At a time when Zimbabwe should be experiencing a brain gain, its brain drain shows no sign of abetting. At least not just yet.
It is naive to have expected aspiring Zimbabweans blessed with what used to be some of the continent’s most illustrious education, to have stayed on in the country when things were falling apart. Initially in the late 90s, not many frowned on this category of émigrés who were variously labelled economic migrants and some even going further to classify them as highly desirable knowledge workers possessing a strong work ethic. However, when a less sophisticated citizenry from that nation started swelling the ranks of refugees, perceptions changed and a less flattering, in fact, negative stereotyping of the Zimbabwean, emerged.
For some time now, much of the world has grown disenchanted with this nation which is perceived not to want to help itself as much as it needs the world’s help. The West in particular has so far concentrated much of its pressure on forcing the hand of the politicians believed to be at the heart of the mess through travel bans and such other targeted sanctions. Nowadays, however, there is also an intensifying focus on the country’s exiled community whose very presence in foreign lands is increasingly becoming untenable.
All kinds of messages are being sent to Zimbabwean exiles, both subtly and regrettably, the messages have also been sent through inexcusable and appalling means as those who bore the brunt of xenophobic violence in South African found out last year. Going by the current evidence, it is safe to conclude that although these messages have been heard loud and clear, for the foreseeable future, they will not be acted upon en-masse. And that in itself is a tragic expression of an exiled people missing perhaps the last window of opportunity to restore the fortunes of a once great nation.
On the one extreme, there is the detached attitude of Zimbabwe’s exiled middle class who, credit to them, have continued to thrive wherever they have found their proverbial patch of greener pastures. They are the quintessential knowledge-economy workers for whom opportunities elsewhere have provided them a much-needed break to internationalise their careers. Most in this category have no legal hangovers having gone through authorised channels to secure work and residence permits.
Some amongst Zimbabwe’s exiled middle class have vowed not to return. Their emotional links to the country of their birth can only wane over time as they re-establish their social and economic roots in other countries. What is most interesting about this group is their nonchalance towards the political events unfolding in Harare, preferring to pontificate over the sorry state of the country they left from the comfort of Sandton and London pubs.
And then there is the ambivalent group of undocumented refugees, most of who survive on the fringes of society in their new chosen countries. Theirs is the genuine fear and insecurity that even if they returned tomorrow, they would be unemployable in a country still suffering a 90% jobless rate. In all probability, the idea of hassling in the informal economy does not sit well with them.
Finally, there is a third category made up of those who took the political asylum route as a means of obtaining legal immigration status. Many in this category were victims of political repression. But many more were opportunists who saw the process as an escape route from desperation. The majority of the opportunists in this category hailed from quarters of Zimbabwean society which under normal circumstances would never have made it overseas anyway. Ironically for this lot, change in their home country might not be such a desirable thing if it means them losing their immigration status secured on the basis of grossly exaggerated and even fabricated political asylum claims.
Recently Zimbabwe’s prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, was heckled in the UK by an assorted crowd of Zimbabwean expatriates and asylum seekers when he boldly stated that his countrymen “must” return home. It was an ill-advised proclamation from the prime minister. The return of exiles should not be demanded but facilitated.
Their return can be facilitated through the revitalisation of the informal sector, which was brutally annihilated and then criminalised by the campaign designed to weaken urban opposition — “Operation Murambatsvina” (clean out the filth) — in 2005, which according to the UN affected at least 2.4 million people at the time. It can also be made possible by reforming the civil service, amending media laws, privatising some state institutions, relaxing indigenisation laws, relaxing citizenship laws, reducing taxes, the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission for victims of previous political atrocities, guaranteeing private property rights and generally doing everything possible that permits free enterprise to flourish. Without effecting these reforms, the politicians who were banking on the sheer euphoria of the Global Political Agreement as being enough to coax exiles back home, have underestimated the challenges facing them. Evidently, the new Zimbabwean government has embarked on initiatives towards attracting back exiles but the PR around such initiatives is still not sexy enough, let alone not nearly as visible and convincing as it should be.
At the same time, the advent of a Government of National Unity which until recently was an event not likely to happen at least not in the next one thousand years, should be seized upon by all exiles as a signal that their part in the epic of rebuilding Zimbabwe has now come. Never before in the struggle for a free Zimbabwe has there been such an opportunity where the exiled component of Zimbabwe’s middle class, has for the first time, a more pronounced leverage over the political process.
