#HowTheyRobbedUs, just another pity party for the cream of Zimbabwe
By Jean Gasho
So Zimbabweans on social media have started another hashtag #HowTheyRobbedUs initiated by Phil Chard. They are sharing their stories to the world describing how the government has robbed them. The trending stories are mostly about the political and economical situation of Zimbabwe.
Personally I feel like the pity parties by Zimbabweans are rather getting out of hand. Please Zimbabweans just stop it! It’s nauseating. Why do you want to lament to the world about how you have been robbed by your own government? What is the world going to do? Listen people of Zimbabwe, the world doesn’t actually care about the Zimbabwean situation right now.
Each country has their own problems to deal with. The UK is dealing with Brexit and the pound losing its value, on top of Scotland threatening to be an independent country. The USA has got the presidential elections to deal with. So please just stop the wailing, will you!
If you have got the luxury to go online and tweet how you have been robbed, then you haven’t been robbed at all, the real people who are being robbed in life do not have the energy, time and money to be following trendy hash tags on social media. The fact that you are busy on social media means you are incredibly blessed and living the life, you are probably eating a crunchy chocolate bar whilst you are tweeting how you have been robbed by ‘ROB ert Mugabe’
Now before I really get into this article, if you want to unfriend me please go ahead. If you want to stop following me, stop immediately. I will not shed a tear drop over you unfriending me. I haven’t got the time to be going out of my way to write what everyone wants to hear so that I get 5000 likes and 200 comments saying “Well done Jean!” I have enough love in my personal life to be running around on social media looking for likes and comments.
I have children and a man who spoils me with so much love and appreciation that I don’t need to scavenge for approval and appreciation on Facebook. May I also add that personally I have not been robbed by anyone at all. I am one Zimbabwean who has not been robbed at all, lol maybe I am one in a million.
I consider myself very blessed to be where I am today. I left Zimbabwe when I was just a teenager and I would never change that for the world. Yes I miss Zimbabwe but I also love it out here. The bible I read teaches me that wherever I go, whichever land the the Lord has placed me, I will enjoy the fruit of that land and God will give me the best of that land.
I came here in the UK at 17, by the age of 20 I was a home owner, living in one of the best neighborhoods in modern Britain. For 10 years I lived in a brand new home that even when white British people walked in my house, they were in awe of how blessed I was. 10 years later I went through a divorce where I lost that beautiful house and became homeless.
I lamented the house for a season, wiped my tears and picked myself up and moved on with my life. Today I live in a much bigger house, with more love than I had in the nice house. I have gained life experience and I met the love of my life when I was in the valley. Every day of my life I laugh so hard that I fall on the floor and my ribs crack. When I was in the nice house, I don’t even remember one day I laughed to the point of crying.
God showed me the blessing that losing the beautiful house gave me. I learnt that most millionaires and successful people of this world have also been homeless, destitute and penniless at some point of their lives, Simon Cowell, Steve Harvey, Oprah Winfrey just to mention a few. My point is, stop crying over spilt milk Zimbabweans. Its ridiculous. Its stupid.
The Zimbabwe we grew up in is no more, so get over it. I think we have all grieved enough. If you are in the diaspora, please just stop the hash tagging and enjoy your Mcdonalds double cheese burger in peace whilst you are driving your brand new cars.
I am very grateful to Zimbabwe, the government and Robert Mugabe for making me into the woman I am today. I have had a lot of life experience so for me to join the hashtag #HowTheyRobbedUs I will be the biggest hypocrite on planet earth. If truth be told I have been robbed more by white supremacy mentality than by Robert Mugabe.
I have a Joseph and Esther mentality, if I am in Persia, I would rather be the Queen. If I am in Egypt I would rather be the Prime Minister. Joseph did not moan that he had been sold by his own brothers into slavery. Instead he said what was meant for evil, God meant it for good. I see so much positivity in the Zimbabweans scattered all over the world today.
Some of you have opportunities which you would have never got in Zimbabwe. Instead of turning the whole situation into a pity party and crying for world sympathy, do something positive wherever you damn are. Live life, enjoy it, laugh out loud. Take a walk in the park. You only have one life.
The bible says remember your creator in the days of your youth, soon we will be old. One day we will all die. I have no time to waste lamenting over what Zimbabwe was 30 years ago. I live in the UK now, and I don’t plan to waste any hour crying over what was.
For those of you who want to lament, maybe stop doing it on twitter and just pack your bags and go to Zimbabwe! Be like Nehemiah who instead of lamenting, he packed his bags and went to build the walls of Jerusalem. Please do not waste our time by organizing concerts in the UK or USA so you can lecture us on how bad Zimbabwe is. We already know.
