A New Chapter for Zimbabwe

Continuing on in the current trent of inaugaurations, todays blog article will look at the situation in Zimbabwe and the hopes that the burdened nation is pinning on their new prime-minister. Morgan Tsvangairai took his oath yesterday in the capital city of Harare as some celebrated in the streets, hoping that this new face will usher in a new era and mark the end of the intense suffering for the people of Zimbabwe.

Not to put a damper on the festivities, for celebrating is probably what is needed most in a country too well known for war, but a report from the BBC today outlines concerns that are metaphorically reinforced by the inauguration ceremony. To quote the BBC report, which can be found here, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband says that “While Morgan Tsvangirai is acknowledging the crowds, behind him is a lurking figure and that figure is President Mugabe, who has tyrannised that country and bought it to its knees.”

Miliband could be speaking both metaphorically or literally in this case because, sure enough, it was none other than President Robert Mugabe who administered the oath and stands in the background; and lurking would not be the wrong word to use. The event was described as “smileless” and Mugabe denied Tsvangirai the opportunity of a national address, which was earlier promised to him.

This in stark contrast to the happenings in Washington just a few weeks ago where President of the United States Barack Obama gave a powerful speech (see The Blog Journalists’ report on this event here.) that was seen around the world. This is one case where democracy would be better served in the hands of less people, as Tsvangirai’s title as Prime Minister is contingent on his sharing of the power with Mugabe’s regime. Mugabe has proved himself a worthless leader, as evidenced by the revocation of his knighthood and several of his honourary degrees from various universities, and until he is truly gone from the picture Zimbabwe will continue to suffer.

However, the inaugauration of Tsvangirai as Prime Minister does have one major similarity to that of Barack Obama’s, and that is the theme of hope. Just as Obama’s inaugauration did not mark the end of the financial crisis or the trials invoked by the Bush regime, it did mark the start of a new era based on hope and vision; something to believe in. Today, this is why the people in Harare should be dancing. Mugabe may not be gone but the illusions he and his followers painted are fading. It will take years to bring Zimbabwe back to where it was in the 1970s and even that will not bring back the hundreds of thousands that have died due to famine and war, but amongst the quotes in the BBC article lie words like “cautiously optimistic”, “step forward” and an overall feeling of equality; another virtue Obama poignantly brought forth.

It was this feeling of equality that Tsvangirai very explicitly addressed when he finally got the opportunity to speak in front of a stadium full of hopeful Zimbabweans. I will leave you with this quote and the link to the entire speech which I can highly recommend reading.

“People of Zimbabwe, we face many challenges but we are brave and resourceful. By uniting as a nation and a people we can succeed. If you match our efforts with your own, we will succeed, if you match our desires with your own, we will succeed, if you match our dreams for Zimbabwe with your own, we will succeed.
At each point in our proud history we have looked forward not backwards, we have stood for hope not fear, we have believed in love not hate, and we have never lost touch with our democratic values or sight of our democratic goals.”
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=11428

Will Grassby

Obama: A Canadian'80s Perspective

Welcome back again. After a slow start to the year, the Blog Journalists are back on track and ready to return to our steady schedule of posts Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 5:00pm EST. We will be joined by new member Brent Densmore with a weekly post, as well as be unveiling some new features in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading, and remember to check back frequently. Now for Monday's post:

Five days after the eightieth anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the forty-fourth President of the United States. The fact that my father was not only alive, but almost a teenager when King was assassinated in 1968 is I think somewhat lost on my generation. The event is chronicled in our history textbooks, somewhere after Sputnik, and just before Trudeau. We cannot grasp the enormity of systematic racism or the civil rights movement from our Canadian'80s vantage point. That perhaps is a testament to how far we have come. Hopefully Barack Obama's ascension to the Oval Office is a further testament to that.

