Yes, August the 31st is a date forever seared into the hearts and minds and souls of people worldwide - especially Westerners; as the unforgettable day upon which 'we all' learnt to our 'shock & horror' that the 'peoples' princess', Princess Diana (Spencer), had departed this earthly life in a nasty road chase through/'accident' in a tunnel in Paris. And I wrote extensively (just for your info, if you're at all interested) vis-a-vis that dramatic moment now etched in our collective memories/consciousness on the 20th anniversary thereof last year...(on either this or my other blogsite, which, just for your recollection, is http://nuffsaid:consideryourself-frombothsidesnow.blogspot.co.nz/ (or .com/).
No, I never miss a chance to *plug my blogsites, do I, but be that as it well may... . On this occasion I simply wish, and quite succinctly, to pay brief (but for me meaningful) tribute to a New Zealand totara who likewise finished his earthly sojourn upon this selfsame date back in 1974, some 44 years ago this evening... . As the song which the September Bulldog Band played at the TV Studio One awards that very night so memorably declared:
the man of Big Labour [was] our big Norm...our great National treasure [was] our big Norm...
the man of Social Credit [was] our big Norm...the man of our Values [was] our big Norm
Yes, Norman Eric Kirk strode the stage of NZ Inc - and the South Pacific (if not our world) - as few other politicians ever have. Probably why he - like **so many of the good and great do - died so young...and deeply mourned. But the reason I mention him (probably one third and final time) this holy, Sabbath eve - a time I rarely make blogposts (for that very reason) - is that he, alongside his immediate predecessor, John ('Jack') Marshall (of the National Party), were arguably the last truly Christian leaders - in deed as well as (articulate, or otherwise) word - Aotearoa-New Zealand
has, and will likely ever again, see...
Moreover - and as a natural (if obvious) consequence of the foregoing - he/they held the ground against the sort of social and theological liberalism that has since taken over the traditional Left and more importantly, taken Western societies down a virtual road of no return as ye 'ole motto 'anything goes' has now become the present-day watchword of our culture and looks set to readily and in the not too distant become our collective epitaph!
*Not that I ever make one lousy cent even off of them all or any of 'em, ya understand...
**Though I don't include ye average dissolute, over-sexed, drugged out, rock 'n rollin' popstar amidst that number...though perhaps a few came to their senses before they finally passed out and off this mortal coil...
Friday, August 31, 2018
Friday, August 24, 2018
Zimbabwe Post-Election 2018: Part 6: So What Else Remains to be Said?
Probably not a heckuva lot, having now covered recent political events/developments there pretty well backwards and forwards and all over the place...and then some. But since I promised...
"Any claim [lodged, of election-rigging/taking the election by fraud] we will cooperate with...if [such is] taken to the Electoral Commission or Supreme Court...because we know we have not engaged in any vote-rigging".
Such high-minded 'stuff' was broadcast over the BBC World News at 6 a.m. on August the 18th. And the speaker (of such an idealistic-sounding commitment to democratic principles and values such as we might consider the norm in - at least pre-2000 - general elections throughout the Western world)? No, you guessed wrong - I mean, right (on)!
Of course it wasn't Zimbabwean President-Elect Emmerson Mnangagwa...no, not by a country mile. Rather it was the - provisionally - newly-elected Pakistani Prime Minister, former longserving high-profile cricket captain *Imran Khan, the long-term candidate for high office there who was just then s/elected as P.M. by all (the various, both major and minor) parties - and **individual players presumably - in the Pakistani Parliament.
So far, so good - Khan at least is maintaining 'admirable' lip-service to the ***age-old democratic ethos.
*As per my other, recent, extensively-footnoted (?#5) blogpost on Zimbabwe (and lotsa interesting, quite unrelated matters) - and especially as a lay theologian of longstanding - I've been intrigued for literally years, even decades, as to the likelihood of Imran Khan (and in a pre-celebrity-cum-political leader era, to boot) possibly being one of the political leaders foretold in the Good Book as wielding significant influence in the Earth's last days...if not - and from my biblical studies he definitely is not - the actual, long-foretold Antichrist.
**Do they have the odd independent there as well? Who'd know - our (kiwi) media hardly ever reports on Pakistani politics, so why should anyone here even know, said media - sadly, probably rightfully - assuming no-one in God's Own even so much as cares?
***Birthed as is well-known - ****I mean, should be - in ancient city-state Greece, though fewer still arguably realize how very few Athenians then were in fact eligible for such electoral participation, let alone the right to 'sit' in their ancient political decision-making assemblies.
****Put it down to this history-deficient generation (or two) who've arisen in the shallow excuse for 'education' and 'lifelong learning' that is modern New Zealand - and doubtless also our cultural counterparts throughout the Western world. Yes, shallow, soul-skimming superficiality is the order of the day in our 'so sophisticated' modern era...and she looks set to be downhill from here on in, folks!
Continued (Now) Much More Succinctly...
...Two days on, and - appropriately enough no doubt - following the completely unsurprising decision of the Zimbabwean Supreme Court to toss out the electoral challenge by the Opposition MDC and its leader Nelson Chamira to Zimbabwe's recently-conducted election. Well, 'surprise, surprise!' What an unexpected development - not!
So what can decent Zimbabweans now do? Precious little, although perhaps that depends upon one's perspective upon life...because 'hope and pray(er)' over the centuries and even millennia have been said capable of moving mountains. And by none other than the Master Himself. Though 'faith and patience' are usually 'an even better bet' - but unfortunately there is no biblical sanction for even supposing that the long-fraught nation-state of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe will ever return to democratic norms in this old, fast-self-destructing, world of ours...
But if said result was really, truly legitimate and completely above-board, why then did the then Government (of Emmerson Mnangagwa) immediately *thereafter ransack the Central Headquarters of the Movement for Democratic Change in Harare - if not to seize MDC proof of the real results (as was then claimed by MDC spokespeople) - and then, days later, pester/harass/arrest up to 19 MDC parliamentarians...and then...barely a week or so later, this time apparently successfully seize the evidence of the true balloting that the MDC had up to that point successfully secreted away into safekeeping at some unknown destination. Ballots which point blank proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Nelson Chamira had actually been elected President of Zimbabwe.
But even **Robert Mugabe and his would-(have)-be(en) successor Grace Mugabe no longer support Mnangagwa - to be sure, doubtless for rather petty personal motives - but that nevertheless ought to give outsiders pause for thought and reflection. Though perhaps - having wielded essentially tyrannical power over Zimbabweans for almost four decades - they themselves have long since become quite oblivious to threats and almost believe themselves invincible at this point in time and unlikely to ever be dealt to (in a deadly fashion).
Yet oddly enough long-serving President Mugabe now appears rather innocuous in comparison with his successor, who - let's be in absolutely no doubt, whatsoever - was ever and always the henchman at Mugabe's right side - loyal to a fault (and well beyond). Someone who not only did Mugabe's 'dirty work' on his behalf, but arguably way exceeded his brief (see: Matabeleland - as I've briefly referred to in various of my five (immediately) previous blogposts), to the point of ultimately carrying out his own personal agenda/vendetta against Joshua Nkomo's forces and supporters...whilst currying favour with and gaining the undying allegiance of Zimbabwe's all-critical armed forces in the process...
*After the first official declaration of electoral results (for President and Parliament, that is).
**Or does he - as his very latest statement seems to indicate - actually support Mnangagwa? Who'd really know, it's such a moving feast, folks; and, as I say, his latest comments make it sound like he indeed does.
Or more likely still - how's this for a nifty conspiracy theory, folks? - it's all been an extremely clever ruse from the very beginning: to (cunningly) gauge the actual level of public support throughout Zimbabwe for the departure of Mugabe while his essential hand remained in place; or rather his right-hand man seamlessly maintained Mugabe's tight as grip upon the country's levers whilst appearing to all outsiders as effecting a non-violent coup d'etat and essentially ousting Mugabe from political office.
A brilliant political stratagem, and one of which the infamous Machiavelli himself would've been exceedingly proud. Yes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Essentially just an adjustment in the deck chairs upon - the personnel manning - the (erstwhile) good ship Zimbabwe, while it progressively sinks beneath the waves and thus vanishes from the collective global consciousness. Just as its current leadership might well wish.
Final Afterthoughts:
There's one essential factor in any declaration that said election be declared null and void. Obviously, that proof be provided as to the actual results on the ground throughout Zimbabwe. But since these, having been secreted/squirrelled away by MDC officials soon after the election - thankfully, prior to the Movement for Democratic Change's central (Harare) headquarters being raided (immediately after the official election result declaration) - were unfortunately then confiscated by state police/military personnel (wherever they had been deposited) a few days later, let's be clear: said Supreme Court investigation was a pure - unmitigated - farce...from start to finish.
