THE OBENSON REPORT

Covering Cinema From All Across The African Diaspora

Mugabe Makes It Rain On Olympians In Harare

Yeah, like this makes a lot of sense... sheesh!

Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe gave out $148,000 to the nation's Olympic athletes, with $100,000 alone having gone to world record-holding swimmer Kirsty Coventry... Mugabe referred to Coventry as Zimbabwe's "golden girl" before handing her $100,000 - golden for sure... she's a white Zimbabwean.

While many Zimbabweans are unable to afford food and other basics, members of the country's 13-member Olympic squad each received thousands of dollars from the president. In addition to Coventry's 100 grand, three on the team received $10,000 each while the remaining athletes pocketed $2,000.


SOURCE

5 comments:

  1. Sujewa Ekanayake said...
     

    There maybe a positive side to all this:

    "(From: http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=638/bio/)

    Meaningful homecoming
    The hero's welcome for Coventry represented an official break from a government-supported hate campaign against Zimbabwe's white community. She said she couldn't believe the reception because she felt that she was able to, for a moment, move the people of Zimbabwe to put aside their racial and political differences to celebrate. Coventry said it inspired her to swim even more, to bring pride and positive attention to her country."

    If an athlete is able to help a goverment turn down the volume on a racist campaign against a minority group, that seems like a very positive thing.

    - Sujewa

  2. The Obenson Report said...
     

    True...

    Though my concern is less racial and more economical. I'd have preferred that he just gave them a welcome home parade, as opposed to $150,000, which I think is too much for a country with an astounding rate of inflation, and many poor and destitute people who are barely making it. It just feels like a slap in the face to those people. Clearly the funds are there, but aren't being properly utilized. That money could have gone to much better use, me thinks.

  3. Sujewa Ekanayake said...
     

    Definitely. But unfortunately the well being of the poorest is not a very high priority in that respect (billions get spent on relatively frivelous (sp?) projects as opposed to feeding & assisting the poorest) on most of the biggest nation's agendas (India, China, US, Russia, etc.). In Zimbabwe just the existence of Mugabe as president/dictator is probably problem #1. Yeah, the $100K+ could definitely have been used for better purposes.

    Side project: start a movement that places the well being of the poorest at its center. Oh, wait, that's already been done for like 2-5,000 years now (xtianity/buddhism/islam & whatever else that preceded those religions) at least on Earth, still with a long way to go on completing the task.

    Side project #2: get rich & help the poor.

    When I get a $100,000K prize I am definitely going to use a big chunk of that to help people in need.

  4. The Obenson Report said...
     

    Or side project #3: blow up the planet, killing everything and everyone on it (we're not that far away from seeing that happen I think), creating another kind of "big bang," which brings into existence another civilization that does things the right way - the way they should be, as opposed to the way they currently are.

    Of course I'm kidding - but not entirely.

    It's important, however, that people like you and I continue to beat the drums of change that those who came before us shook and rattled. Getting rich and helping the poor is certainly a possibility, but one has to first get rich, which itself is no guarantee; and even if one does, on whose backs will you have to step on, or whom will you have to exploit to see that come to fruition? And should becoming rich even be a goal for any of us?

  5. Sujewa Ekanayake said...
     

    re: the zero-sum idea re: wealth building or "someone has to be exploited in order for someone else to get rich"; I am pretty sure wealth can be accumilated (sp?) without exploiting other people or otherwise doing something evil; like what about selling 10,000 DVDs of a movie? That'll result in a bunch of money/profits that can be re-invested for creating more money/profits, and without having to step on anyone's backs. enlightned capitalism i guess is the way for that or engaging in businesses that do not do evil things. and then save some of the profit, invest, make more profit, so on and so forth until you have as much money as you want.

    on the bright side, right now is probably the best time for humans on earth, in our loooonnng history; we're plentiful in numbers at the moment (probably the highest population ever), relatively few wars (or relatively few places having wars right now compared to like the WWII period), lots of great ideas & opportunities swirling around. not to say it does not suck for millions of people right now, but, this seems like a better time than the medieval periods or the industrial rev. & colonialism periods - over all.

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