Lies, empty promises, and kids with guns
All election talk in Zimbabwe revolves around rigging: a certainty that Mugabe has rigged and is doing his best to rig the elections; what tricks has he up his sleeve this time; what has he said to SADC to persuade them to look past the fraud; can we hope the police and army and teachers etc in the polling stations will blow the whistle and reveal the truth?
Step outside the bizarre world we live in and it strikes me as incredible to be facing elections and this is all we talk about. But what else would it be?
How can anyone in the world possibly imagine that a party that has destroyed the economy, destroyed schooling, destroyed health care, created massive hyper-inflation and unemployment, and driven its population to look for a better life in other countries ever - EVER - stand a chance at winning elections in a free and fair competition. Do those who think the elections are fair in this country also think the Zimbabwean people are the most stupid in the world?
Of course we don’t want this. Of course we don’t vote for it!
It has been rigged, is always rigged, is in the process of being rigged and is going to be rigged again.
I saw this picture today and it struck me as one that sums up the Zanu PF promise for our future. There is no promise of a better life. In fact, Zanu don’t even try anymore to promise us a truely better life: its just hot air and threats of violence and retribution if we don’t toe the line. They campaign on a memory of a violent past that will be lived and re-lived over and over and over again.
Forget the bright future, this image says to me; stick with us and we can all dwell in history for eternity. Your kids may be hungry and ill-educated and sick, but we’ll give them wooden guns to march before an aging despot who you will adore for no other reason except he demands it - and if you don’t adore him, he’ll get you bashed.
The one thing I know is that Zimbabweans are tired, so tired, of struggling to get through to the next day.
We want to move on and have a normal life. We know what happened in the past, but it’s the future we’re concerned with now.
The caption that accompanied this image on Yahoo News reads: Schoolchildren armed with makeshift guns perform war tactics in front of President Robert Mugabe at a rally in Mvurwi, Zimbabwe, Friday, March 14, 2008. Mugabe addressed the rally about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Harare and called for people to vote for him in the upcoming presidential elections set for March, 29.
