Zimbabwe 'Running Out of Wheat' (Former Hero of the Left Creates not-so paradise)

BBC ^ | 3/4/06 | BBC

[Tulane]

Zimbabwe has only two weeks of wheat supply left, while citizens are faced with soaring bread prices, Zimbabwe's main milling organisation has said. The cost of bread has risen by 30%, pushing Zimbabwe's inflation rate to more than 600%.

Zimbabwe has been in economic decline since President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms in 2000.

The government is reported to have put its security forces on alert in case the discontent leads to protests.

David Govere, deputy chairman of the Millers Association, told AFP news agency the scarcity of wheat has meant a reduction in supplies to bakeries.

It's a travesty of justice that the country has been so run down by Robert Mugabe's regime

"Due to depleted stocks, GMB [state-run food distributor Grain Marketing Board] is now giving us 400 tons of wheat a week, down from 600 tons," he is quoted as saying.

Shortages of wheat could force bakers to import flour from South Africa, which could lead to more price rises.

A loaf of bread in Zimbabwe currently costs $66,000 Zimbabwean (66 US cents), having risen 30% in just one week.

[yankeedame]

Is it true some people have begun to kill the endangered animals in the parks for food?

Wouldn't you?

[seppel]

Bono & Bob Geldorf know where the problem is. When you are as sucessful as they are you tend to know something about business.

I bet they will never invest their $ in Africa!
All this talk of theirs is just to win sympathy from young people and liberally minded music listeners.
It's business, but pretty immoral business at that.

[hinckley buzzard]

It is an underreported story, but the MSM will never report it truthfully anyway. It will all be about the failure of the rains, you see, a drouth due to SUV's causing climate change. The poor innocent hardworking Zim's will be our victims after all.

[FerdieMurphy]

And another thing....I can't help but wonder what Africa is doing for efficient rail service.

Practically all of the rails and rolling stock of the entire continent was owned and operated by Republic of South Africa interests.

Our goobermint jumped on the bandwagon to boycott anything coming out of the RSA in the phony humanitarian gesture to end apartheid. They thought it a shame that thousands lived in Carteresque homes in Soweto not realizing that those living there were mostly illegals who found their digs more preferable than those they left behind.

I traveled the entire country in the 80's and generally found the work to be done by the women while the men slept under trees drunk on sorghum beer.

[PzLdr]

Feed 'em Bono.

[television is just wrong]

Give the remaining white farmers back their fields. Mugabe took it away killed a lot of the white farmers, then let his people starve.

Liberalism at perfection...

[television is just wrong]

no they are not.

[seppel]

Good observations. I took the train from Khartoum to Aswan dam. It was a joke. It broke down in the Sahara for the night. They had to go get another locomotive. The rails were bent and undulating so the train hobbled along at about 10 kph.
Your point about women makes me think why we were only fighting men in the townships. The women were doing all the work!
Ah...but then try and tell that your local pastor or christian friend. The evils of Apartheid...

[Mike Darancette]

Compared to the farther North Southern Africa is a paradise too bad that it's leaders are so deluded.

[Jmouse007]

In TOTAL agreement; the people have spoken, they made their choice, they enjoyed killing or throwing out the white farmers who fed them all and stealing their land so now they are reaping what they have sown. I hope they enjoy eating what they produce with their own hands = 0.

Africa, what a tremendous waste.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

President Mugabe denies that his land reform programme has contributed to the crisis, blaming the effects of drought instead.

Ahh the drought excuse......always available in the socialist's toolbox of explanations.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

No, they'll figure a way to blame the west, if it's ever reported at all, and ultimately, it will be "Bush's Fault!",

You're right. As Rush would say; "it's their template".

[whitedog57]

"So, blacks are not capable of growing wheat?"

I went with a group to South Africa to examine their housing plights and recommend strategies for getting adequate housing in the rural communities. The goal was to seek a private market rather than a public market solution.

What we saw was truely chilling. The rural communities are truely a disgrace. Massive poverty and cultural problems that Bono and Bill Clinton will never mention (being the left-wing political idiots that they are). I could write a book, but I will give a glimpse. Libs fail to realize that the old African tribal structure with their "customs" (as in getting drunk and raping women, being totally promiscuous) does not lend itself to suddenly using condoms). Also, there is an uneducated tribal society that would walk miles to perform simple labor tasks ,,, and suddenly the native leadership decides that they should be farmers - the pure idiocy is beyond belief. Then throw in racial hatred (some of it is much deserved - the attitudes of some of the Boer descendants toward blacks was truely shocking) and you have a nightmare.

Don't forget pure greed on the behalf of Mugabe and his friends. They are opportunists who use the philosophies of Marx and Mao to make themselves wealthy (don't think that Chavez and friends aren't doing the same thing) or the drunken power of forcing your ideas down everyone's throats.

Sorry for the rant. A visit to South Africa was a very depressing and horrific experience. I had expected more of Mandella and his friends. Why, I don't know.

[Mr. Brightside]

The government is reported to have put its security forces on alert in case the discontent leads to protests

Can't people starve with dignity anymore? What is the world coming to?