Zimbabwe Absurdity

It’s all over the news – the radio that is (I don’t own a TV). Facebook too and anywhere else you care to look. Mubarak has been displaced by popular demand and what is even more remarkable it was peaceful, popular demand with realatively few fatalities. Perhaps I should not be so surprised as there was the Czech “Velvet Revolution” and various others that ousted previous regimes with minimal bloodshed and I would say that Egypt is closer to Europe than sub-Saharan Africa in terms of revolutionary behaviour.

Anyway, the message has certainly spread around the Arab world with a number of incumbent heads of state claiming not to be standing for re-election. But what does this mean for Zimbabwe? Precious little. Outside of the cities I would think the majority of the population have no interest in where Egypt is or what they have achieved there or that there is even a country of that name . And they are way too apathetic to copy them.

There was a headline in Thursday’s Financial Gazette “Election in August?”. I did not bother to buy one – the speculation about the date of a general election has been around for months now and as my landlord cynically put it – the votes have already been counted. Long rule Bob.