There is no doubt that Professo Asongani is an academic titan. But this article does not attest to this neither in scope nor depth. So many sloopy and naive articles have been written on relation to Zimbabwe amd Mugabe, as Mugabe and Zimbabwe constitute the sexiest issues in African politics today, and just as many have been lacking in depth and worth. But when such sloopiness comes from a professor of great repute like Asongani is, it raises concern. I think a lot has been churned in relation to Mugabe and Zimbabwe to the extent that if a learned professor chooses to write on nte subject, he must repeat not just all what has been said thus sounding boring, but must explore the contours of knowledge and bring out ideas with originality and worth. To tell the truth, i have read through the article more than once and i cannot understand what the professor with his worth is saying. Nor do i understand why the editor shoulld choose such an article except to impress his learned audience with an article from an intellectual. This article might have been written with greater merit from a less illustrious mind. I expect a learned Professor interested in writing about an over-hyped subject to trace the root up to the stemp, branches and leaves of a very nagging problem rather than gloss along as if taking his readers for granted with the complicity of the editor. To cut a long matter short, it is expected that the professor rightly ought to condemn Mugabe's wayward dictatorship, and to denounce human rights abuses purely and simply. It is right for the learned Professor to denounce Mugabe's assault on democracy, but this is an over-exhausted topic. So the professor ought to have done more than this. He ought to have warned that normative concern does not future on top of the list of Western States, be they the US, UK, Switzerland or any other Western nation. The obsession of such powers on issues of democracy in Zimbabwe ought to treated with utmost caution. The deeper interest of Western nations ought o be unravelled. A learned professor ought to warn his fellow intellectuals and less illustrious minds in Africa and sympathisers beyond that though human rights and democracy ought to be pursued effortlessly in Africa, these normative concerns must not be allowed to pave the way for the double standard of as evidently manifested by the West. We ought to have learned from Professor Asongani that th fact that like cases are not treated alike raises a lot of suspicion and smacks of bad faith. The professor ought to have helped marked the fine line between the need for democracy and human rights in Africa and the need to protect African countries and African leaders from the use of human rights and democracy as a weapon to pursue covert activities by the powers as this is so rife in the continent. I think enough has been written to expose the misdeeds of Mugabe. I think the Professor has merely repeated what has been said in an imbalance way that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of those who embrace critical thinking. Is it difficult to understand that in 1999, Mugabe had support a constitutional reform that advocated for limited term of office that wouls have seen hi out of power and was devastated when his oppornents orcahestrated a defeat of the constitution in a referrandum because he had made homosexuality a crime in the state and advocated for land reform in a move the overcame the difficulties of the Lancaster House Agreement? Is it difficult to see tht the MDC was born of this desire to thart Mugabe's move by a white affluent minority that had pushed their agenda using the MDC in the most undemocratic reasons? Is it difficult to to see that Mugabe's unswerving support for SADC for the Government of Kabila against the US/UK led forces or Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi placed Mugabe into conflict with the above powers and placed them at logggarheads? Is it difficult to realise that when Mugabe went ahead with the much awaited land reforms thus angering the white minority whci expoited the gains from the land and black labour and banked the money in foreign lands and when he nationalised the countries minerals and vowed to make shore that Zimbabweans benefit most from their own resources and not greedy capitalists, he had tempted the wrath of Western capitalist states? Does the learned Professor need to be reminded that the hype about democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe is a hoax to be unmasked? Is it difficult to see that the double standard of Britain and the US has made matters worse in terms of human rights and democracy? Is it difficult to see that the democratic process in Zimbabwe is rig as much by Mugabe as it is by the West? Is it hard to note that Morgan Tvangirai was regularly giving two different answers to the same question when interviewed few minutes apart and that he seems to always be lost and short of ideas and he had to be instructed by his mentors to always prepare interviews before hand and hold a pre-prepared answer sheet in his hand? Is it diffucult to note that the opposition leader is as much the probem of democracy in Zimbabwe as his only quality is his loyalty as a stooch which endears the whites to put their affluent muscles behind him? The point i am making is that the learned Professor whom i personally respect has treated a very torchy issue light-heartedly in a way that does not portray his intellectual worth. I think that both him and the editor of the Post Newspaper which i respect a lot should step on their toes and keep the challenge rather than rest on their laurels. I advocate that the learned Professor should use his clout to unravel the kind of truths that only he aone can see and be an eye opener. Things are not aways waht they seem. I think the learned Professor must make us to see things the way they seem when in reality we ought to be drilled into the sophistry of things by our intellectuals.

chizama6: you have given us no visible alternative. Instead you have dethroned reason, replacing it with emotions...just like a desperate househelp who has no breastmilk for her mistress's baby and must undergo the scourges of motherhood before her time comes. she will only find rest when Mama returns! So if you have nothing to say my friend, just wait for your time to come; it may never come if you keep replacing light with darkness.

To the Professor: INSIGHTFUL, THOUGHT-PROVOKING...GOOD FOR AN AUDIENCE WHERE I BELONG.