The farce began on Wednesday in Uruguay, at a high-level WHO meeting to discuss non-communicable diseases. Comrade Bob had commandeered Air Zimbabwe's sole airworthy B-767 to attend, causing his countrymen to scratch their heads in wonderment, even though they have gotten used to their Dear Leader's peripatetic lifestyle, which has bankrupted the national airline and put a huge strain on the Zim treasury, which is now printing "bond notes" to cover its lack of real money.
Turns out the reason for the trip to a place few Africans have even heard of was that an "arrangement" had been made with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, an Ethiopian recently appointed to the position, to appoint Mr Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador, out of respect for his government's devotion to providing free healthcare for all. Mr Ghebreyesus said he thought Mr Mugabe would be the ideal person to "to influence his peers in his region."
Many observers outside the Dark Continent (including yr obdt servant, who lived in Zimbabwe in the 1990s) thought the appointment must be a huge joke, given that Mr Mugabe is "peerless", in the sense that he has no equal for corruption, despotism and (alas!) longevity. He has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, when the cowardly Brits sold out the "white settler régime" of Ian Smith and gave the former Rhodesia "majority rule" under the one-man-one-vote system.
The one man who has the one vote is Comrade Bob, who is 93 years old, but intends to stand for re-election next year, even if his lovely and fragrant wife Grace has to push him to the polls in his wheelchair. "Hendiende" is chiShona (the main local language) for "I won't go!"
The USA, Canada and a host of other countries, including Not-so-great Britain, were quick to criticize the WHO appointment. Canuck Prime Minister Justin "Junior" Trudeau called it a belated April Fool's joke. Donors and human rights groups expressed outrage. Comrade Bob, they noted, has for years been going overseas for medical treatment as Zimbabwe's once-prosperous economy (in the bad old colonial days) falls apart. He is not alone. Just last month, Vice-President Emerson Mnangagwa thought he'd been poisoned by eating bad ice cream from the Mugabe family's Gushongo Dairy, and hied himself off to South Africa to have his stomach pumped.
No Zimbabwean with any money trusts the country's decrepit healthcare system. As long ago as 2008, the charity Physicians for Human Rights released a report documenting failures in the system, saying that Mr Mugabe's policies had led to a man-made crisis. "The government of Robert Mugabe presided over the dramatic reversal of its population's access to food, clean water, basic sanitation and health care," the group found, adding that its policies led directly to "the shuttering of hospitals and clinics, the closing of its medical school and the beatings of health workers."
Today the WHO Director-General said in a statement, posted on his Twitter account @DrTedros, that he had listened to those expressing concerns. "Over the last few days, I have reflected on my appointment of H.E. President Robert Mugabe as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for NCDs in Africa. As a result I have decided to rescind the appointment."
Walt's comment: The appointment of the Zimbabwean dictator reflects everything that's wrong not just with Zimbabwe, not just with Africa, but with the World Health Organization and its mother "organization", the United Nations. The UN is nothing more than a powerless, self-serving talking shop, dominated by the beggars of the Third World, whose "diplomats" line their pockets and enjoy the luxurious, jet-setting lifestyle while their countrymen starve in squalor. The AABC countries (America, Australia, Britain and Canada) would do well to withdraw their financial support and leave the whole stinking mess to rot.
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