Postcard from Zimbawe: Meet the new boss, much worse than the old boss

The werewolf has been amused by the New York Times’s rather stark descent from grace, massive loss of credibility, and reliable display of liberal hypocrisy. Occasionally, he find himself glimpsing through the digital pages to see what’s up, but abandoned the New York Times long-ago for the more thorough and journalistically rigid pages found at the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and The Times of London. The print version of The New York Times could conceivably be useful should toilet paper run out.

That being said, the werewolf has a love-hate relationship with Nick Kristof, one of the liberal bloviators who regularly scribbles for the NY Times. The werewolf and Kristoff share a deep love and passion for Zimbabwe. That’s the only overlap on the Venn diagram of similar interests and beliefs on the world. Kristof has penned a honest and penetrating assessment of modern day Zimbabwe tilted “Postcard from Zimbabwe.” Here are some potent highlights that speak for themselves

"In a week of surreptitious reporting here (committing journalism can be a criminal offense in Zimbabwe), ordinary people said time and again that life had been better under the old, racist, white regime of what was then called Rhodesia.

“When the country changed from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, we were very excited,” one man, Kizita, told me in a village of mud-walled huts near this town in western Zimbabwe. “But we didn’t realize the ones we chased away were better and the ones we put in power would oppress us.


“It would have been better if whites had continued to rule because the money would have continued to come,” added a neighbor, a 58-year-old farmer named Isaac. “It was better under Rhodesia. Then we could get jobs. Things were cheaper in stores. Now we have no money, no food.”


Over and over, I cringed as I heard Africans wax nostalgic about a nasty, oppressive regime run by a tiny white elite. Black Zimbabweans responded that at least that regime was more competent than today’s nasty, oppressive regime run by the tiny black elite that surrounds Mr. Mugabe."

Western liberals have focused substantial energy on decrying and challenging the moral legitimacy of white minority rule. There was nothing wrong with per say. Challenging racism is noble, except that these liberals usually turned a blind-eye to the far greater cruelty and abuse that became the norm for so many post-colonial and majority-run African nations. Institutional race-based supremacy and legal segregation are ugly and unjust things that offend the werewolf to his very core. The werewolf is not endorsing the restoration of white minority regimes (although as noted by Kristof, those suffering would welcome their restoration). However, they pale in comparison to the genocide, ethnic cleansing, violent tribalism, and economic crimes committed throughout large swaths of post-colonial Africa. Kristof, is taking an important first step in acknowledging that dichotomy and one of the awful legacies of liberal racism and double-standards when it came to advocating for Africa. Good for him.

A Bias We Can't Control - One Night in Bangkok (from the musical Chess) - Murray Head

The werewolf loves musicals and the theater. When the werewolf lived in London many years ago, and wasn't drinking pina coladas in Trader Vic's (something he was known to do on occasion), he could frequently be found sniffing around for the best student prices to a variety of theater productions. It was a highlight for him.

In one of the weird ironies of life, the werewolf's favorite musical to this day is Chess, the frenetic love triangle drama shrouded in the mystery of the Cold War with music written by Abba's very own Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson. To double down on weirdness, the werewolf can find absolutely no utility for anything Abba. He sometimes considers their existence criminal. Much to the werewolf's eternal dismay, the West End run of Chess ceased in April of 1989, when he was an eight year old boy.

To make things even weirder, Murray Head's hit song from Chess, "One Night in Bangkok," featured in the title of this post, dovetailed perfectly with that synthesized sound that made the music of the 1980's one life's greatest guilty pleasures. I think it was one of the few times a musical generated a top song for the international pop charts.

Chess fell into my life when my father brought the cassette recordings back after seeing the actual production of it during a business trip to London in the late 1980's. I recall being in the car with one of my parents and it playing in the background and being utterly captivated by the diplomatic exchange between the Americans and Soviets in one of the acts. Having been keenly interested in the Cold War since about age five(I was born a Cold Warrior some think), I felt a special bond to the musical from that point onward. In fact, I "permanently" borrowed the cassettes from my parents and would regularly blast my favorite songs of Chess from my woefully inadequate Fischer-Price tape-deck.

The werewolf has been wondering what drives his love for the one musical he'll never be able to see. Beyond the natural associations of the Cold War plot, cheese-dick synthesized 80's sound, and fond childhood recall, there has to be something more.

Does the inability to see something we've imagined for so long physically manifest itself strengthen our fondness for it because we are able to project our ideal of what it should be without experiencing the corruption that the real world inevitably brings? Is it akin to the imagined relationship with the crush who got away? Or hearing stories about that fascinating bad-ass great uncle, you've never met, who fought in several wars, invented something spectacular, and bedded every worthy maiden in the hemisphere, all while "three sheets from the wind?" I only ask because having been to so many productions, and having enjoyed most of them, utterly loved a few, and deeply disliked some, I always say to myself, "still not Chess." It's perfectly irrational, yet, it's a bias I just can't shake.

For the inquiring readers, here are some links to the werewolf's favorite songs from Chess. If you have a few minutes to kick around, listen up! (Shameless promotion)

CHESS: The American and Florence - "Nobody´s Side"
The second half really picks up, plus there is excellent relationship advice embedded "Everybody is playing the game, but nobody's rules are the same." How true!

CHESS: "Opening Ceremony"
This piece is long and introduces us to the the referee (my favorite character), plus the American and Soviet delegations. Hearing it all those years ago in my father's Chrysler New Yorker was the beginning of a strange odyssey.

CHESS: "The Deal ( No Deal)"
Nothing like some backroom Cold War intrigue.

CHESS: "Merano"
Great transition from symphony to synthesized at about the 3:43 mark.