Jeers for Johannesburg - A summit that cheers Mugabe isn't about helping the poor

WSJ ^ | September 6, 2002 | John Fund

[Tailgunner Joe]

Secretary of State Colin Powell was heckled and jeered twice during his 10-minute speech Wednesday to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was easy to see why President Bush didn't go. The summit seemed to come alive only when speakers bashed America like a pi

[Redbob]

"Even a basket case like Nigeria, where official statistics show the nation's gross domestic product has fallen to a third of what it was 20 years ago, has a thriving underground economy and a population that largely ignores the central government's mindless rules."

How does Nigeria's experience refute the idea that Zimbabwe is going to h*ll in a handbasket?
Z-land is chasing off the only effective food-crop farmers they have, the whites, and are dooming themselves to starvation, "underground economy" or no underground economy.

[Paleo Conservative]

The summiteers' real aim was to put spoiled socialist wine into new green bottles.

Talk about a missed opportunity! Here's how it should have been written

The summiteers' real aim was to put spoiled socialist whine into new green bottles.

[HELLRAISER II]

This hypocrisy is as simple as the "have not's" hate the "have's". Screw'em we don't need anything from these petty American Bashers, they live in luxury while their people starve & yet we're the bad guy's.

[Notforprophet]

Nice catch. You're right: Fund should have written it that way for irony. Unfortunately that's more of a talent of Mark Steyn's than John Fund.

[Malcolm]

I thought Mandela would have been more pro-Western, but I guess close association with the SA Commununist Party has warped his perspective on things.....

[M Kehoe]

Mr. Mugabe's two-year-old policy of throwing white farmers off their land...

Why does the press leave off "killing the white farmers"?

Doesn't really matter. Rhodesia will self implode (as predicted here over two years ago).

Sheesh, marxism's results are so predictable.

5.56mm

[Cincinatus' Wife]

***The elephant in the room was Robert Mugabe of neighboring Zimbabwe. Mr. Mugabe's two-year-old policy of throwing white farmers off their land has turned once self-sufficient Zimbabwe into a country where half its 13 million people face famine. His mobs enforce blatantly racist policies, the media have been muzzled, and this year he was re-elected only through massive voter fraud. ***

[blam]

"...Africa is truly irredeemable."