Feb 12 2009
Zimbabwe is Not an Ordinary Country, British PM says
One main expectation for the future of Zimbabwe was that once the unity government became functional, the international community, especially the European Union and the United States (because it doesn’t get more international than that) would start assisting the country struggling country as it began the economic recovery process. In a potentially sad turn of events, one of the key players in matters concerning Zimbabwe, Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, has said that Zimbabwe is not ordinary enough to attract aid at this time.
Reuters News Agency has revealed that in order to be treated as an ordinary country, Zimbabwe has to make “as series of reforms”. The swearing in of Morgan Tsvangirai was not enough to convince the Western world that change had come. As long as Mugabe is the president, there is not telling that things would be ordinary in Zimbabwe.
In a dialogue with the new Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Brown says he said:
“I also said to him that until the government of Zimbabwe could convince us that there were going to be free and fair elections and … the removal of repressive legislation and clearly the release of political prisoners, until these things happened, we could not treat Zimbabwe as if it was an ordinary country.”
Things are indeed not ordinary in Zimbabwe. Unemployment is above 90 percent, prices spiral daily, the is dire need of food aid and a cholera epidemic has killed above 3,500 people. If by not ordinary, Brown was referring to these conditions, it would seem that Zimbabwe needed support immediately, but what’s not ordinary is the nature of this unity government that allows a leader who has ruled for 29 years to share power, raising doubts that there will be any real change in the country.
However, should the lives of many continue to be in danger over a squabble ( real of imagined) between Mugabe (real or feared) and Gordon Brown? And indeed things are not ordinary in Zimbabwe, but the extreme effects of the unusual situation are felt by the ordinary people in the country, not by Mugabe, Tsvangirai, or Brown.
