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Postcard From Zimbabwe
New York Times ^ | April 8, 2010 | Nicholas Kristof

Posted on 04/08/2010 5:45:06 AM PDT by C19fan

Here’s a measure of how President Robert Mugabe is destroying this once lush nation of Zimbabwe:

In a week of surreptitious reporting here (committing journalism can be a criminal offense in Zimbabwe), ordinary people said time and again that life had been better under the old, racist, white regime of what was then called Rhodesia.

“When the country changed from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, we were very excited,” one man, Kizita, told me in a village of mud-walled huts near this town in western Zimbabwe. “But we didn’t realize the ones we chased away were better and the ones we put in power would oppress us.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: mugabe; rhodesia; zimbabwe
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Hope and Change did not work out so well for Zimbabwe.
1 posted on 04/08/2010 5:45:07 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

apparently the New York Times is on board with Marxism until it starts to compile an actual body count


2 posted on 04/08/2010 5:49:57 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: C19fan
“But we didn’t realize the ones we chased away were better and the ones we put in power would oppress us.”

Yeah, well. Stupidity is like a box of chocolates.

3 posted on 04/08/2010 5:50:41 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Kristof is pretty good on Africa. He makes no excuses for the thugs who run the region.


4 posted on 04/08/2010 5:51:31 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan
The tragedy that has unfolded here can be reversed if Mr. Mugabe is obliged by international pressure, particularly from South Africa, to hold free elections. Worldwide pressure forced the oppressive Rhodesian regime to give up power three decades ago. Now we need similar pressure, from African countries as well as Western powers, to pry Mr. Mugabe’s fingers from his chokehold on a lovely country.

That will not happen, because Mugabe is a dictorial Marxist. •

5 posted on 04/08/2010 5:52:24 AM PDT by cpdiii (Roughneck, Geologist, Pilot, Pharmacist, Iconoclast THE CONSTITUTION IS WORTH DYING FOR.)
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To: C19fan
It's the utopian thought that counts. That excuses every leftist oppression and crime - and blaming evil white racists for sabotaging a noble African experiment. sarc/
6 posted on 04/08/2010 5:55:27 AM PDT by Truth29
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To: C19fan

Kristof was “stuned” to find out that it actually costs money to provide health care and an education for the natives.
What a dork.


7 posted on 04/08/2010 5:57:18 AM PDT by gigster
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To: C19fan

Obama = America’s Mugabe


8 posted on 04/08/2010 6:00:40 AM PDT by ChrisInAR (Alright, tighten your shorts, Pilgrim, & sing like the Duke!)
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To: C19fan

I noticed throughout this article that the author is still trying to find some way to blame whites for their sins of commission, and now of omission. He made no statement regarding the complete infantile non-action by the “people” who let a thug live in their midst. Funny, libtards will never abandon a sacred “socialistic or racialistic” meme, regardless of the abundance of evidence placed at their feet. Bottom line to this author is that the rest of the world (read white world) should force reforms in Zimbabwe. What those reforms would be and how they would be enforced he ain’t saying. Anybody in Europe got a well disciplined Army laying around that wants to deploy to a third world hell hole for an unstated amount of time? Do I see any hands? Guess the great European moralizers will find some way to blame the US for this. Just sayin.


9 posted on 04/08/2010 6:02:41 AM PDT by equalitybeforethelaw
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To: C19fan
“But we didn’t realize the ones we chased away were better and the ones we put in power would oppress us.”

America in a 'nutshell' and in the New York Times.

Do they get it? Or, is this just a case where truth inadvertently 'outs itself' by those who otherwise, do their best to contain it?

10 posted on 04/08/2010 6:02:56 AM PDT by cricket (We cannot allow t he 'man who would be king' to be one!)
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To: C19fan

No to hope and sadly no good change in sight. There are more and more ‘Black’ people who realize their worst nightmare is delivered not from White community; but rather, from ‘their own’.


11 posted on 04/08/2010 6:06:37 AM PDT by cricket (We cannot allow t he 'man who would be king' to be one!)
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To: C19fan
Robert Mugabe is using the writings of Barack Obama Sr. as a guideline for ruling Zimbabwe. What you are seeing in Zimbabwe are truly "Dreams of Obama's father".

“Problems Facing Our Socialism” by Barack Obama, Sr. http://prestopundit.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/problems-facing-our-socialism-by-barak-h-obama/

OBAMA ON THE NATIONALIZATION OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

“There is a statement made on nationalization [in Sessional Paper No. 10]. True there are cases in which nationalization is bad, but there are, likewise, quite a few benefits to be derived from it. On this subject I would like to refer the authors to Prof. Bronferbrenner’s [sic] work on the “Appeals for confiscation in Economic Development”* [sic -- the referenced article is titled "The Appeal of Confiscation in Economic Development"]. Nationalization should not be looked at only in terms of profitability alone, but also, or even more, on the benefit to society that such services render and on its importance in terms of public interest ..” *Econ. Development and Cultural Change — Vol III, No. 3, 1955 pp. 201-18

