You Can Rig an Election but not an Erection

Zimbabwe: You Can Rig an Election but not an Erection

Posted by Ndesanjo Macha, Global Voices

In countries such as Zimbabwe where media freedom is extremely restricted, new technologies have become powerful tools for political campaigning, communication, advocacy and mobilisation.

Since Robert Mugabe turned the country into a dictatorship, bloggers and civic organisations have resorted to using new tools and applications such as blogs, Flickr, Facebook, SMS, YouTube and mashups to fight for democracy, media freedom and good governance.

SMS
If you are in Zimbabwe and your phone rings, you might be receiving news headline from SW Radio, election update from Kubatana.net or a political joke about Robert Mugabe. Widespread mobile phone access in Africa has made SMS a powerful and useful tool for activists.

Zimbabweans are using SMS to send each other political jokes. Comrade Fatso writes about this particular use of SMS:

Anyone know someone with a truck? There's a guy wanting to move all his stuff from State House to Zvimba. The jokes spread as text messages refer to our aged dictator relocating to his rural home. People really do believe this is a general election - because our generals decide who gets elected. Another joke walking the streets of Harare is that the only difference between an election and an erection is that you can't rig the latter.

The UK-based SW Radio uses SMS to send news headlines to mobile phones:

We now have an SMS news headline service sent to mobile phones.
If you have a friend or relative in Zimbabwe who would like to receive this service please email their mobile phone number to: talk@swradioafrica.com

Robert Mugabe is twittering! He joins the Kenyan President, Mwai Kibaki, on the popular microblogging site, Twitter:

meetings, meetings, meetings. very boring. 12:03 PM April 04, 2008 from web
Ooooo, nervous morning. Sending the wife shopping. She is getting on my nerves. Thinking of shutting the electricity down for laughs. 09:21 AM April 01, 2008 from web
Thinking of live blogging the election results. Good idea? 06:42 PM March 31, 2008 from web
Forcing people to eat election posters. Hey, at least they get fed this week. :) 01:49 PM March 29, 2008 from web
just voted. Guess who I voted for? 01:49 PM March 29, 2008 from web

Zimbabwe Democracy Now has a Zimbabwe Humour page on its website:

A selection of cartoons, movie posters and e-cards about Zimbabwe. These images are presented in the belief that the designers want to reach a wider audience. Thanks to everyone who contributed, you know who you are…