So the unprecedented delay in (presidential - but doubtless also parliamentary) election-counting, or rather the declaration thereof; the state-sponsored intimidation of opposition politicians (and devoted supporters) following the broadcast of official results - nay, (psychological and physical) bullying and heavying of, and moreover unlawful arrest, detention and imprisonment, however temporary, thereof; the significant discrepancies in tallies (especially in previously ZANU-PF-supporting rural areas) from previous elections (and reasonable guesstimates thereof); and the masterly way in which Emmerson Mnangagwa has - publicly, officially - made all the right noises in the election aftermath to the MDC and its leader, Nelson Chamira...to me, and doubtless most impartial, disinterested observers, really say it all...
And hey, you'd hardly raid the places where the irrefutable physical proof of election-rigging was held, and moreover confiscate the same, if your intentions were wholly honourable and you had nothing whatsoever to hide...would you...really? And then make damn sure that said proofs never again saw the light of day, much less were presented to the very body, i.e. the Zimbabwean Supreme Court, 'interested' in adjudicating said election and determining the legitimacy or otherwise thereof?
Hey, they're hugely rhetorical questions, as must be obvious - and anyhow, the watching world media essentially couldn't give a damn. No, they've gladly, eagerly bought - consumed, and assimilated - the essential deceit and falsehoods cunningly being disseminated by 'President' Mnangagwa...who's certainly learnt a thing or two off political spin-doctors (and fakenews meisters) throughout the known world... .
But then he's himself sat at the very feet of a master thereof - for three-and-a-half or even four-some decades now - hasn't he...so you'd imagine he'd pick up a trick or several in that time...wouldn't you? Yes indeed he did - and moreover was Robert Mugabe's chief henchman in enforcing his agenda and rule - which thing he indisputably perfected into an art form. And then some.
However like the Western media you maybe really don't care less about it, anyway - though if you've been reading this series of blogposts, I suspect you do care...but like me (and the Zimbabwean opposition) you realize just how futile the quest for truth and justice and democracy really is in that unfortunate land. Yes, it appears the Zimbabwean croc will be rockin' along for some considerable time to come yet...feasting upon his vulnerable prey...whom the apathetic watching world has apparently thrown to him and his many co-predators circling beneath Zimbabwe's turbulent political waters...
"Any claim [lodged, of election-rigging/taking the election by fraud] we will cooperate with...if [such is] taken to the Electoral Commission or Supreme Court...because we know we have not engaged in any vote-rigging".
Such high-minded 'stuff' was broadcast over the BBC World News at 6 a.m. on August the 18th. And the speaker (of such an idealistic-sounding commitment to democratic principles and values such as we might consider the norm in - at least pre-2000 - general elections throughout the Western world)? No, you guessed wrong - I mean, right (on)!
Of course it wasn't Zimbabwean President-Elect Emmerson Mnangagwa...no, not by a country mile. Rather it was the - provisionally - newly-elected Pakistani Prime Minister, former longserving high-profile cricket captain *Imran Khan, the long-term candidate for high office there who was just then s/elected as P.M. by all (the various, both major and minor) parties - and **individual players presumably - in the Pakistani Parliament.
So far, so good - Khan at least is maintaining 'admirable' lip-service to the ***age-old democratic ethos.
*As per my other, recent, extensively-footnoted (?#5) blogpost on Zimbabwe (and lotsa interesting, quite unrelated matters) - and especially as a lay theologian of longstanding - I've been intrigued for literally years, even decades, as to the likelihood of Imran Khan (and in a pre-celebrity-cum-political leader era, to boot) possibly being one of the political leaders foretold in the Good Book as wielding significant influence in the Earth's last days...if not - and from my biblical studies he definitely is not - the actual, long-foretold Antichrist.
**Do they have the odd independent there as well? Who'd know - our (kiwi) media hardly ever reports on Pakistani politics, so why should anyone here even know, said media - sadly, probably rightfully - assuming no-one in God's Own even so much as cares?
***Birthed as is well-known - ****I mean, should be - in ancient city-state Greece, though fewer still arguably realize how very few Athenians then were in fact eligible for such electoral participation, let alone the right to 'sit' in their ancient political decision-making assemblies.
****Put it down to this history-deficient generation (or two) who've arisen in the shallow excuse for 'education' and 'lifelong learning' that is modern New Zealand - and doubtless also our cultural counterparts throughout the Western world. Yes, shallow, soul-skimming superficiality is the order of the day in our 'so sophisticated' modern era...and she looks set to be downhill from here on in, folks!
Continued (Now) Much More Succinctly...
...Two days on, and - appropriately enough no doubt - following the completely unsurprising decision of the Zimbabwean Supreme Court to toss out the electoral challenge by the Opposition MDC and its leader Nelson Chamira to Zimbabwe's recently-conducted election. Well, 'surprise, surprise!' What an unexpected development - not!
So what can decent Zimbabweans now do? Precious little, although perhaps that depends upon one's perspective upon life...because 'hope and pray(er)' over the centuries and even millennia have been said capable of moving mountains. And by none other than the Master Himself. Though 'faith and patience' are usually 'an even better bet' - but unfortunately there is no biblical sanction for even supposing that the long-fraught nation-state of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe will ever return to democratic norms in this old, fast-self-destructing, world of ours...
But if said result was really, truly legitimate and completely above-board, why then did the then Government (of Emmerson Mnangagwa) immediately *thereafter ransack the Central Headquarters of the Movement for Democratic Change in Harare - if not to seize MDC proof of the real results (as was then claimed by MDC spokespeople) - and then, days later, pester/harass/arrest up to 19 MDC parliamentarians...and then...barely a week or so later, this time apparently successfully seize the evidence of the true balloting that the MDC had up to that point successfully secreted away into safekeeping at some unknown destination. Ballots which point blank proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Nelson Chamira had actually been elected President of Zimbabwe.
But even **Robert Mugabe and his would-(have)-be(en) successor Grace Mugabe no longer support Mnangagwa - to be sure, doubtless for rather petty personal motives - but that nevertheless ought to give outsiders pause for thought and reflection. Though perhaps - having wielded essentially tyrannical power over Zimbabweans for almost four decades - they themselves have long since become quite oblivious to threats and almost believe themselves invincible at this point in time and unlikely to ever be dealt to (in a deadly fashion).
Yet oddly enough long-serving President Mugabe now appears rather innocuous in comparison with his successor, who - let's be in absolutely no doubt, whatsoever - was ever and always the henchman at Mugabe's right side - loyal to a fault (and well beyond). Someone who not only did Mugabe's 'dirty work' on his behalf, but arguably way exceeded his brief (see: Matabeleland - as I've briefly referred to in various of my five (immediately) previous blogposts), to the point of ultimately carrying out his own personal agenda/vendetta against Joshua Nkomo's forces and supporters...whilst currying favour with and gaining the undying allegiance of Zimbabwe's all-critical armed forces in the process...
*After the first official declaration of electoral results (for President and Parliament, that is).
**Or does he - as his very latest statement seems to indicate - actually support Mnangagwa? Who'd really know, it's such a moving feast, folks; and, as I say, his latest comments make it sound like he indeed does.
Or more likely still - how's this for a nifty conspiracy theory, folks? - it's all been an extremely clever ruse from the very beginning: to (cunningly) gauge the actual level of public support throughout Zimbabwe for the departure of Mugabe while his essential hand remained in place; or rather his right-hand man seamlessly maintained Mugabe's tight as grip upon the country's levers whilst appearing to all outsiders as effecting a non-violent coup d'etat and essentially ousting Mugabe from political office.
A brilliant political stratagem, and one of which the infamous Machiavelli himself would've been exceedingly proud. Yes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Essentially just an adjustment in the deck chairs upon - the personnel manning - the (erstwhile) good ship Zimbabwe, while it progressively sinks beneath the waves and thus vanishes from the collective global consciousness. Just as its current leadership might well wish.
Final Afterthoughts:
There's one essential factor in any declaration that said election be declared null and void. Obviously, that proof be provided as to the actual results on the ground throughout Zimbabwe. But since these, having been secreted/squirrelled away by MDC officials soon after the election - thankfully, prior to the Movement for Democratic Change's central (Harare) headquarters being raided (immediately after the official election result declaration) - were unfortunately then confiscated by state police/military personnel (wherever they had been deposited) a few days later, let's be clear: said Supreme Court investigation was a pure - unmitigated - farce...from start to finish.
