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Por favor, ajude, visite o e-mail otmorozok Compras de medicamentos em Mexica N Exportação Farmácia você obtém qualidade superior a baixo preço 7 de 10 com base em 48588 ReviewBal des Conscrits de Besse Em você está de acordo com você, por favor, deixe-nos em frente com o tempo, dune soire, Aprs les examens, ou tous simplement de passer (encore) une bonne soire avec nous. ) On se retrouve donc le 30 MAI la SALLE POLYVALENTE de BESSE La musique sera assur par Extremusic Disco-mobile et la Buvette sera au rendez-vous videment) On vous annonce que pour une grande partie dentre nous on sera en mode dcompression et on sera Done en GRANDE, trs GRANDE FORME. Leia mais 81 marcaram esse evento. Sua jornada começa agora. Recupere a senha. Os pedidos de reparação da escravidão voltaram com a publicação de Ta-Nehisi Coates8217 8220 O Caso de Reparações8221 na revista The Atlantic (21 de maio de 2014). Ao fazer seu argumento, Coates passa pelos horrores da escravidão, Reconstrução, Jim Crow e discriminação racial grosseira. Primeiro, deixe-me dizer que concordo com as reparações defende que a escravidão era uma violação horrível e desprezível dos direitos humanos básicos. A discriminação flagrante que se seguiu à emancipação fez uma zombaria das garantias da Constituição dos EUA. Eu também concordo que os proprietários de escravos e os comerciantes de escravos deveriam reparar aqueles que eles escravizaram. O problema, é claro, é que os escravos, os proprietários de escravos e os comerciantes de escravos estão todos mortos. Assim, punir os perpetradores e as vítimas compensadoras está fora das mãos dos vivos. Punir os perpetradores e compensar as vítimas não é o que os defensores das reparações querem. Eles querem que o governo compense hoje os negros de 8217 pela escravidão sofrida por nossos antepassados. Mas há um problema. O governo não possui recursos próprios. A única maneira de o governo dar um dólar americano é primeiro 8212 por meio da intimidação, ameaças e coação 8212 confiscar esse dólar de algum outro americano. Portanto, se alguém se importa, surge uma questão moral. O que o princípio moral justifica punir um branco de hoje para compensar um negro de hoje para o que um branco de ontem fez para um negro de ontem. Outra questão moral ou de justiça. Uma grande porcentagem, se não a maioria, dos 8282 americanos americanos 8212 sejam eles de ascendência européia, asiática, africana ou latina 8212 don8217t mesmo que voltem três ou quatro gerações como cidadãos americanos. Seus antepassados ​​chegaram em nossas costas muito tempo depois da escravidão. Que padrão de justiça justifica a sua tributação para compensar os negros pela escravidão Por exemplo, em 1956, milhares de húngaros fugiram da brutalidade da URSS para se instalar nos Estados Unidos. O que os húngaros devem aos negros por escravidão tem outro problema espinhoso. Durante a escravidão, alguns negros livres compraram outros negros como meio de libertar membros da família. Mas outros negros possuíam escravos pelo mesmo motivo que os brancos possuíam escravos 8212 para trabalhar fazendas ou plantações. Os descendentes desses negros escravizados são elegíveis e merecedores de reparações. Quando a escravidão africana começou, não havia maneira de os europeus terem escravizado milhões de africanos. Eles não tinham imunidade de doenças que floresceram na África tropical. Capturar os africanos para venderem a escravidão foi feito por árabes e negros africanos. Os defensores das reparações exigem que os cidadãos de Gana, Costa do Marfim, Nigéria, Quênia e vários estados muçulmanos se cobram a pagar pagamentos de reparação à progênie de pessoas que seus antepassados ​​ajudaram a escravizar os defensores das reparações fazem o insensato argumento insolente de que os Estados Unidos se tornaram ricos Costas do trabalho negro livre. Esse absurdo que não pode ser suportado por fato. A Escravidão não tem um registro muito bom de produzir riqueza. A escravidão estava em todo o Sul, e foi proibida na maioria do Norte. Ao comprar no argumento de reparações sobre as riquezas da escravidão, alguém poderia concluir que o Sul antebellum era rico e o Norte desabrigado de escravos era pobre. A verdade do assunto é exatamente o contrário. Na verdade, os estados e regiões mais pobres da nossa nação eram lugares onde a escravidão florescia 8212 Mississippi, Alabama e Geórgia 8212 enquanto os estados e regiões mais ricos eram aqueles onde a escravidão estava ausente: Pensilvânia, Nova York e Massachusetts. Um dos fatos mais ignorados sobre a história trágica da escravidão 8212 e 8282 é praticamente um segredo hoje 8212 é que a escravidão era uma instituição mundial há milhares de anos. Não se tornou uma questão moral até o século XVIII. Além disso, a cruzada moral contra a escravidão começou no Ocidente, principalmente a Inglaterra. Penso que o pedido de reparação da escravidão é simplesmente um outro hustle. Advogados não estão exigindo que o governo envie verificações a pessoas negros individuais. Eles querem dinheiro do contribuinte para ser colocado em algum tipo de fundo de reparações do qual os líderes negros decidem quem recebe quanto e para que finalidade. Este otário parece um pouco longo no dente. O gráfico de hoje8217s ilustra os comícios que seguiram os mercados ursos maciços. Para o gráfico atual de 8217s, um mercado desportivo 8216massive8217 é definido como um declínio superior a 50. Desde o início da Dow8217 em 1896, houve apenas três mercados ursos, segundo os quais o Dow diminuiu mais de 50 (início dos anos 1930, final dos anos 1930 e início da década de 1940, e Durante a recente crise financeira). O gráfico de Today8217s também adiciona o rali que seguiu o busto de ponto-com durante o qual o Nasdaq declinou 78. O atual recorde de Dow seguiu o rally pós-ponto-ponto do Nasdaq que começou em 2002 de forma bastante próxima e mantido em um cargo geral pós - O rally massivo do mercado de ursos 8212 rally durante os primeiros 300 dias de negociação, o comércio de uma forma agitada relativamente plana até cerca de 600 dias de negociação e, em seguida, reembarque na segunda etapa do rali. Vale ressaltar que, para as manifestações pós-maciças do mercado ostentoso que começaram em 1942 e 2002, uma grande correção começou após 1.200 a 1.300 dias de negociação terem passado. O rali da crise pós-financeira tem atualmente mais de 1.300 dias de negociação. A batida continua. Os pensamentos mentirosos tentando convencê-lo de que estamos no meio de uma recuperação econômica continuam a ter o tapete puxado para fora de seus pés. Então deixe-me ver se entendi. O motivo, a habitação, o varejo e a fabricação foram no banheiro durante os últimos seis meses era supostamente frio e nevado durante o INVERNO. Fomos assegurados por economistas altamente educados da Ivy League Wall Street e milionários CNBC falando cabeças que haveria uma recuperação dramática na primavera. Bem, o verão está a apenas três dias de distância. As vendas domiciliárias sempre aumentam a primavera. Todo mundo sabe disso. Aqui está o anúncio hoje8217s da Mortgage Bankers Association: O Market Composite Index, uma medida do volume de aplicações de empréstimos hipotecários, diminuiu 9,2 por cento em uma base estacionária ajustada de uma semana antes. Em uma base não ajustada, o Índice diminuiu 10% em relação à semana anterior. O índice de refinanciamento diminuiu 13% em relação à semana anterior. O Índice de Compras ajustado sazonalmente diminuiu 5% em relação à semana anterior. O Índice de Compras não ajustado diminuiu 6% em comparação com a semana anterior e foi 15% menor que a mesma semana de um ano atrás. Então deixe-me ver se entendi. Temos hipotecas de 30 anos disponíveis nas taxas de juros baixas baixas próximas de 4,35, supostamente temos um número recorde de americanos empregados enquanto as flores de recuperação de Obama, e as pessoas estão rodando em massa, porque o valor líquido da casa também está em um nível histórico, mas O número de pessoas que solicitam hipotecas é 15 abaixo do ano passado, 30 abaixo dos níveis de 2010, 60 abaixo dos níveis de 2004-2005 e nos mesmos níveis de 1997. Como você pode ter uma recuperação real da habitação quando as aplicações de hipotecas são menores de 17 anos? Schmuck, que gera o gráfico abaixo, continua a explodir sobre uma recuperação de residência fantasma porque está claro que ele foi comprado pela indústria. O início da habitação está no banheiro. As vendas de casas novas estão em níveis de recessão. O aluguel da Wall Street para o risco do REO foi executado. Habitação é voltada para o banheiro, juntamente com os preços das casas. Habitação bust 2.0 está em andamento e toda a propaganda no mundo won8217t mudar os fatos. Por Jeff Thomas, International Man Em 1946, uma cantora americana, Merle Travis, gravou uma música chamada 8220Sixteen Tons.8221. A música contou a história de um pobre mineiro de carvão no Kentucky, que morava em uma pequena cidade de mineração de carvão. A economia da cidade girava inteiramente em torno da mina. A empresa de mineração possuía uma loja 8220, 8221, que tinha o monopólio da venda de provisões. Ele cobrado taxas que foram projetadas para usar o salário semanal do mineiro, de modo que o mineiro, de fato, era escravo da empresa de mineração. Como diz a música, você carrega dezesseis toneladas, o que você obtém. Mais um dia mais velho e mais profundo em dívidas. São Pedro, don8217. Você me liga, porque eu posso. Eu devo minha alma à loja da empresa Taxas de juros negativas Let8217s colocam a música de lado para o momento E dê uma olhada em um conceito que o Banco Central Europeu (BCE) passou por um tempo agora. Uma vez que o colapso dos bancos centrais desmoronaria o mundo (sua reivindicação, não a minha), é essencial que os bancos sejam salvos, não importa o que mais deve ser sacrificado. Os esforços para evitar a situação 8221 foram implementados através de flexibilização quantitativa (QE) e a definição e continuação de baixas taxas de juros. Infelizmente, apesar dos lucros recordes dos bancos e dos bônus surpreendentes entregues aos altos executivos dos bancos, de alguma forma o QE e baixas taxas de juros não criaram a prosperidade desejada. A economia ainda está no tanque. O que fazer Uma solução que está sendo considerada é criar 8220 taxas de juros negativas.8221 Sons lógicos, não é necessário. Se as baixas taxas de juros impediram a economia de falhar, mas haven8217t corrigiu, certamente, as taxas de juros negativas só podem ser mais positivas. E quais são as taxas de juros negativas Bem, isso simplesmente significa que, se você manter seu dinheiro em um banco, em vez do banco que lhe paga juros, você paga o banco para manter seu dinheiro. Nenhum banco central já fez tal coisa, então não é surpreendente que pareça uma pílula amarga para engolir. No entanto, o BCE irá apresentá-lo como uma necessidade 8220 infeliz.8221 A moeda eletrônica Let8217s mais uma vez altera os assuntos para o momento. Se as moedas fiduciárias, como o euro e o dólar, colapsam (como eu acredito que é quase inevitável), a UE e os EUA provavelmente apresentarão uma moeda alternativa (ou moedas), uma vez que, se uma alternativa não for feita Prontamente disponíveis, as pessoas vão recorrer a qualquer moeda que seja útil para poder continuar a comprar bens e negociar. Estamos na era eletrônica. Também estamos vendo a UE e os EUA em direção a uma direção marcada com controles crescentes sobre a capital de seus cidadãos. Portanto, a moeda ideal seria uma eletrônica. Não há mais notas de papel na carteira, não há mais moedas no bolso apenas um cartão de débito plástico para cuidar de todas as compras. Todas as compras. Se o comprador compra algo tão importante como um carro ou tão insignificante como um bar Cadbury, o cartão seria usado para cada transação monetária. Isso, é claro, é uma solução útil para o barulho de lidar com o que antes era considerado dinheiro. Mas há uma vantagem adicional, uma grande, de fato para o governo. Agora ele possui um registro de cada transação que você faz. Não poderia haver transações na tabela 8221, pois apenas o cartão de débito representaria a moeda. Claro, um banco seria necessário para lidar com as transações. O banco receberia seu cheque eletrônico diretamente de seu empregador, e você gastaria o que você tinha em sua conta. O banco seria a casa de compensação central, apesar de todas as suas transações financeiras terem ocorrido. Uma vantagem extra para o governo seria que eles não precisariam mais perseguir seus cidadãos para a tributação. Como eles tinham um registro completo de cada centavo que você ganhou e gastou, eles poderiam aconselhá-lo sobre o montante da sua obrigação fiscal e simplesmente deduzi-la periodicamente. Se você paga o imposto anualmente, as deduções podem ser interrompidas, mensalmente ou mesmo semanalmente. E o imposto não precisa estar sob um título. Assim como seu banco agora lista uma série de cobranças confusas em seu cartão de crédito, então o governo pode ter uma grande variedade de impostos confusos e até redundantes que ele deduz em uma base regular. Assim como com o banco, as taxas para cada imposto podem subir ou diminuir (mas principalmente) sem explicação. (Quanto mais numerosas as categorias de impostos e quanto maior a frequência das deduções, mais confusão e, portanto, menos queixas.) Como tudo isso se encaixa Let8217s volta ao BCE. Se existe uma taxa de juros negativa, o banco já não lhe paga interesse para incentivá-lo a manter seu dinheiro com eles. Eles agora controlam todas as suas transações monetárias e você não pode funcionar sem elas. O servo tornou-se o mestre. Portanto, não seria possível deixar de usar o banco para suas transações, se suas 8220 taxas de juros negativas8221 começassem a subir. At this point, the government and the bank would, between them, control your money totally. You would find yourself, in effect, 8220owned by the company store.8221 It8217s even possible that bank fees and tax rates could be increased as your income increased, so that you might never be able to truly save money, invest, or indeed, act independently of your 8220owners.8221 The flow of your money would have become centralised, and you could not function without them. Of course, this is all theory. Surely, this could not come to pass, because people inherently do not wish to be enslaved. And yet it happened on a wholesale basis in Kentucky and other mining areas in the US. So the question really is, 8220How did it become possible that people in mining towns volunteered for their own slavery8221 First there was a depression. Many people lost their jobs and their incomes and were prepared to do anything in order to feed their families. So they signed up for the only game in town: the mines. It was dangerous work, there were no benefits, and the coal dust would kill a miner after a time. But as long as he lived, his family had enough to eat. He accepted the deal, because (again) it was the only game in town. So, back to the present day, where the Greater Depression will soon be on us in full force. A large percentage of jobs will be destroyed, but in addition, this time around, the currency will also be destroyed. In order to pay for goods, particularly food, people will do whatever they have to, to obtain currency. Desperate times, indeed. But there8217s a light at the end of the tunnel The government has chosen to eliminate bank notes and coins, as they ultimately proved to be so destructive. Never again will this be allowed to happen. The new Electronic Currency System will ensure that all money is centrally managed . The press will declare the new system brilliant, and the harder an individual has been hit by the Greater Depression, the more quickly he will jump on board. The greedy rich have all but destroyed his life, and his government, like a knight in shining armour, has come to save him. Like the miner, he will not be musing on how this will all play out over the decades he will opt for the promise of relief for his family now. If this all plays out as described above, it will not be just Kentucky, but entire nations. Editor8217s note: The day after this article was written, the ECB announced the introduction of a negative interest rate: 0.1 on deposits. As predicted, the media have already begun to the praise the measure. To see what the consequences of economic mismanagement can be, and how stealthily disaster can creep up on you, watch the 30-minute documentary, Meltdown America . Witness the harrowing tales of three ordinary people who lived through a crisis, and how their experiences warn of the turmoil that could soon reach the US. Click here to watch it now. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. James Madison Here in New Mexico, we are moving more toward a national police force. Homeland Security is involved with a lot of little things around town. Somebody in Washington needs to call a timeout. Dan Klein, retired Albuquerque Police Department sergeant If the United States is a police state, then the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is its national police force, with all the brutality, ineptitude and corruption such a role implies. In fact, although the DHS governmental bureaucracy may at times appear to be inept and bungling, it is ruthlessly efficient when it comes to building what the Founders feared mosta standing army on American soil. The third largest federal agency behind the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, the DHSwith its 240,000 full-time workers, 61 billion budget and sub-agencies that include the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)has been aptly dubbed a runaway train. In the 12 years since it was established to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, the DHS has grown from a post-911 knee-jerk reaction to a leviathan with tentacles in every aspect of American life. With good reason, a bipartisan bill to provide greater oversight and accountability into the DHS purchasing process has been making its way through Congress. A better plan would be to abolish the DHS altogether. In making the case for shutting down the de facto national police agency, analyst Charles Kenny offers the following six reasons: one, the agency lacks leadership two, terrorism is far less of a threat than it is made out to be three, the FBI has actually stopped more alleged terrorist attacks than DHS four, the agency wastes exorbitant amounts of money with little to show for it five, An overweight DHS gets a free pass to infringe civil liberties without a shred of economic justification and six, the agency is just plain bloated. To Kennys list, I will add the following: The menace of a national police force, a. k.a. a standing army, vested with so much power cannot be overstated, nor can its danger be ignored. Indeed, as the following list shows, just about every nefarious deed, tactic or thuggish policy advanced by the government today can be traced back to the DHS, its police state mindset, and the billions of dollars it distributes to police agencies in the form of grants. Militarizing police and SWAT teams. The DHS routinely hands out six-figure grants to enable local municipalities to purchase military-style vehicles, as well as a veritable war chest of weaponry, ranging from tactical vests, bomb-disarming robots, assault weapons and combat uniforms. This rise in military equipment purchases funded by the DHS has, according to analysts Andrew Becker and G. W. Schulz, paralleled an apparent increase in local SWAT teams. The end result An explosive growth in the use of SWAT teams for otherwise routine police matters, an increased tendency on the part of police to shoot first and ask questions later, and an overall mindset within police forces that they are at warand the citizenry are the enemy combatants. Spying on activists, dissidents and veterans. In 2009, DHS released three infamous reports on Rightwing and Leftwing Extremism, and another entitled Operation Vigilant Eagle, outlining a surveillance program targeting veterans. The reports collectively and broadly define extremists as individuals and groups that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. In 2013, it was revealed that DHS, the FBI, state and local law enforcement agencies, and the private sector were working together to conduct nationwide surveillance on protesters First Amendment activities. Stockpiling ammunition. DHS, along with other government agencies, has been stockpiling an alarming amount of ammunition in recent years, which only adds to the discomfort of those already leery of the government. As of 2013, DHS had 260 million rounds of ammo in stock, which averages out to between 1,300 to 1,600 rounds per officer. The US Army, in contrast, has roughly 350 rounds per soldier. DHS has since requisitioned more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammo, enough, concludes Forbes magazine, to sustain a hot war for 20 years. Distributing license plate readers. DHS has already distributed more than 50 million in grants to enable local police agencies to acquire license plate readers, which rely on mobile cameras to photograph and identify cars, match them against a national database, and track their movements. Relying on private contractors to maintain a license plate database allows the DHS and its affiliates to access millions of records without much in the way of oversight. Contracting to build detention camps. In 2006, DHS awarded a 385 million contract to a Halliburton subsidiary to build detention centers on American soil. Although the government and Halliburton were not forthcoming about where or when these domestic detention centers would be built, they rationalized the need for them in case of an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs in the event of other emergencies such as natural disasters. Viewed in conjunction with the NDAA provision allowing the military to arrest and indefinitely detain anyone, including American citizens, it would seem the building blocks are already in place for such an eventuality. Tracking cell-phones with Stingray devices. Distributed to local police agencies as a result of grants from the DHS, these Stingray devices enable police to track individuals cell phonesand their ownerswithout a court warrant or court order. The amount of information conveyed by these devices about ones activities, whereabouts and interactions is considerable. As one attorney explained: Because we carry our cellphones with us virtually everywhere we go, stingrays can paint a precise picture of where we are and who we spend time with, including our location in a lovers house, in a psychologists office or at a political protest. Carrying out military drills and lockdowns in American cities. Each year, DHS funds military-style training drills in cities across the country. These Urban Shield exercises, elaborately staged with their own set of professionally trained Crisis Actors playing the parts of shooters, bystanders and victims, fool law enforcement officials, students, teachers, bystanders and the media into thinking its a real crisis. Using the TSA as an advance guard . The TSA now searches a variety of government and private databases, including things like car registrations and employment information, in order to track travelers before they ever get near an airport. Other information collected includes tax identification number, past travel itineraries, property records, physical characteristics, and law enforcement or intelligence information. Conducting virtual strip searches with full-body scanners . Under the direction of the TSA, American travelers have been subjected to all manner of searches ranging from whole-body scanners and enhanced patdowns at airports to bag searches in train stations. In response to public outrage over what amounted to a virtual strip search, the TSA has begun replacing the scanners with equally costly yet less detailed models. The old scanners will be used by prisons for now. Carrying out soft target checkpoints. VIPR task forces, comprised of federal air marshals, surface transportation security inspectors, transportation security officers, behavior detection officers and explosive detection canine teams have laid the groundwork for the governments effort to secure so-called soft targets such as malls, stadiums, bridges, etc. Some security experts predict that checkpoints and screening stations will eventually be established at all soft targets, such as department stores, restaurants, and schools. DHS Operation Shield, a program which seeks to check up on security protocols around the country with unannounced visits, conducted a surprise security exercise at the Social Security Administration building in Leesburg, Fla. when they subjected people who went to pick up their checks to random ID checks by federal agents armed with semi-automatic weapons. Directing government workers to spy on Americans. Terrorism Liaison Officers are firefighters, police officers, and even corporate employees who have received training to spy on and report back to government entities on the day-to-day activities of their fellow citizens. These individuals are authorized to report suspicious activity which can include such innocuous activities as taking pictures with no apparent aesthetic value, making measurements and drawings, taking notes, conversing in code, espousing radical beliefs, and buying items in bulk. Conducting widespread spying networks using fusion centers . Data collecting agencies spread throughout the country, aided by the National Security Agency, fusions centersof which there are at least 78 scattered around the U. S. constantly monitor our communications, collecting and cataloguing everything from our internet activity and web searches to text messages, phone calls and emails. This data is then fed to government agencies, which are now interconnected: the CIA to the FBI, the FBI to local police. Despite a budget estimated to be somewhere between 289 million and 1.4 billion, these fusion centers have proven to be exercises in incompetence, often producing irrelevant, useless or inappropriate intelligence, while spending millions of dollars on flat-screen televisions, sport utility vehicles, hidden cameras and other gadgets. Carrying out Constitution-free border control searches. On orders from the DHS, the governments efforts along the border have become little more than an exercise in police state power, ranging from aggressive checkpoints to the widespread use of drone technology, often used against American citizens traveling within the country. Border patrol operations occur within 100 miles of an international crossing, putting some 200 million Americans within the bounds of aggressive border patrol searches and seizures, as well as increasingly expansive drone surveillance. With 71 checkpoints found along the southwest border of the United States alone, suspicionless search and seizures on the border are rampant. Border patrol agents also search the personal electronic devices of people crossing the border without a warrant. Funding city-wide surveillance cameras. As Charlie Savage reports for the Boston Globe, the DHS has funneled millions of dollars to local governments nationwide for purchasing high-tech video camera networks, accelerating the rise of a surveillance society in which the sense of freedom that stems from being anonymous in public will be lost. These camera systems, installed on city streets, in parks and transit systems, operating in conjunction with sophisticated computer systems that boast intelligent video analytics, digital biometric identification, military-pedigree software for analyzing and predicting crime and facial recognition software, create a vast surveillance network that can target millions of innocent individuals. Utilizing drones and other spybots. The DHS has been at the forefront of funding and deploying surveillance robots and drones for land, sea and air, including robots that resemble fish and tunnel-bots that can travel underground. Despite repeated concerns over the danger surveillance drones used domestically pose to Americans privacy rights, the DHS has continued to expand its fleet of Predator drones, which come equipped with video cameras, infrared cameras, heat sensors, and radar. DHS also loans its drones out to local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies for a variety of tasks, although the agency refuses to divulge any details as to how, why and in what capacity these drones are being used by police. Incredibly, the DHS has also been handing out millions of dollars in grants to local police agencies to accelerate the adoption of drones in their localities. Its not difficult to see why the DHS has been described as a wasteful, growing, fear-mongering beast. If it is a beast, however, it is a beast that is accelerating our nations transformation into a police state through its establishment of a standing army, a. k.a. national police force. This, too, is nothing new. Historically, as I show in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State . the establishment of a national police force has served as a fundamental and final building block for every totalitarian regime that has ever wreaked havoc on humanity, from Hitlers all-too-real Nazi Germany to George Orwells fictional Oceania. Whether fictional or historical, however, the calling cards of these national police agencies remain the same: brutality, inhumanity, corruption, intolerance, rigidity, and bureaucracyin other words, evil. Please note: You need to have Active content enabled in your IE browser in order to see the index of articles on this webpage MDC infiltrated Njabulo Ncube Chief Political Reporter Report implicates CIO ZIMBABWES secret service, the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) allegedly took advantage of the schism within the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to perpetrate last Julys brutal attack on Harare North legislator Trudy Stevenson and four other party officials, according to a report compiled by a commission of inquiry set up by one of the feuding factions of the party. In a 123-page report immediately dismissed by critics as a desperate attempt at self-cleansing, a commission of inquiry appointed by Morgan Tsvangirais faction of the MDC - which has been accused of orchestrating the assault - found that the opposition party had been heavily infiltrated by the CIO and its agents. The commission, chaired by Advocate Happias Zhou, found that the CIO masterminded the attack on Stevenson, Simangele Manyere, Linos Mushonga, Luxon Sibanda and Tawanda Mudzerema on Sunday, July 2 2006. Zhous commission included lawyers Irene Petras of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Kay Ncube of Gill, Godlonton and Gerrans and Kudakwashe Matibiri. Now they are finding a scapegoat in state security agents yet everyone knows that some of their people were arrested over the issue, said State Security Minister Dydimus Mutasa. I think this is part of the unlawful acts of the MDC to blame anyone except themselves, said Mutasa. He added, This lawyer appointed to investigate was not appointed by the state but by them. They have left out our legal people, including the police to do the job by appointing their own lawyer. The question which all Zimbabweans should be asking themselves is whether the MDC now want to set up their own state within Zimbabwe so that we prepare ourselves to meet them accordingly, he added. The controversial report claims the attack on Stevenson and her colleagues was premeditated and was carried out by trained and experienced state security agents with help from informants. Reads part of the findings: All evidence points to the involvement of the CIO in the attack of Mrs Stevenson and her colleagues in so far as they infiltrated the opposition MDC. Mrs Stevenson, herself, categorically stated that in her belief the attack was carried out by or with the involvement of the CIO who she believes have infiltrated the Tsvangirai-led MDC. She (Stevenson) did not seem to have considered the possibility that her own grouping had been infiltrated, although it is a real possibility. The presence of a police motor vehicle soon after the attack is suspicious. The attack was carried out with such skill and efficiency that even though it happened in broad daylight there were no eyewitnesses. Further, it took the police about four or so days before they arrested the first suspects whom they subsequently released. That approach is consistent with an intention to divert attention from the real perpetrators of the brutal act. The Commissions attention was drawn to one Smart Mesa, who upon its enquiry appeared to be an informer or operative of the Central Intelligence Organisation. The member stated that he is a retired officer of the Zimbabwe Republic Police. The Commission believes that he was more than just an officer of the ZRP. He has made his way into the party structures, to the highest levels of the Harare Province Security Department, yet nobody could explain to this Commission how he had gone from being an ordinary member of the security structures for the province, to heading it almost overnight. The Commission said it also noted that one member, Stanford Nhende, could be associated with the secret service. That member, who does not hold office even at the lowest structures of the party, has detailed and accurate information about the operations of the party at almost all levels. He has been involved in funding many party activities within and outside Mabvuku Constituency. After the arrest of the suspects in the case involving the attack on Trudy Stevenson and her colleagues, Stanford Nhende readily offered to pay their legal fees even though the party had taken a position that it was not going to meet the legal expenses. He admitted that he had authored and paid for most of the petitions, which had been presented