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Mugabe: Zimbabwe is a "laughing stock"
In a rare display of honesty, Zimbabwe's dictator Robert Mugabe has acknowledged that his "redistribution" of white-owned farms (which included giving land and equipment to thousands of people who hadn't a clue how to farm) has been a disaster, and that it has turned his country into a "laughing stock." But, according to Mugabe, it's still not his fault. The Telegraph reports:
The malnutrition that afflicts millions of Zimbabweans has reduced the country to a "laughing stock", President Robert Mugabe has admitted. Distributing equipment to black farmers resettled on land seized from white owners, he said: "We have become the laughing stock because of hunger. We all need to eat, whether you are Zanu-PF or MDC. Let's unite."
Since Mr Mugabe began confiscating farms Zimbabwe has gone from being an agricultural exporter to a country where millions need food aid. He blames supposed Western sabotage for the situation, rather than his own actions.
Full story here.
Last year, Jens F. Laurson and George A. Pieler made the moral case for ending foreign aid to African dictatorships. As they point out, Robert Mugabe "takes the cash and blames the West, trashing the human rights of both large landowners and defenseless slumdwellers in Harare."
|10.10.07 @ 1:50PM|#
Wait... someone does something harmful, realizes the mistake, and then blames someone else for it anyway? Sounds like my wife.
|10.10.07 @ 1:55PM|#
Sounds like a dictator that we need replace by force and
implement democracy in his place.
That's our foreign policy now, right?
|10.10.07 @ 1:57PM|#
Marcvs, they'd need to discover oil there first. Also, it would help if Mugabe shouted "death to Israel" or some such.
|10.10.07 @ 2:00PM|#
Baked penguin:
I also heard it from infallible sources that Mugabe has secretly
aquired nuclear materials with all the aid money he has
diverted.
|10.10.07 @ 2:08PM|#
This unity language is odd for Mugabe. He's been calling the
opposition traitors for years. Like many such leaders, he's made
vigilance against "the enemy within" the basis for much of his
political position.
Maybe this is wishful thinking, but it's possible that this
indicates that Mugabe senses his support slipping.
|10.10.07 @ 2:16PM|#
joe - you still have your "troll" name on, but yes, it does seem
a new tack for him to take.
It may have something to do with the fact Mugabe is currently
trying to take 51% of foreign
businesses. So he might indeed be trying to shift blame to
outside sources in order to shore up support at home.
In the article I linked to, the MDC (opposition to Mugabe) walked
out on the vote to seize foreign owned businesses.
"We see it as a strategy to amass wealth by the ruling elite, and nothing to do with the empowerment of people," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told the BBC News website.
Whatever disagreements I have with Objectivism, it's as if Mugabe
read Atlas Shrugged and thought "wow, the government guys
here are really on to something."
Paul|10.10.07 @ 2:18PM|#
Wait... someone does something harmful, realizes the
mistake, and then blames someone else for it anyway? Sounds like my
wife.
Welcome to marriage, Kool.
I got in trouble when my wife sanded through the power cable of my
brand new belt sander. I got in trouble. Marinate on that for a
while.
But yeah, Zimbabwe. Laughing stock. And that country better not get
one red cent of my tax dollars.
|10.10.07 @ 2:19PM|#
Whatever disagreements I have with Objectivism, it's as if
Mugabe read Atlas Shrugged and thought "wow, the government guys
here are really on to something."
BakedPenguin wins the thread!
Fluffy|10.10.07 @ 2:59PM|#
I think the linked analysis of the aid question misses one
critical piece of the equation, which I first saw persuasively
argued by Robert Kaplan:
The knowledge that aid will be forthcoming emboldens dictators to
take courses of action that are economically destructive but
politically advantageous. In the example Kaplan covered, the
Ethiopia situation in the "Live Aid" years, the government of
Ethiopia felt free to destroy the agricultural system of the
country, because they knew they could use western aid to feed their
supporters in loyal provinces. They might not have dared to
undercut their country's agriculture if they thought they would
have rely on their own resources.
In the Mugabe situation, the destruction of the farmers allowed
Mugabe to achieve two of his main political goals - he got
vengeance on the whites and drove many of them out of Zimbabwe, AND
he was able to use their property to reward veterans of the civil
war who were demanding that the promises made during the rebellion
be kept. He didn't think he had to care about the likely economic
damage.
|10.10.07 @ 4:14PM|#
Yeah, Fluffy, it gives a whole new heft to the term "moral hazard", doesn't it?
