Mugabe’s landscape in Thatcher’s double-solid words
By Ephat Sam Dangarembga

Published: May 1, 2012

Comment

Verbal banditry has become the usual battle axe constantly wielded by certain circles in president Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party, just as the opposition parties are labelled all sorts of names from Prostitute, to Burnt Firewood, and from Fat Cheeks, to Man In a Tree, being all names synthetically thematic in the ZANU PF controlled print, visual, and audio media.

Mugabe’s landscape in Thatcher’s double-solid words-
The type of speech demonstrated by the parties has come under the spotlight as commentators stated that the communication is merely meant for stifling hate, rape, thuggery, and torture of other human beings.

In December 1979, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher solidly refused to ever meet Robert Mugabe as she described him as a uncivilised terrorist. Six days later however, she would still meet the same man who once was her abhorent terrorist.

The month of April 2012 marks exactly 23 years after Thatcher landed on Harare soil.

Below is a speech of the Prime Minister shortly after arriving in Zimbabwe.

Prime Minister

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press:

It is a very special pleasure for me to be on the soil of Zimbabwe this evening. It is ten years ago very nearly since we started the negotiations which led to the great independence celebrations of Zimbabwe. I shall never forget that time and nor will [ Robert Mugabe] Mr. President, and there were times when I wondered if I would ever get to see this great country. Now we are here and we are especially looking forward to all that you have to tell us and all that we have to see.

It has been a wonderful welcome. We are looking forward to seeing the things to which I know the President gives special attention and importance—the land settlement scheme and some of the many other schemes which you have done so magnificently during your great years of independence.[fo 1]

We also look forward to going on once more to Nyanga to see some of the training in which we are helping.

So many things, so much to see and for me it is a very great pleasure to represent my country, the United Kingdom, as Prime Minister, to come and greet the President of Zimbabwe. We very much look forward to it.

Question

Mrs. Thatcher, what are the prospects of a similar peace position like Lancaster House in South Africa?

Prime Minister

I think it would be just a little bit different. You remember we went to a conference—a Commonwealth Conference—at Lusaka and it was the whole Commonwealth Conference at Lusaka that gave us the responsibility for seeking a settlement in Zimbabwe and Mr. Mugabe knows the enormous care and attention we gave to it. It will be different in South Africa, because we cannot in any way do that, but I think there is one lesson to learn, that all people can learn![fo 2]

First, we sorted it out by negotiation and second, when we agreed that there should be an election, we made strenuous arrangements for the election to be absolutely fair and everyone knew that whatever the result, we would abide by it.

So there was total integrity, which meant a very great deal and I think that augurs well for other countries. Namibia will soon be having an election and coming to independence and we hope that soon there will be negotiations in South Africa. So they have a lot to learn from the way in which we went about it and a great deal to learn from the success of Zimbabwe since independence.

Question

But do you feel there is a sea change in the region?

Prime Minister

I think there is a sea change in the region. I think we are … . to see change in the world. There is an atmosphere about that these problems can be solved by negotiation. We can see places like this, where it has been so very successful. Whatever the problems, it has been the patient negotiation that has solved them, and I think that does give a very good example for others to follow.[fo 3]

Question

… . Zimbabwe … . changes you have been talking about?

Prime Minister

President Mugabe and I have talked together many many times. We talk together very frankly and we have established a friendly relationship of total integrity and whatever Mr. Mugabe has told me he was going to do, he has always done it and I hope that he would feel the same with every undertaking that I have given to him. It is a very very good relationship.

Question

Are we at a critical turning point?

President Mugabe

On behalf of the people of Zimbabwe and on my own behalf, I would like to welcome to Zimbabwe Mrs. Thatcher, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and Mr. Thatcher.

To us, the people of Zimbabwe, this is an historic moment. For the first time, we have the Prime Minister and Executives, the Head of the Government of Great Britain, visiting us and this after eight to nine years of independence.

The relations between us and Britain have always been very friendly. There might be one or two areas of difference but even in a family, you do not get that unanimity and so I would want, on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe once again to say to you Mrs. Thatcher and Mr. Thatcher; you are very welcome, very welcome indeed!

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by Ron Carlson

“You only live once,” proclaims the smooth and persuasive radio voice of the Cadillac salesman, “but if it’s done right, once is enough.”
For thousands of years, profound philosophical platitudes occupied the domain of poets, sages, and prophets.

Recently, their station has been usurped by advertisers striving to create the perfect jingle. The complexities of life reflected by the materialistic engineers of pop culture have reduced our existence to petty consumerism. “We buy; therefore we are.”

“The essence of life,” claim the peddlers of cheap trinkets, “flows from our desire to acquire.” We’ve retarded human progress to the point we define ourselves by our stuff. Symbols of affluence have become marks of the good life. Cadillac wants us to believe that the acquisition of a Coupe DeVille, even if we have to stretch the financing to ninety-six months, means we have somehow arrived.

Meanwhile, back on Madison Avenue, Lexus contends that Cadillac is just a stepping-stone on the journey to prosperity.

I was at a social gathering recently where a fellow unleashed his new $250,000 bright red, Formula One, street-modified Ferrari to the envy of Cadillac and Lexus owners.

