[Greetings, Eathling.

This thread is stickied as a primer. The intent is to give you, the newcomer, a backgrounder on Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, so that you can understand what it was, and how it got jewed, and what the ongoing results of that jewing are. Included in this thread are

- William Pierce ADV
- movie "Africa Addio" (about the ending of colonialism, and the wacky practices of the newly empowered natives)]




Tycoon Van Hoogstraten arrested in Zimbabwe

Mugabe apologist is accused of flouting currency exchange laws and possessing pornography

Jamie Doward
Sunday January 27, 2008
The Observer

The notorious property tycoon and dirty jew Nicholas van Hoogstraten has been arrested in Zimbabwe on charges of breaking the troubled country's currency exchange laws and possessing pornography.

The move is being seen in some quarters as part of a plan by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to seize his once close supporter's multi-million-pound business empire, which spans mining, tourism and property interests.

Police detained Van Hoogstraten after a raid on his home last Thursday, charging him with collecting rent on his properties in foreign currency. Zimbabwean law prohibits the payment of foreign currency for local goods and services.

The arrest represents an astonishing reversal in fortunes for the multi-millionaire father-of-five, who divides his time between Zimbabwe and Hamilton Place, his half-built, £40m mansion in Sussex, from where he runs the British end of his empire. Van Hoogstraten, 62, has made much of his money in Zimbabwe, thanks to his close relationship with Mugabe's Zanu-PF party. He owns about 200 residential and business properties in Zimbabwe, according to the police, has significant investments on the Zimbabwe stock exchange, and reportedly owns an estimated 600,000 hectares in the country.

However, crippling inflation has sent Zimbabwe into political and economic turmoil. The country's central bank chief, Gideon Gono, recently blamed the crisis on 'cash barons', whom he accuses of hoarding Zimbabwean dollars and exchanging them for foreign currency.

According to the police, when arrested Van Hoogstraten was in possession of US$37,586, 92,880 South African rand and £190, as well as 20bn Zimbabwe dollars, worth around US$3,333 on the black market.

In what seems to have been a carefully orchestrated media operation by the authorities, news bulletins showed police parading Van Hoogstraten before state television cameras holding wads of money. 'Van Hoogstraten is being charged under the exchange control regulations for charging a service and dealing in foreign currency,' said Zimbabwean police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena.

He added that the tycoon had demanded six months' rent in foreign currency from his tenants, one of whom had been an informant. 'The police informant had been asked to pay in the region of US$8,000,' Bvudzijena said, adding that the tycoon also faced charges linked to pornographic material found in his house. If found guilty, Van Hoogstraten will face a fine and be forced to hand over the foreign money, according to local media reports.

Until recently Van Hoogstraten was a firm supporter of Mugabe and has boasted of his close relationship with the President. He has said Mugabe was one of the first people to offer him congratulations on his release from prison after being jailed for manslaughter. He has also criticised newspaper reporting about the regime in Zimbabwe.

There was speculation last night that his arrest may have more to do with Zimbabwe's changing political landscape than his alleged currency violations. David Banks, a close observer of political developments in Zimbabwe, who has met Van Hoogstraten and advises MPs on the country's state of affairs, said it had always been a question of when, rather than whether, the tycoon fell out with Mugabe. 'This is a brutal dictator who murdered friends and colleagues when they threatened his grip on power, so why should he worry about what happens to Van Hoogstraten?' Banks asked.

With elections due in March, Van Hoogstraten's arrest was a political move designed to shore up Mugabe's position, Banks suggested. 'Mugabe is running out of patronage,' he said. 'There is a shortage of sweeteners he can offer to try to buy support. His arrest may signal Mugabe intends to start seizing Van Hoogstraten's assets.'

Van Hoogstraten's arrest is the latest in a long line of clashes with the law. In the Sixties Van Hoogstraten - who has referred to his tenants as 'scum' - was jailed for four years for arranging for a hand grenade to be thrown through the window of someone who owed him money. In 2002 he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in jail after a business associate, Mohammed Raja, was shot and killed by two hired hitmen. He appealed against the conviction, which was overturned in 2003. In 2005 a civil court ordered that Van Hoogstraten pay the murdered man's family £6m in damages.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2247641,00.html

American Dissident Voices Broadcast of April 29, 2000

I've spoken about the murderous racial attacks against the farmers in
Rhodesia during the previous two broadcasts, but the situation there
continues to worsen, and I'm obliged to speak about it again today,
because the mass media in America continue largely to avoid the subject.
In addition to the invasion of White farms by armed Black gangs and the
murder of White farmers, the Black supporters of dictator Robert Mugabe
have turned to a new terror tactic against Whites: the gang rape of
White women.

Eleven days ago, on April 18, a Black gang burst into the home of a
White family just outside Salisbury, now called "Harare." They seized
28-year-old Brendan Jowett and repeatedly smashed him in the head and
face with a brick, until he lost consciousness. They dragged his
25-year-old wife Tonia into a bedroom and gang-raped her. Then they
found Tonia's 18-year-old sister, Laura Wiggins, hiding in a cupboard.
They dragged her out and raped her repeatedly.

Then the Blacks poured furniture polish, which they believed was fuel
oil, over their victims and attempted to set them afire, first with
matches and then with a burning log from the fireplace, but the
furniture polish would not burn. Finally the Blacks stole everything
they could carry away and fled. On the same day another White farmer and
his wife had gasoline poured on them, but when the Blacks were ready to
burn their victims they discovered that they had forgotten to bring
matches. The farmer and his wife got away with a brutal beating and the
wrecking and looting of their home. White Rhodesians should at least be
thankful for the ineptitude of the Blacks.

In the face of the overwhelming numerical advantage held by the Blacks,
Black ineptitude is not enough to save the Whites of Rhodesia from their
enemies, unfortunately. As I reported last Saturday, on Tuesday of last
week, a Black mob murdered Martin Olds on his farm near Bulawayo,
Rhodesia's second-largest city. The 43-year-old White farmer knew that
Black mobs were operating in his area, and he had sent his wife Kathy
and his two children, 17-year-old Martine and 14-year-old Angus, to stay
with friends in the city. Olds was a former member of the Grey Scouts,
Rhodesia's elite anti-terrorist unit, before his country surrendered
itself to Black rule in 1979. His neighbors considered him completely
fearless. Ten years ago, when a friend had been seized by a crocodile,
Olds had leaped from his boat and wrestled the crocodile in order to
free his friend.

Olds was alone on his 12,000-acre cattle farm when a mob of 70 armed
Blacks attacked his farmhouse early Tuesday morning. He telephoned the
police station, which was less than ten minutes away, but the Black
police didn't show up until five hours later, after he was dead and the
attackers were gone. Olds defended himself with a shotgun and a hunting
rifle, and he wounded several of his attackers. He himself was hit by
several bullets, and the bone in one leg was shattered. He bandaged and
splinted his leg and continued defending himself until he lost
consciousness. Then the Blacks swarmed over him and beat him to death
with clubs.

As the news of the gang rapes and of the murder of Martin Olds spread,
many White farm families abandoned their homes and fled to the cities.
Black gangs then were free to wreck and loot their homes without any
resistance. One thing the Black gangs always do is kill any pets the
Whites leave behind when they flee. Two days after the Olds murder, on
Thursday of last week, an Associated Press TV News camera crew happened
to be present when a mob of 200 Blacks rampaged through a White farm
near the town of Arcturus, 35 miles northeast of Salisbury. The farm
belongs to Alan Windram, but Windram and his family already had fled.
The Blacks found Windram's six dogs and beat and stoned them to death
while the Associated Press crew filmed the incident. The Blacks were
hooting, jumping around, and gesticulating in their typical manner while
they killed the dogs, obviously enjoying themselves immensely. Then the
Blacks wrecked Windram's farmhouse and burned the homes of at least 30
of his workers. All of this was recorded by the Associated Press camera
crew, but believe me, it'll be a cold day in hell before you see any of
it on network television in America. It makes Blacks look bad. It might
make some animal lovers like Blacks less.

Coincidentally, at the same time Martin Olds was being murdered on April
18, squads of Black police were raiding other White farms in the same
area and seizing firearms from White farmers, leaving them defenseless.
And also on that day, which happened to be the anniversary of the
surrender of White Rhodesia to the Blacks, Britain's Queen Elizabeth
sent a message of congratulation and goodwill to Robert Mugabe. And the
Queen expressed not a word of concern or disapproval about Mugabe's
genocidal policy toward Rhodesia's White farmers. The British
government, of course, has been on the wrong side of the Black campaign
against Whites in Africa ever since being on the wrong side of the
Second World War.

Oh, yes: the British government did make one additional statement about
Rhodesia on April 18. Tony Blair's Foreign Office announced that no
special considerations would be given to White Rhodesians seeking asylum
in Britain from the ethnic cleansing now going on in Rhodesia, or
"Zimbabwe," as Blair and company prefer to call it. They will not be
permitted into Britain unless they can prove that they will be able to
support themselves. As I mentioned last week, Tony Blair is not eager to
have an influx of White immigrants who almost certainly will not vote
for his party. Black Rhodesians, yes; White Rhodesians, no.

But there is one resident of Rhodesia, neither White nor Black, who
always will find a cordial welcome in Tony Blair's Britain. That is a
54-year-old man named Nicholas Hoogstraten. Hoogstraten is a billionaire
landowner in Rhodesia. He began buying land there in 1963 and now owns
nine large farms and cattle ranches totaling more than a million acres.
He also is a long-time financial backer of Robert Mugabe and his
Zimbabwe African National Union-Popular Front, or ZANU-PF for short. He
began backing Mugabe in the 1960s and continued backing him all during
the time ZANU was waging a terrorist war against Rhodesia's White
population. He still backs Mugabe financially, and in an interview with
a major British newspaper, the Guardian, which appeared in the April 21
issue of that newspaper, he disparaged Rhodesia's White farmers and
blamed the country's present turmoil entirely on them. He told the
Guardian, and I quote: "This has all been stirred up by White
disenfranchised trash who still think it's Rhodesia. I have some good
White friends in Zimbabwe, but these Rhodies, as we call them, are
disgusting people. They want to ruin the country. They treat the Blacks
worse than Blacks are treated in America. I've had no problem with
indigenizing my properties." -- end quote -- What he meant by that last
statement is that when he buys a farm from a White family fleeing the
country to get away from the Black terrorists he supports, he fires the
White managers and foremen and hires Blacks belonging to Mugabe's party
to take the Whites' place. He told the Guardian that he expects that
this practice, plus his continued support for Mugabe, will ensure that
his properties will remain safe from the marauding mobs of squatters who
have been wrecking and taking over White farms.

Last Friday's Guardian also provides a number of other fascinating
details about Hoogstraten. For example, he went to prison briefly in the
1960s after he threw a hand grenade at the home of a business rival. One
detail the Guardian neglected to mention, however, is that Hoogstraten
is a Jew. His family, after being expelled from Spain at the end of the
15th century, settled in the Netherlands, which accounts for his
Dutch-sounding name. During the 17th and 18th centuries his family were
among the Netherlands' most active dealers in Black slaves, shipping
hundreds of thousands of them from the west coast of Africa to the New
World. He is a kike's kike. Not only does he refer to the men and women
who built Rhodesia as "White trash," but he refers to Gentile women as
"chattels" -- that's the word this unbelievably arrogant Hebrew actually
used in his Guardian interview -- and bragged to the newspaper that he
keeps his mansions in Brighton, in Cannes, in Monte Carlo, in Maryland,
in Florida, and in Rhodesia stocked with White women for his pleasure.

Imagine how pleased with himself Hoogstraten must be. He goes to
Rhodesia in 1963 as a 17-year-old with the money his ancestors made
selling Black flesh; he sizes up the conflict between the White
Rhodesians and the Black terrorists and bets that the terrorists will
win because the Whites are too soft and too Christian to beat them; he
secretly makes contact with the terrorists and begins financing Mugabe;
and at the same time he begins buying up White farm land. When the
Whites finally cave in and give up, the price of land in Rhodesia drops
sharply and Hoogstraten is able to buy much more of it. Now he is
forcing the price of land even lower by continuing to support Mugabe's
terrorist tactics and expects soon to be in a position to buy as much
more land as he wants at fire-sale prices.

That is really Tony Blair's kind of Jew. How the trendy liberals of
Britain must admire him! As for me, Hoogstraten's really exceptional
behavior -- living among Rhodesia's Whites and pretending to be one of
them while secretly financing the Black terrorist gangs who were killing
White farmers and their wives and children, all so that he would be
better positioned to grab their land -- is just one more bit of evidence
that Jews indeed are not like us. It is difficult even to believe that
they belong to the same species.

Even without the malign influence of Hoogstraten and his ilk, the
Rhodesians had serious problems in the 1960s and 1970s, and because they
are problems which also afflict us in America and our kinsmen in Europe
today, they deserve our attention. In the face of a Black terrorist war
against them in the 1960s and 1970s, the Rhodesians were presented with
the need to make a hard decision: either to yield their country to the
Blacks or to put an end to the threat. They evaded this decision and
tried to choose a middle course, and they fell between two stools.

In the 1950s Rhodesia was a prosperous, White country, and it was a very
pleasant place to live. The Rhodesians had worked hard and well to build
their country and develop their farms. They were a nation of strong men
and beautiful women. They played as hard as they worked. Rhodesia was
the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. When the rot back in
London led the British government to begin dismantling its empire and
turning its colonies over to the local savages, the Rhodesians declared
their independence and made an effort to preserve the country where they
had been born and bred. But the rot had infected the Rhodesians as well.

It was easy enough for them to see the trend of things in the world. The
forces of liberalism and egalitarianism had won the bloodiest and most
destructive war in the history of the world. The best people all over
Europe had been hunted down and butchered, and the worst people were
ruling. Democracy and equality were triumphant, and their minions were
eager to spread their plague to the whole world -- or at least, to the
whole White world. Though infected with the same madness raging in
Europe, the Rhodesians naturally enough were not eager to commit
suicide. They refused to turn their country over to the gangs of Black
terrorists which were beginning to become active with the support of
predatory Jews such as Hoogstraten -- and also with the support of the
Christian churches, in which the madness seems to have taken hold with
special virulence.

But the problem extended beyond the Jews and the Christian clerics. It
was in the Rhodesian people themselves. During the war they also had
supported enthusiastically the forces of darkness and democracy. It was
not so easy after the war to realize that they had made a terrible
mistake, and that the master they had served during the war was
preparing to devour them, just as it had devoured the Germans and the
Poles and the Hungarians and the Ukrainians and the Russians and the
Latvians and many another nation of their kinsmen in Europe. And I'm not
talking now only about Soviet Communism. I'm talking about the more
general sickness, the more general madness, of which communism is merely
an extreme manifestation.

As I said, it was easy enough for the Rhodesians to see the trend of
things, to see the push for more equality and more democracy everywhere,
and the more thoughtful Rhodesians certainly could extrapolate the trend
and realize that it would mean the death of their country. But already
caught up in it as they were, they could not bring themselves simply to
reject it altogether and to reorient themselves in a better and
healthier direction. They could not simply say, "Whoa! We see now where
this madness of equality and democracy is heading. We can see that it
means yielding ourselves to Black rule and watching everything that we
have built be destroyed. We refuse to take that course. We reject
equality and democracy. We recognize every institution and every group
and every individual trying to push us along that course as our enemy,
and we will oppose our enemies with all of our strength of body and mind
and spirit." That was what they should have said, but they didn't. The
rot was already in their own souls.

To be, or not to be: that was the question faced by the Rhodesians, and
they did not have the strength of character to choose to be and then to
accept all of the implications of that choice. They did not want not to
be, but they could not accept what the choice to be entailed, and so now
they will perish. The country they and their forefathers worked and
sacrificed for will fall into the hands of creatures such as Hoogstraten
and Mugabe, who chose to be, and who accepted all of the implications of
that choice.

What are the implications of choosing to be instead of not to be, of
choosing life instead of death? The Rhodesians should have assessed
their situation realistically when their problem became apparent, around
1955 or so, and they should have accepted the fact that they could not
continue existing as a ruling minority over a Black majority when the
rest of the world was hell-bent for equality and democracy. They did not
have the option which has worked so well for the Jews nearly everywhere
of disguising themselves and blending in with the majority population.
They could not pretend to be Shonas or Zulus or what have you, the way
Hoogstraten had pretended to be a White Rhodesian, while maintaining a
secret unity among themselves and also maintaining their control and
ownership of the country. It wasn't just that the very obvious racial
differences would have kept them from blending in and convincing anyone
that they were Blacks, the way Hoogstraten had been able to blend in and
convince everyone that he was a Rhodesian; they also couldn't squat in
their filth and scratch their fleas and eat insects -- or each other, in
order to persuade the world that they really were equal to the Blacks.

Since they couldn't blend in, they might have tried another Jewish
tactic: control the opposition. If loyal, healthy Rhodesians had owned
the big newspapers back in Britain and had gotten their people into the
controlling positions in the BBC -- and also in Hollywood, since the
output of Hollywood poisons the whole White world, and not just America
-- if White Rhodesians had been able to control the media in Britain and
America, and therefore control the British government and British public
opinion, they could have continued in the more or less quiet possession
of their country indefinitely. They could have suppressed the deranged
clerics, and they could have used any Black terrorist groups which
sprang up for weekend target practice. But that option really wasn't
open to them either. They didn't control the media. The Jews did, and
the Jews weren't about to let go. The Rhodesians simply didn't have the
resources or the time to take the media away from the Jews, even if they
had had the will.

The one option open to them was to get rid of the Blacks. The only
reason there was a Black majority in Rhodesia was that the Whites who
had come to Rhodesia before them had made the country fertile and
prosperous and able to support a much larger population. There had been
only 100,000 Blacks in the whole area when the Whites began farming in
Rhodesia. And of course, the Whites utilized the Blacks for labor. They
thought that course more economically sound than exterminating or
expelling them. And in the short run it was, but now the long run is
catching up with them. In America in the 17th and 18th centuries it
seemed economically sound to buy Black slaves from Mr. Hoogstraten's
ancestors to work the land in the southern colonies, but now the long
run has caught up with White Americans also.

It would have been very difficult, very costly, very painful, for the
Rhodesians to extricate themselves from their mess in 1950. It would
have required determination and intelligence and subterfuge, but it
could have been done -- if they had had the will to do it. They might
even have done it in 1960. But in neither 1950 nor 1960 did they have
the will. The Christians among them would have been horrified by the
thought of getting rid of the Blacks, of either eradicating them or
driving them out, just as the Christians in America today cannot cope
with the demands of racial survival in this world.

But it wasn't just the Christian inability to make hard decisions. Greed
and plain, old-fashioned stupidity played major roles as well. The big
commercial farmers were interested in current profits above all. They
weren't willing to give up their Black workers. They weren't willing to
do the expensive things needed to replace the Black workers, such as
offering free land or very cheap land to White workers in Europe or
America or South Africa, if they would come to Rhodesia. The big
commercial farmers thought themselves indispensable. They could not
imagine the Blacks would be so foolish as to kill the goose which was
laying the golden eggs. They were willing to sacrifice the interests of
their fellow Whites in order to hold onto their own advantages.

And as I just said there also was much stupidity. Even today there are
White Rhodesians who believe that the problem is just Robert Mugabe. If
another Black, a more reasonable Black, would take his place, then
things would be all right in Rhodesia again, they believe.

Well, as I said, the Rhodesians could not accept the hard requirements
of choosing life in this hard and unforgiving world, and so now they
will perish. Let us in America ponder that, and let at least some of us
learn from it.

http://users.mo-net.com/mlindste/adv42900.html

Alex this exact speech is the one which turned the light on in my brain how evil the jews are. I hope that fucking jew gets diced into small bite size pieces.

In fact, the moment I knew I was a racist was when I was 13 and they had some picture in Time magazine of a white traitor whore kissing a nigger through a chain link fence in Africa during aparteid. I was furious but only thought the nigger was the problem at that time.

I realize now it is a jew who had taken the picture, as well as had set it up, and who had gotten to the level where they had the voice to criticize whites.

Every jew is going to be destroyed in the end, good jew, bad jew, or just jew because they all give birth to bad jews. ITZ COMING, and faster than we realize.

Yep.

It's a great ADV. Blood boiling.

What with the ingratitude of these niggers, look for Hoogstraten to join AmRen, or at least to become itz poster boy.

The move is being seen in some quarters as part of a plan by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to seize his once close supporter's multi-million-pound business empire, which spans mining, tourism and property interests.

Reminds me of the Russian oligarchs and Putin. Whenever a Jew is in trouble itz always seen as something ulterior. Never seen as even a possibility that the Jew actually did what he's accused of.

What a great example of the future for the jew when itz petz, the niggerz, become powerful and independent. I too hope he ends up in tiny little pieces, traveling through the colons of dark savages, to be shat out unceremoniously. But what will probably happen is he will give up his holdings in zimland in exchange for his freedom. He will then flee back to the UK where he will conspire with his tribe and plan to slap Mudgumby around if not outright kill him. I can dream though.

The jew started out in Brighton in England as a Jew slum landlord. He has had many people beaten up for not paying rent on time. He was chased out of the country after one of his Packi business partners died suspiciously; he jewed his way out of the case, but things for him in England were dodgy after that. The guy is meglamaniac. He owns a 200 bedroom mansion with his own mausoleum for when he dies. He is also is a pervert race-mixer; what the article does not mention is that he has 15 or so half-caste bantu bastards.

Wow, I know the Hoogstraten story from that ADV too! I remember it made me feel hopeless that such a thing as a Hoogstraten runs free and prospers. I never thought this would happen to him!

I still fear that the Hoogstraten will end up breaking free of Mugabe, but at any rate, this is a great portent. The jews colored lackeys turning against them is the very dictionary definition of "poetic justice."

I don't think this is part of a growing trend, it is more to do with the fact that Zimbabwe's leader is an old nigger who knows he is going to die soon, and so wants stuffas much chaos and insolence into his remaining years as he can.

If the leader had a whole lot of years in front of them he would be working with Jews like crazy.

That ADV is essentially correct. Our enemies have destroyed and continue to destroy our race and our nations. However, it is Whites who allow it to happen. Rhodesia could still be a prosperous, White nation. So could South Africa. Rhodesia gave their nation to the kaffirs in 1979. They did this knowing full well what would happen because of what had happened to other White nations in Africa that had let the kaffirs take control. South Africa voted to give their nation to the kaffirs 15 years after Rhodesia gave up their nation in 1994, even after seeing what happened to Rhodesia under 15 years of kaffir rule. This is certainly not a condemation of the entire White populations of those two countries, as tens of thousands of White Rhodesians and millions of White South Africans wanted to keep their nation under White rule. Unfortunately those Whites were in the minority of a ruling minority and now they are paying a terrible price for their racial kinsmen's mistakes. No other race would EVER voluntarily hand over control of their nation or vote to give control of their nation to another race or ethnicity. Only Whites are too smart to do that. Or is it not smart enough? As stupid and backwards as the mud races are, they have one thing Whites lack that will ensure their survival: racial cohesiveness, or racial identity. If Whites as a race had that, instead of the mentality that there are "good" blacks and "niggers," we would rule the world without challenge. Greed is also a factor: corporate Whites allow the muds to work in our nations so they can make billions. There is no racial loyalty-working class Whites suffer as a result. Whites need to get their thinking straight before it is too late.

This is the best news I heard in while.

Just another reason I hope Obama gets elected.

I wonder if they'll eat him.....?

I knew there was some good in "Uncle Bob", somewhere. :) ;)

Even though his family came from the Netherlands, he still can't hide his jew features... T.J.B.


http://images.newsquest.co.uk/image.php?id=66934&type=full

'Rhodies' = white trash in Africa, by jewthink.

Pierce's ADV fits very nicely with Africa Addio...

Africa Addio / Farewell Africa (English Subtitles)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510VPDJY6RL._AA240_.jpg

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41383000/jpg/_41383777_hoog.300b.jpg

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

EDITORIAL
10 February 2008

A number of politicians in Zanu PF have challenged President Robert Mugabe's leadership since 1975. Some did it with subtlety, others openly.

So far, none have succeeded, either in a free and fair election, or by means beloved of all politicians: subterfuge, intrigue and duplicity.

It would be unfair to state categorically that all have failed because Mugabe is a past master of all these methods. Neither would it be accurate to say they failed because he had "right" on his side.

Many would ascribe his survival to a mastery of the art of patronage and influence-peddling.

Most who have challenged him had legitimate reasons, mostly related with his style of leadership, which has always tended to be dictatorial.

There has also been his glaring failure to respond positively to ordinary people's concerns about the true, material meaning of our independence. While he harped on the victories, people worried about hunger, health, jobs, freedom and happiness.

But one thing must be certain by now, even to Mugabe himself. The discontent with his leadership is now so intense even he must know a climax is imminent.

Simba Makoni's challenge, the latest in the last few years, is poignant in its clarity. He says he shares the people's agony over, generally speaking, the emptiness of our independence.

Mugabe has often erred in concentrating on the achievement of independence, rather than on the aftermath of the struggle. There were dreams, promises, pledges, undertakings and solemn commitments to give the people a place in the sun, after the 15-year struggle in which nearly 30 000 people died.

In reality, only a few people now live off the fat of the land. Most are desperately poor, living on less than a US$1 a day. The communal areas, where Mugabe's party has traditionally enjoyed massive support, have been turned into a wasteland.

Neither the chaotic land reform programme nor the recent distribution of tractors, combine harvesters nor ploughs to the party faithful has made a dent on the poverty there. [Made a dent on it? They've created the poverty. Driving out white farmers and replacing them with 60-IQ dirt-eaters is not a recipe for agricultural success. It's a recipe for starvation.]

Like Simba Makoni and those who stand behind him in his challenge, many of the people in the rural areas know, in their heart of hearts, that Mugabe has failed to deliver on his and Zanu PF's promises. It is time for him to bow out, gracefully, if possible.

He, of all people, must appreciate that to stubbornly cling to power when he has clearly outlived his people's welcome would be dangerous, not only for himself as an individual, but for the country too.

He may count among his successes in the power stakes his victories over Ndabaningi Sithole, Edgar Tekere, even Joshua Nkomo and Eddison Zvobgo. But he cannot believe himself to be invincible.

Like all of us, he is fallible. Like all other political parties in the world, his party is fallible but would survive without him, as the communist parties of China, Cuba and the former Soviet Union, have survived.

He may not believe, as some of his critics seem to believe he does, that he is Zanu PF and the party is Robert Mugabe. But the stubbornness with which he refuses to let go of his seat suggests he is utterly incapable of conceiving of the party without him or he without the party.

Yet the prime concern of everyone in this great country is its future. With Mugabe and Zanu PF at the helm, the future is dark, empty. Whether Makoni can make a difference may be a mute questsion. What is clear is that under Mugabe there is no future at all.

[Mugabe's background, from Wikipedia. Note that Mugabe is Western educated, but it makes no difference. The bananaman always outs.]

Robert Gabriel Mugabe KCB (born on February 21, 1924) has served as the head of government in Zimbabwe since 1980, as Prime Minister from 1980 to 1987 and as the first executive President since 1987.[1][2]

He rose to prominence in the 1970s as a leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) in guerrilla warfare against white-minority rule in Rhodesia in the Bush War (1964–1979).

