Vote for me, if you value your life

As the date for the election in Zimbabwe comes closer, the political heat in that beleaguered country intensifies. Morgan Tsvangirai has been arrested for the fifth time and the political opposition to Mugabe's Zanu-PF lives in fear of their lives as beatings and death threats seem run of the mill.

The type of regime run by Mugabe seems reminiscent of the one run by Saddam in Iraq - torture, oppression, fear, poverty being the order of the day. Luckily for Mugabe there is no oil in Zimbabwe and so 'regime change' is unlikely to be pursued by the Americans. 

It's funny how much of a difference oil can make to a Superpower's foreign policy. Not having any can put you very far down the list. What was once the "bread basket of Southern Africa" has now become close to the brink of starvation and its population suffers greatly. Like Saddam, Mugabe seems fueled by his own narcissism, but as he won't effect the prices at the petrol pumps in the West he's safe enough. 

Selective Western interventionism is a source of anger for me, and while I appreciate that the US can't involve itself in each and every individual situation, I can't help but be cynical regarding the ones it does poke its nose into. Iraq and Afghanistan seem to be personally and commercially motivated ventures by the current US President. Darfur, Zimbabwe, and others are conveniently ignored. God appears to have forgotten to tell Bush to change the regime in Zimbabwe. Well, nobody's perfect.