Posted on 07/11/2004 4:39:18 AM PDT by Ironfocus
Harare - The exodus of Zimbabwe's small and anguished white population is under way with record numbers leaving their homeland, mostly for Britain or Australia.
Few have the R30 000($5000) they need in foreign currency to transport their goods to new countries, and most are starting new lives with 22kg of clothes and a few photographs.
They say they have hung on during the past four tumultuous years hoping President Robert Mugabe's "hate" campaign against them would ease, but it did not, and two months ago when he shut down private schools for a week for raising fees, they lost their nerve.
Up to three million black Zimbabweans have also gone into exile, Estate agents say there has been a flood of houses on to the property market in the past few weeks that has slashed prices to record lows. Thousands of homes from bungalows to mansions along suburban avenues are on sale for as little as R150 000 ($25,000).
Up to three million black Zimbabweans have also gone into exile, mostly for economic reasons, but they hope to return one day. Most whites, of whom perhaps 30 000 remain in Zimbabwe, say they will never return.
"It was a painful decision because this is the only home we know," said Jeremy Callow, 55, one of Zimbabwe's best-known lawyers. "I love Zimbabwe, love the people, but can't take it any more."
The "last straw" is different for each family who boards the planes for distant lands.
Callow succumbed to "relentless" pressure traipsing through the courts to assist white farmers legally recover possessions, and when he succeeded, applying in vain to get court orders enforced.
'I can't cope any longer with seeing grown men cry' "I spent 80 percent of my time with farmers counselling them and I am not trained for that, nor can I cope any longer with seeing grown men cry.
"The courts do not have the capacity to process thousands of farms seized by the state. So they change the laws, move the goal posts."
Under a new law ahead of the flawed presidential elections in 2002, Callow, like thousands of other whites born in the country, had to renounce access to British or other foreign claims to citizenship to vote.
"It is costing an arm and a leg to claim my British citizenship now," he said.
Among about 350 white farmers who remain on the land enduring varying levels of instability are some who have never been touched by ruling Zanu-PF party militants but are now abandoning their homes.
"We have recently noticed quite a number who have been left alone the last four years but are leaving," said Hendrik Olivier, the director of the remnants of the once 4 000-strong Commercial Farmers' Union.
One of Zimbabwe's most successful younger industrialists, who asked not to be named, decided to go to Australia a few months after his family was attacked in December in their home about 20km south of Harare. The family moved to the city and tried to settle in a new and glamourous mansion in a leafy suburb. It is now up for sale.
"We couldn't recover. In April I sold my business and as soon as our work permit arrives we will go.
"We have young kids and schools are a problem. I will miss it, especially the bush. We have family in South Africa, but the future is uncertain there."
John Winward, 57, spent Monday night detained in police cells in Karoi, once a prosperous, pretty village 210km north of Harare.
Under pressure from Zanu-PF invaders to get off his farm last week, Winward went to the local police with court orders proving he was allowed to remain until September to process about R1,5 million of crops.
"The policeman didn't believe or understand the court order and locked me up for the night.
"I wish now we had quit when the heat was on a couple of years ago, but I couldn't walk away. I wasted time and money going to court to fight the inevitable.
"If I am left alone to get my tobacco and maize off and sell the cattle, then we will leave for Britain in a few weeks. We won't take anything; we can't afford to."
Father of four, Chris Shepherd, 38, forced off his Karoi farm 21 months ago and now almost penniless in Harare said he would never leave and waited for signs that the madness was waning.
"I am going to Australia at the end of the month to look for a job, perhaps as a labourer, and I do this with a heavy heart," he said.
David Coltart, an Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MP, said: "This is ethnic cleansing, not in the Bosnian sense of the phrase, as they knew they couldn't get away with wholesale murder, it's more subtle, designed to drive out whites because Mugabe believes whites provide funding and administrative support to the MDC.
"A year ago [information] minister Jonathan Moyo said whites would be 'sent out of the country' because they created the MDC. They are woefully mistaken if they think that driving them out will crush the MDC," he said.
"The laws were changed to deprive whites of any land they owned. Private schools were closed to get at whites even though most pupils are black.
"Mugabe said whites were 'enemies of the people' and he is still hammering away at them." - Foreign Service
I have a book of all his letter reprinted, and to me his ideas for Rhodesia were better and South Africa even.
Why do you think you will get banned? If nothing else, it will be deleted.
"Way too many want to live here, so I wouldn't care if some said they didn't want to live here."
But you would care if they were saying about America the kinds of things you're saying about Africa.
Mali is among the poorest countries in the world
Mali is heavily dependent on foreign aid and vulnerable to fluctuations in world prices for cotton, its main export, along with gold.
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $900 (2003 est.)
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ml.html#Intro
The Netherlands has a prosperous and open economy, which depends heavily on foreign trade. The economy is noted for stable industrial relations, moderate unemployment and inflation, a sizable current account surplus, and an important role as a European transportation hub.
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $28,600 (2003 est.)
The information below concerning the Netherlands is provided for general reference only, and it may not be totally accurate in a particular location or circumstance:
Safety of Public Transportation: Excellent
Urban Road Conditions/Maintenance: Excellent
Rural Road Conditions/Maintenance: Excellent
Availability of Roadside Assistance: Excellent
Not planning to go.
Now how could I guess! lol
Rihgt.
And as long as you take the antimalarial drugs: mefloquine (Lariam - TM), doxycycline, or atovaquone/proguanil (Malarone - TM, you have a greatly reduced chance of contracting the disease. Who knows what taking those drugs do to you in the long term.
Zambia should not reject GM corn when millions are starving
Comment by Maidstone Mulenga – August 22, 2002
The Zambian government’s decision to reject a FREE donation of genetically modified corn _ at a time when millions of Zambians are facing starvation _ is not only incredible but also sad indeed. That the corn is from United States is irrelevant. That genetically modified foods are part of the daily menu throughout the world is also not important. Even the fact that Industry and environmental groups estimate that 70 percent of processed foods on supermarket shelves contain some genetically engineered components should not come to play.
hehehe well I know if I went Dick Cheney on the NAACP my post would have been zotted anyway ;-)
"TICKETED by the police."
You will not get robbed or ticketed if you do not leave items in view or your car unlocked. Read your post again.
Liberal junk science psychobabble gone crazy.
"I know plenty of people want to live here."
Where is here? New York? Then I agree with you. If it is Africa, then I think that more people want to leave than move there.
I don't want to live in an area with rampant crime, poverty, diseases, political instability, and no rule of law.
I am familiar with the CIA World Factbook.
If you want to visit a country based on the conditions of its roads, that's your decision.
I have friends and relatives in Mali and friends in the Netherlands. I would be happy to be in either country. Living by numbers alone is not living.
fined, ticketed. you're splitting hairs.
Okay fair enough.
I don't get it either. I would also like to know. Perhaps a little freepmail ;-)
I give you only facts about the countries you said that you would like to live in.
I will quote the same facts about the US.
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 77.43 years
male: 74.63 years
female: 80.36 years (2004 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
0.6% (2001 est.)
The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $37,800.
Population below poverty line:
12% (2003 est.)
Unemployment rate:
6.2% (2003)
I do live in the US and I'm very happy to live here.
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