against the district leadership, including the latest one. Nhende works closely with a senior police officer whose name he reluctantly mentioned. He stated that that officer was a member or supporter or sympathiser of the party, who volunteers secret information to the party. The Commissions findings reveal what it described as a nave perception on the part of the leadership of the party in Mabvuku that there were some members of the CIO and senior police officers who were sympathetic to their cause. Even the member of parliament is not immune to that quixotic notion. As a result, the state agents and senior police officers have inside information on all operations of the party. While Tsvangirai yesterday said he had been exonerated by the findings of the commission of inquiry, the rival MDC faction, headed by Arthur Mutambara, dismissed the inquiry as a self-cleansing exercise designed to shift blame for the real crisis of undemocratic principles in the opposition to the CIO. It is clear from the findings that the state was determined to cause maximum damage to the MDC and to discredit the democratic movement, Tsvangirai told journalists at a press conference in Harare yesterday. State agents ensnared and trapped Honourable Stevenson and her colleagues into this sadistic and unfortunate attack. Tsvangirai said the bungling characterising the states case against those initially charged - including Mabvuku-Tafara legislator Timothy Mubhawu, who is aligned to Tsvangirais faction - was further proof of his camps innocence. Harare magistrate Olivia Mariga ruled that there was not enough evidence linking Mubhawu to the crime. Police had alleged that Mubhawu sponsored the attack but failed to prove their claim. After the regimes failure to liquidate the MDC following the leadership crack on October 12 last year, Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF changed their tactics and are still pursuing their project to destroy the MDC. Before October 12, the regime targeted our provinces and provincial structures for infiltration. When they realised that the rest of the party remained intact at grassroots level, they changed tack, he said. Tsvangirai said the report had made a critical observation that the MDC had considerable structural weaknesses. He, however stressed that the party would move with speed to contain these machinations and vaccinate the party against a web of bugs and spooks and negative external forces. But Gabriel Chaibva, spokesperson for the rival MDC camp, said his faction did not recognise the commission of inquiry set up by Tsvangirai, saying it was not independent. I dont wish to waste time on a self-serving and cleansing exercise whose findings we have always maintained were predetermined, said Chaibva. To suggest that it was the CIO when some of his party supporters and members are the accused in the case is trying to hide behind a finger. Blaming the CIO shows that there are many state security agents in his party, said Chaibva. Stevenson, who appeared before the Zhou commission, said she had not seen the report but added that Tsvangirai had long been told that CIO moles had infiltrated his inner circle. I have not seen the report and cant specifically comment on its findings but he (Tsvangirai) knows and was told several years ago that people surrounding him are CIOs. He did nothing about it. We know there are CIOs in the MDC, especially his camp. Tsvangirai said his party would go through intensive leadership analysis and scrutiny in light of the findings of the commission. He also said he did not agree with all the findings of the commission. We disagree with some of the findings because they are based on factually incorrect information. For instance, the commission says we have a security department headed by Nhamo Musekiwa. We do not have such a department. The commission also states that previous attempts to address issues of violence within the party failed to bear fruit. That is incorrect. We took action against certain individuals involved in violence in the past. In June 2005, we expelled more than 30 youths from the party because of their violent activities, Tsvangirai said. Massive water crisis looms HARARE residents could face an interminable water crisis following revelations that the floundering Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) and the Harare City Council (HCC) need 4 billion to address the capital citys chronic woes, in yet another sign of the countrys mounting troubles Harare residents have over the past two weeks endured serious water shortages after eight suppliers of crucial water treatment chemicals cut off supplies due to non-payment of debts totalling 1.5 billion. Among these suppliers of chemicals is Zimbabwe Phosphates (Zimphos), which provides aluminium sulphate, used to purify water. Suppliers have put an embargo on supplies of chemicals and close to 4 billion is needed to solve this crisis, said this papers sources, who asked not to be named. Insiders at the water management monopoly said although the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) had availed 250 million to settle some debts and that way avoid exposing the capitals residents to health risks, the state-run body and the beleaguered Sekesai Makwavarara-led council, which is tasked with the distribution of water in Harare and satellite towns such as Chitungwiza and Norton, still needs 4 billion to source replacement parts for worn out motors and to repair ageing water pipes that cause huge amounts of water to be lost through leakages. As a result of the water shortages, residents of northern suburbs such as Chisipite, the Grange, Mabvuku, Tafara, Kambanji and Glen Lorne, where Zimbabwes celebrities and most ruling Zanu PF politicians have homes, were this week grappling with intermittent water cuts. Some residents in Mabvuku and Tafara have resorted to fetching water from streams and unprotected wells, which were dug at the height of last years crippling water shortages. ZINWA insiders said Harares raw water, which is drawn from Seke, Harava and Manyame dams as well as Lake Chivero, is no longer adequate to meet the citys needs as population growth has not been matched by a corresponding expansion of water supply sources. Furthermore the quality of the water is poor, hence expensive to treat, the sources said. They revealed that the combined design output for the two Harare water treatment plants, Morton Jaffray and Prince Edward is 680 mega litres per day against an estimated daily demand of about 800 mega litres. We are not even meeting the design output capacity and are producing on average 600 mega litres per day because of outstanding rehabilitation works, the sources added. The sources said the storage capacity of 830 mega litres of treated water per day is not adequate because it is almost equal to a days consumption. Ideally, stored water should at least be double a days consumption. Water Resources and Infrastructural Development Minister Munacho Mutezo told The Financial Gazette that the government had roped in some Chinese investors to speed up the construction of the long - planned Kunzwi Dam in Marondera to improve water supplies. The construction of more reservoirs is also to be speeded up. Civic organisations agree to rights body consultations Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business Reporter ZIMBABWES civil society organisations will today finally meet government representatives in the resort town of Kariba for consultations on the establishment of the contentious human rights commission, which has been on the cards since the beginning of the year. The consultations, which were initially brokered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in June, twice failed to kick off after civic organisations objected to a draft programme which they perceived as favoureing government representatives most. Rights bodies have agreed to a revised programme. The revised draft programme lists prominent academic and former University of Zimbabwe vice chancellor Walter Kamba as the facilitator of the four-day meeting. Rights groups under the umbrella body, the National Association of Non Governmental Organisations (NANGO) had initially greeted plans to establish a Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission with widespread scorn and cynicism, citing the governments poor rights record. NANGO spokesperson Fambai Ngirande yesterday indicated that members of his organisation would take part in the consultations. We have realised that dialogue is constructive towards the resolution of the prevailing humanitarian and human rights crisis, said Ngirande. In attendance at the Kariba meeting will be Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Minister Patrick Chinamasa and his permanent secretary David Mangota, Anti Corruption and Anti Monopolies Minister Paul Mangwana some government officials, senior civil servants, judges, academics from the University of Zimbabwe, the staff of the United Nations (UN) and leaders of civil society organisations. Chinamasa, who is spearheading the establishment of the commission, says the rights body will be mandated to investigate human rights violations and complaints and make findings and decisions on such issues. However, civic bodies argue that the effectiveness of the commission hinges on its composition, the process of appointing the commissioners, how its decisions will be enforced and its relationship to the executive arm of government. Rights groups also contend that the establishment a human rights commission in the prevailing legislative and administrative environment without corresponding and simultaneous changes to existing repressive laws is tantamount to deception and is an attempt to create illusory remedial institutions. They say such a process will compound the human rights situation in the country. Critics fear that the planned commission could be ineffective if government does not repeal legislation such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which has been used to close independent media houses and to arrest and intimidate journalists and the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), which restricts fundamental rights such as assembly, association and free expression. According to Chinamasa, the ZHRC will ensure increased conformity with various human rights treaties, to which Zimbabwe is a signatory, as a mechanism to ensure promotion, protection and effective enforcement of human rights. It will also assist the state in the preparation of country reports required by UN treaty bodies and to investigate reports of human rights violations and seek effective redress of any of the violations if they are established. High Court blocks Chigwederes plot Nkululeko Sibanda Own Correspondent THE High Court has ordered the minister of Education, Sport and Culture, Aeneas Chigwedere to stop ordering the arrest of headmasters for allegedly increasing school fees without approval from his ministry. In a provisional order delivered by High Court judge Justice Bhunu on Tuesday, Chigwedere, who was cited as the first respondent, was ordered not to order the police to arrest the headmasters of Arundel High School, Ariel Boys High School, and Chisipite Junior School over fee increases. The permanent secretary in the ministry, Stephen Mahere, and police commissioner Augustine Chihuri were cited as second and third respondents, respectively. Bhunu ordered that respondents shall not request, instigate, or effect, the closure of any non-governmental school that is maintained by any applicant or any member of the first applicant. The Association of Trust Schools, chaired by Jameson Timba, together with the three schools trusts, went to court seeking an interim order barring Chigwedere from causing the arrest of the headmasters. This followed threats made by Chigwedere in parliament on September 6, saying his ministry had granted the AST a two-week window to regularise school fees. The Hansard of Wednesday September 6 quoted Chigwedere as saying: The ministry demands that each school out of line regularises its position over the next two weeks after which it (the ministry) has to take disciplinary action in terms of the provisions of the Act including the possibility of imprisonment of the culprits for a period not exceeding six months. Where possible, the parents should be given the flexibility of paying fees in instalments as long as the fees are paid in full by the end of the term. Timba yesterday said his association had decided to take pre-emptive action against Chigwedere to avert the arrest of school officials. AST argued Chigwederes threats had caused alarm within the schools. The minister has made some threats that have caused alarm and has issued an ultimatum which expires this coming Wednesday (yesterday).the final school term has now started and is an examination term which must proceed without disruptions, said Mushore. Furthermore, the lawyers argued that the delay by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in announcing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of August had resulted in the permanent secretary in Chigwederes ministry delaying his approval or dismissal of the application to increase school fees. ZSE hits new record SHARES raced to record highs in a broad rally yesterday, as a new inflation high and the central banks recent actions on the money market bolstered already strong investor support for stock. The main industrial index rose 9.6 percent to a record 272 057.13 points, in a seventh straight day of gains that drew the index closer to the 300 000-point level, now looking to be just one more session away. The mining index was up 9.9 percent up to reach its own record 141 520 points high. Only five counters were in the red on the ZSEs new electronic board. Brokers expect the market to open firm today as there is still pent up demand for stock. Going forward, we expect bulls to be continually present in quality counters like export-oriented, banks and highly diversified ones. The need to provide cheaper sources of finance to the productive sectors especially agriculture and the 2008 Presidential elections is expected to determine the bulls term of office, analysts at Kingdom Stockbrokers said. Recent remarks by central bank governor Gideon Gono that appeared to set the tone for a low interest rate regime, lengthened tenors for zero percent paper, Fridays release of new record inflation numbers, plus expectations of record liquidity lying ahead have combined to build a consensus that the money market will be down for the foreseeable future. Analysts see RBZ increasing Treasury bill tenors to more than 365 days, at even lower rates, as it tries to provide cheaper funding to producers and restructure domestic debt. Army, cops deployed at fuel filling stations Njabulo Ncube Chief Political Reporter THE government has deployed Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) and Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) operatives to filling stations as motorists and industry grapple with one of the worst episodes of fuel shortages analysts say could have an adverse effect on the new planting season which begins in a few weeks time. Investigations by The Financial Gazette in Harare this week established that uniformed soldiers and police details were a visible fixture at the few filling stations and garages that received fuel deliveries, mostly from the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe. The soldiers and the police were observed controlling the long, winding queues as motorists jostled to obtain the elusive liquid, which had dried up at various parallel market points where both petrol and diesel have been readily available, albeit at prohibitive prices. Fuel industry sources that spoke to The Financial Gazette attributed the acute shortage both at the official outlets and on the parallel market to tight monitoring by the law enforcement agents, the purpose of whose deployment is believed to be to nab fuel dealers charging more than the gazetted prices. Garage owners and dealers that spoke to this newspaper, on condition that they are not named, maintained that it was not viable to sell fuel at the gazetted pump price when they had sourced foreign currency to import the commodity on the black market. NOCZIM has pegged the pump price of petrol at 335 and diesel at 320 per litre but filling stations that had supplies over the past week sold it for an average of 720 000 per litre while it cost up to 1000 per litre on the parallel market. CZI blasts govt over arrests Chris Muronzi Staff Reporter The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has condemned the detention this week of five senior industrialists for illegal price increases, warning that the move was a setback to efforts to mend strained relations between government and industry Five industrialists were on Monday detained for more than six hours for allegedly increasing prices without approval from government. Their arrest has angered industry chiefs, who said the move amounts to harassment. Richard Dafana of Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company Limited, George Rundogo of Windmill, Circle Cements Isiah Bingwa and Burombo Mudhumo of Lobels were detained in Harare on Monday for increasing the prices of their products. The police also arrested a senior executive at leading plastics packaging maker Saltrama Plastics, for raising prices without approval. The wave of arrests began last Friday when Benson Samudzimu, managing director of the countrys largest dairy producer, Dairibord Zimbabwe, was picked up for increasing the price of milk. Fertiliser producers argue that the cost of ammonia, a key raw material in fertiliser manufacturing, went up by more than 300 percent a week ago, while bakers argue that production costs have gone up significantly over recent weeks. Industry executives say they would be forced to close down if they can not pass on the cost of overheads to customers through price increases. CZI, often criticised for shying away from publicly criticising government policies, this week petitioned the Ministry of Industry and International Trade, the Office of the President and Cabinet, expressing serious concern over the detentions. The action taken by the authorities is unfortunate and it may reverse the progress that we have made in recent months in developing a good working relationship with the Government. It has brought about bad publicity and damaged the trust that was beginning to develop among the various stakeholders in our economy, the CZI said in a statement. We urge members not to dwell on the police action but to go about their normal production and distribution activities without fear of interference, the CZI said, urging members to report any interference from the police to the CZI or the Ministry of Industry and International Trade. It should be made clear that issues to do with price controls and monitoring should be dealt with by the Ministry of Industry and International Trade which should be engaging companies where it is felt that price increases are unjustified. We understand that the implementation of controls does not warrant the arresting of manufacturers. