THOUGHTS ON THE "THIRD WAY".

DEMOCRACY...THE THIRD WAY

QUESTION ....What does any person on Earth want???? ANSWER... A better
life than what they have at present.


Some would argue that the structural constraints under which the
Zimbabwean economy operates have influenced the debate in terms of the
desirability for unchecked foreign investment.

The current shortages of investment funds and growing unemployment are
said to impose difficult choices on the nation.

However who is looking at the cost of these foreign investor vultures
as they seek to pick over the corpse of a Zimbabwe crippled by Zanu PF
maladministration and an opposition strategy of allowing the nation to
fall in disrepair in order to facilitate a popular uprising against the
incumbent tyranny/regime?


For 8 years the social /political landscape has been thick with the
barrages of the various parties as they carrying out their power struggles backed by various powerful outside interests.Power being sought for its own sake alongside personal ego and self enrichment was so much the focus that the people and the nation became the main casualties of this real yet 'phoney war'.

Unfortunately the narrow and dishonest nature of the focus lead to a
singular blurring of issues so that sight was lost regarding the most
important question:

...WHAT IS ZIMBABWE AT THE FULLEST OF ITS POTENTIAL and HOW DO WE
ATTAIN IT.

The question instead being turned into one of... WHAT IS THE BEST
ADVANTAGE I CAN GAIN WITHIN THE CRISIS.

The end result being a rudderless ship with the vast majority asking
...which way are we going.

Various influences have come into play as a result of political
ideology or personal greed...ESPOUSING ...Nationlism...Socialism
...capitalism...feudalism...racialism...sexism...tribalism...FACTIONALISM...religion...corporatism...Imperialism...idealism

Many prophets, profiteers and practicioners have come in the name and
so called name of all these faiths and none as a singularity has helped
progress the country as a whole. Each boasts the heralding of a 'golden
age' for their own side yet none brings progress to the whole nation.

THE QUESTION REMAINING.......... ZIMBABWE WHERE ARE YOU GOING AND HOW
ARE
YOU TRYING TO GET THERE???

Short term thinking that lacked vision and selfish aspirations ...mean
few have ever really considered in any real depth what the promotion of
their partisan views would mean to the well being of the whole.
Almost always such divisive philosophies were born as emotional
outcomes...as reactions to...or against...the idea always being the
only way forwards the only panacea when set against all others.

Bad experiences at the hands of some who misused a philosophy meaning
that others saw the whole idea as 'wrong'...capitalism and socialism having no redeeming features ...being always misused as weapons of greed or social control in the hands of those who helped destroy whole nations.

A person using a hammer does not become a hammer...yet men and women
using ideology or belonging to a Party became the ideology...they became the Party...they forgot its use as merely a tool as a means to a socially progressive end.

Politicians became cult icons...messiahs...businessmen became looters
and the institutions for national growth that were meant to be left intact for future generations became tarnished and corrupted.

The removal of one 'ism' with another may have enriched a chosen few
but it did not improve human nature to the level of ...'do unto others
respectfully as you would have them treat you'

So...without regulation or checks and balances within the system hope
became void.

People repeat the words...DEMOCRACY...FREEDOM...LIBERATION...yet hold
no sense of those words as A COHESIVE FULLY FUNCTIONING SOCIETY...as
responsibilities to be tended and nurtured by the active and the aware.

The masses did not gain control of the means of production nor did they
become partners with the decision makers...the ruling heights of the
economy remained firmly in the hands of their oppressors. But the people did get access to education, health services, water, agricultural produce in supermarkets. Just enough to understand what they had lost when the next step of repression emerged.

The truth is that there is no template...no standard for what
constitutes real democracy...so the floor is open to suggestion and constant improvement not just manipulation. Only the supposed rights of individuals are projected as democracy..yet the quality and practice and responsibility and obligations to democracy are never offered.

The presentation of all and sundry who oppose the ZANU PF tyranny as
'democratic' misuses the term and denies the very scrutiny and
standards that offer real social safeguards....

The petty bourgeoisie contradictions of promoting freedoms and rights
while blindly following consumer capitalist system greed and domination as part of a global neo-liberal elite does not amount to any real cohesive society.

Zimbabwe's politics and business class must not constantly align
themselves with outsiders as collaborators for personal gain at Zimbabwes expense.

The idea of 'openess' which scorns criticism...or leadership that
espouses change but scorns its own institutional renewal is hypocrisy. The idea of the pornographic potrayal of Zimbabwe's suffering to an International Community awash with the beneficiaries of African neo-colonialism is repugnant.

African opposition parties the proxies of outside corporate and State
interests..seeking to mould Africa in corporate capitalisms old
colonial image...the mantra of.....'investor confidence' must be met with a firm NOT UNTIL... the change IS true and fundamental...the people must be empowered ... to create their own national economy.

So a new education system needs to be found, a new political maturity,
responsibility and social awareness....a new economic safety net that
empowers people along the full chain of production from primary source
to retail profit margins and reinvestment.

So that ...DEMOCRACY...FREEDOM...LIBERATION...have real security behind
them..party politics and Zimbabwean business benefits the nation not
merely foreign capital interests, the people see and respond to coherent policies, not spurious promises and threats of demagouges.

So slogans and cults of personality never again replace real thought.

SO THE QUESTION.... ZIMBABWE WHERE ARE YOU GOING AND HOW ARE YOU
GETTING??

THERE ...can be properly answered.