is something every ordinary citizen of Zimbabwe dreads.  (See“…Soldier’s Mutiny?” on December 9). 
This week, Daily Mail reporter […]

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While the world is busy shipping in vital supplies including food and medicine to help the people of Zimbabwe, the UN reports that President Mugabe, who allowed the Harare area water system deteriorate because they “couldn’t afford” supplies, nevertheless managed to buy guns and other military weapons from China, smuggling them in from his friends […]

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The good news in Zimbabwe: The rains have at last started. It’s a bit late to save the first planting, but at least in the north, December rains will allow people to do a second planting to get a crop.
The bad news? The rains will probably worsen the Cholera epidemic which has killed at least […]

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Ah, the Minneapolis paper is telling us to reflect on Peace in Dafur this Christmas.
on Tuesday, a U.S. task force on preventing genocide presented a report to the public on the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the U.N. convention against genocide. The task force, chaired by former Secretary of State Madeline Albright and former […]

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The modern city of Harare has descended into hell as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse have descended into Zimbabwe.
The traditional four horsemen are war, anarchy, famine and disease.
War? Not a war so much as Mugabe using his henchmen to destroy his enemies. Harare has seen riots of soldiers in the capital, terror by the […]

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The bad news coming from Zimbabwe constantly getting worse.  Now the problem is cholera.
Cholera is one of the few diseases that can literally kill a healthy person in 24 hours. You start vomiting, get terrible diarrhea to the point that your bowels empty and you end up passing clearish fluid. You literally dehydrate to […]

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Do the recent street battles between Zimbabwe’s Soldiers and Police in Harare mean Mugabe is losing control?  Are Zimbabwe’s soldiers staging a rolling mutiny? 
Most of the media coverage suggests this is what is happening.  The Institute for War and Peace Reporting – an excellent source of information in troubled areas of the world – reported […]

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I’m an agnostic on global warming: I figure climate change may or may not exist, but that the theory is being used to explain away things when the real problem is pollution and misuse of resources.
So we have a Health Secratary blaming recent typhoid, Dengue and malaria outbreaks on Global warming:
The increasing number of dengue, […]

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I will never claim to be the perfect mother, but one thing I will claim is that I loved my kids. I remember crying from guilt when I once slapped my son and it left a little red mark. He wasn’t hurt at all, in fact he laughed but I was so hurt because in […]

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At least 3,000 people have died of cholera in Zimbabwe during the past two weeks, reports Basildon Peta in “The Independent” today, November 26, quoting a senior official in Zimbabwe’s Health Ministry. 
This is more than ten times the number widely quoted until now.  Meanwhile, Mugabe’s government have denied that they have any problems with cholera.  […]

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Well, there is good news and there is bad news.
The good news is that the WOZA women were finally granted bail and left out of a horrible jail after they dared to hold a peaceful demonstration a couple weeks ago.
The rest of the news is bad news, alas, and what makes it worse is that […]

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Two women activists, Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, remain jailed in a Bulawayo jail after a peaceful protest two weeks ago.
The women, members of WOZA, were part of a group demonstrating to pressure the government about aid going to destitute farmers. LINK
The KubatanaBlog describes the peaceful protest:
On arrival at the Government Complex, the group of […]

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Isn’t this rich? At a rally in Sarasota, FL, yesterday Barack Obama said:  
The reason that we want to do this, change our tax code, is not because I have anything against the rich. I love rich people! I want all of you to be rich. Go for it. That’s the America dream, that’s the American […]

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African Press International
Michelle Obama Audio Tapes
The [Almost] Final Chapter

Fox News Denies Negotiations or Airing of API Tapes
DBKP can now release some Off-the-Record Info from the last sixteen days concerning the API story
The final verdict is in on the African Press International story about it receiving a phone call from Michelle Obama that was, in API’s […]

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Two women arrested during a peaceful protest by WOZA in Bulawayo on October 16 remain jailed. Their bail hearing, which was scheduled on October 24, was postponed. The reason? The judge was “forced to attend a workshop” and couldn’t be there. The substitute judge wasn’t around either, so as a result the two women, Jenni […]