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said the industrialists would appear in court soon. Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu endorsed the clampdown, insisting private firms should not resort to increasing prices but should wait for the government to tackle the problems afflicting the economy. The police are merely following orders, said Mpofu, adding that he had warned company executives of the consequences of hiking prices without his approval. The government has put a lid on the prices of three basic commodities, namely bread, flour and maize meal, while the prices of a host of other basics, and farming inputs such as fertiliser, are controlled. However, critics say controls are unlikely to slow down inflation, which reached a record 1204.6 percent in August. Influential people milked Zisco: Minister Chris Muronzi Staff Reporter INDUSTRY and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu has pointed fingers of accusation at influential people in government for taking advantage of the crisis at state-controlled steelmaker, Ziscosteel, to engage in corrupt activities for personal gain. Mpofu told a parliamentary committee yesterday how a detailed report on corrupt activities at Zisco submitted to the Anti-Corruption Ministry had been suppressed because its release would further damage Zimbabwes already battered international image and slam the door on any new investment into Zisco. There is a report which we sent to the anti-corruption ministry involving some influential people involved in underhand dealings at Zisco and some of them are colleagues in Parliament. But I fear that publicity of such activities will not work in our favour as a country currently under sanctions. Icala kaliboli. We can always deal with the issue later. It can be a month, a year and even two years but it still is a crime but for now lets bring in investment, Mpofu told the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade yesterday. Zisco has been struggling over the years due to myriad problems ranging from poor management to poor working capital requirements. Two years ago, the Criminal Investigations Department and the Reserve Bank jointly probed allegations of insider contracts and the alleged fraudulent sale of steel as scrap from the steelworks. However, no arrests were made. Yesterday, Mpofu told the committee that Global Steel Holdings Limited (GSHL), the Indian company that has withdrawn from a US400 000 contract to revive Zisco, had been angered by the way it was treated as it endeavoured to get an insight into the operations of the company. Throughout the hearing, Mpofu said certain interests emerged after GSHL came on board.. After the departure of Global Steel we have a board and management running the affairs of the company and we hope to finalise the negotiations by the end of this month or next month. There are lots of factors to consider whenever a major investment of this magnitude is made. Since independence, we have been looking for an investor and we had identified GSHL. I will be disappointed if we dont get this contract because after so many years someone has finally agreed to put money into Zisco, Mpofu said, adding that he was confident the deal could still be saved. GSH had been conducting a due diligence exercise before investing money in the company and was yet to sign a contract, Mpofu said, This triggered an avalanche of questions from MPs who wanted to know whether GSHL had been conducting a due diligence exercise or managing Zisco, The legislators also wanted to know why former Zisco MD Gabriel Masanga was fired if no management contract had been concluded with GSHL. Mpofu said Masanga and Zisco parted ways amicably. According to Mpofu, Zisco needs an average of 50 000 tonnes of coal to produce about one million tonnes of steel per month. But last month the steel company received 1000 tonnes, only enough to keep the furnace up. Coal supplies dropped below 5000 tonnes in March when GSHL took over, said Mpofu, who claimed this raised the possibility of sabotage. Nyoni vows to deal with Langa Nkululeko Sibanda Own Correspondent SMALL to Medium Scale Enterprises Minister, Sithembiso Nyoni has vowed to deal with her junior, Andrew Langa, through the appropriate channels after the Insiza legislator allegedly insinuated that she was linked to cattle rustling syndicates that have rocked Matabeleland South province lately. The two lawmakers are alleged to have clashed during a meeting in Fort Rixon last week while farmers were trying to identify measures to deal with escalating cattle rustling activity in the area. According to information at hand, Langa lashed out at senior government officials and members of the ruling party who had been involved in cases of cattle rustling. Nyoni did not take kindly to Langas statements and allegedly phoned him later in the evening, to express her displeasure. In an interview with The Financial Gazette on Tuesday, Langa said his statements were not directed at particular individuals but targeted at those who had links to rustling syndicates. Langa said he did not understand why Nyoni took issue with his utterances and why she phoned him demanding an explanation. I did not expect Minister Nyoni to call me and ask me why I said there was need for farmers to be alert as there was a rise in cattle rustling cases in the area. I said that the police should act on whatever cases are reported to them, regardless of the suspected rustlers standing in society. I did not mention anybodys name in those remarks and I was surprised to get a call from Minister Nyoni at around 8 pm saying I had targeted her during the meeting, said Langa. Nyoni had told him she was angry with his remarks and had discussed the issue in various quarters. Said Langa: I have been told that she is talking about the issue in various quarters. Given that I was not aiming at her, I will not be intimidated or be afraid of her because I did not mention her name. I was merely making my opinion known on the issue. In a separate interview, Nyoni said she did not wish to discuss the matter in the media but would use the necessary channels of communication and follow protocol to deal with Langa. Langa is my colleague both in the party and in government. I do not want to be seen discussing him in the media. In the party we have our own channels of communication. We have protocol that we have to follow and I am going to use that protocol to deal with him. If anything, he is my junior in the party and I will treat and deal with him in that way, said Nyoni. She however hung up when asked to elaborate on the protocol she would follow in dealing with Langa. Three of Nyonis employees have appeared in court on allegations of stealing 18 beasts from a white cattle rancher, Robert Bruce Moffat. They are on bail pending resumption of their trial. Moffat is reported to have been threatened with unspecified action if he did not get the police to withdraw the case. He has instead vowed to fight until justice prevails. Just resign, please No Holds Barred with Gondo Gushungo A THIRTY-TWO-member cabinet in the troubled Cote dIvoire last week resigned en masse over a toxic waste dumping scandal which left six people dead. Although most of the ministers were later reappointed, the Minister of Transport, who had issued permits to refuse collectors and the Minister of Environment lost their jobs. This is alien to local politics where those in government are known for their ever-shrinking accountability. What exactly do I mean I will explain. In Zimbabwe, agriculture, the backbone of the economy has gone to the dogs, raising the spectre of hunger and famine and no minister has resigned, billions of dollars of the taxpayers money silted up the pockets of a corrupt few under the War Victims Compensation Fund and no minister resigned, the VIP Housing Scheme was abused and the minister retained his job, no less than 300 influential politicians flagrantly violated a government policy of one-man-one-farm but no minister resigned. Not only that but everyone except the ruling ZANU PF, which has always had a problem with seeing the obvious, can see that Zimbabwe has plunged into an unprecedented crisis. Things are falling apart, to borrow from Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. That is incontrovertibly evident. The extreme poverty is there for all to see. The accelerating economic meltdown characterised by stagflation - where rising inflation (1 200 percent) is accompanied by falling industrial production and joblessness (70 percent) - is now in its seventh year. An estimated 75 percent of the population of what was once a regional breadbasket is living below the breadline. All this points to a country in great difficulty and uncertainty. And that is what is called a crisis. Yet no minister has resigned and if anything ZANU PF officials continue to deny there is a crisis in Zimbabwe. Barely logical. But that is a fact. Let me in this context but in passing refer to the unbelievable antics of former Industry and International Trade Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi who is now the Minister of Indigenisation, if only to illustrate repeated official denials of the very obvious. Attending the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) congress in Victoria Falls in August 2004, Mumbengegwi, who should have been a symbol of Zimbabwean economic pre-eminence by virtue of his portfolio, stunned a business community that had observed that Zimbabwe had suffered breathtaking losses because of the continued international isolation. Clearly incapable of being serious, Mumbengegwi insulted the business community by saying that they had an obscure notion of what constituted the international community. In other words Zimbabwe was doing just fine even without the West (read in isolation). Mumbengegwi even waxed enthusiastic and lyrical about how he had been able to bust the targeted sanctions to attend meetings in Brussels, the seat of the European Union. Mumbengegwis tragi-comic posturing fitted in well with the political thinking in the ruling ZANU PF government at the time. Initially, in what can only be described as a mad, defiant act of bravado, the ZANU PF line of argument was that the sanctions imposed on senior government officials by the West over what it called the countrys democratic deficit were inconsequential. They were not effective. That was until it was convenient, for the ruling party, which has always blamed everyone and everything except itself for the economic mess, to blame the sanctions. Dont get me wrong. I am not saying that the sanctions have not played to a certain extent their role in weighing down the economy. No. Admittedly they have. But not to the same extent as ZANU PF would like to make us believe. Otherwise how does it happen that the EU, which as a bloc has imposed targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe, accounts for 30 percent of Zimbabwes exports and the country had a trade surplus of 261 million Euros with the EU member states in 2004 when the sanctions were already in place Why does the EU even up to this day remain Zimbabwes biggest humanitarian donor, funding health and education to combat poverty and diseases I digress. The point I am trying to make is simple. That the majority of the people are living in abject poverty is a telling comment on the competencies of those that make up the government of Zimbabwe. Period The grinding poverty in what should be a land of plenty is a damning indictment of the ruling ZANU PF government. True, our sages say that everyone can find fault but few can do better. But the mismanagement of public resources, waste, fraud, abuse, criminality and so forth in the public sector, which have impoverished the whole nation, is proof enough that most government ministers with a few honourable exceptions are incompetent. Who are these incompetent ministers Joseph Made, whose estimates (read guesstimates) on agriculture are not only legendary but have also been costly to the country, quickly comes to mind. So does Webster Shamu, the voluble Minister of Policy Implementation in the Office of the President, who alongside Chen Chimutengwende of Interactive Affairs, holds probably the most useless office in the land. You may recall that in 2005 Shamu suggested that only ZANU PF loyalists - the very people who have destroyed, through mismanagement, what used to be state-owned businesses in fine fettle - should run parastatals. Others are the lucky-in-politics Sithembiso Nyoni for whom a job is always available in government, Stan Mudenge, Aeneas Chigwedere, Herbert Murerwa, Amos Midzi, Obert Mpofu, Chris Mushowe, Kembo Mohadi and Brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri, the Minister of Employment Creation in a sea of joblessness. Yes, I have mentioned only a few. But readers who have been with this column for even longer may recall that I have said it before that if a cost-benefit analysis of having most of the ministers in Cabinet were carried out whereby their performances are measured by results against specific targets, very few if any would come out smelling of roses. Even President Robert Mugabe, known for his unwillingness to drop probably some of the most incompetent government ministers and belief that one does not fire on friendly troops, has admitted as much. In the current Cabinet, there are no spark plugs or impact players in the mould of the late former minister Christopher Ushewokunze who, when he died, there was a genuine feeling of irreparable loss. It would be next to impossible to find one minister in government today who would be missed if they were dropped from Cabinet. Instead such a move would engender a feeling of it being good riddance to you-know-what among the poverty-stricken Zimbabweans who know only too well that these ministers continued stay in government is ruinous for the country. Which brings me to my next question, which question should be uppermost in the minds of the long suffering Zimbabweans: Why dont the incompetent ministers do the honourable thing and resign Of course, deep down I know that I am, from a ZANU PF point of view, thinking the unthinkable. There is absolutely no chance of a Zimbabwean government minister giving us a pleasant surprise by calling it quits of his own volition. We are talking of hard-boiled people who do not have enough conscience to prick them regardless of the extensive damage they have inflicted on the economy, which is why even as Zimbabweans are having a hellish time, they sleep a sleep of the just as if everything is perfectly normal. The deadwood in President Mugabes Cabinet, some of whom are not in jail simply because