Mugabe is an outspoken, controversial and polarizing figure. He is considered by many members of the African public a hero of the fight for independence.[3][4] However progressive movements and individuals on the continent have been profoundly critical of him, particularly since Operation Murambatsvina in 2005. Nevertheless his defenders claim that opposition to him mostly comes from the United States, Europe, and British Commonwealth countries, the Mugabe administration has been accused of corruption, suppression of political opposition, mishandling of land reform, economic mismanagement, and deteriorating human rights in Zimbabwe. According to critics, his administration's policies have led to economic collapse and massive starvation over the course of the last ten years. Zimbabwe has the highest inflation rate in the world[5] predicted to hit 1.5 million per cent by the end of 2007,[6] and is, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Africa's worst economic performer.[7] With a record 85% unemployment and approx. 8000% inflation rates,[8] Zimbabwe is in its worst economic crisis since Mugabe took power.[9] British Foreign Minister Peter Hain,[10] senior Zimbabwean Roman Catholic bishops[11] and John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York[12] and others accused Mugabe's government of racist policies. Mugabe, in turn, has called his critics "born again colonialists,"[13][14] and his allies in the African community respond to his critics by saying that Zimbabwe's problems are the legacy of colonialism.[15]

[Blacks always blame Whites for their problems. They get away with this because the jews in the media back them. In fact, the jews put the idea of blaming the White man in their heads in the first place. So wherever nigs destroy a neighborhood, city, or nation, it's never the blacks who are to blame but "white racism," or "the legacy of colonialism," or "decades of apartheid."]

Early life

Mugabe was born in Matibiri village near Kutama Mission in the Zvimba District northeast of Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia. His father, Gabriel Mugabe Matibiri, a carpenter[16], abandoned the Mugabe family in 1934 in search of work in Bulawayo.[17] Mugabe was raised as a Roman Catholic, studying in Marist Brothers and Jesuit schools, including the exclusive Kutama College. He was bookish and very close to his mother in his youth.[16] He qualified as a teacher, but left to study at Fort Hare in South Africa graduating in 1951 while meeting contemporaries such as Julius Nyerere, Herbert Chitepo, Robert Sobukwe and Kenneth Kaunda. He then studied at Driefontein in 1952, Salisbury (1953), Gwelo (1954), and Tanzania (1955–1957). Mugabe later asserted that in addition to his seven academic degrees, he possessed a "degree in violence."[16]

Originally graduating with a B.A. degree from the University of Fort Hare in 1951, Mugabe proceeded to earn a B.Sc. degree in economics from the University of London, and then five more degrees, being a M.Sc., LL.B., LL.M., B.Ed. and a B.A. in Administration, all from the University of South Africa.[18]

Subsequently, Mugabe lectured at Chalimbana Teacher Training College, in Zambia from 1955–1958, thereafter he taught at Apowa Secondary School at Takoradi, in the Western Region of Ghana (1958 – 1960) where he met Sally Hayfron, who later became his first wife. During his stay in Ghana, he was influenced and inspired by Ghana's then-Prime Minister, Kwame Nkrumah. In addition, Mugabe and some of his Zimbabwe African National Union party cadres received instruction at the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute, then at Winneba in southern Ghana.[19][20]

Early political career

Mugabe returned to Southern Rhodesia and joined the National Democratic Party in 1960.[21] The administration of Prime Minister Ian Smith immediately banned the NDP when it later became Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU). He left ZAPU in 1963 to join the rival Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) which had been formed in 1963 by the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, Edson Zvobgo, Enos Nkala and lawyer Herbert Chitepo. ZANU was influenced by the Africanist ideas of the Pan Africanist Congress in South Africa[22] and influenced by Maoism while ZAPU was an ally of the African National Congress and was a supporter of a more orthodox pro-Soviet line on national liberation. Similar divisions can also be seen in the liberation movement in Angola between the MPLA and UNITA.It would have been easy for the party to split along tribal lines between the Ndebele and Mugabe's own, the Shona tribe, but cross-tribal representation was maintained by his partners. ZANU leader Sithole nominated Robert Mugabe as his Secretary General.

In 1964 he was arrested for “subversive speech” and spent the next 10 years in prison. During that period he earned three degrees, including a law degree and a bachelor of administration from London by correspondence courses. While still in prison he led a coup in 1974 deposing Sithole as ZANU's leader.[citation needed] His time in prison burnished his reputation and helped his cause.[16] Smith did not allow Mugabe out of prison to attend the funeral of Mugabe's four-year-old son.[16]

Mugabe unilaterally assumed control of ZANU from Mozambique. Later that year, after squabbling with Ndabaningi Sithole, Mugabe formed a militant ZANU faction, leaving Sithole to lead the moderate Zanu (Ndonga) party, which renounced violent struggle.[citation needed] Many opposition leaders mysteriously died during this time, including one who died in a car crash but was allegedly riddled with bullet holes.[16] An opposing newspaper's printing press was bombed and its journalists tortured.[16]

Lancaster House Agreement

Persuasion from B.J. Vorster, himself under pressure from Henry Kissinger, forced Smith to accept in principle that white minority rule could not continue indefinitely. On 3 March 1978 Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Ndabaningi Sithole and other moderate leaders signed an agreement at Governor's Lodge in Salisbury, which paved the way for an interim power-sharing government, in preparation for elections. The elections were won by the United African National Council under Bishop Abel Muzorewa, but international recognition did not follow and sanctions were not lifted. The two 'Patriotic Front' groups under Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo refused to participate and continued the war.

The incoming government did accept an invitation to talks at Lancaster House in September 1979. A ceasefire was negotiated for the talks, which were attended by Smith, Mugabe, Nkomo, Edson Zvobgo and others. Eventually the parties to the talks agreed on a new constitution for a new Republic of Zimbabwe with elections in February 1980. Mugabe had to concede to accepting 20 seats reserved for whites in the new Parliament and to the inability of the new government to alter the constitution for ten years. His return to Zimbabwe in December 1979 was greeted with enormous supportive crowds.

Prime Minister

After a campaign marked by intimidation from all sides, mistrust from security forces and reports of full ballot boxes found on the road, the Shona majority was decisive in electing Mugabe to head the first government as prime minister on 4 March 1980. ZANU won 57 out of 80 Common Roll seats in the new parliament, with the 20 white seats all going to the Rhodesian Front.

Mugabe, whose political support came from his Shona-speaking homeland in the north, attempted to build Zimbabwe on a basis of an uneasy coalition with his Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) rivals, whose support came from the Ndebele-speaking south, and with the white minority. Mugabe sought to incorporate ZAPU into his Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) led government and ZAPU's military wing into the army. ZAPU's leader, Joshua Nkomo, was given a series of cabinet positions in Mugabe's government. However, Mugabe was torn between this objective and pressures to meet the expectations of his own ZANU followers for a faster pace of social change.

In 1983 Mugabe fired Nkomo from his cabinet, triggering bitter fighting between ZAPU supporters in the Ndebele-speaking region of the country and the ruling ZANU. Between 1982 and 1985 the military crushed armed resistance from Ndebele groups in the provinces of Matabeleland and the Midlands, leaving Mugabe's rule secure. Mugabe has been accused by many of committing mass murder during this period of his rule.[23] A peace accord was negotiated in 1987.[citation needed] ZAPU merged into the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) on December 22, 1988.[24] Mugabe brought Nkomo into the government once again as a vice-president.

More than 20,000 Ndebele civilians were killed by Mugabe's North-Korean trained 5th Brigade during the Gukurahundi (“the early rain that washes away the chaff”)[16] ethnic massacres.[25][26] Their leader was Perence Shiri who called himself 'Black Jesus'.[27] Mugabe is said to fear prosecution for this massacre, with bills calling for inquiries into the incident sometimes introduced into Parliament.[16] The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has said that if it comes to power, it will call for an international trial of the massacre.[16] Most of the 20,000 killed were innocent civilians.[28]

Presidency

In 1987 the position of Prime Minister was abolished and Mugabe assumed the new office of executive President of Zimbabwe gaining additional powers in the process. He was re-elected in 1990 and 1996, and in 2002 amid claims of widespread vote-rigging and intimidation. Mugabe's term of office is due to expire in 2008.

Mugabe has been the Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe since Parliament passed the University of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill in November 1990.[29]

Social programs

According to a 1995 World Bank report, after independence, "Zimbabwe gave priority to human resource investments and support for smallholder agriculture," and as a result, "smallholder agriculture expanded rapidly during the first half of the 1980s and social indicators improved quickly." From 1980 to 1990 infant mortality decreased from 86 to 49 per 1000 live births, under five mortality was reduced from 128 to 58 per 1000 live births, and immunisation increased from 25% to 80% of the population. Also, "child malnutrition fell from 22% to 12% and life expectancy increased from 56 to 64. By 1990, Zimbabwe had a lower infant mortality rate, higher adult literacy and higher school enrollment rate than average for developing countries."[1]

In 1991 the government of Zimbabwe, short on hard currency and under international pressure, embarked on a neoliberal austerity program. The World Bank's 1995 report explained that such reforms were required because Zimbabwe was unable to absorb into its labour market the many graduates from its impressive education system and that it needed to attract additional foreign investments. The reforms however undermined the livelihoods of Zimbabwe's poor majority; the report noted "large segments of the population, including most smallholder farmers and small scale enterprises, find themselves in a vulnerable position with limited capacity to respond to evolving market opportunities. This is due to their limited access to natural, technical and financial resources, to the contraction of many public services for smallholder agriculture, and to their still nascent links with larger scale enterprises."

Moreover, these people were forced to live on marginal lands as Zimbabwe's best lands were reserved for mainly white landlords growing cash crops for export, a sector of the economy favoured by the IMF's plan. For the poor on the communal lands, "existing levels of production in these areas are now threatened by the environmental fragility of the natural resource base and the unsustainability of existing farming practices."[2] The International Monetary Fund later suspended aid, saying reforms were "not on track."

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), life expectancy at birth for Zimbabwean men is 37 years and is 34 years for women, the lowest such figures for any nation.[30] The World Bank's 1995 report predicted this decline in life expectancy from its 1990 height of 64 years when, commenting on health care system cuts mandated by the IMF structural adjustment programme, it stated that "The decline in resources is creating strains and threatening the sustainability of health sector achievements."[3]

The Zimbabwe dollar suffers from the highest Inflation rate of any currency in the world. Zimbabwe official statistics reveal that the annualised inflation rate for September 2006 was 1000%. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its World Economic Outlook database, reported inflation in 2006 at 1216%.[31] Inflation reached 9,000% on June 21,[32] and 11,000% on June 22, 2007.[33]

While Zimbabwe has suffered in many other measures under Mugabe, as a former schoolteacher he has been well-known for his commitment to education. [16] However, Catholic Archbishop of Zimbabwe Pius Ncube decried the educational situation in the country, saying, among other scathing indictments of Mugabe, "We had the best education in Africa and now our schools are closing."[34]

Views on homosexuality

Mugabe has waged a violent campaign against homosexuals, arguing that prior to colonisation Zimbabweans did not engage in homosexual acts.[35] His first major public condemnation of homosexuality came in 1995 during the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in August 1995.[36] He told the audience that homosexuality

degrades human dignity. It's unnatural and there is no question ever of allowing these people to behave worse than dogs and pigs. If dogs and pigs do not do it, why must human beings? We have our own culture, and we must re-dedicate ourselves to our traditional values that make us human beings... What we are being persuaded to accept is sub-animal behaviour and we will never allow it here. If you see people parading themselves as lesbians and gays, arrest them and hand them over to the police![37]

In September 1995, Zimbabwe's parliament introduced legislation banning homosexual acts.[36] In 1997 a court found Canaan Banana, Mugabe's predecessor and the first President of Zimbabwe, guilty of 11 counts of sodomy and indecent assault.[38] Banana's trial proved embarrassing for Mugabe, when Banana's accusers alleged that Mugabe knew about Banana's conduct and had done nothing to stop it.[39]

Second Congo War

Mugabe was blamed for Zimbabwe's participation in the Second Congo War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At a time when the Zimbabwean economy was struggling, Zimbabwe responded to a call by the Southern African Development Community to help the struggling regime in Kinsasha. The Democratic Republic of the Congo had been invaded by Rwanda, which sought to institute a change of government, and Uganda, which claimed that its civilians, and regional stability, were under constant threat of attack by various terrorist groups based in the Congo.[40] The war raised accusations of corruption, with officials alleged to be plundering the Congo's mineral reserves. Mugabe's defence minister Moven Mahachi said, "Instead of our army in the DRC burdening the treasury for more resources, which are not available, it embarks on viable projects for the sake of generating the necessary revenue."[41]

Land reform

When Zimbabwe gained independence 46.5% of the country's arable land was owned by around 6,000 commercial farmers.[42] Mugabe accepted a "willing buyer, willing seller" plan as part of the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, among other concessions to the white minority.[43] As part of this agreement, land redistribution was blocked for a period of 10 years.[44]

In 1997, the new British government led by Tony Blair unilaterally stopped funding the "willing buyer, willing seller" land reform programme on the basis that the initial £44 million allocated under the Thatcher government was used to purchase land for members of the ruling elite rather than landless peasants. Furthermore, Britain's ruling Labour Party felt no obligation to continue paying white farmers compensation, or in minister Clare Short's words, "I should make it clear that we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe. We are a new Government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and as you know we were colonised not colonisers."[45]

As of September 2006, Mugabe's family owns three farms: Highfield Estate in Norton, 45 km west of Harare, Iron Mask Estate in Mazowe, about 40 km from Harare, and Foyle Farm in Mazowe, formerly owned by Ian Webster and adjacent to Iron Mask Farm, renamed to Gushungo Farm after Mugabe's own clan name.[46] These farms were seized forcibly from their previous owners.[citation needed]

In 2005 Mugabe ordered a raid conducted on what the government termed "illegal shelters" in Harare, resulting in 10,000 urban poor being left homeless from "Operation Murambatsvina (English: Operation Drive Out the Rubbish)." The authorities themselves had moved the poor inhabitants to the area in 1992, telling them not to build permanent homes and that their new homes were temporary, leading the inhabitants to build their own temporary shelters out of cardboard and wood.[47] Since the inhabitants of the shantytowns overwhelmingly supported the Movement for Democratic Change opposition party in the previous election, many alleged that the mass bulldozing was politically motivated.[47] The UK's Daily Telegraph noted that Mugabe's "latest palace," in the style of a pagoda, was located a mile from the destroyed shelters.[47] The UN released a report stating that the actions of Mugabe resulted in the loss of home or livelihood for more than 700,000 Zimbabweans and negatively affected 2.4 million more.[48]

Farm seizures and starvation

On 12 to 13 February 2000, a referendum was held on a new constitution. The proposed change would have limited future presidents to two terms, but as it was not retroactive, Mugabe could have stood for another two terms. It also would have made his government and military officials immune from prosecution for any illegal acts committed while in office. In addition, it allowed the government to confiscate white-owned land for redistribution to black farmers without compensation. The motion failed with 55% of participants against the referendum.[49] The referendum had a 20% turnout fuelled by an effective SMS campaign. Mugabe declared that he would "abide by the will of the people". The vote was a surprise to ZANU-PF, and an embarrassment before parliamentary elections due in mid-April. Almost immediately, self-styled "war veterans", led by Chenjerai 'Hitler' Hunzvi, began invading white-owned farms. On April 6, 2000, Parliament pushed through an amendment, taken word for word from the draft constitution that was rejected by voters, allowing the seizure of white-owned farmlands without due reimbursement or payment.[citation needed]

Since these actions, agricultural production has plummeted and the economy is crippled. Once the "bread basket" of southern Africa and a major agricultural exporter, Zimbabwe now depends on food programs and support from outside to feed its population.[48] A third of the population depends on food supplies from the World Food Programme to avoid starvation.[48]

The United Nations provoked anger when its Food and Agriculture Organisation invited Mugabe to speak at a celebration of its 60th anniversary in Rome. Critics of the move alleged that since Mugabe could not feed his own people without the UN's support, he was an inappropriate speaker for the group, which has a mission statement of "helping to build a world without hunger."[48]

Mugabe blames the food shortages on drought.[48] Zimbabwe's state-owned press accused former British Prime Minister Tony Blair of using chemical weapons to incite droughts and famines in Africa.[48]

Elections

Mugabe faced Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in presidential elections in March 2002.[50] Mugabe defeated Tsvangirai by 56.2% to 41.9% amid violence and the prevention of large numbers of citizens in urban areas from voting. The conduct of the elections was widely viewed internationally as having been manipulated.[51][52] Many groups, such as the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), assert that the turnout was rigged.[50]

On July 3, 2004 a report adopted by the African Union executive council, which comprises foreign ministers of the 53 member states, criticized the government for the arrest and torture of opposition members of parliament and human rights lawyers, the arrest of journalists, the stifling of freedom of expression and clampdowns on other civil liberties. It was compiled by the AU's African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, which sent a mission to Zimbabwe from June 24 to 28 2002, shortly after the presidential elections. The report was apparently not submitted to the AU's 2003 summit because it had not been translated into French. It was adopted at the next AU summit in 2005.[citation needed]

Mugabe's ZANU-PF party won the 2005 parliamentary elections with an increased majority. The elections were said by (again) South African observers to "reflect the free will of the people of Zimbabwe", despite accusations of widespread fraud from the MDC.[53]

Criticism and opposition

Mugabe's critics accuse him of conducting a "reign of terror",[47][54] and being an 'extremely poor role model' for the continent, whose 'transgressions' are 'unpardonable'.[55] In solidarity with the April 2007 general strike called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), UK TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said of Mugabe's regime: 'Zimbabwe's people are suffering from Mugabe's appalling economic mismanagement, corruption and brutal repression. They are standing up for their rights, and we must stand with them." Lela Kogbara, Chair of ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa) similarly has said: "As with every oppressive regime women and workers are left bearing the brunt. Please join us as we stand in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle for peace, justice and freedom."[56]

Robert Guest, the Africa editor for The Economist for seven years, argues that Mugabe is to blame for Zimbabwe's economic freefall. "In 1980, the average annual income in Zimbabwe was US$950, and a Zimbabwean dollar was worth more than an American one. By 2003, the average income was less than US$400, and the Zimbabwean economy was in freefall.[57] "[Mugabe] has ruled Zimbabwe for nearly three decades and has led it, in that time, from impressive success to the most dramatic peacetime collapse of any country since Weimar Germany".[16]

Mugabe was criticised for comparing himself to Hitler. Mugabe was quoted as saying "This Hitler has only one objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people and their rights over their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold."[4]

In recent years, Western governments have condemned Mugabe's government. On 9 March 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush approved measures for economic sanctions to be leveled against Mugabe and other high-ranking Zimbabwe politicians, freezing their assets and barring Americans from engaging in any transactions or dealings with them. Justifying the move, Bush's spokesman stated that the President and Congress believe that "the situation in Zimbabwe endangers the southern African region and threatens to undermine efforts to foster good governance and respect for the rule of law throughout the continent." The bill was known as the "Zimbabwe Democracy Act."[58]

On December 8, 2003, in protest against a further 18 months of suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations (thereby cutting foreign aid to Zimbabwe), Mugabe withdrew his country from the Commonwealth. Mugabe informed the leaders of Jamaica, Nigeria and South Africa of his decision when they telephoned him to discuss the situation. Zimbabwe's government said the President did not accept the Commonwealth's position, and was leaving the group.[citation needed]

In reaction to human rights violations in Zimbabwe, students at universities from which Mugabe has honorary doctorates have sought to get the degrees revoked. So far, the University of Edinburgh has stripped Mugabe of his honorary degree[59] after years of campaigning from their student union. In addition, the student body at Michigan State University (ASMSU) unanimously passed a resolution calling for this. The issue is now being considered by the university.[citation needed]

On November 17, 2006 The Independent revealed that female life expectancy is now 34 as opposed to 63 a decade ago, with the male life expectancy standing at 37.[60]

On February 6, 2007 Mugabe orchestrated a cabinet reshuffle, ousting ministers including five-year veteran finance minister Herbert Murerwa.[citation needed]

On March 11, 2007 opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested and beaten following a prayer meeting in the Harare suburb of Highfields. Another member of the Movement for Democratic Change was killed while other protesters were injured.[61] Mugabe claimed that "Tsvangirai deserved his beating-up by police because he was not allowed to attend a banned rally" on March 30, 2007.[62]

In June 2007 the first president of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, wrote that "leaders in the West say Robert Mugabe is a demon, that he has destroyed Zimbabwe and he must be got rid of - but this demonising is made by people who may not understand what Robert Gabriel Mugabe and his fellow freedom fighters went through."[3]

Mugabe's office forbade the screening of the 2005 movie The Interpreter, claiming that it was propaganda by the CIA and fearing that it could incite hostility towards him.[63]

European Union travel ban

After observers from the European Union were barred from examining Zimbabwe's 2002 elections, the EU imposed a ban on Mugabe and 94 members of his government. The United States instituted a similar ban. The EU's ban has a few loopholes, resulting in Mugabe taking a few trips into Europe despite the ban. Mugabe is allowed to travel to UN events within European and American borders.[64]

On April 8, 2005, Mugabe attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II, a move which could be seen as defiance of a European Union travel ban that does not, however, apply to Vatican City. He was granted a transit visa by the Italian authorities, as they are obliged to under the Concordat. However, the Catholic hierarchy in Zimbabwe have been very vocal against his rule and the senior Catholic cleric, Archbishop Pius Ncube is a major critic, even calling for Western governments to help in his overthrow.[65][64] Mugabe surprised Prince Charles by shaking his hand during the service. Afterwards, the Prince's office released a statement saying, "The Prince of Wales was caught by surprise and not in a position to avoid shaking Mr Mugabe’s hand. The Prince finds the current Zimbabwean regime abhorrent. He has supported the Zimbabwe Defence and Aid Fund which works with those being oppressed by the regime. The Prince also recently met Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo, an outspoken critic of the government."[66]

Prior to the ban, one of Mugabe's favourite pastimes was to travel to London.[16]

US travel ban

He is among host of individuals not allowed to travel to the United States because the US government feels he has worked to undermine democracy in Zimbabwe.[67]

Succession

As one of Africa's longest-lasting leaders, speculation has built over the years as to the future of Zimbabwe after Mugabe leaves office. His age and recurring rumours of failing health have focused more attention on possible successors within his party as well as the opposition. The March 11, 2007 crackdown against a religious gathering sponsored by the opposition attracted scrutiny.[68]

In June 2005 a report that Mugabe had entered a hospital for tests on his heart fueled rumours that he had died of a heart attack;[69] these reports were dismissed by a Mugabe spokesman. This coincided with Operation Murambatsvina (or "Drive Out Trash"), a police campaign to demolish houses and businesses that had been built without permission on land previously taken from white landholders and intended for redistribution. Opponents called this an attempt to disperse urban centres of dissent into rural areas where the government had more control. Former information minister Jonathan Moyo attributed the events to a power struggle within the party over who would succeed Mugabe.

Joyce Mujuru, recently elevated to vice-president of ZANU-PF during the December 2004 party congress and considerably younger than Joseph Msika, the other vice-president, has been mentioned as a likely successor to Mugabe. Joyce Mujuru's candidacy for the presidency is strengthened by the backing of her husband, Solomon Mujuru, who is the former head of the Zimbabwean army.

In October 2006, a report prepared by Zimbabwe's Ministry of Economic Development acknowledged the lack of coordination among critical government departments in Zimbabwe and the overall lack of commitment to end the crisis. The report implied that the infighting in Zanu-PF over Mugabe's successor was also hurting policy formulation and consistency in implementation.[70]

In late 2006 a plan was presented to postpone the next presidential election until 2010, at the same time as the next parliamentary election, thereby extending Mugabe's term by two years. It was said that holding the two elections together would be a cost-saving measure.[71] However, this plan was not approved and there were reportedly objections from some in ZANU-PF to the idea. In March 2007 Mugabe said that he thought the feeling was in favour of holding the two elections together in 2008 instead of 2010. He also said that he would be willing to run for re-election again if the party wanted him to run.[72] Other leaders in Southern Africa were rumoured to be less warm on the idea of extending his term to 2010; recently, at the independence celebrations in Ghana, South African President Thabo Mbeki was rumoured to have met with Mugabe in private and told him that "he was determined that South Africa's hosting of the Football World Cup in 2010 should not be disrupted by controversial presidential elections in Zimbabwe."[73]

On March 30, 2007, it was announced that the ZANU-PF central committee had chosen Mugabe as the party's candidate for another term in 2008, that presidential terms would be shortened to five years, and that the parliamentary election would also be held in 2008.[74] Mugabe was chosen by acclamation as the party's presidential candidate for 2008 by ZANU-PF delegates at a party conference on December 13, 2007.[75]

Personal life

His first wife, the former Sally Hayfron, died in 1992 from a chronic kidney ailment. Their only son, Nhamodzenyika, born 27 September 1963, died on December 26, 1966 from cerebral malaria, while Mugabe was in prison.

Sally Mugabe was a trained teacher who asserted her position as an independent political activist and campaigner.[citation needed] Sally was seen as Mugabe's closest friend and adviser, and many point to her death as the time when Mugabe began to misrule Zimbabwe.[16]

Mugabe married his former secretary, Grace Marufu, 40 years his junior and with whom he already had two children,[76] on August 17, 1996. Mugabe and Marufu were married in a Roman Catholic wedding Mass at Kutama College, a Catholic mission school he previously attended. Nelson Mandela was among the guests. A spokesman for Catholic Archbishop Patrick Chakaipa, who presided over the ceremony, said the diocese saw "no impediment" to the nuptials.[citation needed]

The Mugabes have three children: Bona, Robert Peter Jr. (although Robert Mugabe's middle name is Gabriel) and Bellarmine Chatunga. As First Lady, Grace has been the subject of much criticism for her lifestyle. When she was included in the 2002 EU travel sanctions on her husband, one EU parliamentarian was quoted as saying that the ban "will stop Grace Mugabe going on her shopping trips in the face of catastrophic poverty blighting the people of Zimbabwe."[77] The Daily Telegraph called her "notorious at home for her profligacy" in a 2003 coverage of a trip to Paris.[78] The Mugabes' children are not included in the EU travel sanctions.[citation needed]

Awards and honours

In 1994 Mugabe was bestowed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath by Queen Elizabeth II. This entitles him to use the postnominal letters KCB, but not to use the title "Sir." UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee called for the removal of this honour in 2003, but no action was taken.[79]

He also holds several honorary degrees and doctorates from various international universities, though in June 2007, he became the first international figure ever to be stripped of an honorary degree by a British university, when the University of Edinburgh withdrew the degree awarded to him in 1984.[80][81]

Further reading

* Chan, Stephen (2003). Robert Mugabe: A life of power and violence. IB Taurus, London. ISBN.
* East, R. and Thomas, Richard J. Profiles of People in Power: The World ́s Government Leaders, 2003 ISBN 185743126X
* Nolan, Cathal J. Notable U.S. Ambassadors Since 1775: A Biographical Dictionary, 1997 ISBN 0313291950
* Martin Meredith : Mugabe: Power and Plunder in Zimbabwe. Oxford, 2003 [rev. und updated ed.] ISBN 1586482130 (American ed.: Our votes, our guns

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5. ^ 'Panicked' Zimbabwe government postpones inflation announcement, April 17, 2007. Cape Times
6. ^ Zimbabwe inflation "to hit 1.5m%" The Guardian
7. ^ Zimbabwe: Country Ranked Africa's Worst Economic Performer, April 3, 2007. Zimdaily
8. ^ Zimbabwe Inflation Narrowly Short of 8,000%
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30. ^ Country Health System Fact Sheet 2006 Zimbabwe World Health Organisation
31. ^ World Economic Outlook: World Economic and Financial Surveys, September 2006, Page 65 International Monetary Fund.
32. ^ CCN News Zimbabwe currency crashes; inflation as high as 9,000% retrieved July 4, 2007
33. ^ BBC News US says Zimbabwe change is afoot retrieved July 4, 2007
34. ^ Zimbabwe’s top cleric urges Britain to invade The Sunday Times, July 1, 2007
35. ^ Page 213 Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Men and Women in the World's Cultures
36. ^ a b Page 180 Hungochani: The History of a Dissident Sexuality in Southern Africa
37. ^ Under African Skies, Part I: 'Totally unacceptable to cultural norms' Kaiwright.com
38. ^ Page 93 Body, Sexuality, and Gender v. 1
39. ^ Canaan Banana, president jailed in sex scandal, dies The Guardian
40. ^ Congo At War: A Briefing of the Internal and External Players in the Central African Conflict, International Crisis Group, 17 November 1998
41. ^ Mugabe's costly Congo venture BBC
42. ^ Chigara, Ben (2002). Land Reform Policy. Ashgate Publishing, 52.
43. ^ Page 302 Big Men, Little People: The Leaders Who Defined Africa
44. ^ 619 The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence
45. ^ Zimbabwe: The Spark...Claire Short's letter of November 1997, by Baffour Ankomah, 31 March 2003
46. ^ Mugabe seizes third farm for himself, IOL, 10 September 2006
47. ^ a b c d Mugabe's raids leave townships in tatters (2005-03-06).
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50. ^ a b West boycotts Mugabe ceremony CNN
51. ^ Mugabe wins as tension hangs over Zimbabwe Christian Science Monitor
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61. ^ Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai Has Brain Scan, Was Hurt While in Custody, Bloomberg, 14 March 2007
62. ^ MUGABE THUG RANT , Mirror, 31 March 2007
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67. ^ Recent OFAC Actions, US Dept. of Treasury, November 23, 2005 (accessed 02/07/2008)
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81. ^ The Observer Edinburgh University revokes Mugabe degree Paul Kelbie, July 15, 2007

Mugabe is the perfect example of the failure of Western education and religion to turn a nigger into a human.

