{"id":179722,"date":"2017-11-15T20:02:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T01:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2017\/11\/15\/mixed-emotions-7\/"},"modified":"2017-11-15T20:02:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T01:02:00","slug":"mixed-emotions-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2017\/11\/15\/mixed-emotions-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed Emotions"},"content":{"rendered":"
After Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round of Presidential elections in Zimbabwe in 2008, I followed developments there hoping for a peaceful transition to democracy for a few years before throwing in the towel<\/a>.<\/div>\n

I figured that nothing would change, and I felt that I had nothing to add.<\/p>\n

Well, it appears that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces have deposed Robert Mugabe in a coup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure if this actually constitutes a change, or if it will lead to change:<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe \u2014 After ruling Zimbabwe for nearly four decades, leading the country from the triumph of its independence struggle to economic collapse, the world\u2019s oldest head of state became a prisoner of the military he once commanded. <\/p>\n

Robert Mugabe<\/a>, 93, was detained along with his wife, according to a military announcement Wednesday. The move appears to end one of Africa\u2019s most controversial political dynasties while raising questions about what might come next \u2014 military rule, a transitional government or a settlement that would allow Mugabe to return to power. <\/p>\n

No matter what happens, this appears to be a watershed moment for Zimbabwe and southern Africa, which have suffered from the tumult of Mugabe\u2019s reign, even as his hold on power sometimes seemed unshakable. <\/p>\n

Zimbabweans awoke early Wednesday to a televised announcement from an army general promising that there was \u201cnot a military takeover,\u201d although Mugabe had been detained and armored vehicles were rolling into Harare, the capital.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

Mugabe recently purged some key officials from the ruling party, ZANU-PF, paving the way for his 52-year-old spouse, Grace, to succeed him. Many see that move as a major miscalculation, alienating Mugabe from the civilians and military leaders on whom he had long depended. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Seeing as how the military is part and parcel of the corruption and human rights disaster that is today’s Zimbabwe, I do not expect this to usher in an era freedom, prosperity, and democracy.
<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round of Presidential elections in Zimbabwe in 2008, I followed developments there hoping for a peaceful transition to democracy for a few years before throwing in the towel. I figured that nothing would change, and I felt that I had nothing to add. Well, it appears that the Zimbabwe …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[459,482,439,379],"class_list":["post-179722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-africa","tag-breaking-news","tag-government","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}