Looking for background to the ongoing Zimbabwe tragedy? Try Samantha Power’s 2003 article How to kill a country, which holds up very well five years later. Here’s Power’s prediction — if these are the alternatives, Zimbabwe is still on the brink:

If he [Mugabe] hangs on, and if other African leaders don’t force him out, Zimbabwe may go in one of two directions. Its destitute citizens might be so preoccupied with finding food and staying alive that they will increasingly tune politics out. Over time their memory of-and sense of entitlement to-a better life will give way, and they will docilely submit to authorities whose power will only increase as the crisis deepens. Or the country’s appalling conditions might stir a domestic revolution, a fourth chimurenga [war of liberation], which will bring down Mugabe and his ruling party.

UPDATE (for Norwegian readers): A good report (text and video) about Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa at Dagbladet.no.