(no subject)

[fpb]

Africa has worse tyrants than Robert Mugabe (not that I do not detest him). The reason why he gets so much negative publicity is that, among his other victims, he oppresses whites of British origin.

(And if you want the names of worse tyrants, here is one right away - Issaias Afewerki - tyrant of Eritrea, who set up a vicious time-lapsed Communist tyranny with all the trimmings, and who cooperates with the worst kind of Islamic monster just to unsettle his Ethiopian neighbours in Somalia.)

However, the morally worst thing about Mugabe is that he is 82 or 83. Still clinging to his misused and mismanaged power, still subverting institutions (including having a supporter of his as Anglican Archbishop, leading a schism), still encouraging violence in the streets rather than lose it, even on the edge of eternity.

Comments

[fpb.livejournal.com]

That is not to say that he is not a vicious piece of scum, an obscenely incompetent ruler under whose government the country has been wrecked, and a flatulent liar. He definitely has to go. But there is no reason to focus on him alone and forget, for instance, the rulers of Eritrea or Equatorial Guinea.

[leia-naberrie.livejournal.com]

Or Omar Bongo of Gabon who's been in power for the past 41 years, almost as long as that country has been independent of British colonization.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I do not know enough about Omar Bongo, except for the name. (Though one thing I do know is that Gabon was a French colony!) Is he a mass-murdering tyrant? (And if so, why have I not heard about it?) Lifelong rule is not itself necessarily an evil, in African conditions. Felix Houphouet-Boigny ruled the Ivory Coast till his death, and as long as he was in charge the country was peaceful and ran decently. And Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, in spite of clearly intending to be President for life, has brought the country stability, economic growth, and a sharp decline in the scourge of AIDS.

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

Alas this is the way of things.

I've read and been appalled by events in Eritrea and other countries where serious crimes against hummanity were carried out, but I have fallen victim to the trend to think more about Mugabe than those other places. But then Mugabe is a figure from my past. I remember him as one of the leaders of the freedom movement, ZANU, in the days of Rhodesia. So while there may be other events happening all over the world, Mugabe is the one that sticks in my thoughts, because I recognise the name, because this is the latest episode in what has been a very long running story. One in which, in the days of UDI, the UK was very involved.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Two points. First, I am old enough to remember all that, too - but my main memory of the struggle against Rhodesia was Bishop Abel Muzorewa, whom Mugabe jailed and allowed to die in jail. So I am not so impressed by what we would call his Resistance claims. Besides, the man has not been a thug for a short time. A couple of legislatures ago, he tried to impose a one-party constitution on the country, and narrowly failed. His tactics of thuggery and mendacity are by now time-honoured. I think it is time for everyone to forget things that happened before most of today's Zimbabweans (considering the wretched average lifetime in that benighted country) were born.

In fact, I might say the same about Eritrea. The formation of that country was a stupendous epic of struggle against an overwhelming enemy (Ethiopia) which, at the height of the sruggle, was itself in the grip of one of the most monstrous Communist tyrannies in history (and that is saying something) and deliberately used mass starvation as a weapon. (It is no coincidence that its loathsome head Menghistu Haile Mariam has taken refuge in Harare, under Mugabe's protection.) The final victory of the Eritreans, unhelped and alone, against the power of Ethiopia, was also the victory of freedom in Ethiopia itself. And therefore, that Eritrea of all countries should have seen fit to imitate all the most odious features of the government it overthrew and the enemy it defeated.... well, it is a really ghastly thought.

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

Just to be clear, I was not disagreeing with you, or trying to defend Mugabe.

Quite the opposite, in fact. If anything I was bemoaning the fact that while I was aware of the situation in Eritrea, recognition of Mugabe's name from the past meant that I payed more attention to what went on in Zimbabwe.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the tone of the last answer, then.

(But can't you do something about those blank spaces at the end?)