Much has been made about Obama being the first African American President, and this is indeed a significant event. But more importantly in our post-race world is the fact that he will be the first president born after 1946. He is fifteen years younger that W and Bill Clinton, and he is twenty-five years younger than John McCain. He is also younger than Harper, Brown, Sarkozy, Merkel, Rudd, Putin, etc, and he will be the first president since 1989 not to be named Bush or Clinton. While Hillary Clinton certainly had her own qualities and merits, it is important for America to embark in a new direction of the next generation. Dare I say 'Change'.

America is at a cross-roads. Before his term is even over, the title of 'Worst President' is being bandied about for Bush (much to Warren Harding's delight). Grappling with debts and recessions, wars and oil, and an international image that is not merely tarnished but thoroughly corroded, there is a lot on the plate of the incoming president. He campaigned on the promise of Hope and Change, and he is being heralded a savior world-wide. Kenyans were dancing in the street. These are extremely high expectations for a man entering the post under two foreign wars and a global recession. Will he be able to live up to all that is expected of him and all that is necessary of him? I believe he has the tools and the temperament to be unlike any leader we have seen for a long time, and certainly has a better shot at righting things than everyman moose-hunting hockey-moms. Reading passages from The Audacity of Hope just made me tingle with idealism.

Are we really living in a post-race world? Of course not. Despite what Stephen Colbert says, subtle racism, as well as sexism, streak through our society (just ask Prince Harry). Will Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton change that? Probably not. But him at the helm represents a chance for a new direction; a hope for change. There are watershed moments in history; moments when we stop running uphill and start bouncing down the other side. Just as the end of the First World War realized a new kind of warfare, 20 January 2009 will realize a new kind of president. One which we can believe in.

Russel MacDonald

A Broken Promise

The situation that is currently unfolding in Haiti (and when I say ‘currently unfolding’ I am referring to an ongoing phenomenon over the course of hundreds of years) is both sickening and unremitting. The collapse of the school La Promesse last week added to a string of events including four tropical storms that wiped out crops as well as the rising food prices that were the source of violence and a food crisis.

However according to Petionville's representative in Parliament Stephen Benoit the school that collapsed and killed 88 students and teachers in Petionville last week has apparently become nothing more than a symbol for the perpetual suffering that has become synonomous with “Haiti.”

In an interview yesterday Benoit referred to the school’s collapse as a “golden occasion to address this anarchic construction.”

Of course this event will draw attention to Haiti and the haze of corruption that hangs over the country but when did the death of innocent children become a symbol for moving forward? How will this event save Haiti where the inexorable violence of the past three centuries has not? (here is a link to an excellent article that chronicles a part of Haiti’s violent past: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_n5_v57/ai_13705082)

The sad truth is that the more than 2 million people in Haiti living in abject poverty have no reason to believe this event will spark anything more than a couple more days of headlines in developed nations before something more important to them takes over again.

What makes this story even more dispiriting is that the school “La Promesse”, which translates to ‘The Promise’ in English, was a school that was supposed to be a source of hope for many Haitians and their children. Families laboured and saved in order to pay the annual $1500 tuition fee to send their children to school and give them a chance in a country where almost half the population is illiterate.

Try to imagine for a minute living in a place with nothing and without any hope for the future but for your children to go and have a chance for something better.

Imagine saving every penny you had for years to send them to a place where they would get this chance.

Then picture this hope, this “promise” collapsing in front of your eyes. The place that you had spent your whole life working to send your child to becomes their grave.

After all of that try and picture reading in the paper that your representative in parliament called this event “a golden occasion” for the future of Haiti.
The death of those children does not symbolize any sort of opportunity for the future of Haitians. If anything the collapse of La Promesse symbolizes the loss of those who provided Haiti with a dream for the future.

This is a desperate situation but I am not trying to paint a demoralizing picture. Hope is important and trying to find positives, although very difficult, is absolutely necessary in the process of alleviating the destitution in Haiti. I just don’t think trying to use the deaths of innocent children as a positive is constructive, especially for those families grieving the loss of their beloved.

Will Grassby