Zimbabwe

For those of you who are not aware of the current violence and political turmoil in Zimbabwe, I invite you to read the following quotes by standing president, Robert Mugabe.

“They can shout as loud as they like from Washington or from London or from any other quarter."- Referring to the UN Security Council's condemnation of the violence being perpetuated by Mr. Mugabe's party against the minority party.

“Our people, our people, only our people will decide and nobody else.”- Fair enough, except that he must be referring to only his party in light of the following quotes.

“We are not going to give up our country for a mere X on a ballot."- Goodness Bob, will you at least feign democracy?

"How can a ballpoint pen fight with a gun?”- Okay, we get the point- you win and no one can stop you... but why are the elections going to continue if you've already asserted your victory and your opposition has withdrawn? That's correct, Bob Mugabe is running unopposed in a run-off election... I think InTrade.com may have to call off this wager.

It turns out that Tsvangirai is legally the current President. Run-offs must take place within 21 days of the first election (back in March), and if they do not, the candidate with the most votes is President. Tsvangirai probably won more than 50% of the vote the first time, but alas, alack, he does not have the guns that Mr. Mugabe boasts.

In the mean time, the Zimbabwe newspaper (owned by the state) did not announce Mr. Tsvangirai's withdrawal. And in South Africa, the ANC (the political party with about 2/3 of the political power) is hands off. South Africa might be the only country in the world that could apply SOME pressure to Bob.

Read "Assassins in Zimbabwe Aim at the Grass Roots" from the NYTimes to get an idea of the violence against the MDC, Mr. Tsvangirai's political party. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/world/africa/22zimbabwe.html?pagewanted=all
The mayor of Harare's wife was beaten and killed, they could only recognize her by clothing and hair.
Mr. Tsvangirai's second in command has been in an undisclosed jail for several weeks after declaring Mr. Tsvangirai is the president (which is legally true). The charge is treason and he could face the death penalty.