Fightin' Bob, The Exemplary Progressive

Jerry Scharf gives information from the BBC concerning the 'state of the nation' following the implementation of the progressive policies of 'Fightin' Bob'. This is, of course, Robert Mugabe, tin pot, but progressive, dictator of the central African nation, Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe in meltdown - UN envoy (BBC)

"The situation is very serious in Zimbabwe when life expectancy goes from more than 60 years to just over 30 years in a 15-year span - it's a meltdown, it's not just a crisis, it's a meltdown," Mr Egeland (UN undersecretary for humanitarian affairs) told the BBC in Johannesburg, immediately after his four-day trip to Zimbabwe.

Some 700,000 people lost their jobs or homes in a government demolition programme, an earlier UN report says. (Progressive way of fighting crime and overcrowding.)

ZIMBABWE CRISIS
Life expectancy 30 years
3m expecting food aid
20% adult HIV prevalence
3,000 Aids deaths each week
500,000 left homeless this year
200,000 lost livelihoods
Inflation has reached 400%
Crisis compounded by drought

The Mugabe regime refused various aspects of UN aid, including tents for temporary housing, because of his high regard for his own people.

Mr Mugabe's spokesman said Zimbabweans were "not tent people" and they wanted the UN to build permanent homes. (Now that's progressive concern.)

Mr Mugabe last week agreed to let the UN provide food aid to some three million people over the next year. (He loves the Zimbabwean people.)

A former coworker of mine was from Zimbabwe. Her daughter wrote and published a book of poems. Here is one example that seems fitting for this time:

Great Zimbabwe
By Yvonne Mugadza, from Into A Sea of Poetry, p. 23

The Ruins lie together stone by stone
Atoned with mystery and grandeur.
Their shape is inscribed in coins
Yet the walls of stone breathed life once.
Their velvetine brush with royalty
Attracts admirers from all directions.
Birds of freedom
Were carved out of soap stone.
Kings drank from ivory cups
Ribboned with copper.
The dance of maidens
To the Mbira
Once rose the dust.
The house of stones birthed
Our country's name Zimbabwe.
They were the fortress of utmost justice
A shield from war.
And insignia of sovereignty
And at its fall it was at its greatest.