The healthy looking 85 year old spared no expenses including the efforts of schoolchildren. A dictator has minimum standards, you know. Can't someone send him a bag of those pretzels that Bush liked so much?
Robert Mugabe marked his 85th birthday yesterday with a sumptuous banquet in Harare at the start of a week of parties which observers say is a further sign of the Zimbabwean president's defiance in the face of growing criticism of his regime.
His latest show of excess came as prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai said "maybe US$5bn (£ 3.5bn)" would be needed to rehabilitate the collapsed health, social and education systems.
Surreal celebrations got under way on Friday as schoolboy pipers, accompanied by drum majorettes, marched through the decrepit capital and members of a ruling party youth organisation sold $10 raffle tickets.
Teetotal Mugabe's private party yesterday was hosted by his wife, Grace, 44, and attended by friends and a number of African diplomats. But state television did not, as is customary, broadcast his speech.
A $100-a-ticket gala dinner at Harare's Rainbow Towers Hotel on Wednesday is advertised as a musical extravaganza including Nigerian hip-hop star 2Face, Congolese rhumba band Werrason and a host of local acts. The parties will culminate on Saturday with a public feast and concert at Chinhoyi, about 50 miles west of Harare, which is to be televised. Dozens of animals will be slaughtered for the event and guests include hundreds of children also born on 21 February.
Zimbabwe University political science professor John Makumbe said the birthday display was the latest of many signals that the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) does not intend to respect the power-sharing agreement that saw Tsvangirai sworn in on 11 February.
"The money for the parties and the cattle and chickens donated are extracted from people virtually against their will," he said. "Thousands have died from cholera and many students are not attending school or university because teachers are not paid. It's unbelievable that he can blow quadrillions of Zimbabwe dollars on parties."
