To anyone familiar with Zimbabwean history, the newly formed government of national unity in Zimbabwe should come as no surprise. In fact, the formation of the GNU should be met with some apprehension: Zimbabwe has a short but recurring history of internal settlements within its political elite. On June 1, 1979, an internal settlement was reached which saw the formation of a government of national unity between the then-illegal white minority government of Rhodesia, led by Ian Smith, and a group of moderate black nationalists headed by A. T. Muzorewa.
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Last week’s roller coaster on the world’s financial markets highlights the extreme volatility that characterizes the current economic system. Volatility is generated not just by uncertain prospects and a lack of trust in existing institutions and practices but also—and perhaps above all—by new forms of risk linked to complex financial instruments such as derivative trading. While the recently signed ZANU PF-MDC agreement has been advertised in many places as a sharing of power, a close examination of the document shows that it is a mere sham. The document itself is nothing like the rumors that were so skillfully circulated prior to its release. There are none of those highly publicized details about how Tsvangirai and MDC would be in charge of the police. The cold reality is that this agreement hardly chips at Mugabe’s established powers, but it goes on to grant him what he most needs at this moment: legality and a rescue form international condemnation. …That is why I am sure that Paul is enjoying the Palin candidacy, for she represents many of the qualities he was searching for in his vision of a federal populism: her willingness to tell Washington to go to hell, her unrelenting morality, even against leaders of her party, her easy embrace of Alaska’s uniqueness, her relaxed religiosity, and her full participation in life on America’s last frontier. That’s just the sort of thing Paul wanted, and he would have been delighted that it came from the mother of five. The Republican National Convention has been interesting if not useful in a major regard: its reliable falsehood. I find the concept itself striking: what in general can be considered reliable, much less reliably false? To borrow a distinction made by Harry Frankfurt, while bullshit abounds, the number of conclusively identifiable liars who truck in “credible” deceit is comparatively scarce. In 1990, the “Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam,” adopted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, set Sharia as the sole foundation for “human rights.” The UN’s Third International Antiracism Conference, which took place in September 2001 in Durban, South Africa, amplified the trend: These conferences turned out to be devastating tribunals directed against every democracy, unlimited personal freedom, freedom of opinion, freedom of the press, of the arts and human rights in general. All previous human rights conventions were turned on their heads in Cairo and Durban, and racism was given a new definition. The Durban Conference also taught us that Israel is not only an apartheid state, but is in fact the reincarnation of National Socialism, even though Hitler’s Mein Kampf was openly sold at the conference: an ironic twist—and a nightmare! |
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