| Monday, June 30, 2008 |
| People of the Year |
I am not waiting until the end of the year for Time Magazine to come up with the most influential people of 2008. I've chosen mine already. In the "most politically responsible" category, my winners are Morgan Tsvangirai, Hillary Clinton and Raila Odinga.
Morgan Tsvangirai
 It is really responsible of Morgan Tsvangirai to drop out of the presidential election. He could have easily took refuge somewhere and allow the terror to continue. He, instead, chose to quit to restore some soft of order in Zimbabwe. It was very considerate, politically and socially responsible to refuse to "no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process." Kudos, Mr. Tsvangirai!
Hillary Clinton
 Hillary Clinton had her annoying moments during the presidential campaign. She was at times crossing a line with her, what we call in Ethiopia, "village bickering" against Obama. At other times, she even sounded like Bush when she explains about not talking to leaders of certain countries. She is too intelligent to say "you're either with us or against us", but she came pretty close. Still, she was gracious in the way she endorsed Obama. It takes a mature and committed politician to turn around on all she said and endorse her once opponent.
Raila Odinga
 Personally, the way African leaders - African leaders, not Africans - handled Mugabe's outright terrorism against Morgan Tsvangirai and the people of Zimbabwe is something to be ashamed of. Amongst such spineless comments as "We believe the people of Zimbabwe have been denied their democratic rights," like the Sierra Leonean President - ya think? - and the utter silence of other leaders, it was Raila Odinga, the Kenyan Prime Minister, who said enough with the rubbish and urged the AU to suspend Mugabe. How brave and honest! The rest just allowed Mugabe to walk right into the AU summit, pause for pictures in the first raw, sat in the presentations about development and peace as if nothing happened. |
posted by Fikirte @ 8:12 PM
 
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