Zimbabwe: Editor's Memo - Talks Offer Grand Opportunity for Peaceful Cohabitation

Posted to the web 25 July 2008 WHEN Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe shook hands on Monday (my birthday by the way) many bloodthirsty and retributive cadres should have felt disempowered and utterly defeated by this single act of "togetherness" which we oftentimes take for granted. The historic meeting between the people that many always want to regard as eternal enemies should remind us of attributes that have over the years been eroded by extended periods of senseless retribution and hate: honour and dignity. Since the announcement of election results in March, the nation has been put on a retributive footing to erase shame from the faces of the vanquished. Those who perpetrated terror in the period in between the polls were guided by an evil need to restore self-worth which they felt had been peeled off through defeat... [read full story]