Thugs are dissatisfied with Mugabe. They were promised jobs. They were promised money. All they got was beer. So they are switching sides. And as a result of the switch, they are talking about the kinds of things they were hired to do.
"ZANU [Zimbabwe African National Union] used to get us to stay outside polling stations to frighten away the opposition. If the DC came, we would chase them away," Succumbs said. "But we never got the money or jobs that they promised us; all we got was beer."
...One member of the notorious pro-Mugabe youth militia known as the Green Bombers recalled an earlier campaign:
"They used to give us pills before we went to beat people, but never food. We beat up one old man, he must have been in his 60s, for criticizing the lack of development in the area. He kept apologizing, but none of us stopped. If you were not enthusiastic enough, you would be the next victim."
And opposition party members are not the only targets of Mugabe thugs (the ones who can live on beer); reporters who do not report good things about the ruling regime are also at risk. In fact, the story reported by the Washington Times notes that they are withholding the name of the reporter for fear that he may be the target of the corrupt government. In fact, two British journalists are in prison right now in Zimbabwe. The government claims they were arrested for working without accreditation.
What the hell does that mean?
Well, according to a Zimbabwean policeman, the reporter and his cameraman were arrested for illegally covering the election. Oh. Well. No Westerner either from the US or Europe was allowed to observe the elections either.
It would seem to me that despite the testimony of the disgruntled Mugabe thugs, no new elections are likely to occur. I mean who is going to order it? And if ordered, who is going to prosecute the order?
While there may be widespread criticism among the Western Democracies, there seems to be little if any criticism in Africa itself. The most disappointing example is South Africa President Thabo Mbeki who is telling critics of Mugabe and the election to just shut up already. And he made his remarks to a gathering of South African Communists.
Unless Britain decides to make a big deal of their journalists (and I mean a big military deal), or the people of Zimbabwe rise up against Mugabe in vast numbers, I don't see that there will be a big change there anytime soon.
And South Africa is not looking good either.
It appears that there are mass protests against Japan on-going in China. Japan blames China. China says "hey, what can we do? It's just the people expressing themselves. And you know, China is all about the 'people' After all, we had a 'people's' revolution." But as we know from the Tienanmen Square incident, protests don't happen in China unless the government wants them to happen. It seems that China doesn't like Japan vying for Security Council status, and they really don't like Japan making noises about a security agreement with Taiwan.
For its part, China says people are mad about a Japanese history textbook that glosses over Japanese atrocities during WWII.
But the crowds in China are getting violent and it would seem that Chinese police should be better able to prevent such violence.
But they don't seem to be interested.
Meanwhile, China and India seem to be getting along swimmingly.
Anna Nicole Smith was going to go to Newfoundland for PETA to protest the killing of seals, but she has canceled since she learned that she may be mistaken for a seal by the seal hunters. I can see it... In other animal-friendly news, scientists searching for a rare bird in Borneo can't find them because the residents there eat them. Can't be too rare....
Two school reporters in Canada are suspended for taking pictures at a school event and publishing it. OK, so the picture was of a stripper who was only wearing a chain-mail bikini, but she was a "presenter" at the school approved event. And if the school didn't want the pictures published in the school newspaper why did they have the event at all?
What was the event you ask? The Students’ Union’s Sexual Health Awareness Show of course.