The present opportunity in Zimbabwe is for its exiled middle-class community to strategically inject itself in the process of national healing and reconstruction. Using the skills and experience gained from the exposure in better run economies, Zimbabwe’s exiled middle class should seek to become an indispensable supervisory and management class in the new dispensation, driving innovation and new approaches to developmental challenges.
Secondly, it should produce a class of investors who will supply the capital to restart industry and other commercial enterprises. The fact that Zimbabwe’s capacity utilisation is currently estimated to be about 30% and is projected to reach only 60% by year end, suggests that there is a gap which government interventions alone will not be able to close. It is therefore opportune for diasporans to collaborate on the best means of mobilising funds and finding ways of investing in the country. Not doing so, will be to exhibit the sort of self-centeredness for which only future generations of Zimbabweans will pay the ultimate price.
Thirdly and most importantly, they must endeavour to become a formidable pressure and leadership bloc that will push for accountability and developmental politics in the new dispensation.
Perhaps, the choices facing Zimbabwe’s exiled community were eloquently captured by John F Kennedy when he spoke in a different context of the reality that “there are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction”. In my view, preferring the comforts and security of exile, whilst occasionally appeasing the conscience through remittances to relatives back home, is a part and parcel of this “comfortable inaction”.
In the long-term context of a lifetime, remittances are unsustainable. In the medium term, measured in years, remittances breed long-lasting insecurity and dependency in the lives of their recipients. They create a vicious cycle of human capital flight from the continent whereby the goal of the dependants is someday to escape Africa to some overseas country, from whence the money comes from. From this perspective, remittances like aid, are a deadly enemy to Zimbabwe’s reconstruction agenda, let alone, to all of Africa’s as well.
It can be argued that there are very few countries in Africa which have surpassed Zimbabwe’s record in its hey-day of producing a large and diverse skilled labour force comprising farmers, miners, artisans, engineers, doctors, teachers, nurses, bankers, accountants, business managers, IT technicians, stockbrokers etc. The cream of this skilled labour force has now had the opportunity of having its expertise enriched by exposure in foreign working environments. With respect to the émigré contingent in the UK, one hopes that it has also lost its reverence for all things white, having witnessed the corruption and profligacy of British parliamentarians exposed in the recent expenses scandal. That particular group of exiles has borne first-hand witness to the fact the there is no sacrosanct democracy in the world. You can run but cannot hide from the disappointment of politics anywhere in the world. But there is a glimmer of hope back in Zimbabwe, which exiles can only ignore at their own peril.
It is still a long road to travel. However, the exiled must not wait on the government’s invitation. They must of necessity join the journey to the point where a return to prosperity is assured. Though the country’s government and its private human capital agencies need to play a pivotal role in getting the scattered exiled skills to collaborate by producing an attractive model that will be the catalyst for a homecoming revolution, the exiled must seize the initiative. It is worth repeating once more that if they choose to take the path of less resistance by returning home and re-engage constructively, they can indeed be a formidable leadership bloc that will oversee political accountability in a new dispensation.
Not to act on the imperatives of re-engagement in the civic, economic and political spheres, which Zimbabwe now desperately needs, is to give free rein to the neo-colonial Western multinationals as well as the Asians who in this era of an accelerated scramble for resources (of which Zimbabwe has plenty and is reputed to have the second largest reserves of platinum in the world) can only lead to more dependency on aid and some marginal economic growth.
Historically, political dominance in Africa has always been the preserve of an exclusive club of career politicians. They begin well, riding the wave of widespread disaffection and once in power, end up replacing the previous elite, which abused the mandate given by the masses. The middle class is yet to play a transformative role in this type of suffocating politics. If anything, the powers that be have always made sure that a vibrant middle class is non-existent and where it does exist, that it is repressed. In 2002 for instance, a prominent struggle politician in Zimbabwe when asked about how he felt about the mass exodus from the country of skilled blacks and whites, replied: “We would be better off with only six million people, with our own [ruling party] people who supported the liberation struggle. We don’t want all these extra people.” This time around, the middle-class project in a new Zimbabwe must not be allowed to fail.
As with all seasons in life, there is a time for everything. If then was the time to leave, now is the time to return. If all were to stay away, vowing not to return, there will forever be a leadership and governance vacuum in Zimbabwe, which opportunistic politicians will take advantage of to advance their own agendas. Under this scenario, the country could be relegated to a permanent state of ruin.
