Part 2
Aaron Gono
I am surprised by how African governments are scrambling for the latest technologies from the West. Now Elon Musk (technology guru) is now a leading member of the Republican Party despite the Democratic Party calling him a “spoiled apartheid pickaninny baas” from South Africa.
They were planning to deport him back to South Africa because he didn’t have a work and permanent resident permit to work and sponsor Donald Trump.
Unfortunately next year he will be calling the shots and working hand in hand with the US State Department. And Zimbabweans are now in a huff buying Musk’s Starlink internet kit. The security risk of Zimbabwe is now very high, as most public officers use this facility. Firstly when the Zimbabwean government banned it, l was so excited, only to learnt later that Elon was welcome” to do whatever he may deem necessary” in the country.
All western companies are coerced to work with their governments as a protectionist maneuver. They have succeeded long back by their mainstream media houses, which always whitewash their leviathan ways. From 1990 every person wanted to be part of the global village. But now “third worlders” have realized that it was only a tool of subjugation and a ruse.
Everything we do is monitored by the “big brother,” every transaction the Zimbabwean government performs is passed and confirmed by it. If you misbehave like Russia, you are quickly sanctioned and all your money reserves frozen and labelled an “axis of resistance.” This is done in Brussels, Belgium but enforced by the USA.
So the political freedom third world countries enjoy is null and void. You are now worse than you were under the British Empire. The American empire wants to cook and eat its lunch alone. It pays no heed to anybody ; even the European Union dances to its arbitrary whims.
So how can African countries free themselves from this economic bondage we are entangled in? Recently the Zimbabwean government’s attempt to rejoin the Commonwealth family we grudgingly left in 2003, was snubbed by some myopic racists at 10 Downing Street. Why are Zimbabweans being punished?
By being excluded from the Commonwealth means more economic opportunities, we are missing as a country. If you only target “Die Groot Krokodil” (as you always narrate), why don’t you accept the country back in the Commonwealth family? African leaders as long as you remain vassals of your former colonizers and failing to adapt like what China and the Middle East countries did; your leadership once again is null and void.
The moment the African Union just gather in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and perform its annual rituals and fail to represent the continent, then again we doubt your efficiency as leaders. In the 1970s, Arab oil producing countries under the OPEC (Oil Producing and Exporting Countries) banner caused enough chaos in world markets. They simply agreed to produce less and causing gasoline shortages.
African leaders can’t do that with its resources. So- called fake democrats, always snitch and make sure the agreement doesn’t meet its intended obligations and also doesn’t bind. When Chiluba dislodged Kenneth Kaunda in Zambia, he was lauded as a true democrat, who will change the face of Zambia. But alas he became fixated in punishing our godfather of African nationalism. Zambia remained poor and no tangible development is given credit to Chiluba’s incumbency.
If you want to be called a ‘democrat’ in third world countries just receive western ideas and money. That’s only the qualification that is needed, don’t worry about brains. Accept guns and begin fighting the entitled sitting liberation war presidents. Jonas Savimbi did that in Angola, taking the country back to the iron age. In Mozambique from 1975 Unita bandits popularly known as ” Vanamatsanga” also brought the country to its knees. Also Zimbabwe was embroiled in the conflict when it guarded its Feruka petroleum pipe which supplies fuel from the Port of Beira to the country.
All these incursions took the economies of the two countries back to the 1940s. Samora Machel ( late president of Mozambique) and also Robert Mugabe ( late president of Zimbabwe) were not the darlings of the west; because of their Frontline states ideology. They wanted apartheid to end in South Africa, and the big brothers were not so happy about how these ” bobjaans” were climbing the mountain.
Till now Zimbabwe and Mozambique until power is the hands of the so-called “democratic leaders,” these two countries will never know peace and economic prosperity. I am not saying that Frelimo and ZANU Pf must stay put. Power needs to be rotated for sure but not at the whims of Westerners. Westerners are always allowed to monitor elections done in third world countries so that they can give recommendations, whether they are worth. That is how we highly value them. “Let them keep their Europe, and we keep our Africa.”
But is it possible in this morden world where we are connected in nano seconds? It’s impossible, but the western hemisphere is pandering that move. Its protectionist policies where certain technologies are only a western thing and tariffs are imposed on goods from perceived enemies. I don’t think this is globalisation at all. But” it is conquer with love”( Vincere Caritate).
Democracy is more about free markets, but are we witnessing free markets, when TikTok is banned in western countries? When Chinese electric vehicles are banned in western markets? When Chinese solar panels and batteries are suspicious objects in western cities? When anything from Russia and China is tariffed heavily ? Only cheap blood minerals from third world countries are welcome in western industrial hubs. That is democracy, sure.
As political scientist Rene Lemarchand comments,” Where two communities within the same state believe themselves to be victims, the stage is set for endless conflict.” The USA wants to command the world, and so does China. And third world leaders are just like Humpty Dumpty, sitting on the wall…..
To be continued….