Zimbabwe: New Land Owners Face Eviction

11 February 2008

Resettled farmers in Zimbabwe have been hit by input and financial shortages, and have failed to deliver on production, prompting the government to repossess their plots, according to analysts.

Didymus Mutasa, the land reform and resettlement minister, recently told the official daily newspaper, the Herald, that the government had reclaimed at least 1,449 A2 farms - the category for commercial production - after a land audit completed in 2007 revealed that they were not being used productively.

In 2000 the government dispossessed more than 4,000 white commercial farmers of their land in a controversial land reform exercise and reallocated it, often after cutting it up into smaller plots, to thousands of land-hungry black Zimbabweans.

"Government is repossessing all vacant and unutilised A2 farms and we are not going back on this exercise. We will withdraw the offer letters and allocate them to deserving new applicants," Mutasa was quoted as saying.

He said the government was attempting to address some of the problems faced by the new farmers, and repossession of the plots should not be read as a reversal of the land reform programme.

The owners of most of the farms being taken back by the government had not even taken occupation, said Sam Moyo, a land affairs expert who advised the government on its land reform programme. "A number of plots have remained vacant, meaning that the beneficiaries were not able to go and establish themselves on their plots for a variety of reasons."

Zimbabwe's economy is in meltdown: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that the country's annual inflation rate has reached 100,000 percent and is still rising; shortages of foreign exchange have affected the supply of agricultural inputs and fuel. As a result, many farmers had been unable to make any of the hoped for short-term gains from farming and had abandoned their plots, Moyo said.

According to economic analyst John Robertson, "The bottom line is that most of these farmers have not produced enough to justify being retained on their farms. Those that have managed to do so were either lucky enough to have taken over sound infrastructure they found on the farms, or were the big fish that got favours from the government."

He pointed out that the beneficiaries did not have the "motivation" to farm effectively because they got the land for free, and that the government had hurried to parcel out land "for political populism" without ensuring that the beneficiaries were well supported with money, skills training and inputs.

"Some of these farmers applied for land for the kicks, and that is why they sold the inputs and fuel they obtained, while in some cases farms were turned into weekend barbeque resorts, a trend that was common among multiple-farm owners," Robertson claimed.

The financial squeeze the farmers found themselves in was worsened by reluctance on the part of the banks to issue loans to the new farmers because the 99-year leases offered by the government did not offer adequate collateral security.

No solution

Robertson argued that while repossession of the farms was justified, how would the A2 farmers repay any loans they might have taken? "One just hopes that the government is not using repossession as one of those election campaign tactics, to lure voters with pieces of land that would also be taken away once victory is attained."

The country will be holding joint parliamentary, council and presidential elections in late March and, as happened in 2000 on the eve of another major poll, there are fears that the land issue could be used to sway voters.

The land reform programme coincided with a series of droughts, which hit production and led to livestock deaths. Land was also underutilised by those who lacked the necessary skills to farm, particularly in the case of specialised crops like tobacco.

Most of the farms were carved up into small units, making it difficult for beneficiaries to produce on a large scale, with the new farmers sometimes having to share infrastructure left by the outgoing owners.

However, Moyo had maintained at the time that "Since most of the new farmers don't have adequate finance ... small plots would be the more viable option."

Unfair, say farmers

The new farmers whose land has been repossessed were taken by surprise and are angry. Some cited discrimination. "I don't understand what criteria they used to repossess my farm," said Stanley Banga, 56, who was given a 60ha plot in Goromonzi district, about 50km southeast of Harare, the capital.

"True, I have been struggling to produce adequately, but that cannot be blamed on me. While other managed to get inputs, I had to struggle because I am neither a war veteran nor an active member of the ruling [ZANU-PF] party," he said.

"My only hope is that the authorities will understand ... There was drought, I lost my income and could not access inputs easily. Now it's the heavy rains that have been falling non-stop."

If his plot - largely covered by overgrown grass, except for small patches of maize in the waterlogged fields, with a dilapidated farmhouse left by the previous owner - is taken back, Banga will have nowhere to go.

Zimbabwe: Men in Black Car Harass Paper Vendors

10 February 2008

UNIDENTIFIED men, believed to be State security agents, last week picked up a newspaper vendor and locked him up at State House, for defying a "directive" not to sell private-owned newspapers along Borrowdale Road.

The road leads to President Robert Mugabe's mansion.

The vendor, who was selling The Standard, The Zimbabwe Independent and a number of South African newspapers, was detained for hours at State House, The Standard was told.

The vendors' harassment comes hardly two weeks after the vendors were given a 1 February deadline to leave the road "as they were selling newspapers that attack President Robert Mugabe".

Points from which vendors are "banned" include the corners of Churchill-Borrowdale Roads, Sam Levy's Village and Borrowdale-Harare Drive.

The vendors said last week the alleged agents drove a black car without number plates and asked for the government-owned Herald daily.

When told the paper had not been delivered, they shouted abuse at the vendors.

Zimpapers has failed to provide its titles on the streets on time because of a sharp decline in newsprint supplies.

This has left vendors with only The Zimbabwe Independent, The Standard, and the South African newspapers - all distributed by Munn Marketing.

Nicholas Ncube, Munn Marketing operations manager confirmed the harassment of vendors.

"One vendor was picked up at Borrowdale primary school on Sunday and they took him to State House where he spent some hours," he said.

Ncube said he went to Borrowdale police station to make a report on the harassment of vendors and when he told the officers of agents moving in a black car without number plates and terrorising vendors, the officers said they had "no capacity" to deal with the agents.

Police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka said he was not aware of that report.

"I have checked with Borrowdale police station and they are not aware of that report," he said.

The Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard, the country's remaining independent newspapers, have been critical of Mugabe's rule in the wake of declining living standards and hyperinflation - unprecedented in a country outside a war situation.

Yesterday morning the black car, a Toyota Yaris, was back, this time with number plates (AAW9286).

The sight of the car sent the vendors scurrying for cover.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200802110750.html

[Blacks never tolerate criticism where they have the chance to suppress it. Freedom of speech is a White idea that is utterly foreign to non-Whites including jews.]

New Hope for Zimbabwe

by Tom Woods, Roger Bate and Marian L. Tupy

Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and political repression just keep accelerating. Four million Zimbabweans have now fled the country, and most of the 8 million remaining there face extreme hardship.

Since 1994, average life expectancy in the beleaguered nation has plummeted from 57 years to 34 years for women, and from 54 years to 37 years for men — the shortest lifespans in the world.

And small wonder. Some 3,500 people die every week from the combined effects of HIV/AIDS, poverty and malnutrition. State-sponsored killings and torture of the opposition activists are common as well. More people die in Zimbabwe every week than in Afghanistan, Darfur or Iraq.

Clearly, African leaders — most notably South African President Thabo Mbeki — have failed the people of Zimbabwe. Yet, as the crisis worsens, there is hope that a new regional leadership will address Africa's forgotten tragedy more forcefully. The United States, too, must reconsider its past policy toward Zimbabwe and seize this new opportunity.

[Neocon bilge. New leaders won't make any difference. The problem is subhumans are not capable of running countries. They aren't even capable of keeping from starving to death. Only Whites are fit to exercise political power. It is only the jew-imposed dogma of racial equality that keeps us from realizing and acting on the natural and obvious fact of racial inequality.]

None can fault past U.S. policy, which has featured tough rhetoric and sustained effort to coax the world to act by embracing targeted sanctions. But it's time to change course.

Change in Zimbabwe has always required a healthy dose of reality. There has never been a time like the present to call for a tightening of the noose on the Mugabe regime. The time is now ripe for one simple reason: President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa is heading for the door.

For years, the U.S. State Department has found it way too convenient to "support without reservation" Mr. Mbeki's leadership in resolving the crisis in Zimbabwe. With Mr. Mbeki's departure, State should now admit his "quiet diplomacy" was an unmitigated failure.

Mr. Mbeki's inaction and cavalier attitude to the suffering of the Zimbabwean people has done grave harm to the idea of an "African Renaissance." One can't help but wonder if he ever actually intended to do anything to end the cruelties of Robert Mugabe's reign in Harare.

[Relying on Mbeki is sending a kaffir boy to do a White man's job. There is no such thing as good black leadership. South Africa is rapidly going the way Mugabe's Zimbabwe has already gone.]

There is good reason to hope Mr. Mbeki's replacement, the newly elected African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma, understands the calamity that is unfolding to his north and is willing to take the steps necessary to wake the region from the nightmare that Zimbabwe has become.

For one thing, Mr. Zuma's election would have been impossible without the support of South Africa's powerful trade unions that have close and friendly ties with Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Meanwhile, Washington can do more too. Admittedly, direct U.S. national interest in Zimbabwe is limited, but we can do more to relieve one of the world's greatest humanitarian disasters than simply voice hollow rhetoric.

[We could divert a few million dollars from our failed Iraq campaign to a Rhodie brigade that could seize power and restore the fields to the farmers.]

The time has come to break away from the Mbeki-led talks between the ruling ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front) and the opposition MDC. These talks will never produce a way out of Zimbabwe's political crisis. The talks already are melting down as the MDC sees clearly that Mr. Mugabe does not intend to follow through on reforms that would guarantee free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections in March.

The United States should engage Mr. Zuma and, importantly, the new National Executive Council of the ANC, in discussions on how to create a six-month road map that can lead Zimbabwe through constitutional reforms and toward competitive and internationally monitored elections.

[Elections? What are elections going to do? Elect this nigger or that, it won't make a difference. Blacks are incapable of self rule.]

And now that the long-suffering MDC looks set to finally reunite, the White House should invite their presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, for an Oval Office meeting with President Bush in the next month or so. Mr. Bush is said to be keen to do more about the Zimbabwean crisis. An Oval Office meeting would give Mr. Tsvangirai much-needed international recognition and greater clout at home.

Washington also needs to prepare for a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe. The State Department would do well to intensify its contacts with the opposition.

But long-term planning offers little solace to the suffering people of Zimbabwe. Left alone, the 83-year old dictator will likely outlast many of the hungry and poverty-ridden Zimbabweans he holds captive.

The U.S. can play a more constructive role on Zimbabwe and help it find a way to freedom by publicly and expeditiously parting with the moribund "quiet diplomacy" of Thabo Mbeki.

Tom Woods is a senior associate fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Africa. Roger Bate is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Marian L. Tupy is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed020708a.cfm

Zimbabwe: Inflation at 66000 percent, Mbeki still happy

17 February 2008, 15:38 GMT + 2

ZIMBABWE’s inflation rose to a farcical 66212 percent in December — a number so high as to make it almost impossible for the price of any basic item to stay the same for a day.

Zimbabwe now enjoys the highest inflation rate in the world and its economic policies have become meaningless as prices rise with breathtaking speed.

http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/hartley/2008/02/17/zimbabwe-inflation-at-66000-percent-mbeki-still-happy/

[Below is a standard sort of article on U.S. reaction to Zimbabwe, with our analysis and translations at the bottom.]

Bush: Mugabe Has Ruined Zimbabwe

By Scott Stearns
White House
14 February 2008

President Bush says he is disappointed that South African mediation has failed to ease Zimbabwe's political divisions. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, Mr. Bush spoke to radio reporters on the eve of his second trip to Africa.

Political instability in Zimbabwe was a big issue during the president's first trip to Africa five years ago. Mr. Bush embraced South African President Thabo Mbeki as an honest broker in the political standoff between Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and opponents in the country's pro-democracy movement.

Mr. Mugabe is now looking to extend his 28 years in office in elections next month. The opposition has failed to come together in a unified campaign. Mr. Mugabe's most serious challenger, Simba Makoni, is a former member of his own party.

President Bush says the United States will continue to support freedom in Zimbabwe, denouncing Mr. Mugabe as a "discredited dictator" who has brought misery to his people.

During a White House interview with radio reporters, Mr. Bush was asked by VOA about Zimbabwe's rapid economic decline.

"Zimbabwe used to be a net exporter of food," he said. "Today it is a net importer of food. Mr. Mugabe has ruined a country."

Zimbabwe's official inflation rate, already the world's highest, has now risen to more than 66,000 percent. Price controls introduced last June have had little effect in a country with chronic food and fuel shortages and an unemployment rate of about 80 percent.

Critics blame President Mugabe for economic mismanagement and the poorly handled seizure of white-owned commercial farms. Mr. Mugabe blames sabotage by Western governments led by Britain.

Stephen Morrison is co-director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a private policy research group in Washington. He says President Bush's decision to enlist the aid of the South African leader has failed to change Zimbabwean politics.

"In '03, there was the handoff to Mbeki on Zimbabwe at the very close of the trip, and of course now we're approaching the countdown towards the March elections, and what that will mean, and of course [what] Mbeki's achieved - as we can tell right now – [he] has achieved nothing in terms of getting resolution of that," he said.

President Bush told radio reporters that he is disappointed that the situation in Zimbabwe has gotten worse since his first visit to Africa.

"I was hoping that the South African government would have been more pro-active in its intercession to help the people of Zimbabwe," he added. "It's not anti-anybody. It's pro-people. And that has yet to happen."

The president is scheduled to leave for Africa Friday with stops in Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Liberia, and Ghana.

___________________

[Failure of black African countries is always treated by controlled media and politicians as a matter of personnel or policies, when in fact it has nothing, essentially, to do with them. Blacks are incapable of self-rule. They simply do not have the IQ to manage themselves. Thus, when they are given a functioning White state and economy, they can't sustain it, let alone improve it. But no Western president, serving at behest of jews as they all do, dares mention the underlying reason that all sub-Saharan (that is, black) states are failures: black IQ is too low to self-govern.]

Zimbabwean IQ is put at 66 by the world's foremost IQ expert, Richard Lynn, in his book IQ and the Weath of Nations.* An IQ of 70 is considered retarded. 70 is the average IQ of sub-Saharan Africans, i.e., blacks.

Zimbabwe fails because it is run by retarded negroes with IQs about 35 points less, on average, than those of the Whites who founded and built Rhodesia.

There is no second reason.

[Chart showing IQ of different nations:]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations

[A blog post from "The Audacious Epigone" from October 2006 gives a good view of the situation.]

Whites brace for final blow in Zimbabwe

Things have gone downhill for white farmers in Zimbabwe since they lost the protection of the Lancaster Agreement in 1989. This loss began an affirmative action program of land redistribution in which white farmers had their land turned over to the state. The state then proceded to dole it out to well-connected black friends of the Mugabe regime.

With a staggering unemployment rate of 80%, a quarter of the population infected with HIV, a plummeting economy (GDP shrunk 7% last year), ubiquitous poverty (PPP of $2,300), and international disdain, it appeared that desperation might force Mugabe to stop pillaging the only productive residents he had left. As white farmers fled to a welcoming Mozambique, they hastily turned brush into an agricultural bounty. Zimbabwe tried to get them back as well as letting those who remained stick around.

But such overtures lasted only a few months. By June, the Zimbabwean government began forced 'purchases' of white-owned farmland at about a tenth of fair market value. Given a true inflation rate of over 1,000% (although officially it is said to be 267%), that 10% is cut down again by the same magnitude a year later. People who own real estate and the means of production suffer relatively little from rampant inflation, because as prices for labor and material increase so does the nominal value of the property and the price of the goods or services produced. The worst time to sell real assets is during an inflationary period, because the cash received quickly loses value. So Mugabe really ravaged the whites.

Imagine the government 'buying' your $200,000 house from you for $20,000. A year later, that $20,000 is really worth $2,000. Just like that you go from middle class to destitutely poor.

It's hard to see why any white farmers remain. Understandably a farmer does not want to leave the place he's lived for his entire life. He knows the terrain, the climate, his neighbors. Fleeing doesn't just require abandoning home, it also presents big economic hurdles, as Zimbabwe's economy as computed by its official exchange rate is only 11% of what it is if computed using purchasing power parity. Moving to the developed world essentially cuts his wealth down to a tenth of what it had been before he even starts 'rebuilding' elsewhere.

But southern Africa has become much worse since the end of its colonial days. Zimbabwe is poorer today than it was in 1980 when it gained independence following eight years of bloody civil war. Despite previously having been the breadbasket of Africa with the land and conditions that make an agronomist drool, and contemporarily having two-thirds of its workers employed in agriculture, the country is now a net importer of food. Whites, who make up less than 1% of Zimbabwe's population, have been the last refuge of productivity in the country, but they've now had to pay the price that market-dominant minorities so often do when political control falls into the hands of the majority.

Zimbabwe is about to deal the final blow to the whites it has plundered for decades:

A new law about to pass parliament will, in effect, give the regime power in the next 90 days to dispossess the last few hundred white farmers who still cling to their land.

A couple of white families are trying to appeal the eviction notices they've already received. If they lose, the door is open for Mugabe to take everything:

A constitutional amendment passed last year declared every acre of land that has ever been listed for seizure — about 6,000 white-owned farms in total — the property of the state. That move prevented the owners from having any recourse
to the courts.

The families hope to show that the amendment does not override their right to due process. A white investor wonders why what has already been taken by the rapacious government isn't enough:

After the hearing, Daniel Nel, 44, who was a government-approved South African investor, asked: "I am a white African, so why must I go?" He said: "We are operating on about 20 per cent of the land we used to have, but we still produce
many thousands of tonnes of crops, and do so with government loans. So why do they want us to go?"

Because the white population has about a 35 point average IQ advantage over the rest of Zimbabwe's population. That's a gap wider than the one between Ashkenazi Jews and African Americans stateside. Unfortunately, Zimbabwe's wider population simply cannot compete economically with the white elite. So taking from them is the natural 'solution'. Putatively done for the benefit of the unprivileged black population, the result is a contraction of the economy by a full 40% since just the turn of the century.

There is an ecumenical lesson here about how crucial it is for the numerical majority to also remain the economic majority. When those controlling the economy become a minority, the majority will be moved to take from them. This sobering fact should inform the developed world's immigration policies.

Although the White Man's Burden has become a phrase of derision, we can help Zimbabweans and people all across the sub-Saharan. We can encourage economic transparency and discourage corruption through incentivizing good behavior via international loans and aid, and more importantly, NGOs and foreign governmental agencies should, to the extent that they want to help, devote themselves to distributing nutritional supplements, especially iodine, to as many children as possible. Raising the continent's average IQ ten points will do more for it than any number of wealth transfers, vaccinations, and scholarships for natives to study internationally.

http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2006/10/whites-brace-for-final-blow-in.html

[The technocratic solutions recommended in last paragraphs are so much lipstick on a pig. You can't turn niggers into humans through aid, medicine, education or any other popular cure-all. The "problem" is that Whites allowed themselves to be talked/threatened out of their commanding role, and when their will faltered, they soon had their farms stolen and their heads chopped off - those who didn't flee. Whites must stand firm and never yield to jewsmedia bullying.]

The Ape in Winter

http://www.crisiszimbabwe.org/e107_images/newspost_images/chatunga.png

Poor Whites Struggle by in Zimbabwe

After the departure of many white people, those who remain in the country often face economic hardship.

By Joseph Nhlahla in Bulawayo (AR No. 156, 13-Feb-08)

An elderly white man sits behind the steering wheel of an old van with “National Railways Zimbabwe” emblazoned on its doors. As he and the group of black men with him disembark from the van, people start pointing and passing comments about him.

Slightly unkempt, with a rough beard and a stooping back, the old man trudges to the Bulawayo offices of National Railways Zimbabwe, NRZ - once the envy of other rail companies in sub-Saharan Africa but now a run-down shadow of itself after years of mismanagement.

Someone in the crowd of onlookers at Bulawayo station asks why the old man is still around when so many whites have fled the country to settle elsewhere, after the ruling ZANU-PF threw them off their farms in President Robert Mugabe’s land-grab policy.

Another man says he is surprised the railwayman is actually an employee rather than employing others as has generally been the case in this former British colony.

The responses come fast and furious, “He is from that group of poor whites who have nowhere to go”; “He has no choice but work for the NRZ or he would be out on the streets as a vagrant”; “He never owned a farm because if he did, he would have left the country after it had been taken over by the war veterans.”

Everyone has an explanation for the apparent oddity of a white man holding down a “proper” job alongside blacks. The increasingly common sight of white men working on the railway is taking locals some time to get used to.

The plight of white people has changed ever since Zimbabwe’s current political and economic crisis set in. Some say it began with the seizure of white commercial farmland in 2000.

For many whites, the going has never been this tough since they settled here decades ago.

Although the minority white group continued to enjoy some of its class and race privileges into the post-independence period, members have also borne the brunt of President Mugabe’s anger. He has frequently accused them of stealing African land in the past, and also of working with his political foes to depose him.

In 2003, former government junior minister Jonathan Moyo, who has since fallen out with Mugabe, said whites should leave the country because they were behind the creation of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC.

These accusations stemmed from reports that the MDC was being funded by white commercial farmers, with state television showing footage of MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai allegedly receiving a cheque donation from white farmers.

The white population has plummeted over the last two-and-a-half decades. Following independence from Britain in 1980, some figures put the white population at over a quarter of a million. However, by 2004, various estimates – including the last census - put the figure at under 30,000.

A Bulawayo-based historian and researcher told IWPR that much has changed over the years for whites in Zimbabwe. Those remaining in the country are often there because they have little alternative.

“While whites have always been a minority, their mass exodus after 2000 has meant those who remained may have been less wealthy, with no relations outside Zimbabwe, and unable to relocate,” he said.

As Zimbabwe prepares to go to the polls, the bulk of the white minority is likely to vote for the MDC, as has happened in previous elections.

Yet there are still whites who support ZANU-PF, taking part in national galas organised by the ruling party where songs extolling the virtues of the regime fill the air.

Despite Mugabe’s vitriol towards whites, senior government officials have maintained strong relationships with white business people. Mugabe has also appointed whites to prominent public posts, notably Timothy Stamps, a former health minister who now acts in an advisory capacity in the ministry, and Stuart Hargreaves, the director of veterinary services.

An American professor of journalism working in Bulawayo says whites still enjoy some privileges.

“We still do get preferential treatment,” she said. “We see it in queues where whites who decide to jump the queue are not taken to task; in shops where shop assistants are very ingratiating.”

Hayes Mabweazara, a Zimbabwean academic based in Scotland, said the year 2000 saw whites becoming victims of “reverse racism” which forced many to retreat from public life.

“The post-2000 political upheavals following the farm invasions ignited an unprecedented form of ‘reverse racism’ that naturally forced whites to withdraw from public visibility purely for security reasons. A great many of these lost their relatives and friends in the farm invasions,” he told IWPR.

“Those who have stayed on remain hopeful that one day sanity will prevail and they will find their feet again. It is a particularly sad story for many who have known no life outside Zimbabwe.”

A white missionary priest who adopted Zimbabwean nationality in the Eighties says white citizens still have a place here, despite efforts by the regime to marginalise them.

“While a few remain, whites still have a place and a role to play in the creation of a better Zimbabwe,” said the priest.

“Unfortunately, their involvement in national discourse or politics has been met with hostility by the regime. It is possible that those who were forced to leave the country will come back, but others will obviously decide to move on with their lives in their adopted countries.”

Joseph Nhlahla is the pseudonym of a journalist in Zimbabwe.

http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=hen&s=o&o=l=EN&p=acr&s=f&o=342638

[A look at Mudman Mugabe's dirty tricks...]

How Mugabe’s men plan to sabotage Simba Makoni’s bid for the Presidency.

ZANU PF’s top operatives are wasting no time in setting out to destroy the Makoni campaign before it even gets off the ground. A high level security meeting was held on Wednesday, plans were formulated, and on Thursday a top secret Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) memo was sent out. As usual I was one of the first to see it.

It’s a chilling document. It emanates from the office of the CIO director general Happyton Bonyongwe, it is coded DG/sm11, and it puts all national and provincial security operatives, spies, thugs and bullyboys on “condition red.”

The memo describes Makoni as “too hot to handle”, says that in challenging Zim1 (CIO code for Mugabe) he is posing a big security risk, and adds that the political atmosphere is charged up, and “citizens are restless and ready to vote out Zim1.”

This last is an extraordinary statement. Apparently the top CIO men believe Mugabe could lose. But they are also intent on making sure it doesn’t happen, by all fair, and as you will see if you read on, by all foul means.

The memo essentially summarises the CIO’s anti-Makoni plans. First, the document instructs: “Be advised to temporarily suspend all minor operations in your provinces for RDWK ahead.”

“RDWK”? That was a new one on me. My CIO source who showed me the memo told me that, almost unbelievably, it stands for “Real dirty work.” That certainly makes sense in the light of what follows.

“Assign your trusted operatives to ensure a tough ride for Makoni… Place Makoni, his financial backers and disgruntled civil servants who might support him under top 24 hour surveillance. Employ all RDWK strategies without restraint. Mobilise street kids in urban areas, hire them, then plant them at all Makoni’s rallies to cause violence. The police will be on hand to arrest rioters. Those arrested will be detained in jails until after the elections.”

“Without restraint” are the key words in the above paragraph. We know what that means. Intimidation, violence, beatings…

And for the first time in my experience this document gives written proof of how ZANU PF uses food aid for its political ends. It reads: “In rural areas keep track on Non-Governmental Organisations when distributing relief food. Ensure that no non-card carrying ZANU PF individual gets food. Feed villagers with any tarnishing information on Makoni that you can think of.”

There is more, too much to be contained in this space. It’s all frightening. We know that Simba Makoni is a man of integrity and intelligence. We will soon find out if he is a man of courage. At least if he reads this - or some of his people read it - then he will know a little of what to expect in the coming weeks.

The elections take place on March 29. Not long to go. Ladies and gentlemen, my fellow citizens, to paraphrase an old Chinese curse, we live in interesting times.

http://messagefromafrica.com/2008/02/17/makoni-the-dangers-he-faces/

[Buckle is a delusional liberal who continues to risk her own life by living in Zimbabwe while pretending its problems have nothing to do with race and can be cleared up by voting.]

[Cathy Buckle's February 2008 weekly letters]

We are Ready

Saturday 16th February 2008

Dear Family and Friends, Now is not the time to give up! This is the rallying call in Zimbabwe and its getting louder by the day as elections draw ever closer.

