Zimbabwe: A Tragedy in Progress

The American Spectator ^ | March 8, 2007 | George H. Wittman

[libstripper]

Robert Mugabe, 83 years old, now in the twenty-seventh year of his reign as prime minister, then president of Zimbabwe, is once again maneuvering to extend his longevity in that office.

Cleverly, as Mugabe usually acts when he isn't simply brutal, the self-ordained "father of Zimbabwe" has had floated the idea of rescheduling to 2010 the presidential election due at the end of his term in 2008 in coordination with the parliamentary elections. This device would prolong his stay in office while giving him time to sort out the current bitter infighting within his own ruling party, Zanu-PF.

Meanwhile his country's economic state is disastrous.

[libstripper]

The Stalinist destruction of Rhodesia continues.

[BunnySlippers]

Who knew Mugabe has a masters degree in economics from London University!

What did he learn?

[edcoil]

83 years old

Mother nature will take him soon.

Who is his hand-picked replacement and what disaster will they bring.

[ccmay]

Who is his hand-picked replacement and what disaster will they bring.

It makes not a whit of difference. Africa is a lost cause.

-ccm

[MittFan08]

Jeez- you'd think farming was nuclear physics or something. Pretty sad when a country can't even manage that.

[Onelifetogive]

Africa is a lost cause.

This world is a sad and frightening place.

6 Billion people on the planet. 1 billion (or so) live in peace and relative prosperity. All 6 billion could with simple commonsense approaches. Freedom, limited-government and rule-of-law would make everyone comfortable in short order.

[Onelifetogive]

Jeez- you'd think farming was nuclear physics or something. Pretty sad when a country can't even manage that.

This case is AMAZINGLY like "The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg."

"This goose is laying golden eggs, I can't wait, I'll cut it open and get the gold out now."

"Hey, these farms are creating wealth for the country. I can't wait to get a little at a time, I'll steal the whole farm and give it to my friends. What, it's not producing wealth anymore?"

[Onelifetogive]

I wish there was an international organization that cared about travesties like this. I could support an "Association of Free Nations", if it had some balls. Strict requirements for admission, and one requirement of membership would be to trade ONLY with other members.

"You want to trade with us? Free your population."

Hopefully, we'd still qualify.....

[Onelifetogive]

http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/countries.cfm

[bill1952]

White man's fault...

[fortunecookie]

Zimbabwe: A Tragedy in Progress

Seems like it ought to read "A Tragedy Completed". Just ousting Mugabe and his men seems almost impossible. Then restoring some semblance of life and health and work, not least of all, the people. It seems all but done, and who will inherit it now, Mugabe is getting up in years? And sadly, other African nations seem to be beset by the same kinds of 'rebels' rapidly destroying life in other countries. While the most in the west look away...

[fortunecookie]

Mugabe doesn't seem to want to farm, he seems hell bent on destroying the place, driving out those who do know how to farm (or just killing them) and just about anyone else who might still like to call Zimbabwe home.

[NonValueAdded]

It moved into something more than tragedy years ago. It is a crime against humanity.

[edcoil]

With Bush transferring billions of our dollars there through the Clinton foundation.

[economicmip]

Actually there is no official money headed to Zimbabwe from the US due to its status (finally) as a Tier 3 country. Apparently, forced military conscription of youths (the Green Bombers), forced labor on farms ("operation live well"), the brutal destruction of 700,000 homes in 2005(Murambitsvina) and other state-sponsored slavery was not enough to get it on the list for these problems, so it remained on the watch list for far too long. US Aid to Zimbabwe was $70 million a year, going solely to NGOs.

Also, it was my understanding that Mugabe received a Bachelor's degree from London in Economics, and an honorary masters in it from Michigan State (which they refuse to revoke).

[Dan(9698)]

Jeez- you'd think farming was nuclear physics or something. Pretty sad when a country can't even manage that.

Farming is a lot harder than you might think.

It requires dawn to dark work every day. It also requires a lot of technical knowledge that cannot be faked. The reason bureaucrats aren't successful at is because they don't know how and are not willing to work that hard.

[edcoil]

Welcome to FR.

[Calvin Locke]

Rule #1: Don't eat your seed supply...