Which country has 80% unemployment, 1200% inflation, and interest rates at 500%? The answer is Zimbabwe, a country with huge natural resources. When I interviewed Peter Tatchell on 18DoughtyStreet recently (click HERE to watch it) he openly advocated Mugabe's assassination.Read THIS article for the full picture of the Zimbabwean economy. Read it and weep. Hattip Kiwiblog.
And then this week a truly great man was killed in South Africa. David Rattray was a world authority on the Zulu wars. He was killed in his home. Michael Ashcroft has written a tribute to him HERE.
31 comments:
Tatchell was right. Assassination of Mugabe is part and parcel of an ethical foreign policy... I'm not sure whether the days when killing Mugabe makes any difference have gone, but it's worth a try.
Very interesting that the article suggests that Mugabe might be moving towards retirement. Let's hope so.
Once he's out of the way we should help in any way we can to help the Zims rebuild their country and democracy.
I'm just waiting for the accusations of racism to start cropping up.
"Why are you only concentrating on countries with sizeable white minorities etc"
"Weep for South Africa & Zimbabwe"
No. Sorry, too late.
Wouldn't it be better to weep for this country first ,Britain = Zimbabwe in a few years
Nice to see bloggers keeping us upto date while the BBC sits on its laurels.
How is Britain in a few years going to be anything like Zimbabwe now? Bizarre.
For the vast majority of it's inhabitants (blacks included) South Africa was better off under apartheid rather than under this corrupt bunch of white-hating stalinists who are busy trashing the country.
As for Zimbabwe. Its all so predictable isn't it? A wealthy country with food in every belly when it was Rhodesia turned into a basket case run by tyrants.
Sadly that's the way South Africa is going.
Letterman said...
How is Britain in a few years going to be anything like Zimbabwe now? Bizarre.
Have you been to Peckham recently?
It's Yoruba territory these days, run along tribal lines.
And there's plenty more on the way.
I guess it's a measure of my good friends' commitment to the country they left two years ago that they still call it Zim. With great affection. With a Scots grandad and a Mashona gradmum, they are everything that should represent the future of the country. Well, they're in the UK now and the pair of them - brother and sister - are beating the arse off their Brit contemporaries at anything they seem to turn their hand to.
I weep when I think of the talent that Mugabe has forced out. Men and women for whom their country was more important than their race, their colour or their tribe. And all of whom were prepared to put the war behind them and work together.
Mugabe is indeed the apotheosis of evil. Few will mourn his death.
Mugabe isn't having it all his own way - ZANU-PF is split between the Vice President & her army husband, who want Mugabe out so their faction takes over and the Mugabe / Gono faction. There is still no agreement on extending the date and the 'chefs' are starting to fight for control of the assets. The greed and plundering must stop some day but who knows what degree of poverty the country will be reduced to by then.
Mugabe's clique assumed that taking over a profitable factory, farm or mine would deliver the profits to themselves, without consideration of investments bith in maintenance, improvements or time. Some politicians in South Africa have the same view - wealth without effort.
Iain you are so right. And i am pleased to see so many sensible comments here.
Rhodesia was far better run under Ian Smith than Mugabe, for all its inhabitants. South Africa under apartheid attracted black immigrants from neighbouring black run states!!
I would far rather see 200 paratroopers sent into Harare to take out Mugabe and his cronies than see them in Afghanistan.
How Margaret Thatcher must rue the day she allowed herself to be bullied into the Rhodesia solution she got in 1980.
Are you taking the BBC line these days Iain? Rattray wasn't 'killed in his own home', he was murdered in his own home. There is a difference.
As for lefties who say 'what about Zimbabwe?', 'what about this and that' whilst bleating about Iraq, I say yes, let's do it - let's kick Mugabe out - heck it wouldn't take much to knock over a regime like his.
Tyrants like Mugabe shouldn't be safe from justice just because they've managed to hijack a whole country - lets get in there and kick him out. It couldn't be any worse for the people who live there.
*pokes head above parapet*
Is it OK to suggest yet that maybe a many Africans were actually better off before they were independent?
it wouldn't take much to knock over a regime like his
Problem is, we'd have all the imperialist guilt about doing it. The British invading Zimbabwe!
A full-scale invasion is not the solution, but maybe a tactical assasination??
