Online Reporter
Communion with Bishop Lazarus
IN the past seven days, the skies in the Middle East have been turned into a dual carriageway that is trafficking fire and brimstone — an assortment of drones and missiles — mainly between Tehran (Iran) and Tel Aviv (Israel), as the February 28 joint attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran have since metastasised into a major regional conflagration that has inexorably spread to Gulf countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which host US military bases.
But, this time, each drone and missile that hits its target is being keenly felt in this part of the world as well.
Bishop Lazi is sure that by now ordinary wananchi in our teapot-shaped Republic are already feeling the pain at the pump, kombis, tuck shops and supermarkets, as fuel prices inch higher, and, with them, prices of general goods and services.
Had it not been for the swift reaction by President ED’s administration, the hikes would have been hefty and the pain intolerable.
It is a price that we all have to pay when bigoted warmongers in the White House and Beit Aghion (the official residence of the Prime Minister of Israel) try to have their way.
This shows how humanity’s fate is inextricably linked.
The coronavirus pandemic, which roiled the world between 2019 and 2023, showed how deep the bonds that bind humanity run.
A simple virus — spread through human contact — that was detected in one part of the world managed to reach every corner of the earth. The world is indeed a global village.
Look to the stars
The year 2026 was always going to be eventful, what with the January 3 abduction of Nicolas Maduro by US troops, which finally gave Washington access to the world’s biggest oil deposits that it had long coveted.
While this was a gratuitous violation of international law, where a country invades another sovereign state and kidnaps its Head of State and First Lady, it ominously signalled to Donald Trump that he can weaponise the redoubtable conventional fighting power of the US military to have his way and get whatever he wants from whomsoever.
Gentle reader, just imagine for a moment what the world would be if an adversarial state invaded the US, stormed the White House and abducted Donald and Melania Trump.
Also, just imagine how the US would react if an adversarial state were to bomb a Cabinet meeting between Trump and his top lieutenants, as the US did to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
So, does it mean the Venezuelans and Iranians are lesser souls?
But for the US and Israel, it has not quite turned out as planned.
As Bishop Lazi writes this, Tehran is giving as much as it is getting from Washington and Tel Aviv, exacting significant damage on American interests in the Middle East.
The Bishop will say this again: There is no “discombobulating” weapon (sophisticated weapon meant to confuse the enemy) that was deployed by American special forces when they snatched Maduro and his wife from Caracas.
Rather, Venezuela fell because of the age-old human frailty — sellouts, who are the major assets in intelligence-gathering operations by the CIA and Mossad.
Even in the Bible, it was Jesus’ disciple Judas Iscariot who betrayed Him, earning himself the timeless reputation as the high priest of the world’s sellouts, both born and unborn.
So, the mythification of the special operation in Venezuela is part of strategic messaging by Washington to project its ostensible might.
As much as we might want to deny it, the conflict in the Middle East, which continues to snowball by sucking in more and more actors in the theatre of war, might potentially morph into a devastating world war.
Back in the village, when we wanted to make sense of an inexplicable phenomena, such as an unexplained death, we often turned to the medicine man, who, through their divine bones, could tap the netherworld to explain the world of the living.
This is a universal human trait.
This explains why mainstream media, such as the Mirror of the United Kingdom, have been increasingly referring to the supposed prophecies of the late Bulgarian mystic, Baba Vanga, who was known as the “Nostradamus of the Balkans” and is thought to have eerily predicted that the world would be plunged into a Third World War this year.
She is said to have foretold major events such as the September 11 attacks in the US, Princess Diana’s death and China’s rise as a global power, among other “prophecies”.
Across TikTok, X and YouTube, Vanga’s alleged World War III forecast is gaining traction, often mixing conspiracy theories with real-world headlines.
All this reflects a mix of online hype, geopolitical anxieties and mythic fascination.
We just pray, for our own sake and posterity, that we do not live to see another global war in our lifetime.
Drifting to the Stone Age
What must, however, worry the world, more so us in this part of the world, is the clear degeneration and drift towards Stone Age politics, where the one who can wield the biggest stick or throw the biggest stone, just like the biblical Philistine giant warrior Goliath, imposes their will on perceived weaklings.
As an empire that is in decline, the US comeback is premised on hard power, as projected by its military might, and not by soft power.
Its underlying creed is the presumption that might is right.
The resurgence of America’s imperial designs was aptly captured in a March 5 opinion-editorial that was written by author Brahma Chellaney for The Hill, an American newspaper and digital media company.
“Words are only part of the story,” he wrote.
“Under Trump, they are increasingly matched by actions that suggest a return to 19th-century imperial precedents. From renewed pressure for US control over Greenland and the Panama Canal to open-ended military intervention in Venezuela and talk of redrawing borders or relocating populations, the administration has revived a logic more familiar to the age of empires than to the post-1945 international system . . . The old Monroe Doctrine has been globalised into a claim that American power itself is legal authority. The capture of Venezuela’s president, the tightening of a blockade that has deepened Cuba’s humanitarian crisis and the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader represent a pattern that erodes major principles of international law.”
The fact that Trump’s gung-ho administration is prepared to shatter international law, norms and values in its futile attempt to emerge victorious in its great-power rivalry with China is ominous to the world, Zimbabwe included.
Remember, global pre-eminence is now largely determined by access to strategic resources, which we have in abundance.
It is not accidental that countries that are in the crosshairs of the US administration are major oil producers. After Iran, Trump has already declared that the next victim would be Cuba.
This year, we have already seen Washington spreading its tentacles to mineral-rich countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which controls over 70 percent of global cobalt production and holds roughly 50-72 percent of the world’s reserves.
In February 2026, it hosted its first Critical Minerals Ministerial with 54 countries, including key African nations like Angola, the DRC, Guinea, Kenya, Morocco, Sierra Leone and Zambia.
In addition to launching the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement as the successor to the Minerals Security Partnership to lead policy collaboration, it also established a US-AUC Strategic Infrastructure and Investment Working Group with the African Union to identify and advance infrastructure projects that enable critical mineral supply chains.
Perhaps its biggest ambition yet is the US$10 billion flagship initiative, Project Vault, whose major motivation is to help stockpile strategic minerals.
The fundamental question is: What happens if the US, which has already dispensed with soft power as a strategy, fails to access the minerals that it needs to regain its pre-eminence through negotiation?
Your guess is as good as mine.
The world has already seen what happens if the US fails to get its way.
It is a cautionary tale for mineral-rich countries, especially those that possess strategic and critical minerals.
But might does not always prevail.
It will not be easy, if not impossible, for the 250-year-old US to vanquish the Persians, who have enjoyed continuous civilisation for the past 2 700 years.
For Bishop Lazarus, it harkens back to the years gritty guerillas upstaged the well-armed Rhodesian Security Forces.
Whatever the outcome in the Middle East, America has already strategically lost the war in more ways than one.
In the aftermath of this conflict, the world will never be the same again.
Bishop out!
