Zimbabwe

I hope this isn't a trend that we will see repeatedly in African countries over the next few years. Or maybe I do? Zimbabwe just had a presidential election. Like Kenya, the opposition party claimed that they had defeated the long time leader. They still have not released the official results after days of waiting. Some speculate that the president is intending to rig the outcome (as he supposedly did last election). In Kenya, they had weeks of tribal violence until the two leaders decided to form a unified government to stop the violence. Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, 84, has been in power for 28 years. In that time, Zimbabwe's economy and life expectancy have become some of the worst in the world. The inflation rate is at 100,000 percent! Life expectancy is 39.5 years.

This is bad because, if more situations turn out like Kenya's, there will be violence. In these cases, it seems like the leader on the way out does not want to give up command so easily, and can often refuse to step down. In Kenya, around 1,000 people were killed due to violence related to riots and clashes between tribes. So if Kenya can erupt that quickly into killing, what can happen to other countries where tensions are even greater?

On the other hand, if Mugabe steps down peacefully, the new leader (likely Morgan Tsvangirai) will have a chance to turn things around (like Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia). I think the US is willing to help out, as this NPR article suggests. Zimbabwe can become a partner with the US and other UN nations again after they had originally avoided dealing with Mugabe when he became increasingly more oppressive to the people. He is currently not allowed to travel to the US or many European countries.

The tragedy is that in so many of these countries, a leader gains power through a military takeover of some unpopular leader, and has widespread support of the people in the beginning. But as the years go by, the leaders rig elections, give more of their supporters "elected" positions of influence and find more ways to oppress the citizens. The country's economy fails, the people suffer horribly and this leader becomes worse than the former.

Frustrating...