KalahariLog

For a few days there was a feeling that finally, after all these years of quietly approving what Mugabe has done in Zimbabwe, the leaders of the neighboring countries will come out and call for his retirement. Just a few days ago, the main Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangarai was beaten up by police when a prayer rally he attended was broken up. The president of Zambia called Zimbabwe a sinking Titanic which may drag the entire neighborhood under, the chairman of the African Union referred to the situation as "very embarrassing", there was a summit of south African countries coming up in Tanzania's capital, Dar es Salaam...

A couple of days the summit finished and Mugabe came out smiling. South African's president Thabo Mbeki smiled too and said that he agrees "100% with Mugabe" and urged western countries to stop the sanctions! It seems that yet again, Mugabe has been able to cast himself as a freedom fighter and a leader of a liberation movement, fighting colonial, capitalistic, and imperialistic powers, forcing his African colleagues to side with him rather than appear that they align with the West in general and the UK in particular.

Mugabe, like many African leaders before him, has succeeded in bankrupting one of the wealthiest countries on the continent after 27 years under his dictatorship. Unemployment is near 80%, inflation is the highest in the world at 1700% per year, people are starving and flooding neighboring countries. Still, he is as wily as ever at the tender age of 83, colored hair, crazy mustache and all. It seems that the trick he pulled this time was to spread rumors that he'll postpone elections from the scheduled date in 2008 to 2010. This, of course, made Thabo Mbeki warried as the next Football World Cup is supposed to be in neighboring South Africa in 2010. So Mugabe promised to have the elections as scheduled next year in exchange for the support of his African colleagues. And the only shocking thing is that it worked.