The Sunday Mail
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August 2 visit to Taiwan, which almost caused another global political and economic conflagration at a time the world was still nursing weeping wounds from the US-instigated Russia/Ukraine war, was ostensibly made to support “Taiwan’s vibrant democracy” against an increasingly domineering “authoritarian” regime in Beijing.
In a statement released just before she touched down in Taipei, Pelosi claimed Washington’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan “is more important than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy”.
This miscalculated political misadventure prompted China’s People Liberation Army (PLA)’s Eastern Theatre Command to launch its largest-ever live-fire military drills around the island.
The sabre-rattling and incendiary rhetoric around the sticky Taiwan issue hauntingly harkened the world back to the period leading up to the ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe, which has caused rising prices of food, fertiliser, energy and cooking oil, among other commodities.
Almost every part of the world has keenly felt the impact of the Russia/Ukraine war.
So, a potential flare-up over Taiwan was therefore clearly not in anyone’s best interests.
But what we are beginning to see are heightened efforts by the US and its allies to balkanise the world into two distinct camps — “authoritarian regimes”, which are perceived to be forces of evil; and “democratic regimes”, which are considered forces of good.
No prices for guessing in which category Zimbabwe, which is stained by the ‘unpardonable sin’ of daring to appropriate land from whites to landless blacks, is deemed to fit.
This contrived dichotomy that groups countries between the axis of evil and the axis of good is increasingly defining and shaping current world hostilities.
It seems the world is hurtling towards what American political scientist and Harvard University Professor Samuel Huntington called the clash of civilisations.
“It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic,” he postulated in 1993, adding: “The greatest divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilisations … The fault lines between civilisations will be the battle lines of the future.”
This is why even when American politicians — Democrats and Republicans — are bitterly divided, they still find common ground in vilifying, opposing and attacking China, Russia, North Korea and any other perceived foe.
Inverted Realities
We have all been made to believe countries that are not in Washington’s sphere of influence are global outliers that tend to gravitate towards backward, undemocratic, brutish and uncivilised ideals.
The West, through its hegemonic control of a seemingly omnipresent media empire, has all but culturally colonised most parts of the world through information dominance that has enabled it to control narratives.
As a result, we see and judge the world through Western lenses and tastes.
Sadly, this has inverted our realities: We now cast bad guys as good guys and good guys as bad guys.
Can someone explain to Bishop Lazi why we now idolise people who didn’t find it morally repugnant to colonise swathes of other peoples’ lands, killed natives and dastardly took away their heads as mementos, traded in human beings, enslaved other races for centuries, and looted and pillaged other nations with impunity and reckless abandon.
Yet we now consider them as righteous and the best specimen of the human race. Nxa!!!
It’s nothing short of witchcraft!
And can anyone also explain why we seemingly scandalise and vilify people who neither colonised nor looted from us, but actually stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us during times of need, and have contributed immensely to our civilisation and the modern world.
Suffice to say, China, which has had an unbroken civilisation of more than 3 500 years, has contributed a lot to the world.
It was ancient China which invented paper.
It was ancient China which invented paper money.
It was ancient China which invented gunpowder, and it was ancient China which invented the compass.
Need we also mention the finer things in life such as silk and porcelain?
However, the Bishop’s sermon this week is centred on the priceless gift of thought leadership that China has shared with the world through illuminating literary works that continue to shape and define our present and future.
Many might be familiar with the works of philosopher, writer, strategist and military general, Sun Tzu, especially “The Art of War”, which is probably one of the world’s most quoted — and also misquoted.
There are some nuggets from Sun Tzu’s beautiful mind that are worth considering.
In his work, he told us: “If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.
If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them.
Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.”
He also added: “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”
On strategy, he opines: “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
How profound!
But there is another Chinese prolific writer, linguist, historian, translator and philosopher, Lin Yutang, who is little known in this part of the world.
He was particularly renowned for translating Chinese literary masterpieces.
Lin once told us: “When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.” Kikikiki.
Only the woke can understand the wisdom of these profound political parables.
Mark 4 verse 11 says: “He (Jesus) told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?”
Reading the Signs
You see, dear reader, when dwarfs cast big shadows, they often mistake themselves for giants and foolishly pick big battles they cannot possibly win.
It is actually fatal!
Sometimes, Bishop Lazarus really gets the sense Triple C’s young leader Nelson Chamisa does not really know what he is up against when he steps into the ring again for next year’s harmonised elections.
He sensed some desperation when Chamisa prematurely tried to spin the outcome of Kenya’s Presidential elections pitting William Ruto and Raila Odinga as a “sign” his political party will emerge victorious in next year’s plebiscite.
We saw this before after elections in Malawi and Zambia.
This not only betrays desperation, but childishly immature tactics and crass naiveté.
While his formless and structure-less political grouping battles to keep its coalition of warring and disillusioned followers together, there have been seismic and tectonic political shifts on the ground that are likely ominous for Triple C.
The signs are everywhere.
On August 4, Bloomberg, an American news organisation, published a curious story suggesting the soon-to-be-completed Lake Gwayi-Shangani, which will permanently quench Bulawayo’s thirst, was part of ED’s strategy “to capture votes in the country’s long-neglected second-largest city”.
Says the article in part: “In addition to the dam, which is being built by China International Water & Electric Corp, the government is pushing for the completion of power-plant expansions in the north of the Matabeleland province and is fixing roads in the city and rebuilding doctors’ quarters that were razed by a fire at its largest hospital.”
It also quotes UZ lecturer Eldred Masungure bearing witness to “what amounts to an avalanche of development projects and presidential-level visits as well as other initiatives.” Kikikiki.
You might ask yourselves why this American news outlet zeroed in on Bulawayo when countless transformative projects are taking place across the length and breadth of this sacred country: be it the completion of Marovanyati Dam (Manicaland), Muchekeranwa Dam and Chivhu Dam (Mashonaland East) or the multiple smallholder irrigation scheme.
As the Bishop said before, there will be an epic battle for Bulawayo, which used to be citadel of opposition politics, just as there will be a bruising fight for Binga in Matabeleland North.
ZANU PF has already mobilised, energised and consolidated support in its heartland as it has largely delivered on its 2018 promises.
Picture this: 90 households that were recently engaged at a newly established irrigation scheme in Bubi Lupane will soon be paid US$933 and $600 000 each after delivering 900 tonnes of maize to the Grain Marketing Board.
In December, they were paid $250 000 each for their wheat crop.
All this is over and above the $25 000 they get as monthly salaries for selling their labour.
Villagers in Marondera, some of whom were displaced when Muchekeranwa Dam was being constructed, are expected to benefit from the same scheme soon.
This is just a microcosm of the life-changing projects ED has been delivering for the past four years.
But Chamisa must worry about the fence-sitting voter who is seemingly disinterested in politics but grudgingly acknowledges that ED arikubata basa.
You might have heard firebrand Margaret Dongo’s recent interview with Trevor Ncube, where she told the proprietor of Chamisa-aligned newspaper titles that: “Talking about where the country is today, between you and me, let’s be honest here, more than 30 years had gone down the drain. If what is happening today, which is only three years, had been done in 40 years, would we not be a Dubai?” Kikikiki.
So, it follows, as that brilliant Chinese General Sun Tzu taught us, that ZANU PF might be as well the victorious warrior who wins first before going to war rather than the defeated warrior who goes to war first and then seeks to win.
Bishop out!
