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(TALKZIMBABWE) Zimbabwe and the West: reproduction of false consciouness

Zimbabwe and the West: reproduction of false consciouness
By: Susan Nyadire
Posted: Wednesday, November 17, 2010 9:55 am

Let me begin my second instalment with a disclaimer. When I decided to write a piece about my experience in Zimbabwe, having emigrated from the country in the 1990s it was not for some narcissistic reason, but because I sincerely hoped that many young people of my age would benefit from my experience.

The barrage of criticism and the abuse I got was shocking. The vitriol that was spewed at me was ridiculous, to say the least, but most of it was downright ignorant. My second instalment will be dedicated to those people; and I will revert to my experience in Zimbabwe at a later stage.

We never left Zimbabwe “running away from Mugabe”. In that regard, our story does not fit the stereotype. My father, having won the Green Card Lottery, saw the opportunity to spread his wings, and learn from other cultures, so all those who wrote saying we had fled the country were wrong.

Not everyone outside Zimbabwe “fled” the country as some people would want us to believe.

Those who said I should go back to Zimbabwe because I support Zanu-PF and Mugabe, I want to tell them that I can do a better job from here; thanks for the offer.

For me, going back to my roots was important, for personal reasons, and I truly immersed myself and took the opportunity to learn about my culture and my people; and that is the experience I shared.

Those who wanted to hear the typical anti-Mugabe, anti Zanu-PF or anti-government story should look elsewhere. That is not my experience and will not do it for expedience, for money or for popularity.

The Zimbabwe I saw, albeit in a short time, was very different from the Zimbabwe that exists in the media and in the minds of those ignorant enough to believe the tabloids in the U.S. that are under pressure to make money by selling the best “bad news”.

We live in an age of the media and we have to appreciate that journalists are under pressure to bring that one big story. They compete with bloggers, commentators, Facebook, and other social media and citizen journalist spaces for that one juicy story.

Zimbabwe satisfies that thirst, having so many juicy stories concocted by a naive media, oftentimes controlled from America and Britain.

The country has probably the largest deposit of diamonds, has a strong president who speaks boldly and fearlessly against leadership in the West ('tiny dots', etc) when everybody else is being politically correct, has an inflation rate that can go to billions of figures and go down to a single digit in less than a year.

It has the highest literacy rate on the continent, and has embarked on a redistribution exercise that will shift power and resources from white people to black people and set a precedent for indigenous peoples' rights across the globe; at a time when the Western world is in decline and in serious need of resources and new markets to sell their products.

Today America produces a lot of cell phones, cars, watches, computers, and other goods. Yet the country cannot consume those products. The producing companies are going under as demand falls sharply. People are losing jobs fast – 28 to 42 million service jobs have been shifted offshore to China, India and other places in the Far east.

Foreclosure wars are raging on and people are losing their houses faster than ever before.

Many states are filled with ghost towns; in Eastern Colorado, in Cleveland, Louisville – the reality has become a brutal testimony to the financial catastrophes the US is currently enduring.

The diminishing of America is now a social psychological problem as well as an economic problem.

The traditional views of the nation are being replaced by an ugly, uncompromising economic reality in which the American Dream is now a non-issue.

Even more startling, the “service economy” which replaced the industrial economy is also vulnerable to off shoring, creating a "non-economy".

This is the America which is juxtaposed against a resurgent Zimbabwe, and a rsising Far East. America and Britain are 'Looking East' and are printing money (albeit cosmetically calling it 'quantitative easing').

It is against this background that we fight the tight media wars and it is not surprising that those who control the media - the establishment - would want you to believe that Zimbabwe is the worst place to live. It simply isn't.

No matter how one looks at the Zimbabwean situation, it is a classic case. How can all these things happen in a tiny, landlocked country? Why is there so much interest in this country? I will not answer this question. I have my curiosities, but will keep those to myself.

Each one of us should examine the situation closely. On November 11 America celebrated Remembrance Day paying respect to heroes of the First World War.

November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 50 days remaining until the end of the year.

While we have 50 days to reflect on what we want to do for the rest of the year, I was disheartened to hear that in Gary, Indiana, former Rhodesian fighters were celebrating the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Ian Smith from Britain on the same day (11 November 1965). This is their independence, not ours.

They had all the gun salutes and wore their uniforms proudly.

In Zimbabwe a different story was happening. There were people who were laughing at, and drawing cartoons of, our war veterans calling them names.

One can never be free until they free their mind. That’s why there are many wailing Zimbabwean souls in cyberspace today. Tendai Mwari nemadzitateguru enyu (Honor God and your ancestors), as my dad would say.

________________________
Susan Nyadire is a High School teacher in Wisconsin, U.S. She teaches mainly sophomore and junior students. She can be contacted via: susannyd *** yahoo.com

Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM, PROPAGANDA

posted by MrK @ 11:22 PM