Rubbers of mass destruction? Regime change in a lubricated sheath?
The United States was trying to remove Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe from power with millions of condoms as weapons, state radio in Zimbabwe said on Wednesday. It said President George Bush’s regime was behind the "rebranding" of prophylactics that carry a bright red and yellow sticker advertising "revolutionary condoms" and a message urging Zimbabweans to "get up, stand up!"
A bulletin said condoms carrying a sticker with "an oppositional political message" were being distributed throughout Zimbabwe "in what appears to be collusion between opposition groups and a United States-based condom manufacturer." The radio said the appearance of the redecorated condom packets was "not surprising, since the United States government has made it clear it is working toward changing of the regime in Zimbabwe, using, among other things, the media." The sticker also bears the name of a non-violent underground group of activists with the name and motto, "Enough!", an appeal to Zimbabweans to stop tolerating abuse by Mugabe’s government. The motto appears in graffiti, and is also the name of a news sheet secretly distributed.
The words on the condom are from a composition by reggae legend Bob Marley who sang, "Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights, get up, stand up, don’t give up the fight." He performed the song in front of Mugabe and thousands of ecstatic Zimbabweans at the country’s independence celebrations in 1980. Recipients of the news sheet two weeks ago found the "revolutionary condom" inside. No comment could be obtained from the United States embassy, but an activist who asked not to be named said: "the Americans had nothing to do with it." He said "a few hundred" condoms had been bought, and locally printed stickers had been glued on before handing them out.
The bulletin linked the "revolutionary" condoms to Population Services International, a Washington-based non-profit organisation working for child and maternal health HIV prevention. PSI provides condoms for aid programmes in Zimbabwe, but by far the biggest provider is the United States Agency for International Development with a budget this year of $8.5m that will provide 89 million American-manufactured condoms to Zimbabwean couples. "If the Americans had wanted to achieve regime change in Zimbabwe, they could have used something more forceful than condoms," said a Western diplomat. "They must have saved the lives of thousands of Zimbabweans. It’s a weird mind that sees the condom programme as a way of overthrowing Mugabe." |