Pencil sketch: Imgrum
I was never a proponent of the late Mr. Mugabe who recently died after ruling Zimbabwe for over 36 years. From freedom fighter to oppressor, he could have played his cards differently and a lot better.
In the next breath one has to acknowledge that it's just as difficult to judge a situation based on parish pump politics.
In a nutshell, Robert Mugabe was demonized much for years by the Western establishment and mainstream media. He disliked the idea of colonization. Land reforms was one of his top priorities. It was a positive move but carried out badly. He ordered the white farmers to quit and give back their farmlands to the indigenous people. That was tough and not the best way to rehabilitate the locals. Absolutely not. Howbeit, every story has two sides and this one is no exception. Reporters around the world have only been fixated on the version of Mugabe's haters, with little or no reflection on a broader perspective, nor an analysis of some very significant pages of history.
Coming to more recent times down the annals of history, take a close look through the prism of reality. Analogically, imagine .. .. someone locks you inside your home. You cannot step out to fetch food and medicine. No one is allowed to visit you to deliver many of the necessities of life. You wane and slump, and the ones who ostracized you claim it's your incompetence to care for yourself that has caused your decline. If a developing state crumbles under the imposition of harsh sanctions from the New World Empire, it would be highly fallacious to categorize the situation as 'economic decline,' much less 'a failed state.' Who wouldn't also perceive a sharp decline of humanity within the stranglers of Washington DC who have no qualms choking an entire nation monetarily because its people and government opted for total self-rule over subservience to the international cabal?
Robert Mugabe, who had the opportunity to become the next Nelson Mandela but chose to squander the legacy, was eventually kicked out by his own people back in 2017. The multi-party polls that followed were fair and free. The transition was smooth. The elite experts of the new non-Mugabe government have been overly keen to welcome foreign business investment and have unarguably done enough to contribute to conducive conditions. Yet, the country's frail economy has only gotten frailer. The enormity of Mugabe's corruption wasn't alone in wreaking Zimbabwe's economy. Needless and draconian U.S. (zidera) sanctions have proven just as calamitous, if not more.