So the unprecedented delay in (presidential - but doubtless also parliamentary) election-counting, or rather the declaration thereof; the state-sponsored intimidation of opposition politicians (and devoted supporters) following the broadcast of official results - nay, (psychological and physical) bullying and heavying of, and moreover unlawful arrest, detention and imprisonment, however temporary, thereof; the significant discrepancies in tallies (especially in previously ZANU-PF-supporting rural areas) from previous elections (and reasonable guesstimates thereof); and the masterly way in which Emmerson Mnangagwa has - publicly, officially - made all the right noises in the election aftermath to the MDC and its leader, Nelson Chamira...to me, and doubtless most impartial, disinterested observers, really say it all...
And hey, you'd hardly raid the places where the irrefutable physical proof of election-rigging was held, and moreover confiscate the same, if your intentions were wholly honourable and you had nothing whatsoever to hide...would you...really? And then make damn sure that said proofs never again saw the light of day, much less were presented to the very body, i.e. the Zimbabwean Supreme Court, 'interested' in adjudicating said election and determining the legitimacy or otherwise thereof?
Hey, they're hugely rhetorical questions, as must be obvious - and anyhow, the watching world media essentially couldn't give a damn. No, they've gladly, eagerly bought - consumed, and assimilated - the essential deceit and falsehoods cunningly being disseminated by 'President' Mnangagwa...who's certainly learnt a thing or two off political spin-doctors (and fakenews meisters) throughout the known world... .
But then he's himself sat at the very feet of a master thereof - for three-and-a-half or even four-some decades now - hasn't he...so you'd imagine he'd pick up a trick or several in that time...wouldn't you? Yes indeed he did - and moreover was Robert Mugabe's chief henchman in enforcing his agenda and rule - which thing he indisputably perfected into an art form. And then some.
However like the Western media you maybe really don't care less about it, anyway - though if you've been reading this series of blogposts, I suspect you do care...but like me (and the Zimbabwean opposition) you realize just how futile the quest for truth and justice and democracy really is in that unfortunate land. Yes, it appears the Zimbabwean croc will be rockin' along for some considerable time to come yet...feasting upon his vulnerable prey...whom the apathetic watching world has apparently thrown to him and his many co-predators circling beneath Zimbabwe's turbulent political waters...
Sunday, August 12, 2018
If you believe Zimbabwe under 'the Crocodile' has now miraculously been transformed into a democracy, quite frankly, you'll believe anything
We've again been informed of recent days that the Zimbabwean Opposition Movement for Democratic Change is set - nothing intervening in the meantime - to present its case before the nation's Supreme Court over the next couple of weeks; thus - potentially - delaying/deferring the official inauguration of Zimbabwe's presumptive President-Elect Emmerson Mnangagwa by that time. And so - presuming nothing further happens to prevent that - this appeal (or rather court challenge - to the recent elections) with its corroborating evidence will be duly presented and considered during that period. So far, so good.
But who's to think - why should anyone conclude - that this will all go forward in a proper, legal, above-the-board fashion, without hindrance or active resistance from a top-heavy, iron-fisted state? As I suggested in my title, if you really honestly believe that things will happen thus, you're simply deceiving yourself - bigtime - if not being self-deluded to begin with. Seriously folks!
And so, having thus laid my own cards, so to speak, on the table to begin with, I simply ask your further indulgence as we continue in a careful, thoughtful consideration of what's actually really 'up' in present-day Zimbabwe. If you're ready to go beyond shallow media soundbites and superficial analysis, then I invite you to join me once more as we delve again into the state of democracy in Zimbabwe today; I sincerely hope you won't be disappointed.
In this, part five (and my final, part six) of my mini-series upon the recent elections and status of democracy in the one-time nation of Rhodesia, I'll succinctly enumerate and briefly elaborate upon the basic reasons and various evidences for the claim (I'm obviously supporting via these posts) that Zimbabwe is still - indeed arguably perhaps more than ever - in the grip of an iron-fisted state and its self-appointed head. Which state of affairs - for all with eyes to see or ears to hear - looks set to abate no time soon, or in the foreseeable. But first let's look at some of the counter-evidence that's been in the news...
Sure, we all want to believe the best of any situation, especially some of the incredibly fraught geo-political conflicts and dilemmas of our increasingly complex and problematic day and age. And to think the best of any individual is surely in the DNA of every human being created in the image of its Maker...for those 'simple-minded folk' who still hold to such old-fashioned concepts of life, that is. Yes, I'm one of those - I'm simply playing 'devils' advocate' for those unfamiliar with such irony.
And so why shouldn't we just believe Presumptive-President-Elect Mnangagwa when he - let's give him all due credit, it seems a veritable class act (he's presently performing) - in so many, subtle as well as overt ways, seems to be indicating he is a defanged one-time oppressor, whose default position is now as harmless as ye proverbial domesticated cat? Someone who 'really, truly' (as Dick van Dyke, I think, expresses things in the musical Mary Poppins - or is it rather Willy Wonka himself, pontificating upon his latest scrump-diddly-icious chocolate confectionary, in my all-time favourite - Gene Wilder version - kids' movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? - no matter) has changed his ways?
Why indeed not believe him (that is)? It seems a good and pertinent question. Until one stops a mo(ment) or two and considers how we usually respond to someone in his position, someone who once was unabashedly the tool, nay in his case the very instigator, of political violence (and on such a sickening scale that it earned him the nickname 'the Crocodile').
Yes indeed. For the sort of stuff generally sheeted home to the new Zimbabwean President was nothing less than the wholesale massacring of the supporters - plus no doubt innocent family and friends, and merely townspeople of - the one-time Opposition leader, Joshua Nkomo, 'whose' Matabeleland was given the going over in no uncertain terms by the forces of then President-Elect Robert Mugabe; under one Emmerson Mnangagwa, no less.
So yes, normally someone from such a problematic background first has to prove themselves a truly changed individual before we'll just accept their claims - though truth be told, in places like the Hague they're more often - on the *odd chance they ever get to see and try them - sentenced to life imprisonment 'for crimes against humanity' (and then not seen again in public the rest of their days).
But dealing with 'the real world' as we're confronted with it in places such as Zimbabwe, that sort of scenario is a rare thing indeed, and so we need to be content with 'justice' as it is possible in the circumstances. In the meantime, anyhow. And so, yes, we see someone - President Mnangagwa - who's certainly making all the proper 'noises' to at least appear to be doing and trying to do the right thing by everyone concerned/involved (in Zimbabwe), including international observers specially on duty there at present.
'Things' such as declaring that Opposition leader Nelson Chamira "had an important part to play in a [regenerated] future Zimbabwe" (and its democracy); undoubtedly being directly behind the calling off of the riot police upon MDC leader Chamira's immediate post-election result declaration press conference (before things got totally out of hand); blaming Grace Mugabe (et al) rather than the MDC for an - apparent - assassination attempt upon Mnangagwa's life at an election rally awhile ago; and for talking in a mild and conciliatory fashion as he declared the election ballots to be in his favour...among other things...
To be continued (part 6): So What of Such Apparent 'good faith' moves upon the part of Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa? Why Not just take him - the new Mnangagwa - at Face Value?
*Because as anyone with any knowledge of late 20th-Century history well knows, dictators and tyrants like Uganda's Idi Amin and Haiti's 'Doc Duvalier' - among many others - have an unsettling habit of whisking themselves away into dark and secluded corners of the globe where they're often able to carry on in lavish luxury undetected and 'unmolested' pretty well to the end of their (threescore-some allotted) days... .
But who's to think - why should anyone conclude - that this will all go forward in a proper, legal, above-the-board fashion, without hindrance or active resistance from a top-heavy, iron-fisted state? As I suggested in my title, if you really honestly believe that things will happen thus, you're simply deceiving yourself - bigtime - if not being self-deluded to begin with. Seriously folks!
And so, having thus laid my own cards, so to speak, on the table to begin with, I simply ask your further indulgence as we continue in a careful, thoughtful consideration of what's actually really 'up' in present-day Zimbabwe. If you're ready to go beyond shallow media soundbites and superficial analysis, then I invite you to join me once more as we delve again into the state of democracy in Zimbabwe today; I sincerely hope you won't be disappointed.
In this, part five (and my final, part six) of my mini-series upon the recent elections and status of democracy in the one-time nation of Rhodesia, I'll succinctly enumerate and briefly elaborate upon the basic reasons and various evidences for the claim (I'm obviously supporting via these posts) that Zimbabwe is still - indeed arguably perhaps more than ever - in the grip of an iron-fisted state and its self-appointed head. Which state of affairs - for all with eyes to see or ears to hear - looks set to abate no time soon, or in the foreseeable. But first let's look at some of the counter-evidence that's been in the news...
