(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

[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.