I wonder how many people are going to die in Zimbabwe? How many women and kids? How many young men?

Killed, of course, by their own people, by other Zimbabweans. Robert Mugabe's men.

What can we do about it? I don't know. Maybe nothing. Nothing at all.

We could have published the election results. They were apparently posted outside each of the polling places around the country the day following the election. Some 200 of them, maybe more, I'm not sure. Perhaps not easy in such a rundown primitive country to get around to them all but it could have been done.

Each one could have been photographed with a digital camera and the shot uploaded to the web as soon as possible.

We could have done that. I don't know why changirai (forgive my phonetic spelling) didn't do it, isn't doing it, but perhaps the total madness of the world within which he's living clouds clear thinking. I wouldn't be surprised.

If we'd done that it would have given something tangible to work with for future discussions. We'd have figures for the supposed number of electors at each site for instance.

It might have done some good. Shamed Mugabe before the whole world, up there for everyone to see. But it might only have precipitated a bloodbath - which is probably going to come anyway.

So what's to be done? I don't know. The world doesn't seem to have a mechanism for protecting the people. From themselves. Ironically, it is always protection from themselves that they need - I mean it is always their own countrymen that are killing them, hurting them.

What to do about it? I don't know.

I wonder how many will die?

I wonder how good the videos will be? The international coverage? The reports from our professional corps of 'war correspondents' who yearly give us more and more graphic coverage of clowns with guns....

And yearly fail to help us with any clues as to what we might do to prevent these things.

And yearly fail to show graphically the real nature, the real cost of war. Have you noticed that? Did you see any videos of young men, children, dying in agony, bits of their bodies shot off, blown off?

You didn't did you? And you won't. Our press corps, our self-satisfied, self-glorying press corps shows a comic book representation of war....

I wonder how many will die?