Posted on 08/18/2002 7:51:45 PM PDT by Clive
Of all the world's hard luck countries, few have had the misfortune of Zimbabwe, whose running start for prosperity and harmony was sabotaged by its elected leader, Robert Mugabe.
The fact that Mugabe is a Marxist is irrelevant. His despotism is erratic, perverted, brutal and may be complicated by syphilis, as some critics insist.
Whatever, he seems bent on destroying his country.
Mugabe's ZANU party won the election in 1980 over Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU party (based mainly in the Matabele south) and put closure on white-run Rhodesia.
Initially, Mugabe gave credit to Ian Smith, a Battle of Britain fighter pilot, for making the country self-sufficient. Smith had rebelled against Britain's colonial sellout 14 years earlier and in 1965 declared unilateral independence. By the time Zimbabwe came into being, the country was the most self-contained, self-sufficient in black Africa, excluding South Africa.
Even when I was there in 1982, it was apparent Mugabe was ruining the country. By the mid-'80s, when I returned, many whites who'd pledged allegiance to Zimbabwe in 1980, had fled in frustration.
Farm families I've kept in periodic contact with have horror stories - not all of them violent, but most dealing with incompetence and corruption. Farmers who kept functioning did so largely because of their enlightened outlook and popularity among local blacks, for whom they provided jobs. These locals resisted the intimidation of so-called war "veterans" who were thugs and hooligans.
Of Zimbabwe's 4,500 white farmers who keep the economy viable, 2,900 are being kicked out and taken over by Mugabe's "veterans." The fate of white farmers is tragic, but even worse off are some 300,000 blacks who worked on the only productive farms in Zimbabwe, and who have no place to go.
This once thriving and self-sustaining economy today faces starvation, malnutrition, joblessness, political tyranny, endemic corruption and violent thuggery supported by law. It's the worst and most foolish racism in Africa, where AIDS is now rampant and, until recently, was a taboo topic.
Shamefully, Mugabe's staunchest defender in the western world is Canada's Jean Chretien, who intervened to prevent sanctions against Zimbabwe at the pre-election Commonwealth leaders conference in Australia. Chretien not only forgives Zimbabwe's debts, but gives a green light for Mugabe to continue doing what he's been doing for 22 years.
Tsvangiria remains resolute
Saddest of all is the political opposition in Zimbabwe, headed by Morgan Tsvangiria's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that is, arguably, the most courageous, balanced and hopeful of all Africa's political movements. Rigged elections denied the MDC power, yet Tsvangiria struggles on - inexplicably cheerful, optimistic, fearless and resolute, despite craven abandonment by the likes of Chretien and the European Union.
Chretien has foolishly made Africa a personal cause and urged western countries to invest and donate billions that will inevitably be wasted.
The made-in-Africa program of NEPAD (New Partnership for African Development) appeals to the kind of academics that Canada's foreign affairs minister, Bill Graham, finds irresistible. NEPAD is aimed at enticing foreign investment and aid by ensuring that Africa can produce good and democratic governments, and live by the rule of law.
It's all just rhetoric. African leaders won't criticize Mugabe and fear supporting the MDC, violating precisely what NEPAD has promised.
Zimbabwe restricts foreign media - always the case, but now more than ever. Violence against citizens is cloaked in legal approval. Independent judges have been replaced or intimidated. One can't blame those who quit out of fear for their lives and families.
Those interested in learning more can go to the Web site www.SaveZimbabwe.com and read what Chretien refuses to accept. Mugabe is now Africa's most sinister tyrant, creating unnecessary misery. He is resurrecting the spectre of colonialism to blame for Zimbabwe's woes. This was nonsense back in the days of colonialism, and is an even greater lie now.
Go to the Web site and read of one small but typical calamity - that of Ephriam Tapa, president of the Zimbabwe Civil Service Union, a member of the Congress of Trade Unions and a founding member of MDC even though he carried a ZANU-PF identity card.
While driving to the school outside Harare where his wife teaches, some 15 youths wearing ZANU-PF shirts stopped their car, abducted them and repeatedly beat Tapa because the bumper sticker on his car read: "Vote No to Violence." His ZANU-PF card was ignored.
After a month in captivity, Tapa and his pregnant wife were slated to be executed - their graves already dug. But their captors decided to wait for others to do the killing, "because they had got used to us," said Tapa.
Police arrived in time to prevent the murders, but Tapa fled to London to campaign for change from exile. His wife and child are in hiding in Zimbabwe.
The outrage in Zimbabwe is so clear and irrefutable that any African country that doesn't condemn it, should itself be condemned. That goes double for western politicians, even a Canadian PM.
As Mrs. Cincy posted on another thread, what else is there to say?
Only to socialists.
Marxists destroy things, by definition. I'd say it's quite relevant.
This article should be printed in every paper and highlighted each and every news cycle.
Me too in a 7/11 i think he makes a mean freezy .....or was that Kofi Annon ? hmmmmm
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