The people of Zimbabwe gave the ruling ZANU-PF and indeed all forms of purposeless politics their boldest affront to date as very few Zimbabweans turned up to vote during the senate elections held over the weekend. At some polling stations, only 6% percent of eligible voters showed indicating the undisputable demise of elections on the national agenda. Explaining the disinterest, This is Zimbabwe writes,
“Nothing is going to change as a result of having a senate. These elections are not going to improve democracy in Zimbabwe; they won’t fix unemployment; they won’t bring fuel to the country; people won’t suddenly be able to feed their children and afford school fees; the sick are not going to be able to get drugs or treatment in well resourced clinics and employers will still struggle every single day to keep their businesses afloat through hyperinflation and a rapidly collapsing economy.”
Echoing the sentiment, Zimpundit writes,
“Understand this reader dearest; it is not that we don't care about democracy or having the right politicians in place or any other high sounding question you may want to throw at us. No, our nonchalence is evidence only that we care about other things more than we care about politics and governance. We care more about living to see tomorrow. It is all about survival now. Such is the result of how simple and unsophisticated a society ZANU-PF has made us.”
This is Zimbabwe suprisingly notes that ZANU-PF was still not content with the guarranteed win they had going into the elections. So,
“They still resorted to their old dirty tricks. For example, someone I know who comes from Intabzinduna north of Bulawayo told me that zanu-pf campaigned for the senate elections using food. They brought in maize and only gave it to those that voted ZANU PF in the last election and they told people that others won’t get until they stop voting MDC!”
The MDC still swept all five senates seats in Bulawayo.
Burundi: Agathon Rwasa decries the fact that the UN has offered neither apology nor explanation a week after Agathon Rwasa's chief of staff was found in posession of UN uniforms when he was arrested last week.
DRC:In an extensive roundup of the stories making headlines in November, Adventures of a Retired Armchair Traveler reports among other things that; UN and Congolese troops destroyed a rebel camp, the search for Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in DRC has intensified, and Hilary Benn the British secretary for development urged the government to pay the army to ensure security.
Malawi: Geeta lauds the efforts of Dignitas International, a non governmental organization whose innovative cooperation with the ministry of health which impacted the districts in which Dignitas operates.
Mike of Hacktivate explains how to reverse an ssh connection which among other things allows access to network resources behind a firewall.