Rich is relative, and the system is designed to keep you behind the curve. Some show-off will always sport a nicer set of wheels. If you envy, covet, and lust, plan to remain dissatisfied. There is no end to bigger, better faster, sharper, sleeker, fancier, hotter, smoother, and nicer.

Take the consumer electronics industry for example. The techno-gods of grandiose gadgets are genius. By the time you unpack and install the latest state-of-the-art gismo, it is out-of-date. Life unfolds in its irony, especially in the bitter futility of owning state-of-the-art. Imagine turning on your three hundred inch, high definition, flat-screen, plasma television for the first time and seeing an advertisement for a South Korean four hundred inch model with chrome bumpers for less money!
When the quality of life is defined by your purchasing power or stable of fandangled doohickies, then you have undermined the pursuit of quality with quantity. More is often less.

Many of the symbols representing the good life behave more like trappings than expressions. Americans currently support a ten trillion dollar consumer debt load. In 1945 debt was about twenty per cent of one’s disposable income. Today it is one hundred and fifteen per cent. The economic reality of the last sixty years is that we are spending ourselves into poverty. I call it economic arthritis: we are consuming ourselves.

We’ve been duped. We bought into the notion that we could buy happiness. And unfortunately, we’ve taught our children that more is better. Call it generational dysfunctionality.

Keep in mind that purveyors of materialism require a constant source of new consumers. As old folks grow slow and broke, the pitter-patter of young feet at the mall must continue. A recent article in a popular weekly magazine stated that Madison Ave. has dropped its target age to eleven. They are after your children. If they can hook them young, they will make lifetime consumers.

“Oh, daddy, if I can have your credit card for the afternoon, I’ll love you forever.”

“Oh, mommy, I just have to have that designer purse or the other kids at school will hate me.”

“Oh, grandma, please buy me the new Play Station Seventy-Seven or I’ll be bored to death and have to kill myself and no one will carry on the family name.”

“I just got to have,” appears to be the contemporary motto of every American kid.

A few days ago a precious young-to-America Hispanic lad ran up to me and proudly displayed his new shoes. “Nike’s,” he boasted, “hundred bucks!”

Welcome to the land of the free and the home of the swoosh!
Have you been to “Parent’s Day” at your child’s university lately? It’s crowded. Primarily because every lending institution in the world has a booth set up giving away free t-shirts if you’ll simply sign up for a high-interest credit card. A student running up a simple ten thousand dollar debt in college can pay for it the rest of their lives. “A small price to pay,” contend the consumerism advocates, “for the joy of joining mainstream insanity.”

Understand, please, that Cadillac may sound profound, but in reality they speak in half-truths. It is true that we only live once. It is also true that if we live right, once is enough. It is patently false to contend that purchasing (or better, yet, financing) a new Cadillac somehow makes life right. I contend they are guilty of false advertising.

I wish they would spend more advertising money on promoting sales of their popular hearses. They have, after all, sold more funeral wagons than all their competitors combined. Not only have they redefined luxury, but what it means to carry folks “from the cradle to the grave.”
Contrary to Cadillac’s broken spin on reality, the good life ultimately has nothing to do with sole ownership of their brand, and everything to do with soul ownership.

“Once is enough,” only if once brings one into relationship with God. To live and to die without becoming a disciple of Jesus is a life wasted. The wise man of old said it well: “To live without God is a tragic mistake and vanity of vanities” (read Ecclesiastes for a wake-up call!).
To add insult to soul injury, Cadillac concludes its advertisement with the admonition to buy one for someone you love: “It’s a gift of major proportion.”

Ultimately, there is only one gift of major proportion; His name is Jesus. He came. He lived perfectly. He died. He was resurrected. He conquered death. His “once and for all” sacrifice gives us eternal life.
Life is only done right when it’s done God’s way. And only a fool would do it otherwise.

-Ron Carlson

( di comment really too rude)

Met word on the streets is that sweets couture don’t have a jay oh bee met I wanna know what’s up with these “LOS Vegas” Pics cuz sweets say she is at “LOS VEGAS” lmfao and all she deh pon a red battams dis n dat mi never see sweets ina designer before but now it look like $ a dash who is d man or women sweets?? Let’s not even mention d sound of di bimmer goin down d road sweets u step up ina life mi gal !!! Vindictive couture stop mek dem clothes cuz mi hear say dem nuh stop trust n nah pay met but it look like sweets find a MAN now inquiring minds want to know who it is !! Somebaddie plz lash it n dash it out ..

YOU WILL BE CALLED OUT BY NAME…… THAT IS A PROMISE..LEAVE THESE YOUNG WOMEN TO BE AT LEAST 18 BEFORE YOU DATE THEM

WORKING ON ASIAYEI PEREKEYE INTERVIEW NOW…ITS HARD TO TRANSCRIBE SO GIVE ME SOME TIME I CAN HARDLY UNDERSTAND THE WORDS AND MI NUH WAA PUT DI WRONG TING

PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT ON COMPUTERS MAY NOT SEE THIS VIDEO…SORRY MY YOUTUBE IS DOWN FOR ANOTHER 2 WEEKS A CYAA BADDA