Sewage and rotting garbage litter the streets as services and
infrastructure continue to crumble.
By Dzikamai Chidyausiku in Harare
(Africa Reports No 33, 10-May-05)
In Tafara, one of Harare's working
class suburbs, Cynthia Mutepfa wakes before dawn each day and walks three
kilometres to fetch water from a makeshift well alongside one of the capital
city's heavily polluted streams.
Cynthia, 22, places a 20-litre plastic
container on her head before tip-toeing through her back yard to avoid
stepping into the maggot-infested raw sewage that has flooded from the local
burst sewer tank.
She spends the best part of an hour jostling with other
desperate residents for a few gallons of water from the unprotected well,
which is just a mud hole dug deep to reach the water table beneath the
city.
The majority of Tafara's 100,000 residents have resorted to
drinking water from local streams fed mainly by water from burst sewerage
and drainage pipes. Cynthia, like thousands of others, last had tap water a
month ago.
"We have gone for months without guaranteed water. The burst
sewer pipes have not been repaired for two months," Cynthia told
IWPR.
Cynthia's story has become typical of that of Harare residents -
both in the city centre and the outlying townships - as water, electricity,
garbage collection and other services have entered
freefall.
Uncollected rubbish is even piling up in the central business
district. Side lanes and street alleys reek with rotting garbage that has
lain untouched for weeks as the ruling ZANU PF-appointed council fails to
collect the waste due to alleged mismanagement, which has been exacerbated
by the country's crippling fuel shortages and power station
breakdowns.
"We have no choice but to dump the rubbish anywhere we can as
the council has not collected any for the past two weeks," said Tinarwo
Makura, a resident of Highfield, one of the oldest of Harare's outer
suburbs.
Most city roads are riddled with potholes so big that small cars
could sink into them, while others are impassable because of huge holes dug
by the council in its bid to repair the continuously bursting water
pipes.
Raw sewage has been allowed to spill into Harare's main water
sources such as Lake Chivero, to the west of the capital, posing serious
health threats to all its residents. Environmentalists and health experts
warn that Harare is sitting on a disease time bomb.
Angus Martens, of
the upmarket Arcadia suburb's residents' association, told IWPR that
companies and residents alike had turned the small local Mukuvisi river into
a dumping ground.
"There are no council services to talk of," said
Martens. "Homeowners and companies have had to resort to dumping their
rubbish."
Schools are turning pupils away because there is no drinking
water or water to flush toilets. So desperate is the situation that a litre
of imported water is more expensive than a litre of scarce petrol, which was
heavily subsidised before the recent parliamentary election as a tactic by
the governing ZANU PF.
Observers believe that the government is now
frightened to end the subsidies for fear of accelerated inflation, already
running at an estimated 400 per cent. One celebrated cartoon shows robbers
holding up a man pushing a wheelbarrow-load of Weimar Republic-style cash.
The crooks demand that their victim throw out the worthless banknotes and
hand over the wheelbarrow.
Cars, buses and mini-bus taxis form long
snaking queues at petrol stations in the hope that a tanker load of fuel
might arrive. Zimbabweans have christened such lines of motorists "hope
queues".
As the water crisis worsens, some of the emergency wells and
boreholes on which people are dependent are beginning to dry up because the
water table is receding.
Janest Museve, who lives in the suburb of
Hatfield, said the water from her emergency well had suddenly turned cloudy.
"We are suffering," she said. "The water we used to get from the well is now
coming out very dirty."
Collin Gwiyo, deputy secretary general of the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, ZCTU, said, "Try to imagine waking up to
go to work and there is no water for you to bathe, no electricity to warm
your water up and cook food, then there is no transport to ferry you to
work? How many problems can befall a person? That is the situation we
arrived at in Zimbabwe."
The situation is a classic case of how failed
governance and political interference have led to the collapse of services
right across the country.
Similar stories are reported from many smaller
towns. In the mining town of Zvishavane, 300 km southwest of Harare, the
weekly Standard newspaper reports raw sewage flowing on the streets as a
result of unrepaired pipes.
In Marondera, southeast of the capital,
schools are closing because of water and electricity supply problems. "The
water cuts are unexpected and unexplained, and trying to find anyone in
authority prepared to talk about the problem, the reason or the expected
duration, is a complete waste of time," said Marondera resident Cathy
Buckle.
"A casual telephone enquiry about the daily power cuts to the
local electricity offices resulted in a flustered employee giving some
mumbled excuses about insufficient maintenance, no money for spares and no
foreign currency."
Harare residents attribute their city's crumbling
services to government meddling in the running of local authorities, which
has seen elected councils being eliminated for political
expediency.
