Zimbabwe

The New York Times > Opinion:

The hungry children and the families dying of AIDS here are gut-wrenching, but somehow what I find even more depressing is this: Many, many ordinary black Zimbabweans wish that they could get back the white racist government that oppressed them in the 1970's. 'If we had the chance to go back to white rule, we'd do it,' said Solomon Dube, a peasant whose child was crying with hunger when I arrived in his village. 'Life was easier then, and at least you could get food and a job.' Mr. Dube acknowledged that the white regime of Ian Smith was awful. But now he worries that his 3-year-old son will die of starvation, and he would rather put up with any indignity than witness that.

I have no love for, and certainly do not support, the racists governments that used to dominate sub-saharan Africa. Most of the current regimes there are not any better, and some, like that of Mugabe, are clearly worse. We should judge leaders on how well they do in caring for their people. The incidental issue of how similar the melanin count is between the leader and the average citizen is not really relevant. Mugabe is black, but he is still a brutal thug and being black is neither justification or excuse for that.