Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) Shaming of the sanctions deniers

Shaming of the sanctions deniers
by Peter Chimutsa
10/09/2009 00:00:00

THERE are many issues that bedevil our country. This is a fact, but I am concerned that as a nation we are failing to accept some bare truths. In order for the inclusive Government to work, assuming there is political will, we should all accept that there are things we should shun as a nation.

One of the hard truths that we should accept is that Zimbabwe cannot continue looking to the West to seek ways of extricating ourselves from our problems. We should look everywhere, not just the East.

Neo-liberalism is dead and incurable; and that is a fact. Countries like the US and Britain now owe large amounts of money to China. Zimbabwe cannot continue seeking salvation from the West.

It was embarrassing to hear Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr Gorden Moyo, claim recently that Zimbabwe needed to institute some reforms in order to be “forgiven” by the United States; that is in order for the sanctions, or “restrictive measures” as he preferred to call them, to be removed.

The minister thinks if the media is “opened up”, then America will rush to pump money into Zimbabwe. This is sad, coming from a Cabinet minister, who should know better.

America is in the middle of a financial crisis. It is battling to fund its healthcare right now and is the most indebted nation in the world. It is failing to extricate millions of black people and inner city families out of poverty.

Moyo should know that a good actor will never shine when they have a bad script. Neo-liberalism, as espoused through US domestic and foreign economic policy, is dead and buried and is a bad script.

The minister’s denial of the existence of sanctions was as laughable as it was pathetic.

The minister should know that you can tell a lie a million times but it still remains a lie.

Moyo’s assertion that if somehow, foreign-based radio stations like SW Radio Africa, are allowed to operate in Zimbabwe, then America will pump money into Zimbabwe is sad and pathetic.

It smacks of a lack of understanding of what indeed is the Zimbabwean question; or crisis as some would prefer to call it.

In any case, radio is not the only space where political debate takes place.

The comrades who fought and won the liberation war against Ian Smith’s apartheid regime were not allowed media or radio coverage.

Radio and media are important, but the argument that allowing political profanity is a reflection of a democratic dispensation is problematic.

To then suggest that allowing such stations to spew propaganda will attract foreign investment is pathetic.

In the UK, there’s a lot of censorship of profanity and regulation of these spaces. Why not in Zimbabwe?

Just trawl the internet and see the amount of abuse spawn at our leaders by our own people; some of whom fought for these people to even find a voice through a protracted liberation struggle.

Zimbabweans and their so-called independent media, are their own worst enemies. I have never seen a country whose so many institutions connive in destroying their country.

Moyo reminds me of some so-called “human rights defenders” who get trophies from the US for spewing propaganda against their own governments. The US is the worst violator of human rights. Just watch the images from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons. State prisons in the US are full of people of colour.

Minister Moyo cannot tell us that people of colour are inherently prone to crime. There must be something wrong with the US and its attitude to these communities. Why should that country care about Zimbabwe?

That is why they watched when millions died in Zimbabwe from cholera induced by their illegal sanctions. That is exactly the same response they gave to thousands of people who died in North and South Carolina, and other states, when Hurricane Katrina hit the US.

I just hope that the minister revisits his understanding of the role of sanctions in the underdevelopment of Zimbabwe. Otherwise, he stands accused of promoting the death of many innocent civilians who are victims of the effects of the illegal sanctions imposed by the West.

It is ironic that he was speaking on a pirate radio station, when his party signed an agreement on 15 September, 2008, to have those pirate stations stopped from illegally beaming into Zimbabwe.

Some kind of leadership, indeed!

Peter Chimutsa writes from Bulawayo

Labels: GORDEN MOYO, NEOLIBERALISM, SANCTIONS, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 4:34 PM