Editorial
Give People What They Want
Robert Mugabe, that irascible Big Man of Zimbabwe, was very disappointed with the just concluded 67th Session of the UN General Assembly. On arrival back in Harare from New York, he complained that issues of multilateralism and unilateralism were sidelined for listless statements that did not create real movement for the developing world. For instance, in Mr. Mugabe’s opinion, [U.S. President] Obama’s piece about his freshly slain ambassador to Libya did ‘nothing [that was] global, in terms of how the world should move in reforming the United Nations.’
What??? &^$%#$!!
Please pardon the uncharacteristic outburst in an editorial; we do not mean to scandalize you or disparage our brother, Comrade Mugabe. But COME ON! … Has this former freedom fighter become too deaf and too blind to understand the overt message Obama was directing at country leaders such as himself? Apparently, if the above interview is anything to go by, Mugabe missed the essence of Obama’s speech!
Basically, following a week where an amateur video insulting the prophet Mohammed triggered ‘sporadic’ and sometimes violent anti American protests in Libya, Egypt, Sudan, other parts of the Middle East and some Asian countries, some demurred that Obama was seeking to reset the U.S. relations with the Arab World. But Mr. Obama was doing no such thing. Instead, he went to the UN to mourn his late ambassador and the 3 Americans that perished in Benghazi; to talk tough to an obtuse Israel and a recalcitrant Iran; and especially to admonish those leaders with spotty human rights records.
Mr. Obama presented the oxymoron of a functional state: A state authority that gives its people the freedom to want and need with fearing that this freedom threatens national security. In their natural state, functional states simply need to be effective without necessarily being heavy handed. In case Mr. Mugabe and his fellow pariahs missed it, Obama said this:
‘In 2012, at a time when anyone with a cellphone can spread offensive views around the world with the click of a button, the notion that we [leaders and the state] can control the flow of information is obsolete. The question, then, is how we respond.’
Although he criticized the infamous video as ‘crude and disgusting,’ and while he denied the American government’s hand in its creation, he also vehemently defended the Egyptian American film maker’s right to express himself. Of course, this message was probably lost on those who need to heed it the most.
Many leaders control their people stridently enough to make it impossible for things to happen unless they have been state sanctioned. Case in point, China: For 4 whole months between late 2002 and early 2003, the Communist Party hid the fact that the SAS virus was decimating its own people. They could not bear the embarrassment and neither did they seek help from the world. Eight thousand people lost their lives before the international community got this outbreak under lock and key. Today, that would not happen. A text message, a tweet, a Facebook comment or even a simple picture taken by a cell phone would alert the international community of a disease in the most remote places in the world. This week alone, 4 new virus were discovered – viruses that bear the lethal punch of ebola and SAS. That world is smaller than these leaders think – and that was Obama’s lesson! [Our Emmanuel Musaazi speaks to matters of ICT Development in Black Society here].
Anyhow, for you, brothers and sisters, we could ask whether things are much better in your respective countries than they were before – and most of you will agree. You know what is happening in your former village – sometimes even before your relatives in the cities do. But that does not mean that people are not suffering. How many of you actually saw, heard or also knew someone that was arrested, beaten, threatened, harassed or even killed simply because they expressed a dissenting opinion challenging the Big Men? Some of you in the Diaspora are victims yourselves. And the Zimbabwean Diaspora, for instance, squarely blames Mugabe for the injustice and misery in their fatherland.
On the other hand, the same Black Diaspora has seen too many forms of injustice happening right here in North America: The economic divide between the blacks and whites is unfairly, unsustainably and obviously on display wherever you go in these United States and Canada. Too many people sleep on the streets and many of you work long and hard hours for miserable pay.
Jesus!
But like we have hinted, Mr. Mugabe is not the only one running away from the issues at hand. In response to Mr. Obama’s call, Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari, whose country receives billions of aid dollars from the U.S.demand that those who misuse freedom of expression be punished like criminals. Then Egypt’s new president, Mohamed Mursi basically hinted to Obama that if he [Obama] was going to continue allowing the Americans to be free, then America was going to have to suffer the consequences of this massive amount of freedom! Even Nigeria’s president Dr. Goodluck Jonathan called for reform at the UN while ignoring the crisis in Northern Nigeria – a crisis The Economist says stems from an “incompetent federal government” in Abuja! We could go on …
Much may be made of Obama’s shout-out to his fellow leaders; many a heavy-handed ruler may not appreciate Obama’s ‘impudence’ or ‘arrogance.’ After all, what can an American president know? He has never walked in the shoes of those who govern nations with less resources and a host of other disadvantages. And like Mugabe did, they miss the point that people will do what they do, they will want what they want; and they will need what they need. With the current technology and also the unconquered human spirit, if you impose curfews, you will create a people who see in the darkness past your guards and road blocks; make people line up for basic necessities, and they will become smugglers; prevent them from saying what they want, and they will speak in ways that leaders will never understand.
If China had a virus outbreak right now, the world would leak out to the world, somehow. It does not matter that the Internet in China is restricted and filtered; that television shows are monitored and that movies have to pass certain compliance rule. It is only severely sequestered countries like North Korea that can survive the new international technology order. On the other hand, since the installation of Kim Jong-un as successor to his father in early 2012, women in that are now allowed to choose their fashion; people can eat banned food like burgers and fries – and they can visit the zoo. Can we see cell phones and the Internet soon? Perhaps. Either way, freedom will come to men and women. Thus, doesn’t it make sense to just let them be in the first place?
In the end, it was left to Mohammed Maharief, leader of Libya’s National Congress to make the most sense: ‘Would it have been better for corrupt dictatorial regimes to remain in place for decades more, oppressing and violating some of the most fundamental rights,’ he asked. To Mr. Maharief, our response is a resounding ‘NO!’
Down with dictators, we say!
Down with oppressors, we demand!
Give the people what they want because the people deserve to be free.
Dennis Matanda,
Editor – editor@thehabarinetwork.com