The central government took control of Harare after voters
elected Elias Mudzuri, of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
MDC, as mayor in 2002. All efforts by Mudzuri to run the city efficiently
were blocked by the central government, which last year dismissed him and
appointed its own commissioners, handpicked by Local Government Minister
Ignatius Chombo, to run the capital.
Since then services have been in
freefall and nearly all the municipality's engineers have resigned and left
the country. Combined Harare Residents Association, CHRA, an umbrella body
for the capital's residents associations, blamed government's interference
for the crisis in the city, saying politics have taken precedence over good
governance in most local authorities.
"Since the appointment of the
government commission, service delivery has reached its lowest ebb," a CHRA
spokesman told IWPR. "Burst water pipes go unrepaired for weeks and the
problem of street lights has not been attended to, plunging streets into
darkness."
The commission's excuse for its failure to collect rubbish is
the shortage of fuel and the expiry of contracts signed with private refuse
collectors.
"The council has not collected refuse here for two months,"
Israel Mabhou, chairman of the Mbare suburb residents' association, said
angrily. "Our last option would be to carry these bins and the rotting
rubbish and dump them at [its headquarters]. We are sick and tired of their
excuses."
The situation is even worse in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second
city, which has an MDC mayor. The central ZANU PF government has refused him
and his city council all borrowing powers, making it virtually impossible to
maintain minimal services.
Meanwhile, the government has lambasted
the Bulawayo council for "peddling falsehoods" about mass starvation in the
city. The latter issued a report last year claiming that several residents
have died of starvation, as local grain production has collapsed and
President Robert Mugabe has banned international agencies from distributing
food aid.
Few people see an end to what is now a multiple crisis
resulting from collapsed industries, non-functioning infrastructure and
international isolation and sanctions.
An increasing number are as
despairing, as 36-year-old Harare resident Constance Goredema who, with her
nine-month-old baby on her back, told IWPR, "We won't live. We won't see
next year. We are going to die."
Dzikamai Chidyausiku is the pseudonym of
an IWPR journalist in Zimbabwe.
HARARE
- Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is in Mauritius today for
talks with Prime Minister Paul Berenger in a new effort to enlist the region
to help end Zimbabwe's crisis, deepening after a disputed election last
March.
A top official of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party told ZimOnline last night that his meeting with Berenger
was at the invitation of the Mauritian leader, who is chairman of the
Southern Development Community (SADC).
"The meeting is at the
invitation of Prime Minister Berenger who requested to meet the MDC
leadership to discuss the continuing crisis in Zimbabwe," said MDC secretary
general Welshman Ncube. MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda and party deputy
secretary general, Gift Chimanikire, are travelling with Tsvangirai,
according to Ncube.
Today's meeting with Berenger is the first
between the Zimbabwean opposition leader and any SADC head of state or
government since he pulled his MDC party from a South African-driven
mediation process aimed at finding a solution to Zimbabwe's political
crisis.
Tsvangirai and the MDC accuse South African
President Thabo Mbeki and his government of taking sides in the Zimbabwe
dispute after they endorsed ZANU PF's election victory despite what the
opposition says is clear evidence of rigging by Mugabe and his
government.
ZANU PF won 78 of the 120 contested seats with the MDC
winning 41 seats and an independent candidate taking the remaining seat.
With Mugabe appointing another 30 unelected Members of Parliament, the
ruling party now controls two-thirds of Parliament enabling it to
unilaterally rewrite Zimbabwe's constitution.
But Zimbabwe's
food and economic crisis rapidly deteriorated just days after ZANU PF's
landslide election victory.
Basic commodities vanished from most
shops, while in the few shops that still had a few essential commodities in
stock, prices more than doubled.
A five-year fuel shortage
worsened with most garages across the country without petrol and diesel
while Harare was plunged into darkness as the generators at the old Kariba
hydro power plant packed up due to shortage of spares while power supplies
from the Democratic Republic of the Congo were disrupted because of a
breakdown there.
Water tapes also dried up in most suburbs of
Harare because of a shortage of spare parts for water pumps and water
treatment chemicals.
The staple maize is also fast running out and
international food relief agencies are warning of a humanitarian disaster in
Zimbabwe in the coming months unless up to 1.2 million tonnes of the staple
grain are urgently shipped to the country. - ZimOnline
Tax collectors raid firms in bid to raise cash for food
imports Wed 11 May 2005 BULAWAYO - Government tax collectors have in the
last three weeks raided businesses demanding on the spot inspection of their
books to see if they were paying tax as the government battles to raise cash
for critically needed food imports.
A senior official with the
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), the state's tax collection arm, said the
revenue organ was under pressure from the government and from the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to probe all revenue paying businesses to ensure they
were paying tax.
