Turncoat

And there he appeared on the TV screen. A man we thought was death. Gilad Shalit. The Israeli soldier who was captured by Hamas fighters in June 2006 and not seen or heard from since then.

Not even during the Israeli onslaught on Gaza at the start of 2009 we heard anything from or about Gilad. He really was presumed death. Killed by his kidnappers. Murdered by the Palestinian armed group that took him more than 3 years ago. But then here he was. Alive. In clean military uniform. Looked in reasonable good health. At least physically. And he showed a newspaper so the world could identify the date of these video pictures.

Certainly a relieve for his family. Hamas made the video in exchange for the release of a bunch of female Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

Such video messages, as we have also seen some from Iraq over the last years, are cruel and hopeful at the same time. It’s a sign of life, but also a sign of animalistic power. It’s obviously fully part of political chess with the opponent. Dirty political games with a human life. Despicable. It is a big bargaining chip in a conflict. But it plays with human dignity in an unacceptable way. It’s like these old cartoons where a cat fools around with a mouse. Are humans not supposed to be above such behaviour?

Decent human behaviour remains a dream. Utopia.

Gilad’s video will put huge pressure on the Israeli government to make some kind of deal with Hamas to have him released. It also says a lot about the modern world’s over-reliance on intelligence. The Gaza strip where Gilad is being held (at least that looks the only place possible) is really small. And there is this general thinking that the Israeli spooks from the Mossad are the best trained and best equipped of the whole world. Even better than the CIA heroes from the Hollywood blockbusters. But still all intelligence, undercover agents, spies, satellite pictures, listening devices, drones’ footage, Palestinian double agents,... have not found Gilad. Amazing really.

Anyway, the good news is that the kid is still alive. Whereas Israel’s politics of apartheid towards the Palestinians is beyond any standard of acceptance, this soldier needs to be released and reunited with his family. That should stand above all politics. Above all mistrust. Above all hate.

From life to death. Just a breath away.

A 42-year old South African who was out on bail awaiting trial for the murder of his brother, has now allegedly hacked to death 4 children and his elderly mother.

It’s like the merry go round and round of insanity. Without doubt the question rises why a man who was suspected of murder (in 2005) is out on bail awaiting that trial. That’s like playing Russian roulette with society. And on top of that his bail was paid by his mother who he is now suspected of slaughtering. Crazy. Totally crazy.

Two of the butchered kids where his brothers. It’s just getting worse. Like an ugly horror movie rented from a seedy downtown video store.

And there’s more. This recent bloodbath happened in the same house where he allegedly killed his brother 4 years go. House of horror. The sequel. Take 2, the blood keeps flowing. The mad man and his axe.

From madness to turncoat deluxe.

Jonathan Moyo has just returned to Robert (aka Bob) Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. This is the Zimbabwean story of a spinning wheel. A story about an opportunistic, soulless traitor. A liar. A cheat. A spineless worm. A waste of air. A creep.

Jonathan was a staunch Mugabe follower as Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 after a liberation war against apartheid style Rhodesia. Then he left the flock and became a hard-line Mugabe critic. He wrote books and held speaking engagements warning the world about mad Bob. Then he returned to lick the dictator’s boots and even became Information Minister around the turn of the century. And that cabinet post in a dictatorship is always pretty evil and brutal. The ultimate spindoctor. The whitewasher of the bloodstained politics of torture, deceit, fraud and self-enrichment. Zimbabwe’s Comical Ali. The denialist of all denialists. The instigator of oppressive media laws. The Goebbels of the Mugabe mafia.

And then again he left the flock. He fell out with Mugabe during a succession meeting. A secret meeting on life after the dictator. The taboo of all taboos in Zimbabwe. He became an outcast of the ruling party ZANU-PF. He retreated and sat in parliament as a so called independent. But that isolation didn’t fit his visions of grandeur and red carpet treatment. The hunger for champagne and caviar as the masses are starving was just too big. So he returned. Back in the ZANU-PF flock. Like the return of the lost son.

How many times more can he sell out? Any drops of soul left? Any inches of respectability left? The ultimate turncoat of history. He should apply for an entry in the Guinness book of records. But that’s a British invention so in his current position he has to reject that as devilish.

Human behaviour is a lost cause.

Throw out. The recent thought of Them Crooked Vultures made me listen to some Foo Fighters over the last days. “Can you hear me?”, Dave Grohl starts their “In Your Honor” album from 2005. Memorable opening. Or “The Pretender” on their “Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace” album. What a brilliant song to kick start an album. Grohl’s an amazing talented man. He came to the forefront as the drummer of Nirvana, despite being in the shadow of its singer Kurt Cobain. But Grohl’s been around for a good time. I have a demo tape from 1985 from Grohl’s band Mission Impossible. And he also played drums for several years in punkrock Scream. And then of course after the demise of Nirvana, he became the engine of Foo Fighters, and now I’m waiting for the debut release of his latest endeavour Them Crooked Vultures - an historic project with the guitarist of Queens Of The Stone Age and the bass player of the legendary Led Zeppelin (how old is he now??). Just amazing career so far. Kick that.

C-Ya

collateral – as October 2009 moves on