Should Africa prove to be the last frontier where the best of human redemption and progress will be exhibited in the not-so-distant future, Zimbabwe must be the beginning of that grandiose exhibition. It is up to the country’s exiled community to realise this possibility.
People like you make me physically ill.
As the Zimbabweans in London told Morgan the only money their families have to survive on is what they send home. And these people are struggling to make ends meet themselves.
There is 90% unemployment in Zimbabwe – or had that escaped your notice?
And the Zimbabweans who sought refuge here should be acknowledged as refugees and in shelters, not hounded off the streets by cops.
This article is xenophobic.
To hell with this.
Why should Zimbabweans return? Because there’s a “Government of National Unity”? This Government has been compared, in recent articles by Chenjerai Hove and Eddie Cross, to three scientists doing an experiment with one of them putting sand in the test tubes; and to an ill matched partnership between a horse and a donkey.
MDC still has no real power to effect political change, and cracks are appearing (teachers back on strike, no Western aid forthcoming, rebellious MP’s, mountains of odious debt, etc). Meanwhile the well organised elite which is so entrenched, continues to do its thing – insult Western governments, loot what’s left of the public enterprises, strip the nation’s mineral wealth and smuggle it out, arrest MDC legislators and arraign them on phony charges…well, we all know this stuff, it’s on zimsituation.com every day.
It was SADC that forced Zimbabweans into this invidious compromise, and South Africa led the way. Did we want them to fight Chinese weaponry with hoes? The sooner we start speaking truth about what’s still going on there and taking a stand consistent with our own democratic aspirations, the sooner Zimbabweans will be able to go home.
Otherwise, they’re here to stay. Why should they go back to dark streets running with sewage, stinking green scummy tap water, Green Bombers and CIO agents still busy with their work, ZBC and the Herald still spewing hate, cholera readying for a comeback …Would YOU go home?
you sir talk a lot of what would appear abstract to the zimbabwan in the diaspora be it professional or settled asylum seeker.you talk about an informal sector- who in the diaspora wants to be selling candles for 10 hours a day when its easier to work at Mcdonalds and get a better wage a day than they would get in a month.
let me tell you what the diaspora thinks about
1)food on the table
2)roof over my head
3)children in school
4)no crime
5)living wages (not $100.00 a month)
6)rule of law–DO I REALLY NEED TO GO ON.
As it is you and Morgan Tswangirai are trying to piss against the wind. you will only manage to get yourself wet.
All I am saying is attract zimbabweans back to the country- like australia canada attract zimbabweans.experience tells us 5 years down the line another idiot may wreck the country again.
Do zimbabweans want to risk their and their childrens lives – never.The vast majority will buy more prawn chips and watch.
Hi Jeremiah,
Thanks for your thoughts and I appreciate your concerns.
Problem is time is not on your side. We are coming up on the decade aniversary of the start of decline in Zimbabwe. A large percentage of the diaspora has been out of the country for at least 5-6 yrs. They (like myself) have made a family with locals of my “step-mother country”, and have successful businesses. I guess I fall under your first category – I emigrated, and have been a citizen for three years in my adopted country. I have founded a relatively successful technology business. Why would I want to invest in Zimbabwe now? AS far as I can see – there has been no significant change in the country of my birth – with regards to rule of law, economic conditions, even government. MT has not shown to have exerted sufficient authority in the GNU, for me to be satisfied that my investment will be a secure one, nevermind my livelyhood, and the safety of my new family.
I mean, senior MDC party members are still in Jail – how can we be sure that ordinary citizens are going to be safe? Sorry my friend, but the “permanent state of ruin” you fear, could soon become the reality.
“Exiled Zimbabweans should return home” says who?
Have you ever lived in permanent fear? Has the cause of that fear (uncle Bob) been removed?
If not, Zim’s migrated intellectual, working and poverty stricken members of the population can quietly stay where they feel safe until Zim’s transformation to a normal African society is well on the way.
it’s funny, jeremiah…
when the united states was going to change the status of refugee liberians resident there [forcing them to leave] because the war was over, their president said: um, no — we need the forex to rebuild; can they stay in america until we have things up and running?
yet you are saying the complete reverse.
bob’s [implementation of certain] policies are what filled the b-ark and sent it off. okay, fine, they the b-ark is gone. now the country is stuck with having to deal with the consequence of having no real middle class left.
trying to have the b-ark to change course and return requires changes in policy by the a-ark people, who are largely on record, as you’ve pointed out, as for not wanting them to return. that’s a shame, especially as we are seeing what happens when you don’t have telephone sanitizers, erm, water purification engineers [same thing, really].
