Tendai Ruben Mbofana
This important life lesson has never been more apparent in our own Zimbabwe – where, the citizenry has perennially been at the mercy of leadership, which solely relies on the might of its military and security forces, abuse of the law, and even poverty, to unleash untold and unbearable tyranny, brutality, and injustices upon a weaker and defenceless people, who will most likely not fight back.
As someone who was also repeatedly bullied and sexually abused as a child, I know the evil and darkness that linger in the hearts of such a regime – which, appears to derive some deranged and perverted pleasure from the pain and sorrow of others, yet are actually a cowardly lot, who are haunted by a crippling fear of their own citizens, and would rather use every weapon in their arsenal to form a façade of fortification around themselves.
What I have learnt in my own personal experiences, at the hands of cruel bullies and abusers – who turned my life into a living nightmare in my childhood – is that, once those being bullied finally plucked up the courage to resist the bully (without the need for any violence, as such would only provide him (the bully) with another excuse to be more brutal, but by merely showing him that he is no longer feared, and refusing to submit to his demands), he would eventually stand down, and flee – as he would, in fact, be the one gripped by more fear, than the one he would be abusing.
As the Zimbabwean ruling elite move ahead, callously riding roughshod over the people, I am, nonetheless, not lost to the irony of the poetic justice surrounding their continued mourning over the apparent bullying they are receiving at the hands of a more powerful US (United States of America) government – whom, the former accuse of being hypocritical in the imposition of targeted sanctions on them by the latter, under the pretext of gross violations of human rights against Zimbabweans, yet the Americans are doing the same to their own people, and across the world.
Indeed, I have never been a fan of the US, as I have always regarded them as a curse upon this planet, through not only their depraved morals which they are so eager to propagate around the world, but also their policies that they seek to savagely and brutally impose on all nations, as some self-appointed ‘world policeman’ – such that, in my geopolitical immaturity, I vividly remember in 1991 (when I was doing my Lower Sixth form at high school, and had been writing social justices articles for two years, in the local media) being vocally supportive of Sadaam Hussein, during the Persian Gulf War (after Iraq invaded Kuwait), since I naively believed that he was fighting against American neo-imperialism.
Of course, as I gradually matured, and began to have a deeper understanding of global geopolitical dynamics, the realization dawned on me that, not all countries embroiled in an adversarial relationship with the US, were necessarily anti-imperialist – but, rather, most of them, such as Sadaam’s Iraq, and our very own Zimbabwe regime, were just as wicked, sadistic, and cold-hearted as the Americans – if not far much worse.
As matter of fact, such hostile relations between the US and other nations had absolutely nothing to do with the lives and livelihoods of the ordinary citizens, but purely a fight over control of resources – with the Americans wanting these for their own country, whilst the respective governments involved, desiring these solely for the enrichment of the ruling clique and their connections, with their nationals wallowing in abject poverty.
Nonetheless, what immensely bemuses me – whenever I hear the Zimbabwe regime mourning long, high and low over the perceived bullying and unfair treatment they are receiving at the hands of the US, especially in the form of targeted sanctions, imposed by a more powerful America, on certain top Zimbabwean individuals fingered in gross and inhumane humans rights abuses upon the ordinary citizenry – is that, a bully is actually crying over being bullied.
Now, that is truly some fascinating poetic justice!
Whether these targeted sanctions are justifiable, or what the real extent of their impact on the livelihoods of the people of Zimbabwe is – is not my focus, since my views on this matter is already on public record, with the lack of any conclusive, incontrovertible, and traceable evidence to support the regime narrative of their alleged economic crippling effect.
Be that as it may, my concern in this discourse is that, the opportunistic ruling elite in Zimbabwe should finally learn some of the lessons of life that I learnt so early in my life – ‘we reap what we sow’, ‘what goes around comes around’, and as such the last people on this planet to be whining and winging over US hypocrisy and bullying, should be a brutal leadership that has exercised even more gruesome, horrific, and terrifying atrocities against their own citizenry – just because they could, and were more powerful than the weaker and defenceless population.
Of course, comparing what the US is doing to the Zimbabwe regime, and how ordinary Zimbabweans have suffered at the hands of their leaders, would be an unforgivable insult on these subjugated and brutalized people – considering that, all the Americans did was impose travel restrictions, and froze assets of those in power in Zimbabwe.
Yet, what those in power in Zimbabwe have done to the ordinary citizenry is unspeakable through ruthless impoverishment (by the unrestrained looting of the country’s resources for the benefit of only a few), subjected to every inhumane and degrading treatment under the sun by those entrusted to lead them, relentlessly persecuted, and even arrested on spurious charges (at times, using laws that were long struck off by the constitutional court).
For the Zimbabwe regime to mourn over their treatment at the hands of US hypocrisy, is the height of all insanity, which should not be taken seriously by any right-thinking Zimbabwean – but, in fact, should serve as an immediate demand for those in power to realize that the abuse of that power, against those who are defenceless and weaker, is absolutely unacceptable bullying, which has no place in a modem day civilized society.
© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist, writer, author, and speaker. Please feel free to contact him on WhatsApp/Call: +263733399640 / +263715667700, or Calls Only: +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com
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