Posted on 02/14/2009 8:04:49 PM PST by bruinbirdman
ZIMBABWE’S President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace have secretly bought a £4m bolt-hole in the Far East while his country struggles with hyper-inflation, mass unemployment and a cholera epidemic.
The Mugabes’ house, in an exclusive residential complex in Hong Kong, was purchased on their behalf by a middleman through a shadowy company whose registered office is in a run-down tenement block. When a reporter and a photographer called at the house last week, they were attacked by the Zimbabwean occupants. The assailants were questioned by the police.
The property came to light during a Sunday Times investigation into the Mugabes’ financial interests in Asia, where a web of associates has helped them to spend lavishly on luxuries and stash away millions in bank accounts. In Zimbabwe, meanwhile, inflation has reached 231m%, unemployment stands at 94% and 3,467 people have died in recent months from cholera.
According to sources in Zimbabwe and Asia, Grace Mugabe has splashed out £55,500 on marble statues in Vietnam and £8,700 on a handbag in Singapore. She and her husband have enjoyed some of the region’s finest hotels.
In Hong Kong, where she has discussed a venture to have Zimbabwean diamonds cut and polished in China, her aides paid one hotel bill with a bag of cash containing £10,500.
The Hong Kong house is the first in the Far East to be identified as the Mugabes’. Last Friday two men and a woman objected violently to the arrival of this newspaper’s journalists.
The throat of Colin Galloway, a 46-year-old reporter, was gripped and bruised by a man in his thirties who lifted him off his feet. Galloway was later examined under police supervision at hospital.
Tim O’Rourke, 45, was grabbed by the neck in his second bruising encounter involving the Mugabes
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Of course, first thing a socialist does is disarm the populace. The situation is so bad there, though, that many in the army don’t have weapons, as their leaders are afraid of a revolt in the army ranks. (Low level soldiers get one serving of beans or rice a day as part of their pay. They are allowed to “collect” food from civilians.)
The fact that those two are still breathing is a blot on humanity.
Hmm. Is Mugabe interested in selling land?
The South African Civil Society Information Service (Johannesburg)
"China is also actively seeking new land. Given its massive population and constrained access to farmland, China has moved aggressively into Africa with land interests in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon and Tanzania. Closer to home it has similar interests in Burma, Laos, Russia and Kazakhstan, both through direct government deals and private sector finance . . ."
yitbos
But then, Zimbabwe itself, as part of a deal to sell their minerals and resources to China, could put a condition on China to give them Mugabe, so Hong Kong still doesn't make sense.
Though it isn't as though he has many options if he's looking for a developed country/territory. The developed West hates him, and developed Asia doesn't have the morality hangup but isn't the greatest place for blacks.
Maybe that’s employment in the formal economy? Others might be working in the black market or subsistence farming? Just guesses on my part.
Obama will be Mugabe-lite.
I think it’s to do with creating Heaven on Earth. They are God and they must have their Heaven. Or they believe they are gods and therefore need their mount olympus.
Perhaps he stupidly thinks he shares a bond with Communist China because he’s also a dictatorial thug.
However, stupidly, he doesn’t realize that as a person living in China, he wouldn’t have any power and they would butcher him if he tried to do anything that would put him in a position of influence.
Perhaps he stupidly thinks he shares a bond with Communist China because he’s also a dictatorial thug.
However, stupidly, he doesn’t realize that as a person living in China, he wouldn’t have any power and they would butcher him if he tried to do anything that would put him in a position of influence.
They are speaking plain English. A bolt hole is where an animal runs when it bolts ("to run away").
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