Sure, we all want to believe the best of any situation, especially some of the incredibly fraught geo-political conflicts and dilemmas of our increasingly complex and problematic day and age. And to think the best of any individual is surely in the DNA of every human being created in the image of its Maker...for those 'simple-minded folk' who still hold to such old-fashioned concepts of life, that is. Yes, I'm one of those - I'm simply playing 'devils' advocate' for those unfamiliar with such irony.
And so why shouldn't we just believe Presumptive-President-Elect Mnangagwa when he - let's give him all due credit, it seems a veritable class act (he's presently performing) - in so many, subtle as well as overt ways, seems to be indicating he is a defanged one-time oppressor, whose default position is now as harmless as ye proverbial domesticated cat? Someone who 'really, truly' (as Dick van Dyke, I think, expresses things in the musical Mary Poppins - or is it rather Willy Wonka himself, pontificating upon his latest scrump-diddly-icious chocolate confectionary, in my all-time favourite - Gene Wilder version - kids' movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? - no matter) has changed his ways?
Why indeed not believe him (that is)? It seems a good and pertinent question. Until one stops a mo(ment) or two and considers how we usually respond to someone in his position, someone who once was unabashedly the tool, nay in his case the very instigator, of political violence (and on such a sickening scale that it earned him the nickname 'the Crocodile').
Yes indeed. For the sort of stuff generally sheeted home to the new Zimbabwean President was nothing less than the wholesale massacring of the supporters - plus no doubt innocent family and friends, and merely townspeople of - the one-time Opposition leader, Joshua Nkomo, 'whose' Matabeleland was given the going over in no uncertain terms by the forces of then President-Elect Robert Mugabe; under one Emmerson Mnangagwa, no less.
So yes, normally someone from such a problematic background first has to prove themselves a truly changed individual before we'll just accept their claims - though truth be told, in places like the Hague they're more often - on the *odd chance they ever get to see and try them - sentenced to life imprisonment 'for crimes against humanity' (and then not seen again in public the rest of their days).
But dealing with 'the real world' as we're confronted with it in places such as Zimbabwe, that sort of scenario is a rare thing indeed, and so we need to be content with 'justice' as it is possible in the circumstances. In the meantime, anyhow. And so, yes, we see someone - President Mnangagwa - who's certainly making all the proper 'noises' to at least appear to be doing and trying to do the right thing by everyone concerned/involved (in Zimbabwe), including international observers specially on duty there at present.
'Things' such as declaring that Opposition leader Nelson Chamira "had an important part to play in a [regenerated] future Zimbabwe" (and its democracy); undoubtedly being directly behind the calling off of the riot police upon MDC leader Chamira's immediate post-election result declaration press conference (before things got totally out of hand); blaming Grace Mugabe (et al) rather than the MDC for an - apparent - assassination attempt upon Mnangagwa's life at an election rally awhile ago; and for talking in a mild and conciliatory fashion as he declared the election ballots to be in his favour...among other things...
To be continued (part 6): So What of Such Apparent 'good faith' moves upon the part of Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa? Why Not just take him - the new Mnangagwa - at Face Value?
*Because as anyone with any knowledge of late 20th-Century history well knows, dictators and tyrants like Uganda's Idi Amin and Haiti's 'Doc Duvalier' - among many others - have an unsettling habit of whisking themselves away into dark and secluded corners of the globe where they're often able to carry on in lavish luxury undetected and 'unmolested' pretty well to the end of their (threescore-some allotted) days... .
Friday, August 10, 2018
Sure, A Crocodile Will Cry Crocodile Tears - So What Else is New? Part Two: The Evidence Pretty Well All Points One Way - and it ain't pretty, folks!
So, as I asked a few days ago, why has *the media started to collectively turn the other way and
seemingly abandon Zimbabwe to the crocs in their midst, the reptilian monsters now arguably circling in for the kill - of both democracy and those still adhering to and upholding it in that land? Why indeed?
Well, essentially they've chosen to accept, to embrace - readily, without much question or investigation, apparently - the verdict of 'ZEC'(I think it's known as): the independent international election monitors deployed to and stationed throughout the nation who reported back to the onlooking, awaiting world as soon as the final presidential tally was in. Which, I'm sure you'd agree, certainly seems a reasonable enough thing to have done.
Yes, I'll readily grant (the soundness of such thinking) - on an initial and essentially superficial basis, anyhow. And so, why do I happen to believe there's something fishy afloat, when such folk - eminently qualified for their task as they doubtless are - apparently are convinced that a proper election of Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken place?
Well, folks, the signs from Election Day itself, and post-election - and indeed from well before - are in fact quite contrary to that perspective, as a **New Zealand observer, phoning in to Katherine Ryan's RNZ National Nine to Noon Show post-election and before the final result was declared, evidenced in so many ways.
But for now - yes, I'm having to take another break in my narrative, time being against me - let me suggest that the behaviour of Zimbabwean security personnel - riot police in particular, but also military men - towards the opposition MDC Movement and a number of its MPs post-election (and in view of the party's and its leader's well-known and oft-declared claim that they possessed conclusive evidence that said election results did not in fact tally with the well-documented evidence possessed by the MDC and its own, on-the-ground, polling station observers and scrutineers) essentially says it all - all that's needed saying anyway...
*In New Zealand, anyhow - I am unable to speak for other jurisdictions; except to add, the great dearth of coverage from the likes of the BBC post-election suggests that this longstanding 'bastion of truth and impartiality and [old-fashioned] objective journalism' is in the same camp, and set to abandon its well-deserved reputation of bringing truth to power and privilege - wherever that might be.
**The former M.P. for (my sister's electorate of) ***Christchurch Central, Tim Barnett.
***Curiously, today (now August 12th), I noticed that an old TIME Mag (December 5th, 1994) includes former Chch M.P. Lianne Dalziel (these days, the Mayor of Christchurch) as among those listed in 'The Global 100: TIME's roster of young leaders for the new millennium'. Long-serving M.P. and later three-term P.M., and eventually credible United Nations' Secretary-General candidate, ****Helen Clark, however, is conspicuously absent from said inventory.
But not so one politician in particular, only too well-known upon our present-day global scene: believe it or not - yes, it's quite incredible, even moreover rather depressing - no, *****no-one (like 'the [Zimbabwean] Croc') thankfully enough, but a far more significant figure on the world scene, the Syrian leader, despot and war criminal ******Bashar(sic) Al-Assad!
TIME, citing him at *******29 as 'President-in-Waiting', also includes the following eye-opening info re this politician: [he] was a retiring young man who displayed no taste for politics until fate intervened...[being] in Britain...when his elder brother was killed in a car crash...In Damascus, hopes are that the would-be ophthalmologist will bring new vision to bear if he takes over the reins of a country that will play a pivotal role in any lasting Middle East peace.
What more need one add - especially in commentary thereupon?!?!? What indeed!
****Once dubbed a possible future leader of a one-world government, interestingly enough, alongside her parliamentary (and later deputy P.M.) contemporary, the (recently-deceased) Jim Anderton.
*****A whopping 20 of these 100 future leaders are listed in the AFRICA/MIDEAST section.
******Intriguingly enough - and worthy of giving one and all due cause for pause - both (arguably this, the younger, rather than the father and former Syrian President) (Al-)Assad and current, long-serving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who, though many will long since have forgotten, also served as P.M. briefly in the late nineties) are singled out for citation in the eminently intriguing The Bible Code and the Bible Code 2: The Countdown by ******Michael Drosnin. That is, in the context of very last days' events in the ever-conflict-ridden Middle East.
*******'Scarily' enough, apparently almost exactly the same age as Yours Truly. No - thankfully - further 'computations' now on my part establish him as - at a guesstimate - a year younger; well and truly living up to his (my sister's current - and my own teenage - (occultic) Chinese Astrological obsession's) animal's reputation as a snake. And assuredly of the most venomous, if subtle and beguiling - yet notwithstanding viciously deadly - variety! Sadly, further computations indicate Al-Assad might've been about to turn 30 that very December (like myself), in which case he's a Chinese 'character' of even far greater significance/potential notoriety (or positive significance):a dragon!
********Interestingly enough, Drosnin's Jewish himself, if of the secular, cultural variety (and - at least formerly - based in New York City as a journalist). And just as interestingly, perhaps, not only is a fellow (Israeli) Jew - the brilliant mathematician, Dr Eliyahu Rips - cited often in said books (as someone who helped establish the validity of the sequencing patterns characteristic of the hidden computer codes), but PM Netanyahu's own dad, who evidently implicitly believed in these 'codes'.
seemingly abandon Zimbabwe to the crocs in their midst, the reptilian monsters now arguably circling in for the kill - of both democracy and those still adhering to and upholding it in that land? Why indeed?