No wonder why some of you are being denied visas to come here for pointless demonstrations. There is nothing stopping anyone from boarding a flight to Zimbabwe. And when you go there, you do not need to put your life in danger so you can be hailed as an “activist”, we have enough of those on social media.
Sorry to be so brutally honest but for those who feel so strongly about how they have been robbed by Mugabe, please for crying out loud, go and be the change! By being the change I don’t mean doing what Patson Dzamara, Evan Mawarire, Linda Masarira and the rest of them are doing. I mean be the real change, not just by saying “Fuck You” to Robert Mugabe or by posting countless videos on Facebook.
I also don’t mean protesting in the streets then deliberately getting yourself arrested so you can take a selfie and say “ABDUCTION ALERT!” so you can get 5000 likes and “you are so brave” comments.. Be the real change, go and help the sick and poor. Go and volunteer in the hospitals, set up charities like what white people do in your own country. Feed the orphans.
Change even one life. Take all your clothes and give to the poor. Fill a drum with food, choose an orphanage of your choice and spend just two days feeding the children. Buy some pain killers from here and go home and distribute them to the people in need. Do you know that love can heal? If just 10 000 Zimbabweans in the diaspora did this, Zimbabwe will never be the same again.
How have you been robbed if you are living the life abroad? We are the people who have benefited from the negative situation of Zimbabwe. I personally never claimed asylum to get stay in the UK but I know hundreds of people who blatantly lied that Mugabe was going to kill them. They got asylum in the UK through lies with fake MDC cards. To prove their lies they go to Zimbabwe soon after they get their asylum so they can celebrate their papers. So don’t be hypocrites ya’ll.
Mugabe has actually helped you all, you falsely used his name to claim papers, making up stories for personal gain so you could enjoy the benefits of UK. Other people from Africa actually wish they were from Zimbabwe so they can claim asylum in the UK. They see Zimbabweans as blessed people because they can easily get papers through lies.
Some South Africans have even changed their identity to Zimbabwean just to get asylum. Is Evan Mawarire not living a better life in the USA today? How on earth has he been robbed? Instead he has used the Zimbabwe situation for personal gain. The real people suffering in Zimbabwe will never follow such useless trendy hashtags. The hashtags are for the upper class and cream of Zimbabwe who are trying to quench their guilt and flatter their egos.
Maybe this is the reason why the rest of Africa see Robert Mugabe as a hero whilst we see him as evil because we are the biggest hypocrites and no better than him. Why not learn something from Strive Masiyiwa and be a blessing not just to Zimbabwe but the world. There is a lot of good that always comes from a bad situation.
I remember Morgan Tsvangirai coming to London and asking Zimbabweans to go back home to build the country, and he was almost stoned to death. These are the same people hash tagging how they were robbed yet they don’t want to go back home to build Zimbabwe because they are enjoying the luxuries of diaspora. These are the same people who lied to get asylum. How hypocritical.
I saw a video yesterday where Acie Lumumba was shouting at people who criticize Evan Mawarire, Patson Dzamara and company. Isn’t it ironic that these are the same people who claim to want a democratic Zimbabwe, yet no opposing views are allowed. For Lumumba to say these activists are doing this for us….please count me out of that”us”.
How can any person who thrusts themselves in the public eye not be criticized? Is that even normal? You claim to hate Mugabe yet you are all worse than him. Why should Evan Mawarire not be criticized? Is he a god? Why on earth is he stopping investors from investing in Zimbabwe? Is that not daylight wickedness. He has to be criticized. Here in the UK, people are actually paid to criticize political parties and their policies. That is democracy. Patson Dzamara can not be loved by everyone, otherwise that is the very dictatorship you are claiming to fight.
Zimbabwe will never be one big happy family. No country is. People should be allowed to criticize whoever they want. A lot of people out there feel these current activists are attention seeking time wasters, doing more harm for Zimbabwe than good.
As for Linda Masarira, I supported this woman once upon a time, but not anymore. If she was in the UK today, all I can say is her 5 children would have been taken into care by now and she would have been deemed an unfit mother, probably taken to court a few times.
At least 100 calls would have been made to social services by now by people who are genuinely concerned about the welfare of her children. Now if you want a perfect example of children who are genuinely being robbed, Linda’s 5 children are. They are being robbed in broad daylight by their own mother in the name of “activism”. But you know what, they don’t even know there is a trend on twitter that says #HowTheyRobbedUs. I will just leave it there.
You can follow Jean Gasho on her blog Jean Gasho
