US has never been a paragon of democracy
AS much as my health is not at its best today and would have preferred staying far away from the pen, the most recent outbursts and ranting by the perennially and inherently unrepentant, brutal, barbaric and corrupt Zimbabwe regime as it celebrated and ridiculed the shameful and savage acts exhibited on Wednesday by outgoing United States President Donald John Trump’s rogue supporters injected in me a bout of energy to write something about such madness.
The only thing that I could visualise in my mind were images of a remorseless serial rapist and murderer who has the repulsive temerity to mock and laugh at a robber caught red-handed breaking into a bank.
Indeed, these would be two criminals, who both deserve the full wrath of the law because they do not deserve to live among a civilised, peace-loving, and progressive people.
But for the unapologetic, unreformed, and possibly “unreformable” serial rapist and murderer to even utter a single word of mockery towards the bank robber would be nothing short of the most pathetic arrogance and hypocrisy.
Surely as much as the bank robber could have been at the forefront of condemning the serial rapist and murderer’s “hard-to-forgive” despicable, villainous, and sadistic activities, yet was eventually also caught “with his own pants down” breaking into a bank — what would give the serial rapist and murderer the audacity to rant and rave over this arrest of the robber?
Any normal person possessing even the slightest iota of conscience would be expected to keep gravely silence, and pretend as if he had no knowledge, whatsoever, of what transpired with the bank robber, as opening his mouth, most particularly in derision, would only serve to turn the tables of this same mockery against him.
In relation to the recent events in the US, no one with any shred of honesty can sincerely deny that that country never held any moral high ground to judge or teach anyone on democracy considering its own checkered history of slavery, denial of AfricanAmerican as well as those of the indigenous American, human rights, questionable electoral system (that is clearly driven by sinister interests of the deep state, Wall Street, and other major financial players).
However, it betrays any sanity and sense for a country that has used its military to ruthlessly butcher thousands upon thousands of its own innocent and unarmed citizenry, fraudulently “won” every election since attaining independence from Britain in 1980 (through a clearly uneven and unfair electoral playing field, State media bias, deployment of ruling party militias and security forces to intimidate and brutalise citizens, and opposition supporters, and abuse of traditional leaders in coercing rural villagers to vote for the ruling party, as well as provisions of food aid, and agricultural inputs on partisan basis), on top of the continued persecution of human rights activists and investigative journalists, to deride any other country.
Now, can the latter seriously have the guts to compare themselves to the former, let alone deride?
The adage “the kettle calling the pot black” does not even apply in this regard — since one is clearly were more “blackie” than the other.
If the setting was a prison complex, the latter would be on death row awaiting the electric chair while the former would be lounging behind some maximum security walls, serving possibly 20 to 50 years of hard labour, especially if we were to consider both these characters’ activities over the past four decades, as that was when our own Zimbabwe administration was born.
The conduct by Trump’s supporters leaves a lot to be desired, and has further demeaned the already unenviable and tattered global image of the US — something that every peace-loving, democracy-respecting, and civilised person on this globe should unequivocally condemn — needless to say, a rogue regime notorious for its own far much worse cruelty and heinous disdain for anything democratic, and pro-people, should rather shut up!
The Zimbabwe regime has already perfectly managed to make a complete nuisance of itself for far too long, and commenting on the hooliganism and anti-democratic antics in the US, and Trump, would only make those in power in this country appear doubly foolhardy, hypocritical, and unrepentant, unless of course if they want to prove to the world that they both deserve to be cast in the abyss of the “axis of evil”.
The people of Zimbabwe who have endured immeasurable and unrelenting oppression, brutality, and injustices at the blood-dripping hands of the ruling elite will never be taken for fools by these embarrassing acts of deception.
We have suffered enough, and no amount of mocking and ridiculing the US can ever substitute, cleanse, or whitewash the pain, abuse, and impoverishment that the Zimbabwe opportunistic ruling clique’s 40-yearold reign of terror has unleashed upon us.
If there is anyone in doubt, let us invite the largely oppressed and segregated African-American population to exchange places with dehumanised and poverty-striken Zimbabweans — and, we see how many will eagerly take up this offer.
Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist, writer, author, and speaker. He can be contacted on WhatsApp/Call: +263733399640 / +263715667700, or Calls Only: +263782283975, or email: mbofana. tendairuben73@gmail.com. He writes in his personal capacity.