If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Read the community guidelines before posting ✨
Options
Is this finally the end for Robert Mugabe?
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
Zimbabwe's plight in recent years has been absolutely terrible. Thanks to the disastrous rule of Robert Mugabe, the country is now an absolute basket case. If you've ever wondered what a failed country looks like, here it is. Inflation is so bad now that nobody knows for certain what it actually is. During the summer, there were estimates that it was running at over an eye-watering 200million percent! :eek: So how are they dealing with this rampant hyperinflation? Why, Mugabe is getting the central bank to print money like it's going out of fashion. On Thursday, the AFP news agency reported that a Z$100million note has been introduced circulation. If this is currently enough to buy a loaf of bread, it probably won't be within 24 hours time. It's that bad.
To make things worse, the country has got a massive outbreak of cholera. According to the United Nations and the World Health Organisation, around 500 people have already died. There is considerable evidence that the Zimbawean government has been lying about the true extent of the outbreak - only now are they practically begging for help. According to the Beeb; "The UN Children's Fund in Zimbabwe says it is preparing to deal with a possible 60,000 cholera cases in coming weeks, four times current official estimates. The Unicef chief in Harare, Roeland Monasch, said such a jump could bring the number of deaths to around 3,000. Official figures say nearly 600 have already died from the disease but aid agencies fear the toll could be higher."
This is a truly dreadful catastrophe. The outbreak has also spread into neighbouring countries, and their governments - which were previously supportive or sympathetic towards the Mugabe regime - are furious. At home, politicians and public figures are openly calling for him to be removed from power. More from the Beeb; "Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe should be forced out of office, the Archbishop of York has said. Writing in the Observer newspaper, Dr John Sentamu called for Mr Mugabe and his allies to be overthrown so they could stand trial in The Hague. Dr Sentamu added: 'The time to remove them from power has come.' Earlier, Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged the world to tell Mr Mugabe that 'enough is enough' amid growing concern over the country's cholera outbreak."
It's about bloody time you showed some leadership over this, Gordon. But what can we actually do about this? Obviously, we must help Zimbabwe over this - we can't leave innocent people to die from this horrific, deadly disease. The fact remains though that Robert Mugabe's regime has left the country utterly desolate. How on earth can we remove this brutal, murdering regime?
Answering my own question... I'm really not sure. I think that neighbouring African regimes will have their role to play in this. I know that Britain shouldn't fear looking like some former colonialist power over this, that's for sure. This is far more important. To date, Nick Clegg is the only party leader to call for military action to remove him. I'm sympathetic to such calls - although there is the issue of how over-stretched our military already is. What to do...
To make things worse, the country has got a massive outbreak of cholera. According to the United Nations and the World Health Organisation, around 500 people have already died. There is considerable evidence that the Zimbawean government has been lying about the true extent of the outbreak - only now are they practically begging for help. According to the Beeb; "The UN Children's Fund in Zimbabwe says it is preparing to deal with a possible 60,000 cholera cases in coming weeks, four times current official estimates. The Unicef chief in Harare, Roeland Monasch, said such a jump could bring the number of deaths to around 3,000. Official figures say nearly 600 have already died from the disease but aid agencies fear the toll could be higher."
This is a truly dreadful catastrophe. The outbreak has also spread into neighbouring countries, and their governments - which were previously supportive or sympathetic towards the Mugabe regime - are furious. At home, politicians and public figures are openly calling for him to be removed from power. More from the Beeb; "Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe should be forced out of office, the Archbishop of York has said. Writing in the Observer newspaper, Dr John Sentamu called for Mr Mugabe and his allies to be overthrown so they could stand trial in The Hague. Dr Sentamu added: 'The time to remove them from power has come.' Earlier, Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged the world to tell Mr Mugabe that 'enough is enough' amid growing concern over the country's cholera outbreak."
It's about bloody time you showed some leadership over this, Gordon. But what can we actually do about this? Obviously, we must help Zimbabwe over this - we can't leave innocent people to die from this horrific, deadly disease. The fact remains though that Robert Mugabe's regime has left the country utterly desolate. How on earth can we remove this brutal, murdering regime?
Answering my own question... I'm really not sure. I think that neighbouring African regimes will have their role to play in this. I know that Britain shouldn't fear looking like some former colonialist power over this, that's for sure. This is far more important. To date, Nick Clegg is the only party leader to call for military action to remove him. I'm sympathetic to such calls - although there is the issue of how over-stretched our military already is. What to do...
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
0
Comments
As for mugabe it is a perfect example of what you can achieve by controlling the media and the state in the way he does.
If things go wrong, and i mean disasterously wrong, just blame it on the british and the americans. Oh my and if he actually offer to help sort out the problems, he threatens that we are coming to invade the country.
So much for the take back of farms from the white folk, doesnt seem to have done the farming too much good over there.
Im with SG on this one, i really hope this is the end for him, why on earth someone didnt just send a crack squad in there to shoot him long ao is beyond me. Supposedly the only reason he is in power still, is because the country is run by the military with him as a figure head.
Once this situation gets really bad and the money dries up completely, hopefully he will go, but never soon enough.
Support for the regime was dwindling by the day. Yet like in Zimbabwe today, the military and the police crushed dissent and kept order because the regime was looking after them. They were given plenty of food and money in return for propping up the regime. Dictators like Mugabe will never go voluntarily. After all this time, he has turned into a power crazy, blood-thirsty despot. This last week alone, there have reportedly been around 13 protests in Harare against the government. All of them have been broken up by the police, often with very violent methods including beatings.
Mugabe may be a lot of things, but he's not stupid. He's an extremely highly educated man - he has several degrees obtained through a mixture of long-distance learning and university education. Altogether, he has around 7 degrees, two of them in Law. He's an incredibly clever man, and he knows fully well who supports his regime. The moment he does something to upset the military, they will turn against him and he'll be finished. Unfortunately, with a man of Mugabe's enormous intellect, it's simply not enough to hope he'll bring about his own end.
I'm beginning to suspect that military action may be the only way to get rid of him. I think it will have to be done through the United Nations as quickly as possible.
And who is going to put the troops in? We certainly cant, we are unsuccessfully fighting two wars already.
The Americans havent got the troops to spare, or the money to spend.
Lets face it if the economy hadnt taken a nose dive we probably would do something about Zimbabwe, but now we've all got more important things to think about.
They will starve, get disease and die because although we care we dont actually care enough to do anything about it. But then that's the lot of poor people in loads of other countries too.
I mean, it's worked before, right?
That is the same solution that the world's central bankers are advocating and most people seem to support. Those central bankers call it "adding liquidity to faltering financial markets" or other such nonsense.
They all want to be Gideon Gono.