Well, essentially they've chosen to accept, to embrace - readily, without much question or investigation, apparently - the verdict of 'ZEC'(I think it's known as): the independent international election monitors deployed to and stationed throughout the nation who reported back to the onlooking, awaiting world as soon as the final presidential tally was in. Which, I'm sure you'd agree, certainly seems a reasonable enough thing to have done.
Yes, I'll readily grant (the soundness of such thinking) - on an initial and essentially superficial basis, anyhow. And so, why do I happen to believe there's something fishy afloat, when such folk - eminently qualified for their task as they doubtless are - apparently are convinced that a proper election of Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken place?
Well, folks, the signs from Election Day itself, and post-election - and indeed from well before - are in fact quite contrary to that perspective, as a **New Zealand observer, phoning in to Katherine Ryan's RNZ National Nine to Noon Show post-election and before the final result was declared, evidenced in so many ways.
But for now - yes, I'm having to take another break in my narrative, time being against me - let me suggest that the behaviour of Zimbabwean security personnel - riot police in particular, but also military men - towards the opposition MDC Movement and a number of its MPs post-election (and in view of the party's and its leader's well-known and oft-declared claim that they possessed conclusive evidence that said election results did not in fact tally with the well-documented evidence possessed by the MDC and its own, on-the-ground, polling station observers and scrutineers) essentially says it all - all that's needed saying anyway...
*In New Zealand, anyhow - I am unable to speak for other jurisdictions; except to add, the great dearth of coverage from the likes of the BBC post-election suggests that this longstanding 'bastion of truth and impartiality and [old-fashioned] objective journalism' is in the same camp, and set to abandon its well-deserved reputation of bringing truth to power and privilege - wherever that might be.
**The former M.P. for (my sister's electorate of) ***Christchurch Central, Tim Barnett.
***Curiously, today (now August 12th), I noticed that an old TIME Mag (December 5th, 1994) includes former Chch M.P. Lianne Dalziel (these days, the Mayor of Christchurch) as among those listed in 'The Global 100: TIME's roster of young leaders for the new millennium'. Long-serving M.P. and later three-term P.M., and eventually credible United Nations' Secretary-General candidate, ****Helen Clark, however, is conspicuously absent from said inventory.
But not so one politician in particular, only too well-known upon our present-day global scene: believe it or not - yes, it's quite incredible, even moreover rather depressing - no, *****no-one (like 'the [Zimbabwean] Croc') thankfully enough, but a far more significant figure on the world scene, the Syrian leader, despot and war criminal ******Bashar(sic) Al-Assad!
TIME, citing him at *******29 as 'President-in-Waiting', also includes the following eye-opening info re this politician: [he] was a retiring young man who displayed no taste for politics until fate intervened...[being] in Britain...when his elder brother was killed in a car crash...In Damascus, hopes are that the would-be ophthalmologist will bring new vision to bear if he takes over the reins of a country that will play a pivotal role in any lasting Middle East peace.
What more need one add - especially in commentary thereupon?!?!? What indeed!
****Once dubbed a possible future leader of a one-world government, interestingly enough, alongside her parliamentary (and later deputy P.M.) contemporary, the (recently-deceased) Jim Anderton.
*****A whopping 20 of these 100 future leaders are listed in the AFRICA/MIDEAST section.
******Intriguingly enough - and worthy of giving one and all due cause for pause - both (arguably this, the younger, rather than the father and former Syrian President) (Al-)Assad and current, long-serving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who, though many will long since have forgotten, also served as P.M. briefly in the late nineties) are singled out for citation in the eminently intriguing The Bible Code and the Bible Code 2: The Countdown by ******Michael Drosnin. That is, in the context of very last days' events in the ever-conflict-ridden Middle East.
*******'Scarily' enough, apparently almost exactly the same age as Yours Truly. No - thankfully - further 'computations' now on my part establish him as - at a guesstimate - a year younger; well and truly living up to his (my sister's current - and my own teenage - (occultic) Chinese Astrological obsession's) animal's reputation as a snake. And assuredly of the most venomous, if subtle and beguiling - yet notwithstanding viciously deadly - variety! Sadly, further computations indicate Al-Assad might've been about to turn 30 that very December (like myself), in which case he's a Chinese 'character' of even far greater significance/potential notoriety (or positive significance):a dragon!
********Interestingly enough, Drosnin's Jewish himself, if of the secular, cultural variety (and - at least formerly - based in New York City as a journalist). And just as interestingly, perhaps, not only is a fellow (Israeli) Jew - the brilliant mathematician, Dr Eliyahu Rips - cited often in said books (as someone who helped establish the validity of the sequencing patterns characteristic of the hidden computer codes), but PM Netanyahu's own dad, who evidently implicitly believed in these 'codes'.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Sure, A Crocodile Will Cry Crocodile Tears - So What Else Is New? Or, Why is the Western World letting the new, chameleonlike, Zimbabwean wolf in sheep's clothing pull his (well-fabricated) wool over their collective eyes?
In this third part of my series upon Zimbabwe and its recent election results, let me first say, however weak and impotent it may well sound, that I feel - deeply - for the folk there, as the world, or at least the Western component thereof - though methinks they're not alone - turn their gaze away and simply look the other way, considering the whole subject too difficult by half, and thus assign it to the too hard basket, if only by default. Or, alternatively, everyone - everywhere (to the extent that they're even interested or are able to take an active interest thereunto) - are holding onto sheer hope, wistfully hoping against hope that something, anything, is about to start going well in this oft-troubled land.
But unfortunately such pollyanne-rish wishful thinking will get no-one anywhere, least of all the people of Zimbabwe. For as we all know, gullibility or naivete is believing - despite all sane, credible evidence to the contrary - precisely what you already or always wanted to believe anyway. Otherwise known as putting your head firmly and irrevocably in the sand. Which of course never solved anything.
And thus and so last November an older Christian friend probably thought I'd been duly hoodwinked when, remarking upon the sudden elevation of former Mugabe strongman (and military massacre-overseer) Emmerson Mnangagwa, to Zimbabwe's Presidency, I mentioned he'd been cited as having had some religious conversion experience or the like in recent times - whether according to him or those around him. The aforementioned 'mighty man of God', who I'll simply call Lanwoo, completely pooh-poohed such a (naive) notion, and anyhow I myself well understood the utter implausibility thereof, but in view of the (numerically) large accessions to my own particular brand of evangelicalism in Zimbabwe - especially post- the return there of a good friend (I'll also simply call Lorhar) three decades back - I dared to hope, 'all things being possible' (with God), that things might've been somewhat different these days. Yes, eminently more hopeful.
So how've things changed since, how've things transpired, 'progressed', under Mnangagwa's nascent leadership? It's really quite hard - for me, at this distance, and without a whole lot of reporting even c/o the BBC, ever since - to say very much or at all conclusively. But stay tuned as I return shortly, focusing in - for our purposes in these opinion pieces - on the recently-concluded elections there. For they - sadly enough - seem to really 'say it all', and yes, as you can well guess, the picture ain't pretty!
But unfortunately such pollyanne-rish wishful thinking will get no-one anywhere, least of all the people of Zimbabwe. For as we all know, gullibility or naivete is believing - despite all sane, credible evidence to the contrary - precisely what you already or always wanted to believe anyway. Otherwise known as putting your head firmly and irrevocably in the sand. Which of course never solved anything.
And thus and so last November an older Christian friend probably thought I'd been duly hoodwinked when, remarking upon the sudden elevation of former Mugabe strongman (and military massacre-overseer) Emmerson Mnangagwa, to Zimbabwe's Presidency, I mentioned he'd been cited as having had some religious conversion experience or the like in recent times - whether according to him or those around him. The aforementioned 'mighty man of God', who I'll simply call Lanwoo, completely pooh-poohed such a (naive) notion, and anyhow I myself well understood the utter implausibility thereof, but in view of the (numerically) large accessions to my own particular brand of evangelicalism in Zimbabwe - especially post- the return there of a good friend (I'll also simply call Lorhar) three decades back - I dared to hope, 'all things being possible' (with God), that things might've been somewhat different these days. Yes, eminently more hopeful.
