Yves,
You really don't get us Brits- we are not obsessed with Mugabe, we are obsesed with Zimbabwe!
We regard Zimbabwe as our friend and we feel their pain and we share their hopes... Mugabe's hate campaign against Britain has forced us to keep our mouths shut for fear of the effects it will have on Zim's vestigial democracy.

Philip Evans, Cambridge, UK

Why, you british people are so so OBSESSED with Mr. Mugabe?

I really do not know. What about Omar Bango and other dictators in Africa. Why only mugabe?

Is it a " Colonialism nostalgia" ?

yves, Brussels, Belgium

David tries to compare the de-colonialisation of Zimbabwe to Canada? Sorry if I got your meaning wrong, Dave, but it seems you are trying to say these two countries are comparable on a level playing field!

That's either naivity or (pc) pretence. Either way it's breathtaking in its audacity.

The difference that the politically correct often try and protect is colour. It's got nothing to do with colour, and everything to do with morals. We should appreciate better the role of morals in society and where we get them from.

Mugabe clearly lost his, but what about the rest of the population? Trying comparing RSA instead. It seems to be going in the same direction, just a little slower.

Anil, Sydney, Australia

I speak as a complete outsider, who nevertheless follows African affairs and the plundering of countries such as Zimbabwe with great sadness for its inhabitants.

First of all, no exit of Mugabe could be perfect, and surely the day must firstly be celebrated, for none of this was evident only days ago.

One problem in post-colonial Africa is that no distinction was made between coloniser and colonial infrastructure. Every time an entire system is thrown out, whether it's dispossession of white farmers in Zimbabwe or debaathification in Iraq, an enormous knowledge bank and system of networks goes with it. Surely, there is a better middle ground where infrastructure can be saved, while democratizing the access to power.

Canada is always just presumed to be a safe country, but one of the reasons Canada has succeeded is that Canadians progressively assumed the mantle of independence, while retaining the "colonial" British parliamentary system and judiciary, which serves us well.

David, Amstelveen, Netherlands

For those who despise post-colonial Africa, laugh away, but though rudderless African school children have continued to pursue their education better than British ones. I was astonished even just 5 years ago to meet several Zimbabweans who had gained their university degrees in their home country and used these as passports to flee Mugabe's despotic rule. Many of them are now enjoying the British democractic air, attempting to teach Mathematics and Chemistry to unruly school children in these isles. Well, for the supercilious Rhodesians, it's a pity that Britain itself is not proving to be the Empire it was even with leaders vastly better intentioned than Robert Mugabe. It seems to me that Zimbabweans, in their majority, cherish their education better than the majority of the British people, whose Chemistry Departments must close and whose degree programmes now include courses too risible to merit a second look. Racism cannot overlook Africa's success in spite of its ghastly leaders.

Edward Nobel Bisamunyu, London, UK

Don't get too euphoric, one tribal tyrant will be replaced by another. What was a semi-paradise as Rhodesia will descend even further into the hell-hole that is post-colonial Africa.

Michael john Beesley, Worthing, England

Gidon Bennett from Tel Aviv says "...more like a Garden of eden for Blacks and whites , but then it was called Rhodisia.Now tell me where in Africa has black independance brought prosperity to its people..."

A garden of Eden for blacks as well as whites, you say!! I'm sure the black inhabitants were overjoyed when the white settlers marched in and dispossessed them all those years ago.

You appear to be suggesting that Africa return to the days of colonial rule. Ah yes, what could be better for the blacks than the days of the sjambok and slavery.

Yes, one looks with sorrow at the mess many African countries find themselves in since casting off the yoke of foreign rule. It is to be hoped that traditions of good government develop across that beautiful continent. In the meantime you should reflect on the appalling mess that whites made of running Europe on at least two occasions in the last hundred years including genocide of the Jewish people.

Peter from Peterborough, Adelaide, Australia

You want revenge? That's exactly the intoxication Mugabe's successors want you to experience.

When you sober up, watch for the big black Mercedes, the retirement homes in Switzerland for the new regime, the numbered bank accounts, the thugs in black sunglasses, the smiling NGO visitors.

If this had been an honest takeover, Mugabe would have been flying for his life. He has been allowed to buy his way out, and than means the process of corrupting the next Zimbabwe regime has already begin.

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/US

I think many will want revenge, and hopefully that revenge will take a positive path.

Return Zimbabwe to the bread basket it once was, the independent and successful African country it once was! That will be the spit in the eye that zanu PF deserves!

MY hopes and well wishes with the soon to be free people of Zimbabwe!!

Chris, Stamford, USA

Bread basket of Africa..more like a Garden of eden for Blacks and whites , but then it was called Rhodisia.Now tell me where in Africa has black independance brought prosperity to its people. Dont say South Africa,as the signs mismanagement are already starting to show.It's just a question of time before it goes the way of the rest of the Africa.Poor and asking for handouts for its corrupt leadership from the rest of the world.....shame

Gidon Bennett, Tel Aviv, Israel

when you talk of zimbabwe having a highly developed infrastructure and having fed most of africa i think your confusing it with rhodesia.

james morrell, doncaster, united kingdom

Chickens are more often grabbed by hawks than crows.

But then, hawks aren't black.

As the phrase goes, "I'm not saying ... I'm just saying."

Might be time to find a better metaphor -- you've felt like a chicken menaced by a hawk, but then an army of crows scared it away.

That has the advantage of being accurate at both levels (black Zimbabweans have rescued you from the predator Mugabe; and crows do actually mob predators to scare them away).

Ryan, Chicago, IL - US