This week I met a friend who had been transferred to a town nearly 400km away. We had not seen each other since August last year and those times, just six months ago, seem like they were from another era. It is hard to believe that back in August inflation had just topped one thousand percent and that now its sixty six thousand percent. Its a percentage so high that none of us can comprehend what it really means. When I last saw my friend in August, a litre of milk was thirty thousand dollars; six months later its five million dollars! My friend isn't surviving on his salary anymore. He can't afford for his wife and child to live with him and he survives only thanks to the subsidies given him by his parents who have a plot in the rural areas. My friend's entire monthly salary is sufficient to buy him a two litre bottle of cooking oil and one loaf of bread. It costs more than his entire monthly salary to travel the 400km back to the town he once lived in, to see his friends and relations.

As is the norm in Zimbabwe today we talked about plans for survival. The usual question that was uppermost in the conversation was: Wouldn't it be better to leave the country? Go somewhere that has food in the shops, water in the taps, regular electricity and where even a menial job earns enough for you to pay your rent and buy a months supply of basic foodstuffs. Despite all the hardships, we agreed that now was not the time to be making decisions and that we must wait till after the elections. Everyone is just trying to hold on until after the elections.

Hope for real change is now less than six weeks away. It is undoubtedly going to be a gruelling six weeks. Since the Africa Cup of Nations football games ended, so too did the supply of electricity and many residential areas are back to fifteen hour a day power cuts. With these come water cuts and with 66 thousand percent inflation come prices that change at least once a day and businesses that are closed more than they are open.

There is a feeling of real anticipation in the air of Zimbabwe and whether it is a protest vote or a ballot for a new democratic order, we stand ready to rebuild our battered land. Despite all the negatives attached to every aspect of the coming elections, we are ready.

Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy.


Offering himself

Saturday 9th February 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been a long and dramatic week in politics in Zimbabwe. Things are changing very fast and some of the news I relate here may well be out of date or have altered completely by the time you read this letter.

The first major development took place last weekend when the two factions of the opposition MDC met to decide if they were going to reunite and stand as one party in the coming elections. Despite everything that has happened to the MDC and their supporters in the last 8 years including murder, rape, torture, abduction and arson, the two factions were not able to agree to stand together to fight Mr Mugabe and Zanu PF. As I write it is still not clear if both factions will be fielding a Presidential candidate or how many individuals they be putting forward for parliament, senate, rural and local council seats. I suppose the inability of the two factions to unite has not come as a surprise to most Zimbabweans but, regardless of the detail or the inevitable finger pointing, it is a sad event for Zimbabwe. So many people, so many sacrifices, such pain - what a shame that in the end, at this most crucial time, the desperate sate of the country could not come first.

The news of the MDC division had hardly got around when it was completely overtaken by the dramatic news of a serious challenge within the ruling Zanu PF party. A Presidential challenge no less! Simba Makoni, the ex Minister of Finance, long time Zanu PF member and presently sitting on the Politburo, addressed a news conference on Tuesday. Saying that he had consulted widely and across the board, Mr Makoni said he was accepting the call of the people and offering himself as a candidate for President of Zimbabwe. His short speech was realistic and down to earth. Simba Makoni said: " Let me confirm that I share the agony and anguish of all citizens over the extreme hardships that we all have endured for nearly 10 years now. I also share the widely held view that these hardships are a result of failure of national leadership and that change at that level is a pre-requisite for change at other levels of national endeavour."

Almost as one Zimbabwe drew breath.

Naturally the rumours and speculation that have followed this historic announcement have almost overwhelmed us. Is Simba Makoni expelled from Zanu PF?

Is he standing as an Independent. Has he got a political party waiting in the wings?

Is he a threat to Mr Mugabe?

Will other senior Zanu PF members now come out in the open and support Mr Makoni?
Is this the end of Zanu PF as we know it?

Is this going to split the Zanu PF vote? Will it have an impact on the MDC vote?

The most pressing question on everyone's lips has been : is Simba Makoni genuine? As each day has passed and the attacks on Simba Makoni by the State propaganda have increased to greater heights, they have perhaps even answered the question with their own vitriol. In one classic editorial in The Herald came the predictable and groaningly familiar blaming of the West - so insulting to the intelligence of Zimbabweans. The editorial said: "one does not have to be a seer to see that Simba has just subscribed to megaphone politics by giving a black face to the voices from the White House and Whitehall."

In the middle of all of the upheaval came the announcement that the date for nominating candidates had been moved back another week and so, again we wait and we watch. Certainly whoever Simba Makoni represents and whatever positions the two branches of the MDC take, the events of this past week may well have broken the apathy that is suffocating Zimbabwean voters. I join the call of others and urge Zimbabweans, wherever you are and if you are still on the voters roll to please come home and vote on the 29th March.

Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy.


A Daunting Task

Saturday 2nd February 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

What is happening in Kenya is making us very nervous here in Zimbabwe. A disputed election result; over 800 people killed; 250 thousand displaced and a stable and prosperous country spiralling into chaos in just a single month. As the violence and killing has gone on day after day, it soon become obvious that this wasn't just about a questionable election result, but about a number of past disputes and old grievances that had never been resolved. Its also about poverty, unemployment and inequality - all factors that are predominant in Zimbabwe's chronic situation.

Everyone is asking if what's happened in Kenya could be us in two months time and as fast as we shake our heads and say, no, that won't happen here - its hard to find reasons why not.

For eight years we've been a country in deep turmoil. Opposition MP David Coltart wrote recently that of the 39 parliamentary election challenges brought after the June 2000 elections, not one had been concluded by the courts at the end of that term in 2005. He went on to say that the 2002 legal challenge to Robert Mugabe's election as President was also nowhere close to being concluded - and this term ends in just two months time in March 2008.

The election challenges are just the beginning. To this day the perpetrators of hundreds of cases of rape, murder, abduction, arson and torture - all committed in the name of political violence since 2000 - have yet to be brought to justice for their crimes.

Aside from the court challenges, political violence and oppressive legislation, it is the day to day things that have bought most people to the end of their tether. Everyone has had enough of living like this: no food in the shops; negligible production from all those thousands of farms grabbed by the State; electricity and water cuts that go on for days at a time, or worse; not being able to get drugs when we are sick; not being able to afford to send children to school; not even being able to get our own money out of the bank. In urban areas we are fed up with municipalities who take our money but do nothing about sewers overflowing onto the streets, dustbins not collected for many months, drains and roadside vegetation not cleared, long grass not cut and roads so littered with potholes and gullies as to be almost unusable.

There are plenty of reasons why one more disputed election may just be one too many here. This mayhem began in February 2000 when Zanu PF lost a referendum. They have had eight years of chances just as the people have had eight years of suffering and decline. Within the next week candidates for the elections have to be announced and in them the hope for the future lies and the prevention of another Kenya. A daunting task indeed.

Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy.

http://cathybuckle.com/february2008.shtml

Saturday 23rd February 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

Headline news on the propaganda mill one day this week was that three trillion Zimbabwe dollars had been raised for President Mugabe's 84th birthday party. I thought about what you could do with that much money but before I could work it out I had to check in a dictionary just exactly how much a trillion was.

My sources say that a billion is a thousand million and a trillion is a million million. This means that for the President's birthday celebration being held in Beitbridge, there is a pile of money which on paper is a 3 followed by 12 zeroes. Even in Zimbabwe's collapsed state, 3 trillion dollars is a huge amount of money. It didn't take long before my kitchen table was littered with bits of scrap paper covered with handwritten sums. Why didn't I just use a calculator you might ask? That's simple, there are too many digits and so this sum had to be done by hand.

The calculations took some time to perform and the results were shocking. For three trillion dollars I could buy three million kilograms of maize meal at the present Grain Marketing Board price of a million dollars a kg. This, of course, is assuming that the GMB had any maize meal for sale, which they say they haven't. Allowing half a kg of maize meal per person, 6 million Zimbabweans, half the population of the country, could have had one decent meal with the President's birthday party money. A friend who is far more mathematically minded than me, and had more patience with all those lines of zeroes, worked the figures out a different way. 85 trucks, each holding 35 tonnes of maize, could have been filled with the three trillion dollars of birthday party money.

Moving away from the dollars, I went in search of ingredients usually found at a birthday party. Three major supermarket chains which have outlets all over the country were visited. The cake came first on my list but there was no flour, sugar, margarine, baking powder, milk or eggs in any of the supermarkets.

Puddings and sweet treats were next on my list but there was no jelly, instant pudding, custard, biscuits or tarts to buy. Sandwiches, I thought, they are good for parties but there was no bread or rolls, no spread, cheese, cold meats or sandwich fillings to buy. What about a hot meal I thought but there was no maize meal, rice, pasta or potatoes and so that idea was also a non starter.

The shopping list and the search for ingredients was a pointless exercise but at least it was easier than trying to understand the latest official inflation figures. In January 2008 inflation was one hundred thousand, five hundred and eighty percent - it is the stuff of hellish nightmares and the reason why we parents can't sleep at night.

Trying to understand three trillion dollars was utterly absurd for an ordinary mum in a collapsed country. Hardest of all though was knowing that half the population of the country could have gone to bed tonight on a full stomach if the birthday party had been sacrificed for the suffering, hungry people of a country whose 84 year old ruler has been in power for almost 28 years.

Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy.

http://cathybuckle.com/february2008.shtml

Zimbabwe Leader Celebrates 84th Birthday

BEITBRIDGE, Zimbabwe (AP) — President Robert Mugabe vowed Saturday that "there will never be regime change" as he celebrated his 84th birthday at a rally ahead of elections next month.

The bash in the southern town of Beitbridge on the border with South Africa cost 3 trillion Zimbabwe dollars — the equivalent of about $250,000 at the dominant black market exchange rate.

Opponents blame Mugabe for an economic meltdown that has left Zimbabwe with acute shortages of gasoline, hard currency, food and most basic goods. The official rate of annual inflation rose to 100,580 percent in January — the highest in the world.

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980, lashed out at the country's "enemies" who have criticized his presidency, including the U.S. and Britain.

"There will never be regime change here ... Never," he said Saturday.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9f5JNCxd45cUp1B29UgmVoHrc3wD8V09TPO0

[China moves in]

CHINA and Zimbabwe yesterday signed a $42 million loan facility for local agro-business concern Farmers' World to implement the second phase of the farm mechanisation programme.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200802230018.html



China is courting Zimbabwe for investment and exploration opportunities in the gold and platinum mining sectors following a visit there by the Chinese deputy minister of Commerce and a 22 member delegation comprising experts in the mining, exploration and trade sectors.

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page67?oid=47974&sn=Detail

[Having done so well with the farms, Mudmadman Mugabe wants the mines too]

President Robert Mugabe who has presided over Zimbabwe's eight year economic meltdown epitomised by an annual inflation rate of over 100,000 percent, has poured cold water on moves made by mining sector stakeholders in a bid to reverse the country's draconian mines indigenization legislation. The 84 year old ruler said that the government would not relent nor go back on its plans to empower locals and that it will still go ahead and give them over 50 percent of shareholding in foreign mining companies.

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page36?oid=47916&sn=Detail

- Zimbabwe's economy has plummetted since the late 1990's, shrinking by 30 percent over the past eight years

- unemployment is at 80%

[Daily life in Zimbabwe]

"There's no mealie meal in the stores," she said, referring to the finely ground cornmeal used to make sadza, the porridge that is Zimbabwe's staple food.

The smallest bag costs 12 million Zimbabwean dollars on the black market, more than her weekly earnings, said Mukwena, a widow who is raising her two children on her meager earnings selling snacks on a street corner. When the mealie meal runs low, she feeds her family nothing more than a thin gruel made with the leftovers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/23/AR2008022302304.html

http://www.thetrumpet.com/cache/002809_id2809.0w360h240.jpg


Is Zimbabwe-style Inflation Coming to America?

February 22, 2008

From theTrumpet.com

Elements of “Zimbabwe economics” are sounding eerily familiar. By Robert Morley

In Zimbabwe, inflation is measured by the hour, not month-over-month as in America and the rest of the developed world.

Zimbabwe’s few remaining merchants update their price tags four, five, or more times a day—that is, when shipments arrive on time, or haven’t been hijacked. For many people, life is a struggle just to get their paycheck to the store quickly enough so that it doesn’t lose value before it can be spent. Life is even harder for the millions who no longer have jobs at all—destroyed by an economy in meltdown.

A report released by Zimbabwe’s Central Statistical Office indicates that the inflation rate for the month of January, as measured by the All-items Consumer Price Index, stood at a practically incomprehensible 100,580 percent.

http://www.thetrumpet.com/?q=4860.3130.0.0

Niglet begged this money.

http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/WORLD/africa/02/22/mugabe.birthday/art.zimbab.kid.ap.jpg

Meanwhile, the Jesuit-trained, Western-educated, seven-degreed Christian Mugabe partied like it was 1999. Or he was 99. Or something. Actually he turned 84.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news_images/20080224/p2a.jpg

HARARE - Two youths were brutalized by guards at President Robert Mugabe’s Gushungo Farm in Banket on Tuesday, sustaining severe injuries.

The two, who were on Friday admitted to Parirenyatwa Hospital, said they were accosted by two police officers as they walked along a road adjacent to Mugabe’s farm and accused of planning to steal the president’s diesel.

They were actually going to fetch water with jerry cans because of a critical water shortage in Banket.

One Inspector Mupambi, of the police’s intelligence arm, PISI, led the attack.

Showing deep soft tissue bruising on their buttocks and soles of their feet, the youths (who requested anonymity fearing a backlash) told The Zimbabwean that, despite pleading their innocence and showing the officers their empty jerry cans, they were handcuffed and frog marched to Banket, almost five kms away.

“Mupambi would drive his car for 500m, stop and beat us up with baton sticks on our buttocks and soles of our feet,” said one of the tearful youths. “He was beating us up holding the baton stick with both hands to ensure maximum impact.”

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11267:cops-thrash-yoiths-at-mugabes-farm&catid=31:top%20zimbabwe%20stories&Itemid=66

Interesting factoids on Zim:

I recently read an article about how the nog women headed to the maternity ward were met by a sign stating that they had to bring three candles with them. No candles, no light for the docs to see by, and no service.

Also, Mugabe is known for racing down the streets in a huge motorcade. If you move prior to its passing, you get shot.

There's more shit on Zim, but I just happened to recall those two. Getting rid of White farmers might be the best thing to ever happen to Zim. Reduces the nigger population.

Fun fact: At independence in 1980, the Zimbabwean dollar was worth about one U.S. dollar.

Recently, the state-controlled newspaper raised its cover price to 3 million Zimbabwean dollars.

Fun Fact: At independence in 1980, the Zimbabwean dollar was worth about one U.S. dollar.

Recently, the state-controlled newspaper raised its cover price to 3 million Zimbabwean dollars.

...

A Zimbabwean friend who runs a business recently told me, "If you don't get a bill collected in 48 hours, it isn't worth collecting, because it is worthless. Whenever we get money, we must immediately spend it, just go and buy what we can. Our pension was destroyed ages ago. None of us have any savings left."

...

Mugabe manages to pay off his military leaders and political cronies with hard currency that comes from mining gold and platinum. He also sells farmland to Chinese and Libyan speculators - land expropriated from white farmers, supposedly in the cause of Zimbabwean nationalism. Mugabe is literally putting his country on the block to maintain his power.


http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/feb/23/na-killing-a-nation-by-printing-money/

http://www.threesources.com/archives/Mugabe%20Shrugs.bmp

http://www.lutheranworld.org/Images/LWF_Photos/Photos_DWS/DWS-Countries_Photos/DWS-Zimbabwe-Nyungu-big.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/08/world/08zimbabwe.xlarge1.jpg

http://boingboing.net/images/800px-LocationZimbabwe.svg.png

http://www.appliedlanguage.com/flags_of_the_world/large_flag_of_zimbabwe.gif

http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/pics/images/DSCF0161_JPG.jpg

http://geology.com/world/satellite-image-of-zimbabwe.jpg

http://www.andygilham.com/zimbabwe/zimbabwe%20012.jpg

Police chief living in farmhouse, despite restraining order



By Tererai Karimakwenda
February 22, 2008

We received a report from Chiredzi that a police chief has invaded a cane
farm, owned by commercial farmers Digby and Jess Nesbitt, and is living in
their farmhouse, alongside the owners, with his family and about 15 members
of the youth militia. The property has been home to the Nesbitts for more
than 20 years.
Digby said that Assistant Police Inspector Veterai moved in with his cronies
despite a restraining court order banning him from doing so until a hearing
of the case, scheduled for March 10th.

This situation has gone on for about 4 weeks now while the local police
ignore pleas by the Nesbitts to enforce the court order. The Nesbitts are
challenging their eviction and Digby said he had already given up two other
ranches they owned because he believed that he should try to cooperate with
the government and its 'land reform programme.' This left him with a farm of
about 120 hectares of land.

But some months ago Veterai produced an eviction letter saying he could take
part of the farm. Late last month he produced another letter which said he
could seize the entire property. Digby said at this point he spoke to the
Governor of Masvingo province and was told that Veterai's eviction letters
had been obtained fraudulently. This encouraged him to take the matter to
court, where he received the restraining order which is being ignored by the
police inspector.

On the first day at the house, Veterai pulled a gun and threatened to shoot
their dogs. When Jess cried, he pointed the gun at her. He then threw a loud
party that lasted for two days and there was lots of beer and people going
in and out of the house. The police inspector is also fond of sitting at the
Nesbitts dining room table, with a whole array of guns laid out before him.

Asked why he has chosen to stay under such threatening conditions, Digby
said: "It's the principle of it. What they are doing is contrary to what
every government minister and official I have spoken to has said. Every one
of them has said this is wrong and it should not happen."

The disregard for the rule of law by top officials in Zimbabwe is nothing
new, especially on the commercial farms. Top military, police, government
and intelligence officials have been evicting white farmers illegally, with
impunity.

The victims have failed to get any justice in Zimbabwe. As we reported, this
is why another farmer in the same area has taken his case to the SADC
Tribunal in Namibia. It is hoped that the farmer will get justice there when
the case is heard next month. Only time will tell, as the case will be the
regional court's first ever.

http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/feb23_2008.html

http://graphics.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2008/01/23/1201145445_6646/539w.jpg

http://www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au/cartoons/new/2003-02-06%20Mugabe%20takes%20up%20cricket%20Zimbabwe%201m.JPG

http://www.paulvanroekel.nl/picasa/lightboxdemo/images/zimbabwe_hwange_national_park.jpg

http://grandcanyon.free.fr/images/cascade/original/Victoria%20Falls,%20Zimbabwe.jpg

Harare - Fires caused by candles during Zimbabwe's frequent power outages have destroyed homes because firefighters have also been unable to find water, the state Sunday Mail reported. In one incident, in suburban northern Harare, a candle set curtains alight and an occupant tore down them down and threw them outside, onto drums being used to store gasoline. The house was gutted, with only a bed recovered from the ruins, the paper said. In the second, gasoline was being sold from a house occupied by four families in a western township and caught light when a candle was lit during an electricity cut, it said. All the occupants escaped without injury. House owner Sothini Chiravasa told the newspaper by the time fire tenders began drawing water from a neighbor's swimming pool the blaze was out of control. "How could they come to put out a fire without water?" she was quoted as saying. Zimbabwe is suffering daily power and water outages along with chronic shortages of gasoline that have forced many householders to store supplies in containers despite constant warnings by the fire department of the dangers. Amid the shortages, gas prices have soared, crippling public transport services and putting regular fares out of the reach of many workers, many of whom have resorted to walking to their jobs.

According to the main labor federation, many workers have formed "walking clubs" from satellite townships into cities that set out as early as 4 a.m. and cover more than 20 kilometers a day. The Sunday Mail quoted office employee Grace Choruma saying she sold peanut butter and other items to her workmates to help pay her commuter fares to work. The paper said bus operators were increasing fares after failing to obtain subsidized fuel from the state fuel agency and being forced to buy it on the black market at up to 10 million Zimbabwe dollars a liter. The official media reported last week some bus services were brought to a halt by gas shortages that forced drivers to pass a hat around asking for donations from passengers so as to buy black market fuel. In economic meltdown, Zimbabwe has the world's highest official inflation at an estimated 24,000 per cent. But the International Monetary Fund and independent financial institutions say real inflation is closer to 150,000 percent. The Sunday Mail, meanwhile, apologized to readers for reducing its number of pages and copies available Sunday, because of acute shortages of newsprint.

http://zimbabwe-news.blogspot.com/

http://ginacobb.typepad.com/gina_cobb/images/2007/10/03/zimbabwe_out_of_bread.jpg

http://www.abeobengals.com/zimbabwe1.jpg

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2007/06/29/weekpix/zimbabwe-dollar.jpg

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/01_04/tsvangirai1EPA_468x280.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/silverbeam/CSM%20Blog/zimbabwe.jpg

As Zim government carries on with its maniacal policies of deliberately getting rid of all the white farmers, for the sake of claiming they have done it for the good of the country, a candle still burns, and one day things will be reversed. The Sadc Tribunal, is the last hope we have of reversing this stupidity and was the only course Cambell could have taken ie., if our Supreme couldn't make a decision - go to the Sadc Supreme, which is exactly what Cambell did, the first time anyone had taken this action. Let's see now, what the African States will do about it.

Attached,is a typical Warn & Caution statement that farmers have at hand when they are approached by a government official, usually accompanied by a large mob at hand to accompanying the bearer

I don't have to mention just how difficult it is to carry on farming under these conditions - living under a cloud with all this crap that goes on virtually on a daily basis. The government have already turned a blind eye last month on the Sadc ruling that Mike Cambell should be allowed to stay on the farm until the Tribunal meets in March in Windhoek. So, the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, who couldn'nt make a decision earlier in April last year (mainly as the Judges themselves had aquired farms), only gave their decision after the Sadc Court's had made, regarding the 'stay of execution' order decision. Mugabe, if he plays his cards as he usually does, will tell the world to go and get stuffed. We all know why he continually does this - he dare not be toppled! If he is, he knows that the same fate as what happened to Saddam awaits him, so, he'll hang on and on backed by his now extremely wealthy cohorts, using whatever means he can.

But then - no one lives forever and apart from that, the Sadc countries themselves, will be obliged to react against a fellow state who signed and agreed to honour the Sadc Supreme Court's decision, some years ago

If, and I have every reason to believe that Cambell will win his case in Windhok, the whole question of the Zimbabaweans Governments actions against all the displaced farmers, will have been deemed illegal!

This then, will open the doors to the compensation issue which all of us who have lost everything, have been waiting for and we all must make sure that we have our ducks are in a row, reference our compensation claims.
:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl
Election time is just around the corner, so life here, is going to be very interesting indeed.

Keep well
Eric

http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=22479&

New Hope for Zimbabwe

by Tom Woods, Roger Bate and Marian L. Tupy

Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and political repression just keep accelerating. Four million Zimbabweans have now fled the country, and most of the 8 million remaining there face extreme hardship.

Since 1994, average life expectancy in the beleaguered nation has plummeted from 57 years to 34 years for women, and from 54 years to 37 years for men — the shortest lifespans in the world.

And small wonder. Some 3,500 people die every week from the combined effects of HIV/AIDS, poverty and malnutrition. State-sponsored killings and torture of the opposition activists are common as well. More people die in Zimbabwe every week than in Afghanistan, Darfur or Iraq.


Mr. Mbeki's inaction and cavalier attitude to the suffering of the Zimbabwean people has done grave harm to the idea of an "African Renaissance."

"the idea of an "African Renaissance."

Heh-heh, you must be high. "African Renaissance" is the funniest oxymoron I've ever heard.
What will it take for these PC liberals to admit they were wrong about niggers?

Meanwhile, the Jesuit-trained, Western-educated, seven-degreed Christian Mugabe partied like it was 1999.

The xtian Mugabe and his ZANU-PF partied like it was 1929, heh.

It's hard to believe that in just a few short years, Rhodesia was turned into that. It makes even Detroit look civilized. :eek: It's just proof that niggers can't run anything, and they'll always be nothing but savage beasts, whether they're in The UK, Australia or The Kwa.

To any anti's that might be browsing the forum: take a long hard look at that, which is the future of Amerikwa.

Obama will turn the once prosperous nation into a garbage dump and the laughing stock of the world all the while he mutters "muh dik, muh dik, MUH DIK!". T.N.B.

keywords: America, Amerikwa, Amerika, The Kwa, Obama, Barrack, anti, jew, nigger, savage, beast, monkey,

The Failure of Democracy in Africa
by Mukui Waruiru - a black Kenyan conservative
February 2008


[...]

In the 1960s, American conservatives were outspoken against the wave of decolonization and democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa, that was being pushed by the United States and the former Soviet Union. William F. Buckley, in his book, "Up From Liberalism" wrote:

"We see in the revolt of the masses in Africa the mischief of the white man's abstractions: for the West has, by its doctrinaire approval of democracy, deprived itself of the moral base from which to talk back to the apologists of rampant nationalism.. Democracy, to be successful, must be practiced by politically mature people among whom there is a consensus on the meaning of life within their society. If the majority wills what is socially atavistic, then to thwart the majority may be the indicated, though concededly the undemocratic, course. It is more important for a community, wherever situated geographically, to affirm and live by civilized standards than to labour at the job of swelling the voting lists".

Buckley tried to make the distinction between universal suffrage and freedom, in his analysis of the conditions in the American South before the passage of Civil Rights legislation, which he compared to colonial rule in Africa:

"Does the vote really make one free? I do not believe it necessarily does. Being able to vote is no more to have realized freedom than being able to read is to have realized wisdom. Reasonable limitations upon the vote are not recommended exclusively by tyrants or oligarchs (was Jefferson either?). The problem of the South is not how to get the vote for the Negro, but how to train the Negro - and a great many whites - to cast a thoughtful vote"

Buckley was however careful to distinguish his position in opposing universal franchise in the American South, from that of the southern segregationists who advanced genetic arguments in opposing black voting rights in the South:

"There are no scientific grounds for assuming congenital Negro disabilities. The problem is not biological, but cultural and educational" [This is factually wrong. The black African IQ averages no higher than 70, which is too low to sustain what Whites call civilization]

Today, if one was to argue in favour of restrictions to the right to vote, one would be labelled as an enemy of freedom. But, as we have seen in Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and in much of Black Africa , democracy does not necessarily lead to freedom. With hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fleeing their country as a result of the violence that has engulfed that nation, can anyone seriously suggest that Iraqis are freer today than they were under Saddam Hussein? Are the nations of Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo freer today, than they were under colonial rule?

The state governments that existed in the American South during the Jim Crow era discredited the respectable and honourable Western tradition of placing reasonable restrictions on who to allow to vote. Putting restrictions on the vote using poll taxes, literacy tests, and property ownership qualifications, has helped many Western nations to preserve liberty and order for centuries. But Southern state governments in the post-Reconstruction era applied such restrictions unfairly, in a manner which was blatantly discriminatory on the basis of race. In the early part of the 20th Century, Booker T. Washington called on black Americans to work hard to improve their educational and economic status, in order to more fully participate in the American political process. But by denying educated and financially successful Blacks access to the ballot, the state governments of the South destroyed Washington's vision of building racial harmony in America . As a result, divisive demagogues like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have risen to prominence, and shape the agenda on race relations in America today.

Universal suffrage is a very recent development in the West. Britain attained universal suffrage only in 1928, when all adults over the age of 21 were allowed to vote. A century earlier, voting in Britain was limited to a tiny percentage of the adult male population. The Tories held power from 1783 to 1830, a 46 year stretch that was only briefly interrupted in 1806-1807. Charles Grey finally took over as a Whig Prime Minister in 1830. He passed the Reform Act in 1832, which significantly expanded the percentage of male citizens who were allowed to vote. The 1832 reforms gave one in five adult males the right to vote. The property qualifications for voting were gradually lowered over the decades, enfranchising more and more people, before they were finally abolished in 1928. During this time, the educational, social, and cultural level of the British masses was gradually raised, which enabled a successful transition to majority rule without destabilizing the social order.

