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I think Mugabe kicked out both White (by nationalizing) and blacks (by stealing and corruption) out of Zimbabwe. This guy should be detained Internationally
It's time to move forward in Zimbabwe, but sadly this will only happen once Mugabe is out of office. Hopefully then the situation with the farms will settle down a bit, and agriculture independence can again be a priority.
After the power struggle and ensuing bloodbath. Not looking forward to the day Mugabe dies in office. Or rather, the days after.
Here's Amnesty International's latest report on Zimbabwe: Amnesty International - Zimbabwe 2013. It's a depressing document that has sections on the restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly; arbitrary arrests and detentions; torture and extrajudicial executions in police custody; forced evictions; and attacks on the rights of gays, lesbians, and other non-heterosexuals. Amnesty International is a non-biased source of information on human right's abuses committed by all types of regimes. But if you don't trust them just Google "Zimbabwe" and "political repression" and pick and choose from a plethora of sites with similar dismal reports.
most people working for amnesty in Zimbabwe are whites of english origin...
The fact is that all these things happened under the Smith regime as well. However what Mugabe did right is to end the white monopoly on agriculture and economy in Zimbabwe. For this of course the colonialists are never going to forgive him.
most people working for amnesty in Zimbabwe are whites of english origin...
The fact is that all these things happened under the Smith regime as well. However what Mugabe did right is to end the white monopoly on agriculture and economy in Zimbabwe. For this of course the colonialists are never going to forgive him.
They can do it on their own, they don't need Europeans to help them. During the war, lots of Black Zimbabweans went to universities abroad (many in the US) to get advanced degrees and technical degrees to prepare to run the country. A lot of those people have had to remain in exile due to the politics of the new regime. Younger generations also have been educating themselves. All they need is the opportunity within a democratic system to apply their skills to the challenges of reviving the economy. Don't underestimate the people; they're highly educated, very bright, and egalitarian-minded. They represent a rich human resource just waiting to be tapped.
The criticism of the farm seizures was exactly what you describe.
The plan that was initially agreed upon for land transfers was not followed. There was a schedule voted on and agreed upon, farms were placed on a list, and the farmers were to be notified and given time to see to their affairs. This was completely ignored, and once random "Veterans" started taking over farms themselves the ZANU PF should have stepped forward and controlled the situation, but they chose not to. When farms were seized, the take-overs were brutal. Black farmworkers were all killed, farmers were assaulted or killed, livestock slaughtered and left to rot, crops burned, farm equipment destroyed, buildings destroyed. Following these invasions the farms were not turned over to local farmers or those evicted from the land generations ago, they were handed over to friends and family of Mugabe and other prominent politicians. The vast majority of these farms are no longer farms, they are wastelands that are barren and unusable.
I don't know of anyone who has a problem with planning for the land to be handed back to the original owners of the land to continue farming, but what happened was just plain greed, and has resulted in food-shortages and an economic implosion, both totally avoidable.
Exactly. I for one have no problem with redistributing the land to Blacks. This is something the Brits funded before the hand over. The problem was the implementation. Farms were handed to urban loyalists of Mugabe who knew nothing about farming. Some farms did go to small rural Africans. This was good but on a macro level these farms aren't as productive as larger farms. Thus fewer goods for export and you end up with a problem.
most people working for amnesty in Zimbabwe are whites of english origin...
Oh, get real! There wouldn't be scads of Black Zimbabweans living abroad if there weren't censorship, completely arbitrary extrajudicial executions (meaning: murders ordered by Mugabe), rampant political favoritism and violence against people who don't vote for Der Fuhrer, and other extremely serious issues. Musicians from Zimbabwe complain about the same kind of censorship that went on in Rhodesia, which is outrageous. There is so much talent forced to live abroad, just waiting for the day that democracy is restored and people can return to build a functional country, it's very sad.
Africans have been trying to solve their problems for half a century and they have only gone backwards.
African solutions to African problems clearly are not working.
Zimbabwe is different. It has a highly educated populace (many of whom are living in exile, waiting for the opportunity to return), and had a strong, reasonably diverse economy, which means it can do so again. Many of the decolonized African nations didn't have the caliber and number of human resources that Zimbabwe has, when they were decolonized. Plus, the Cold War had a destructive effect on the democratic processes in some of those countries (Zaire/Congo being a prime example). The Cold War is over now, and the international community supports democracy in Zimbabwe. It does NOT support a return to colonialism, apartheid, or "settler" rule (White rule). That's absurd.
Oh, get real! There wouldn't be scads of Black Zimbabweans living abroad if there weren't censorship, completely arbitrary extrajudicial executions (meaning: murders ordered by Mugabe), rampant political favoritism and violence against people who don't vote for Der Fuhrer, and other extremely serious issues. Musicians from Zimbabwe complain about the same kind of censorship that went on in Rhodesia, which is outrageous. There is so much talent forced to live abroad, just waiting for the day that democracy is restored and people can return to build a functional country, it's very sad.
You mean democracy like in Kenya, where I live? Kenyans would rather live in Zimbabwe, less poverty then in Kenya! scores of kenyans live abroad, exiled by rampant poverty, corruption, inequality, violence. the most advancing countries in Africa are Ethiopia, Angola and Mocambique, ruled by autocratic (ancient) communists. Democracy is nonsense in Africa, what this continent needs the most is economic progres, how can there be democracy when a minority of 5% owns the whole economy? .
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