So how've things changed since, how've things transpired, 'progressed', under Mnangagwa's nascent leadership? It's really quite hard - for me, at this distance, and without a whole lot of reporting even c/o the BBC, ever since - to say very much or at all conclusively. But stay tuned as I return shortly, focusing in - for our purposes in these opinion pieces - on the recently-concluded elections there. For they - sadly enough - seem to really 'say it all', and yes, as you can well guess, the picture ain't pretty!
Monday, August 6, 2018
A Media Self-Condemned by its Silence, Complicit by its Complacent and Cowardly Connivance
We've reached a sad day in Westerndom in so many ways...but surely 'our' media has just attained a new, *invidious low: in now effectively abandoning one of its longstanding, most loyal and devoted Commonwealth friends and relatives - to wit, the longsuffering and neglected nation of Zimbabwe.
In surrendering the people of Zimbabwe to the alligators presently moving in for the kill in the turbulent political waters swirling beneath their feet, even the much-vaunted BBC itself has forsaken Zimbabweans like so many over-heated cakes, abandoning them into the proverbial too-hard-basket. Yes, the **one-time justly-celebrated British Broadcasting Corporation has - its many praiseworthy internationally-broadcast radio programmes notwithstanding, and these are well worthy of the highest commendation (on a regular basis) - now not only 'dropped the ball' upon our erstwhile central southern African allies and compatriots, they've done so when they need our aid and help more than ever before.
Which I will make reference to in my imminent Part Three (to be published shortly). But sadly, they are far from alone in so doing, seemingly being joined - at least in these Antipodean 'nether regions' - by our broadcast media as well. What a despicable thing to do, abandon one's close friend when they're at an all-time low, putting the collective boot in when they're already well and truly down.
*Among its various meanings, according to my trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary, is this - entirely unexpected, but wholly accurate - one: offensively discriminating (italics all mine). And doesn't that just so aptly sum 'em up! Yes, I mean the mainstream media...and no, for all their faults - which may (in certain instances) be many - and varied - the likes of Sir Robert Muldoon, the Right Honourable Winston Peters, and even 'the Donald' (i.e. U.S. President Donald J Trump) himself are right on the ball in one major respect at least: their unanimous suspicion of and even at times downright contempt for the so-called 'journalists' and media outlets which style themselves so successfully as the brave bastions of truth and the upholders of the highest Western values and democratic principles. For once again they have failed abysmally - abjectly - in their self-appointed task (of bringing truth to power - and all the rest). Hey, on this one they're not even on the scoreboard.
**However over recent weeks and months and years the blatant inconsistencies and even hypocrisies of this one-time bastion of Westerndom's core Judaeo-Christian values has gone completely awol: missing in action - and without any forwarding address. More's the pity. Whether we're talking about their aiding and abetting the U.K. police in their unjust hit jobs upon the likes of Cliff Richards, Ken Roache and the like - while scurrying for well-needed cover as their own miserable 'non-treatment' of the serial paedophile Jimmy Saville was gradually, progressively exposed into public view, the BBC 'dealing with this' by their own brand of serial rationalization, duck-shoving and pleading of extenuating circumstances.
Or referring to their citing Aotearoa-New Zealand's new 'bright young thing', the Green Party's articulate female (Iranian) refugee M.P. Gohriz Ghahraman, as some sort of expert upon our neighbour Australia's admittedly appalling treatment of refugees, especially one-time New Zealanders, at, for example, their now infamous Manus Island (and Christmas Island) Detention Centre; when all the while this selfsame 'spokesperson on human rights' had been extensively exposed post- our last General Election (almost a year ago now) as a one-time apologist, nay, public spokesperson and defense attorney for, instigators of genocide in both 1990s' Serbia/Kosovo/ Croatia/Bosnia-Herzogovina etc as well as 1993-1994 Rwanda!
And time eludes us here to more than briefly cite their abject inconsistency, even hypocrisy, in giving almost a ***running commentary upon the intention of various 'Englishmen' (and no doubt women) to effect a rarely-invoked citizens' arrest of Pope Benedict the 16th upon his arrival in the U.K. for a papal tour back in 2009 or so, when, almost the very moment he set foot upon British soil they were pretty well feting him from veritable pillar to post, and couldn't get enough of him; virtually slobbering their newfound affection all over him as he rode in the papal motorcade (was it in the Popemobile? - I'm not sure) and then sat in state as it were alongside then British Prime Minister David Cameron in a makeshift sort of canopy (virtually transplanted holus-bolus from a Victorian-era garden show), while they - alongside their adoring fellow citizenry - oohed and aahed and fawned and scraped, bowed and curtsied before Benedict as he gloried in the unexpected adoration and adulation. ***Here including both branches (radio and television) of the BBC's broadcasting arm.
The very same one-time German Cardinal Josef Ratzinger who'd not only served in the Hitler Youth, and later in the Vatican's modern-day (theologically-oriented) 'Inquisition' (for trying and excommunicating heretics from the Roman Catholic Church), but who'd effectively done nothing about dealing with and to the then-rampant sexual abuse occurring c/o the RCC's priests and prelates and cardinals worldwide, and was thus going to be treated to - or rather, served with - an old-fashioned citizens' arrest upon setting foot in England.
Necessary Disclaimer (with the benefit of overnight reflection):
Perhaps I'm being a little too severe (and broad-brushed in my 'strokes' here), and should've been a bit less critical of the BBC - not so much vis-a-vis #1, however, nor with my overall point re Zimbabwe.
Nevertheless, in case #3 (re Pope Benedict's papal visit to Great Britain), they're guilty as charged, for rapidly, and quite inexplicably - unless it can be argued that they, like 'everyone else' at the time, were simply swept up into the overall feel-good emotionalism of the special occasion - moving from an heretofore impartial commentary (even arguably somewhat anti-papal line - reflecting societal-wide feeling then almost palpable) the one moment, to a rather over-the-top, utterly uncritical commentary the very next...as per the (subsequent) rest of their reportage...not even mentioning the former 'threat' (of a citizens' arrest), as if it was now altogether nonexistent,; or, still worse, as if it were now an irrelevance - beneath one's legitimate notice...as, like with the Royal Family, we were now all (expected to be) collectively besotted with them all - their each and every move - even 'rightfully so'...that any previous quibbles or concerns - however well-justified at the time - simply no longer mattered or made any real difference anyhow...
In case #2, for, apparently, simply not bothering to investigate Ghahraman's background (story) better - especially the well-canvassed controversy (within Aotearoa-New Zealand) that played out in our media late last year (especially in November). Again, as with #3, we all now simply couldn't get enough of GG. So, any past 'indiscretions' - however damning and utterly devastating to anyone else's career in the circumstances - simply no longer mattered...all was again forgiven, and any, however once quite legitimate concerns were to be simply relegated to the realms, the backblocks of sheer, utter irrelevancy.
As per Zimbabwe, I've still essentially the same concerns, with all the naivete and gullibility this of course suggests/highlights...though, to give them their proper and rightful due, the BBC's overall radio coverage of Zimbabwe - at least up until their fateful election 'result' announced last Friday New Zealand time - was quite exemplary, as far as it went...even putting other (NZ-wide media, anyway) way into the background. (At least they then covered extensively the more than legitimate concerns raised by opposition spokespeople and protesters in the country.)
In surrendering the people of Zimbabwe to the alligators presently moving in for the kill in the turbulent political waters swirling beneath their feet, even the much-vaunted BBC itself has forsaken Zimbabweans like so many over-heated cakes, abandoning them into the proverbial too-hard-basket. Yes, the **one-time justly-celebrated British Broadcasting Corporation has - its many praiseworthy internationally-broadcast radio programmes notwithstanding, and these are well worthy of the highest commendation (on a regular basis) - now not only 'dropped the ball' upon our erstwhile central southern African allies and compatriots, they've done so when they need our aid and help more than ever before.
Which I will make reference to in my imminent Part Three (to be published shortly). But sadly, they are far from alone in so doing, seemingly being joined - at least in these Antipodean 'nether regions' - by our broadcast media as well. What a despicable thing to do, abandon one's close friend when they're at an all-time low, putting the collective boot in when they're already well and truly down.
*Among its various meanings, according to my trusty Chambers Concise Dictionary, is this - entirely unexpected, but wholly accurate - one: offensively discriminating (italics all mine). And doesn't that just so aptly sum 'em up! Yes, I mean the mainstream media...and no, for all their faults - which may (in certain instances) be many - and varied - the likes of Sir Robert Muldoon, the Right Honourable Winston Peters, and even 'the Donald' (i.e. U.S. President Donald J Trump) himself are right on the ball in one major respect at least: their unanimous suspicion of and even at times downright contempt for the so-called 'journalists' and media outlets which style themselves so successfully as the brave bastions of truth and the upholders of the highest Western values and democratic principles. For once again they have failed abysmally - abjectly - in their self-appointed task (of bringing truth to power - and all the rest). Hey, on this one they're not even on the scoreboard.
