MUGABE: HELP US, BUT LEAVE US ALONE! -Robb WJ Ellis

Mugabe has got his wires crossed (again) somewhere. Whilst he pleads with the free world to release buckets loads of money to enable the rebuilding of Zimbabwe, he also has stated, in words of one syllable, that the free world must leave Zimbabwe alone.

Amid claims that the West is `fomenting regime change', he randomly begs the West for money. He says that it is needed to rebuild the country and rebuild the economy.

Let's just remember that we are talking about destruction wrought by none other than Mugabe and his loyalists!

It is lunacy to think that the free world will fill up Mugabe's empty coffers and then look away whilst that same money is spirited away by ZANU PF

There can be no doubt that Zimbabwe is broke and needs all the help that it can get. And we have to realise that any funding provided by the free world would have to be administered by the free world to avoid Mugabe having any say in where the money goes, or what it is used for.

We know that Mugabe's party, ZANU PF, is stone cold broke - although he is probably amongst the richest in the world.

Mugabe blames the existence of targeted travel sanctions on the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and says that the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, should call for the sanctions to be lifted.

The travel sanctions were put in place long before the advent of the MDC, and are not the `illegal economic' sanctions that Mugabe claims they are.

But this is how Mugabe rules. He makes a mockery of the system of democracy, just saying enough to obtain what he needs, and then he reverts to form.

Mugabe points fingers at the West and claims that they wish to re-colonise Zimbabwe. Who, in their right mind, would want to re-colonise a country which has had all the good of the earth (agricultural and
mineral) taken from it by illegal and forceful means?

But in the same breath, Mugabe would be begging for money to put Zimbabwe back on its feet. You can't have it both ways!

But if your name is Robert Gabriel Mugabe you obviously can!

Mugabe is acknowledged as the liberator of Zimbabwe - the man that saw off Ian Douglas Smith's `racist regime' - but if I was to ask the people of Zimbabwe which do they prefer, Mugabe or Smith, the answer would be unequivocal .

Yes, Rhodesia had it faults. But at least the people had food to eat, houses to live in, running water, electricity, money to spend, employment, health care and education.

What has Zimbabwe to offer its people today?

Hardly any food - 1,6 million Zimbabweans will need food aid before the end of 2009. Operation Murambatsvina destroyed the homes of some 1,7 million Zimbabweans and many, now four years-plus after the event, live in holes in the ground under plastic.

Water seldom runs through taps in Zimbabwe, and even when it does, it is not safe to drink or cook with.

Electricity supply is a joke. The power comes on for a few hours whilst the nation sleeps, and then is switched off again.

Very few people have money - and the nation has abandoned its own Zimbabwean dollar. Who has access to the American dollar, the British pound or the South African Rand?

94% of the country's workforce are out of work, health care is on life support and education is a dream only.

Of course Mugabe will take the free world's money, but doesn't want the free world to see the real state of nation, so he would prefer to claim sovereignty, in the hope that it is enough to shut the world up.

Robb WJ Ellis