In the United States, the founding fathers set out to create a constitutional republic, not a pure democracy. At the time the Constitution was adopted, half of the white adult male population could not meet the property qualification for voting in elections. Because women could not vote, that meant that only 25 percent of the white citizens of the US were entitled to vote. The U.S. finally gained the universal franchise in 1965, where adult citizens of both genders and all races were given the right to vote. By this time, the majority of American families were middle-class people who owned their homes-and therefore, such a measure did not threaten the stability of the market economy. Given that Britain and the US took so long to build well-functioning democratic systems, it is unrealistic to expect African nations to have set up successful democratic societies, given the high poverty rates and the low levels of civilization of most of the population.

Classical liberals have long said that one cannot build a free society without putting in place a political system that protected property rights. The 17th Century English philosopher, John Locke, asserted that the prerequisites for a free society were the protection of life, liberty, and property. Locke did not limit his definition of property to material goods, but included as a form of property the ownership of one's labour. Twentieth century Communists understood that, by abolishing private property through nationalization, they would completely strip private citizens of their means of self-support and independence, reducing them to the status of slaves. This led to a situation where people living under Communism were completely dependent on the government for their very survival, which allowed the government to control every aspect of their lives.

With this understanding of liberalism, Ian Douglas Smith, the former Prime Minister of Rhodesia , can be rightly regarded as Africa's first classical liberal revolutionary. In 1965, he led a revolution for freedom, when he initiated the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) of Rhodesia from Britain. The UDI was intended to preserve Christianity, freedom, and civilization. For that courageous action, Smith became one of the most vilified men in history, and his country was subjected to comprehensive United Nations economic sanctions in 1966. He was falsely labelled as a racist and white supremacist. But, unlike the architects of apartheid in neighbouring South Africa , he has never supported claims that blacks are inherently inferior. However, like Buckley, Smith recognized that the low levels of education and cultural development of most of the blacks, made the establishment of a successful pure democracy a difficult undertaking.

In addition, there were numerous previous examples of failed attempts to establish pure democracies in Africa, from Guinea and Ghana , to Nigeria and Uganda , and there was good reason to expect that Rhodesia would follow a similarly tragic path if the universal franchise was extended. Facing a possible future of either a Marxist dictatorship or anarchy, the Rhodesian leadership declared independence and prevented Britain from imposing majority rule in the colony.

The lives, liberty, and property of people of all races in Rhodesia were preserved. Smith was motivated by the desire to uphold the historical Anglo-Saxon tradition of limiting the vote to that segment of the population that would be able to use it responsibly. The Rhodesian UDI of 1965 was modelled on the American Declaration of Independence of 1776, and the Rhodesians had great respect and admiration for America. However, the Rhodesian admiration for America was not reciprocated, and the U.S. joined the rest of the world in denouncing and isolating a friendly country. Rhodesia did not have rigid racial segregation The Rhodesian government was unfairly compared to the segregationist state governments of the American South, and to South Africa under apartheid rule.

However, Rhodesia did not have the rigid racial segregation that characterized those two other systems of government, and Blacks were allowed to vote in Rhodesian elections. Blacks were allowed to have 16 seats in the 66 member Rhodesian parliament, while whites held 50 seats. Voting was limited to those who could meet the literacy and property ownership qualifications, just like in Britain and the United States in the relatively recent past. Rhodesia was a limited democracy, not a pure democracy.

It was expected that, with time, as black Rhodesians became better educated and more prosperous, they would gradually gain greater representation in the Rhodesian Parliament. Eventually, white and black Rhodesians would share power in the Rhodesian Parliament, under a 50-50 arrangement. This position fell short of majority rule. But since the whites had created and built the country, and were expected to pay a disproportionate share of the taxes even in the future, this arrangement seemed to be fair. Many white and black Rhodesians felt that this power sharing model would prevent Rhodesia from becoming a Marxist dictatorship like Nkrumah's Ghana , or deteriorating into the chaos of the democratic republics of Congo and Somalia. But the international community would not accept anything less than black majority rule.

Rhodesia a successful limited democracy. By the mid 1970s, Rhodesia had, proportionally, the largest black middle-class in Africa , and it was growing rapidly. This was despite the fact that Rhodesia was under U.N. economic sanctions, and the government was spending vast sums of money waging a war against Marxist terrorists, who were based in neighbouring Mozambique and Zambia . Despite those challenges, Rhodesia was a successful limited democracy, governed by the rule of law, having independent courts, and a multiparty system of government. The leader of the official opposition in parliament was black, and he and other black members of parliament were able to openly criticize Prime Minister Smith and his government for what they felt were their shortcomings. This was in stark contrast to the situation in the rest of Africa , where one-party dictatorial rule was the norm, and criticism of the president was equated with treason.

Legitimate Rhodesian government denied recognition by West. In 1979, a power-sharing agreement between white Rhodesians and their moderate black allies was arrived at. Free and fair elections were held under universal suffrage, which led to black majority rule, but there were strong guarantees put in place to protect white minority rights. The new government was headed by the moderate black clergyman, Abel Muzorewa, and he was committed to maintaining Rhodesia's capitalist system and its economic prosperity. However, Muzorewa's government was denied recognition by the West, and Rhodesia remained under U.N. economic sanctions. U.S. President Jimmy Carter and British Prime Minister James Callaghan, demanded new elections that would include the participation of terrorist leaders who did not believe in the democratic process.

New elections were held in 1980, and the Maoist terrorist Robert Mugabe won the vote through appeals to tribal sentiment and by intimidating rural voters in the Shona-dominated provinces. Mugabe was a devoted student of Kwame Nkrumah, having lived and worked in Nkrumah's Ghana in the late 1950s, where he closely observed how his mentor managed his government. Since 1980, Rhodesians (now called Zimbabweans), have had less freedom than they ever had under Smith.

The economy of Zimbabwe gradually declined from 1980 to 1999. In the year 2000, the Mugabe regime launched the infamous invasions of white-owned farms that completely destroyed the country's agriculturally-based economy. Ironically, the Zimbabwean government already owned millions of acres of land, which it could have re-distributed to poor blacks, without touching the white-owned farms. But Mugabe did not want a sensible solution to the land question. He was driven by the desire to punish white Zimbabweans for supporting the emerging opposition party, known as the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

As anyone with knowledge of the situation in Zimbabwe knows, Mugabe never had any intention of helping Zimbabwe's poor, despite his rhetoric on the issue. The black middle-class, which had thrived under Smith, has now been almost completely wiped out. Just as the Bolsheviks of the former Soviet Union enslaved the Russian people by abolishing private property, Mugabe is now in the process of seizing privately-owned business enterprises, just as he seized the white-owned commercial farms. Instead of condemning Mugabe, corrupt African politicians view Mugabe as some sort of hero, for his defiance of the West.

Out of concern for Africa's future, I founded the African Conservative Forum (ACF) in May, 2007. My organisation seeks not just the downfall of the Mugabe regime, but the complete dismantling of the disastrous Marxist legacy that Nkrumah and Mugabe have bequeathed to Africa. One of the major tasks that I plan to undertake is the distribution of 10,000 copies of Ian Smith's autobiography, The Great Betrayal, to African legislators, civil servants, academics, journalists, university students, diplomats and others. Individuals or organizations that may be interested in assisting in this important task, can contact me.

Reading Smith's memoirs changed my life. His book helped to make me a conservative. If African intellectuals were to get an opportunity to read his autobiography, they would realize, as I did, that the true freedom fighter from Rhodesia is Ian Smith, not Robert Mugabe. Once they learn about the link between property and freedom, and how pure democracy and political independence do not necessarily translate into freedom, then they would get a true idea of what freedom is all about.

If there is any African leader who deserves a presidential library, it is Ian Smith. His memoirs spell out how Africa can move forward to a future of liberty and prosperity. It is often said that prophets are not honoured in their home countries. Smith can accurately be described as a prophet, because he predicted disaster for Rhodesia once it came under the control of the communist terrorist, Robert Mugabe.

Many people who opposed Smith in the past are finally coming to realize how right he was. In the British Sunday Times newspaper of September 23, 2007, Judith Todd, a left-liberal human rights activist who was one of Smith's most outspoken opponents in the 1970s, now admits that "Mugabe was rotten from the start".

Not surprisingly, the Marxist government of Zimbabwe viciously attacks Smith's legacy in the history books and in the state-controlled media. But what is more difficult to understand is the reaction of the brave men and women who make up the opposition to the Mugabe regime, whenever the UDI era is mentioned. Zimbabwean opposition activists, both white and black, make strenuous efforts to distance themselves from Smith, out of fear of being labelled lackeys of the colonialists by the Mugabe regime.

The minds of the Zimbabwean people have been so poisoned against Smith, that it seems highly unlikely that he will receive the honour he truly deserves, even if the opposition comes to power in the next general elections scheduled for 2008. I often dream about building an Ian Smith Library here in Nairobi, where I would be able to educate future generations of African leaders about Smith's admirable legacy. But I guess, given the high cost of such a project, it will remain an impossible dream.

In 1980, when Mugabe came to power, Rhodesia had a GDP per capita that was comparable to that of Malaysia. Today, Malaysia is hailed around the world as one of East Asia's great economic success stories, and is a newly industrialized country that manufactures goods of all sorts. Yet, in 1980, Rhodesia had economic policies that were more business-friendly than those of Malaysia , and a civil service that was far more honest and efficient than Malaysia's. Both nations are former British colonies, and have a public service modelled on that of Britain.

Where would Rhodesia be today, if Ian Smith's vision of power-sharing rather than majority rule, had come to pass? I will try to hazard a guess. Rhodesia would have experienced an economic boom without precedent in Africa's history, with impressive double-digit growth in the 1980s, 1990s, and beyond. The white population would probably be double what it was in 1980, growing from 250,000 to 500,000. This would have been partly as a result of natural increase, because of the lower costs of raising children in Rhodesia. Many of the hundreds of thousands of Portuguese settlers who fled from the Communist revolutions in Angola and Mozambique would have moved to Rhodesia. There would also have been some immigration from South Africa, as well as from many Western nations, attracted by Rhodesia's pleasant climate and promising economic future. All those whites would have brought useful skills that would have benefited the country immensely.

Interestingly, the dynamism of the free market would have reduced the racial disparities in land ownership in a fair and transparent manner. This is because the rapid growth in manufacturing, tourism, and other industries, would have led to many black workers abandoning their jobs in the white farms for better economic opportunities in the cities. The resulting rise in average black agricultural wages would have put many white farms out of business, and some of the farmers would have been forced to sub-divide and sell their farms. The newly economically empowered blacks would have purchased plots of land for residential use, or for small-scale horticulture.

If Smith's vision had prevailed, Zimbabwe would have had a GDP per capita equal to, or higher than, that of Malaysia. But the sad reality is that Zimbabwe's GDP per capita today is lower than that of Haiti. The Caribbean nations of Barbados and the Bahamas are majority black former British colonies, and they can provide us with a model of what the future could have been in Rhodesia, if the Communists had not taken over. Both nations have maintained the colonial tradition of providing strong protections for property rights, and, today, both nations have a GDP per capita higher than that of Malaysia.

http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=729760&postcount=4

Work of the ZANU-PF before they came to power.
http://www.africancrisis.org/photos8.asp

http://www.irinnews.org/images/2007/20070528.JPG
With the collapse of services, urban residents dump garbage at undesignated places

Just like South Africa...niggers are incapable of running a nation. Hell, they cannot even run a city:

JOHANNESBURG, 25 February 2008 (IRIN) - Service delivery has collapsed in Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo, after local authorities recently announced that the municipality was insolvent and unable to cater to the needs of its almost two million residents. The council could not pay salaries in January and employees have been on a go-slow since then.

Refuse collection and maintenance have come to a halt: repairs to potholes and burst sewers have been affected, as has the procurement of medicines for council clinics.

The situation has been compounded by the central government's failure to approve the council's supplementary budget since September 2007, and local authorities cannot increase tariffs without this approval.

Despite the government's recent announcement that the National Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC) would approve council budgets, no funds have moved yet.

"The entire city is stinking - as you can see, all this rubbish piling up has not been collected for two months now and we risk a cholera outbreak very soon ... the situation is worse when it rains, as the garbage is blocking the drainage system," complained Nathan Mlilo, a hardware store owner, pointing to a heap of rubbish outside his shop on the city's busy Main Street.

http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/feb26_2008.html

Police Search, Seizure of Exhibits Unconstitutional - Van Hoogstraten



The Herald (Harare) Published by the government of Zimbabwe

23 February 2008
Posted to the web 25 February 2008

Harare

BUSINESS tycoon Nicholas Von Hessen (also known as Van Hoogstraten)
yesterday described the search and seizure of exhibits by the police from
his premises without a search warrant as "unconstitutional".

Von Hessen who is facing two counts of dealing in foreign currency by
charging US$4 600 as rentals for his Hillside property and exchanging $6,5
billion for US$1 000 on the black market alleged that the police assaulted
him and his two employees.

The businessman also claimed that some of the documents seized among them
company records and books had nothing to do with the case. He further
claimed that the trap set by the police when they arrested him was illegal.

Through his lawyer, Mr George Chikumbirike of Chikumbirike and Associates,
Von Hessen has applied for the return of the documents and have them
declared invalid as exhibits.

Von Hessen is also seeking an order to have the matter referred to the
Supreme Court for determination on the constitutional issues raised if the
lower court could not grant a favourable ruling.

"The accused person's rights in respect of all counts were violated. In fact
they were trampled upon," Mr Chikumbirike said.

According to Mr Von Hessen's affidavit, detectives violently forced their
vehicle into the premises after assaulting a security guard and once inside
the premises they allegedly assaulted a maid.

Responding to the applications, prosecutor Mr Obi Mabahwana said the trap
was legal and the court should dismiss the defence's application as
frivolous and vexatious.

He further argued that there was no need for the police to seek a search
warrant before seizing the foreign currency in a case in which Von Hessen
received US$4 600 as rent because the cash was trap money.

Mr Mabahwana also submitted that on the second charge, in which the
businessman is being accused of exchanging $6,5 billion for US$1 000, there
was no need for a search warrant since he was dealing.

Above all, Mr Mabahwana said, detectives procedurally sought a search
warrant for the exchange control charges.

Commenting on the seized photographs, Mr Mabahwana said the police did not
have any search warrant, but leaving the photographs and rushing to the
station to obtain a warrant was tantamount to rendering the police
powerless.

"It would be unreasonable for the police to rush back to the station upon
stumbling upon another offence to seek a warrant of search," he said.

Harare regional magistrate Mr Morgen Nemadire deferred the proceedings to
March 19 when Mr Mabahwana is expected to continue with his response on the
application.

Von Hessen on Wednesday had two of his charges quashed by the same court
leaving three other charges.

Same source as above.

Child rape has increased 42 percent in Zimbabwe, the U.N. children's agency said Wednesday, linking worsening child abuse to family tensions caused by the nation's economic meltdown.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4kT7pJlnuzY_vpKdTACcQYIPcvQD8V2RP700

Child rape has increased 42 percent in Zimbabwe, the U.N. children's agency said Wednesday, linking worsening child abuse to family tensions caused by the nation's economic meltdown.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4kT7pJlnuzY_vpKdTACcQYIPcvQD8V2RP700

Any excuse but the real one-NIGGERS. They push the same bullshit excuses for niggers in Detroit and DC. The commonality is always niggers.

Cauldron bubble

Saturday 1st March 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

"Double double, toil and trouble;
fire burn and cauldron bubble."

These two lines from Macbeth are particularly appropriate for Zimbabwe this week as elections draw nearer and the ruling party condemn their opponents, point accusing fingers and talk of witches, political prostitutes and charlatans.

Two minutes before President Mugabe stepped up to the podium to launch his party's election manifesto, the electricity came back on in my home town. It had been off for the past ten hours in a week where it's been off more than on.

Wearing a black and red baseball cap and a green shirt covered with pictures of himself on it, Mr Mugabe leant on the podium and looked out at the audience.

Many of them were also wearing clothes decorated with Mr Mugabe's face and they waved little paper flags as their leader raised his clenched fist.

"Pasi na Morgan!" (Down with Morgan Tsvangirai) He called out and waited for the traditional echoed, damning response.

"Pasi na Makoni!" (Down with Simba Makoni) he shouted next and again the response was immediate. This then was the start of yet another angry, divisive, Zanu PF campaign - nothing new for our beleaguered country and people here.

The posters in the stands expose the prevailing Zanu PF thinking nine years into our country's deep crisis: "No to Sanctions!" said one; "See the revolution through Cde R.G. Mugabe!" said another. "They only give sanctions not freedom!" proclaimed a third but none offered solutions to a hundred thousand percent inflation, no food in the shops, scarce electricity and water or a quarter of the population living in exile around the world. The Zanu PF theme for the coming elections is: "Defending our land and sovereignty."

Mr Mugabe spoke for an hour and a half - about the past, the Independence struggle, religion, the old days and at one point went into a lengthy aside about the fact that he couldn't speak French and neither could anyone in his offices. The audience were largely quiet during the ninety minutes and there were few interruptions for cheers or clapping - that is until the insults began.

The crowd came to life when Mr Mugabe started condemning his opponents. Portly women and big bellied men roared with laughter, ululated and applauded when the President called on them to: "Reject the bootlicking British stooges, the political witches and political prostitutes."

Ten minutes after the end of the live Zanu PF election campaign launch, the electricity went off and everything shuddered to a stop again. One thing stayed in my mind from Mr Mugabe's speech and that was his statement that "every child must go back to school." The words are a far, far cry from the reality of this weekend in education in Zimbabwe. Across the country our children have come home for half term with additional accounts for "Top-Up" school fees. Most schools face imminent collapse this term as they cannot cope with over a hundred thousand percent inflation. The Top Ups range from thirty million for children at rural government schools to hundreds of millions for urban schools and billions for some private schools. Children whose parents are unable to pay the extra fees before Tuesday will not be allowed back into school. At the same time government school teachers are about to go on strike. Their salaries are not even enough to buy basic food. One heartbreaking report this week tells of teachers at a rural primary school signing up for emergency food aid. They say it is embarrassing to have to do so and they are being laughed at but it is better than fainting in class.

This is a tragic state of affairs for a country whose education was always a shining beacon in the whole of Southern Africa. We can only hope and pray that come March 29th we can begin repairing the damage and restore our teachers to their rightful places of dignity and respect in our society.

Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy.

http://www.cathybuckle.com/march2008.shtml

[Canadian prof reviews new novel dealing in more or less PC way with Zimbabwean farm seizures. Don't you know itz a privilege to be murdered by savage niggers?]

An opportunity lost

DARRYL WHETTER

March 1, 2008

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5141Z9EQ4NL._AA240_.jpg

UNFEELING

By Ian Holding

Key Porter, 243 pages, $27.95

Along with love, death, memory, identity and home, justice is one of the central subjects of the literary novel. Legend has it that in the shadow of the American Civil War, when president Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, he said, "So this is the little lady who made this big war."

More recently, in many post-independence countries in Africa, the justice of land reclamation has prompted some of the best postcolonial novels, including Doris Lessing's The Grass is Singing, J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace and [jew] Nadine Gordimer's July's People. With his debut, Unfeeling, Zimbabwean Ian Holding attempts to add to this impressive canon by addressing Zimbabwe's farm redistributions, the timely and moving conflict of 21st-century postcolonial citizens confronting the descendants of the colonialists.

In Unfeeling, white, privileged, 16-year-old Davey Baker survives a lethal night-time attack on Edenfields, the massive Zimbabwean farm his Dutch grandfather built up by exploiting and beating his black labourers. With genuine insight, Holding depicts the neighbouring white farm families as aghast and afraid of the attack, but quickly wishing that Davey, both witness and victim, wouldn't stick around as a reminder of their inaction and vulnerability. Only Mike's godmother, Marsha, attempts to do anything more than clap Davey on the shoulder, but her invitations don't really reach a young man adrift in rage, fear, guilt and accelerated maturations both sexual and political.

Holding's concentration on a 16-year-old male, with one servant who brews his tea and another who cooks his meals, is a costly focus for a story that wants to be an inquiry into justice, loyalty and social evolution. Finally emboldened on his plan for revenge, Davey has "a resolve he knows only boys who grow up on farms possess." But the adolescent revenge plot limits the complex social portrait Holding seeks to render.

Unfeeling is most intelligent and timely in its attention to the paradoxical loyalties of the shrinking white community, in which rage at an attack on a neighbour is also relief that one's own farm and family are spared. Shifting loyalties extend to the indigenous population, as well, as they endure inequities that make guns cheap and plentiful, but education costly and rare.

Regrettably, these intelligent social observations are few and far between. Contemporary adult farmers think of their illegal night plans with trucks and rifles as part of "a crusade." The novel's obsession with the transfer of farms from one male generation to the next should have afforded some variation in and self-consciousness toward the systemic racism so violently addressed in Zimbabwe's notorious farm attacks.

Instead, Davey plows on blindly, with the same exploitative disregard as earlier generations, shooting his pellet gun at the feet of the impoverished "piccanins," who endure him because they know one day he will be "the Big Baas." Even the name of the contested farm, Edenfields, is fraught with Christian hegemony and unexplored irony.

The lack of social evolution across multiple generations is a lost opportunity for the novel's realism, not just its politics. Here, as elsewhere, Holding forgets that his protagonist, like his audience, operates within contemporary mores, not those of the past. In life, people do struggle with inherited gender roles and self-serving but indefensible politics. In art, though, those struggles need to be made not only palatable but also illuminating.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080301.BKUNFE01/TPStory/Entertainment

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44460000/jpg/_44460820_22mugabeafp203c.jpg

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has launched his re-election campaign by calling the opposition a group of "witches, prostitutes and charlatans". He told supporters in Harare that he was certain of victory in next month's presidential and parliamentary polls. Mr Mugabe also called his rivals "traitors and two-headed creatures". The economy has collapsed under Mr Mugabe, with the annual inflation rate at more than 100,000%. He is accused of rigging the last election in 2002.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7271611.stm

Mugabe partially admits failing Zimbabweans

http://www.sabcnews.com/article/images/0,1059,49744,00.gif

February 29, 2008

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has, for the first time, admitted that his government is partly to blame for the country's downfall.

Unveiling the party's election manifesto in Harare today, Mugabe urged his ruling Zanu-PF party candidates to tell the electorate the truth about his administration's failures and successes.

Thousands descended for the unveiling of the party's manifesto. As expected, the ruling party is hoping to win on the basis of its stand against western influence and to resuscitate the ailing agricultural sector.

Mugabe was, however, bold to take some blame for the country's crisis. "Let's tell the people we failed here and there. We have failed to keep up with our promises and one such area is that of developing of our infrastructure...”

The veteran leader still remains defiant on his strained relations with Britain and America, he said: "Down with you Mr Brown, down with you Mr Bush when it comes to Zimbabwe."

http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/southern_africa/0,2172,165094,00.html

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pix/mugabebirthday32008.jpg

Mugabe accuses foreign mining firms of sabotage

By Torby Chimhashu

02/29/2008

ZIMBABWE will press ahead with its threatened seizure of foreign-owned mining firms despite objections by the business community that the move will scare away investors from the troubled southern African country.

Addressing his ruling Zanu PF party supporters and candidates for the March 29 elections, President Robert Mugabe said he will seize mines to empower indigenous people.

“Mining has remained a place closed for us. Unless we are there as owners or shareholders of mining (firms), we continue to be cheated. We have very little gold. We have very little earnings from mining," Mugabe said to cheers.

The Zimbabwean leader said a new law which requires a 51% stake in all mining firms to be held by indigenous black Zimbabweans would be complemented by claiming more mines.

He accused the white-owned mining companies of smuggling precious minerals out of the country. As a result, he said, gold annual tonnage had fallen from 27 tonnes to 17 tonnes and expected it to further slide to 11 tonnes.

Mugabe said: “In a country rated as having gold resources and deposits in large quantities, it is a shame. We need to have an inspectorate that is effective. We must capacitate our people in that area. It is in these areas that we have people we don’t trust.

“It’s not just the blacks. The blacks are the workers. The whites are the ones doing the externalisation and sabotage of our economy. It’s important that our minerals become ours. We are getting practically little from precious minerals. There are those who say we will scare away investors but we are already losing."

However, Mugabe refused to blame his cronies for plundering the minerals despite audits carried by the intelligence services and the central bank which implicated Zanu PF big wigs in the looting of gold and diamonds.

Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi told Parliament in November 2007 during his budget presentation that Zimbabwe had lost minerals worth US$10 billion in the year as a result of smuggling.

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/mines37.17825.html

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/04/29/zimbabwe_wideweb__430x288.jpg

http://www.atsnotes.com/catalog/zimbabwe/zimbabwe-1.JPG

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/9808/08/congo/zimbabwe.victoria.falls.jpg

http://www.plaincook.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/img252227013.jpg

http://www.zanupfpub.com/images/gukurahundi_in_zimbabwe.jpg

Van Hoogstraten's arrest is the latest in a long line of clashes with the law. In the Sixties Van Hoogstraten - who has referred to his tenants as 'scum' - was jailed for four years for arranging for a hand grenade to be thrown through the window of someone who owed him money. In 2002 he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in jail after a business associate, Mohammed Raja, was shot and killed by two hired hitmen. He appealed against the conviction, which was overturned in 2003. In 2005 a civil court ordered that Van Hoogstraten pay the murdered man's family £6m in damages.



Hoogstraten is one ugly nasty Jew, he owns a shit load of property (real estate) in Brighton England where I live. And although I've never met him personally I know people who have. I also knew all about the hand grenade business which happened on Portland Road in our neighbouring town of Hove. Mohammed Raja was no saint either, I know he didn't like to pay those stupid enough to work for him, and although his murder was no great loss, it is typical that the Jew got away with it.

Zimbabwe health system collapses

07 March 2008

WHEN Zimbabwe attained Independence in 1980 Prime Minister Robert Mugabe promised people universal access to healthcare.

Twenty-eight years later millions of Zimbabweans have been reduced to paupers and can no longer afford basic healthcare, even at public institutions because of the high cost of treatment.

Foreign currency shortages have resulted in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare not being able to provide essential drugs to clinics and public hospitals, which in the past used to cater for people in the low-income group.

More than a dozen babies are born in each district of the country on a daily basis, but maternity care is no longer easily accessible as a result of the spiralling cost of living that has pushed clinic and hospital fees beyond the reach of many.

Consultation fees at public hospitals are $10 million while for maternity, a normal delivery now costs between $200 million and $300 million.

A caesarian section, which is birth by surgery, costs between $2 billion and $3 billion depending on the time you spend in the hospital after the operation.

Private hospitals are charging $3 billion for a caesarian, $1,2 billion for a normal delivery after paying a registration fee of $400 million and these are "top-up" fees for those on medical aid.

Many women of childbearing age are finding themselves in the same predicament as Juliet Nhamo, a young expecting mother who had registered to deliver at a clinic in Highfield.

Nhamo thought she was going to have a normal birth, but things did not go according to her plan as she went into labour two days before the due date.

Upon arrival at the clinic, she was told there were complications with her pregnancy and she had to be rushed to Harare hospital.

The staff at the clinic informed Nhamo that there was no ambulance to take her to the hospital and since there was no time to waste it would be wise for her husband to hire a cab.

To her horror, upon arrival at Harare hospital she was told that the only doctor qualified to operate on her only does caesarians on Thursdays.

She was admitted but told that some of the medication she required was not available and she would have to buy it from a private pharmacy.

Her husband did not have the money after paying $150 million for the car he hired to ferry his wife to the hospital.

While she lay in hospital waiting for the doctor her husband would have to raise the hospital bill which would probably be above $2 billion.

Such is the ugly picture of what many Zimbabweans are being forced to go through every time they have to seek healthcare.

To buy a drip from a private pharmacy one has to fork out $60 million while a packet of 10 painkillers costs between $15 million and $30 million depending on the brand.

For those on HIV treatment the cheapest brand of anti- retroviral drugs, Stalanev, which is locally manufactured, is now $300 million per course and only covers 30 days.