Once again the concept of wealth before freedom rears its ugly head.
I have always stated that my best ever political read is Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. It captures the whole Zimbabwe fight for democracy. From the concept of the GPA to the coercion of Tsvangirai to sign. I have also quoted Schumpeter’s saying that most people are not up to freedom but all they want is to be fed and entertained. What really has changed in Zimbabwe that can make exiles want to come back? On the economic front until there is investor confidence (when Bob who a writer has said does not respect his own signature goes). Everyone is looking to the injection of spending by donor funded non-governmental organisations. On the political front I need not say anything. Frankly until there is real and permanent change in policy which circumstance is difficult to determine with ZANU PF still in power, I would advise those people to remember the general mantra in Zimbabwe is patriotism never put food on the table. Zimbabwe is a nation of individual profit opportunity seekers. So continue seeking a fighting chance for yourself and your family’s future. After all Mpofu, Gono etc are doing their best for their families locally and externally. BEE is the language they speak and it is a language of enrichment. The struggle is about control of resources by an elite few. Wealth, for many hatted politicians, cronies. Money, money, money makes the world go round.
Wonderful. Has legislation on the holding of dual citizenship been amended? (talking here after that 2003 amendment designed to do exactly the opposite from what is actually required – that one designed to prevent the unwanted from returning).
Please urgently indicate the means by which ‘former’ Zimbabweans (i.e. naturalised citizens of other nations), their partners, whether themselves current or former Zimbabweans or foreigners, and their foreign-born children may quickly and relatively inexpensively take part in this renaissance and be a part of this nation-rebuilding.
My friends, the unwanted, have not indicated much willingness but I’m sure can be swayed…
..by the same magnitude in pull factors as those push factors which led them to flee in the first place. Plus some, since they’re swapping relative stability for the unknown. Risk/reward when you’re talking about families with small children tends to be a hot issue.
This is a very balanced article jeremiah. I honestly don’t understand the hostility of my fellow countrymen. From a personal and reasonable standpoint, I have no intention of risking my comfortable life in a foreign country that I have lived in for the past 15 years. This does not take away the fact that there is a genuine need for highly skilled and experienced professionals like myself to track back to Zim and help bring about the change that is desperately needed. I was shocked to learn that Mugabe’s political mandarins were retained as permanent secretaries because they were the most educated and experienced professionals available. I know more that 5 000 highly skilled Zimbabweans in the diaspora who can run ministries as permanent secretaries. The problem is that they hve chosen to serve an ungrateful public elsewhere instead of their own people.
why dont you go forth & submit yourself to that power drunk blood thirsty tyrant?
Interesting reaction all
@ Lyndall – You’ve missed the point.
The objective of the article was to highlight the short-sightedness of Zimbabwe’s exiled community in that by failing to re-engage in the civic, economic, and social spheres which at this stage are at a critical point (in that it could go either way – improve or deteriorate), they are missing what is perhaps the last best opportunity in a long time, to play a crucial role in saving their nation.
The risks of such “comfortable inaction” would be let the country slide into a permanent state of ruin. If this is allowed to happen, the costs of reconstruction from a permanent state of ruin, are likely to be prohibitively high as to render any such effort overly long drawn out, with the pain and suffering associated with it, affecting many generations to come —– long after Bob and Co.
My point is that not all great acts of national redemption should wait for things to line up. Like a critically ill patient, Zimbabwe needs urgent intervention to survive. Its exiled middle class can provide that intervention in strategic ways as highlighted above.
As for your 90% jobless stat, that has been highlighted out in the article. I get the impression you are quick to rant and rave but have difficulty understanding what you read -in-context?
@Mundundu – I think you are overstating the importance of remittances for reconstruction purposes.
Under the current global financial crisis, these have dropped to all time lows. And then again what happens when Zim exiles are hit by recession? In Kenya for instance, as at March this year, an estimated 14 000 kenyans were coming home every month broke and jobless as a fall out from the credit crunch. Hence my suggestion above, that exiled Zimbabweans need to invest in their country whilst they still can.
