The flag that couldn’t fly

These images struck me as a fitting metaphor for where the people of our country are at the moment. Instead of the Zimbabwe flag flapping proudly and joyously, symbolically representing the will of the people and a proud nation, it is confused, worried and tangled up in knots. Just like us.

We’re one month away from the expiry date of the Global Political Agreement and the dictator who bashed the living daylights out of the people of our country last year is still in power and has his most loyal acolytes still in control of all the critical instruments of power. It seems to me that if they want to bash the living daylights out of the people in our country again, they still have the means to do so, and the means to avoid punishment for doing so. It’s appalling.

But as we in Zimbabwe all know only too well, appearances are everything. So roll out the expensive crane and send up a State official – we WILL make that flag flap and we WILL insist that all is well (or else)! Just like elections in our country are free and fair, and just like the army has had nothing to do with the massacres in Chiadzwa. Yeah right, pull the other one!

Or am I being a little too cynical? I am accused of being too pessimistic so I did try hard to look at these with different thoughts in my head.

The metaphor could be a positive  one: the images indicating that despite all our difficulties, the people of Zimbabwe will triumph and overcome adversity. I just wish the task of getting this little flag to fly to represent this positive metaphor didn’t require incredible resources and uniformed officials in charge, because that’s where my confidence begins to ebb.

Or perhaps the non-flying flag should be read as a symbolic protest against the official (non democratic) solutions to complex problems. I quite like this idea, but I like it a lot less when I see the uniformed guy being sent in to fix it!  That ‘s ominous.

…And around and around I go.

This entry was posted by Hope on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 at 11:32 am. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.