Oh goodness, oh goodness. China’s latest attempt to melt the hearts of Africans in the hopes of being handed the African continent on a silver platter is to honour someone who definitely does not deserve it. China’s ‘Nobel peace prize’ (ahem) is being handed to Robert Mugabe – and their chairperson has defended the decision.

Mugabe will receive the Confucious pri for supposedly “injecting fresh energy” into the global quest for harmony. Cue laughter.

However, Our dear friend Robert has been accused of using systematic violence and torture to maintain his 35-year grip on power. He had even beaten off competition from candidates like Bill Gates, and the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye.

Ever since Robert Mugabe was sworn in as the president of Zimbabwe in the 1980s, he has worked hard to bring political and economic order to the country and to improve the welfare of the Zimbabwean people by overcoming hardship.

Gag, cough, WHAT?

This has sparked fury among opposition groups in Zimbabwe. Obviously.

The rule of Mugabe is paved with blood, violence, arson and cruelty. He is a war-monger… and a sadist who delights in the misery of the people.

Set up in 2010 as a Chinese alternative to the Nobel peace prize, the Confucius award was created after the Norwegian Nobel committee infuriated Beijing by handing its annual peace prize to the jailed dissident writer Liu Xiaobo. Liu is in prison for co-writing a pro-democracy manifesto called Charter 08.

Previous winners of the Confucius prize include Vladimir Putin and Fidel Castro, who was praised by the committee for “speaking out against nuclear warfare”.

Qiao Damo, the committee’s chairman supported the decision to recognise the achievements of Mugabe.

If Zimbabwe did not have Mugabe as its president, the country would be facing great difficulty – even public security might be in danger.

Every country’s economy has its highs and lows. Though its economy is lagging behind, [Zimbabwe is] a very stable country [and] stability is precious in the African continent.

Only 36 of the 76-strong committee voted for Mugabe:

Frankly speaking, there were internal concerns about awarding Mugabe the peace prize. I myself have reservations. Mugabe has been in power for such a long time that he could be easily be labelled a dictator, tyrant or despot.

Those who voted for the president argued that Mugabe had provided his people with a “much better” standard of living than citizens of Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan.

I wonder what good ol’ Confucius would have to say about that.

[source: m&g]