the countrys criminal justice system has unofficially been twisted to protect the politically influential and powerful, will not leave voluntarily. They would have to be carried out feet first. A terrible tragedy if ever there was one. Chideya case to be concluded next month Nkululeko Sibanda Own Correspondent Hearing opens can of worms THE case of suspended Harare Town Clerk, Nomutsa Chideya is expected to be concluded next month after both the defence and the prosecution have submitted closing submissions to the Mishrod Guvamombe-headed committee of inquiry. The inquiry has provided a rare insight into how senior ZANU PF and government officials have hijacked the council and allocated themselves stands and contracts. Chairperson of the commission running the affairs of Harare, Sekesai Makwavarara, Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development Minister, Ignatius Chombo, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and ZANU PF Politburo member Tendai Savanhu, who is also the commissions deputy chairperson, are some of the high-ranking officials who have been exposed as having irregular dealings with Town House. Makwavarara, long blamed by Harares stakeholders for extravagance, abuse of council finances, council property, instigated the probe when she suspended Chideya and could yet be hoisted by her own petard. Defence counsel and Scanlen and Holderness lawyer, Jabulani Ncube said yesterday the case should be concluded early next month after both counsels have submitted their heads of argument. The prosecuting authority is supposed to provide us with his submissions by the 28th of this month. After receipt of his submissions, we will then do our own defence and hand it over to the committee by the 2nd of October. (Mishrod) Guvamombes committee will then make its ruling whether the town clerk is reinstated or not, and that should happen by the 4th or 5th of next month, said Ncube. He added that while they await the prosecutors submissions, they also expected a declaratory judgment by the High Court on the application they made challenging the legality of the Makwavarara Commission. The application, Ncube said, sought a ruling that would declare the commission illegal, a development that would eventually see the constitution of the hearing committee declared illegal as well. The application, if granted, would deal a blow to the hearing committee as it would also nullify the hearing process that has seen council pump in significant amounts of money to pay the hearing committee headed by Harare magistrate, Mishrod Guvamombe. Should he win the case, Chideya will be reinstated to his position as Harares Town Clerk. USZim body seeks turnaround map Staff Reporter ABAZ forum to discuss private sector intervention AN ASSOCIATION of US business and investment interests in Zimbabwe will next month convene a meeting that seeks to provide a platform for private sector interventions in the countrys economy. The American Business Association of Zimbabwe will, on October 5 hold an economic forum whose theme is Private Sector Perspectives on the Foundations for Economic Turnaround and Investment Attractiveness in Zimbabwe. ABAZ says the event is targeted at re-establishing Zimbabwe as a prime investment destination in Africa. The association has engaged leading business executives, decision makers and opinion leaders to create a platform for constructive ideas and co-operation by all stakeholders in Zimbabwes economy. The American Business Association believes it can play a meaningful role in generating useful discussion on business issues of all kinds. In the current economic environment we would like to stimulate dialogue and far-reaching debate on the key topics of turning around and reviving investment, Tony Jordan, spokesman for the organising team said. A panel of 11 speakers has been confirmed for the one-day forum, including keynote addresses by award-winning Brazilian economist Caio Megale and South African strategist and best-selling author Chantell Ilbury. The Brazilian experience in taming hyperinflation will be of major interest to all of us, as will the various scenarios on the way forward for Zimbabwe presented by the eminent strategist, said Jordan. Other speakers will include Anton van Wyk and Judge Thabani Jali of Pice-waterhouseCoopers in South Africa, agricultural economist John Mellor of Abt Associates in the US, former Malawi central bank governor and Finance Minister Mathews Chikaonda as well as a host of Zimbabwean personalities such as John Legat of Imara Asset Management, Best Doroh of Finhold, World Bank consultant Robert Geddes, Jameson Timba of eWorld and Kenias Mafukidze of KM Financial Solutions. Specific focus areas include the physical and social infrastructure of Zimbabwe, the strengths and challenges of the key sectors, especially agriculture, the countrys capital and trading markets and public and corporate governance. ABAZ is an informal body representing businesses in Zimbabwe that have links with the United States of America. Members include Price-waterhouseCoopers, Western Union, Ernst amp Young, Colgate Palmolive, AON, Coca-Cola and Deloitte, among others. Fred Mtandah of FredEx, a Western Union partner, chairs the ABAZ executive committee, with Mark Oxley of Burco being the vice chairman. David Scott, a senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers is the secretary and treasurer. Zisco minorities may be nudged out Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business Reporter Minister says only state bearing brunt of recapitalising MINORITY shareholders in troubled Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO) risk losing their shareholding if they dont back government initiatives to recapitalise the ailing company. Christian Katsande, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Industry and International Trade revealed during a parliamentary probe into the operations of ZISCO last Tuesday that the government, the majority shareholder, had singularly injected local and foreign currency resources into ZISCO, which could whittle down the shareholding of minority shareholders in ZISCO. If we look at (the equity structure) of ZISCO, those minority shareholders may not exist. If we were to convert the trillions poured into ZISCO over the years there might not be any minority shareholders in ZISCO, said Katsande. Government is the major shareholder in ZISCO, controlling up to 90 percent while Lancashire Steel, Stewart and Lloyds and Tanganyika Investments account for the balance. Under the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) backed Parastatal Reorientation Programme (PARP), ZISCO has utilized 666.26 million (revalued) of which 42 percent was used for working capital and 58 percent for Productive Sector Facility (PSF) and debt retirement. Because of low plant capacity use monthly production at ZISCO has plummeted to 12 773, less than half the breakeven production output of 25 000 tonnes per month. The government has since the early 1990s attempted without success to salvage the fortunes of the floundering Ziscosteel. Several rescue deals that have been stitched up by the government have failed to yield positive results for ZISCO with the latest one being the walk out of Indian company Global Steel Holdings Limited (GSHL). Although in March, Zimbabwe unveiled a US400 million management contract with GSHL to rehabilitate the ailing state-controlled steel works, the deal collapsed in August after representatives of GSHL who had briefly assumed management of the steel company left citing the lack of assurances on coal supplies. The government, which halted the privatisation of state enterprises in 2003, is under increased pressure to rid itself of the loss making parastatal and let private investors run the steel maker on commercial lines. Economic critics say accelerating the pace of privatisation of state entities could reduce the countrys ballooning budget deficit and generate additional financial resources for the financially crippled government. US700 000 RBZ bailout for TelOne STATE-owned phone operator TelOne needed a US700 000 bailout from central bank to pay off a debt that had seen Zimbabwes international link shut down last week, causing a 90 percent drop in Internet traffic. TelOne spokesman Phil Chingwaru confirmed sending a plea letter to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), but had not responded to requests made last week for further details by The Financial Gazette. RBZ governor Gideon Gono also confirmed extending foreign exchange to TelOne to relieve debts owed by the fixed phone monopoly in service charges. The Independent Internet Service Providers Association, which groups the countrys ISPs, blamed slower browsing speeds on the shutdown of TelOnes Intelsat, the countrys largest international Internet link. Traffic volumes were 90 percent down on the shutdown, the ISPs reported. This is catastrophic as all legal Internet Service Providers utilise TelOne for their outgoing bandwidth to the World Wide Web as well as for e-mail traffic. Thus all such ISPs have and are being affected by this downtime. In short, this is causing an almost collapse of the Internet in Zimbabwe, said MWeb, the countrys largest ISP, in a notice to its subscribers. TelOne technical director Hamton Mhlanga recently revealed that the company was saddled with foreign debt of US18 million and was desperate for cash to replace ageing equipment, over half of which is well past its use-by date. The company made US10 million from an involvement in tobacco that Mhlanga said was necessary to raise foreign currency for its operations. Coal shortages burn By Nkululeko Sibanda Own Correspondent PRODUCTION at the countrys largest beverages manufacturer, Delta Beverages, has been adversely affected by the shortage of coal that has haunted the country since the beginning of the year. Hwange Colliery, the countrys major coal producer, has been battling to meet demand from both local and foreign companies. Management at Delta, speaking during a facility tour last Friday, said the shortages of coal had seriously hampered production, making it difficult for the company to meet some of its targets. Martin Mupunga, plant manager at Deltas Harare CSD, said the plant needed about four tonnes a day to heat its boilers for the production of beverages. Due to the coal crisis that is faced by the industry as well as the producers, we have had to buy coal from other suppliers. We need four tonnes a day to conduct the boiler heating process and other functions and this shortage has really affected us a lot, said Mupunga. He added that due to the shortages faced at Hwange Colliery, they had been forced to source coal from other suppliers, but stressed that some of the coal they were receiving was of poor quality. Said Mupunga: We have had a good relationship with the colliery company (Hwange Colliery Company). Whenever they have the adequate coal, they supply us and if they dont, then we have to look at other alternatives. Our main problem is that these other producers have supplied us with poor quality at times. Lobels fined 1m for illegal forex dealings Charles Rukuni Bulawayo Bureau Chief LOBELS Bread in Bulawayo was last Friday fined 1 million after it was convicted of illegally dealing in foreign currency to purchase some of its bakery equipment. The company, which was represented by human resources manager Roycent Gwatidzo, pleaded guilty to illegally dealing in foreign currency amounting to nearly 24 billion (24 million revalued) to purchase slicing machine parts in the United Kingdom and a second plant from South Africa. It was initially supposed to appear in court on June 15 but only did so last week. According to agreed facts, the company purchased slicing machine parts from a United Kingdom company called Ibonhart. The parts were valued at 368.32 (pounds sterling). 1 477 343 715,44 was paid through Sithulisiwe Moyo, a former Lobels employee. The company also purchased a second bread-making plant for R1 407 371,33 using Emprem Negusse who was based in the United Kingdom. The plant was purchased from a South African company TecDesign. A total of 22 552 700 000 was paid to Negusse between June 7 last year and April 21 this year. Payment was made through 28 cheques but unlike in the case of Ibonhart, the agreed facts did not state through whom Negusse was paid except that he was indeed paid. The plant was brought into the country through the Beitbridge border post on February 6 this year. Regional magistrate Olivia Zvedi said the company could not be fined on a dollar-for-dollar basis because there were special circumstances. The company, she said, had been forced to buy foreign currency on the black market because of the shortage of foreign currency in the formal market. She said the company was also genuinely convinced that it was not committing an offence by asking someone abroad to pay for the goods it needed and reimbursing that person locally. Another factor was that the equipment the company needed was not available locally and it was being brought in to save jobs and provide bread, an essential commodity. The company was given until September 29 to pay the fine. Mangwanas crazy definition of patriotism National Agenda with Bornwell Chakaodza OVER and over again successive ministers of information say it. But constant repetition of hopelessly flawed statements can become a truth unless they are exposed for what they are: False. The latest to jump onto this sort of bandwagon is acting Information Minister Paul Mangwana who in his recent address to the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) Annual General Meeting and Masvingo Press Club waffled on about unpatriotic Zimbabwean journalists who had dedicated their careers to working with the countrys enemies. He further warned the media against criticising the state. A case of Rasputin Jonathan Moyo revisited - Yes. I feel sorry for Mangwana. Father, forgive him for he does not know what he is saying and doing. He is merely mouthing things that his officials in the Ministry of Information and Publicity have written for him. Feeling sorry for this rather nave and eccentric fellow aside, let me straightaway take a false issue off the table. There is general confusion about the meaning of State versus Government not only among journalists but also in the generality of the population as well - even among the educated. State is not synonymous with government. Governments come and go but Zimbabwe as a state will forever exist. There is therefore a clear need to distinguish between the interests of the state and those of the government in power. They may not necessarily be the same. The criticism of the government or the propaganda carried on against it, may not be against the national interests. On many occasions, the criticism may be in the interests of the nation if the policies and activities of the government in power are detrimental to the interests of the nation. Similarly, the criticism of the political and economic ideology or philosophy of the government and the advocacy of the contra-philosophy cannot be considered anti-national. The freedom of speech and expression would degenerate into the freedom to toe the official line if the propagation of the contrary ideology were prohibited or punished. That will be the negation of freedom of the press and of democracy. And given the propensity of politicians to lie to the public morning, noon and night, we will all be in peril if Mangwanas dictates were to be followed As someone once rightly put it, Politics are for those who have a great regard for themselves, little regard for others and no regard for the truth. Indeed, the secrecy and the mystery surrounding the functioning of the government are not always in the interest of the nation. