O palácio da obscenidade

It is a country where human life is cheaper than bread, where death from disease or starvation (or murder) means relief from hunger, thirst and persecution, it is a country where babies are dying in the arms of their starving mothers, and maiming and torture is the sport of an enthusiastic club of thugs. It is a country run by a cruel tyrant whose actions fly in the face of decency and compassion, a man who apparently puts himself before all else.
Nothing brings Robert Mugabe's obscene selfishness home more brutally than pictures of his home. While the United Nations warns that Zimbabwe is on the brink of an unprecedented famine, where already two million people face death from starvation, where the average lifespan is 36 years for a male and 34 years for a female woman, where it takes one trillion Zimbabwean dollars to make $US100, this is the house that Bob built.

No wonder he tries to stop journalists from writing about it. Borrowdale Brooke seems inspired by the worst excesses of the Palace of Versailles, built for France's flamboyant Sun King, Louis XIV and is apparently reflective of the expensive taste of Mugabe and his second wife, Grace.

Magnificently appointed outside Harare, it has about 30 bedrooms and is set in 18ha of landscaped gardens, complete with two lakes. Oh, and the bedrooms have ensuite bathrooms and spas. In total, it offers more than 1ha of accommodation, mostly on three floors, including two-storey reception rooms, presumably where the Mugabes can entertain their many friends, and an office suite, presumably where Mugabe can hang his seven university degrees.

Crystal chandeliers, marble columns and velvet drapes dominate marble was, of course, flown in from Italy, the exquisite midnight blue-glazed tiles brought in from Shanghai and the best Arab craftsmen hired from the Middle East. As you do?

These pictures originally appeared in the London tabloid The Sun late last year, accompanied by an article tinged with strident outrage that Mugabe still held the Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath which the Queen awarded him in 1994. He was stripped of the award this year.

But back to matters of civilisation and taste. Of course, Zimbabwe was once the proud home of another civilisation, the ruins of which still stand today, but there is no way one could compare the ruins of Great Zimbabwe to Borrowdale Brooke. Mystery still surrounds the Zimbabwe Ruins, once a proud tourist attraction when Zimbabwe was variously described as the Jewel of Africa or the Breadbasket of Africa not even four decades ago, when Mugabe came to power.

When Viente Pegado, captain of the Portuguese Garrison of Sofala, saw the Zimbabwe ruins in 1531 he wrote: ''Among the gold mines of the inland plains between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers there is a fortress built of stones of marvellous size, and there appears to be no mortar joining them ... This edifice is almost surrounded by hills, upon which are others resembling it in the fashioning of stone and the absence of mortar, and one of them is a tower more than 12 fathoms [22 m] high. The natives of the country call these edifices Symbaoe, which according to their language signifies court.''

All this signifies skill, pride and justice, and an orderly society. Now it is a country on its knees. But while one in five Zimbabweans between the ages of 15 and 49 has the AIDS virus, Mugabe builds palaces, not hospitals. As aid agencies those still with the courage and presidential permission to operate within Zimbabwe report a rise in the rape of young girls by Mugabe's thugs (sorry, ''war veterans'') and injured and maimed rural people slowly make their way to hospitals after being attacked weeks before (by the same war veterans) to ensure their ''loyalty'' in the farcical election Mugabe has just ''won'', Mugabe, it seems, is distracting himself with thoughts of home improvement.

Recent reports suggest that he is planning a multi-billion dollar security radar at his rural home in Zvimba.

Zimbabwe's independent SW Radio Africa has reported the construction work will be undertaken by the country's electricity utility company Zesa (as you do it was also recently reported that Zimbabwe Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono bankrolled Mugabe's re-election campaign to an estimated tune of about $A60million. Australia expelled Gono's children, who were studying here, last year).

Further evidence of the security at Mugabe's homes may go some way to suggest why the master of the house manages to move about unscathed. The radar which will protect the town and country homes, is apparently recently acquired from China, and will apparently be linked to other security gadgets being installed at Mugabe's mansion in Harare on the outskirts of the upmarket Borrowdale Brooke suburb. And it has long been reported that, fuelled either by paranoia, common sense, or a good mix of the two, Mugabe moves from location to undisclosed location, to keep ahead of would-be assassins those that aren't too starving to take aim, one assumes, and those that can afford bullets before bread.

To further protect his presidential person, underground steel and reinforced concrete bunkers have been built.

But then, that's the price you pay for those elegant soirees at Borrowdale Brooke. Not everyone will like you.

The Camberra Times