“It was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted,” CNN quoted an excerpt from former US President Barack Obama upcoming memoir, A Promised Land.
“For millions of Americans spooked by a Black man in the White House, [Trump] promised an elixir for their racial anxiety.”
Obama has said many insightful things and that is up there in the top ten in my view.
President Donald Trump’s four years in office has been divisive and his handling of the corona virus pandemic has been a complete disaster. The Trump administration’s sheer incompetence in the handling of the virus turned a crisis into a catastrophe of Biblical proportion.
As of today, 17 November 2020, 11.3 million Americans had the corona virus and 248 424 have died of the virus. The bill for the damage to corona virus has done to the economy is yet to come. Of all the developed country; indeed America is the most developed and prosperous nation on earth; and yet America has the worst per capita corona virus cases and deaths. The worst by a long country mile!
The November 2020 USA elections where going to be a referendum of Trump’s handling of the corona virus. The corona virus cases were once again rapidly increasing in line with the dreaded second wave of infection and there was no vaccine, something Trump had promised repeatedly ever since the outbreak. (The first promising vaccine was announced days after the voting day, 3rd November.)
Donald Trump polled 70.7 million votes, more votes than Barack Obama or any other winning American President in recent memory, and still he lost to Joe Biden who polled 74.9 million votes.
Trump had galvanised his support base and they turned out to vote for him in droves. The white supremacist primeval instinct, the driving force behind the slave trade for which many lives were sacrificed to end it. Even long after slavery was abolished the racist instinct have resurfaced again and again.
Former President Barack Obama is right, the election of President Donald Trump in 2016 was a knee-jerk reaction many of the white supremacist to America’s election of a black person into White House. For the next four years Trump had shown he had no time for all the political niceties of racial harmony emboldening the white supremacist to no end. By the time of the November 2020 elections the white supremacist were invigorated and determined to see their man re-elected for “Four more years!”
Trump’s disastrous track record on America’s standing with the rest of the free world, his handling of the deadly corona virus still wrecking havoc to the nation’s health and economy, etc.; all matter not at all. One does not reason with the KKK, the organisation would have never ever existed if the members were rational!
Trump lost the 3rd November 2020 elections because he did not only galvanised his white supremacist base but he also galvanised all the Americans out there who realised he stood for the return of the KKK and the public lynching of blacks for no other reason than the colour of the sick. The cold blooded murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the shooting dead Breonna Taylor and many other blacks by the Police, the very people who should be protecting them: was the wake-up call for the ant-Trump base. It certainly hardened their resolve to vote him out on 3rd November.
Yes Trump lost the November 2020 elections but it was a close call.
Now that the white supremacist's primeval instincts have been awakened who know how long it will take the beast back in the cage again and what mischief they will cause until then.
President Donald Trump’s epitaph: All he ever did was stoke America’s racial divide for selfish gain. Thank God and democracy he only served one term!
“Help Us Reimagine A World Where Every Child Has Access To Safe Water”: Says UNICEF On World Children’s Day.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Auditor General's recent report, the majority in Zimbabwe's urban centres are now drinking water contaminated with sewage. The sewage system is breaking down so often and the repairs taking so long to fix there is sewage everywhere! In the rural areas the majority use the bush for all their toilet requirements and going there and returning one is certain to trade on shit which then gets everywhere.
All human civilisation from the Pharaoh of Egypt to the Inca in South America they all thrived because they had mastered the basic essentials how to supply clean water and deal with the human waste. We in Zimbabwe, with all the modern technology to help us we are drowning in our own shit! The system we inherited from the white 40 years ago is breaking down, we did not even have the wit to maintain it much less expand on it!
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies will be watching what UNICEF gets up to with unblinking crocodile's eyes for yet another opportunity for them to loot! There have not many opportunities to loot with the country's economy in total meltdown and donors shying away. Zanu PF thugs will rob from whoever they can including a helpless child, indeed the easier and helpless the target the better!
MDC Alliance leader, President Nelson Chamisa, has described the dearth of democracy in Africa as unfortunate and catastrophic.
ReplyDeleteIn a statement released on Tuesday morning, President Chamisa denounced dictatorship, election rigging and persecution of opposition activists.
