Dear Friends.There was more than one eccentric in Rome last week and the subject under discussion was certainly crucial, nothing less than world hunger. Ironically, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwes president was there; the man whose so-called Land Reform has destroyed his countrys capacity to feed itself and made thousands of his own countrymen and women jobless, homeless and facing starvation. But there he was in Rome with his wife, that notorious shopaholic – and where better to shop than Rome with its sumptuous boutiques and designer shops! Mugabe was there to attend the UN World Food Summit accompanied by a 60 strong delegation. (It needs an awful lot of suitcases to carry back all his wifes purchases!) Rather like Emperor Nero of old, fiddling while Rome burns Mugabe too was entertaining himself with this diversion while his country waits for him to play his part in putting out the flames that threaten to destroy the Unity Government.
Interestingly, the only member of the G8 countries to attend the Summit, was Sylvio Berlusconi, Italys President and another eccentric. Attendance at the UN Summit was a diversion from the Milan courtroom where he is due to appear on tax fraud charges. Instead, Berlusconi was on hand in Rome to introduce the current chairman of the AU, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to address the assembled company. One eccentric introducing another, you might say. In recent years Berlusconis sexual escapades have been extensively covered by the Italian media but last week the Italian papers were full of another story, not of a sexual nature, though it certainly looked that way at first glance. 500 beautiful young hostesses recruited from a hospitality agency had been invited to the home of the Libyan Ambassador in Rome with strict criteria: they must be between 18 and 35, and at least 1.7 metres tall. There was more, they must be pretty, no mini skirts allowed and no plunging necklines. The fee was $50 a head and they were to present themselves on Sunday evening. The unknown host was none other than the Chair of the AU, Mummar Gadaffi and his reason for hiring the hostesses was nothing less than to convert them to Islam! Despite the fact that it was Rome and the headquarters of the Catholic Church, Gadaffi was on a proselytising mission. Like Mugabe, Gadaffi was in Rome for the World Food Summit but in his spare time he lectured the girls on the superiority of Islam, the failings of Christianity and the position of women in the western world. The UK Independent carried the story and showed the girls leaving the Libyan Embassy, all carrying heavy copies of the Koran. When he finally got round to the matter in hand, ie. the World Food Summit, Gadaffi and Mugabe were as one, singing from the same hymn sheet, ranting on about the evils of the west and their exploitation of the worlds poor. Robert Mugabes speech to the Summit was classic Mugabe-speak. It was hostile interventions and hostile sanctions that have had a negative impact on our farmers. Our neo-colonialist enemies are determined to make us fail. Mugabe claimed. Nero-like he plays his increasingly bizarre propaganda instrument while, back home very little changes. In a painful reminder of Murambatsvina four years ago, municipal police in Harare beat up vendors, white farmers and their workers continue to be harassed and intimidated by police and greedy chefs, even High Court judges, all aided and abetted by top army officers and scores of soldiers. Students are arrested on trumped up charges of weapon possession and Roy Bennetts trial continues on its agonising way and the anti-MDC and blatantly racist rhetoric of the government press rolls on. The President of the Council of Chiefs joins in the anti-white chorus and attacks the Minister of Education, claiming that he is charging exorbitant school fees to incite people to topple Mugabe from the presidency. And he adds, We heard that a white man is now the minister of educationWhats that, to have a white man in government? In the same week a white Catholic priest is brutally beaten and humiliated by Mugabes soldiers while in Rome the Pope celebrates mass attended by, among others, one Robert Gabriel Mugabe, a baptised and practising Catholic. Giving the Catholic Church a bad name must be the least of the charges that can be made against Robert Mugabe.
Today, November 15 marks the expiry of the SADC deadline to initiate the process of settling the deep divisions between the two sides in the GNU. Zimbabwe teeters on the brink of disaster but Nero-like, Robert Mugabe plays on, the same old tune. Speaking at a good governance conference in Tanzania this week, the Sudanese telecom billionaire, Mo Ibrahim, remarked (about Africa generally) Something is drastically wrong. I think we have the right to ask our leaders are they really serious. Well, Robert Mugabe is very, very serious about just one thing and that is staying in power – whatever the cost.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.aka Pauline Henson author of Case Closed published in Zimbabwe by Mambo Press, Going Home and Countdown political detective stories set in Zimbabwe and available from Lulu.com an Amazon.
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