joyfulchristian

A foreign policy of health and clean water

That's what Tommy Thompson said we need while on a trip to Africa. Of course that won't solve everything, but it sure couldn't hurt. Read James Glassman's report.

Unsurprising I suppose

... but still something to be concerned about.

Robert Mugabe's systematic destruction of his own nation has caused a refugee crisis in neigboring countries.

The effects of Robert Mugabe's regime are forcing thousands of people to seek sanctuary in neighbouring countries - a situation that is threatening to destabalise the whole region, writes Tim Butcher in Gabrone.

Less than a mile from the mirror-panelled banks and high-rise offices of Botswana's richest firms, penniless Zimbabweans gather on dusty street corners begging for work.

Unregistered, unkempt and unlawful in a foreign land, the desperate men whisper "Piece work, piece work" sotto voce, meaning "odd job" to any passer-by.

If you are brave enough to stop your car at what appears to be an empty junction, a mini-stampede erupts as Zimbabweans surge towards the vehicle, hands flapping for car door handles in an unseemly scrum to be first in line.

Malnourished and haggard, the men try anything to convince would-be employers. Some brandish O-level certificates as proof that they passed through Zimbabwe's once respected but now barely functioning education system.

Others show references from employers back in Zimbabwe long closed down or even character references from the country's opposition Movement for Democratic Change, to indicate that they are not tainted by association with President Robert Mugabe's regime.

All the documents have to be retrieved from a carefully secreted position - tucked in a sock or hidden behind a belt. To be found with such paperwork by the police is grounds for the bearer to be kicked out of Botswana as an illegal.

"I have been coming across the border regularly for two years now," said 24-year-old Mqondisi from Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo.

"We get a few days' permission to be here, but we all stay to look for work because a little bit of money here in Botswana is more than we can hope for in Zimbabwe. The police catch us and stick us in the trucks that take us back over the border, but after a few days we come back."

There's much more and I encourage you to read the whole thing. Mugabe's reign of terror is a threat not just to his own nation, but to those surrounding him as well. His destruction of his own nation threatens to destabalize the economy of the entire region.

All this happens, and the world does nothing but complain from a distance. (That's not entirely true. In some instances impotent wailing would actually be an improvement. The French, for one, almost seem to be on his side sometimes. "There's nothing we can do about it," says the world. "Zimbabwe is a sovreign nation and Mugabe is it's elected leader." (As if there was anything legitimate about the last election.)

This is why I've come to believe that our current notion of sovreignty is hopelessly outdated. Sovreignty is something to be earned, not granted simply because someone can seize power.

Mugabe hasn't earned it.

Coup

Military coups in Africa are not all that uncommon. Sometimes there actually an improvement. I don't have enough information to know whether this is the case this time, but I thought this story was worth mentioning:

LISBON, Portugal - Soldiers ousted the president of the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau on Sunday, taking advantage of widespread discontent with his rule to seize power in a bloodless coup.

The army chief of staff, Gen. Verissimo Correia Seabre, declared himself in charge of the country after the early-morning arrest of President Kumba Yala. A dawn-to-dusk curfew was imposed, and soldiers patrolled the streets of the capital Bissau with automatic weapons and grenade launchers.

Several African countries including Nigeria and Senegal condemned the coup, as did Portugal, the former colonial ruler. But some residents expressed relief as much as alarm.

[...]

"The situation there is calm and under control," Portuguese Foreign Ministry spokesman Fernando Lima said, citing information provided by the Portuguese embassy in Bissau. "There were no acts of violence, no shots fired and no injuries."

Seabre said the army decided to end what he called Yala's misrule. Yala has reneged four times in the past year on his pledge to hold elections, most recently just last week. In his nearly three years of office, the country has suffered steep economic decline. Yala alleged he foiled a military plot to overthrow him in 2001.

Speaking of Zimbabwe

In other news, African authorities have arrested a man for sending a fax:

Harare - Lawyers confirmed on Tuesday that 35-year-old Martin Mukaro, a Harare resident, was arrested last Friday after a private fax to a friend in Britain told of violence carried out by President Robert Mugabe's ruling party during local elections last week.

They said Mukaro sent his letter from a public fax service in Harare, unaware that someone in the shop was spying on the contents.

The individual, described by the state-controlled daily Herald newspaper as "a certain concerned person", tipped off police.

Mukaro was immediately arrested and spent three nights in jail before appearing in court on Monday.

They clearly haven't figured out "free speech"yet.

Actually, they have. Mugabe fully understands what free speech could do to him.

Now that's gall

The government of Zimbabwe has been seizing the farm land of white farmers for years and giving the land to blacks. Now they claim that the British government is responsible for paying restitution to the white farmers.

Zimbabwe has asked international groupings to intervene and try to convince former colonial power Britain to pay compensation to white farmers who have lost their land under land reforms, the ZIANA state news agency said Tuesday.

The appeal was made late Monday by Zimbabwe's speaker of parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, as he addressed a group of visiting lawmakers from the African, Carribean and Pacific (ACP) grouping, which includes some of the world's poorest nations.

"I call upon you, our brothers and sisters from the ACP, to encourage the EU to play a mediatory role in encouraging Britain to comply with its obligation to compensate white commercial farmers in the spirit of the Lancaster House Agreement," Mnangagwa was quoted as saying, referring to the 1979 peace pact signed in London ending Zimbabwe's guerrilla war of independence.

A lot of African countries have a serious problem. That problem is that their governments are not only corrupt, but then blame the failure caused by their corruption on western nations. Now, there is no question that many of the colonial governments left their former colonies in shambles, but that is not an endless excuse for failure.

If these countries are ever to succeed, something must be done about the corruption at the highest level. Zimbabwe is pretty close to the top of the list of countries needing serious reform. The ability to achieve this is hampered by the fact that most of the African governments, even those that are (relatively) corruption free, insist on supporting those governments in which corruption, and even persecution, are staples.

Something must be done if the people of the African continent are ever to prosper. Unfortunately, I just don't know what.

Pernicious Evil

That's what a recent report calls Robert Mugabe's youth militia.

Southern Africa's church leaders have produced a damning report on the reign of terror, human-rights abuses and "pernicious evil" committed by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's youth militia.

The report on the activities of the ruling Zanu-PF's youth force, released in Rosebank, Johannesburg, on Friday, gave chilling accounts of brutal acts committed by militants at national indoctrination centres across Zimbabwe - including murder, systematic rape, maiming, abduction and disappearances of opposition members, torture and arson.

The report was prepared by a South African-based human rights group, Solidarity Pace Trust. It accused the youth paramilitary training programme of a reign of terror, including harassment of Mugabe's critics, acts of violence against Movement for Democratic Change members, the illegal takeover of food relief distribution, confiscation of goods at illegal roadblocks and usurping power from law enforcement agents.

Keep reading, but only if you're prepared to hear about some pretty nasty stuff. Mugabe is a stain on the fabric of humanity. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much that can be done at present. It wouldn't bother me in the slightest if the U.S. intervened in Zimbabwe, but I don't see that happening. There are a lot of cess pools that need to be cleaned up in this world. Practically speaking, we have to focus on the ones that are a danger to our own country.

It's an awful fact that we can't fix everyone's problems. Especially when I read things like this.