Sokwanele reports a new and disturbing development in the “little” Zimbabwe story: it seems a group of about 10 Chinese soldiers and/or officers, armed with revolvers, checked into the Holiday Inn in Mutare, and are going about with Zimbabwean police for some reason. Meanwhile, a Chinese ship called the An Yue Jiang just cleared customs in Durban with a few containers said to contain arms consigned to the Zimbabwean army. The timing is pretty disturbing; if it’s a long-planned training exercise, with some new toys for Mugabe’s bully boys, it couldn’t come at a more dangerous time. Also, there are…
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This is Zimbabwe The General Strike is on, starting tomorrow. Please can everyone spread the news as widely as possible. Zimbabweans, phone everyone you can think of and tell them to phone everyone they can think of and just pass on and on and on. If you are in the diaspora, please phone home and tell them and do the same.
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I saw an article last week that claimed Bush is “the first Catholic President.” Well, maybe there’s something in it. Bush greeting pope in big way – CNN.com
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Here’s a petition worth “signing,” if only to help them make a point. Avaaz.org – The World in Action Robert Mugabe’s government has withheld the results of the national elections–and threatens to use violence and fraud to hold on to power. Mugabe has resisted international pressure–but South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki, who has Mugabe’s ear, might listen. A global outcry is needed to ensure that Mbeki knows his status as a global and regional leader is on the line: the world is turning to him to help bring justice for the people of Zimbabwe. This petition will be delivered through diplomatic…
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BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Solar Systems look-alike found The newfound planetary system, which orbits the star OGLE-2006-BLG-109L, is more compact than our own and is about five thousand light-years away. The Ogle-Blogarians are a species of compulsive documenters. Every aspect of their lives, every passing interest, every offbeat opinion, every odd theory gets placed on their planetary net. They are extremely interested in their own doings and thus are both happy and agitated that other beings have also taken an interest. Pro- and anti- observationists are even now gearing for the inevitable protests, net-wide opinion surveys, and arts/music/Blogarian introspection…
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Daily Kos: State of the Nation The United States got itself in to a strange situation with Musharraf, in which the structure of its aid to the Pakistan government essentially incented the government not to find Bin Laden because if they found him they had reason to fear that the US would end this flow of more than $10 billion that it was providing directly to the army. The democratic government came to power arguing to Washington that constitutional democracy was a better counterterrorism strategy than reliance on an authoritarian military leader. So, I think they understand, if they can…
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I can hardly wait to get my hands on the beautiful new coins of the realm on our next trip to Britain! The New Designs Revealed Via mediatinker
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Wow! A friend of mine has a connection with this story, which I had scanned briefly via RSS/newsfeed a few days ago. Thus when she mentioned it, I recognized the painting immediately. Just as an aside, I love the hat. Every naked lady should wear one. A Painting With a Nazi Past Britain’s National Gallery announced Thursday that new research has disclosed that a painting in its collection, “Cupid Complaining to Venus,” by the German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, was once part of Hitler’s private collection. “We’ve never had anything like this before,” said museum spokesman Thomas Almeroth-Williams.…
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Evidence Supports Earlier Date for People in North America – New York Times Exploring Paisley Caves in the Cascade Range of Oregon, archaeologists have found a scattering of human coprolites, or fossil feces. The specimens preserved 14,000-year-old human protein and DNA, which the discoverers said was the strongest evidence yet of the earliest people living in North America. Other archaeologists agreed that the findings established more firmly than before the presence of people on the continent at least 1,000 years before the well-known Clovis people, previously thought to be the first Americans. Recent research at sites in Florida and Wisconsin…
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Such a platitude: “The suspense is killing me.” In Zimbabwe, the suspense is killing democracy: the Zimbabwe Election Commission has been slowly announcing results in a piecemeal fashion, with suspiciously neck-and-neck results when the numbers posted outside every polling station previously seemed to presage a much bigger majority for the opposition party (or parties, as there’s a split). Mugabe must go someday. But when? Now it appears that he’s started a “crackdown.” The suspense could be killing people for real, very soon. This is Zimbabwe