Commenting on electoral processes in Uganda, President Chamisa said: “I’ve been following election campaigns in Uganda.
Alternative Presidential candidate and Brother Bobi Wine is being terrorised, blocked from campaigning and access to the media.
“Dictatorship must go.Young people must save and serve Africa. Real change is unstoppable.
“No turning back.”
“Dictators must go. Real change is unstoppable!” This is now as hollow a cliche as they come.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect Chamisa and his MDC friends into on the understanding they would deliver the democratic changes, as the party’s name implied, the nation was dying for. MDC has been on the political stage for 20 years, 5 of which they were in the GNU, and yet they have failed to bring about even one meaningful democratic change. Not even one!
Instead of implementing the reforms during the GNU MDC leaders were busy enjoying the trappings of high office they forgot about the suffering masses who got them into power. Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs started the same way by fighting for freedom and liberty and they too forgot about freedom and liberty as soon as they tasted power.
As much as the people of Zimbabwe are desperate for meaningful change and an end to the economic suffering and tyrannical oppression; they must now know that the democratic change will not come from MDC. MDC leaders have sold-out, they are now running with the Povo hare and hunting with the Zanu PF hounds!
Right now, Chamisa et al are gearing to participate in the 2023 elections knowing very well that Zanu PF will rig the elections. Chamisa also knows that Zanu PF will give away a few gravy train seats as bait to entice the opposition to participate. By participating the opposition gives the flawed election process credibility.
Chamisa is promising real change knowing there will be none; the 2023 elections will be yet another mockery to democracy. Chamisa will be rewarded by Zanu PF for making Zimbabweans believe the Zanu PF dictatorship now masquerading as a multi-party democracy does not need any reforms, it will deliver change.
@ Peter Mupondi
ReplyDeleteWell Mugabe did fall but only to be replace by Mnangagwa, another dictator. As long as we have a naive and gullible electorate, this is very fertile ground for dictators, there will always be dictators.
"All Dictators- Including Mnangagwa, Museveni -Will Fall In Similar Fashion…" This is all wishful thinking not founded on facts and reality!
Now that the G40 cabal is out of the picture and their godfather, Mugabe is gone, it appears things are getting worse, especially for the civil servants who , in my humble view, have suffered the most since 2017.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe seems to be on a free-fall and, of course, the hardest hit are the government workers, a big number of them who marched for you in November 2017, supporting President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s comeback from momentary exile in South Africa after you were fired for “lacking probity”, whatever that meant.
That time a civil servant, the lowest paid was getting no less than US$520 and things were, although not perfect, better.
This article must have been written by a G40 member or sympathiser or else someone so shallow minded he/she has no clue what they are talking about.
“That time a civil servant, the lowest paid was getting no less than US$520 and things were, although not perfect, better!” Yeah right! What was the same civil servant getting in 2008, at the peak of the country’s hyperinflation of 500 billion percent? Was it no Mugabe who was in power then!
The foolishness of comparing Mnangagwa days with Mugabe days is as foolish as arguing which snake is more deadly, a black mamba or a cobra, especially to a mouse when a bite from either snake will kill it in minutes!
Mnangagwa and Mugabe are both corrupt and ruthless dictators arguing about who is worse than the other is an exercise in futility, preoccupation of those who are not a full shilling!
President Donald Trumps claims the US November 2020 elections were stolen but has so far failed to produce even one shred of evidence to support his claim. What is worrying is there are many Americans who continue to believe him and refuse to question the lack of evidence. This is the kind of blind loyalty dictators cherish and exploit to the full for their own selfish purposes.
ReplyDeleteTrump's refusal to accept defeat and to cooperate in the handover of power is something American did not want especially in the middle of a serious health and economic crisis brought on by corona virus. Whenever there are disputed elections results in Africa there are, more often than not, serious public unrest. It is everyone's hope that Trump and his supporters will finally accept defeat and let the nation get on with other pressing matters.
Our Beloved Members
ReplyDeleteZIMTA exists for many things.
