From The Progressive
By Amitabh Pal

A nation is falling apart, and one man is largely responsible.

Zimbabwe is rapidly going to seed, and Robert Mugabe is presiding over its decline with relish.

How the mighty fall! Here is a man who presided over the liberation of Rhodesia from a racist apartheid regime in 1980, and was mentioned in the same breath as Nelson Mandela. To do so now would be unimaginable, except to point out the contrast.

Mugabe governed with at least a semblance of democracy early on in his tenure. But he suppressed the Ndebele Rebellion at the cost of tens of thousands of lives. And as time went on, his desire to remain in power became more insatiable, and his tactics more desperate. At the age of eighty-three, he seems to have no intention of leaving. He needs to give it a rest. He is roughly the same age as my maternal grandparents, and I’m quite certain neither of them would relish the challenge of governing a country.

Or misgoverning it, as Mugabe is doing. Inflation in Zimbabwe is an unbelievable 1,700 percent a year. An estimated 80 percent of the working-age population is unemployed. Basic foodstuffs and fuel are unavailable. Zimbabweans are fleeing their country in large numbers.

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