Zimbabweans, as indeed many other Africans, will be forgiven if they dismiss as a circus the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) now under way in South Africa's commercial hub of Johannesburg.
They and millions of others in the developing world are only acutely aware that too many similar talk shops have been staged before and the result has almost always been the same: no tangible improvement in the basic quality of their wretched lives.
From the much-heralded Earth Summit of Rio in 1992 through to other meetings which promised to tackle the world's social development, the plight of its children and indeed Africa's economic revival, nothing much that was agreed has been translated into action.
Every time and then, the world's poor have now become used to helplessly watching their leaders gather for such lofty meetings at a great cost to formulate right-sounding policies and pledges which are quickly forgotten.
They and millions of others in the developing world are only acutely aware that too many similar talk shops have been staged before and the result has almost always been the same: no tangible improvement in the basic quality of their wretched lives.
From the much-heralded Earth Summit of Rio in 1992 through to other meetings which promised to tackle the world's social development, the plight of its children and indeed Africa's economic revival, nothing much that was agreed has been translated into action.
Every time and then, the world's poor have now become used to helplessly watching their leaders gather for such lofty meetings at a great cost to formulate right-sounding policies and pledges which are quickly forgotten.