Posted on 09/08/2002 3:38:01 AM PDT by Clive
I WAS scouting around for what to write on this week when Albert said: "Prof, you have not said a thing on the Johannesburg big summit. Why?" he asked, obviously convinced I should say something on the two-week United Nations’ World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa.
"I don’t want to spoil the party," I answered with deference.
"May be you should," Albert suggested.
"Spoil the party?" I asked, half-jokingly.
"No, I mean you should say something," he said, rather seriously.
As we all know, the 10-day gathering or summit is a party the United Nations throws for its heads of state once every 10 years, symbolically in a Third World country. Ten years ago, this party or summit was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is not hard to predict the continental venue for the next party or summit. Somewhere in Asia, of course!
Although it is mainly meant for the 185 odd heads of member states of the United Nations, several thousands come to the party either as invited guests or as "gatecrashers" in the literary sense, as in the case of anti-summit demonstrators who crash the gates in a bid to enter the conference room to make their point of view known.
Although the 185 heads of state meet under the veneer of "sovereign" equality, only the dull or those who have an exaggerated sense of self-importance (and there are many!) miss the point that George Orwell made in Animal Farm that all heads of state are equal but some are more equal than others.
The party or summit is literary a platform of letting out hot air and anger that accumulate over 10 years. And a lot of such hot air and anger was let out at this summit as in Rio, only more angrily and more dramatically this time round, as the "more equal than others" measure the pulse. This is as it should be because the condition of the world, particularly that of the poor in it, is a lot worse than it was 10 years ago.
It is my feeling that 10 years is too far in between for the world leaders to be reminded of these deteriorating conditions and their responsibility for them. I would suggest an interval of five years, for a forgetful world.
Who was the star of the party or summit? Not US State Secretary Collin Powell, but our own President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the leader experienced in guerrilla warfare with its elements of surprise: "Ambush the enemy when he is sitting down restfully, and attack when he expects you to retreat."
British Premier Tony Blair was caught unawares, akarivara in an unfamiliar southern African terrain and ambushed. The President nearly got a standing ovation for a brave speech, telling Blair in his face when he (Tony) least expected it: "Have your Britain and let me have my Zimbabwe!" (As if countries were individual possessions.)
I told you before that like wine, the President seems to be getting "better" with age in his angry speeches. What I doubted was his sense of proportion, direction and judgment. May be I am wrong and he is getting better in everything.
But explaining the thunderous applause, an observer said: "It was like cheering a brave man on the edge of a cliff to jump."
The only genuine cheer, in my view, was Namibian President Sam Nujoma’s: it was easy to see his gestures, pointing a finger at the "British imperialist". Had the summit been in Windhoek, I have no doubt Nujoma would have moved towards the tiny Blair and slapped him nembama!
As for the many others, they were busy making deals for debt forgiveness with Blair and others while cheering us on at the same time.
Now that the party is over, the hangover shall take two or three days to clear from the system. Then we will begin to see things clearly. We are back where we where before the summit: isolated; without bread; without sugar; without mafuta; without impupu; without mukaka (at times) — all things we used to have in abundance before hondo ye minda three years ago.
Were we convincing in our powerful and candid "tell it like it is" speech? Does the thunderous applause at the world summit mean the end of international isolation? Are the lean years over?
Have we, after the world summit, begun the years of sustainable plenty to boast about 10 years from now at another summit in Asia? Or, there will be another more powerful speech on behalf of the Wretched of the Earth 10 years from now?
My honest assessment is that: after all has been said and done, there will be more said than done, unless we start thinking and acting differently. Combative and militant talk, exciting as this might be, will not get us anywhere. If anywhere, it will get us into trouble, if we are not in trouble already.
Professor Masipula Sithole is a lecturer of political science at the University of Zimbabwe and director of the Harare-based Mass Public Opinion Institute.
Well, yes, feeding a madman's country people while he's spitting all over the Western donors is a little ridiculous. Mugabe has to go, it's that simple and everybody knows it. He's going to starve and kill countless Zimbabweans otherwise. Why don't they take care of their own situation?
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