Zimbabwe -- Basildon Peta: My mother's choice: eat cattle feed, or go hungry

Independent (UK) ^ | June 25, 2002 | Basildon Peta

[Clive]

My 68-year-old mother has to cope with tough choices in Robert Mugabe's present day Zimbabwe.

Either she has to feed on yellow maize, which is grown in China for cattle feed purposes, or she must starve.

Otherwise, she can wait for me to find a way of getting white maize to her from Johannesburg, about 750 miles away

[Clive]

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[happygrl]

Where is the "bite" from Zimbabweans ?

They cannot continue to remain passive.

[Feckless]

"Basildon Peta: My mother's choice: eat cattle feed, or go hungry"

Looks like Shrum/Car-vile/McAwful are getting outside work.

[chemainus]

China...Africa Tyrants...Muslim Murderers...Al Quaeda, bin Laden , Mullah Omar , Pakistan...Panama ...Ecuador...Mexico...Indonesi a...Colombia....what's important is that this is ALL a replay from the 60s and 70s...please see the bigger picture and the bigger battle that awaits us...please do not fall asleep or be blinded by immediate events and socialist spin that covers the globe...be aware...elect like thinking people who are awake and of character...thank you Clive for another great post

[chemainus]

Sure they can be passive...why do you think the socialists ( fascists, communists,Marxists,Red Chinese and Nazis are all brands of the one socialism) pick the Zimbabweans and Muslims ? They are greedy, willing to sup the slop that fills the trough from the master and have no sense whatsoever of personal responsibility and independence from their narrow dogma and few icons.

[happygrl]

Thanks for the answer originating from your dogmatic and uninformed perspective. It is apparent that you do not personally know any Zimbabweans, only those phantoms which exist in your personal universe of stereotypes.

[chemainus]

and what is the source madam of your profound erudition ?

[happygrl]

Personal experience in Zimbabwe, and relationships with many Zimbabweans. It's easy to describe them all as supping at the rough, but it's also not the truth.

There have been many postings and threads on Zimbabwe and its elections this year on FR.

Please read them.

You will see that the majority of Zimbabweans do not support the klepto-thugs, nor are they socialists.

Africans, in fact are natural entrepenuers and capitalists, given the opportunity.

They, like the people in the previous Iron Curtain countries, are subject to the worst governanace on the planet.

[chemainus]

Why ? IMO the aid sent there backfires for many reasons. I also think the Chinese have an in there we will never have...and puhleese don't tell me how wonderful and altruistic they are, I have worked in that sphere for fifteen years.

[chemainus]

I guess they do not hack each other to pieces either , or slaughter fartmers in groups to kill the goose and have the eggs ? I suppose bad old Mugabe does all this by himself in a total vacuum of independence and entrepreneurial spirit...ever heard people get the government they deserve ? now THAT's personal responsibility and now we're getting somewhere!

[happygrl]

It's not the Chinese who have an in there now; it's the Libyans. The Chinese are not big players now.

I would never consider the Chinese wonderful or altruistic, or the Libyans for that matter.

Africans' governance problems have more to do with authoritarianism and kleptocracy than socialism (just as that which transpired in most so-called communist and socialist nations was also a shuffing of those at the top, with the wealth of the nation skimmed off for the new elites). Mugabe and Zimbabwe are a case in point. There is an old habit, born during the Cold War of casting these politics as socialism, but it's really just theft with ethnic and racial politics thrown in.

[happygrl]

I guess they do not hack each other to pieces either , or slaughter fartmers in groups to kill the goose and have the eggs ? I suppose bad old Mugabe does all this by himself in a total vacuum of independence and entrepreneurial spirit...ever heard people get the government they deserve ? now THAT's personal responsibility and now we're getting somewhere!

No one's been hacking each other to pieces in Zimbabwe; you must have that mixed up with some other country. Furthermore, the farmers have been defended by black Zimbabweans in the opposition party. Did you read the numerous postings about the elections in Zimbabwe this year as I recommended ? If not, please do.

The situation there is more complex than you want to make it, i.e. white people = good, black people = bad. The majority of the blacks voted against Mugabe in the elections, had their vote stolen by a corrupt regime, and are now coming to grips with that situation. Their quandary is how to formulate resistance in a region whose surrounding nations are turning a blind eye to the melt-down which is about to occur. Resistance requires assistance from some quarter; we had the French who assisted us in our War of Independence. Idi Amin was sent packing only when Tanzania invaded Uganda.

Please make informed posts, not just knee-jerk reactions based on what "everybody knows" about Africa amd Africans.

[chemainus]

I guess you would say the same about Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and the horde of others who preach socialism and just happen to convert that wonderful political premise into pillage murder and theft.

[happygrl]

No, I ouldn't call it a wonderful premise; I'm just a stickler for accuracy. Nowhere did socialism or communism resemble the fantasies of utopia. It was just one more fraud imposed from above on hard-working folks. A pox on all their houses.

[chemainus]

they didn't? ever read Orwell ??