South African fast food chain Nando's ran
an amusing ad featuring Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe enjoying himself with a range of deceased despots, to the tune "Those were the days". The Zimbabwean
"government
" was not amused.
posted by wilful
on Dec 4, 2011 -
47 comments
"It's ethnic cleansing happening." Fully ten days after elections that most are speculating were indeed won by the opposition party (Movement for Democratic Change), Robert Mugabe still clings to power in Zimbabwe. The voting results have
still not been released, and 5 election officials have been arrested, "accused of tampering with the vote to the detriment of Mugabe's tally." Its been a tense time for Zim, and now the violence and land seizures have started again.
[more inside]
posted by allkindsoftime
on Apr 9, 2008 -
67 comments
You will be thoroughly beaten. Zimbabwe, in economic decline for years, may be accelerating towards collapse. Its inflation rate recently hit
1281%, the highest in the world, and a strike by
public doctors that began six weeks ago has now spread to
nurses,
electrical workers and (today)
teachers. Those that aren't allowed to strike, like
police, are quitting. Last month, Zimbabwe's top judge
warned that underfunding had (possibly intentionally) left its judiciary largely unable to function, the nation's electricity provider recently
announced that it's broke, its
sewage plants started breaking down and polluting urban water supplies, and international observers warned (based on satellite photos, since the government won't allow them in)
that famine is looming. In the past, President Robert Mugabe's response to the growing destitution has been to
forcibly evict poor urban slum residents into the countryside and bulldoze their homes, to prevent them from organizing politically and to make it difficult for rights organizations to monitor them. Now, he's
canceling the 2008 presidential elections (for now, saying that they'll be held in 2010, in conjunction with parliamentary elections, to save money) and ordering security forces to
jail and torture political activists. The situation may be approaching a breaking point.
posted by gsteff
on Feb 5, 2007 -
48 comments
Dear Comrades After the recent spate of biased and mischievous reporting by the colonialist foreign press, I have ultimately decided to reveal to you, the honest and hard-working citizens of Zimbabwe, a little more of Mugabe -
The Man.
posted by four panels
on Oct 15, 2004 -
1 comment
Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe reiterates his threat to re-distribute land. "One farmer, one farm policy." What this fool doesn't realize (or perhaps more terribly, really does), is that this policy will cause a devastating
famine, and bring about economic chaos: "
Commercial agriculture is Zimbabwe’s biggest private employer, providing work — and, almost invariably, accommodation — for about 350,000 people. If Mr Mugabe carries out his threat to evict 2,900 white farmers, the workers and their families — a total of 1.2 million people — will join the ranks of the dispossessed..." Not only that, but his government has been terrorizing black farm hands and others thought to have opposed him in the recent "election." What can be done about Zimbabwe? The EU seems willing to help in case of famine, but there is no guarantee their money will get past Mugabe's pockets.
posted by insomnyuk
on Aug 12, 2002 -
30 comments
Genocide Alert for Zimbabwe issued by Genocide Watch, a group founded by a former State Department official on Cambodia and Rwanda issues, Gregory Stanton, who in 1996 devised the
Eight Stages of Genocide:
Classification, Symbolization, Dehumanization, Organization, Polarization, Preparation, Extermination, and
Denial. GW contends that Zimbabwe has reached Stage 6, Preparation. With the
arrest of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on treason charges, Robert Mugabe is proving himself impervious to
international pressure. Is Zimbabwe really on the brink? If so, what can, or should, we do? Our record
isn't good, but we didn't have Stanton's scale then, either.
posted by dhartung
on Mar 21, 2002 -
16 comments
E.mail Mugabe. Amnesty International, unsurprisingly, has grave concerns for the welfare of Mugabe's opponents, particularly as few international observers remain. It suggests you send a fax or an e.mail asking that he considers the human rights issue and provides an address and number. Very probably a meaningless gesture but hey, you never know.
posted by Fat Buddha
on Mar 16, 2002 -
4 comments
The inevitable seems imminent. Despite widespread condemnation of the election process, Robert Mugabe seems destined to win the Zimbabwe Presidency 'legitimately'*.
This is terrible, terrible news.
*please read posts here for explanation of ghost quotes.
posted by davehat
on Mar 12, 2002 -
9 comments
Mugabe's secret plan to evict all whites Robert Mugabe plans to expel all white farmers from Zimbabwe before next year's elections, according to a secret document obtained by The Telegraph. [...] Entitled Operation Give up and Leave, it reads:
The operation should be thoroughly planned so that farmers are systematically harassed and mentally tortured and their farms destabilised until they give in and give up.
posted by dagny
on Aug 26, 2001 -
29 comments
the economist presents a very clear
review of why and how the zimbabwe elections went horribly wrong and what this means for the future of zimbabwe & africa. [this article is neither long nor hard but it's strong. read it] "After 20 years of ZANU government, the average Zimbabwean is a third poorer and can expect to die more than 15 years younger. . . The responsibility for reviving the sick economy still rests with Mr Mugabe and ZANU. Half of the workforce is jobless. Inflation is eating Zimbabweans’ savings at a rate of almost 70% a year. An unrealistic exchange rate has led to shortages of fuel and other imports. Mr Mugabe’s plans to seize white-owned farms without compensation, and his contradictory statements about whether he will do the same to mines and factories, have scared off both foreign and domestic investors. Despite having some of the most fertile land in Africa, Zimbabwe could need food aid this year."
posted by palegirl
on Jun 30, 2000 -
17 comments