The official, who spoke on condition he was not
named said: "ZIMRA is under fire from the government and the RBZ. The RBZ is
under pressure to raise money to import food and fuel. Hopes that tobacco
sales would boost our foreign currency coffers have left the country facing
a crisis with ZIMRA as the only source of revenue, hence this
pressure."
As well as inspect tax books, ZIMRA officials were also
examining financial records to ensure businesses were not earning money
through black-market deals and thus prejudicing the state of revenue,
according to the official.
An accountant with one of the
largest firms in Bulawayo narrated how ZIMRA officials barged into the
firm's offices demanding all audited statements of accounts, proof of
previous tax remittances and all receipts showing current and previous
business transactions.
"We were not prepared for them (ZIMRA) at
all. It is normal practice for them to make appointments before they visit,"
the accountant said. He added: "The two tax inspectors simply told me they
would be working from my office and that I was required to be present
throughout the audit."
But Industry and International Trade
Minister Obert Mpofu denied ZIMRA was under pressure to raise money for food
and fuel saying the ongoing inspection by the revenue body was a routine
exercise meant to ensure good corporate practice and accountability in the
business sector.
Mpofu said: "I can confirm that (the) tax
inspections are routine, regular exercises. It surprises me that when
Zimbabwe government carries out its duties diligently, it faces accusations
of (having) foul intentions, yet it is derided as a failure when it does not
enforce national regulations."
The company raids by ZIMRA comes as
the RBZ last week launched a similar raid of hotel and tour operators
inspecting their books to ensure they were declaring all foreign currency
earnings to the central bank.
Zimbabwe, grappling its worst ever
foreign currency crisis, must import 1.2 million tonnes of the staple maize
after poor harvests this year. Fuel, electricity and essential medical drugs
are already in critical short supply in the country because there is no
forex to pay foreign suppliers.
The government last month diverted
Z$5 trillion meant for capital projects to pay for food with ruling ZANU PF
party spokesman, Nathan Shamuyarira, declaring at the time that the state
was going to do whatever was necessary to raise money to pay for food. -
ZimOnline
Foreign donors giving much less aid to Zimbabwe: UN Wed May
11, 2005 1:11 AM BST
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Foreign donors are so
discouraged with Zimbabwe that it attracted just $4 (2.12 pounds) in outside
aid for every person with AIDS in 2004 compared to $74 on average in the
South African region as a whole, U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan
Egeland said on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe is one of a number of African countries
suffering from the triple threat of soaring AIDS cases, drought and "weak or
bad governance," Egeland said after briefing the U.N. Security Council on
the humanitarian situation in Africa.
But a lack of dialogue between
the government of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and potential donors
was also to blame for the country's poor showing in AIDS funding as well as
persistent food shortages, he said.
Danish Ambassador Ellen Loj proposed
that council members approve an informal statement expressing concern about
the situation in Zimbabwe but that was blocked when China and Algeria
objected, diplomats said.
The two countries argued that Zimbabwe's
problem was a humanitarian crisis that did not belong on the agenda of the
Security Council, which deals with international peace and security, said
the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Zimbabwe was once
a breadbasket for Africa but its economy has virtually collapsed during the
last six years and it now depends heavily on outside aid to feed its
people.
Critics blame Mugabe, who encouraged the seizure of white-owned
commercial farms, severely disrupting Zimbabwe's agricultural sector and
scaring off foreign investors.
The 81-year-old leader, who has been
in power since independence from Britain in 1980, accuses his domestic and
foreign foes of trying to sabotage the economy.
Egeland urged
Zimbabwe's government to cooperate with aid groups and better communicate
with potential donors to help address the country's food shortages. The
government is not doing enough to facilitate the work of teams sent to
assess food needs and humanitarian aid groups, he told reporters.
Zimbabwe fails to free 62 mercenaries involved in coup
plot
MICHAEL HARTNACK IN HARARE
PRISON authorities in
Zimbabwe have failed to release 62 imprisoned mercenaries whose jail
sentences ended yesterday, a lawyer for the men said.
The mercenaries,
all South African, were arrested in March 2004 for their alleged involvement
in a planned coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.
Jonathan Samkange, a
lawyer for the 62, said all of their names appeared on a High Court schedule
of prisoners who completed their sentences yesterday.
"According to the
record they should be released today," said Mr Samkange.
There was no
explanation from the Zimbabwean government as to why the men were not
freed.
The government blocked their earlier release by appealing against
a court ruling that would have suspended part of their sentences.
Mr
Samkange said he went to Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison outside Harare
early yesterday, when the men were due to be handed over to immigration
officers and South African diplomats, and deported.
