Zimbabwe -- Nothing but destruction to show for land grab***Mugabe's new farmers in Mashonaland West are largely businessmen or politicians who bark orders down the phone to managers from their suburban homes in the city. In the Mazowe Valley last week, west of Harare, is first lady Grace Mugabe's farm, which she wrenched from a frightened old couple. She is growing a few hectares of maize, government tractors were ploughing for her last weekend at a dirt cheap price, and Mugabe's sister, Sabina, is trying her hand at seed maize on one of several farms she has taken.***
Freeing a Nation From a Tyrant's Grip By COLIN L. POWELL - A brave man recently met with me and described how life in his country has become unbearable. "There is too much fear in the country, fear of the unknown and fear of the known consequences if we act or speak out," explained Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Yet Archbishop Ncube speaks out fearlessly about the terrible human rights conditions in Zimbabwe, and is threatened almost every day with detention or worse.
For hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans, the worst has already come. Millions of people are desperately hungry because the country's once-thriving agricultural sector collapsed last year after President Robert Mugabe confiscated commercial farms, supposedly for the benefit of poor blacks. But his cynical "land reform" program has chiefly benefited idle party hacks and stalwarts, not landless peasants. As a result, much of Zimbabwe's most productive land is now occupied by loyalists of the ruling ZANU-PF party, military officers, or their wives and friends.***
Zimbabwe -- Beware the U-turn***The key to understanding what Mugabe and his Zanu PF party are up to - for blacks as well as whites - is the word "leases." The ruling party moguls, security force chiefs and 54,000 others getting so-called "model 2" holdings, capable of being farmed on an individual basis, will not be granted the freehold their 5,000 white predecessors had (The first 2,900 seizure and eviction orders fell due on August 9 and scores of whites were detained over the past weekend for defying them, although their constitutional validity is heavily in doubt).***
US wants "Comrade Bob" out, transitional government in Zimbabwe: senior official***The official would not say whether Washington had gotten positive reactions to its call from any specific country in the region, but said generally the "neighborhood" was increasingly aware of the problems posed by Mugabe's rule. "The neighborhood -- meaning southern Africa -- is realizing that this is not going well, this is breaking bad," the official said. "The food situation is going to get nothing but worse, the economic scene is disastrous." The official noted that Zimbabwe's economy was now crippled by hyperinflation and an unemployment rate of 80 percent and that Zimbabweans were fleeing their country in droves to become refugees in Botswana, Mozambique, and South Africa. In addition, the situation in Zimbabwe is hurting the economies of other countries in the region as potential investors steer clear due to fears about the spread of the crisis. "The neighborhood is starting to realize that there is a downside to giving aid and protection to Comrade Bob," the official said, using a derogatory nickname for Mugabe.***
Or what, chump?
If he's coming to dictate to us as to how we should run our countries, then we will say: 'Go back, go home Yankee'," Mugabe told supporters at a rally in the southern province of Masvingo. His remarks were carried by state television.
Wow! Mugabe is a neo-Confed!
Lord love a duck, but this is so typical of socialists/communists governments whereever you go.
In fact, IMHO, it is the hallmark of these governments. It's never their fault. Ever. It is always the result of fifth columnists, "wreckers", "capitalist roaders", "enemies of the state", you name it, but never their's.
,,, so, now the blacks have the land, where's the food? Going into denial won't assist with harvests if harvests were to ever happen [LOL]. Mugabe is the ultimate jungle bunny. He's writing the book on how to turn a good country into something worse than a basket case.