President Mugabe needs to send either Vice President Mnangagwa, Viice President Mphoko or even General Chiwenga to the diaspora to canvass the Zimbabweans abroad for real solutions on the shortage of liquid cash and associated problems. The only people who can rescue Zimbabwe are the Zimbabwean people in South Africa, Australia, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, the United States of America, China, United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi etc. Let me repeat my point; only Zimbabweans will solve the problems we are facing in Zimbabwe. Looking for the easy way out is not going to cut it. Seemingly easy and alluring solutions often lead to a fatal trap.
The government and the diaspora have taken hardened positions whereby the government is broke it has to make concessions to the diaspora. I completely understand it. Demanding the right to vote is the hardened position taken by the diaspora community. Given the delicate nature of our electoral process, the government has stacked a similarly hardened position that ensures the electoral survival of its main actors. As I see it, these hardened positions are only the starting positions for the negotiations that will have to take place if we are to rescue or salvage Zimbabwe. The primary objective is to seek common ground from which both parties can come up with serious solutions to alleviate the nation's huge problems for the long haul as opposed to quick-fix-for-instant-gratification solutions.
As much as the government will have to approach the diaspora not so much literally hat in hand to beg for money, it has to take a more conciliatory approach in its daily functions. The belligerent rhetoric has to be toned down, if not eliminated altogether. Likewise, the diaspora community will have to calm down by tamping down its simmering anger to below boiling point. It will take a lot of effort to change from our usual rah-rah way of conducting our exchange of opinions and ideas. However, we have no choice but to do it. We have a country to rescue, after all.
Of great note here is that we will need to have the appropriate structures through which we will conduct the dialogue. By default, the government already has its part of said structure. On the other hand, the diaspora community comprises a myriad of splinter groups, some of which have no more than a single person speaking out of personal concern. Even when the disparate groups and individual may be speaking on the same wavelength, so to speak, it is imperative to have an organization founded on mutual interests. The members will have to act as the voice and ears of the general diaspora community. It will have to take two parties to engage in a dialogue.
The last thing we can afford to do is to have numerous voices all talking to or shouting at the government. Even the most patient of patient people dislikes dissonance. Organizational chaos is what we have right now. Simply put, the government has no one with whom to engage if it has to negotiate with the diaspora community. As a result of this chaos, and it does look like we have utter mayhem in the diaspora, I have yet to see a coherent plan that can be used as a basis to frame the items that have to be brought on the table for discussion with the government. The diaspora has to get organized as a matter of urgency. We have a collapsing country to save. It is bound to collapse if we dither. Thuswise, we have the duty to make sure it is not a hard landing but a soft one if we have a collapse. A catastrophic collapse is the last thing we want.
Organizing the diaspora into single team that has to pull in the same direction poses numerous challenges. I can think of two such hurdles.
Firstly, the members are scattered all over the globe. There are logistics problems if an organization has to coordinate with each and every member. The solution to this conundrum is one that has precedence. Each region can organize units, the aggregate of which will be the super or supra organization or, to be less formal, team. Regional concerns are taken to the equivalent of a congress, with the carriers as appointed or elected representatives. In terms of material and time, there will be costs associated with this exercise, I must admit.
The second hurdle to surmount concerns egomania. If there is one weakness that we, the Zimbabwean people, are prone to be ruined by, it is
the idea of using public functions to seek personal glory at the cost of the main objective. On this one, it is mandatory to subordinate one's personal ambitions or interest for the greater good of the people and country of Zimbabwe, particularly those of our people who are least capable of speaking for themselves due to their tragic state of powerlessness and poverty. If we remember the suffering widows, the motherless children, the hungry elders, the ailing slam dwellers in the urban areas, and the famine-ravished peasantry, parking our egos by the wayside ought to be quite easy to do.
Pamberi neZimbabwe.
Pamberi nevanhu venyika yedu.
Pambili loZimbabwe.
Pambili ngebantu besizwe yethu!
Onward, march Zimbabwe!
Hope, Health, Peace and Prosperity for our compatriots.
Handidi vanoti pasi nevanhu venyika yedu.
Anifuni abantu bathi pansi ngebantu besiwe yethu.
I have no tolerance for anyone who wishes death upon fellow compatriots.
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