He said he was
told prison commanders had gone to their downtown headquarters "on the same
issue".
"We are not getting any co-operation at all," said Mr
Samkange.
"Prisoners are normally released very early in the morning so
they can make arrangements to go home."
The men were arrested when
their chartered Boeing 727 landed at Harare, allegedly to collect weaponry
from a Zimbabwean government arms company en route to Equatorial
Guinea.
However, the 62 were acquitted of weapons charges.
Only
their leader, the former British Special Air Services soldier Simon Mann,
was convicted on those charges.
He has another four years to
serve.
Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of the former British prime minister
Margaret Thatcher and formerly a resident in Cape Town, pleaded guilty in
January to violating South Africa's anti-mercenary laws by unwittingly
helping bankroll the coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.
The men due for
release in Harare are reportedly in poor health, two having contracted
tuberculosis while in overcrowded and unsanitary cells.
By Brighton
Musonza Last updated: 05/11/2005 08:31:45 WITH a few weeks after a
disputed national poll returned President Robert Mugabe to power, Zimbabwe
is fast falling further into an economic meltdown amid a crippling shortage
of foreign currency, almost making a mockery of the swagger that followed a
fake two-thirds majority.
Fuel as well as the nation's staple food, maize
meal, and other basic commodities like cooking oil, sugar, margarine and
even toothpaste have run out of stock across the country.
Just a
glance at the quality of the recently appointed so-called 'Development
Cabinet' Ministers clearly shows there is no sign of hope for solutions to
the country's economic ills.
What is rather more intriguing is the
behaviour of the state propaganda machinery going all out to portray a
normal situation when all things are falling apart. In most instances, the
name of Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono is thrown around as a Messiah to
hoodwink the victims of his bush economic management.
President
Robert Mugabe appears jittery. He has no solutions, and hence he has
barricaded himself with loads of brainwashed retired soldiers and nephews
dressed as Cabinet Ministers and MPs to quell the voices of dissent. The
armed forces have been put on alert despite "a resounding two-thirds
majority" . "Look East" nonsense is now his last trump card as if that will
retrieve us out of this catastrophic mess. Why 'Look East' when we have all
the compass points?
Zimbabweans have been subjected to so many of
these tricks before. During ESAP and many of the failed so-called economic
reform programmes, we were told to tighten our belts and the same happed
with the "Land is the economy, the economy is land" when the massive
disruption of the agro industry took place in a kamikaze land
reform.
What is all this 'Look East' nonsense, anyway? Even Western
countries are also Looking East, and so is Latin America, obviously East
Asia is the region with the fastest growing economies, with China and India
at the fore-front and hence there is what the West now calls outsourcing
meant for the these regions. So in this respect, Mugabe should not use that
as the trump card for economic revival. He should come up with a clear
economic revival plan and not some spin or those "Gonometrics".
In
Africa, Chinese are only looking for raw materials, like scrap iron and
cement to build fast expanding factory shells which in turn are used by
Western companies penetrating into its industrial sector and then use it as
the launching pad for global marketing of Western products in Chinese names
to hoodwink the likes of Mugabes who live in the past. So in other words,
one could forgive Mugabe for his failure to understand the Globalisation
process for which China and India have become the major beneficiaries as a
result of their massive populations and cheap labour.
In fact China
is boosting its industrial base, moving its people from rural agro industry
into urban employment, while Mugabe is pushing for the opposite vintage
peasantry life in spite of a relatively dry climate. Last time we where
rallied to take up business opportunities in DRC, which was a lie, like the
spin before when we lost a fortune defending the Beira Corridor, for the
Feruka Oil pipe line which is still to realise its so-called strategic
importance as the country goes through massive current fuel shortages. Now
Zimbabwean soldiers are going to Sudan's Dafur peace mission and we could be
told to "Look for investment opportunities in Sudan.
Mugabe's answer to
our problems is to appoint retired Army Major Mike Nyambuya to be the
Minister of Energy in the so-called development cabinet. Certainly this is
not to circumvent the current energy shortages but just paranoia and
scare-mongering in the energy industry, hence we now have reports of
soldiers patrolling fuel service stations. Nyambuya's appointment follows
that of another retired Army Colonel Chris Katsande, who was Permanent
Secretary in that Ministry and is now manning price controls in the Ministry
of Trade and Industry and obviously not to improve anything. They are just
control freaks playing sentry duties for the President.
Many of the State
institutions from the Attorney General, the Head of Electoral Commission,
GMB General Manager to Governors are now filled by retired soldiers. Some of
these guys went to war as Youths in either ZANLA or ZIPRA and came back to
join the Army, Airforce or CIO and have been exposed to one way command
structures and now find themselves as Ministers of Trade or running
corporate entities answerable to the only Commander in Chief they have known
for years. I don't think that augurs very well for the development of the
country.
During the run-up to the last rigged election, there was
extravagant waste of the precious foreign currency on beauty pageant
contests, massive computer hardware imports handed out to the unsuspecting
public by the Emperor himself during the campaign. The Chinese support has
not been coming cheap either, with forced arms and aircraft purchases in
recent months.
All the local government infrastructure is falling apart,
and most of Zimbabwe's residential properties are depreciating in value due
to inadequate maintenance because of escalating costs of building materials.
Refuse collection has been abandoned, threatening the health of many City
dwellers.
The country is going through one of the major
de-industrialisation processes of modern times the few companies operating
have been pushed into the thriving black-market, which the regime and its
lack of sophistication find difficult to kill. The retail industry is slowly
dying and anyone could sell anything anywhere, a situation that could
compromise health and safety of the people who elect governments to protect
them.
The first quarter of the year has been historically the period in
which the country pays most of its bills through tobacco proceeds, but the
yield has been a joke as a result of a kamikaze land reform. Those few
courageous black tobacco farmers who had pumped in their energy into this
industry might think twice next year as a result of auction prices which are
more of a swindle.
The bill for electricity imports has just
spiralled in recent years when the so-called rural electrification programme
took off. This has created a massive surge in the demand for electricity and
hence so many black-outs which have hit hard on both the retail and
industrial sectors.
What is more fascinating is that while the global oil
prices have hit record levels of over US$55 per barrel resulting in every
country responding in raising the pump price, Zimbabwe has remained stuck in
the old price levels. South Africa has increased the pump price twice in the
last ten months, but the Zimbabwean regime would rather suppress inflation
by paying heavy subsidies, to win an election.
Most Zimbabweans in
the Diaspora are in a state of despondency and plans to go back home soon
have stalled following the "two thirds majority". The swagger in a fake
landslide victory has just turned out to be a smockescreen! Lets wait and
see as the Undertaker digs his own grave. Brighton Musonza is a student in
England
Kofi Annan's Nemesis Duncan Currie Tue May 10,10:00 AM
ET
Washington (The Weekly Standard) Vol. 010, Issue 33 - 5/16/2005 - IF
THE UNITED NATIONS Oil-for-Food scandal brings down Kofi Annan,
historians might fix the start of his fall at December 1, 2004. That's when
Minnesota senator Norm Coleman published a blistering Wall Street Journal
op-ed calling for the secretary general's exit. "As long as Mr. Annan remains
in charge," Coleman wrote, "the world will never be able to learn the
full extent of the bribes, kickbacks, and under-the-table payments that
took place under the U.N.'s collective nose."
Reaction to Coleman's
piece was swift. Within days, former U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke
summoned Annan and a coterie of liberal foreign policy types to his Manhattan
home for crisis control. Meanwhile, President Bush affirmed his confidence
in the U.N. boss. More recently, on March 29, Annan, asked whether he would
resign, ostentatiously said, "Hell, no."
But Coleman hasn't relented. The
Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which he chairs, has
completed two hearings on Oil-for-Food. A third hearing--scheduled to begin
May 17--will focus on Saddam's use of Oil-for-Food cash to bribe U.N. member
states and bankroll terrorism. According to Coleman, Oil-for-Food highlights
the world body's twin deficiencies: a lack of transparency and a lack of
accountability. He stands by his call for Annan's resignation.
Coleman
may seem an unlikely scourge of U.N. corruption. He's an
erstwhile Democrat--he joined the Republican party just nine years ago--who
co-chaired
Bill Clinton's 1996 campaign in the Gopher State and is
married to a Hollywood actress. But he's now the bane of Annan and other
U.N.-philes, and not just over Oil-for-Food. On the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, Coleman has become the most full-throated proponent of John
Bolton's confirmation as U.N. ambassador.
"Let's be blunt," Coleman
says of the Bolton spat. "This is about ideology." Republicans expected to
get Bolton's nomination out of committee weeks ago. But Sen. George Voinovich
(news, bio, voting record)'s unexpected soul-searching scuttled those plans.
And it gave anti-Bolton Democrats a chance to broaden their case against the
nominee. The thrust of that case--that Bolton can be abrasive with underlings
and allegedly bullied U.S. intelligence gatherers--has dominated the airwaves
and editorial pages ever since.