OBAMA ON THE CONFISCATION OF PROPERTY OWNED BY KENYANS OF ASIAN AND EUROPEAN DECENT

“There is also a statement that nationalization will apply to African enterprise. How can we talk of nationalizing African enterprise when such enterprises do not exit? If we are going to nationalize, we are going to nationalize what exists and is worth nationalizing. But these are European and Asian enterprises. One need not be a Kenyan to note that nearly all commercial enterprises from small shops in River Road to big shops in Government Road and that industries in the Industrial Areas of Nairobi are mostly owned by Asians and Europeans. One need not be a Kenyan to note that when one goes to a good restraurant he mostly finds Asians and Europeans, nor has he to be a Kenyan to see that the majority of cars running in Kenya are run by Asians and Europeans. How then can we say that we are going to to be indiscriminate in rectifying these imbalances? We have to give the African his place in his own country and we have to give him this economic power if he is going to develop. The paper talks of fear of retarding growth if nationalization or purchases of these enterprises are made for Africans. But for whom doe we want to grow? Is it the African who owns this country? If he does, then why should he not control the economic means of growth in this country? It is mainly in this country that one finds almost everything owned by the non-indigenous populace. The government must do something about this and soon.”

OBAMA ON 100% TAXATION

“Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100 per cent of income so long as the people benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed.”

OBAMA ON MARX AND TAXATION

“The paper wishes to encourage domestic accumulation. This is a good gesture except for the underlying assumption which one only reads between the lines, that it is individual private enterprise and business that tends to encourage accumulation. True, in the paper there is a realization that taxation can be used as a means of forced saving, but it is given a secondary place in this respect. Certainly there is no limit to taxation if the benefits derived from public services by society measure up to the cost in taxation which they have to pay. It is a fallacy to say that there is a limit and it is a fallacy to rely mainly on the individual free enterprise to get the savings. Who are we going to rid ourselves of economic power concentration when we, in our blueprint, tend towards what we ourselves discredit? In paragraph 47 the paper state that the company form of business organization is a departure from the direct individual ownership typical in Marx’s day. Yet one who has read Marx cannot fail to see that corporations are not only what Marx referred to as the advanced stage of capitalism but Marx even called it finance capitalism by which a few would control the finances of so many and through this have not only economic power but political power as well.”

12 posted on 04/08/2010 6:16:36 AM PDT by Nahanni
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To: C19fan

If you wade through all his politically correct bona fides, there is a message there.

The White regime was NOT nasty and brutish. It was under near constant attack by Soviet-supported “liberation” Marxists, and then later, even the left-wing, by the PC Govts of the UK and the USA. The only choice for the White Rhodesians, who had been there for centuries, was to circle-the-wagons and fight.

If Rhodesia had been “left alone” (an impossibility, I know) I am convinced it would now be an African Hong Kong or Singapore. Yes, minority whites would have disproportionate wealth, but it would a peaceful, very wealthy country, and would have developed a black governing elite as well, with a multi-racial Government with a solid rule of law.


13 posted on 04/08/2010 6:23:42 AM PDT by PGR88 (I'm so open-minded, my brains fell out.)
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To: C19fan

Just think what the future holds for black ruled South Africa.......


14 posted on 04/08/2010 6:28:25 AM PDT by northwinds
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To: C19fan
The tragedy that has unfolded here can be reversed if Mr. Mugabe is obliged by...

Is obliged by a firing squad.

15 posted on 04/08/2010 6:30:50 AM PDT by Lion Den Dan
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To: C19fan

I am very sorry for the natives of this once-beautiful country. I am less forgiving of the British, Americans, and other Westerners who should have known better. Everyone could see who Mugabe was, even before he took over. This was all predictable.

But the British, especially, made out the Rhodesian whites as being “oppressive” (a term Kristof still uses).

Nowhere does Kristof indicate that he gave the sick, pregnant woman the two dollars she needed for her medicines. I hope that he did, and just left it out of the story.


16 posted on 04/08/2010 6:35:10 AM PDT by docbnj
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To: C19fan

Well, do you want to have a decent country or get back at Whitey? Looks like they chose the latter.


17 posted on 04/08/2010 6:38:45 AM PDT by Republic of Texas (Socialism Always Fails)
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To: northwinds

A friend of mine recently moved from South Africa. I have been hearing from her and many others for several years now that South Africa is at the tipping point....and it is not tipping in the good direction.


18 posted on 04/08/2010 6:41:03 AM PDT by madinmadtown
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To: C19fan

And I’m sure the the well-heeled westerner donated some of his ill-gotten wealth to help that pregnant woman and the hospital.


19 posted on 04/08/2010 6:42:56 AM PDT by gigster
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To: C19fan

Same Sh*t happening now in S. Africa-—killing white farmers. Chase the ones with the know how out—S. Africa will be looking like Zimbabwe in a few years.


20 posted on 04/08/2010 7:02:13 AM PDT by brooklyn dave (this is a NO-BAMA zone)
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