[grundle]

Three years ago, Zimbabwe was the "breadbasket" of southern Africa. The private farmers were using modern farming methods to grow huge amounts of food.

But over the past two years, Mugabe has abolished private property rights. Mugabe has sezied the farms, and so the farms are now sitting idle, unplanted, with no crops being grown. In addition, Mugabe has set price caps on food, which further discourage farmers from growing food. In addiiton, Mugabe has used trade barriers to prevent food from being imported. Famine is the result of these policies.

I find it quite interesting that many people on the political left are blaming this famine on "drought" and "bad weather," and saying that it is a "natural disaster." This would be equivalent to saying that the Jews in Germany died from "natural causes."

Of course this is not surprising. People on the radical political left often claim that they want "human rights, not property rights." They often claim that property rights are "evil." They claim that "collective" ownership of land is preferable to "private" ownership. And they often favor government price caps on food, because food is an "essential" commodity, and they think it's wrong for "greedy" farmers to "exploit" poor people.

Well, Mugabe has done exactly what the radical left is in favor of. Mugabe has abolished private property rights. And he has set price caps on food. And now that the political left got what it wanted, and people are starving, instead of blaming the famine on bad economic polcies, the radical political left is blaiming the famine on "drought," and calling it a "natural disaster."

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

It is not marxism that is causing the disaster.

[Commander8]

I've probably said this a million times before so at the risk of sounding like a broken record: I cannot wait until the Rhodesians take back their country.

[Free_at_last_-2001]

No! No! Look everyone, listen to me (wagging my finger - looking cross) don't you know all of this is Bush's fault!!

[jalisco555]

These same apologists blame the North Korean famine on drought or floods, while neglecting to wonder why South Koreans are well fed.

[Tacis]

If only the Arab and European slave trader of yessteryear had had the capacity, foresight and motivation to rescue the ancestors of these poor starving, tortured Africans and transport them to the relative wealth and safety of the New World. Sure their descendents in America had to harvest cotton and learn a trade, maybe be forced to go to school under an affirmative action plan or take a job for lack of further welfare money, but, you gotta believe that the descendents of slaves are much better off today in America than they would be had they been born in mother Africa.

[IronJack]

This hearkens to Stalin's rape of the Ukraine. A rich, lush region was reduced to starvation in a few short years because of communist overmanagement and official corruption. So Stalin had the peasant farmers of the region rounded up and shot.

Forward to the future, komrades!

[backhoe]

AfricaWatch:

AfricaWatch: for AfricaWatch articles. 

Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register

[faintpraise]

Most people, who get their news from tv and/or the daily rag, don't know about the attacks on white Zimbabwean farmers and the looting and destruction of their farms. They will believe the "natural disaster" story.

[Jim Noble]

>>And now that the political left got what it wanted, and people are starving, instead of blaming the famine on bad economic polcies, the radical political left is blaiming the famine on "drought," and calling it a "natural disaster."<<

It's the same drought that affected the wheat-producing regions of the Ukraine and Russia from 1917-1991.