WHERE HAVE ALL THE PROTESTORS GONE?

The Iconoclast ^ | December 27, 2002 | Murray Soupcoff (The Iconoclast)

[Apolitical]

ICONOCLAST DAILY NOTEBOOK....

Where Have All The Protestors Gone?....



December 27, 2002: Funny how back when Zimbabwe was called Rhodesia and ruled by a repressive white oligarchy, there were protestors aplenty outside of the region's diplomatic offices around the world. However, now that Zimbabwe is ruled by a just-as-repressive (and perhaps more tyrannical) black despot, Robert Mugabe, the vocal mobs of leftist protesters against world injustice seem to have gone AWOL.

Not that life for black Rhodesians was exactly a picnic under the white-supremancy regime of Ian Smith, but at least there was still something to eat occasionally; and the nation's most lucrative employment opportunity hadn't yet become government-employed bully-boy or torturer .

In that context, our recommended reading today is a column by long-time liberal rights activist Nat Hentoff, entitled "A True Police State". Here's how Mr. Hentoff describes life under the savage and incompetent Mugabe regime:

If there were a contest naming which nation's government is the most vicious at crushing human rights and the human spirit, many countries would be leading contenders. I would vote for Zimbabwe, ruled by Robert Mugabe -- once its liberator, now its tyrant.

The United Nations' World Food program reported on Nov. 30 that food shortages in Zimbabwe are so severe that half the population -- more than 6 million people -- will be in acute need of food by March. But Andrew Natsios, the administrator for the United States Agency for International Development, testified before Congress in August:

"We now have confirmed reports in a number of areas in the most severely affected region of the country, which is the south, that food is being distributed to people who are members of Mugabe's political party and is not being distributed based on need. The children of opposition party members have been driven away from school supplementary feeding programs in rural areas."

In September, Adotei Akwei, Africa Advocacy director of Amnesty International U.S.A., told The New York Times that "people have been detained and tortured. In (Zimbabwe) now, literally, no one's safety and security is guaranteed if there is even the slightest doubt of support for President Mugabe."

So much for the post-colonial good life in Zimbabwe. Like in so much of "independent" black Africa, the people's leftist liberators have become their jailers. And life has gotten worse not better.

Yet, despite the pages on pages of propaganda literature (aka post-colonial critical thought) still been churned out by the West's organized left about the repression, exploitation and injustices of Western colonialism, rarely do we hear a howl of protest from these same sources about the repression, exploitation and injustices occurring in Zimbabwe and other African dictatorships today.

Where are the compassionate defenders, in Western Europe and North America, of the interests and well-being of ordinary black Africans today? Where have the career opponents (on paper only of course) of tyranny and injustice disappeared on the left? And to paraphrase a much-loved 60's peacenik ditty, where have all the protesters gone?

Here's how Nat Hentoof paints the depressing picture of world-wide leftist acquiescence in the current Zimbabwe tragedy:

Yet, in November, The New York Times reported that "the South African foreign minister, Dr. Nkosazana Zuma, said it was time for Western nations to consider ending penalties they imposed on Zimbabwe. South Africa hailed Zimbabwe's presidential election in March as legitimate, even though officials eliminated polling stations in opposition strongholds, and the police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of people who were waiting to vote."

Where is Nelson Mandela, who fought so long and courageously for democracy in South Africa? Where, in this country, are women's groups; the black and white clergy that organized against slavery and gang rapes by government militia in Sudan; editorial writers; and the clamorous commentators on cable television? Where is Jesse Jackson?

Well, actually we all know where Jesse Jackson is -- getting it on in a luxury hotel room somewhere with his latest female protege, or busy extorting funds (for himself and his cronies) from some guilty white corporate executive or other. But that still leaves millions of other professional voices of conscience in the West who don't seem to have a word to say in defense of the starving masses of Zimbabwe or anti-Mugabe political opponents rotting in Mr. Mugabe's many prisons.

Perhaps it's time for folksinger Pete Seger to revise the lyrics to his classic folksong as follows.....

[Apolitical]

Where have all the protestors gone indeed!

[Textide]

ping

[evad]

They became CEO's and hopefully went to jail...
at least that's what happened to the ones from "my" era.

[Thommas]

One should keep in mind the BIG picture. The mounting death toll will merely be used to confirm the tragedy of the AIDS epidemic, don't ya know.

Let's take a look. In Zembabwe, massive numbers of people are dying of rapid weight loss, lethagy, secondary bacterial infection, diarhia, and skin lesions. Yep, without available lab facilities, these are all symptoms of AIDS; ergo, the epidemic is rampant. ...More money, please...

[prognostigaator]

The organizers [of the protestors] simply kept the money...[who knows how much?]

[Skwidd]

Where have all the protestors gone indeed!

I think they had finals before going home for Christmas break.

[Stultis]

The leftists always fall discretely (reverently?) silent when one of their champions sets to mass murder.

[Stultis]

You've got something of a point. The really hard-left sometimes doesn't remain silent, but actively defends Mugabe, or even praises him for this "land reform".

And it is also true that less radical libs and moderates have been all too quiet about Mugabe, and even conservatives have not made as much noise as they should. But the point of the article was that those previously protesting Rhodesia no longer are there protesting Mugabe. You you really doubt that it was the left organizing such protests? I don't.