O ditador que cospe o açucar d'alguma democracia africana

The man behind the fist Mar 29th 2007 HARARE From The Economist print edition Zimbabwe's despotic leader, a man of puzzlingly different identities, is a past master at holding on IN AN African village, everyone is expected to work. From an early age children are taken to the fields and told to carry water or to hunt. Eight decades ago, when the land that is now Zimbabwe was run by British settlers, one small boy chose to toil for his family by taking on solitary tasks. Sent to herd cows, he would avoid other children and tramp off to isolated grazing spots. He would not scrap with the other boys, a traditional way of passing the time.

This weakling did not even play at hunting. Instead he would weave dry grass and reeds into small nets, stuffing them with feathers and moss. He would set his traps by a river and then wait for hours, resting with a book in the shade of a tree. Eventually he would snare a small bird or two, providing a tiny bit of protein for the family pot. None of this made him popular. He was bookish, a swot and very close to his mother. His father, a carpenter, had disappeared early.

Remarkably little is known about Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the man who has ruled Zimbabwe for nearly three decades and has led it, in that time, from impressive success to the most dramatic peacetime collapse of any country since Weimar Germany. Today Mr Mugabe is a near-parody of an African dictator. He sports a Hitleresque moustache. He waves his fists at campaign rallies, runs into crowds punching the air and spits personal abuse at his opponents. But his rivals and enemies have regularly underestimated him; and, in doing so, have made it all the harder to get him out of office.

His secret police, the much-feared Central Intelligence Organisation, spreads dread in the cities, especially the poorer townships, after dark. Early in March his goons hammered the country's opposition leader, a doughty but dull former trade-union leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, almost to death, provoking intense condemnation at home and abroad, but also successfully intimidating ordinary people. A gardener in Budiriro township near Harare describes how security men have harassed residents to stop street protests, even battering a pregnant woman until she lost her baby. On March 28th police again arrested Mr Tsvangirai. [...]

A ler o resto do artigo no Economist.

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O blog CLARO cita um interessante comentário do Jumento acerca do ex-ministro das colónias de salazar. Só é pena que outros blogues não sigam os signos da verdadeira democracia e digam o que se impõe dizer em Liberdade. Parece que têm medo. Este é sempre um mau conselheiro, por isso alguns blogues têm tão escassas visitas e têm os contadores escondidos. É uma pena..

Vemos aqui o ex-ministro de Salazar, aliás, um seu delfim cuja maior frustração na vida foi nunca ter conseguido impedir Marcello Caetano de ter ocupado a cadeira do poder. Aqui vemo-lo de dedo em riste procurando acusar um ministro da Democracia, Mariano Gago - que lutou para combater Salazar, a Pide e toda a merda que essa ditadura nojenta e sabuja (cuja mentalidade ainda hoje está instalada em certas universidades da "banana"). Ao que chegámos, os salazaristas pretendem dar lições de democracia em plena Liberdade. Amanhã se o regime mudasse, lá estaria o dedinho em riste dizendo: eu, afinal, nunca deixa a mocidade portuguesa...

Eis as ervas daninhas da democracia portuguesa, por isso fez bem o Claro em ter citado o Jumento a este respeito. De caminho também não fez mal em citar outro blog.