The multiplier effect of Robert Mugabe's destabilization of Zimbabwe is taking effect. The country desperately needs humanitarian aid, but the increasing violence of recent days has made the already wretched food situation even worse and has encroached upon the ability of humanitarian groups to help deliver foodstuffs to the third of the population that needs it.
This all serves Mugabe's needs, of course. Make it clear that the state has the capacity to crush opposition but that it also has the ability to deliver (some) services to (some) people, and it may well chip away at the resolve of the masses. Chip away at the resolve of the masses and you isolate the political opposition. Cynicism is yet another weapon in the tyrant's arsenal.