A local surgeon who specialises in male reproductive health who was contacted by the Zimbabwe Independent last week said he was charging more than $20 billion to perform corrective surgery.

It is not only the cost of healthcare which is a cause of concern but also the shortage of equipment and human resources.

Stacks of unserviceable beds, electronic equipment, leaking pipes, crumbling walls and bare dispensary shelves are a common sight at government hospitals across the country.

Year after year, bids by the Ministry of Health for more funding have been cut to basics.

This has resulted in staff from public health institutions leaving the country for greener pastures.

Recent statistics from the parliamentary portfolio show that the public health sector has a vacancy level of more than 40%. The current doctor to patient ratio is 1:12 000 while the ideal ratio should be around 1:200.

In rural areas most district and mission hospitals are being run by nurse aids without doctors.

Only 738 doctors are still practising in the country out of an establishment of 1 590 and less than 50 of them offer specialised care at public institutions.

There are only 37 registered obstetricians and gynaecologists in Zimbabwe yet there are more than four million women of childbearing age.

Harare and Bulawayo account for 60% and 30% respectively of all public-sector doctors and nurses. The rest of the smaller cities and towns share the remainder but serve larger populations as general hospitals and provincial referral centres.

The president of the Hospital Doctors Association, Amon Severegi, told the Independent this week that government should prioritise the health sector in its budget as many lives are being lost due to lack of resources at public hospitals.

"We feel as doctors working in the public sector that it is important that our health delivery systems are well resourced in terms of drugs, human resources and consumables," said Severegi.

"These are our expectations as professionals as well as the general public," he added.

"We hope the responsible authorities will be able to come in and assist hospitals to get drugs as it’s costing patients more to buy drugs from private pharmacies than it would cost them if they got them at hospitals," said Severegi.

Efforts to get comment from the Ministry of Health were fruitless.

The chief executive of Parirenyatwa Hospital, the county’s largest referral centre, Thomas Zigora, said he could not comment on the condition of the hospital in terms of services.

"At the moment I cannot comment as we are still working on a statement addressing the issues that have been in the media concerning our operations that will be issued early next week," Zigora said.

Zigora said that there had been many falsehoods about Parirenyatwa Hospital that have been peddled by people who have not made an effort to seek his office’s comment.

A state weekly newspaper two weeks ago reported that Parirenyatwa Hospital had suspended all surgical operations as a result of lack of anaesthetic, general equipment breakdowns and a shortage of painkillers used to ease pain after surgery.

An orderly at one of the hospitals said: "The situation at our public hospitals is scary, there are no drugs, some of the machines are not working and doctors are not always there. It is becoming difficult for us to bring our relatives to such hospitals which have very little to offer," she said.--Lucia Makamure

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19863:zimbabwe-health-system-collapses&catid=31:local-zimbabwe-stories&Itemid=66

[Investors' view of Zimbabwe]

[...]

According to Tony Hawkins at the University of Zimbabwe, there has been a 51 per cent fall in agricultural output between 2000 and 2007, a 47 per cent fall in industrial output, and a 35 per cent fall in resources output. Over the same period, GDP per capita has fallen back by more than 40 per cent. At the same time, inflation has risen to near the 100,000 per cent mark. The UN World Food Programme estimates that 4.2m Zimbabweans - a third of the population - will face serious food shortages in early 2008. [? Supposedly a third of the population of 12m has left the country, leaving 8m. Sounds like more than half those face food problems.]

Not surprisingly, the reaction of most emerging- markets investors has been to run as far away as possible. Consequently, foreign direct investment collapsed from more than $400m in 1998 to $30m in 2006. Even the International Finance Corporation reported that Zimbabwe is one of the worst countries in the world to do business in, partly because of legislation aimed at imposing at least 51 per cent ''indigenous ownership'' of businesses.

In these circumstances, it's hard not to disagree with Slim Feriani, managing director of Progressive Asset Management who runs its frontier markets fund, when he declared that "at present Zim represents one of the most contrarian bets a global investor can make". Still it's one that Feriani and many others are quietly making, in small but noticeable ways. He says: "Our pan-African managers are almost unanimous that Zim will offer huge opportunities when things start to turn around." [Talk about buying on the dips!]

This contrarian view is backed by researchers at Australian bank Macquarie. In a recent report on Zimbabwe, they spelled out three scenarios for the future. The "best" scenario - at 60 per cent probability - sees a transfer of power from president Mugabe to a successor, possibly Simba Makoni, and reform within the ruling Zanu PF party. The "boring" scenario - with 30 per cent probability - is an indefinite stalemate and no stock market recovery. And the "bedlam" scenario - with 10 per cent probability - involves collapse of governance, regional contagion and devastation.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/53eedc9a-ecb2-11dc-86be-0000779fd2ac.html

Hi, party people! Remember to vote for me!

http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/uploadpics/medium/mugabe-cap.jpg

A scintillating array of nigs for your selection... Choose wisely!

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pix/presidentialcandidates2008.jpg

I'm voting straight Diet Party. The one man, the mudman, the philtrum at the fulcrum...

...Robert P. Mugabe, mudmaniac sans pareil.

[China sniffs opportunity]

The People's Republic of China will continue giving the Zimbabwe Defence Forces more technical support to boost the cordial relations between the two countries, head of the People's Liberation Army Instructors Training Team has said.

Speaking at a welcome and farewell reception for PLAITT officers attached to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Senior Colonel Sun Xu hailed the friendship between the two countries. Col Xu said that his country would assist Zimbabwe in all aspects including agricultural development. "China will continue to work with the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and we will continue to make contribution to build the friendship between the two countries. "We would also continue to offer technical assistance to Zimbabwe even in agriculture so that farmers can produce sufficient food for the people," he said.

Snr Col Xu said Zimbabwe boasts of vast tracts of fertile lands that could be sufficiently utilised hence the need for technical assistance from other countries.

[Niggers are greedy and stupid. Even if they are raised by Catholics, trained by Jesuits, awarded degrees from major Western institutions. For example, Mugabe wants 51% of the mineral profits while doing 0% of the work.]

[...]

President Mugabe made this statement in the context that he has no intention to relent or reverse on his plans to promulgate legislation in terms of which 51% of all mining companies must, at the least, be owned by indigenous Zimbabweans (and, in fact, the proposed legislation entrenches a 25% holding for government itself, with a minimum of 26% to be held by other indigenous Zimbabweans).

This intent can not only preclude any future development and growth of mining, but must bring about an immense contraction of that which already exists.

It defies the wildest stretches of imagination to expect investors to provide 100% of required investment capital, all necessary technology transfer, access to markets, and much else, only to be deprived (without compensation!) of at least 5l% of the venture they have brought into being.

What is more, not only are they to be so deprived, but the mining operations are to pay ongoing taxes and immense royalties to the state, to an extent that any investors who are non-indigenous Zimbabweans are reduced to having a 49% holding of next to nothing — and that is supposed to attract investment.

Zimbabwe has an immense potential wealth in mining, for it is rich in resources of platinum, gold, nickel, coal, methane gas, diamonds, and very much else.

But that wealth can only be realised by effective investment of capital, and of mining technology and skills, and Zimbabwe does not have sufficient of either of those resources, so it must interact with the international investment community.

But, to be of interest to that community, Zimbabwe must offer a "fair and square" deal, instead of the patronising, demanding, and economically unrealistic path that it persists in following.

[...]

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19876:eric-bloch-column&catid=44:comment&Itemid=63

[On the upcoming election and niggy SA's standing by brother Bob]

Opposition candidates are not able to campaign freely - they and their supporters continue to be harassed, arrested, abducted, beaten and killed. Some have had their homes burnt; their meetings banned or broken up; the electoral rolls are in hopeless disorder, which will allow thousands of dead, departed and other “ghost” voters to cast ballots; food aid is being distributed though ZANU PF offices to buy votes; the media are not free with the state-owned newspapers, television and radio services hopelessly biased in favour of Mugabe and his ZANU PF party; independent newspapers such as the popular Daily News remain closed; and most independent journalists have been hounded out of the country. Mugabe has even decreed that only “friendly” observer teams will be allowed into the country to monitor the elections, and if they run true to form they will turn a blind eye to all these grotesque abuses and validate the outcome.

All this reflects shamefully on the SA government and the SADC as a whole. They have failed miserably, politically and morally. Most shameful of all has been the applause accorded Mbeki at last month’s SADC summit for his supposed success in negotiating a deal between ZANU PF that would ensure a free and fair election … and Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad’s echoing of that false claim of success back here in South Africa. This was the sheerest sophistry. It was true, as Pahad said, that the four negotiators - two representing ZANU PF and one each from the Tsvangirai and Mutambara wings of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - had reached agreement. But, as Pahad added, “All that remains is for the agreement to be processed” - well knowing there was no time for the agreement to be processed into law before the election.

http://mandebvhu.bundublog.com/2008/03/08/things-may-go-awry-for-bob-yet/

Zimbabwe has banned observers from Western countries from monitoring elections later this month.

Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said African countries would be allowed to send monitors, as would allies such as China, Iran and Venezuela.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7283061.stm


http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44460000/jpg/_44460820_22mugabeafp203c.jpg

MONEY that is being used to prop up President Robert Mugabe’s brutal regime, keep his military onside and win over voters in the run-up to Zimbabwe’s elections this month is being printed by a German company.

With inflation topping 100,000% and the highest value 10m Zimbabwe dollar note worth just 20p, heavily guarded planeloads of banknotes are flying into Harare almost every day to keep up with the demand.

Documents obtained by The Sunday Times show the Munich company Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is receiving more than €500,000 (£382,000) a week for delivering bank notes at the astonishing rate of Z$170 trillion a week.

“The regime is surviving by printing money,” said Martin Rupiya, professor of war and security studies at the University of Zimbabwe. “At this stage there is no other way.”

According to a source at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, G&D delivers 432,000 sheets of banknotes every week to Fidelity printers in Harare, where they are stamped with the denomination. Each sheet contains 40 notes and the current production is entirely in Z$10m notes.

Last week some of this money was used to award huge pay rises to the army in an apparent move to buy their loyalty ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections on March 29. Teachers belonging to a union supportive of the government were also given large sums.

Soldiers received windfalls of between Z$1.2 billion for privates and Z$3 billion for officers, while teachers received Z$500m on average. Those belonging to the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, which criticises Mugabe, were excluded.

“Mugabe is giving soldiers a lot of money as a way of buying allegiance,” said Raymond Majongwe, the Progressive union’s general secretary. “Mugabe is planning to rig the elections in March because he must win at all costs. He, however, believes that we teachers do not deserve increased salaries because he says we are agents of regime change.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article3466861.ece

[File it under 'Monkeys never learn.' Having seized White farms in 2000, producing starvation and general economic catastrophe, Mudman Mugabe now proposes to seize whatever remnant of White business remains. Nigger, you can only kill the golden goose once. But that's the thing about niggers: if they could learn from their mistakes, they wouldn't be niggers.]

Zimbabwe to restrict white-owned firms

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — President Robert Mugabe, campaigning for upcoming elections, has signed a new law requiring foreign- and white-owned businesses to hand over 51% control of their operations to blacks, state media reported Sunday.

Cranking up his campaign theme of "economic empowerment" in the impoverished African nation, Mugabe also unveiled plans to distribute tractors, generators, gasoline and cattle to black farmers who have resettled on white-owned land seized by the government since 2000.

"This equipment and implements now form a critical mass that should be deployed effectively so as to meaningfully uplift productivity levels," the state-owned Sunday Mail reported Mugabe as saying at a Harare ceremony Saturday.

The new program comes three weeks before Zimbabweans vote in crucial presidential, parliamentary and local council elections in which Mugabe, 84, is running against former finance minister and ruling party loyalist Simba Makoni, 57, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 55.

The March 29 vote takes place amid an economic meltdown — including a shrinking economy, rocketing inflation, shortages of most basic goods and collapsing public services — in the nation once known as Africa's bread basket.

Since the government began ordering the seizure of white-owned farms in 2000, production of food and agricultural exports has slumped drastically. Zimbabwe has the world's highest official rate of inflation: 100,500%.

One-third of the nation's 12 million people received emergency food aid in January, U.N. food agencies said. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization predicted shortfalls in local harvests in coming weeks and said just 10% of fertilizer needed in the last planting season is available to farmers.

Since December, the Central Bank has spent at least $43 million to import corn, Zimbabwe's staple food, from neighboring countries, bank Gov. Gideon Gono said Saturday.

The Sunday Mail said the government new program will put Zimbabwe "back at work" with state-of-the-art generators, buses, tractors, 300 buses, motorcycles and some 3,000 cattle.

No details about the cost of the equipment — funded by the state central bank, much of it in scarce hard currency — was provided. In the past, similarly free equipment mainly has gone to supporters of the ruling party.

Mugabe blames the crisis on economic sanctions imposed by Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial power, and its allies, to protest his land reforms.

"This hate program by Britain and her fellow racists imposed unjustified sanctions on Zimbabwe in futile attempts to frighten us off our land," he said. "They should remember we are not that easily scared away," he said.

The Economic Empowerment Act requires "indigenous Zimbabweans" to hold a minimum 51% stake in every business and public company, and to have a controlling stake in every investment or company merger.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-03-09-zimbabwe_N.htm?csp=34

A scintillating array of nigs for your selection... Choose wisely!

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pix/presidentialcandidates2008.jpg

I'm voting straight Diet Party. The one man, the mudman, the philtrum at the fulcrum...

...Robert P. Mugabe, mudmaniac sans pareil.

Alex, I will have to roll the chicken bones before making my selection.

As a side note, how long until we here in Amerikwa are left with this exemplary trifecta of tyranny to choose from? Oh, wait, we are......

Would be funny to make graphic comparing these three with our three choices here in AmeriKwa. Who has the worse selection?

Not too late

15th March 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

A Zimbabwean in the Diaspora phoned me this week and told me how desperately she longs to come home. She misses everything so much: familiar faces and beautiful places, old friends and casual acquaintances, the overwhelming friendliness of people and of course the glorious climate and magnificent countryside. She asked me how things were now in Zimbabwe and I replied that they are very bad, and still getting worse. You cannot really describe what a hundred thousand percent inflation looks like, or shops without food or hospitals without medicine. My friend, like so many others that have been struggling to survive these years in exile in foreign countries, wonders when she will be able to come home. She says she meets Zimbabweans all the time and always the talk is of home and plans for the day when they can return. Everyone wonders if it will be soon, asks if March 2008 will finally see an end to the need for exile.

My friend asked if anything was as she remembered it at home and I looked out of the window. On the surface and for a few minutes nothing at all had changed. The sun is still bright and the sky blue; babblers and bulbuls splash in the birdbath; the Msasa trees are covered in new pods and the wild orange trees in hard, green, cricket-ball fruits. In the canopy of trees overhead the voice of an Oriole sings out again and again and a Paradise Flycatcher, still with its long orange breeding tail, flits backwards and forwards. Children still play on the streets with home made footballs and roll bicycle rims along dusty paths. On the roadside women still sit selling tomatoes and avocadoes that they've carefully arranged into pyramids. Some even have a few ground nuts for sale but like most things they are a luxury - an enamel cupful for two and a half million dollars tipped into a newspaper cone. The ordinary people are still the same too, friendly, courteous, smiling, welcoming and generous.

After the conversation with my friend, I felt so sad about this great extended family of Zimbabweans now living away from home. Such trauma we have all been through these past nine years - those of us who have stayed and those who have gone. But we still have one thing in common and that is that now, after nine years of struggle, we have all had enough. Now it is time for families to be reunited, communities to be rebuilt and for Zimbabwe to stand straight, tall and proud again. It is not too late.

I close with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi:

"When I despair I always remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall, always."

Until next time, thanks for reading, with love cathy.

http://www.cathybuckle.com/march2008.shtml

[Sweden and Australia feed the niggers Mugabe is starving to death. Why? Remember that Sweden was one of the worst culprits in "feeding" the ANC now wrecking South Africa. There is no limit to the damage done by moralizing do-gooder liberal utopian fantasists, especially when they work in conjunction with jews.]

AUSTRALIA
The Federal Government says it will give the United Nations World Food Program an extra $2 million to provide food aid to Zimbabwe. Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance Bob McMullan says a UN assessment shows more than four million people in Zimbabwe will need food assistance over the next year.

SWEDEN
The Swedish government, through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) yesterday donated $7.2 million (N835.2 million) toward humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe, according to New Ziana.

[Who does the writer blame? White farmers. They held all the arable land. Well, what was that arable land doing when Whites showed up? Growing jungles and weeds. Niggers didn't know how to work it.]

Shine is gone in Zimbabwe's 'Sunshine City'

A visit to Harare reveals how far the once-vibrant capital has fallen under President Robert Mugabe.

By MICHAEL VALPY, Toronto Globe and Mail

It's a shock, entering Robert Mugabe's decaying, crumbling capital. The former urban gem of Africa, once prissy in its orderly efficiency, now is sinking into a rank detritus of uncollected garbage, potholes, broken traffic lights and collapsing public services.

Harare, the Sunshine City of the tourist brochures, sparkled as recently as a decade ago. It was an intentional, sturdy metropolis of commerce and finance, trade, manufacturing, government, shops and professional services.

The sun remains, but the shine is gone. Harare stinks.

I lived here two decades ago as the Globe and Mail's Africa correspondent. I have come back for a look at the country as its campaign gets underway before the presidential elections March 29. Because foreign journalists are unwelcome at the moment, I have entered as a teacher of religion.

Theft of sewer, telephone, electrical and water-supply equipment is pandemic. The public nuts and bolts, the cables and pipes, of this city of nearly 3 million people are literally vanishing alongside the flawed management of what infrastructure remains. Think about this: People selling phone wires for food.

Electrical and water supply is erratic (although the reservoirs are full). Elevators in downtown buildings and gas stations are becoming artifacts of a past existence. Public servants in the city parked their cars years ago: no fuel affordable, no fuel to be found.

Officially, inflation in this country of 12 million is 100,580 percent. Unofficially (and probably more accurately), it is more than 150,000 percent.

All surgery at Harare's Parirenyatwa Hospital, the biggest in the country, has ceased because of a shortage of anesthetic, functioning equipment and medical specialists. Nurses and other workers refuse to come to work because their bus transportation costs are greater than their salaries. With the Zimbabwean currency this week falling to a record low of $25 million for a single U.S. dollar, bus fares can change on a single trip.

The University of Zimbabwe's faculty is melting away across the country's borders, joining an estimated 3.5 million of their fellow citizens who have emigrated or otherwise fled. Industry is operating at 20 percent capacity.

Two professionals, a husband and wife, say their combined monthly income is $57 million. "That buys four loaves of bread," the wife said. When bread can be found.

Clash of contrasts

My driver, John, who meets me at the airport, says he needs to buy cooking oil. (I have omitted his last name to protect him from any repercussions for ferrying me around.)

When we get into the city, he passes a shop I remember as a fashionable outlet for women's clothes. One rack with three dated and ugly dresses sits in the window. The rest of the store is bare and dark. Its neighbors are barred and padlocked, as are many shops on adjacent streets.

Only in Harare's opulent suburb of Borrowdale -- home to diplomats, business and political elites, staff of international nongovernmental organizations paid in foreign currency -- are the Van Heusen dress shirts surreally advertised along the road from the airport. They are likely to be found in Chinese- and South African-owned private shops, which are alongside new-car dealerships, nightclubs, international fast-food outlets and grocery stores filled with goods deliberately displayed without price tags in testament to Zimbabwe's inflation.

"Borrowdale," says the wife with the $57 million family income, as if she's mentioning a dirty word. "Two different countries inside one country."

Sanctions blamed

President Mugabe, 84, and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front government, the country's rulers since independence in 1980, say it is sanctions imposed by Western countries that are to blame for Zimbabwe's economic chaos.

Sanctions and not the destruction of the agriculture industry -- the country's economic backbone -- brought about by the government's decision to seize commercial (mostly white) farmers' properties beginning in 2000 and redistribute them to black farmers lacking the technical knowledge to operate them. [Did you liberals of the Judenpresse ever mention that fact before the farms were stolen? No. You bear a share of the blame, not that you'll accept it.]

Sanctions, such as they are, target arms imports and the international travels of Zimbabwe's rulers, not its economy. And the commercial farmers lost their land largely as a result of their own doing, their refusal to share holdings -- 70 percent of arable land held by 1 percent of the population -- conferred on them by Zimbabwe's before-independence, racist colonial legislators. [The usual blame-White bilge. Whites made the lands productive. As not usual but always in the controlled media, Whites are to blame for everything. If a nigger fails, it's always a White man's fault.]

How people are surviving in this city, in this country, is simply baffling.

The inflation. The 80 percent unemployment. The 21 percent HIV infection rate (with the country now virtually bereft of anti-retroviral drugs). The exodus of Zimbabwe's best and brightest. And now a cataclysmic food shortage looms as a result of horrendous rains that devastated the planting of maize, Zimbabwe's staple food crop.

But the news is not all bad.

Some commercial farmers have been invited to reapply to the government for land. Others are working as behind-the-scenes managers of farms redistributed to blacks. I saw a number of productive, well-run farms and drove past an agricultural estate owned by a Zimbabwean Cabinet minister with a sign at the gate advertising eggs for sale.

A substantial portion of the population is being supported by remittances from about 1 million Zimbabweans abroad -- estimated to be as much as $1 billion U.S. a year, by far the largest inflow of cash into the country. And the rains that ruined maize planting created lush grazing pastures: In a few months there will be meat from now-skinny cows and goats (if anyone can afford it).

But in a village two hours north of Harare one sunny afternoon, I watched laughing, joy-filled children race each other home from school along a dirt-track road.

I wondered how many short years were left to them before their joy was lost forever in the face of the realities of Zimbabwean life.

http://www.startribune.com/world/16695696.html

And the commercial farmers lost their land largely as a result of their own doing, their refusal to share holdings -- 70 percent of arable land held by 1 percent of the population -- conferred on them by Zimbabwe's before-independence, racist colonial legislators.
http://www.startribune.com/world/16695696.html[/B]


This is how the idiots of the world view things. If you own a farm and you refuse to give it to the man-ape hybrids, then it's your fault if the man-ape hybrid in charge steals it from you.

Cecil Rhodes would have done White people a huge favor if he had exterminated all the kaffirs down to the last one of them, and then re-settled the land with Whites. Then, repeat the process in a systematic march across Africa. Lastly, when the last nigger was impaled on the end of a lance, built a monument celebrating the day the last nigger breathed his final breath.

The world would be a better place.

[Ain't gonna play sew. city]

To get to Sinikiwe MaKhumalo's doorstep in Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo, visitors have to step on a thin plank perched precariously over a trench that prevents sewage from flowing into her house.

The 57-year-old grandmother has endured this arrangement to access her home in the city's Old Magwegwe working class suburb for the past five months after a sewer burst close to her residence.

Service delivery has collapsed in Bulawayo, after local authorities recently announced that the municipality was insolvent and unable to cater to the needs of its almost two million residents

"The disgusting odour is awful and becomes more unbearable by the day," she lamented over the city municipality's failure to repair burst sewers in her locality.

[...]

Council workmen at work on a burst sewer in Old Magwegwe told IRIN that maintenance of the aging sewerage system was a daunting task, but it was aggravated by residents flushing down solid objects, causing sewer pipe blockages.

"At times we retrieve stones, broken glass, spoons, rags or mops and other hard objects when clearing blockages in the system," council worker Jotham Ncube said.

Ncube said most of the families could no longer afford standard toilet paper and have had to resort to newspapers or torn pieces of cardboard boxes for their ablutions.

"It is no longer unusual to find entire sheets of a newspaper, used sanitary pads, children's shirts or shorts among items blocking the system", he said.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200803140630.html

Fixed telephone provider TelOne, has lost more than $900 billion worth of telecommunication cables and equipment to theft and vandalism since January this year, leaving more than 17 000 customers countrywide without services, TelOne spokesperson Mr Phillip Chingwaru said.

[Western institutions gave Mugabe honorary degrees. Taken over by jews, "Western" seats of learning have become intellectual shitholes of subversion. They deserve to be burned down, and their cadres-disguised-as-professors slaughtered.]

EDINBURGH University in Scotland and the United States’ University of Massachusetts and Michigan State University are considering recalling the honorary doctorate of laws degrees they conferred on Robert Mugabe.

This campaign, its timing and the rhetoric behind it are the epitome of Western hypocrisy, an insult to all victims of state-sanctioned violence in Zimbabwe, Gukurahundi victims in particular.

Robert Mugabe’s honorary degrees should stay. They represent a period of madness in history where a genocidal dictator went on the rampage and the international community, the West in particular, either looked the other way or cheered him on. Any university that respects human rights should never ever have awarded Mugabe an honorary degree during the 1980s or any other period. A public apology to Zimbabweans is the only sincere protest against Mugabe’s rule that these universities can offer.

The three universities awarded Mugabe the degrees during the watershed decade of government crackdown on political dissent under the guise of fighting rebels in Matabeleland and the Midlands. State-directed violence punctuated 1984, 1986 and 1990, the years, respectively, Edinburgh University, University of Massachusetts and Michigan State University, honoured Mugabe. Edinburgh University is reportedly reviewing the dictator’s honorary degree. Recall petitions are under way at the two US universities.

The period 1980 to 1983 was the most critical with mass disappearances, beatings, rape and murder of innocent villagers. [Monkey Mugabe took power in 1980] With the urging of then Minister of State Security, Emerson Mnangagwa, the North Korea-trained 5th Brigade, Central Intelligence Organization and Zanu PF militias “burned down the villages infested with dissidents”. Hundreds were burned alive in their huts.

Thousands were shot in public executions. At Lupane on March 5, 1983, for example, the 5th Brigade rounded up and shot 62 young men and women on the banks of the Cewale River. 55 died and seven survived with gunshot wounds. Often, the 5th Brigade forced the victims to dig their own graves in front of family and fellow villagers.

In places like Tsholotsho state-sponsored terror forces routinely rounded up dozens or even hundreds of civilians and marched them at gun point to a central place. There they forced them to sing songs praising Mugabe and Zanu PF, before executing them.

These atrocities continued in 1984, the year Edinburgh University awarded Mugabe an honorary doctorate of law. The New York Times of June 21 even reported that “Robert Mugabe’s supporters went on a rampage and killed five supporters of Joshua Nkomo in Kwekwe”.

In the same year, it was clear that Mugabe intended to tighten his already fledgling dictatorial rule. With the forced merger with ZAPU in 1987 in mind, the Zanu PF congress created the notorious Politburo and adopted a new party constitution that called for the creation of a Marxist-oriented one party state.

In 1986, the year the University of Massachusetts awarded Mugabe an honorary doctorate of law degree, the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights reported that Mugabe’s forces continued the “systematic campaign of terror and repression against the minority Ndebele-speaking people…”

By the time of reconciliation in 1987, up to a variously-reported 20 000 innocent people had been murdered. Ironically, the following year, Mugabe extended a complete amnesty to all perpetrators of violence and pardoned mass murderers on both sides of the conflict. By pardoning the murderers, Mugabe personally assumed culpability for their heinous crimes.

It’s important to point out that to this day, no official apology has been extended to the victims. Many continue to grapple with the trauma. To achieve real harmony between the minority Ndebele and the rest of the country in the post-Mugabe era, Zimbabweans will have to engage in an emotional, lengthy and potentially-divisive “truth and reconciliation” process.

Michigan State University honored Mugabe in 1990, the same year Zanu PF supporters unleashed Gukurahundi-style violence on supporters of the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM) during the general election. Five candidates were murdered.

Those considering rescinding the degrees are simply trying to rewrite history and absolve themselves from culpability. They are engaging in a spectacular act in self-cleansing and self-exoneration. An honour is not the piece of paper it is written on. It is something intangible, a value. In the collective Zimbabwean memory is etched the horror of Gukurahundi and the validation Mugabe received through numerous honors.