**However over recent weeks and months and years the blatant inconsistencies and even hypocrisies of this one-time bastion of Westerndom's core Judaeo-Christian values has gone completely awol: missing in action - and without any forwarding address. More's the pity. Whether we're talking about their aiding and abetting the U.K. police in their unjust hit jobs upon the likes of Cliff Richards, Ken Roache and the like - while scurrying for well-needed cover as their own miserable 'non-treatment' of the serial paedophile Jimmy Saville was gradually, progressively exposed into public view, the BBC 'dealing with this' by their own brand of serial rationalization, duck-shoving and pleading of extenuating circumstances.
Or referring to their citing Aotearoa-New Zealand's new 'bright young thing', the Green Party's articulate female (Iranian) refugee M.P. Gohriz Ghahraman, as some sort of expert upon our neighbour Australia's admittedly appalling treatment of refugees, especially one-time New Zealanders, at, for example, their now infamous Manus Island (and Christmas Island) Detention Centre; when all the while this selfsame 'spokesperson on human rights' had been extensively exposed post- our last General Election (almost a year ago now) as a one-time apologist, nay, public spokesperson and defense attorney for, instigators of genocide in both 1990s' Serbia/Kosovo/ Croatia/Bosnia-Herzogovina etc as well as 1993-1994 Rwanda!
And time eludes us here to more than briefly cite their abject inconsistency, even hypocrisy, in giving almost a ***running commentary upon the intention of various 'Englishmen' (and no doubt women) to effect a rarely-invoked citizens' arrest of Pope Benedict the 16th upon his arrival in the U.K. for a papal tour back in 2009 or so, when, almost the very moment he set foot upon British soil they were pretty well feting him from veritable pillar to post, and couldn't get enough of him; virtually slobbering their newfound affection all over him as he rode in the papal motorcade (was it in the Popemobile? - I'm not sure) and then sat in state as it were alongside then British Prime Minister David Cameron in a makeshift sort of canopy (virtually transplanted holus-bolus from a Victorian-era garden show), while they - alongside their adoring fellow citizenry - oohed and aahed and fawned and scraped, bowed and curtsied before Benedict as he gloried in the unexpected adoration and adulation. ***Here including both branches (radio and television) of the BBC's broadcasting arm.
The very same one-time German Cardinal Josef Ratzinger who'd not only served in the Hitler Youth, and later in the Vatican's modern-day (theologically-oriented) 'Inquisition' (for trying and excommunicating heretics from the Roman Catholic Church), but who'd effectively done nothing about dealing with and to the then-rampant sexual abuse occurring c/o the RCC's priests and prelates and cardinals worldwide, and was thus going to be treated to - or rather, served with - an old-fashioned citizens' arrest upon setting foot in England.
Necessary Disclaimer (with the benefit of overnight reflection):
Perhaps I'm being a little too severe (and broad-brushed in my 'strokes' here), and should've been a bit less critical of the BBC - not so much vis-a-vis #1, however, nor with my overall point re Zimbabwe.
Nevertheless, in case #3 (re Pope Benedict's papal visit to Great Britain), they're guilty as charged, for rapidly, and quite inexplicably - unless it can be argued that they, like 'everyone else' at the time, were simply swept up into the overall feel-good emotionalism of the special occasion - moving from an heretofore impartial commentary (even arguably somewhat anti-papal line - reflecting societal-wide feeling then almost palpable) the one moment, to a rather over-the-top, utterly uncritical commentary the very next...as per the (subsequent) rest of their reportage...not even mentioning the former 'threat' (of a citizens' arrest), as if it was now altogether nonexistent,; or, still worse, as if it were now an irrelevance - beneath one's legitimate notice...as, like with the Royal Family, we were now all (expected to be) collectively besotted with them all - their each and every move - even 'rightfully so'...that any previous quibbles or concerns - however well-justified at the time - simply no longer mattered or made any real difference anyhow...
In case #2, for, apparently, simply not bothering to investigate Ghahraman's background (story) better - especially the well-canvassed controversy (within Aotearoa-New Zealand) that played out in our media late last year (especially in November). Again, as with #3, we all now simply couldn't get enough of GG. So, any past 'indiscretions' - however damning and utterly devastating to anyone else's career in the circumstances - simply no longer mattered...all was again forgiven, and any, however once quite legitimate concerns were to be simply relegated to the realms, the backblocks of sheer, utter irrelevancy.
As per Zimbabwe, I've still essentially the same concerns, with all the naivete and gullibility this of course suggests/highlights...though, to give them their proper and rightful due, the BBC's overall radio coverage of Zimbabwe - at least up until their fateful election 'result' announced last Friday New Zealand time - was quite exemplary, as far as it went...even putting other (NZ-wide media, anyway) way into the background. (At least they then covered extensively the more than legitimate concerns raised by opposition spokespeople and protesters in the country.)
Friday, August 3, 2018
The Crocodile Rocks Along: The More Things Change (in Zimbabwe - & South Africa), The More Things Stay the Same
Over recent months 'great changes' have come to the two once-segregationist, former British colonies of southern Africa, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and South Africa. Or, as New Zealand's infamous tui billboard would put it, 'Yeah, right!' And just so any half-awake punter might have predicted/known...
Yes, the Republic of South Africa changed its leadership a little while ago now. No matter - as per its northern 'cousin', Zimbabwe, such 'changes', as cosmetic in appearance as in actual nature, just went to show - yet again - the truth of ye 'ole adage: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Moreover in both nations the land appropriations/expropriations evidently carry on apace, or at least are not only being maintained, but their terms are being widened...as white South African farmers now likewise feel the full brunt of long pent-up resentment and bitterness over the land subjugation of the two countries' landless plebs. This particular brand of utu has certainly been a long time in gestation/building, and no doubt to those concerned feels only all too justified and excusable.
But onto South Africa's highly fraught situation another time, suffice to say that many, both there and overseas, are not at all in some partisan bunker with their blinkers on, or deceived thereabouts; for example the much-respected African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and New Zealand's own (one-time *C.A.R.E. head) Springboks' Tour protest organizer, the much-pilloried but thoughtful and insightful John Minto: both understandably long disillusioned with the actual on-the-ground results of the justly much-celebrated end of Apartheid - as they, like the rest of us, see that wonderful socio-political 'transformation' turned into barefaced betrayal.
No, the realities of political **nepotism/corruption, abject failure to share the largesse and spoils of victory with the poverty-stricken multitudes, and unprecedented, out-of-control crime and violence pretty well ever since the [much-trumpeted] changes there really say it all, don't they?; 'changes' which have proven as shallow and superficial as a lanced boil.
And of course its cultural cousin and neighbour, Zimbabwe, has shared a similar fate - minus the awful violence (among the people-at-large, anyhow) it must be conceded. But is even that advantage/'superiority' soon to be submerged in a perfectly understandable reaction and *****kickback to Zimbabwe's just-concluded elections (just as we've indeed seen in its immediate aftermath)?
Yes, longtime, valiant Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai met his earthly demise only months ago - doubtless 'assisted', even if not directly precipitated and contributed to, by his previous 'incident' at the hands of Government-sanctioned security thugs. Nobly surviving throughout a period of years and decades when such 'ad hoc' state brutality was regularly meted out if on a sporadic basis and in an uncoordinated fashion, yet now appears highly likely to return 'with a vengeance'.
A situation all the more tragic when one considers how Rhodesia/Zimbabwe - post-independence, that is - has, unlike so many of, indeed arguably the great majority of, its African fellow states, managed to admirably maintain a popular resistance - to Mugabe's rule in particular - without recourse to armed uprising or rebellion. Till now, anyhow. But with the re-accession to power of ******'the Crocodile' that admirable restraint looks set to become - hopelessly - unstuck.
Yes, the long-running era of el tinpot dictators and petty despots (in the central south of Africa) seems destined to continue, indeed to carry on pretty well where it left off...under the various predecessors. Yet (as just alluded to) up to now the people of Zimbabwe have surely been a shining example of patient endurance and perseverance in the face of ongoing, unrelenting, top-down political, military and economic oppression and servitude - whatever the outward semblance and even realities of democracy in the land might well have been at times.
This is a 'matter' of some interest to me, as - see my own blogpost half a year to a year ago or so '(So) Who's to Say Who Should Stay?' - unlike so many talkback hosts who apparently seem to, rather glibly and simplistically, assume that ye average citizen in such scenarios should 'simply rise up and overthrow the bastards' (who cares if they themselves lose their lives in the process?) - I for one fully accept that discretion is indeed invariably 'the better part of valour' (in such situations especially, quite obviously).
