The West judges Zimbabwe elections differently from others and that may not be a bad thing

Zimbabwe

Yes, the world is unfair on Zimbabwe. It imposes standards on Zimbabwe that it does not impose on others. They expect, it would appear, less of other African nations than they do of Zimbabwe.

Yet, those high standards are not anything that Zimbabweans do not deserve, in any case.

For example, we could have seen people shot my security forces and moved on, like they did in Kenya. But, for all the other drama before it, the commission on the August 1 violence made sure this would be a big deal.

The West has turned a blind eye to more brazen voter fraud and widespread electoral violence in many polls on the continent this year. For all the election’s faults, we did not close out certain areas to observers, kill election officials, burn down polling stations or bar half the country from voting. Others did, and they are moving forward with the West’s help.

We could beg to be judged by those low standards too, but we should aspire for better, despite the blatant hypocrisy. Africa deserves better.

Zimbabwe, coming in from outside, had to make an extra effort to be good this year. But even where it was evidently better than others, or at least no worse, it still was not good enough.

The West are hypocrites, clearly, and their hypocrisy must be called out. But the reality that Zimbabwe must live with, and deal with, is that the world is indeed unfair, and this is unlikely to change.

Zimbabwe’s leaders must find their way around that reality, for the benefit of their people, or they are of no use to their country whatsoever.- NewZwire

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