IN THE end it was not about Tibet. It was not about boycotts, threats of boycotts or career Western protesters chanting anti-Chinese protests. It came down to a “lightening” Bolt. Yes Usain Bolt, the fastest man on earth and beyond his superhuman achievement, a story of a nation’s triumph. Triumph indeed for the gallant Chinese. They put up the greatest show ever seen on earth.
The Beijing spectacular will be a hard act for London to follow. It is simply hard to describe the pomp and the pageantry the Chinese put up. The new world records, the new superheroes, those obscure sports afforded the rare opportunity to be seen by billions around the world as nations strove for gold medal after gold medal made many feel good to be members of the human race.
The hustle and bustle of the nations locking horns in joyful epic sporting combats for once drowned away the voice of the Western sponsored career human rights protesters who not so long ago were determined to sabotage the Olympics. Instead of chaos, protests and general mayhem, China taught the world a major lesson in hosting international competitions. So many western correspondents who for so-long predicted a failure in Beijing must be on their planes home by now feeling very deflated, defeated and very humbled by the awesome show in Beijing. The guys who invented the compass and the printing press have just reinvented the Olympics. It is hard to imagine anyone not being impressed by what happened in Beijing. From now onward, Beijing 2008 will be the bench mark, the gold standard against which all future Olympics will be measured.
It marks the rebirth of sport. It marks the birth of the cleanest and the greatest Olympiad of all time-Ussain Bolt.
However, apart from the great show just witnessed, to me the greatest thrill was not the fireworks that lit the Chinese night sky. That was to be expected from the Chinese. After all they are the guys who discovered the gunpowder!
My most memorable moment was seeing Zimbabwe’s golden girl Kirsty Coventry break her own records and mounting the rostrum to receive her gold medal to the tune of our national anthem. Yes indeed the Zimbabwe Anthem right there in the thick of things in Beijing- all down to a fiercely patriotic and very humble servant of the nation! WELL DONE KISRTY!
And whilst some of us were still toasting Kirsty, out comes Brian Dzingayi to reach the 100m final. What a fit!! As long as a picture is shown of Bolt running his way into every history book, there will always be the image of Brian, fully resplendent in Zimbabwe’s colours larking not far away from the champion.
Kirsty, Dzingai and the rest of the Zimbabwe contingent went and did what destiny demanded of them in Beijing.
Yesterday however, I was watching TV as thousands celebrated the passing of the Olympic flag to the next host, London.
It was one of those boisterous English street parties where the English congregate outside the Queens hut to the sound of music and a fly past by some antiquated planes crafted either during the so-called Great War or much later during the Cold War. I was not very interested in watching obviously due to a feeling of jealousy until I head the sound of the band Queen who are arguably one of the greatest rock bands of all time. I uttered a few unmentionables when I realized it was some English kid doing a rendition of one of the band’s greatest hits. I was about to walk out of the sitting room when I looked at a sea of little British flags being waved madly around by the crowed. Suddenly there it was! Yes the Zimbabwean Flag! Right there in the sea of the little Union Jacks was nothing other than the distinctive sacred Zimbabwean flag!
Yes some very patriotic Zimbabwean had thought of taking the flag along to an English street party. I don’t know or mind about the morality of gate-crashing other nations’ parties but to me just seeing those colours drives me into ecstasy. To the kindred soul who took our national colours to the English celebration concert at The Mall in London where 40,000 welcomed the coming of the games to London in four years time, I wish to say thank-you. Your patriotism should shame those who are responsible for dragging our good country through the dirt.
Some people go through life complaining about the state of things back home without doing anything positive themselves. However the person who carried that flag has through a simple gesture reminded everyone that there is a country called Zimbabwe that one can be proud of. That person through a simple deed ranks up there with some our greatest heroes of all time and I believe it is not naïve to so.
I have lived a long time here in the West and I know quite a few people do not want to be known as Zimbabwean instead claiming to be South Africans. Usually it is those people who are responsible for bad mouthing the motherland and I hope they learn from the people mentioned in this article that there is something beautiful and sacred about being Zimbabwean─something too wonderful and magical to describe in mere words.
Maybe, the likes of Brian and Kirsty our Olympic heroes may have words to describe that wonderful something. I only know it as a spirit that drives me to sit before my PC at midnight and seek to write and rage about my beloved country. It is that spirit that puts so much pressure and power to run, swim jump and so on in the muscles of our Olympiads.
The same spirit that in another era sent our brothers and sisters across the mine-fields to Mkushi, Dukwe, Nyadzonia and Chimoio to make the ultimate sacrifices for the motherland. It is a sense of pride in one’s country that brings the best out of each and every one of us. And thanks to Kirsty, Brian and countless others, we did take our place along side other nations of the world when history was made in Beijing.
In future, we will be able to say we were there when China re-wrote the history of the Olympics and took over as the undisputed global seat of power-for that is what Beijing 2008 was all about. The Coronation of China as the new world power ahead of America and the West. Indeed who has the silly luxury of remembering George Bush’s pontifications about the Chinese Human rights record in Taiwan a fortnight ago amid the spectacle that was Beijing 2008? It’s a brave new world and like it or not Zimbabwe was right there in the midst of things at the time of the reckoning!!
