Mandela And Mugabe In New York

PAUL Berger, Anorak’s Man in New York, notes that in the Times, Clyde Haberman reports that only two Africans have been given the red carpet treatment at New York’s City Hall in the past twenty years: Nelson Mandela (1990) and Robert Mugabe (2002).

The man responsible for Mugabe’s reception in New York at a time when white farmers, and their black farmworkers, were being attacked and driven from the land was city councilman and former Black Panther activist Charles Barron.

Is he unhappy now that black are fighting blacks?

“Does he do things that I disagree with? Yes,” Mr. Barron said. But he clearly still regards Mr. Mugabe as a liberator more than an oppressor. “You didn’t care about black Africans when whites were killing them in Rhodesia,” he said. As he sees it, the real reason that Mr. Mugabe has come under strong attack from the West is the confiscation of white-owned farms.

Echoing Mr. Mugabe’s party line, he suggested that Mr. Tsvangirai is a tool of “British imperialism and the United States as well.” As for political violence, “I don’t think we can deny people are dying,” Mr. Barron said. “Who’s responsible and how many — we need to really get reports other than from the opposition.”

Barron could always ask Supa Mandiwanzira for a less partisan view, or someone else Mugabe allows to report on his good deeds…

Anorak

Posted: 30th, June 2008 | In: Anorak In New York, Politicians, War On Terror Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink