democracy, or not

Disappointing, though hardly unexpected-or unsurprising- the news that Morgan Tsangirai has pulled out of the Zimbabwe "elections". As I drove to church this morning, I heard on the news fears about the police moving in at a sports stadium where the opposition were to hold a rallye, and found myself thinking that this was not the smartest thing to do, as most likely that would end with a massacre of people who would otherwise have still been alive to vote next weekend. What's more depressing than handing Mugabe the victory, (not to mention the still rankling knowledge that everyone else in the world knows that the election was won fair and square first time round) is that I'm not even sure that Mugabe is the winner. I fear that he's no longer in charge (and though this may not in itself be a bad thing...) and is merely a puppet front of a military coup. And this I fear will ensure that the Zimbabwean people continue to suffer for a long time to come. In a different world, you could almost expect Mr Bush to put Mugabe on his list of next to go in and wipe out, but that's not going to happen. Poor Archbishop Sentamu, he'll be without his collar for a while yet.

tags: world