Re: [A-List] Zimbabwe: disintegration continues

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Stan writes:

We must be extremely skeptical about this kind of lurid anecdote, dripping
as it were, not with cannibalism and blood, but with the post-colonial
racism that relishes these (highly suspect) images of "black deviance".

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This is very true, hence my request to those nearer events to let us know
what's really going on. However, I do know that the journalist, Basildon
Peta, is himself of African descent and is therefore unlikely to willingly
peddle racist muck of the kind you highlight. He can, of course, peddle
anti-Mugabe stories, which is precisely what the Harare regime accused him
of and expelled him for.

In addition, while unrelated to Zimbabwe specifically, similar kinds of
stories have circulated concerning the overthrow of Samuel Doe in Liberia,
and the behaviour of certain factions of Charles Taylor's entourage, if not
Taylor himself. Again, your cautionary note applies especially when one
takes into consideration the nature of the Doe regime and Reagan's
willingness to bankroll it.

Michael