Coleman has endeared himself to Bolton
supporters as he's made the cable-news rounds of late, dueling with
Democratic senators Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Bill Nelson, and others. "I see
John Bolton as a tremendous potential ally," Coleman says. "You need a tough
advocate if you're going to change the bureaucracy of the U.N." He touts
Bolton's multilateral work to secure the repeal of the U.N.'s
Zionism-is-racism plank and to cement the 2002 Moscow Treaty on nuclear
weapons.
The Minnesota senator also regards Bush's tapping of Bolton as a
personal vindication of sorts. "The Bolton nomination is a very loud
statement," he says. "Clearly, Kofi has not been exonerated." Nor was Coleman
swayed by the second report of the U.N.-authorized Volcker committee, which
Annan brandished as an acquittal. Instead, Coleman expressed concern over
the Volcker team's "credibility and independence." He has issued two
subpoenas to a senior U.N. investigator, Robert Parton, who claims he quit
the probe because of its pro-Annan bias.
Such crusading has boosted
Coleman's image with GOP conservatives. Some liberals have even likened him
to former Republican senator Jesse Helms--who blocked payment of American
dues until the U.N. overhauled its bulky apparatus. Helms eventually got his
way. But Annan has thus far managed to parry Coleman's blows and keep his
job, partly because outrage over Oil-for-Food has yet to reach a fever
pitch.
Still, Coleman threw the floodlights on Annan's mismanagement. He
"put [Oil-for-Food] on the front burner," says Rep. Mark Kennedy (news,
bio, voting record), a fellow Minnesota Republican. "He did the most to put
it in America's public consciousness." Rep. Chris Shays, leader of the
House's Oil-for-Food inquiry, concurs. "Senator Coleman is a terrific
senator," Shays says. "He's very articulate and he's very aggressive--and I
think he's playing an important role."
But not everyone judges
Coleman's motives as pure. Critics paint him as a savvy opportunist. "Norm
Coleman is a politician's politician," says Mike Erlandson, chairman of
Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party. "This guy's driven by
ambition." Though he entered the Senate only in January 2003, Coleman has
climbed the GOP ladder with notable speed. Late last year, he narrowly lost
to Sen.
Elizabeth Dole in a bid to run the party's Senate campaign
committee. No doubt he aspires to a prime leadership position, and maybe
more.
But the Brooklyn native insists he's always been a reformer--even
when he was a Democrat. He cut his political teeth as a state prosecutor and
then as a reform-minded mayor of St. Paul. Elected to the latter office in
1993, Coleman set out to cut crime, cap property taxes, revamp city services,
and shepherd a pilot school-voucher project. Yet at nearly every turn, he
says, his own DFL party stood against change.
Coleman's
efforts--combined with his pro-life views and refusal to promote gay
rights--made him a pariah among DFL liberals. He was greeted with boos and
jeers at various DFL events, including the party's June 1996
state convention. The coup de grâce that convinced him to defect, Coleman
has said, was Democrats' opposition to welfare reform that same year.
Following the '96 election, he left the DFL. Or, as he puts it, "the
Democratic party left me."
Coleman, 55, says he brings the same zeal
to cleaning up the U.N. that he once brought to revitalizing St. Paul. So
much about the world body, he sighs, is risible. Zimbabwe, for
instance--Robert Mugabe's starving police state--just retained its seat on
the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Complains Coleman, "It's
absurd."
What else--besides
Iraq--looms large on his foreign
policy radar? Chiefly, Latin America. Coleman, who heads the Senate's Western
Hemisphere panel, points to "continuing instability," which he worries U.S.
lawmakers often ignore. He ticks off the Sandinistas' creeping return in
Nicaragua, the ousting of Ecuador's pro-American president, Lucio Gutiérrez,
and the fraying of democracy in Bolivia. Then there's pesky Venezuelan
strongman Hugo Chávez,
Fidel Castro's new best friend, with whom Coleman
met in Caracas for two hours in March. One of the region's few enduring
bright lights, he observes, is Colombian president lvaro Uribe, who has waged
a tireless war against narcoterrorists. "I'm a huge fan of Uribe," Coleman
says. "He is a great hope for the future of Colombia."
Might Coleman
be a "great hope" for the Republicans' future? "I'm not convinced that Norm
Coleman's ever faced a very difficult election," says Erlandson. But Ron
Eibensteiner, chair of the Minnesota GOP, likens his restoration of St. Paul
to Rudy Giuliani's transformation of New York. "I didn't really think St.
Paul had a chance to be revitalized," he explains. "Well, Norm Coleman proved
me wrong."
Coleman has ruled out a White House bid in 2008--he'll be busy
stumping for reelection to the Senate--but left the door open for 2012 and
beyond. "He definitely has the talent," says Eibensteiner. "And would I
encourage it? Absolutely."