Mostly to promote , advance and protect the needs of teachers, and as such we will not stand by and watch as some vulnerable teachers lose their jobs, or salaries, or livelihood, due to some undue pressure from unrecognized, unorganized social media groups who continue to urge you to break the LAW.
Please be warned, these groups will be nowhere to be found in your time of need.
Move with the professionals, move with US.
If being professional and patriotic means accepting the slave wages the teachers are being offered then the teachers may well accept that professionals and patriots live on air and water and nothing else. Indeed, whoever wrote this letter does not live on air and water alone but wants everyone else to try it!
@ Dudu Zwile
ReplyDeleteYou have completely missed the point.
“Show me where in Europe, where worse than this does not happen?” you argue.
In 1980, when the country gained her independence, it had well equipped and staffed hospitals and schools, there was clean water to drink and our sewage systems were working, etc. In the years since then we have not only failed to build on the infrastructure we inherited, and thus afford ourselves an even higher standard of living; we have failed to maintain the infrastructure we inherited. Our standards of living have plummeted.
Even if there are countries in Europe where the people are wallowing in shit, indeed even if the whole of Europe was one shit-hole. Are you saying it is ok for anyone in Zimbabwe to drink contaminated water use bush toilet in this day and age?
No wonder the country is drowning in its own shit! What else when it has men and women like you who are so shallow, thick and slow they cannot see what is happening before their own eyes much less imagine a better world. Whilst the developed world has advance so much they have developed the corona virus in just a few months we are yet to appreciated the folly drinking contaminated water. Shit!
Still, thank God there are a few people like Nomazulu and Prisca with a healthy and fully functioning brain, one only hope their voices will prevail over the thunderous noise of the braindead!
All dictators in Africa -including Emmerson Mnangagwa and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni are cowards and liars, social media analyst, Peter Mupondi has postulated.
ReplyDeleteMupondi notes that dictators cannot suppress the will of the people forever.
Read his argument below:
By Peter Mupondi
About All Dictators
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa included. ..
●They don’t take lessons from other fallen dictators
This is all very true but, it must said, it be little comfort to the people of Zimbabwe whose lives have been turned into a hell-on-earth after 40 years and counting of corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship. The people would want the dictatorship end yesterday or, at the very least, to hear a plan to end it a.s.a.p.
This wishy-washy claim that all dictators are cowards who will eventually fall sounds like the thing the dictator themselves would say to help perpetuate their rule. Mupondi has offered no solution, other than that we all wait for fate to take its course, to ending the dictatorship or he is suggesting of the urgent need to find a solution.
The people want solution of how to end the dictatorship and not excuses for doing nothing! Dictatorships thrive in those communities were people sit and do nothing waiting for outsiders or fate to intervene on their behalf. In November 2017 fate did intervene but only to replace Mugabe with another dictator, Mnangagwa.
Those who will not learn from the past are doomed to repeat the same foolish mistakes over and over again. We should be masters of our own destiny or have fate dictate a destiny for us. So far fate has decree Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic, we will swap one dictator for another but the dictatorship itself will remain!
Our situation is compounded by the fact that our corrupt and incompetent opposition leaders agree to participate in elections knowing the ruling party is rigging them. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters' roll for Pete's sake and yet MDC A and the rest of the opposition camp still participated in the flawed elections regardless. At least, Madam Khupe and others did not pull the Trump "elections were stolen" card as did the hypocrite Nelson Chamisa.
ReplyDeleteChamisa and the rest of the opposition knew Zanu PF was rigging the elections but they also knew Mnangagwa was giving away a few gravy train seats as bait to entice the opposition to participate. Chamisa and company found the bait irresistible and hence participated. Chamisa was making a big farce challenging the presidential result for no other reason than to get Mnangagwa to give up more of the spoils of power than the few gravy train seats. Chamisa was fishing for a power sharing arrangement in which he and a few other MDC A leaders would be given cabinet posts.
Ever sine the 2008 GNU, MDC leaders have all but given up on implementing the democratic reforms and free, fair and credible elections. They will participate in flawed elections for the sake of the few gravy train seats. They will pull the Trump card every time just to pressure the winner of the rigged elections to give them a bigger share of the spoils!