Phakamisani ifulegi yeZimbabwe/Simudzai Mureza WeZimbabwe/Blessed be the Land of Zimbawe!!
Mhofeti yemukoneti • pasizw@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Patriotic Kirsty!!! Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:11:29 • Thanks to our golden girl Kirsty for teaching a lesson or two to sportsmen like Andy Flower and Henry Olonga for being shamelessly partisan to one side of the feuding parties. By doing what she does best (winning medals) she has said and done what the two put together never did for the good of the country. She has used her God given talent to give Zimbabweans from all walks of life the sweet taste of unity for the common good of all.
As cricketers, why the silence about Pakistan cricket if you really are sports politician? Or maybe you are not for the common good of all after all but just bitter bullies bored stiff for losing preferential treatment. Once again thanks to Kirsty who in the face of many options maybe to compete for other nations well known for buying ready-made sportspersons, taught us all what it is to be patriotic as she still proudly identifies with Zimbabwe despite all the onslaught about its isolation. Thank you and God bless.
n/a • n/a Subject: n/a Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:14:43 • Antony, if there is no democracy in Zim, where in the world is there an active political party that was created, is sponsored and is blatantly controlled by another country's leadership in a bid to install it as a proxy govt. without being banned or its leadership shot as sellouts. You seem to think that Elizabeth Wndsor the second is your guardian angel and Gordon Brown the messiah. That can only be true if you are white but it is not like that when you are black! Its only mad MDC supporters who see the world with tainted eyes. Everyone knows that if you fail to produce in class there is no way you can be able to become a good leader of a country when you cannot tell the difference between your micro-economics from your macro-economics if you are to be able to deliver! Forever we will rue the day the goon leading MDC was born! Apo Mwari baba makakanganisa, dai nhumbu iyoyi yakasvodza kana kuti zvese mai nenhumbu zvakashaya!
Anthony • plaindisobedience2000@yahoo.com Subject: Some sense of order please Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:15:32 • Let's put some facts straight. Zimbabwean flag and Tibetan flag can be raised in the UK, but you cannot do that in Zimbabwe or in China. Why blame the UK if Mugabe has already lost all his sense of compassion to his countrymen. He is just out there to protect himself. Kirsty? I bet the Zimbabwean government did not even pay for her training. Look at Zambia or other African countries. They stopped blaming the West and started working for their progress. Do they thank the West for that? No. We congratulate them for job well done.
Anthony • plaindisobedience2000@yahoo.com Subject: Some sense of order please Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:03:38 • Let's put some facts straight. Zimbabwean flag and Tibetan flag can be raised in the UK, but you cannot do that in Zimbabwe or in China. Why blame the UK if Mugabe has already lost all his sense of compassion to his countrymen. He is just out there to protect himself. Kirsty? I bet the Zimbabwean government did not even pay for her training. Look at Zambia or other African countries. They stopped blaming the West and started working for their progress. Do they thank the West for that? No. We congratulate them for job well done.
zodwa mtetwa • zmtetwa@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Flag Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:57:22 • The Zim flag carrier was one Marko Mhungu, graduate student at Kings College London. He`s very active in the MDC and often seen at the Zim Vigils. I know him personally and he embodies patriotism.
Sadhaki Observer • n/a Subject: I second you Mdelelwa! Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:16:08 • I saw that flag too in the midst of the union jack flags - I was thrilled! That is what we call defying the odds, thanks to that patriot Zimbabwean!
n/a • n/a Subject: Who is Bush? Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:04:14 • Who is Bush? Bush is that murderer who kills people for their own resources without any qualms or fear of God whom he professes to worship. He is the real personification of white evil, their hatred of other races and their greed! All these bad things he has done in the name of white superiority explains why he has not been dragged screaming and shouting to the International Criminal Court at the Hague as these murderers (collectively now) think that this court was created for black people and lesser white men such as from the Balkans but especially for black people. Unfortunately for us in Zim, the curse called MT that we were unfortunate to have born amongst us seems to support this notion and we are going to rue the day this mad self doubting ignoramus was born! Like they say, every country takes more than a century to bring about a great leader. In Zim wwe have Bob and nearly everyone (Omuhle excepted) can see that MT is nowhere near that. Maybe a great murderer in the making, possibly! So yeah, Mbeki's quiet diplomacy works but he needs a lot of patience if it means trying arbitrate on an issue that has MT as a participant.
duejax • duejax@yahoo.fr Subject: We know you Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:18:27 • I am surprised by this guy. He thinks Zimbabwe is being demonised unfairly, Why is he out of it if it is so good. We are all patriotic but the regime has reduced us to second class. You moved out of the country that you loved so much because hazvichaiti. The regime has reduced the once bread basket to nothing. It is time to give other guys like MT to try to reverse the mess. Hope sense will come to you one day.
MADE OF THE WHITE STUFF • na Subject: THE BURNING BUSH? Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:35:14 • Mdelewa...
we know who you are and we definitely know who Kirsty is and Brian, but, logistically, who the hell is Bush in the equation?
John • jsread@gmail.com Subject: Zim Flag at the London Olympic party Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:22:45 • I agree about all our flag bearers keeping our heads high and proud despite the incompetence of the heads back home.
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