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. For me, the most patriotic Zimbabwean journalists are those who keep the government on its toes all the time and who hold political leaders to account - in the interest of the country. It is important to remember always that politicians are invariably self-serving. That is why Paul Mangwana and Rasputin Moyo before him and others sing from the same hymn sheet when addressing seminars and conferences on press freedom and freedom of expression. There is therefore the crucial necessity to strip all discussion about the role of journalism of Mangwanas and Rasputins self-serving mantras. How many times have we heard or read sunshine stories from government ministers telling us that there will be this and that in six months time but when one looks on the ground - nothing. How many times has Joseph Made been lying through his teeth about crop forecasts for the past six years - and you expect the media to be patriotic in the face of such lies Ah, the mind boggles The tragedy of Zimbabwe is that many of the government policy statements cannot be taken seriously as accurate forecasters of events or performance because there is no noticeable link between what is officially stated and what is being achieved or happening in practice. Without the medias historic role of being the watchdogs especially on those who wield power, how will this disjunction between theory and practice be exposed Mangwana in his address to the ZUJ gathering spoke about the public getting worried by the deteriorating media standards in Zimbabwe. He missed the point here particularly with regards to the privately owned media. The real point is not about the public getting worried by the deteriorating media standards in the country but in the public laughing off people like Mangwana parroting the discredited Rasputin Moyo. The Zimbabwean public might be worried and indeed saddened, not by the deteriorating media standards per se but by the plummeting standards of supposedly public institutions like the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings and Zimbabwe Newspapers. These were totally transformed by you know who from being media organisations (imperfect though they were) into confused and half-baked pipe organs of government. It is a sad reflection of the calibre of the information ministers since Rasputins departure that nothing new on the information front is being offered. Paul Mangwana and who ever becomes the substantive head of the ministry must not let Moyos lesson escape them. See how the man has turned in desperation to The Zimbabwe Independent to keep himself in the limelight now that his former personal fiefdoms ZBH and Zimpapers have become no-go areas. Nothing endures forever Rasputin. Now you know In conclusion I think it is important to underscore the fact that the independent media in Zimbabwe does not have an agenda, hidden or otherwise. It is not working with the countrys enemies to effect a regime change. What the media has been doing and continues to do is to render remarkable service in exposing excesses and corruption in government and elsewhere and in ensuring the accountability of all those holding public office. If in the book of Paul Mangwana, this is unpatriotic behaviour, then the last thing that the independent media would want to be is to be patriotic. But we know that this is Mangwanas crazy definition of patriotism. I want to tell Mangwana in no uncertain terms that every independent journalist in this country has a vested interest in the success of our country Zimbabwe. But those who are messing up the country big time - the media will not spare. As journalists, we are in the profession to report on the societys ills. People go to a doctor when they are sick and not when they are well. Of course, journalists in this country as elsewhere cannot claim to be infallible. But be that as it may, the point remains that reporters working in Zimbabwe are no different from those anywhere else: bad news is the only good news. Bad news sells The of lack of patriotism that people like Mangwana and his ilk accuse the independent journalists of because they are involved in critical reporting is something that was recognised as false many centuries ago. The legendary author Franz Kafka recognised it as such at the beginning of the last century when he said: I think we ought to read only the kind of books and articles that wound and stab us. The last word however goes to the 26th United States President Theodore Roosevelt who summarised the whole question of patriotism thus: To announce that there must be no criticism of the President or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic or servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Paul Mangwana and Rasputin Moyo - please take note bornchamweb. co. zw The dependency syndrome is getting worse Letter From America with Ken Mufuka AFTER writing a letter describing the spirit of Americans, their generosity towards their neighbours and their independence and belief that with reason, any problem can be overcome, I was flooded by emails from our readers. Since independence, all over Africa, the spirit of dependence on foreign aid has in fact deepened rather than abated. Chris Muzavazi wrote as follows: During the colonial times, Africans could not hope to get much help from the colonial authorities. They organised burial societies, chimbadzo (exchange of money after pay-day) which functioned like a credit union as well as knowledge networks based on beer drinking clubs. Some fruit trees and vegetables had been planted in the little garden available to them in Old Bulawayo locations. The African Welfare Society provided guidance to its members on self improvement. The point I am trying to make, Ken, is that we have lost the initiative to look after ourselves in the misguided belief that every government should provide every social need. He added that western donors bring gifts of food and help create an idea that government is neglectful of its people. The new African farmers are insisting that government provide them with seed and other inputs. This is ridiculous, considering the fact that when they sell their crops, they resent paying back for the inputs. Chris says that: Ken, you should have mentioned respect for law at all levels in America. Some warning about non-authorised construction in Harare had been given, but the authorities were not respected because they travelled on cycles instead of four-wheel drive vehicles. The point about the danger of NGOs cannot be overstated. NGOs have a missionary zeal in extending Eurocentric ideas all over the world. Among these ideas is that the white man is superior to all tribes and nationalities in the world. In Uganda, the World Food Programme did a wonderful job in feeding Lords Resistance refugees. But the price in humiliation will not be healed for a long time. Government medical doctors were supervised by teenage white boys and girls even in the medical field itself. The NGOs had the money, the supplies and the authorities. The Ugandans, even though they had the knowledge, were beggars. Zimbabwean politicians should learn from the past. I was a patron of Nerupiri Primary School in Gutu District. My job was to bring visitors from America and just have a fun time with the kids. In return, we would offer small scholarships to students in need selected by the teachers at the school. One year, the atmosphere was poisoned by a ZANU PF district secretary who was wearing his badge of office and cursing us under his breath for failing to allow him to make a political speech. Other readers have said: Ken, the issue was probably bigger than that. The politicians want to present the gift as if it comes from the tireless efforts of the party. In the end, the students will assume that they are receiving a gift from the party and the givers will be overshadowed. If I understand the American spirit very well, the US government does not wish to run these self-help schemes. Jerry Lewis and his Muscular Dystrophy Association did as they saw best without interference from US authorities. In that way, the state encourages self-help. In preparing for this article, I went to check the massive writing of a black Pan Africanist, Professor John Henrik Clarke. Clarke says that the dependency syndrome is widespread in Africa. Nigeria has all the human and capital resources to be the richest country in Africa, but it hired a Bulgarian company to build its national stadium. Imagine a Jewish synagogue being built by pig-eating pagans. It takes away some of the nationalism of the effort. Clarke says that the degrading attitude by Africans towards their own kind is the fruit of seeds sown by colonialism. The African was taught to hate himself to such an extent that any educated African who visits a nanga may do so during the cover of darkness. Dr L. S.B. Leakey says that these same Africans were not given credit for what they knew, namely that they were pioneers in birth control, and they knew the cure of malaria (using the very quinine which the white man now boasts about. The Zimbabwe government has made a step towards integrating these witchdoctors (missionary propaganda) into the medical system. For once, I support government policy. The nangas know a lot about medicine but every profession needs updating, a job which Professor Gordon Chavhunduka is doing. These nangas are part of our heritage, and they may know something. There is nothing to be ashamed about. Police force that gloats about its brutality Personal Glimpses with Mavis Makuni I WILL never forget the day my daughter let it be known that she wanted to be treated as a person in her own right, capable of fighting and winning her personal battles fairly and squarely. She was all of seven years old. She had been playing a card game with her older sister and cousins when she caught me signalling to the older girls to hold back or make the wrong moves to allow my baby to win. But rather than welcome being allowed to have an unfair advantage, she made it clear she was smart enough to win the game on her own wits. After stressing that she no longer wanted to be mollycoddled, she declared that from then on, she did not want to be accompanied to the busy and crowded bus terminus where she caught a bus to school. She would henceforth find her own way to school and back home. I spent a sleepless night imagining my little girl getting hopelessly lost after boarding the wrong bus. But my anxiety was misplaced. After I had talked to her about not accepting lifts from strange people and the need to approach her teachers if she lost her bus fare or had some other problem, my daughter became a happy and independent girl. At home she continued to play various games with her older siblings as an equal and on the basis of the rules. She was always so proud when she won on merit on an even playing field. Up to this day she has a strong sense of fair play for its own sake. The government and the police in Zimbabwe could learn a lesson from this. They never miss a chance to gloat about how well they are doing to remain on top of things, when in reality they rely on heavy-handedness and ruthless flouting of the tenets of justice and fair play to claim an upper hand in various scenarios. An uneven playing field to win elections, selective application of the law to disadvantage opposition groups and favour the ruling party are some of the mechanisms government has been accused of resorting to in its bid to close democratic space and crush dissent. Add to this the gagging of the private press and the monopolisation of the public media to peddle one-sided state propaganda, alleged interference with the judiciary and a frightening picture of the establishment riding roughshod over the populace to gets its own way at any cost emerges. The rulers of the country speak incessantly about their fear that the gains of the liberation war they spearheaded almost 30 years ago could be reversed - apparently if the people they fought to liberate are allowed to enjoy fundamental freedoms and liberties. This totalitarian approach is most evident in the militarisation of state institutions and brainwashing the police force to apply ruling party rather than national law. The police have been so totally compromised professionally and morally that they see nothing wrong with gloating about their brutality. That is exactly what they did last week after forestalling a planned protest march by the labour body, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and brutalising the leadership. The ZCTU had organised the march to draw attention to the plight of Zimbabwean workers in the prevailing economic crisis. They had also hoped to draw attention to the governments failure to provide enough antiretrovirals for the millions living with HIVAIDS - an issue of perfectly legitimate public interest considering that the government collects an AIDS levy. But, declared the gun-totting and trigger-happy riot squad, the real aim of the demonstration was to topple an elected government and the labour movement needed to be taught a lesson. Pictures of the wounded trade unionists were flashed around the world, sparking fierce condemnation of these Gestapo-style tactics. This is the fastest and most fail-proof way of exposing Zimbabwes true image to the outside world. Allowing the people freedom of expression and the right to assemble and petition the state over grievances has never tarnished the image of a democratic state. Why are those who govern this country so afraid of hearing what the citizenry has to say, despite claiming ad nauseam, that they enjoy a popular mandate. Its an incongruity that can only be sustained in a police state, hence the establishments tacit approval of police brutality. A few months ago ZANU PF apologists had a field day thundering their condemnation of the thugs who assaulted Harare North Member of Parliament, Trudy Stevenson and three colleagues from the pro-senate camp of the Movement for Democratic Change. One rabid male chauvinist even suggested in his public media column that Stevenson caused her own trouble and it served her right that she had been attacked. Using the diminutive to convey his insensitivity and crudity he declared, Iko kachinyanya Some senior party officials said the attacks proved that the MDC was a violent party despite the fact that the trial magistrate ruled that there was no evidence to link the suspects to the barbaric ambushing of the MDC officials. How can we get thunderous silence from these sanctimonious ZANU PF stalwarts when police gloating has proved beyond doubt that they were responsible for this dastardly brutality against defenceless Zimbabweans Perhaps it is because they know the state has scored a pyrrhic victory by advertising in one fell swoop, its tyrannical governance to the world and convincing Zimbabweans beyond doubt that it does not believe in fair play. When seven-year olds can be more secure and tolerant of diversity, competition and fair play than a state, the people will continue to challenge the evil system whether government likes it or not. Zimbabweans should be allowed to enjoy their freedom for its on sake. Show Made the door IN INTERMITTENT droughts, the government, in its search for a scapegoat, had found what it thought was a perfect alibi for the savage slump in agricultural production. But such an excuse for failure cuts no ice with many who know only too well that the successive failed harvests were in the main due to human error. Indeed, the scandal-tainted land reform initiative has slipped on so many banana skins mainly because of misplaced priorities informed by political expediency. It is because of the upside-down priorities that the government failed to take into consideration the countrys implementation capacity and affordability of the exercise when it embarked on the widely condemned fast-track land reform exercise. And here we are. The exercise meant to alleviate poverty has instead caused an unprecedented economic meltdown and thereby aggravated poverty. That the initiative has spawned extreme poverty is an enduring irony of the much-vaunted agrarian reforms. The recurring biting shortages of critical inputs such as fuel that resulted in the lack of tillage facilities, fertilisers and seed, which have threatened to derail the back-to-the-land idealism, should also be seen in the same context of affordability and the countrys implementation capacity. And it is against this background that we find ourselves in an unlikely situation where we have to commend, though with reservation, the announcement last week of a US490 million agricultural support facility by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). At the longest last the government, which has made so many strategic mistakes as regards the land reform exercise, seems to have realised, albeit at the eleventh hour, that it should do something about a problem as soon as it appears because it will only get worse if it is left until later. This is probably the clearest sign yet that the government is now prioritising agriculture, as it indeed should. Zimbabwe has had to grapple with the recurring input shortages over the past five years. The gravity of the problem is mirrored in the terrifyingly falling production levels in maize, wheat and tobacco, to mention just a few. With the launch and subsequent failure of small-scale commercial agriculture, the countrys food security situation has largely remained precarious. Zimbabwe has been reduced to a grain deficit country. As it is, the country will this year have to import 170 000 tonnes of wheat and upwards of 500 000 tonnes of the staple maize to cover shortfalls. Thus, the agriculture support package deal put together with the help of local and regional financial institutions should be commended. Under normal circumstances, this should signal a new era for Zimbabwe as agriculture, which has been comatose for some time now, could tip-toe back to recovery. But we dont have high hopes for it as long as Joseph Made remains the minister responsible for