--Duncan Currie is a reporter at The Weekly
Standard.
FROM AN AMERICAN FRIEND WHO SPENT SEVERAL YEARS IN ZIM....JOINED THE ARMY &
FOUGHT IN OUR BUSH WAR. HE HAS A BIG ATTACHMENT TO ZIM & NEVER TIRES OF
LOBBYING FOR THE
CAUSE. ____________________________________________________________________________ 4718
Ne 14th Place Portland , Oregon 97211-5022 Tel: 503 528
0151
Dear All,
My take on a nightmare called Zimbabwe. At wit's
end....
Blackmailed By The Past
Zimbabwe is replete with tragic
ironies studiously overlooked. April 18th marked 25 years of "independence"
for Zimbabwe. It's President for this quarter century has been Robert Mugabe
who blames "colonialism" for all of his country's ills including his own
premeditated destruction of a once vibrant economy. Once productive farms
were seized and some of the worlds best farmers tossed off their land via a
murderous terror campaign orchestrated personally by Mugabe. Almost
overnight these rich farms went fallow and millions of farm workers left
unemployed and at starvation's door. Yet the BBC reports ".a national park
was instructed last week to slaughter elephants in order to feed villagers
at last week's Independence Day celebrations." Ironic enough? The same
article reports that Zimbabwe is importing 1.2 million tons of
corn.
Violence
peaked in Zimbabwe two and half years ago, at the moment former Pres. Jimmy
Carter was receiving his Nobel Peace Prize- Dec. 10, 2002. Why ironic?
Because Pres. Carter launched a CIA war against Rhodesia in the late 1970s
and championed the candidacy of lifelong Marxist Robert Mugabe. In a recent
handwritten note to me Pres. Carter bemoaned the fact that his
protégé-Mugabe-recently called him and The Carter Center-"terrorists." All
because The Carter Center had asked Pres. Mugabe for permission to monitor
Zimbabwe's Mar. 31 election and was promptly ejected from Harare well in
advance of this latest stolen vote joke. Talk about "biting the hand." Hit
movie THE INTERPRETER portrays a highly educated, once good-gone bad-African
dictator who can only be Robert Mugabe. In the movie this murderous dictator
gets his comeuppance in the UN. But the real world United Nations just last
week RE-ELECTED Zimbabwe to the Commission on Human rights despite the fact
Zimbabwe has been kicked out of the British Commonwealth for human rights
violations and sanctioned by the European Union for human rights violations.
Europe and the USA slapped travel restrictions on Mugabe and all of his
henchmen more than a year ago. And Yet the US, Italy, Europe, and The
Vatican fell silent last month when good Catholic Robert Mugabe flew into
Rome (busting sanctions) for The Pope's funeral. To rub salt in Mugabe even
shook the hand of Prince Charles during a high mass. Late last year US
Secretary of State designee Condoleeza Rice, at her confirmation hearing,
named six countries as "outposts of tyranny" and added "America stands with
oppressed people on every continent." She named Zimbabwe as one of the evil
six. In her weekly column out of Zimbabwe two weeks ago Cathy Buckle said, "
.as we hurtle backwards into the dark ages." Yet the greatest irony is that
The West, blackmailed into stasis by a slaver or colonial past, empowers
Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe to enslave millions -Today!
Details of your web forum were forwarded to me by friends
living in South Africa. I am a South African living in the Scottish
Highlands.
I was very dismayed to read about the further demise of
Zimbabwe. It really sounds as if things have gone from bad to worse over
there. I have been in the United Kingdom for two years and other than
keeping touch with friends and family really do not know much about the
political situation in either South Africa or Zimbabwe. We do not much
international news over here. What concerns me about the letter written by
Eddie Cross is the fact that he states that South Africa "will have to step
in and pick up the pieces" and that South Africa is "largely responsible for
the situation". Have I missed something? How has it come about that South
Africa is "responsible"?
Surely the time has come to stop pointing
fingers and just get on with it.
I would appreciate it if you could put out a request for
me. I am a former resident of the Mount Darwin farming area and am putting
together a collection of stories about the Mount Darwin/Centenary East
farming areas-people, places, events, memories. This is a private venture and
not a commercial undertaking. We are looking for stories from those who lived
in these two areas-how they came to be in these farming areas, what
they remember of their lives there, any anecdotes etc. I can be contacted
at szczecin@dancris.com . All those
who have stories included in the publication will receive a free copy of the
final production.
Cheers
Chris Whitehead Editor-Rhodesians
Worldwide
magazine
During the course of making 8 moves in two years, we have mislaid
three very precious pictures - they are large Bella Forsythe portraits of
our three sons. Does anyone have them for safekeeping? We just cannot
think where they might be? Many thanks,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice for
Agriculture.
