Commentary
Somewhere in Africa - McClatchy Newspapers
Mugabe to Brits: 'Bloody idiots'
Posted by Shashank
Wed Jul 2, 11:22 AM ET
In this clip, a journalist with the ITN news network, covering the recent African Union summit in Egypt, gets about as close to Robert Mugabe as any Western journalist has in years. Predictably, the reporter gets manhandled by Mugabe's security, and then, even more predictably, Mugabe uses the opportunity to lay into the British yet again.
I am struck in watching this, as I'm always struck when I see footage of Mugabe, by just how good the man looks at age 84. He calls Gordon Brown the "prime minister of Zimbabwe," sure, but then he nearly corrects himself. He's perpetually rumored to be ill -- a Google search yields 37,400 pages with the words "Mugabe" and "syphilis" -- and not everyone believes he's of sound mental health. But from what I saw on the campaign trail he put John McCain to shame, pumping his fists on rope lines and spitting venom on the stump.
Meanwhile, life expectancy in his country has plummeted to 36 years -- the lowest in the world. There's no wonder some Zimbabweans call him "the vampire."
