The international community has perked itself up over Zimbabwe again. As the country's post-election chaos swirled the West shook its head and waved its fingers, then the stalemate settled in and by and large Zimbabwe disappeared from the consciousness of most of the world. This is how the world deals with Africa. Today it's Zimbabwe, when the next pirate attack occurs it will be Somalia, when a tight election leads to violence the cameras will go there. It appears that the cholera epidemic has led to renewed interest and concern over Zimbabwe. The consensus is that Robert Mugabe is the source of Zimbabwe's troubles and must go, a reductionist but largely true summation that has been obvious to all but the obtuse for quite a while now.
Now, this characterization is probably unfair. But it is hard not to be a little bit cynical about the piecemeal, scattershot way that the world approaches Africa. Scorn and pity are not the greatest foundation for a foreign policy.
Mugabe, meanwhile, refuses to yield to outside pressure, which should surprise absolutely no one. What may be stunning is that Jacob Zuma appears to be preventing strong action against Mugabe, instead counseling continued mediation. This comes as something of a shock because one of the few explicitly articulated differences on policy matters between Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki was that Zuma supposedly believed in taking a stronger stance against Mugabe and ZANU-PF. Meet the new boss, apparently the same as the old boss.
