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(TALKZIMBABWE) US cannot lecture Zimbabwe on democracy

US cannot lecture Zimbabwe on democracy
By: Nancy Pasipanodya
Posted: Monday, July 5, 2010 11:08 pm

UNITED States Minister of Foreign Affairs (or Secretary of State, as they would like to call her), Hillary Clinton recently made some ridiculous statement about Zimbabwe not being able to protect its own citizens.

Following in the footsteps of former president George W Bush's famous "Axis of Evil" speech, the U.S. chief diplomat said Zimbabwe, Iran and Egypt are countries that are responsible for "crushing democracy".

Why has she chosen to replace North Korea with Egypt in that trilogy?

In true Godfather (or Godmother style) she made this statement while on a visit to Poland, where she oversaw the signing of a key missile base agreement.

As a Zimbabwean, I am getting really tired of these useless statements by the western world. For the last ten years these countries have imposed sanctions that have crippled Zimbabwe's economy and killed millions of innocent civilians.

They do not have the moral high ground to talk about human rights and democracy in Zimbabwe, or elsewhere for that matter.

Through a protracted liberation war (Chimurenga) against white supremacy, Zimbabwean freed themselves, not the U.S.

They fought for democracy and brought it to that country with the help of China, USSR and the eastern bloc.

In fact, the west -- who now grandstand about democracy -- helped the extreme Right Wing government of Ian Douglas Smith to prolong white supremacy in Zimbabwe; and that of PW Botha and his predecessors in South Africa.

They, therefore, cannot preach about democracy in Zimbabwe or Africa, given their chequered history.

They know nothing about freedom of, and for, the African people.

As much as the government in Zimbabwe is not perfect, the crescendo about Zimbabwe is really about western countries' desire to control that country's mineral wealth.

They have not been able to do so because of President Robert Mugabe; who is ever alert to the manipulations of the western world.

No amount of public diplomacy by the U.S., E.U. and their allies will alter our view of what is just and what is not.

In any case, the U.S. and other western countries have appaling human rights records themselves. Just look at Guantanamo Bay, Afghanstan, Iraq, etc.

Furthermore, America treats its black population very badly, most of whom end up in jail and death row.

We all know how G.W. Bush treated black people after Hurrican Katrina and how successive administrations have failed black people in the inner cities (in Brooklyn, South Central LA, etc.).

Please Mrs Clinton stop these double standards.

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Nancy Pasipanodya is a stringer for the Zimbabwe Guardian.

Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM

posted by MrK @ 3:52 AM