Africa wins again...
Posted on 05/28/2006 12:38:47 AM PDT by MadIvan
WHEN THE soldiers rolled past Lot Dube's land and set up camp, they told him and other farmers that all non-maize crops would be destroyed.
Their entire harvest would have to be sold to the Zimbabwean government's Grain Marketing Board so it could be used to purchase foreign currency.
It is the Mugabe regime's latest ploy to buy its way out of an economic crisis so severe that inflation is running at more than 1,000%, a record for an African nation supposedly not at war.
Dube, 63, who has farmed in the southern Insiza district since 1982, had to watch while the troops ploughed his market vegetables - onions, tomatoes and sweet potatoes that bring in money to pay for his children's school fees - into the ground.
There was little point complaining to the Grain Board; Robert Mugabe has recently put a military commander in charge of its operation.
With pressure now building both internally and externally on the 82-year-old president to save his country by removing himself from power, Mugabe is strengthening his grip over the country's rural masses.
This week, the UN representative to Zimbabwe is being recalled to New York to brief the Secretary General Kofi Annan on a situation rapidly spiralling out of control. Annan intends to visit the troubled African state later this year. Although the UN is making no official statements, it is believed Mugabe will be offered financial aid in return for giving up power.
UN Under-Secretary Ibrahim Gambari, who heads the political affairs department, said he is working with Zimbabwe's foreign minister "on how best to prepare for a positive visit by the Secretary-General which would help advance this process of helping the people of Zimbabwe".
What all sides appear to want most is to prevent a descent into bloody civil war. The conditions are certainly ripe. Last month, annual inflation hit 1,042%, the worst of any country outside a war zone.
Once the breadbasket of southern Africa, Zimbabwe's economy has been shrinking for the past six years and has been dependent on food aid since 2002. At least 75% of Zimbabweans probably have no jobs, and food and fuel are scarcer than ever. Last month, the UN distributed emergency food aid to about one fourth of the 12.5 million population and said many people were surviving on one meal or less a day.
Now Mugabe, who has been in power since the country's independence in 1980, has ordered his military to fan out across several rural areas to ensure the government's grain silos are full. He is also appointing military commanders to top positions in civilian institutions, presumably to stave off instability anticipated over rising prices.
As well as the Grain Board, senior officers, both on active duty and retired, are now in control of the Reserve Bank, the Electoral Commission, Zimbabwe Railroads, the Ministry of Energy, the Public Service Commission, the National Parks and other key institutions.
Jonathan Moyo, a former Secretary for Information and currently Zimbabwe's only independent Member of Parliament, said: "This is an admission that things have fallen apart and national governance can no longer continue in a civilian mode. It's a crisis and we are in an undeclared state of emergency."
The result could be "massive spontaneous demonstrations sliding into anarchy", Moyo added. "Zimbabwe is a case of worrying potential because should it erupt it will be out of control."
The presence of the military predominantly in the southern part of the country, and not in the north where Mugabe's draws his support, is no coincidence. "The army has targeted areas that are potential opposition strongholds, those farmers that have voted for the opposition," said Gordon Moyo, leader of the Bulawayo Dialogue advocacy group. "It's an act of intimidation and a violation of human right of those people."
David Coltart, a white Member of Parliament with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said: "The militarisation of the state of government is viewed by Mugabe as a passport to a post-State House security. He hopes that after he leaves State House he will not be pursued by the law and not dragged to Senegal or the Netherlands for crimes against humanity."
Earlier this month, the pro-government Herald newspaper announced a likely constitutional amendment for Mugabe to remain in power until 2010, two years past the next scheduled presidential election.
None of this is helping the economy, critics say. "The economy will only turn around when you get competent and experienced people running it, not the military," says Coltart. "The appointment of military people to run things like the railroads will only speed up the demise of the regime."
Many officials in prominent positions are accused of pillaging from the institutions they oversee and profiting from corruption rackets.
John Robertson, an economist in the capital, Harare, said: "It is robber baron stuff of the highest order. It's a pirate ship with Robert Mugabe as the captain. It's an exciting, profitable ride while it lasts, but inflation is the consequence."
In eerily quiet tourist destinations, such as Victoria Falls, a cup of tea that as recently as last year cost 12,000 Zimbabwean dollars now costs 250,000. Supermarket shelves are stocked full of goods too expensive to purchase.
The economic squeeze is affecting all sectors of society. Last December, graffiti appeared in the bathrooms of army barracks, calling for Mugabe to be ousted. Shortly after the government announced a 300% pay increase for soldiers and teachers.
But the increased printing of money is only likely to spur even greater inflation. "It is a way of buying off the soldiers," said Gordon Moyo. "Mugabe is a terrified man."
Not much hope can be pinned on the official opposition. After years of repression, the MDC is utterly split. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is threatening to take his opposition to the streets, but may struggle to muster enough supporters to avoid being brutally crushed by the country's powerful security forces.
Back in the southern fields, their tactics are plain to all. Soldiers are accused of beating local residents - women as well as men - who have not obeyed the orders to uproot their vegetable gardens and fruit trees. They can be seen guarding roads and footpaths throughout the irrigation schemes and driving tractors, which is as close as they come to farming.
"They say they want to end hunger in Zimbabwe," Dube said. "But I think they want to take the fields for their own use."
Neighbour Gabrial Nkala, 55, who has been farming on the same plot since 1980, added: "
We need agriculture exports, not soldiers, but it seems they are here for a very long time."
The ACLU's interest is in making good countries go to hell, not the other way around.
Ah, the old increase food production by decreasing.
Africa wins again...
**don't forget about cuba's amazing literacy rate**
Which is about the same as it was in 1959, the highest in Latin America.
It's too scary and dangerous to protest against people who will abduct, imprison, and possibly kill you for making a fuss about a real problem. It's far safer to look like you're doing something by raising a fuss about non-issues against governments you know won't do anything to you personally.
What's going on at Gitmo again?
Mugabe is a truly gifted socialist leader - lacking the advantages of modern technology he nevertheless is close to achieving the goal of all modern liberators - the death of his nation!
What a man!
Actually it's the government white liberals in the West wanted. Without them, it never would have happened.
In 1987 a couple of well known Marxists from Palo Alto wrote a little happy letter to the San Jose Mercury News after visiting the newly emergent Zimbabwe. They pronounced it "an optimistic model for the future".
I think of that bliss ninny idiot statement everytime I read the latest ever more grim news from the imploding insanity state.
It's easy to have an amazing literacy rate when those doing the calculations can be put in prison for not finding the "correct" numbers.
And even then, it's still 1% lower than the literacy rate of the United States:
Kill him.
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