When Robert Mugabe became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 1980 and President of Zimbabwe 1987 he began very well. Everyone was full of hope that an African country could throw off white rule and become successful.
Unfortunately things did not continue so well. By the mid 1990s things were a shambles and they have continued to go downhill from there. The currency was so weak before it was abandoned altogether that every single person in Zimbabwe was a millionaire. You had to take your money to the (empty) supermarkets in a wheelbarrow but you were a millionaire! They even had one hundred trillion dollar banknotes (worth about 300 USD)
My theory is that there are two reasons things started to go downhill in the early 1990s. Firstly, Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and replaced Mugabe as the shining light of hope on the continent. He was the star, the one fêted by international community and Mugabe fell by the wayside. Secondly, Mugabe’s wife Sally died in 1992. She was a very strong woman, very close to Mugabe as a friend and an advisor and was an activist and campaigner. After she died it was theorized that the wrong people started to get close to him and give him the wrong advice.
So nowadays I don’t have respect for Mugabe as a leader because his country is a mess and he does not seem to care as long as he can live the lifestyle to which he and ‘Gucci Grace’, his second wife, have become accustomed.
So when I saw this photograph I really had a good laugh. This was taken at the Union Buildings (the seat of government) in Pretoria, South Africa. Mugabe has banned homosexuality and said that homosexual people are “worse than dogs and pigs”. He probably feels the same about transgender people and drag artists. So him looking as though he is rocking some bling earrings and a lady-do just seemed to be poetic justice. I wish it could have looked like he was wearing a dress as well!
Hello Janet, Briljant story, you wrote here! Great picture! Love the things you write! I wanted to do a post about the slaughter in south/west China, where the “festival” started this week, where they butcher lots of dogs and eat them. It made me sick and cry when I saw these brutal pictures.I wanted to post something about the fountain pens I bought in China, which I will not buy anymore, until they stop doing this. But I think a: my English is not good enough and b: I do not think the moderators will like the message, because it is kind of political. Can you please tell me, what you think? Kind regards, Frans
I work with animal abuse in my spare time so I hate the whole thought of Yulin and it really turns my stomach. Honestly? I think many people won’t like the post – not because they don’t agree with you but because things like that upset them. Moderation is also quite strict in the pens forum. I work with anti-Rhino poaching campaigns (I am from Africa) but I am very careful to leave most of it off my FB and off my blog because I know it upsets people. It upsets me and I work with cruelty to animals all the time.