Iain,
That article you link to is a bit disingenuous, making Gono out to be some kind of thwarted saviour. He's as big a crook and a thug as the rest of the ZANU-PF gang. Take a look at his new car:
http://tinyurl.com/22reel
Quite a snip at $385,000 before shipping.
He got quite upset when it was delivered to the Central Bank and not his new (stolen) estate. The Bank's staff (most of whom haven't been paid in months) had a good gawk before he got the police goons in to beat them up so they wouldn't tell.
There's a lot of better info about Zim out there. A good start would be to subscribe to the www.iwpr.net Zim feeds to get a taste of what is really going on in the country. It's far worse than any of the mainstream press report.
Mugabe's busy selling the assets to China.
RIP David Rattrey. He really was a scholar and a gent. I met him a couple of times when helping set up arrangements for His Chuckness' visit to South Africa c. 1997. Separately, if only Zimbabwe had oil .... At least it's heartwarming to see the UN tackling these rogue states so enthusiastically and successfully and well worth the £642M UK dues (2005).
Beachutman wrote Is it OK to suggest yet that maybe a many Africans were actually better off before they were independent?
Well BHM, it's perfectly ok with me. I used to travel to Zim quite often in the mid to late 80's and at that time I was struck by the great friendliness of the people. You heard stories of course, but it certainly was not at that time the socialist slum that was to become in the mid 90s.
How brilliant it would be to send a Company of Paras into Harare airport and overturn the regime and see Mugabe hanged. Trouble is, that would be the easy bit.... We would end up having to rule the joint for the foreseeable future.
BTW Verity..... if you are female, are you available? I think I'm in love!
{For the vast majority of it's inhabitants (blacks included) South Africa was better off under apartheid}
In what way? Economically South Africa has grown signoficantly since the incompetent apartheid regime ended. Education has become more widespread, some degree of freedom exists. Crime levels are extremely high but they were high before, it's just that crime in the black 'homelands' was not recorded.
The only area that is significantly worse now is HIV, and although the ANC have been appalling on this. the fact is that the disease was not endemic anywhere until the 1990s
"Weep for South Africa and Zimbabwe".
Weep for Africa. The blame game(of White Colonial rule) is a barrier to progress. Until African leaders acknowledge their own culpability in the disaster that is Africa we are stalled in the 'pump in more aid' syndrome. £400bn plundered in the last 40 years. Will we ever learn.
Nice of you to catch up! I have been calling for Robber Mugabe's assassination for a long time. Now he has Chinese support it could be too late. South Africe will follow suit when Mandela dies! Close to 2000 white farmers have been killed in SA in the last few years yet it doesn't make the news.
South African farmers death rate is 350 per 100,000 which is 3 times as high as any nation state and about 100 times more dangerous than British prisons.
Killing off the lunatic Mugabe seems eminently right provided that there is a reasonable plan in place to deal with the aftermath. Clearly he only rules with the active support of a small cabal of equally corrupt thieves who know just how to carry on as normal or even make things worse. Witness the iraqui debacle...
I don't think population growth as such is much of a problem but differential growth & the population disloctions it creates, overwhelmingly from failed states & cultures against successful ones may be the greatest problem facing western society.
I am told SA has about 15 million immigrants which is about the whole population of all sub saharan Africa in 1900.
Any danger of Polly Toynbee or Martin Kettle writing a piece headlined "Ian Smith was right"?
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How can you people say Zimbabwe was better under white minority rule -or that S.A was better under apartheid. You obviously have no actual idea of the facts. Black people had no freedom -none - not even a little bit. they had curfews, could not go to some places because of the colour of their skin, could not work where they wanted -were beaten or killed every day for merely stating their rights as human beings. This was slavery on their own land. You might say both countries were more economically successful under white rule -and yes this is probably true, but put yourself in their place -No Freedom Whatsoever-What would You Do?. Saying these countries were better off under white rule -is nothing but racism, a form of slavery posted by people who I can only assume wish white supremacy was still on. No, what they need in Africa is more respectable men like Nelson Mandela to lift their countries up and who know when to step down and not hold on to power like Mugabe. They need international help -not to be taken over like some people were suggeting -but the west never helps unless there's something in it for them right? How quickly do you think they would have 'resolved' the Zim issue if there was oil in their country. Think about that. If mugabe gets assasinated -there WILL be a power struggle/civil war in Zimbabwe which will only worsen the country's current state -he needs to step down thats the only way the rightful government can rule peacefully. The chances of this happening however are slim to none..all the world can do is wait, wait and hope.
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