Some sanity comes back to Zim...I guess

Change has come to Zimbabwe?

Not so fast...

From The Guardian:

Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as Zimbabwe's new prime minister today, but was prevented from addressing the nation on television in a sign of the power struggles likely to come in the powersharing government with the president, Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe administered the oath of office to his bitter rival just a few months after saying he would never talk to the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, let alone share power with him.

Tsvangirai stepped up to the podium and shook Mugabe's hand. The new prime minister raised his right hand and promised to be faithful to Zimbabwe, observe its laws and serve it well. The rival leaders signed papers and shook hands again. There were no smiles...

Oh, no he didn't. Just to think that there is probably as much drama going on in Harare as there is in Atlanta.

But wait until you hear about Mugabe's upcoming birthday party.

From Times of London:

...In recent days [ZANU-PF has] been out soliciting “donations” from corporate Zimbabwe and have drawn up a wish list that is scarcely credible in a land where seven million citizens survive on international food aid, 94 per cent are jobless and cholera rampages through a population debilitated by hunger.

The list includes 2,000 bottles of champagne (Moët & Chandon or ’61 Bollinger preferred); 8,000 lobsters; 100kg of prawns; 4,000 portions of caviar; 8,000 boxes of Ferrero Rocher chocolates; 3,000 ducks; and much else besides. A postscript adds: “No mealie meal” — the ground corn staple on which the vast majority of Zimbabweans survived until the country’s collapse rendered even that a luxury.

Those who prefer to give in cash, not kind, are invited to send “donations” of between $45,000 and $55,000 to a US dollar bank account in the name of the 21st February Movement, a youth organisation controlled by Zanu (PF) and named after the date of the President’s birthday...

WTF...the more things change, the more things remain the same.