The World and I
Asti's musings on the (non)functioning world
Ministries of Information
An aspect I found really interesting on CNN is that when
interviewing Zimbabwean government officials for their official
stance on the current situation in the country, they are always
either interviewing the Minister or someone from the Ministry of
Information. This reminds me of the time I read George Orwell's
novel 1984 about the totalitarian regime in the fictional country
of Oceania. In this world there is an All-Mighty Big Brother that
is watching over what everyone is doing and trying to control
people's minds. Part of the way he does this is by having a
Ministry of Information propagating exactly the pieces of knowledge
that he wanted the citizens to know, e.g. through rectifying
historical records. It is a part of a bigger plan of mind control.
This is why I find it so interesting that Zimbabwe (and only
very few other countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia) have
Ministries of Information. In a way it is not only there to
convince Zimbabwean people of Mugabe's "all-mightiness" and perhaps
even the fact that what he is doing is to their benefit; however,
at the same time it is to spread information to an outside world
that is now taking an increasing interest in Zimbabwe's internal
affairs. Now that foreign aid workers are gone, the opposition has
to a large extent been hushed and thus it is difficult to obtain
any official sources of information, the ministry is taking free
reign in trying to convince people that there is in fact nothing
out of the ordinary with Mugabe's election.
Just to further emphasise the extent of the Ministries' work,
there has been a directive in the last couple of days to get rid of
all satellites in the country since they foreign news agencies are
spreading false rumors about what is happening within the country -
for me this really is a very Orwellian scenario.
1 Comment
Brodie Ross
Ah yes, 1984. A great book that seems to be applicable to just about any situation of heavy handed government. While it does appear troubling that Mugabe is trying to keep a tight reign on the flow of information in Zimbabwe, it seems to me that it can only last so long. Just like in 1984, Zimbabweans will start to question the many discrepancies between what they hear in the state-controlled media and what they feel in their "guts." I think the Zimbabwean people have already started this questioning and are getting fed up with the situation their government has created. I know that there are some governments that are pretty skilled in manipulating their population but it seems like eventually the people get sick of living under tyrannical rule and demand change. Although Mugabe has a tight grip over the flow of information within the country people will likely start to ask questions when government officials need to "convince" the people that there wasn't anything wrong with every election that is held.