Tuesday, June 18, 2013

London-South Africa-Zimbabwe

Today I head off for a trip that will take me to London, where I will be participating in a conference, Boycotts Past and Present, at Royal Birkbeck, University of London as well as conducting research at the Institute for Commonwealth Studies. After a week I will head to South Africa, where I expect Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein to be on the itinerary.

I also am going to go to Zimbabwe, assuming getting in is no problem, for a few days, but absolutely, positively not to practice journalism. Doing so would, under the current dispensation, be illegal in Zimbabwe. I absolutely do not plan to get a feel for the country in the run-up to the elections, to get a sense of whether the population has been cowed by the threat of violence, whether there is any glimmer of hope for the immediate future. I am not going to be observing and watching and gleaning what I can from conversations about the state of Zim today, and I certainly do not plan to write about it while I am in southern Africa, say, when I return to South Africa, or after, when I return to the United States. I'm going in as just a tourist to see friends and to enjoy Harare.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

zimbabwe. one of the most corrupt countries on earth, thankfully though, it is far south enough to not be infiltrated by islamic extremism on any real level.
despite the fact mugabe is a brutal dictator, i've often wondered if he is supported by any real large portion of his own country. after all, it is known that a lot, if not most dictators are supported by their own population, for a while atleast.
howver, i am fairly certain a lot of racism exists towards the white people there, as a lot of raids and killings on white farmers are heard of.

still, despite all of this, i find it hard to trust western media, and would be interested to hear a first hand opinion of it, as those are the only ones that can be trusted, those without hidden agendas.
i'm in no real doubt that western nations would have invaded and ousted mugabe already, if he was a muslim, or there were any oil in the country. it would have been nothing to do with his general politics or attitude towards human rights. therefore i can not trust any media source.

danny

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to your Aaron Hernandez posts Dcat! Have at it!