Remittances also have the unintended consequence of locking the receivers in a perpetual dependency syndrome – the money being used primarily for household survival as opposed to development.
@Ryan – I hear you man. I believe, the GNU is seeking contributions from people like yourself in formulating its new constitution. See here. http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-06-04-zimbabwe-prepares-for-new-constitution-hearings . I think this would be an ideal opportunity for you to engage them on the incorporation of the necessary investment protection clauses you have alluded to. They have by the way, withdrawn the proposed Indigenization Bill (Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill) which compelled mining companies to cede a controlling stake (51%) to locals – see here: http://allafrica.com/stories/200907030621.html
It would take Zimbabweans to liberate Zimbabeans but, for now everybody runs away to more cozy areas, South Africa, UK, Australia with all the exageration of torture and the like to receive residence permit.
Why would these people indeed even attempt to forsake this cozy life and fight for their freedom? Never!!.
All we now need is the assurance of the rule of law and safety of our businesses and we recolonize Zimbabwe from within Africa by opening businesses from the south and let them stay wherever they find themselves.
I see J Kure esquire writes from the lofty heights of Jorburg. I would wait fro him to write from Bulawayo or Harare before anyone takes him seriously.
Do as I say not as I do huh
@Mundundu – I think you are overstating the importance of remittances for reconstruction purposes. In the prevailing global financial crisis, remittances have dropped to all time lows. And then again what happens when Zim exiles are hit by recession? In Kenya for instance, as at March this year, an estimated 14 000 kenyans were coming home every month broke and jobless as a result of the fall-out from the credit crunch. Hence my suggestion above, that exiled Zimbabweans need to invest in their country whilst they still can.
Remittances also have the unintended consequence of locking their recipients in a perpetual dependency syndrome – the money being used primarily for household consumption as opposed to development.
um, these days it’s going primarily to household survival because there is no faith in the government.
in countries where there is more faith in the government, people do use remittances to build business and expand and enhance educational and community activities. i’ve seen it up close and personal in several countries in both africa and latin america. do you want to see photos?
There Is No Faith In The Zimbabwean Government. full stop.
you’re not going to have domestic investment in the country when there’s no faith in the government. and there will be almost no foreign direct investment in a country where property rights aren’t seen to be recognized.
[which is the real reason the economy collapsed: why should i set up a business and invest my hard currency if my land might be the next bit you take? lack of investor confidence killed the currency, which led to people who were staying afloat losing their shirts since, technically, the zimdollar was the only legal tender. and it goes down and down a downward, self-eating spiral.]
bonyongo:
as long as most of the sadc leaders support bob, and those that don’t do not have the cash to pay for a reasonable challenge — there’s really no point.
the anc needs to tell zanu-pf to go screw, much like the nats told ian smith to do the same.
it’s not going to happen while bob still lives, and there is nothing coming out of pretoria counter to that.
I understand Jeremiah Kure’s standpoint & I share the sentiments. With a global financial problem no foreign country can afford to look after other people beyond its nationals.
People of Zimbabwe need to realise this and please, make an effort to rebuild the country. The first step towards that is to return, within the relativity of safety, to Zimbabwe.
Truth is, like in South Africa between the exiles & inziles, there will still be clashes when the dust has settled and every Zimbabwean claims space.
For those not in the know, some exiles in RSA claims entitlement because they ‘suffered & liberated’ the country. The inziles claim they faced the bullets home while the exiles ran away, and therefore suffered the most and their plight caught the attention of the international community who assisted in the liberation of the country.
Which one is true? You be the judge.
Jeremiah
By your argument it was not the ANC in exile who achieved freedom for SA, but the people who remained inside the country (UDM, IFP,Progressive Party, Suzman, Buthelezi, Black Sash).
Here I agree with you – especially since they did not even send back remittances, but lived off charirities like Christian Action, who even supported their families back home. Mbeki never even sent his monther any money, although he paid Adelaide Thambo whenever he boarded there.
Jeremiah
Wise words you speak. I am a Zimbabwean. I initially entered South Africa in 2006 as a boarder jumper and joined the ranks of illegal labourers, albeit with a physics degree in my pocket. I struggled for a bit before finally breaking into mainstream South Africa, I am legally here now but don’t be fooled, I still feel as unwelcome in this country today as I did when I faced Xenophobic violence in Joburg last year. This land is not my home.