If the people of Zimbabwe are serious about get the reforms implemented, the nation holding its first ever free, fair and credible elections and thus finally end this curse of rigged elections and bad governance; the first thing they must do is accept the reality that MDC leaders will never implement the reforms. The people must search for other people who will carry out this key task!
It is tragic that in this day and age there are still millions of people with no access to clean and safe drinking water! According to a rest Auditor General's recent report, many people in Zimbabwe's urban centres are drinking contaminated water because the local authorities are failing to repair broken sewage systems timeously!
ReplyDeleteNo doubt, we UNICEF to help source clean drinking water in the rural areas and urban areas too. Whilst we still have UNICEF's attention, we also need help food the people and supply of medicine. And by the way, any donor assistance must ALL be channeled through the government and Zanu PF - the ruling elite will take their cut and the distribution must be through party line so only those who support the party will get assistance.
@ Zwile
ReplyDelete“Wilbert Mukori
“If your brain cannot help you see that Nomazulu Thata is also Prisca, then it means your whole analysis of life dynamics is warped.
“We are talking UBUNTU here. What is UBUNTU, HUNHU.
“HUNHU has nothing to do with quality of life or bush toilets and Palaces in Caucasia. HUNHU is care for each other.
“Ubuntu "You are, so that l can be", thus Ubuntu. Do not mix and mingle issues, you end up unheard.”
I do not care whether or not Nomazulu and Prisca are one and the same person just as you might be a monkey for all I care. What I am interested in what the individual said and not the individual per se. I am interested in the ideas and not the person!
HUNHU is what the British would call chivalry. And so to go back to Nomazulu’s original argument, one would not expect anyone with any morals befitting a knight to kill his own mother because she failed to make him a cup of tea!
Chivalry is synonymous with a knight in shining armour for good reason - some one who is care and thorough in their own person conduct is certain to be care and thorough in their conduct with other people and every other aspect of their life. And so someone wallowing in their own shit is likely to be a ruffian who would murder his own mother for a cup of tea!
@ Prisca
ReplyDelete“Wilbert Mukori, don’t argue with fools!!! Where ignorance is bliss its folly to call yourself wise. Can you not see that this Dudu Zwile is mentally challenged, avoid to sink so low to try to make him understand logic, he is challenged to understand it.”
I hear what you are saying but you and me have a very important task which we must fulfil without failure - saving Zimbabwe from the lunatics. Yes Dudu is mentally challenged; the double tragic here is that there are hundreds of thousands of other just like him and, worst of all, these lunatics have vote!
“If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.” — Samuel Johnson.
(Google the above quotation and select Dailycartoonist, it is a good read.)
Since we cannot take way the vote from these lunatics, the next best thing is to educate them which, in this case, means leaving them in no doubt that they are mentally challenged!
Bulawayo has been constantly recording an average of 10 cases daily for close to a month now and reports show that some of the affected are nurses from Mpilo Central Hospital.
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday, out of the three Covid-19 deaths that were recorded in the country, two were from Bulawayo. Also, of the total 384 Covid-19 cases that were recorded in the past week nationwide, 75 percent were recorded in the three provinces of Matabeleland with Bulawayo leading in terms of deaths.
The three provinces recorded 291 cases and Matabeleland North was leading with 121 cases while Bulawayo and Matabeleland South had 99 and 71 respectively.
Matabeleland North province which for seven months had the least Covid-19 deaths and cases in the country, shot to the top this week when 100 pupils at John Tallach Secondary School contracted the virus.
The real saving grace here is that corona virus has not been as deadly as Ebola otherwise we would have been in really serous trouble. The official number of covid-19 cases and deaths is very low but only because we have also carried out one of the lowest number of test per capita in the world. This is just like someone boasting that they were always in the top 5 in their class. It is only when you realise there were only 5 in the class that one begins to appreciate that figure on their own can be totally meaningless.
By failing to test as many people as WHO has recommended, it means many people with the virus have not been identified and isolated thus leaving them in the community to spread the virus. With the new surge in corona virus cases, one only hope the government will finally heed the WHO’s advice and increase the number of tests and stop the virus spreading!