agriculture. We choose to err on the side of caution because we have a strong sense of deja vu. Much as we would like to, we do not believe that even with all these resources at their disposal and assuming that mother nature does not send her worst, those running the countrys agriculture, particularly Made who has proved beyond reasonable doubt that he cannot organise a drink-up in a brewery, have what it takes to return production in the key sector to its pre-crisis levels. This is why under his stewardship agriculture has lurched from crisis to crisis over the past seven years even to the point of touching off a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions. The gloom and pessimism is thus not without foundation. It is because of Mades ineptitude that famine and hunger have stalked Zimbabwe for years. And unless such a critical development as the availing of US490 million is accompanied by the restructuring of the Ministry of Agriculture where Made should be shown the door, it could be an exercise in futility. With all due respect to Made - who came in as one of the so-called technocrats - the minister has proved that no one in Zimbabwe ever knew so much that was so little to the purpose. Otherwise drought or no drought, Zimbabwe should not have been reduced to a perennial deficit country alongside Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi if only Made, who has seen Zimbabwe producing the smallest tobacco crop since independence, had not slept on the job. Thus we have guarded optimism for a quick turnaround in agriculture even with the commendable efforts of those that put together the US490 million. We have said it before and we will say it again. Much as President Mugabe must not throw away the baby together with the bath water when he reshuffles his Cabinet, the continued stay of Made in the agriculture portfolio where he is a typical square peg in a round hole not only provokes a sharp intake of breath from the generality of Zimbabweans but also spells doom for the economy. It is an issue of genuine public concern particularly when it is hoped that government ministers must of necessity be re-deployed according to best fit. The sacking of Made should therefore be an integral part of the efforts to save agriculture from imminent collapse. No questions, guvnor. for now Talking to tomorrow with Ray Mawerera RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono exchanged some light banter with journalists following his interim review report on Project Sunrise recently. Earlier, during the discussion session of the presentation, the Governor had repeatedly challenged the journalists present to ask questions to avoid speculative reporting. Ask the questions now, he said several times. Aika, bvunzai, ask, so that when you write, you do so with all the facts. There were no takers. Most of the contributions had come from representatives of different sector stakeholders, mainly throwing bouquets at Dr Gono and his team for managing the process well. Others simply told the Governor about the relative ease with which they had made the transition from the three zeroes. As for the media people there, mum was the word. One of the many stakeholders at the meeting voiced the opinion that the reason could be that the journalists did not want to be scooped. A scoop is an exclusive piece of news that every journalist dreams of unearthing or bumping into, news that no one else has. If, for instance, the journalist receives a lead on certain information he or she is unlikely to follow it up while everyone else is listening. They would rather draw the prospective Interviewee aside afterwards, to talk to them away from eavesdroppers. This is becoming so commonplace these days that some press conferences have been reduced to near-monologues. The person addressing the press conference tells the ladies and gentlemen of the press the news they have been invited to be told and, after speaking for a while, opens the floor to questions. There is silence. Out of politeness, maybe one or two lame questions may be asked. Afterwards, when the journalists are invited to stay on for an informal chat-and-drink, they bombard the person with questions, individually. This is how Dr Gono found himself exchanging light banter with the media after his Ilanga Seliphumile presentation. Clients have asked why journalists seem to have taken to operating this way. There are several reasons, the primary one of which could be the issue of the elusive scoop. Another reason could be the challenges faced by reporters on weekly or monthly publications to find a news angle that would not be tackled on the electronic news bulletin that day or the daily paper tomorrow. Yet another could be that the reporter might feel they want to raise a totally different and unrelated issue. It is, therefore, important at news conferences to know the spread of media attending in order to satisfy their areas of focus and interest. Financial newspapers may not always have the same interests as weekly family newspapers, for instance. Thats one way of handling it. Politicians, who are renowned for their creativity, have mastered the art of leaving immediately after the press conference thus precluding any chance of chat-and-drink ambushes Corporate organisations, of course, cannot do this and we do not recommend it because it is simply impolite. Besides, you could be passing up an opportunity to interface informally with the media - a very important but often underestimated aspect of public relations. Press conferences, by their very nature, are non-exclusive media events where everyone gets the same news. This is usually done when information is so topical that the likelihood of all media chasing the same story is quite high. Rather than wait to respond to each query as it comes, the organisation takes the proactive step to provide all journalists with the same information. Sometimes press releases can be issued, which serve more or less the same purpose. The press conference, however, tends to have more impact because of its direct access nature. It provides journalists with the opportunity to follow up issues right there, ask questions, seek clarification, prod further. It can, therefore, be a source of frustration when no questions are forthcoming but a report that is factually incorrect is published. Unfortunately this has happened, creating negative perceptions of some journalists and their media organizations. Some organisations actually do not even like press conferences. This could be because there is no restriction on what the journalists can ask. In other words, they cannot - as a general rule - be expected to confine themselves to questions revolving only around the subject of the press conference. For instance, Dr Gonos Zuva Rabuda update could have been turned on its head by a journalist asking something totally removed from the issue under discussion - including, even, questions on the Governors personal life That is the nature of press conferences. I have seen press officers who try to direct reporters to stick to the subject at hand. Most times they are simply ignored. The journalists simply reason that this may be the only opportunity they have, especially if they are dealing with a usually busy and therefore largely inaccessible figure. They fear being roasted by their editors if they go back without the real story. Our best advice to such press officers is to ensure that they coach their executives on how to handle difficult journalists. Full and comprehensive media relations training prepares them adequately for this so that, even if they are asked questions during chat-and-drink, they are able to comfortably and confidently hold their own. As we continue the inexorable path into a more demanding global arena where issues of transparency and accountability become more and more newsworthy, journalists can be expected to change their tactics. n Ray Mawerera is a Harare-based public relations consultant and the current President of the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Relations Now Zim has its own Sept Thirteen or 91 3 The Geoff Nyarota Column A FRIEND who visited the popular Guzha Township in Chitungwiza on the night of Tuesday, September 12, the eve of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions scuttled protest march, tells a harrowing tale of the sudden arrival of armed riot policemen, accompanied by youths dressed in ZANU PF Youth Militia T-shirts. They descended on the centres many bottle stores and butchery shops, outlets which keep Chitungwizas residents as well as hordes of visitors from the leafier suburbs of Harare, 30 kms away, entertained and nourished. Apparently, the police ordered all shops to close at once and the patrons to depart immediately. In a situation where the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) renders it virtually impossible for members of civil society to organise meetings where they can strategise on how to alleviate the common mans plight in Zimbabwe a situation where daily newspapers, radio and television no longer disseminate information in the public interest, the bottle stores, like the commuter omnibuses, have come to play a vital role in providing convenient and free venues for the exchange of ideas and for the organization of political strategies by a besieged civil society, while the cell-phone texts messages from one bottle store to another and from office to office. The powers that be have become painfully aware of this loophole, hence this effort to disrupt any last minute refinement of plans for the proposed ZCTU march last week. By all accounts the police were out in full force the following morning, on September 13, cordoning off downtown Harare with their heavy presence and thus effectively rendering it impossible for any citizen, however aggrieved or determined, to assemble, let alone march, in any predetermined direction. The demonstration started around 1pm with people singing and dancing in the street. It was over in seconds, says an MDC member, one of those arrested. The demonstrators were ordered to sit down and then the riot police went beserk. They beat the people so viciously and brutally it was a terrible and shocking spectacle to witness. The arrested were loaded onto trucks and conveyed, some to Harare Central and others to the notorious Matapi Police Station. The latter facility has been condemned by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe as being totally unfit for human habitation. A police officer at Matapi allegedly informed the arrested ZCTU leaders on arrival: We are not trained to write dockets we are trained to kill. It is alleged the arrested were then taken two at a time into a room and brutally beaten by five men with knobkerries and long baton sticks for up to 20 minutes. In both stations the prisoners were: lDenied access to legal practitioners lSubjected to brutal and savage torture and beating in Matapi Police Station lDenied access to relatives lNot supplied with food or water lNot supplied with blankets lMostly kept in darkness. lSubjected to extremely abusive language lForced to make do with toilets that were overflowing with human excreta. The older among them must have been reminded of the fate of political detainees during Ian Smiths Rhodesia. Late that night the Matapi contingent was moved to Harare Central. It was a pitiful sight to see those 14 physically and mentally battered and brutalised figures appearing, says the MDC member. Three could hardly walk or stand. The brutal smashing of the protest march by the police, reinforced by CIO vigilantes and ZANU PF militias, served to effectively dispel any lingering doubt that our revolutionary and supposedly benevolent rulers meant business, assuming the dire threats issued by the likes of State Security Minister, Didymus Mutasa, and others had not driven that point home during the week preceding the proposed march. It is alleged that Mutasa was seen hovering around Matapi as the ZCTU leadership was being brutalised. Mutasa should take note that this is an allegation, which he is at liberty to confirm or deny, before he rushes to his lawyers to institute legal proceedings for defamation. In any case, the mere act of hovering around Matapi cannot in any way further tarnish his already severely damaged reputation. It was the pre-emptive action on the part of the state machinery, rather than the lack of support on the part of the public, that disrupted the proposed march last week. Yet the hawkish Dr Tafataona Mahoso has the temerity to propose in his weekly column in The Sunday Mail, Thanks to the masses of Zimbabwe, the mass action has turned out to be the ZCTU leaders equivalent of the MDC leaders Final Push which, in fact, turned out to be the final yawn. Mahoso yawns too easily. In an article which labours under the ponderous title Sponsored politics, myths of civil society Mahoso sallies forth in his usually rambunctious and inimical style. He pronounces in the process that, apart from being mythical, the concept of civil society is a western creation, foisted on the allegedly simple-minded black population of southern Africa by western imperialists. Indeed, the concept is a creation of the West, in-so-much as democracy, parliament, The Sunday Mail, the Mercedes Benz, the higher education, which the off-spring of Zimbabwes ruling elite imbibe in western institutions, and the scotch whiskey that they so much love to quaff, are all creations of the West. Sponsored politics is big business and it is here to stay, until the people learn to discard completely the twin myths of civil society and multiparty democracy, the key mythologies used to justify the sponsorship of puppet politics in Africa and the rest of the South, Mahoso says disparagingly. There are a number of definitions of civil society. The most illustrative is the working definition of the London School of Economics Centre for Civil Society: Civil society refers to the arena of uncoerced collective action around shared interests, purposes and values Civil society commonly embraces a diversity of spaces, actors and institutional forms, varying in their degree of formality, autonomy and power, it is explained. The centres definition further clarifies that civil societies are often populated by organisations such as registered charities, development non-governmental organisations, community groups, womens organisations, faith-based organisations, professional associations, trade unions, self-help groups, social movements, business associations, coalitions and advocacy groups. It is eminently clear, therefore that, far from being a myth, as suggested by Mahoso, civil society is a reality of the modern world, except in states whose constitutions eschew democratic values. The threat to democracy and civil liberties such as currently being experienced in our country, normally fosters the emergence and strengthening of strong civil society organisations such as the ZCTU, which Mahoso now dismisses with flourish of hand. What is particularly rankling is his suggestion that without the assistance of the West we, Africans, cannot think lucidly for ourselves. The ZCTU and the MDC tried to present themselves as homegrown alternatives to the liberation movement in Government, ZANU PF, he says. They were going to meet a supposed deficit in Zimbabwean politics as defined by white imperialist powers. The theory that political activism and advocacy in countries such as Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia or where ever else in southern Africa civil society has confronted tyranny and injustice are merely a symptom of control or influence by western imperialist powers is unforgivably demeaning of Africans. There is more than a hint in this theory that since Africans cannot think for themselves, as alleged, Africans may not feel the pangs of hunger until a white person points out to them that they have not had a square meal for days on end. It is not-so-subtly suggested, therefore, that without the instigation or active support of western imperialists, Kenneth Kaunda would still be President of Zambia while Life President Kamuzu Banda would have remained in office until his untimely death in 1996 at the ripe old age of an estimated 100 years or so. Such thinking is reminiscent of Prime Minister Ian Smith as the demise of Rhodesia approached. He was wont to say he knew that his Africans were a happy lot, or words to that effect, if it wasnt for the influence of the Communists of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War era. The leaders of our liberation struggle, Robert Mugabe of Zanu and Joshua Nkomo of Zapu, were naturally included in this insulting proclamation. Today our own Mugabe, the President, issues similar pronouncements. The people of Zimbabwe would be a happy citizenry, he says, if it wasnt for the instigation of Western imperialists, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and United States President, George