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Another BNN  blogger has posted a smear job on Senator Obama’s mother that is beyond the pale. Such things are for the Huffpost or Andrew Sullivan, not those of use who are lowly observers of the world.
Yet how many people actually know the real story of Senator Obama’s parents? Not the propaganda job at the […]

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Nine year old Courtney Sparrow was attacked and severely mauled by lions at her parents’ safari ranch in Zimbabwe when a lioness grabbed her arm and pulled her out through a neighbour’s window.  (Lions are allowed to roam the garden of the house to keep so-called “War Vets” away.)  These so-called “Vets” (most of them […]

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The NYTimes has a story about Cindy McCain in today’s paper.
Most of the report is gossip of old news, printed to gladden the hearts of envious gossipers everywhere with it’s nitpicking thoroughness.
Yet even the “good deeds” of Cindy McCain’s life have been spun in a way that stresses the negative.
I don’t know much about Cindy […]

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One does of course understand that no reporters are allowed into Zimbabwe, making actual reporting difficult.
But that doesn’t excuse the AP from their admiring reporting on Mugabe.
Analysis: Zimbabwe’s Mugabe confident on Cabinet
Yup. Not stubbornly refusing to cooperate with the agreement: he is confident!
It’s a waiting game, and no one is better at outlasting his competition […]

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In another brazen action by pirates off the coast of Somalia, pirates have taken a ship laden with tanks and other armaments destined for Kenya. The US, Russia, and other navies are taking action now to recapture the ship in lieu of a 20 million dollar ransom request. The pirated ship is currently in the […]

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Today’s NYTimes has an article discussing the new Zimbabwe agreement. Included in the article was one quote by an opposition supporter who had been stabbed, presumably by some of Mugabe’s goons, and mentioned that several people refused to be quoted out of fear.
But it is almost as if an editor read the original report and […]

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During the Rhodesian Bush war of the 1960s and 70s, any black person who did not support Mugabe’s terrorists was labelled a “sellout”, and then tortured, mutilated and often murdered by Mugabe’s so-called “freedom fighters” as an example to others.  Now I fear that the “deal” due to be signed later today in Harare may […]

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Last week, it was revealed that after long negotiations a tentative settlement agreement was reached between the government of President Mugabe and the opposition leader and probably winner of last March election, the MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai.
The deal was negotiated with the help of South African President Mbeki.
Everyone is cautious about the deal (a similar “agreement” […]

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The latest scourge to hit Zimbabwe is the deterioration of their water supply in the capital of Harare, resulting in an outbreak of diarrhea disease and cholera.

Cholera is not unknown in Africa: when I worked in Zimbabwe, there was an outbreak from a contaminated well in one rural area, and when I worked in Liberia, […]

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Two million people in Zimbabwe are facing a food crisis. Many children in rural areas are dropping out of school so that they can help their families gather food from the woodlands and carry water to the small garden plots.
A lot of the problem is that despite Mugabe’s claims that he confiscated white farmland under […]

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Whole families are now having to live off the land in Zimbabwe day after day, week after week, month after month.  This is a terrible hardship.  Children and nursing mothers will be worst affected by this harsh diet.  Obert Gumpo wrote “Hungry Zimbabweans Forage to Survive” in the Institute for War and Peace Reporting from […]

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This sort of article annoys me greatly: From the UK Telegraph:

Renewed fighting threatens Congo gorillas
Heavy fighting between rebels and government soldiers is again threatening Congo’s already endangered population of mountain gorillas…”All of this fighting is taking place a stone’s throw from Congo’s gorilla sector and the rangers of the Congolese Wildlife Authority are powerless […]

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MDC Members of Parliament jeered Mugabe as he delivered a speech marking the opening of parliament in Zimbabwe today (The Times, London).  The MDC MPs ignored intimidation provided by a flypast of air force jets, and the 21-gun salute that accompanied Mugabe’s arrival in full presidential regalia. 
This brave and courageous demonstration follows a surprise move […]

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Imagine that.
After hundreds of news articles hyping the danger of the Measles vaccination causing autism, a lot of parents didn’t give their kids shots.
Usually they got away with it, thanks to something called “herd immunity”, which means if most people are immune, there are fewer contacts to give it to your own kid.
But now there […]

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