.
.
.
.
.
The day before Egyptian President Hosni Muburak resigned, one local man who has lived the past couple decades under political exile in Orange County wondered if social media could reignite political passions in Zimbabwe against the 31-year rule of dictator Robert Mugabe. Sinclair Roberts, whose life mirrors changes of his country, created a “Free Zimbabwe Now” Facebook page to test the waters. To date, the effort hasn’t gained traction, but another unrelated call for change in the form of a “Zimbabwe Million Citizen March” on the nation’s capital city of Harare appeared on the social networking site attracting international press and Robert’s endorsement.
The scheduled March 1 demonstration resulted in the mobilization of armed forces loyal to Mugabe; consequently not a single person turned out as emulations of Twitter-powered, Egyptian-style rebellion failed to materialize. “We suffer from uprising fatigue in Zimbabwe,” Roberts says, alluding to political violence.
Read the rest of my “Navel Gazing” OC Weekly blog post here:
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2011/03/sinclair_roberts_local_zimbabw.php
Mr. Sinclair Roberts,
Nice uniform, I had one like that in the old communist Czechoslovakia and I too was hoping in 1969 that the USA social media could reignite political passions in Czechoslovakian Prague spring uprising crashed by the Warsaw Pact forces in 1968 against the 21-year rule of communist dictators.
They never did!…… and they never will since it is non of their business to do so.
Be patient because only the time can bring such changes. Usually it is about 20 years when the old die and new generation takes over.