Soccer Saves the World

Robert Mugabe is one of the most despicable despots in the modern world. He has reduced Zimbabwe to a shambles of a country, killed millions either with bullets or through starvation and has pursued his tribal vendetta in a way that makes Idi Amin look almost modest.

But he is still there. Omnipotent, serene and vicious. He is a personification of evil in the contremporary world. If there is a real axis of evil, I would look to Mugabe before I looked to the leadership of North Korea or the completely loony tune who is President of Iran.

But there is hope. The World Cup will be in South Africa in 2010. It is unacceptable to other African leaders that many countries may boycott the soccer if Mugabe intends to attend as President of Zimbabwe. If he is not gone by other means – a bullet, bomb or the final consequences of syphilis (or whatever it is that ails him) – he will be removed before embarrassing the continent at the games.

For once, we can say that Soccer helped Save the World.