Mugabe’s name will indelibly decorate the roster of exemplary global citizens. Since 1885, the University of Massachusetts has awarded nearly 2,000 honorary degrees to world leaders, renowned scholars and writers. Other recipients include former UN Secretary General, Kofi Anani, Toni Morrison and Nelson Mandela, both Nobel Prize laureates. At Michigan State University Mugabe joins former US President Bill Clinton and former Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien.

By inducting Mugabe into this exclusive club, the universities ignored the victims of Mugabe’s violent rule. They abused the sanctity of honorary degrees. An honorary degree is awarded as a decoration for exemplary global citizenship. According to University of Massachusetts policy, honorary degrees are awarded out to people "of great accomplishment and high ethical standards.''

So, what really happened? Why did these and other Western universities fete and honor the dictator in spite of all these glaring atrocities? Mugabe may be a serial honorary degree collector but he applied for none of them. He was nominated and selected. Let’s not forget that the nomination process is stringent. Several persons are nominated. A strict committee review follows prior to approval.

There can only be one reason why the Gukurahundi massacres escaped the radar: euphoria. Even as Mugabe’s killing machine pulverised Matabeleland and the Midlands, the West and much of the world were too ecstatic over the overthrow of the racist white regime of Ian Douglas Smith to notice. Mugabe was the hero of the day, a rare African statesman. These universities just had to be part of his celebrity status.




would-be killers, as long as their actions were deemed to be safeguarding the security of the country. The immunity was granted following the kidnapping of foreign tourists by the so called dissidents.

[...]

The West used Mugabe and vice, versa. Mugabe had his double personality to thank. At his most Gukurahundi-era evil, he was the humane revolutionary who ended the oppressive white regime of Rhodesia. He either successfully masqueraded as the model of African democracy or the excitable West picked him for one. He successfully played the relentless anti-apartheid campaigner. He became the African international statesman the continent rarely produced.

We are not naïve to believe the Western assertion that Robert Mugabe now stinks. This is a new, repackaged accusation for an old crime. We are now witnessing a stampede to expose the real Robert Mugabe. On the surface the West has come to its senses and realized its faux pax. In reality, it’s all politics as usual. All universities have decisive protocol for awarding honorary degrees but none for their revocation. The three universities couldn’t just wake up in the morning and recall their degrees.

New rules for revocation would have to be drafted, debated and passed before they can be implemented. My guess is that Mugabe, now 83, will be lying comfortably in his grave before any of his honorary degrees are officially withdrawn.

The West’s double standard will not help its regime change agenda either. The lavish patronage Mugabe received at his most ruthless is fresh in the collective Zimbabwean memory. We are not blind to the sympathy currently lavished on some leaders of the struggle against the dictator.

[...]

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/opinion261.16302.html

http://www.zimdaily.com/tpllib/img.php?im=cat_117/2431.jpg&w=560&h=364

http://www.zimdaily.com/tpllib/img.php?im=cat_121/2427.jpg&w=320&h=442

In Zimbabwe, a nation dominated by government owned media, keeping up with the political realities is an impossible and risky undertaking. Media in Zimbabwe is dominated by a state owned daily newspaper, and state owned radio and television. All reports carried by state media are unsurprisingly partial to the government.

There are two opposed groups; if you are pro-government, people suspect you are a member of the feared Central Intelligence Organization (CIO). And if you complain about the status quo like most Zimbabweans do, the dreaded CIO place you on surveillance under suspicion of stoking up violence and baying for the regime change. Once labelled thus, one quickly becomes known a western stooge. Families have been torn apart by these suspicions.

15 Mar 08

The Elephant Killing Fields of Zimbabwe

I was sent this extract by Samira, my sister in law, who lives in Mozambique. It made my blood boil. I don’t know who the author is, but the story speaks for itself.

Emmanuel.

A family holiday should not encompass the sights that we saw in Zimbabwe this last December. We decided to go north-west of Hwange National Park to Kazuma Pans after bitter disappointment in Hwange’s poorly maintained campsites with no electricity or running water, the relative exorbitant park fees, rangers openly drying game meat even in the public toilets and seeing nothing more than a few very skittish animals fleeing from the sounds of our vehicles. Sometimes the animals fled so fast that we were uncertain as to what it was we had seen “Was that a cheetah or a baboon?” one of the kids would ask. No one was certain.

One of the Hwange Wardens, however, tried to discourage us saying “You’ll never make it, the road is treacherous, I got stuck 7 times on that road only yesterdayŠ.. anyway, there are no animals there, go up to Zambezi National Park, it’s better”. According to an old brochure, it states that “Kazuma Pans is a 30 000 hectare sanctuary for animals outside of the private hunting concessions” and so we thought it would offer more than what we had seen thus far and decided to go regardless of his warning.

Well the road to Kazuma fell short of his description. We wondered what the Warden was trying to do Â* chase us out of the area or cover something up.

Kazuma Pans is like no other park we’ve visited in Africa with massive expansive pans filled with newly sprouted bright green grasses with patches of water and the occasional palm tree. One can see for a kilometre or two across the pans and it is a birders paradise with various storks, ducks and birds of prey including Crested Eagles. Yet at night, it is eerily silent with no animal sounds at all, except for the rain frogs. No people and strangely no animals. We felt like the last people on earth.

We decided to drive across the pans to other side on a morning game drive. The only significant sighting was a herd of some 400 buffalo grazing on the pan but as we approached they took fright and they heavily galloped off with their little tails curled up.

We came across an elephant skull and skeleton that had been blanched white in the scorching sun. The magnitude of the skull, the length of a rib and size of the femur bones was astounding and something none of us, especially the children, had ever seen close up before. Maybe this sighting was rather unusual. Don’t elephants cover up their dead?

We continued down the road, but within a short period you could smell the sweet stench of a carcass. Another elephant. This time it was more recent with most of the skin still intact, but again no tusks. The positioning of the twisted body looked peculiar with its head wrenched away from its body, its mouth gaping open as if calling out in pain. It was horrific and the children became quiet as the adults looked knowingly at each other. This elephant did not die naturally. For then we saw the bullet hole in this once majestic giant.

It was time to move on. As we turned the next corner, we all gasped as before us is a scene from “The Killing Fields”. In this green field of bush with young sprouting Mopani trees were twenty plus elephant carcasses and bones scattered everywhere. Lots of bones. Carcasses with beautiful yellow butterflies sitting on them. Added to the sweet decaying smell was an oily odour. The bones are blackened as if they have been burnt with diesel. Perhaps it is to discourage scavengers or else to hide the evidence. That distinct smell haunted us all for days after. Just how many dead elephants were there in this field? Who did this? The children stayed in the cars looking forlorn with tears falling and only a few of us had the courage to walk through the field. I had mistakenly taken a tail for an infant’s trunk. Where were the babies as there was no evidence of them? What had happened here? Were only the adult elephants taken out and the remainder of the herd fled? Who did this? Who would allow this to happen?

This killing field is no more than a few hundred metres from Kazuma Hunting Lodge. Kazuma Hunting Lodge? But there is not supposed to be any hunting in Kazuma. Well that’s changed. The Lodge was unoccupied as the hunting season is over for the year. In the middle of the lodge is a thatched structure incorporating the reception, lounge and bar with two elephant skulls at the entrance.

Behind the bar, we found the visitors book. The vast majority are Americans boosting of their successes:
“Shot the big four in 10 days”

“An 80 pounder on the first day”

“We came to the place of the elephants. Secured a 65 pounder, 43″ sable and a 7′ 6″ leopard was the icing on the cake. Hope to be back soon”.

“Meals prepared from our game were superbŠ We wish we could bring all our new friends home with us. I guess we will have to be happy with Jim’s leopard, eland, kudu, sable, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, hyena and baboon”.

The last recorded hunt was in August 2007 with three hunters from Utah, Minneapolis and San Diego.

I feel deeply saddened at the trophy hunters’ brazen bragging and their evident lack of understanding, but it was this entry that turned my sadness to rage:

“169 elephants in 8 days. Nowhere comes close”.


Not a wonder then that we did not see any game and the few buffalos ran away.

Rob and Barry Styles of Buffalo Range Safaris are frequently mentioned as the professional hunters. The brothers have been linked with Mugabe cronies and it appears that the Zimbabwe Government has sanctioned these activities for financial gain from the American trophy hunters’ fees as they plunder the last remaining game from Zimbabwe’s national parks.

Zimbabwe has long had game watchers and game hunters together in the same vicinity. However, the game hunters have now claimed this land and game watchers are no longer welcome. This is not “the place of the elephants” for we never saw a single live elephant. It is an elephant graveyard. We won’t be back soon.

I guess the game is over.

http://baraza.wildlifedirect.org/2008/03/15/the-elephant-killing-fields-of-zimbabwe/

No question
Easter Sunday - 23rd March 2008

Dear Family and Friends,
When Mr Mugabe and Zanu PF came to power in April 1980, inflation in the newly named Zimbabwe was 7%.

Twenty years later, Mr Mugabe and Zanu PF were still in power and in June 2000 Parliamentary elections were held in the country. Farm invasions had been underway for nearly four months and inflation was at 59,3%. A standard loaf of bread cost sixteen dollars, a single banana was four dollars and a dozen eggs were thirty five dollars. Zanu PF retained power in the elections.

In March 2002 Presidential elections were held in Zimbabwe. Mr Mugabe was again the candidate for the ruling party and had just turned 78. Farm invasions were continuing, companies and businesses had been invaded and inflation was 113%. Maize meal, sugar, cooking oil and margarine were not available in shops and a dozen eggs cost a hundred and fifty dollars. Mr Mugabe was declared the winner of the elections.

In April 2005 Parliamentary elections were held in the country. Zanu PF and Mr Mugabe had been in power for 25 years, factories were closing or relocating to other countries. Most commercial farms had been taken over and inflation was at 129%. Daily electricity cuts of 2-4 hours were commonplace, fuel queues stretched to many hundreds of vehicles and the shops were bare of sugar, salt, margarine and other basics. A loaf of bread cost four thousand dollars and a single banana was one thousand dollars. Zanu PF were declared the winners of the election.

In November 2005 elections were held for the previously disbanded Senate. Inflation in the country was at 502% and a loaf of bread cost twenty thousand dollars.

On the 29th of March 2008 Zimbabwe will hold combined Parliamentary, Presidential, Senate and Municipal elections. Mr Mugabe is 84 years old and is again standing as the head of the party. Zanu PF have been in power 28 years. Inflation stands at over 100 thousand percent. Electricity cuts last for 16 hours a day at least, water is rare, fuel only obtainable to people with US dollars. Shops are empty of all goods. A loaf of bread costs 7 million dollars (actually 7 billion dollars as three zeroes were removed from the currency.) A dozen eggs costs 36 million dollars (actually 36 billion dollars) and a single banana is 3 million (actually 3 billion dollars).

There is no question who to vote for in a few days time. We must vote for ourselves, our children and our physical survival.The time is now, the power is in our hands.

Until next time, love cathy.




Unchartered water
Sunday 30th March 2008

Dear Family and Friends,
We finally arrived at the March 29th elections in typical Zimbabwean splendour. It was a glorious day with a clear, bright blue sky, a warm sun and everywhere an overwhelmingly positive feeling. The mood was one of anticipation and relief that at last this momentous day had arrived and it would surely mark the turning point and define the future of Zimbabwe.

Voting started with long queues at a few polling stations in my home area but nothing even remotely similar to the elections of 2002 and 2005 when we had waited for ten or more hours to vote. This time people waited for short periods and by mid day the queues had reduced considerably. The actual voting process was efficient and streamlined and many polling stations were completely deserted by early afternoon - hours before the close of the election.

At 7am on the 30th March, 12 hours after polling stations had closed and counting had been underway, there was still no official information or any election results.

By 11 am, 16 hours into the counting process numerous phone calls had come in from excited, exhausted people telling of major opposition wins but still no official announcements were forthcoming. On the government controlled ZBC television there were no analysts, commentators or even news stories of Zimbabwe's most crucial election. Finally at midday a short announcement was made by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. They said results were being collated and verified and would be announced in "due course."

As I write this letter the polls have been closed and counting has been underway for over 27 hours and still not a single official result from even one constituency has been announced. Tallying results publicly displayed at individual polling stations, the MDC have declared that they have a strong advantage. British Foreign Secretary Lord Malloch Brown has said that it is "quite likely that Mr Mugabe has lost the election" and Pan African Election Observers are expressing growing concern at the lack of official results.

As each hour passes without any official results, anxiety and suspicions are growing. We are in uncharted water. Never before has there been a complete media blackout after an election. We can do nothing but hope and pray that somehow we will emerge from this with a true and honest reflection of the will of the people. Perhaps by the time you read this letter the facts will be known, I hope so.

Until next time, love cathy.

http://cathybuckle.com/march2008.shtml

Mugabe’s sister and the white farmer

Zimbabwe's beleaguered President Robert Mugabe has not only recalcitrant voters to cope with. He also has to deal with a personal tragedy. His elder sister, Sabina Mugabe, died in hospital on Sunday, after a long illness.

Sabina served her brother's Zanu-PF party for 20 years as an MP. But she is best remembered for the manner by which she acquired a previously white-owned farm in Mugabe's controversial land redistribution programme.

She was known to tour farming areas in her black Mercedes, looking for choice properties, and in 2002 she visited the 400-acre Gowrie Farm of Terry Ford, in Norton, 40 kilometres west of Harare. Sabina told Ford that she wanted his farm. Ford refused to hand it over.

Later that year a gang of so-called war veterans began to threaten Ford, but the farmer, described by friends as a 'gentle giant', still refused to go. After a night of further threats, his body was found by neighbours in the morning. He had been badly beaten, then shot in the head.

Ford was, by most counts, the tenth white farmer to lose his life in the cause of land reform in Zimbabwe. It was claimed at the time that Sabina was in no way connected.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/people,822,mugabe-sister-and-the-white-farmer,23270

Israeli startup accused of rigging Zimbabwe's elections

Coming soon: Florida

By Sylvie Barak: Thursday, 03 April 2008, 5:12 PM

A SMALL ISRAELI STARTUP has found itself embroiled in the political storm surrounding the recent Zimbabwean elections, with accusations that the ruthless dictator of 28 years, Robert Mugabe, has tried to use its software to rig the recent vote.

Cogniview, a data conversion software startup based in Israel, was accused by the newspaper “Zimbabwe Online” of providing software, able to alter PDF files, to Mugabe’s ZANU party, to change voter registration lists and rig the vote in their favour. They also accuse the company of working with the Israeli secret service, Mossad, to keep the dictator in power. Cogniview CEO, Yoav Ezer, told the Inquirer in a phone interview that he had been “completely surprised” by the allegations, adding, “they are science fiction to us”.

There is currently major tension in the African nation as election results trickle in at snail’s pace, increasing the suspicion by most of the country’s opposition and observing foreigners that Mugabe and his cronies are desperately trying to make last ditch attempts to falsify votes and keep themselves in power.

Ezer explained what he thought had led to the confusion about his company being spread through the Zimbabwean press. He claims that open source PDF converting software developed by his company a year ago, CC PDF converter (available for free online), which allows anything printable to be converted into PDF, was used by officials to compile voter data. The program adds a Creative Commons license to the last page of its documents, including a link to Cogniview’s website. The voter-roles provided to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) by Zimbabwean officials were in PDF format and had this very link attached, on the final page. This led the MDC to jump to the angry conclusion that it was all an Israeli concocted Mossad plot, to fiddle with their democracy.

The accusations started coming in thick and fast, flooding the tiny ten employee company with accusations of selling “the Zimbabwean people for 20 pieces of silver” (or $3 million dollars as the rumours have it) by working for Mugabe. Eventually, Ezer realized that the accusations could seriously damage his company’s reputation, and went online to blog his refutation of them. The post, entitles “codswallop” says “here’s my official response … this story is NOT TRUE. In fact it could have only been more fictional if we were accused of using alien technology."

He also told the Inquirer that not only did Cogniview not have any connection to the Zimbabwean elections, they also had no prior connection to Zimbabwe whatsoever. Ezer added that he was happy that people in Zimbabwe appreciated his company’s software, but that it was free and available to anyone, anywhere.

Ezer also said that he had been in contact with an exiled MDC activist by the name of Phil Matibe, who currently resides in the US, and that Mr Matibe had promised to discuss the matter with party leadership in order to secure a retraction of the accusations.

To prove that his company had nothing to do with either Robert Mugabe or the Israeli Mossad, Ezer said that any “respectable party” (by which he means the UN, US, or European Union) who want to investigate the matter would get Cogniview’s full cooperation. He said that they would be given unlimited access to the company’s legal and financial records, and that they could feel free to interview any company employee. He added, “Heck, they can strap us all to lie-detectors - we have nothing to hide”.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/03/israeli-startup-accused-rigging

A pebble on the road
Wednesday 2nd April 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been an excruciating three and a half days waiting for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to announce the results of the March 29th elections. At the time of writing this letter at 3.30 pm on the 2nd April 2008, the full parliamentary results have not yet been announced. None of the figures for the Presidential, Senate and Local Council elections have been announced at all.

The results are coming out at un-advertised intervals and at rate slower than a snails pace. The waiting has been utterly exhausting, not to mention cause for considerable suspicion but, as we Zimbabweans are so good at doing, we have waited patiently and calmly. After all, we've been waiting for change since February 2000 so a few more hours or days is a mere pebble on our rocky road.

On the evening of the 1st April 2008 after hours of frantic international media speculation about deals, talks and resignations, MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai addressed a press conference. As one, those of us who had access to the broadcast, sat forward in our seats. Mr Tsvangirai's words will go down in the history of this long and painful struggle we are nearing the end of. In part he said:

"I would like to thank the millions who came to reclaim their dignity and invest in the change they can trust. The votes cast on Saturday was for a change and a new beginning. It was a vote for jobs; it was a vote for food, for dignity, for respect, for decency and equality, for tolerance, for love and for trust."

Mr Tsvangirai urged the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to proceed with haste in announcing the full results of the election and said that the MDC would be disclosing their own tabulated totals on Wednesday. He said there were no deals, talks or resignations and wouldn't be until all results had been announced officially.

At 1.30pm on Tuesday the 2nd of April 2008 the MDC announced that they had won the parliamentary and presidential elections in Zimbabwe. Speaking at a press conference in Harare, MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti announced the following results based on figures which had been displayed outside polling stations as prescribed by electoral law.

2,832,243 votes had been cast.
99 parliamentary seats had been won by the MDC (Tsvangirai)
96 seats had been won by Zanu PF
11 seats had been won by MDC (Mutambara)
1 seat had been won by independent Jonathan Moyo.

3 further parliamentary seats were subject to by-election and Mr Biti said the MDC were confident of securing victory in these constituencies too.

With regard to the results of the Presidential votes, Mr Tendai Biti announced the following percentages:
50,3% to Morgan Tsvangirai
43,8% to Robert Mugabe
7 % to Simba Makoni

As a result of the above figures Tendai Biti said: "Morgan Richard Tsvangirai has won this election."

Two hours after the MDC had announced victory the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission produced another batch of 11 results which give Zanu PF 93 seats, MDC (Tsvangirai) 96 seats, MDC (Mutambara) 9 seats and 1 seat to Independent candidate Jonathan Moyo. A further 7 results are still outstanding.

Its not clear how this is going to end but what is clear is that the avalanche towards change has started. It may take a few days or even a few weeks but we will continue to wait patiently until we can stand up with dignity and self respect and say that we are proud to be Zimbabweans.

Until my next letter, thanks for reading this update. With love cathy.


"That's the moment you should quit politics"
Saturday 5th April 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

As we stand exhausted and betrayed at this critical moment in Zimbabwe's crisis, it seems pertinent to look back over the last few days and record who said what.

On the 29th March shortly after casting his ballot Mr Mugabe said: "We are not in the habit of rigging... We don't rig elections. I cannot sleep with my conscience if I have rigged,"

On the 29th March, sure that Zanu PF would win the elections, Mr Mugabe said: "We will succeed. We will conquer. Why should I cheat? The people are there supporting us. The moment the people stop supporting you, then that's the moment you should quit politics."

On the 29th March asked if he would participate in a run off Presidential election should the result not be decisive, Mr Mugabe dismissed the suggestion and said: "We are not in the habit of boxing matches here. We knock each other out in the first round."

In an evening press conference on the 1st April MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai said: "Zimbabwe will never be the same again; the people have spoken with one voice. I would like to thank the millions who came to reclaim their dignity and invest in the change they can trust."

In the evening of the 1st April the world media went into a frenzy and reported that a deal had been done and Mr Mugabe was about to step down. The news didn't last long and a CNN reporter said: "What's clear is that nothing is clear."

On the 2nd April at a press conference MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti announced election results based on figures displayed as public notices outside polling stations. Biti said: "Zanu PF have lost this election. Morgan Richard Tsvangirai is the next president of Zimbabwe."

On the 3rd April, long before the results of the Presidential election had been announced, Deputy Minister of Information Bright Matonga said: "Zanu PF is ready for a run-off, we are ready for a resulting victory. ... we only applied 25 per cent of our energy into this campaign... we are going to unleash the other 75 per cent that we did not apply in the first case."

On the 3rd April the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said: "If he (Mr Mugabe) wants to come here, the (Malaysian) government should welcome him. If he has lost, he has to accept the decision of the people, that is the best thing he can do."

On the 4th of April, before the results of the Presidential election had been announced, Zanu PF Secretary Didymus Mutasa confirmed that Mr Mugabe would contest in a re-run. He said: "We are down but not out. Absolutely the candidate will be Robert Gabriel Mugabe - who else would it be other than our dear old man?"

On the 4th April, hinting at what will inevitably be the slogan if there is re-run of the election, war veteran leader Jabulani Sibanda said: "It now looks like these elections were a way to open for the reinvasion of this country [by the British]."

And so now we wait. We thought our poor broken country had suffered enough and that at last our prayers had been answered - it seems not - not yet.

Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy.

http://cathybuckle.com/april2008.shtml

Zimbabwe Hyperinflation to Set World Record
by Tom McGregor
Fri, Nov 14, 2008, 05:45 PM

Inflation levels are on pace at 13.2 billion percent a month and could surpass an all-time record within weeks. The most recent figures put the nation’s annual rate at 516 quintillion percent – 516 followed by 18 zeros – overtaking Yugoslavia in 1994 and placing it behind only Hungary in 1946.

The Daily Telegraph of London reports that, “with goods unavailable and official statistics widely distrusted, the Cato Institute in Washington calculated the figures based on exchange rate movements and market data.”

Hungary in post World War II, monthly inflation reached 12,950,000,000,000,000 percent with prices doubling every 15.5 hours – Zimbabwean prices are currently doubling every 1.3 days.

The most notorious hyperinflation, Weimar, Germany in 1923, is in a distant fourth place, at 29,525 percent a month with prices doubling every 3.7 days.

The consequences are appalling for ordinary Zimbabweans and they must spend the money as soon as they get it before losing its value. Yet, the dysfunctional economy reveals that goods are in desperately short supply, and they need to spend hours foraging to find things to buy.

Consequently, there comes a point where the inflation rate makes little practical difference. Supermarkets in Harare are only accepting U.S. dollars and South African rands, leaving many Zimbabweans without access to foreign currency in very dire straits.

According to the Telegraph, the latest official figure for inflation in Zimbabwe – dating back to July – is 231 million percent a year. Robert Mugabe’s government blames foreign sanctions for the economic turmoil.

An expert believes that the only way to halt the rise was to abolish the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which plays a vital role for the regime.

Comments (1)add comment
...
written by Steve Heath , November 15, 2008

29 nations have suffered hyper-inflation in the last century. We stand to be one of the next. It may be beyond our control. The Global economic summit this weekend could very well result in a chain of events that sets hyper-inflation in motion. It may take several months. We have some very serious problems, which require solutions that are not being put forward by either party. I hope people start realizing this. It's too late to stop the pain and consequeces. It is never too late to start preparing for the aftermath.

Hyper-inflation may or may not be in the cards. It depends on how we respond to this crisis. We need to realize that things will never be the same-at least not in the next decadeor so, maybe in our lifetimes. We are entering a new era. The present world financial system, which is based on U.S. dollar supremacy is over. I hope Obama understands this. If not, I hope Republicans begin to understand this. We have a serious period of readjustment in which we need to start the process of getting back to financial responsibility and sanity.

http://www.dallasblog.com/200811141003958/dallas-blog/zimbabwe-hyperinflation-to-set-world-record.html

The monkeys are in the streets, and all's right with this African hell. Unless you're White. Then it's "one big departure lounge." Bearing out what Thomas Jefferson said. You know, the quotation that Jew Horowitz and the other CIA-paid agitprop artists will do anything to avoid your knowing about: The two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Plain and simple truth. Of course Jew Horowitz hates it. He can't handle the truth. The truth isn't "good for Jews." We must destroy the Jews who destroyed Zimbabwe, South Africa and Britain...and America. The other day I was trapped in a huge traffic jam - a rush of middle class black people applying for white land at the Ministry of Agriculture. Spectacles like that make even the bitter-enders talk about quitting. You think the porch monkeys wouldn't do the same here, White man? After decades of being preached to by yiddish loudmouths that all their problems are due to you and yours? Niggers with chips on their shoulders are merely one symptom of the disease named Jew. All this is your future too, White man. These White Zimbabweans prostituting themselves or sleeping on the pavement are you. The only difference is demographics and time. We must stick together and regain political control of the Jew. Only then is our future secure. Why waste your time with the Republican Party? The Reps'll sell you down the river, just like always. All they care about is the spanish-speaking shitskin vote. They're obsessed with it, Bush and Rove, as an article we recently linked to reported. Obsessed not with you and your rights and your future, but the future of Pedro and Maria and their brood of ugly, stupid and diseased kids. Who cares about you and your family and your race? Only the National Alliance. Join us. As I flew over the bush I watched crowds of people looting from the abandoned farmhouses, taking away white families possessions on their heads, donkey carts and on 'liberated' farm vehicles, some of which they immediately crashed. The simple fact is, White man, there is no god. You are responsible for yourself and your race. Or this will be the result. Remember that segmented snake on the revolutionary flag? Well, those days are come again. It is time to unite and fight King Hymie. Despite all this, Jack Straw, the UK'S new Foreign Secretary, has done nothing to help whites in what was for so many years a British colony, and in which so many of the white tribe still hold British passports. Just like his kike counterpart Caplin in Canada -- lets in all the niggers, kicks out or keeps out all the Whites. Jews hate Whites. You should hate them in return. All that is necessary for Jews to triumph and our White countries to go the way of Zimbabwe is for White men to do nothing. Do something. Join the National Alliance and help destroy the Jews. Be sure you click on the photo link at the bottom.Kind of look like your type, don't they?

http://wasearch.loc.gov/sep11/20011125181403/http://www.vanguardnewsnetwork.com/

http://wasearch.loc.gov/sep11/20011125182134/http://www.rense.com/general17/zimwhitesfinished.htm

Dozens of troops have run amok in the Zimbabwean capital Harare after losing their temper while queuing up to withdraw cash at a bank.

Riot police used tear gas to disperse about 40 soldiers and a number of civilians who joined the protest.

A local journalist told the BBC troops had looted shops and assaulted passers-by, before the authorities managed to restore control.

The disorder comes as much of Harare is without water amid a cholera outbreak.

Zimbabwean journalist Brian Hungwe told the BBC Focus on Africa programme: "It's unprecedented.

"We've never seen members of defence forces marching in towns, breaking into shops and looting. People are very, very shocked."

'Enough is enough'

The military is seen as one of President Robert Mugabe's core supporters and was accused of taking part in a campaign of violence against the opposition during this year's elections.

Correspondents say that the president's grip on power would be severely weakened if the security forces stopped backing him.

