If they would really give information...

Watch the video (in French)

Yesterday I saw Kiosque, a wide-ranging in-depth political programme which is broadcast every week on the French channel TV5. The program is delivered late morning, and is very simple: some foreign journalists comment on topical issues on the basis of different professional experience. Yesterday’s journalists were from Greece, Russia, Romania, Tunisia and the United States. The moderator was, of course, French. Without quarrel and without monologues, in pure style français, French commentator and foreign journalists discussed, among various topics, the situation in Zimbabwe, about which we hear a lot of news these days but with little substance.
This group of journalists, chatting in a friendly manner and in plain language, were able to clarify the situation very well to an audience of housewives and students on vacation: Zimbabwe, a former British colony in the heart of Southern Africa, was the scene a few years ago of a violent expropriation of lands against white landowners, the rich minority in the country, for the benefit of the poor strata of the population. The hero of this process was Robert Mugabe who since then has the power in hand and does not intend to leave now, despite having clearly lost the elections.
We are talking of a country where democratic awareness is only dawning and the law is not equal for all, as indeed it is not in western countries where the democratic experience has ancient roots.
Although old, Mugabe remains very popular. Catholic, cultivated, militarist, homophobic, he is considered a "person not welcome" and refused entry into the European Union and the United States but at the same time received an honorary degree in Scotland and was named Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire!
Many experts assess the situation as having a very high risk of civil war.

The program can be seen for free on the Internet: kiosque. (In French)

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)