1.1
OFFERED: OFFICE/ADMIN MANAGER, received 13.4.2005
Specifications for this
job:
Good typing skills, good computer literacy, compiling
correspondence, good liaison skills with customers and staff, assertive and
firm personality, able to negotiate between suppliers and clients, self
motivation and work unsupervised, versatile, working calmly under pressure,
good social skills, knowledge of general office procedures, strong sense of
responsibility and loyalty in the working environment.
Please contact
Vanessa on 04-492 666 or 04-492 445 (office hours). aztec@zol.co.zw
· Within 2 hours of Lilongwe on good roads · Estate manager
position growing 200ha of tobacco on four sections with good Malawi
understudies · Competitive salaries with school fees and medical · Bonus
on performance · 2/3 year contracts subject to work permits · Start
immediately
Applicants will be short listed, and interviewed by the 20th
May e mail CV to admin@adas.co.zw
Attention Dave Hard copies drop at 2 Dorset Road east, Mt Pleasant before 12
noon
We have a vacancy for a senior bookkeeper to start
a.s.a.p.. Female environment, person should have a strong personality, and
able to work with no supervision. Please apply to reg@mweb.co.zw
A Sailing Club at Lake Chivero is looking for a
caretaker/ handyman. This job would ideally suit a retired farming couple who
may be lusting after the simple life. The Club is situated in a park like
setting with wonderful bird life.
The incumbent would be responsible
for the day to day running of the club and the supervision of a small staff
of 4 gardeners.Ideally his wife could look after the kitchen and provide
meals to an ever appreciative sailing community.
The incumbent would
obviously need to have there own car and as the telephone does not work a
cell phone would be an advantage.
Please contact
Charlie
Brooke-Mee phone 263-4-44492/3 485734 fax 263-4-485735 mobile 263-11
602 736 cbm@zol.co.zw
Ad inserted 10 May I am a divorced woman, ex farmer,
aged 49 and am looking for a position in Harare, will consider other areas
and outside country, as an Assistant Accountant/Bookkeeper or PA. Am
available immediately.
2.2
Ad inserted 10 May Man, aged 41, experienced in Production,Engineering,
Security, and Furniture, Seeks Position Please contact Rob Hardy on
091949625 or 305440(phone/fax). Available Immediately.
Lady,aged 30
experience in sales repping, is computer literate, is looking for a
receptionist, girl Friday job Please contact Fern on
011732084
2.3
Ad inserted 10 May We are looking for somebody to start as soon as possible
in the following position:-
Title: General Manager
Job: To be
responsible for all administration including the accounting (if possible),
personnel, marketing and sales, and maintenance of the vessel "Southern
Belle" based at Kariba. This vessel has 22 cabins of which 5 are executive
suites and can take up to 44 paying passengers on cruises on the Matusadona
game reserve shoreline. Guests are currently local, regional
and international but sales should be significantly expanded
upon.
Experience: Experience in the hotel or catering industry with
mechanical understanding is essential. Previous experience in running a
product in the local and international tourism sector essential.
Age:
Would suit a single male 30 - 40 or a married couple 45 - 55 who would be
based in Kariba.
Salary: To be negotiated with annual
bonus.
Company vehicle: To be provided.
CV's would be
appreciated.
Please contact company at our Harare office (11 Clarence
Drive, Newlands, Harare - tel. 776250 - Mrs Stephen or email interhol@mweb.co.zw) for further
enquiries. Please direct any CV's to myself personally if by email.
Thank
you.
Peter Dobson Chairman Zambesi Paddle Steamer (Pvt)
Ltd
HUSBAND WIFE TEAM - LOOKING FOR EMPLOYMENT We have
had the above couple working for us for approximately 2 years but with the
new wages are having to cut down on staff. We cannot release one without the
other losing. Regrettably they will go together.
Solomon is hard working
and very capable in both the house and garden - very honest and worked for
the previous owner for many years. Great with pets too.
His wife,
Sarah, is extremely hard working, willing to please. She does anything from
cleaning the house, washing, ironing and is not shy to work in the garden
too.
If anyone is able to offer this couple employment I would be very
grateful. They are available immediately.
Please contact Paulette on
011 606 671 or work
728098.
I have been working as a Receptionist, PA and as a
Secretary. I have had experience in several other fields, I am a hard
working, self motivated young lady, who would love to be given the chance to
be a Manager, as I know I have the potential for such a position. I am a
fast learner and I feel that I would be able to grasp any new concepts
quickly. Given the chance to work within your Company, I would be diligent
and loyal.