Zimbabwe- don't send food send guns

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I'll come down anytime and do a mop-up with you, Bruno

Like I said, it's a damned if we do and damned if we don't situation. Western powers carved up the continent into countries that contained warring tribes / groups within single political units, and the consequence has been a bloodbath. The humanitarian in many people makes them want to save the children and other innocents, but how to do so without trampling rights, massive resource infusions, or just plain making the situation worse? It's a nightmare of the first degree, but I will say this:

Anyone who tries to make a difference in places like this deserves the benefit of the doubt and some respect for at least trying. Their approach may blow up in their faces, we may disagree on a moral or ethical basis with their tactics, but instant vilification or suspicion of ulterior motives should not be our automatic reaction until we have more facts.

 

The massacre is about to start. The government has started to disarm the population.

 

Heh. We're about to send our cricket team to Zimbabwe, because if we don't, the International Cricket Council will fine us $2m for not fulfilling our obligations. What a crock. I know it's not much, but it is a known fact that Mugabe loves cricket (he was president of Zimbabwe Cricket for years) so why should we be indulging his hobby by going there?

 

If I lived in a country where the government was that corrupt, I'd keep the gun but surrender the ammuntion--right into the head of anyone threatening my family...

 

This is a good example of why international policing efforts are difficult to justify. The damage has already been done in Zimbabwe; Mugabe is a tyrant and a violent thug who has run his country into the ground.

He has conducted a masterful campaign of lies and deceit, repression and violence, and his propagandists have resorted to the line that to defy the government is to be a colonialist or imperialist sympathiser and a traitor, drawing on the history which LKD summarised to justify his "patriotism". Condemn or threaten his regime and you hand him a propaganda weapon. As much as I loathe the leadership of my own country as a bunch of miserly and insensitive opportunists, at least I am free to express that without being hunted down like an animal or branded a traitor. Of course, there isn't a developed nation that hasn't committed some sort of human rights abuse or atrocity in its time; some are ongoing, which gives nations like the US and Australia as much moral authority as Jim Bakker.

I'll give the bastard this, though - he knows how to stay in power. I doubt that anything short of insurrection or invasion will oust him. Of course, now that they're disarming people, that cuts options back further.

Government has a responsibility to serve and protect its citizenry; it's part and parcel of the whole "social contract" idea whereby we surrender some freedoms to guarantee others. Condemnation is all well and good but doesn't feed people; aid won't go where it is needed. Mugabe has failed the test and committed all sorts of violations by any determination and deserves to be removed unless he starts doing his job properly.

While we're at it, how about passing the unamended Georgiou bills and ending another category of human rights violations in Australia? Hey, I can dream, can't I? Neither will happen.

@ Morgoroth: I don't know whether you're joking or not, but if a country whose main export was grain is now facing mass starvation and famine (along with a threatened cholera epidemic) while its leadership lives a luxurious existence, I for one would like to know why. It's brutes like Mugabe and his supporters who have made foreign aid so ineffective, because they couldn't give a damn about feeding people who could potentially overthrow them. Instead, they get rich while the suffering continues.

Re: TGS's last post and link -

Oh no... everyone who hands in a weapon gets a voucher. Presumably, this requires some kind of identification. My guess is that it will start quietly, with covert teams masquerading as terrorists and insurgents gunning down anti-Mugabe populations. By the time the West decides to do anything, it will already be too late.

 

LKD -- I don't think I've EVER seen this conundrum stated any better. Extremely well-said.