For, as I say in that opinion piece, which of us (kiwis, for example) would choose to stay and fight to the death (as it were) if, say, and admittedly however hypothetically, there were a civil war brought on by Maori separatists rising up to overthrow the established order (of things). Yes, who indeed?
*Citizens Association for Racial Equality; cf NZ's other, compatriot-in-protest, once well-known H.A.R.T. [Halt All Racist Tours] outfit, also famously led at one time by Trevor Richards.
**Though, let's be quite unhypocritical here - in pointing the finger at these two nations; for assuredly the world's three largest, globally dominant and militarily and geo-politically preeminent super-powers are hardly exempt from ***such charges and accusations these days.
***Though, as with Zimbabwe, neither China nor Russia seem plagued with the violence seemingly endemic to the ****continent of North America in our era; and at least China has - whatever its many other, serious failures and shortcomings (and far worse) - made sterling efforts over recent years and decades to raise the living standards of vast swathes of its ever-burgeoning masses. And who really knows about the comparable situation in Russia?
****Excepting the civilized nation of Canada, that is.
*****Of the decidedly non-pecuniary variety, that is!
******So nicknamed, evidently, for his notorious role in the dreadful, post-independence massacres in Matabeleland, where large numbers of the - clearly un-obsequious - supporters of Joshua Nkomo's own political movement were evidently rounded up and summarily, conclusively dealt with and to.
Yes, the Republic of South Africa changed its leadership a little while ago now. No matter - as per its northern 'cousin', Zimbabwe, such 'changes', as cosmetic in appearance as in actual nature, just went to show - yet again - the truth of ye 'ole adage: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Moreover in both nations the land appropriations/expropriations evidently carry on apace, or at least are not only being maintained, but their terms are being widened...as white South African farmers now likewise feel the full brunt of long pent-up resentment and bitterness over the land subjugation of the two countries' landless plebs. This particular brand of utu has certainly been a long time in gestation/building, and no doubt to those concerned feels only all too justified and excusable.
But onto South Africa's highly fraught situation another time, suffice to say that many, both there and overseas, are not at all in some partisan bunker with their blinkers on, or deceived thereabouts; for example the much-respected African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and New Zealand's own (one-time *C.A.R.E. head) Springboks' Tour protest organizer, the much-pilloried but thoughtful and insightful John Minto: both understandably long disillusioned with the actual on-the-ground results of the justly much-celebrated end of Apartheid - as they, like the rest of us, see that wonderful socio-political 'transformation' turned into barefaced betrayal.
No, the realities of political **nepotism/corruption, abject failure to share the largesse and spoils of victory with the poverty-stricken multitudes, and unprecedented, out-of-control crime and violence pretty well ever since the [much-trumpeted] changes there really say it all, don't they?; 'changes' which have proven as shallow and superficial as a lanced boil.
And of course its cultural cousin and neighbour, Zimbabwe, has shared a similar fate - minus the awful violence (among the people-at-large, anyhow) it must be conceded. But is even that advantage/'superiority' soon to be submerged in a perfectly understandable reaction and *****kickback to Zimbabwe's just-concluded elections (just as we've indeed seen in its immediate aftermath)?
Yes, longtime, valiant Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai met his earthly demise only months ago - doubtless 'assisted', even if not directly precipitated and contributed to, by his previous 'incident' at the hands of Government-sanctioned security thugs. Nobly surviving throughout a period of years and decades when such 'ad hoc' state brutality was regularly meted out if on a sporadic basis and in an uncoordinated fashion, yet now appears highly likely to return 'with a vengeance'.
A situation all the more tragic when one considers how Rhodesia/Zimbabwe - post-independence, that is - has, unlike so many of, indeed arguably the great majority of, its African fellow states, managed to admirably maintain a popular resistance - to Mugabe's rule in particular - without recourse to armed uprising or rebellion. Till now, anyhow. But with the re-accession to power of ******'the Crocodile' that admirable restraint looks set to become - hopelessly - unstuck.
Yes, the long-running era of el tinpot dictators and petty despots (in the central south of Africa) seems destined to continue, indeed to carry on pretty well where it left off...under the various predecessors. Yet (as just alluded to) up to now the people of Zimbabwe have surely been a shining example of patient endurance and perseverance in the face of ongoing, unrelenting, top-down political, military and economic oppression and servitude - whatever the outward semblance and even realities of democracy in the land might well have been at times.
This is a 'matter' of some interest to me, as - see my own blogpost half a year to a year ago or so '(So) Who's to Say Who Should Stay?' - unlike so many talkback hosts who apparently seem to, rather glibly and simplistically, assume that ye average citizen in such scenarios should 'simply rise up and overthrow the bastards' (who cares if they themselves lose their lives in the process?) - I for one fully accept that discretion is indeed invariably 'the better part of valour' (in such situations especially, quite obviously).
For, as I say in that opinion piece, which of us (kiwis, for example) would choose to stay and fight to the death (as it were) if, say, and admittedly however hypothetically, there were a civil war brought on by Maori separatists rising up to overthrow the established order (of things). Yes, who indeed?
*Citizens Association for Racial Equality; cf NZ's other, compatriot-in-protest, once well-known H.A.R.T. [Halt All Racist Tours] outfit, also famously led at one time by Trevor Richards.
**Though, let's be quite unhypocritical here - in pointing the finger at these two nations; for assuredly the world's three largest, globally dominant and militarily and geo-politically preeminent super-powers are hardly exempt from ***such charges and accusations these days.
***Though, as with Zimbabwe, neither China nor Russia seem plagued with the violence seemingly endemic to the ****continent of North America in our era; and at least China has - whatever its many other, serious failures and shortcomings (and far worse) - made sterling efforts over recent years and decades to raise the living standards of vast swathes of its ever-burgeoning masses. And who really knows about the comparable situation in Russia?
****Excepting the civilized nation of Canada, that is.
*****Of the decidedly non-pecuniary variety, that is!
******So nicknamed, evidently, for his notorious role in the dreadful, post-independence massacres in Matabeleland, where large numbers of the - clearly un-obsequious - supporters of Joshua Nkomo's own political movement were evidently rounded up and summarily, conclusively dealt with and to.
Your Collective Silence Is Quite Deafening: So Why the Abject lack of coverage of/concern over/condemnation of the Electoral (Integrity!) Amendment Bill?
...Which has just passed its second reading in the New Zealand Parliament - despite the valiant efforts of such long-term, underrated MPs as Dr Nick Smith and the Honourable Gerry Brownlee ...and the completely cringeworthy, wishy-washy, mealy-mouthed, hypocrisy-plus support of the once proud and principled Green Party of Aotearoa.
Professions Underrated All...
Just a word in defence/praise of some of the (Western World's, in particular) most highly underrated... but supposedly not undervalued, occupations - especially in light of/with reference to two wholly unrelated events: to wit, Aotearoa-New Zealand's present epidemic of strike action/stopwork meetings by all and sundry...and America's own 'epidemic' - of fires/'firenadoes'. As I say, there ain't a lot in common between the two, that's for sure... . Nevertheless -
Let's hear it - loud and clear, and in neon lights - for *all our self-sacrificing firefighters, nurses and, yes, even our ever-overlooked cleaners and street-sweepers...who together succeed in managing to keep the plague, the pestilence, death and destruction from our collective door...
...yet, at least here in 'God's Own', get scarcely a look-in - a mutter, a murmur nor a [whatever] (in Winston's esteemed words)...and are generally begrudged the little (materially-speaking) they do happen to accrue...
though handsomely earn and deserve...
*In 9 cases out of ten, anyhow, or 99% of instances (for, yes, there're always, inevitably, individual exceptions to each and every single last rule one could care to make/create/establish, I'll freely admit).
Let's hear it - loud and clear, and in neon lights - for *all our self-sacrificing firefighters, nurses and, yes, even our ever-overlooked cleaners and street-sweepers...who together succeed in managing to keep the plague, the pestilence, death and destruction from our collective door...
...yet, at least here in 'God's Own', get scarcely a look-in - a mutter, a murmur nor a [whatever] (in Winston's esteemed words)...and are generally begrudged the little (materially-speaking) they do happen to accrue...
though handsomely earn and deserve...
*In 9 cases out of ten, anyhow, or 99% of instances (for, yes, there're always, inevitably, individual exceptions to each and every single last rule one could care to make/create/establish, I'll freely admit).
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)