Liberia Shows Rare Support for the West

As the Zimbabwe situation continues to be problematic, 2 rays of hope have arrived:

1. Mugabe and the opposition party are now meeting with South African leaders to hopefully start the process of getting aid back to those who truly suffer, the people not heading the political parties.

2. Most of the time, African countries have been leary of western involvement in African politics. But the President of Liberia has come out for the western sanctions:

"Meanwhile, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf backed sanctions against Zimbabwe's leadership, in rare African support for the Western-backed move."

It shows that even the African countries are seeing what Mugabe is doing is wrong and hurting the people he is supposed to protect.

I don't think putting the opposition party automatically in power is the right move either. I propose a two pronged plan:

1. First and foremost, get aid back to those who need it by allowing humanitarian groups to return to their work in Zimbabwe.
2. Rehold the recently held elections with a U.N. peacekeeping force overseeing the process.

Then people will stop dying and have the ability to vote. That is a good start for Zimbabwe. Then we can start thinking about the economy....

Hitting 'Em Where It Hurts...maybe

The U.N. has taken up the Zimbabwe situation. Unfortunately, it seems the U.N. tends to be more reactive than proactive.

Here is what was published in the story in USA today:

"The proposed U.N. sanctions include an international arms embargo and freeze on the personal assets of Mugabe and 11 other top government officials whom the U.S. believes played a key role in using violence to undermine Mugabe's opposition."

I have a tendency to think the freezing of the assets of Mugabe and the 11 other top government officials would be more effective on the surface. But given the inflation that exists in Zimbabwe (see my last post!), what exactly would this do if the 12 had their money in Zimbabwe currency?

If the 12 have their money in another currency, that tells us everything we need to know about them anyway...