W. Bush, to be precise. It is by resort to such debasing assertions that Mahoso now seeks to justify the ruthless cracking down by government on the ZCTU last week. Fortunately, the number of potential readers of Mahosos anti-people outpourings, as well as those of his paper, in general, is on the decline. Hundreds of thousands of would-be readers have emigrated in search of freedom and economic survival in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Zambia, Mozambique, New Zealand and many other previously unthinkable distant destinations. Meanwhile, the buying power of Zimbabweans in the country has been sufficiently curtailed to turn newspapers into a luxury, especially in cases where editors attach little importance to factors such as public interest or relevance. Two Sayings of the Week: To the extent that speculation is a major driver of our inflation, burning or consigning these speculators to the incinerator is one sure way of contributing towards inflation reduction. - Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono. (The Sunday Mail). It is, therefore, the highest display of intellectual impairment by those stakeholders who wanted to condemn the Sunrise Project on frivolous grounds, missing the point that it was a national exercise carried out in response to stakeholders specific demands, a project implemented in record time and one which averted the catastrophic collapse of our systems with attendant consequences on our lives. - Dr Gono. (The Sunday Mail). So Dr Gono admits, after all, that our systems are threatened with catastrophic collapse. Police brutality exposes govts main weakness William Bango Mindless bungling complicates simple democratic process Last weeks protest action proposed by the ZCTU unearthed a number of weaknesses in the crowd control methods of the ZANU PF regime. These lessons are instructive if the democratic movement is to mount a sustained onslaught on the dictatorship and the main defenders of its faith. The main challenge facing the police in a world increasingly guided by a rights culture is to improve crowd control techniques, manage life and public activity and to minimise injury and avoid deaths whenever large numbers of people assemble. Huge assemblies are natural: at sports functions, especially soccer matches political meetings and religious congregations. Public control requires an attack on the heart and on the mind to persuade people against anarchy, looting and wanton destruction of life and property in times of public expression. Public control, as an essential part of public service, targets the growth of acceptable habits of citizenship and public behaviour - not physical attacks on peoples heads and other bodily limbs. Internationally, governments compete to look after their own citizens and would do anything to protect their people from either their officials or from external enemies. What we in Zimbabwe witnessed on Wednesday is a classic case of bungling. Those who intended to march never moved an inch, yet the police resorted to excessive force on what could arguably be regarded as bystanders in Harares streets. Earlier, the force had cordoned off the main streets leading to the city centre, disrupting business and harassing citizens going about their normal business. It will be recalled that a few years ago 13 people died in a police-induced stampede at an international soccer match between Zimbabwe and South Africa after reckless members of the force lunged teargas canisters on spectators bays simply because one of them had raised a red card and displayed an open palm from the terraces. Fears of mayhem should public demonstrations be allowed in Zimbabwe are totally unfounded. Wednesdays events show that the greatest threat to national security and public order resides within Zanu PF and some sections of the police force. Their panic attitude and desire to follow unreasonable orders from politicians shall remain our major sign of national backwardness in crowd control. The MDC was informed that the police began mobilising a week before September 13. All the officers and reservists on leave were summoned to duty. By Tuesday night, about 40 000 officers were deployed countrywide. Their mission was simple: harass any would-be protestors and their sympathisers. The march routes were sealed. Vendors were arrested and locked up. The Zanu PF militia and vigilantes, distinguishable through their party regalia, were bussed in from Bindura and other training centres and stationed at Zanu PF offices. On Wednesday morning, they were deployed from the party Fourth Street offices, formerly the Rhodesia Front headquarters, to various points in Harare to intimidate people. In Chitungwiza, there was a heavy deployment of the army with an assortment of military hardware. Fifty people were arrested and detained. These included members of the Chitungwiza Residents and Ratepayers Association and the wife of the Executive Mayor. This was long before anyone had taken part in any demonstration. No urban centre was spared for surveillance. In Plumtree, on the Botswana border, there was a similarly heavy police presence. The same scenario could be observed in Gwanda, Hwange. Chinhoyi (15 workers arrested), Chegutu, Beitbridge (three people arrested) and Kariba. In Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare, Kwekwe and Masvingo, 150 people were arrested, including our national executive member Gertrude Mtombeni. Generally, the situation was tense and residents were surprised at police provocation and uneasiness. Relatives who attempted to supply those arrested with food and water were chased away and beaten up by the Zanu PF militia, with the tacit blessing of some police officers who turned a blind eye on what was going on. In the tiny settlements of Shurugwi, Gokwe, Murambinda and Sanyati, dozens of suspected activists were detained for varying periods of time. The regimes response and the terror tactics it deployed showed that the ZCTU message was effective: Zanu PF heard the workers message - at a huge cost, too. Unconfirmed reports indicate that there were six helicopter gun ships on standby two army battalions were ready for action in Harare the entire secret service establishment was on the streets and all normal police business was suspended as officers and even police recruits were thrown onto the streets. Imagine what could have happened if the ZCTU was allowed to march and handover their petition to the Minister of Labour The whole exercise could have been over in less than 30 minutes Zimbabweans yearn for the day when police shall ask organisers of protests and demonstration to train their own marshals and discipline their own participants. That way, no-one shall require bussed storm troopers, helicopters, police reservists, stress and unnecessary tension when simple issues like demonstrations are proposed by a normal citizenry. A noticeable trend emerged, exposing serious cracks in the security apparatus. Professional police officers openly declared their displeasure with what they were being asked to do. They told the arrested suspects that what was happening had nothing to do with basic policing and public order work. President Robert Mugabes government seems to be losing control of the securo-crats many of whom feel bound by their Constitutional obligation to protect the people and to act professionally. POSA specifically states that any Zimbabwean individual or group wishing to assemble or demonstrate merely informs the police of that intention. There is no legal requirement for Zimbabweans to seek police approval for such activities. On that basis, the ZCTU was right in ignoring the regimes pre-emptive declaration that the proposed demonstration was illegal. Through Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, the regime warned that security forces would be instructed to shoot the protesters. Although the instruction to shoot was given, the security forces did not follow through on the order. Reports reaching the MDC indicate a sensitive analysis of the conduct of the police and intelligence community after Wednesdays debacle. A number of police officers and intelligence agents were said to have been identified and disciplined for failing to respect certain orders. The reported differences in the security establishment are becoming visible as more Zimbabweans become fed up with the current political paralysis. Concerns have been raised over what seems to be an unexplained involvement of the Chinese in the current political impasse. MDC activists reported seeing some Zimbabwean security officers taking instructions from some Chinese nationals soon after the September 13 arrests. Also noted was the involvement of young Zanu PF politicians and businesspeople in the crackdown on the opposition. The bulk of the militia deployed in Harare were housed and fed from the private coffers of a youthful deputy minister and a Mbare businessman - both senior Zanu PF mandarins. Allowing private warlords to take an influential and decisive part in national conflicts compromise our national institutions and breed lawlessness. Warlords believe in terrorism, brutality, tyranny and savagery as evidenced by the severity of physical attacks on the leadership of the democratic movement on Wednesday. Warlords thrive on a patronage system and have no respect for the people and their rights. One young stranger from Bindura, in a brand new Zanu PF T-shirt and arrested together with our activists boasted of strong connections. He threatened the officers with disciplinary action, saying his group was untouchable. He was released soon afterwards By all accounts, the ZCTU action was a major success. International spotlight is once again on Zimbabwe. Locally the political temperature has risen phenomenally and people are itching for a solution to the crisis. The ZCTU action showed the world that the ZANU PF regime is afraid of one thing - people power. The regimes response exposed that weakness. lWilliam Bango is a spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change FinGaz Letters AirZim at it once again EDITOR - On Saturday September 2, 2006 I passed through Changi International Airport in Singapore on my way to London from Thailand. I met a couple of Zimbabweans waiting for their Air Zim flight to Harare. These were mostly women who had come to Singapore to shop for items for resale back home. The check-in desks opened and there began the nightmare for Air Zimbabwe travellers. Their desk opened only to tell them that the plane to Harare was fully booked and could not accommodate them. This was in spite of them holding valid tickets for that flight. The plane was apparently connecting through Singapore from Beijing. An argument ensued between the passengers and the check-in desk officials who were all Singaporeans. All they could say was they were acting on instructions from Air Zimbabwe and could do nothing to help. While this was going on, the Air Zim pilots and the air hostesses walked in. Among them was the captain whose name I could not catch. The Singaporean officials, who were clearly getting irritated by all this asked him to explain to the passengers what the problem was. Poor young man, he had no clue how to handle the situation and almost got manhandled by the crowd. He was downright arrogant and kept insisting the passengers speak to the check-in desk officials. In the midst of all this a group of about 10 passengers - adults and children - walked in, went straight to the check-in desk and were issued with boarding passes We later learnt that these were families of the pilots and flight crew who had come to Singapore on holiday. God knows how much their air tickets had actually cost them. The crew made their way to the plane which by now had arrived from Beijing. The pilot from Beijing, Captain Muzenda made an appearance after about half an hour or so. He was going to pass through the desk quietly when someone recognised him and asked him to explain the situation. I have never seen or heard such arrogance and rudeness directed towards passengers from an airline. In his own words: Imi musandinetse mhani, asara asara, hameno hake. When asked why their wives and children were getting preference, he retorted: Ini ndine 7 maseats angu andinoita nawo zvandinoda. Imi kumabasa kwenyu hamupiwewo here mabenefits emabenz. Kana muchida nyorai mumanewspaper tione kwazvinosvika He flatly refused to apologise to any of the passengers. You would have been forgiven for thinking he was talking about people getting into his private car The passengers, about 12 of them, were eventually put up in a hotel for the night and were to be routed via Joburg on Singapore Airlines the next day. I hate to think how much all this cost Air Zim all because pilots families flying on ridiculous discounts were blocking the seats for paying passengers. Is it surprising that the airline is not making any profit How long shall we continue to fund this level of mismanagement, corruption and lack of accountability Dont waste your breath EDITOR - Exactly four months after supplying the Zimbabwe Revenue Authoritys Loss Control Investigations departments with information about certain Zimbabweans engaged in unethical business deals, nothing has been done. ZIMRA officials promised to phone me but up to now there has been a deafening silence. Fellow Zimbabweans, it is a waste of time to inform ZIMRA about any undervaluation of goods, smuggling, tax-evasion because the officials will simply go behind your back vodya ivo, getting much more than the 10 percent which you were supposed to be given for blowing the whistle. Mr Editor, its better to keep your information to yourself rather than give it to ZIMRA. Mr Pasi or Ms Sadomba can you please comment on how long we expect action to be taken after making our initial reports to ZIMRA. Pasi Parohwa Nenyundo Harare ----------- Spinning them off is not the solution EDITOR - Reference is made to the comment Spin them off in the last issue (The Financial Gazette September 14-20 2006). I would like to agree with you that parastatals have of late become a yoke on the fiscus, but the problem, we must admit, is not only with parastatals but the rest of the economy. What is taking place in parastatals like Air Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) and the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) among others is just a microcosm of the whole country in general. Things are falling apart everywhere despite the fact that a company is in the hands of government or private hands. Thus, the panacea is not as you suggested in your comment to privatise. Privatisation is just part of the neo-liberal rhetoric, which promises a millennium but in the end, delivers nothing more than an inferno. I am not a socialist fan, but neither am I a capitalist devotee. You might suggest that I am in a quandary because the world is capitalist particularly with the rapid expansion of globalisation, which is a metamorphosis of capitalism. I agree, but I am a pragmatist who refuses to fall victim to the rhetoric of the West that privatisation is a solution to our economic woes and as explained through the Adam Smith invisible hand inevitably all will well. This is not true and since when have such arguments proved accurate in developing countries Structural adjustment as we know it and its entourage of solutions to the developing countries is just but part of the conspiracy conjured by the West to hoodwink the developing countries into a perpetual state of underdevelopment. Part of the argument by the protagonist of the neo-liberal school is that government has no business in business and its role should be that of an umpire in regulating business. This is what you meant when you rightfully said that the role of government is to create an environment that is conducive to doing business rather than being a major player in business itself. The government, it must always be remembered, has an obligation to the people and one of these is to make sure that people have access to basic needs like water, transport, electricity and cheap finance among others. In this regard, privatising essential services like education and health and the others already mentioned will relegate the majority of the poor, of which we have many in the country, to the coteries of penury and want. Imagine if ZINWA and ZESA were in private hands motivated by profit making, how many today including you and me will still be affording electricity and water in this country Most developed countries developed under auspices of the government and the governments including those of the US and Britain still supports people-oriented policies. What is needed is not simply an overhaul of these companies, as such a change will just but be micro or cosmetic. What we need is a macro overhaul of all our systems, because we are falling in an abyss, which is now taking all of us with it including the parastatals. Richard Nyamanhindi United Kingdom