Fear for my safety is not the only reason why I want to go back home and help rebuild my country, there’s a generous sprinkling of patriotism there too. I will not join the ranks of my fellow countrymen who’s response to your blog is that all of Zimbabwe’s problems should be completely solved before they can set foot back home. Instead I proudly acknowledge that I see myself as part of the solution. I have already set up a couple of (currently struggling) enterprises in my hometown and even though they are not thriving, they are an investment in my country and I can only wish more of my countrymen in the diaspora would do the same. I am determined to take part in Zimbabwe’s resurrection. That is the story I hope I will one day tell my grandkids, hopefully not how I escaped a xenophobic mob in Alexander that is yet to happen.
@Manu
As said by Einstein, “The world is NOT dangerous because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything”
I sincerely hope that when in the fullness of time you have acted on your determination,it will inspire many others who today, are cynical and shortsighted. It is people like you who light candles when the rest of humanity curses the darkness. Keep the faith my brother!
Given most of the comments voiced already I am not sure Jeremiah’s article is fairly balanced. I have studied and I am currently working in South Africa. Whilst I would like to go back home like yesterday I am uncertain if I will even find a job, if I will even be able to raise capital on that side to positively invest in my own country. I think its unfair to say that the diaspora are being shortsighted. Change is a process and not an event. Jeremiah I am certain that you are fully aware of the fundamentals that must take place in Zimbabwe before people go back in their droves.The unity government has only just been formed and as such the common man will not rush home out of the sense of sovereignty or patrotism when you know that you child or your parents will not be able to have the most basic of needs. It would be nice to hear your thoughts on what needs to happen to have the diaspora go back home and serve their country. This article for me is in the air and doesn’t fully take into account the real issues that the diaspora have to face and think about before going back.
@Vovolina
These are valid concerns you raise but be careful not to let concerns blind you to more empowering ways of seeing and approaching this issue.
Above all else, this piece is calling for exiled Zimbabweans to make a paradigm shift – a mindset change from one which waits for change to come; preferring instead to be the agents to introduce the change Zimbabwe needs.
Collectively, exiled Zimbabweans can do a tremendous lot as has been outlined above. As an individual, Vovolina may not be able to muster enough capital let alone the political clout needed to bring change. However, if you collaborate with like minded diasporans and act in concert, together you can initiate the process of strategic re-engagement, which ultimately will bear fruit.
You see, it is time for the people with some means (and the exiled middle class are a prime example, to instigate a program of intervention that will set the country on an irreversible progressive course.
A collaboration in investments will eventually provide the exiled middle class with the leverage to force positive political change.
(continued from above… )
For as long as we, the people of Africa and Zimbabweans in particular continue to have this expectation that politicians must first fix what is broken in order for us to lead the lives we deserve, we will continue having a hard time getting it right.
Doing so (i.e. leaving it solely to the politicians to get it right), is to exhibit the sort of short-sightedness which in the long run, Zimbabwe may never recover from.
As much as change is a process and not event as you rightly point out, so is the process of re-engagement in the civic, social and economic facets of Zimbabwe – a country facing what is perhaps it’s best last chance for a meaningful recovery. This re-engagement which has to start now – in the country’s darkest hour – and which of necessity must be beyond remittances, if sustained, will eventually pave the way for the return of many who wish to return.
“It is not in the air” Vovolina as you put it. It is in the mind. Mindsets must change and the resulting process of collaboration and re-engagement must begin. It is costly in the long run to play the wait and see game. Don’t wait for the GNU to disappoint you (as they just did this morning – http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-13-chaos-stops-zimbabwe-constitution-conference). “Be the change you want to see” in Zimbabwe.
jeremiah, you seem to be living in cloudcuckooland.
bob is doing three things:
a) keeping the army paid and fed
b) siphoning off money to his cronies
c) enjoying the tacit approval, if not outright support, of south africa
as long as he continues to do those three things, change is not going to happen. pretoria needs to CUT HIM OFF. seriously.
the collective “wealth” of the zimbabwean middle class, even the ones who have left, is no match for the rich, who are perfectly fine with the status quo.
this is what the middle class in any society does:
(1) provides goods and services for the rich and/or the government;
and/or
(2) provides goods and services for those people in (1) above.
since the rich and the government are the *problem* in zimbabwe, they can [and do] prevent the middle classes within zimbabwe from effecting change, and they can [and do] also limit the ability of diasporans to effect change. this is a major reason why lots of people were upset that tsvangirai finally caved; once the mdc joined the government, they were afraid that they would become part of the problem rather than the solution.
the first step for change to happen is for either bob to die or for pretoria to cut him off. otherwise, the elites will just buy off [or the government will expel/imprison] anyone trying to make a positive change away from bob.
why is this so hard for you to understand?
