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What’s a Gecko’s
worst enemy?
Insecticide? No.
It may irritate, but so does Collins Mbesuma when he doesn’t score
goals.
Armed robbers
stealing his brand new cars and getting shot at in the process. Yep,
all this happened when I strayed to Thabo Mbeki’s South Africa or
Azania, as we used to call it in our day before Frederick de Klerk
came along freeing Nelson Mandela, raising the curtain for the birth
of a rainbow nation.
That was a very
memorable event in history and I – yes, I, the Gecko - sighed with
relief that the struggle was all over, recalling his long walk from
Kitwe to Lusaka in protest against apartheid.
With the sound of
bullets still ringing in my ears I wondered whether the struggle is
really over. These were fellow black men shooting to relieve me of
life and property! What has gone wrong?
It appears there
is a new struggle for the restoration of the Black South African’s
inheritance that was denied to him through years under the
inequalities of the apartheid rule.
The second decade
of black majority rule still has not brought the desired harvest to
the Black South African and the natives are getting restless –
homicidally restless.
That is the
essence of President Mbeki’s caution to Afrikaaner landowners to
sell part of their huge tracts of land to black people before the
ANC government forces them to “Mugabe-esque”.
Maybe not in the
same manner that President Robert Mugabe conducted his land reforms,
but in a gentler, persuasive and firmer way.
However, it
appears the white farmers in South Africa do not appear to be the
“willing sellers” the government expects them to be.
If this is not
handled properly, another struggle will be born in South Africa that
will despoil the rainbow nation.
I am not sure what
is wrong with our white counterparts in the human race. If they are
not refusing to sell land, they are drawing cartoons that
‘blaspheme’ Prophet Mohammad and causing great conflagration in
Europe and around the world.
I think Robert
Mugabe now understands the meaning of the Apostle Paul’s famed
“Thorn in the flesh” – it was neither an affliction nor a moral
dilemma. It must have been white farmers!
Zimbabwe is an
economic shambles all because of how the white farmers were treated
and the threat looms large on poor Thabo Mbeki. Maybe that is why he
has been reluctant to come down hard on Mugabe’s excesses.
The man has the
same war on his hands – the struggle to apportion inheritance to its
rightful owners without disturbing the sensitivities of the
Godfathers of colonialism – whoever they may be!
That is exactly
what Mugabe has done and his countrymen are going through
immeasurable economic anguish. When I passed through Zimbabwe a few
days ago, I was shocked to find that the exchange rate of the United
States dollar against the Zimdollar was Z$150,000 for US$1!!!
But President
Mugabe does not appear to be anywhere near capitulation and he is
now pursuing what he calls the “Turn East Policy” in which he is
finding alternative economic assistance from China and the Far East.
Moves are already
underway to make Chinese compulsory in Zimbabwean public schools.
Can’t imagine my children speaking Chinese, but hey, let him use
whatever is clever for Zimbabwe.
The West must
however be wary of pushing Mugabe any farther east than he is
already, because he might just fall deeper into some rich, powerful
rogue country’s hand or sphere of influence – like some terrorist
haven in the Middle East.
The new
colonialism is really about annexing markets, rather than colonies
in the old fashioned sense and Zimbabwe is a significant portion of
the SADC market.
Zambia must also
be wary, especially in its zeal to attract direct foreign
investment. The government has been allocating huge tracts of land
to investors with some getting as much as 10,000 hectares. That is
landmass bigger than Manhattan, New York!!!
Future generations
may have to grab back some of this land.
Enough about white
farmers!
Talking about
terrorists, the United States appears to be taking the threat of
terrorism so seriously that they have instituted measures that allow
state security agencies to intrude in private communications.
The British
government has suffered a setback when the House of Lords voted to
thwart an attempt to make fingerprinting compulsory on
identification documents. This would have entailed the insinuation
of Radio Frequency identification chips that would enable it to
track its citizens.
Critics of the
move said it has the potential of creating a snooper’s paradise.
The West is so
pre-occupied with snooping to catch its terrorists that they are
also planning to catch anti-social behaviour and drug-taking on
state and council premises using motion sensitive cameras placed in
flower pots, lights and fake electricity boxes.
Who can blame the
new Venezuelan government for being paranoid about even the
slightest American presence in the Central American country?
But ultimately,
the bells toll to herald the much prophesied apocryphal digital age.
Omens of 6-6-6 become real.
Well, the Gecko is
on his way down under – to Australia. Let’s wait and see what he
sees from his spot on Aussie walls. |
March
2006