The soldiers vented their frustration on Monday after waiting all day in a long queue at a bank.

Mr Hungwe said the troops urged civilians to join them, leading a number of passers-by to begin shouting: "Enough is enough, let's join the soldiers."

Some riot police stood by smiling as the defence force members ran amok, Mr Hungwe said, before the authorities moved in to disperse the protesters.

He said riot police were still on the streets and there was no sign of the soldiers behind the protest.

The Associated Press news agency reported that gunfire had broken out in central Harare and that hundreds of people had gathered.

Some people threw stones but others cheered on police as they tackled the unarmed troops, who had attacked money-changers, according to AP.

Because of a national cash shortage, Zimbabweans can only withdraw small amounts of money every day - often barely enough to buy a loaf of bread.

The country's economic freefall has been accelerating and the latest annual inflation rate was 231,000,000%. Just one adult in five is estimated to have a regular job.

Earlier, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported that water in the capital had been cut because of a shortage of purification chemicals, as authorities try to contain a cholera outbreak.

At least 425 people have died in recent months from the disease, which is spread by contaminated water.

The outbreak has been fuelled by the collapse of Zimbabwe's health and sanitation systems. The disease is easily treatable but hospitals lack medicines and staff.

The health minister said people should stop shaking hands to prevent the disease spreading.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...ca/7759060.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7759060.stm)

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Cash-strapped Zimbabwe revealed plans Saturday to circulate $200 million notes, just days after introducing a $100 million bill, Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi said.



After the $100 million note began circulating on Thursday, the price of a loaf of bread soared from 2 million to 35 million Zimbabwean dollars.

Amid allegations of illegal foreign currency trading, the government also fired top executives at four major banks Thursday, according to The Herald, a state-owned newspaper.

Many anxious residents of the nation's capital, Harare, have been sleeping outside banks, waiting for them to open so they can make withdrawals before the institutions run out of cash. Watch how Zimbabwe's children are suffering »

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had capped maximum daily withdrawals at 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars: about 25 U.S. cents, or about a quarter of Thursday's price of a loaf of bread.

Last week, restrictions on cash withdrawals -- due to severe money shortages -- triggered riots.

Sixteen soldiers now face possible court-martial due to alleged looting and assaults on civilians and police during the unrest, police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told The Herald on Saturday.



After spending several days waiting in bank lines, soldiers rampaged through downtown Harare, destroying shops and attacking riot police sent to disperse the protesters.

Cash shortages are not the only crisis plaguing Zimbabwe.

The United Nations has said that more than half of Zimbabwe's population is in dire need of food and clean water.

Acute shortages of essentials such as fuel, electricity, medicines and food are key indicators of a failed economy, according to economic observers.

"The [Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe] is failing to deliver the demands of market, prices are doubling daily, and that demands more cash," Zimbabwean economist John Robertson said. "The huge price increases are resulting from severe shortages of most goods."

The once-prosperous African nation is facing its worst economic and humanitarian crisis since attaining independence from Great Britain in 1980.

Zimbabwe's official rate of inflation is 231 million percent, the world's highest.

Critics of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe link hyperinflation to his policies on land distribution and unbudgeted payments to war veterans.


Zimbabwe has had no Cabinet since the March presidential election.

Its political troubles have aggravated its humanitarian and economic crisis, including a cholera outbreak that has killed close to 600 people since August



http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa...=ib_topstories (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/12/06/zimbabwe.currency/index.html?eref=ib_topstories)

http://www.thetimes.co.za/

Sunday Times Foreign Desk Published:Dec 07, 2008

Zimbabwe's panicking government is cracking down on its army and has placed
the country on high alert following a riot by soldiers this week and
increasing calls for President Robert Mugabe to be forcibly removed.

Unconfirmed reports yesterday claimed that 20 soldiers - fingered as the
instigators of Monday's rampage - had been summarily executed as Mugabe
desperately tries to control the discontent.

His priority is the internal unrest. Military officers told the Sunday Times
on Friday that an inquiry into the soldiers' protests had been launched.

About 20 troops are believed to be facing court martial - however,
speculation is that they have already been executed by firing squad. The
Sunday Times could not independently confirm this.

Mugabe is said to most fear assassination by soldiers who have lost
confidence in the ageing autocrat.

In the most serious sign of army fragmentation, dozens of unarmed soldiers
marauded through central Harare on Monday, breaking windows, looting stores
and robbing money changers.

Armed police dispersed them with tear gas.

Observers say while the army's rank and file have lost faith in Mugabe, he
still has the support of the top brass, which means a coup is unlikely.

Mugabe is also said to enjoy the confidence of all ranks in the police.

The army is about 30000 strong, compared with about 40000 police personnel.

Many military and riot police have also been deployed in Harare as the
government fears that Zimbabweans will take their cue from the mutinous
soldiers, according to government insiders.

The government is said to have taken such fright at the soldiers' actions
that Mugabe cut short a visit to Dubai and the Zanu-PF politburo held an
extraordinary meeting on Thursday to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile, the clamour for Mugabe to be forcibly removed is growing.

On Friday the UK and the US added their voices to that of Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, who earlier in the week said Mugabe was "destroying a wonderful
country" and should be removed by force if necessary.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said it was "time for decisive action to
push (Mugabe) out of power".

Government officials said all state security agents had been placed on high
alert after the mutiny.

Zanu-PF insiders confirmed that the party had been shaken by the riots.

Army spokesman Solomon Tsatsa said the behaviour of the soldiers would not
be condoned and those found responsible would face the consequences.

"Whatever is happening it is not the position of the army," Tsatsa said.

"We don't subscribe to that. It is probably just a few small numbers of
soldiers who are doing this.

"All efforts are being put in place that there is order. All our military
and police are on the ground to ensure law and order," he added.

Speculation was also rife in the media that the government could declare a
state of emergency if the situation deteriorated further.

Meanwhile, state security agents have unleashed a renewed crackdown on the
opposition.

The latest high-profile casualty is human rights monitor Justina Mukoko, who
has been missing since she was abducted by four people on Wednesday.

http://www.sundayherald.com (http://www.sundayherald.com/)

December 6, 2008

As Robert Mugabe finally accepts international help, is it one crisis too
far for his brutal regime?

By Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg
AS ROBERT Mugabe's Zimbabwe government swallowed its pride and asked for
international help to contain a cholera epidemic it had insisted a few days
earlier was under control, body bags were among the items it requested.

Zimbabweans are dying in their hundreds from a disease which, in the 21st
century, should not be a mass killer.

Some are dying as they reach Zimbabwe's major hospitals, only to find them
closed because they have no drugs, running water or working equipment. It is
in these institutions that the United Nations and the World Health
Organisation (WHO) count the dead, arriving at an official death toll of
575.

advertisement
But the real number of dead is many times greater. The UN and WHO are unable
to count those who die in their own homes in the urban townships or in the
huts and fields of the rural areas.

WHO says that the normal fatality rate in a modern cholera outbreak, where
clean water and medication are available, is below 1%. But the death rate
among infected Zimbabweans is at least 4.5% and as high as 30% in remote
areas, WHO said.

The disaster is so massive that Mugabe, who declared a state of emergency,
has also asked for international food aid. His citizens are starving as a
result of the collapse of agriculture following the expulsion of commercial
farmers from 2000 onwards. Habitually, Mugabe has previously denied any need
for outside help, once saying: "We are not hungry. Why foist this food on
us? We don't want to be choked. We have enough."

But South Africa's African National Congress government, widely criticised
for its softly-softly approach towards the deepening crisis within its
northern neighbour, last week said the situation there had reached crisis
proportions. "People are dying of starvation," said South African government
spokesman Themba Maseko. "It is time for urgent action. We cannot sit with
our arms folded."

South Africa has been alarmed by raw sewage pouring into the Limpopo, the
river that Rudyard Kipling once described as "great, green, greasy and all
set about with fever trees", which forms the 200-mile frontier between
Zimbabwe and South Africa. The Limpopo, whose waters South Africans drink,
bathe in and water their crops with, is now infected with cholera bacteria.
People on the South African side of the border are now dying from the
disease.

The cholera, with the toll of dead and infected increasing daily, is not a
random mishap. It is a product of state failure, a direct consequence of
decaying municipal infrastructure and a health system that can no longer
offer basic services.

Last week, Save The Children said starvation in the Zambezi Valley was
forcing people to eat meat infected with anthrax. At least three people had
been killed by the lethal bacterium. "Many families are so hungry that they
are taking meat from carcasses of their dead animals, even if they know it's
diseased, and are feeding it to their children," said Save The Children.

As the state of emergency got under way, international organisations such as
the International Red Cross and Care International began building field
latrines and distributing medicines and oral rehydration kits. They took
over responsibility from the state-run Zimbabwe National Water Authority for
delivering disease-free water and repairing collapsed sewerage pipes.

Zimbabwe's cities and towns have gone without fresh tap water for months.
Many urban households are unable to use their toilets, which are blocked by
backed-up sewage. Parliament and the high court in the capital Harare closed
down last month because of a lack of clean water.

Many people in Harare are walking more than three miles out of the city to
bring back water in plastic containers from community boreholes. When water
does flow from taps, people are frightened to use it. "It comes with a heavy
smell. Sometimes it's greenish in colour, other times brown," said Tadiwa
Chireya, a gardener in Harare's Greendale suburb.

"Funerals of people dying of cholera are a common feature of our daily
lives," said Tapiwa Hove, who lives in the working-class Harare township of
Budiro. "But it seems no-one cares. Sewage is flowing all over. It's like
living in hell.

"People are dying at an alarming rate. The government denies this, but the
reality is there for all to see. And we are thirsty in this land of plenty.
Dry taps have become a way of life."

In response to the emergency, the WHO in Geneva has sent six cholera experts
to Zimbabwe with supplies of rehydration salts and other medicines. "We are
in front of a disaster," said WHO's global cholera co-ordinator, Claire-Lise
Chaignat. "We won't be able to stop the outbreak like that. It is escalating
We know there are pockets where the case fatality rate is up to 50% in rural
areas."

Amnesty International's secretary-general, Irene Khan, bemoaned the cholera
epidemic for adding to a long list of suffering. "It is the latest in a
whole series of abuses and violations of the people," she said, citing
massive evictions of the urban poor from their homes by Mugabe's police and
murderous attacks by Zanu PF militias on dissidents and opposition party
activists.

Khan asked: "So how much more are these people going to suffer from the
Mugabe government?"

"Quite a lot more," is the answer, despite a growing chorus from African and
international statesmen for Mugabe to be toppled and perhaps be put on trial
for crimes against humanity.

Mugabe has yet to admit political responsibility for turning Zimbabwe,
during the near-30 years he has ruled, from one of Africa's most prosperous
countries into a failed state. Zimbabwe, which was once a food exporter, is
completely laid low. A lethal mix of disease, hunger, unimaginable inflation
running officially at more than 231,000,000% (though in reality is many
times higher), decayed infrastructure and flight abroad of qualified people
has crippled the country. Cholera and anthrax have come on top of an
HIV/Aids epidemic that has left Zimbabweans with the lowest life
expectancies in the world - 34 years for women and 37 for men.

Mugabe continues to blame all of Zimbabwe's crises on Western sanctions,
which he says are aimed at "regime change". However, the limited sanctions
imposed in the wake of electoral fraud and state violence are targeted
purely at the president and his close associates and consist of travel bans
and a freeze on their foreign assets.

"We've gone from some of the best healthcare in Africa to people dying
because they are living in their own sewage," said a doctor from Harare's
Parirenyatwa Hospital, once one of the finest in Africa, but now closed with
burst pipes leaking into its darkened operating theatres. "And the people
who run this country act as if it has nothing to do with them or what
they've done to this country."

The sheer ruthlessness of Mugabe and his "securocrat" elite is constantly
underestimated. It has almost been forgotten that nine months ago Mugabe and
Zanu PF actually lost the presidential and parliamentary elections. Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
won the presidential poll, but not with the 50% plus one vote majority
necessary to avoid a run-off election in June.

The run-off never took place because police, soldiers and Mugabe's Zanu PF
militias launched a crackdown in which hundreds of government opponents were
killed. Tsvangirai, rather than see more people killed and maimed, withdrew
and Mugabe declared himself re-elected president unopposed.

But this time Zimbabwe had collapsed so absolutely that Mugabe and the top
military and police officers who effectively run the country could not
reverse the decline. Analysts said Zimbabwe was no longer going downhill but
had finally plunged over the cliff. John Robertson, Zimbabwe's leading
economist, who has carefully monitored the decline, last week said that
since Mugabe declared himself re-elected, the real inflation rate had
climbed until in November it reached 1.6 sextillion percent - that's 21
zeros - a number Robertson says has lost any meaning. It is impossible to
work with it and where possible Zimbabweans now use US dollars.

In September, South Africa's then president Thabo Mbeki brokered an
equivocal power-sharing deal under which Mugabe, despite his March defeat,
would remain president and Tsvangirai would become prime minister with
ministries shared between Zanu PF and the MDC. Power-sharing looks
permanently stalled because Mugabe has refused to cede control of the Police
Ministry to the MDC.

This was proven essential last week when 15 police gunmen kidnapped
prominent civic leader Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace
Project (ZPP), from her home in a pre-dawn raid. The ZPP documents human
rights abuses.

Mukoko, a former television personality, was taken away still wearing her
nightdress. She was not allowed to collect her shoes and spectacles.
Zimbabwe's top human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa and Zimbabwe Lawyers For
Human Rights have been searching police stations around Harare, but have
been unable to find the ZPP leader.

Mtetwa said the high court refused to consider an urgent application
concerning Mukoko's disappearance. "This is the second case I have had to
deal with recently in which the judiciary played games," said the lawyer.
"The other case was when MDC activist Tonderai Ndira known as "Zimbabwe's
Steve Biko" was abducted after the March election." Ndira's body was later
found decomposing in Parirenyatwa Hospital. His eyes had been gouged and his
tongue cut out. There were bullets in his chest.

"If any proof is required to demonstrate that the rule of law has completely
broken down in Zimbabwe, this Mukoko's is the case," said Mtetwa.

Following Mukoko's kidnap, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa's Nobel
Peace Prize laureate, said Mugabe must either resign or be removed by force.
"The world must say, You have been responsible with your cohorts for gross
violations and you are going to face indictment in The Hague unless you step
down,'" said the archbishop, renowned for his outspoken criticism of the
apartheid government in South Africa. "Mugabe has destroyed a wonderful
country. A country that used to be a bread basket has now become a basket
case."

Political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of Thabo Mbeki, said it would be
simple for South Africa's military, despite its current weakened state, to
invade Zimbabwe and overthrow Mugabe.

"Zimbabwe's army, like all modern armies, runs on armoured vehicles and all
the oil that goes into Zimbabwe comes through South Africa," he said. "The
reality is that if South Africa wanted a conflict, it would force the
Zimbabweans military out of their military vehicles just by cutting off the
diesel."

However, there is no evidence that South Africa has the will to topple the
Mugabe government. And the deep fear being whispered by nearly everyone
involved in the international effort to control the cholera epidemic is that
once their task is complete Mugabe will claim credit and reinforce his steel
grip on Zimbabwe.

http://www.zimdaily.com/tpllib/img.php?im=cat_121/2427.jpg&w=320&h=442
Looks like an African Elton John.

White farmer axe murder not politically motivated: CFU

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:43:00 +0000

THE head of Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union said Wednesday that there was probably no political motive in the axe murder Friday of white commercial farmer Bob Vaughn-Evans.

Vaughn-Evans was the director of the dominantly white organization, who was attacked at his home in Gweru with his wife.

Vaughan-Evans's wife Jean was reported to be in serious condition at Gweru Hospital. It was the third attack on the couple and an earlier assault left her wheelchair-bound.

Commercial Farmers' Union President Trevor Gifford told VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that preliminary investigations suggest the couple was attacked by criminals who have attacked and robbed vulnerable residents in the Gweru area.

Vaughan-Evans, a well-known agriculturalist and conservationist, represented the farmers union in Midlands province, of which Gweru is the capital.

http://www.talkzimbabwe.com/news/117/ARTICLE/5048/2009-07-09.html

Those guys are fucking nuts for thinking they have the slimmest chance of existing in a nigger nation.

I posted a story in another thread on Zim-nigger about a White farmer who actually believed he would get justice in the courts there. A lot of those people are just as blinded multicultists as what we have in the Kwa.

BTW, I posted this thread link on a SA/Zim news site and got mobbed over calling Hoogstraten a jew. They didn't like Pierce's commentary.

More nigger incompetence...anthropologists like to claim Africa as a center/cradle of civilization. Proof that this is bogus? Niggers still have not mastered growing food enough to feed themselves after thousands of years.

BULAWAYO — Over two million Zimbabweans face starvation before the harvest season in March, a huge jump from the December figure of 1,74 million, a survey conducted by a USAid food monitoring agency has revealed.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet) said the number of Zimbabweans in need of emergency food aid now stands at 2,17 million.


“The number of food-insecure people in both rural and urban areas was estimated at 1,74 million between October and December 2009, 66% of them in the rural areas,” Fewsnet warned in a report released on Tuesday.
“This is projected to rise to 2,17 million between January and March 2010, as cereal stocks among farming households bottom out and household incomes remain low.”

The projected food shortages, worsened by a prolonged dry spell during the current cropping season, have added pressure on the cash-strapped coalition government to import food.

Agriculture Minister Joseph Made last week said the country needs to urgently import 500 000 tonnes of maize to avert the food shortages.

“What is critical is that the Ministry of Finance should already start work on the basis of the national grain reserves, which are known to be 500 000 tonnes,” Made told the state media.

Made said the government would produce its first crop assessment report on February 15.

The grain shortages have been worsened by Zanu PF’s renewed onslaught on white-owned commercial farmers.

Farmer organisations have forecast a disastrous season saying the country needs to import more than half its annual grain requirements of two million tonnes.

Zimbabwe has faced food shortages since 2000 following the chaotic land reform programme that saw landless blacks, with the approval of President Robert Mugabe, drive out white commercial farmers.

The disturbances resulted in the collapse of the agricultural sector which was the backbone of the economy.


http://www.thestandard.co.zw/local/23211-2-million-face-starvation-as-crops-fail.html

Written by JOHN CHIMUNHU
Friday, 19 February 2010 14:37
HARARE -- At least 5 000 families were displaced from commercial farms in
Zimbabwe in 2009 as President Robert Mugabe's supporters intensified a
campaign to evict the few remaining white commercial farmers from their
properties, according to the International Organisation for Migration IOM).
The organisation that among other things works to provide humanitarian
assistance to migrants in need, including refugees and internally displaced
people said: "New displacements and related vulnerabilities have continued
to arise as farms are taken over by new owners and farm workers are evicted
from their homes.
"IOM has recorded over 5,000 households that resided in farms that were
taken over in 2009, many of whom have been evicted by the new owners."
Mugabe's supporters from his Zanu (PF) party and in the military have
continued seizing white-owned farms despite formation of a unity government
between the veteran leader and former opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai.
The one-year old power-sharing government had promised to end farm seizures
and audit Mugabe's chaotic and violent land reforms of the past decade to
pave way for an orderly land redistribution programme.
But the administration has failed to conduct the land audit in part because
of lack of funding and also because of stiff resistance from Mugabe's
supporters who have also defied last year's ruling by the Southern African
Development Community to stop farm seizures.
The IOM said it was working to assist people displaced from farms but said
it had faced difficulties delivering aid in some case because internal
displacement was a considered a politically sensitive matter in Zimbabwe.
Compounding problems in Zimbabwe, according to the IOM, was the fact that
the country has experienced massive and unacknowledged (officially) internal
displacement of people due to the land reforms implemented since 2000 while
some government programmes such as the controversial 2005 urban clean up
campaign known as Operation Murambatsvina have seen whole communities left
without shelter.
Hundreds of thousands of people were left without homes or means of
livelihood after the government bulldozed hundreds of shantytowns and
informal settlements during the clean up campaign it said was necessary to
keep cities clean and fight crime.
The IOM said: "Although there are no official statistics accurately
quantifying the magnitude of displacement in Zimbabwe, a significant number
of people have been uprooted or placed at high risk of displacement in the
last decade throughout the country."
The group said it has assisted more than 500 000 internally displaced people
in Zimbabwe between 2006 and 2009. http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/

Life expectancy at birth for males in Zimbabwe has dramatically declined since 1990 from 60 to 37, among the lowest in the world. Life expectancy for females is even lower at 34 years.[37] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe#cite_note-36) Concurrently, the infant mortality rate has climbed from 53 to 81 deaths per 1,000 live births in the same period. Currently 1.8 million Zimbabweans live with HIV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_Zimbabwe).

Mugabe points to foreign governments and alleged "sabotage" as the cause of the fall of the Zimbabwean economy, as well as the country's 80% formal unemployment rate.[98] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe#cite_note-unemployment-97) Critics of Mugabe's administration, including the majority of the international community, blame Mugabe's controversial programme which sought to seize land from white commercial farmers.[citation needed] Mugabe has repeatedly blamed sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the European Union and the United States for the state of the Zimbabwean economy. According to the United States, however, these sanctions target only seven specific businesses owned or controlled by government officials and not ordinary citizens.[99] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe#cite_note-98) During a meeting of the Southern African Development Community in 2007, a call was issued for the sanctions to be removed.[100] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe#cite_note-99)
Private enterprise in Zimbabwe has weakened lately. Taxes and tariffs are high, while state enterprises are strongly subsidized. State regulation is costly to companies; starting or closing a business is slow and costly.[101] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe#cite_note-Heritage:_Zimbabwe-100) Government spending is 56.4 % of GDP.[citation needed] It used to be partly financed by printing money, which led to hyperinflation.
The labor market is highly regulated; hiring a worker is cumbersome, firing a worker is difficult, and unemployment has risen to 80 % (2005).[101] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe#cite_note-Heritage:_Zimbabwe-100) Since 2000 president Mugabe has confiscated lands of white farmers, and this former net exporter of grain has now been plagued by hunger. The country has a high level of corruption.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe

Rhodesia in the 70s, prior to nigger takeover.
YouTube- Beautiful Rhodesia

Zim niggers admit they are too stupid to manage or run the farms they took over from Whites:

YouTube- South Africa Farm Takeover and Destruction

YouTube- Inside a Failed State - Zimbabwe

Mugabe Understands Democracy Well
August 7, 2013 /Dan Roodt

Is it not astounding that so many people are criticising the outcome of the Zimbabwean elections, when that country went through an official poll in which Zanu (PF) won a clear majority?

In addition, Robert Mugabe’s view of democracy is entirely commensurate with that of most western leaders, especially those of Britain and the US. There exists a dichotomy between the spectacle of campaigning and voting – the soap opera of elections – and the real business of power that is normally settled outside of public scrutiny, in proverbial smoke-filled rooms.

Democracy is what follows a “state of exception” (Carl Schmitt) during which one regime is replaced by another. Both the American and French revolutions were examples of such states of exception. In the case of Zimbabwe, Britain virtually appointed Mugabe as permanent president during the state of exception known as the Lancaster House Conference of 1979. Every election since in Zimbabwe has merely confirmed Britain’s support for revolutionary change in the ex-Rhodesia, hence the hypocrisy of complaints about largely minor deficiencies in the Zimbabwean electoral process.

Writing in the UK Daily Mail two days ago, columnist Stephen Glover said:

“Instead of expressing his anxieties, the Foreign Secretary could offer the Zimbabwean people a heartfelt apology on behalf of the British Government for inflicting Robert Mugabe on them in the first place, and then standing aside as he pillaged his country, murdered his enemies and ruined the economy… What has happened in Zimbabwe is to Britain’s eternal shame.”

Mr Mugabe is a self-styled “strong leader”. In so doing, he is simply displaying the “leadership” that everyone talks about, and that they even teach in business schools.

Modern democracy is indeed a process whereby the voter surrenders his freedom of action to members of the elite who may act on his behalf, tax him and even impoverish him to their heart’s content. During the banking crisis, we have seen how Western governments did the same and have burdened future generations with mountains of debt, simply to save their sponsors and cronies among members of the corrupt banking fraternity.

In most third-world countries, including Zimbabwe, you first queue to vote and then you stand in line for bread or some or other hand-out. The one is good practice for the other.

In South Africa, of course, those who queue to vote are rewarded with poverty, joblessness and grants of R250 a month, enough to buy beer and air time. Just look at the 10 biggest companies by market capitalisation on the JSE, and you will notice that smoking and drinking beer dwarf all other forms of economic activity, followed by mobile telephony.

Democracy is all about talking, drinking, smoking and making babies, for which you get child-support grants. The notion of freedom as defined by the philosophers of the western enlightenment is, of course, slightly more complex and subtle than subsisting for the sake of a pay-as-you-go cellphone connection.

Sadly, such classical ideas of freedom and what some people refer to as “higher ideals” have been derided by so-called “liberals” and Marxists as being tantamount to fascism. Taking pride in one’s language or culture, showing patriotism or constructing a society where people are not sheep to be lorded over by professional politicians, are all very suspect notions that are regularly denounced as “right-wing extremism”.

Aspiring to be one’s own master, holding one’s leaders accountable for public expenditure and the quality of their decision-making is reminiscent of the Tea Party programme in the US.

As the New York Times has assured us, the Tea Party is a racist movement of soon-to-be-outnumbered white Americans who hanker after the halcyon days of the Ku Klux Klan.

Private property, too, is a decidedly reactionary concept, which Mr Mugabe has “democratically” dispensed with. Most white-owned farms in Zimbabwe were bought after 1990 and after ZANU (PF)’s accession to power, yet the rights of these property owners were forfeited in favour of a revolutionary “land-reform programme”.

Most university professors in the West and in SA probably applauded him for trampling upon private property. Not to mention the nongovernmental organisations for whom starvation is big business and whose customers, the voters, will queue up again for hand-outs.

The destiny of man is to be a shopper. Everything else is Nazism, even though German Chancellor Angela Merkel still attends the annual Wagner Festival in Bayreuth.

No doubt the professors and media pundits will soon have Wagner banned worldwide and then everybody will just listen to Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. Democracy entails the lowering of intellectual and aesthetic standards down to the basest level.

The verbiage of Barack Obama on “democracy” resembles the kitsch of fast food, wearing track suits and sports caps in public and the obsessive, banal voyeurism of most TV programmes. We are living through a modern version of Nero’s mob rule whereby a few powerful political and financial dictators occupy the minds of the masses with “bread and circuses”, an election being the ultimate circus, of course.

As Pat Buchanan has said somewhere, democracy cannot be foisted on people by carpet-bombing them from 40 000 feet. Zimbabwe is but one among a number of societies that have been destabilised by so-called democracy. In North Africa and the Middle East, the West has not balked at supporting Al-Qaeda and related fundamentalist movements in a kind of anti-modern fervour. The paradox is that modern democracy so often leads to fundamentalism, mayhem and even primitivism.

Systems of ethnic domination whereby one group is victimised by another are routinely approved as “democratic”. In fact, there is an element of sadism in South African democracy with its endemic violence, torture and persecution of ethnic minorities about which international silence is maintained. Far from making people free, democracy often leads to greater coercion and oppression than more traditional forms of rule. It seems that democracy may only be established through terror, coercion and war, while the most democratic countries, such as the U.S. and the U.K., are also the most aggressive when it comes to foreign military adventures and attacking other countries.

Not for nothing did the Russian leader Mr. Vladimir Putin state that he was revolted by the “pro-democracy rebels” of Syria who devoured the organs of their enemies. Under democracy, more and more such cannibalistic incidents are also occurring in South Africa.

Not only does Mr Mugabe understand democracy and its empty theatrics well, but his wife Grace has mastered the art of shopping better than any New York socialite.

Surely the elected leader of Zimbabwe deserves a better press?

http://alternativeright.com/blog/2013/8/7/mugabe-understands-democracy-well