Ozymandias
I MET a traveller from an antique land,
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away...Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sadly it doesn’t take much of a leap of imagination to substitute Mugabe for Ozymandias…
Monday, 14 April 2008
Quote of the day
No relief in sight for the people of Zimbabwe
All the evidence indicates that Zimbabwe’s opposition the MDC won a convincing victory across the board in their elections, both parliamentary and presidential. No one other than an inhabitant of Planet Mugabe can be in any doubt of it. Anyone who claims otherwise is doing so disingenuously.
This clearly came as a horrible shock to Zanu-PF and their incompetent president Mugabe – he obviously hadn’t done quite enough to rig the elections, possibly even being stupid enough to fall for his own lies.
Still ‘nil desperandum’. He has successfully kept the official result from getting officially released and is clearly gearing up for a ‘run off’ election where he really does the opposition up like a kipper - no half measures this time. There are reports of police recruits retroactively filling out pro Mugabe ballot papers by the thousand whilst the actual papers go permanently missing. Also reports of opposition supporters being severely beaten and even killed
Once he has enough of these retroactive votes Mugabe will be able to claim a run off and then God help the opposition.
Meanwhile most of the surrounding states seem to be quietly complicit in this selling the citizenry of Zimbabwe down the river. One wonders if it is because of some misplaced sense of solidarity or if they are terrified that if they cast the first stone their own glass houses will be just as vulnerable as Mugabe’s
Sadly it increasingly looks as if there can be no resolution to this matter that does not involve bloodshed and further enormous damage to Zimbabwe and to some extent damage to southern Africa as a whole. The longer this goes on the worse it is likely to be for all.
Maybe those enabling Mugabe right now should think about that, eventually it could cost them their lives.
This clearly came as a horrible shock to Zanu-PF and their incompetent president Mugabe – he obviously hadn’t done quite enough to rig the elections, possibly even being stupid enough to fall for his own lies.
Still ‘nil desperandum’. He has successfully kept the official result from getting officially released and is clearly gearing up for a ‘run off’ election where he really does the opposition up like a kipper - no half measures this time. There are reports of police recruits retroactively filling out pro Mugabe ballot papers by the thousand whilst the actual papers go permanently missing. Also reports of opposition supporters being severely beaten and even killed
Once he has enough of these retroactive votes Mugabe will be able to claim a run off and then God help the opposition.
Meanwhile most of the surrounding states seem to be quietly complicit in this selling the citizenry of Zimbabwe down the river. One wonders if it is because of some misplaced sense of solidarity or if they are terrified that if they cast the first stone their own glass houses will be just as vulnerable as Mugabe’s
Sadly it increasingly looks as if there can be no resolution to this matter that does not involve bloodshed and further enormous damage to Zimbabwe and to some extent damage to southern Africa as a whole. The longer this goes on the worse it is likely to be for all.
Maybe those enabling Mugabe right now should think about that, eventually it could cost them their lives.
Brown blamed for economic problems
The Conservatives are blaming Gordon Brown for the present economic crisis.
Given that the current chancellor is effectively his glove puppet and prior to that, for a decade or more, he had his hands firmly on the economic tiller of the UK this is not unreasonable.
More to the point he is part of a party apparatus and world view that erodes our rights and liberties on an almost daily basis, all for our own good mind - because we just don’t know any better, or for our own safety to protect us from the CRIME and TERRORISM they are so ineffective in stemming.
So the Conservatives can go ahead and pin the blame on Gordon Brown and New Labour. They are right and welcome to do so.
Unfortunately the Conservatives and particularly David Cameron do not stand out as an immediately obvious alternative. Certainly it would be difficult to imagine they could fail to make a better showing in many areas, not least economics. But one looks at them as an alternative government more because they are the contender with the best likelihood of finally prising Gordon and his cronies out of power.
At the moment the Conservatives seem more a most likely much less bad alternative, than as something to actually actively seek for themselves.
Their chief attraction is that they are the most viable alternative that is not actually New Labour. Damned with faint praise.
Given that the current chancellor is effectively his glove puppet and prior to that, for a decade or more, he had his hands firmly on the economic tiller of the UK this is not unreasonable.
More to the point he is part of a party apparatus and world view that erodes our rights and liberties on an almost daily basis, all for our own good mind - because we just don’t know any better, or for our own safety to protect us from the CRIME and TERRORISM they are so ineffective in stemming.
So the Conservatives can go ahead and pin the blame on Gordon Brown and New Labour. They are right and welcome to do so.
Unfortunately the Conservatives and particularly David Cameron do not stand out as an immediately obvious alternative. Certainly it would be difficult to imagine they could fail to make a better showing in many areas, not least economics. But one looks at them as an alternative government more because they are the contender with the best likelihood of finally prising Gordon and his cronies out of power.
At the moment the Conservatives seem more a most likely much less bad alternative, than as something to actually actively seek for themselves.
Their chief attraction is that they are the most viable alternative that is not actually New Labour. Damned with faint praise.
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