"Absolute power corrupts absolutely", or so the saying goes. Nowhere does that seem more evident than in present day Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe's rule has turned into an autocratic regime persecuting political opposition and rewarding itself while exponential inflation racks the country's largely poor population. The Roman Catholic bishop in Zimbabwe has called for his violent suppression of opposition leaders to end, as well as most Western nations.
Yet, 20 years ago, Mugabe was the heroic nationalist who led the independence movement for this southern African nation. Then, it was called Southern Rhodesia, after its despotically exploitative imperialist ruler, Cecil Rhodes, who focused almost entirely on his own financial investments of the British Empire in mining for diamonds and other valuable resources in Zimbabwe. Ironically, the leader of the fight against this heritage has become just such a leader.
While it seems easy and just to condemn Mugabe, it is also a sobering reminder of how easy it is to let power corrupt oneself. Luckily, there are those in history who don't fall to their human nature (such as the democratic governance of George Washington). However, sadly, there are many like Mugabe who have been or became so convinced of their own correctness that they will compromise all that they stood for to implement it.
This applies not only to Zimbabwe against its British rulers, but also in British history, as when Oliver Cromwell ruled dictatorially in the Commonwealth after fighting against absolute monarchy in the form of Charles I. Those times are long gone, and Zimbabwe is far away, but the constance of corruption in human nature persists, an idea which (tragically) links the Commonwealth to 2007 and Zimbabwe to the United States.