Mundundu:
In various societies throughout history, the middle class has ALSO been known to:
(i) restrain conflict by voting in democracy whilst voting out repressive regimes;
(ii) lead revolutions. (Che Guevara was a medical doctor; Castro and Lenin had degrees in law. It seems to me that good education – a trademark of all of Zimbabwe’s exiled middle class – was for these revolutionaries, a critical prerequisite for success);
(iii) reduce state autonomy by commanding thriving business ventures in the private sector. In so doing they create a condition of co-dependency between themselves, the state and the elite.
To restrict the role the middle class to only two functions you mentioned above, is to resign oneself to the back-against-the-wall mentality which precludes other feasible options.
The “the cut him off option” is highly unlikely to a point where it has ceased to be one.
What is possible however, is for the exiled citizens to re-engage STRATEGICALLY and decisively over a period of time. But I do concede that the concept in itself might not be easy enough to understand let alone implement given the prevailing closed-thinking, apathy and unyielding cynicism.
um, where have you been the last seven years?
2002, 2008 elections [your point (i)]: stolen by bob.
(ii): bob keeps the army in enough food and cash to neither revolt nor mutiny, and since zim’s important neighbors support, at least tacitly, zanu-pf, you’re off. for this revolution, you need arms. where, exactly, would these arms come from without shiri or chiwenga finding out and doing something about it?
additional prerequisites of lenin’s and castro’s success were demoralized armies of the state and porous revolutionary-friendly borders, neither of which apply here. few people take khama or banda seriously; guebuza, dos santos and the anc are pro-bob. completely different situations.
[and, by the way, castro had the support of the usa government for his revolution because, among other things, a) so much of cuba was controlled by the american mafiosi, and b) batista was black. you really need to do your homework regarding your exemplars.]
the anti-bob people don’t have a sponsor government that will keep them in guns. so as long as bob gets tacit, if not explicit, support from pretoria, “revolution” is a non-starter.
iii) um, the zimdollar crashed because property rights are not respected by the government. a crony sees something nice, they want it — you either give them a percentage or they take it from you outright, since cronies have fingers in the banks and government.
i honestly don’t think you thought that last response through.
Very well put Jeremiah. You are not alone in your thinking. There is a good number of us who feel the very same way and are in fact already on our way back home. We cant live out here forever…at least i can’t, i won’t.
It boils down to one philosophy really:
“BE” the cange you want to see……….
Great article. Don’t be disheartened by the disillusioned few.
See you in Zim!
so why are you still here?
when tsvangirai said “come home”, you should have gone to work the next day and said: i quit. [you too, JK.]
that you haven’t and are still here speaks volumes [the loudest one being “im talking out my neck.”
don’t say “oh, i have to get my stuff in order, or sort out my family.” nope, pack them up, leave.
easy-peasy, right?
Mudundu.
Point number 1. The fact that you are under the assumption that my decision to go back home was influenced by a mere speech shows the level of your ignorance to the fact that there are people who have always intended to go home. For your information I was home for 3 months at the beginning of this very year setting up camp for our return while Tsvangirai was making his speeches abroad. And YES, now I am back to collect my family.
Secondly, your bitterness toward the whole agenda of moving home is quite puzzling. And am I to assume by your tone that you are ACTUALLY angry at ME, a total stranger to you, for making such a choice?? What has it got to do with you?? I laugh at your comment
)
Thirdly. I have no idea who JK is personally so whether he goes home is of no relevance to me and my agenda which I stated began long before Tsvangirai and this article.
Not that I have any obligation to justify my plans to you or anyone, but i offer you an insight into my scenario to highlight and hopefully show you that there are some of us who genuinely long to go back to our roots and to our families. After all, ITS HOME.
Once again, “SEE YOU IN ZIM” whenever we see you!
Very silly and immature response up there I must say….Shame on you.