Mr. Jackson|10.10.07 @ 4:21PM|#
Let me tell you all something. Once a nigger that looks something like this Mugambe character came into my town. I invited hom over for dinner. Then when the time I came I take a dump on by best china and brought it out to him along with a wine glass filled with my piss. I'm surprised the damn nigger didn't drink it but that'll teach him for comin into a white town.
|10.10.07 @ 4:25PM|#
As reluctant as I am to say this as a sometimes mushy-headed
human being ('cause as a Libertarian, it's easy peasy & I've
been saying it for years): no more aid. Period. Let then
starve.
Yes, people will die, but they are dying now. People will suffer,
but they are suffering now and nothing we throw at it seems to end
it.
The bad guys get better stuff and are emboldened, but the suffering
gets worse.
I have always held out some hope in the face of mounting evidence
that the aid would help, but it simply makes things much, much
worse.
The only question (and it's a good one) is: How do you keep your
enemies from trying to buy Africa's love with the aid you won't
give?
|10.10.07 @ 4:33PM|#
Baked Penguin, prolefeed,
Do you realize that you just conflated people who developed
plantations during the colonial period to the self-made meritocrats
of Atlas Shrugged?
Amazing how the meritocratic legitimacy of wealth is just assumed.
It's like a mirror image of how Marxists see wealthy people.
|10.10.07 @ 4:41PM|#
Do you realize that you just conflated people who developed
plantations during the colonial period to the self-made meritocrats
of Atlas Shrugged?
You're trying too hard.
|10.10.07 @ 4:50PM|#
joe, what Warty said. I was referring specifically to the foreign business seizure.
|10.10.07 @ 5:04PM|#
The only question (and it's a good one) is: How do you keep
your enemies from trying to buy Africa's love with the aid you
won't give?
The cold war's over. Let somebody buy sub-saharan Africa's love.
They can have it.
|10.10.07 @ 5:18PM|#
Misery in Africa is large beyond the ability of mortals to
comprehend, nevermind fix. I see not even a glimmer of hope for the
region for the next 50 years. No amount of giving money or lowering
tariffs or preventing the genocide of the day will have durable
effects. There is only suffering everyday with no way out.
It makes me so sad, I choose not to think about it anymore.
|10.10.07 @ 5:25PM|#
See, we just can't govern. We put racial hatred ahead of our own best interests. But it's a cultural thing, so that makes it okay.
Jerry|10.10.07 @ 5:54PM|#
The real shame is that those with access, can buy foreign currency at the official rate, and then sell again on the black market.
|10.10.07 @ 6:38PM|#
JasonL
I would like to disagree with you, but I'm not sure I can.
So long as 'activists' are able to persuade people in the developed
world that it is our "failure to give" that is at the root of the
problem, Africa will not develop.
No more money for kleptocrats.
Comment Ghost|10.10.07 @ 7:19PM|#
LAUGHING stock?
Mugabe, we only laugh at you because the alternative is to
weep.
|10.10.07 @ 8:01PM|#
If you want to read the real story of Zimbabwe, log on to Cathy
Buckle. She is the wife of a white farmer (a widow now, I think)
who purchased a farm after Mugabe promised the whites would not be
expropriated. He lied.
She loves her country, and writes a weekly letter about what is
going on. It is not from a white perspective, it covers the gamut
of all who are trying to eke out an existance there.
You may not be able to continue to follow the story. It will tear
your heart apart. I had to stop six months ago for that very reason
and I am a very tough minded individual. But I started again
because I think the Mugabe regime is now in its death throes.
You can read it here:
http://www.cathybuckle.com/thisweek.shtml
|10.10.07 @ 8:03PM|#
You bloody wankers! We just need to keep giving and giving until Africa is rich!
|10.10.07 @ 8:33PM|#
Here is an example of how bad it is in Zimbabwe.
The UN food aid that was shipped to Zimbabwe was being appropriated
by Mugabe's forces and sold on the open market for foreign exchange
for government insiders. I had read the UN had ceased aid when they
couldn't get assurances the food would reach the truly needy.
Apparently it has started again. The UN has a reputation for
accepting a certain amount of graft will happen, but in this
situation it appears they have totally caved.
Chavez is a thug|10.10.07 @ 11:54PM|#
Hold on, I have a next door neighbor from Zimbabwe and he tells
me that the people there love Robert Mugabe and tell me he was once
a great man and they also tell me that the west is in fact meddling
in the affairs of that great country. I also have five or six
neighbors from Venezuala who tell me with absolute authority that
those TV stations were committing acts of sedition and absolutely
had to be silenced. I feel I owe it to my neighbors to defend Hugo
Chavez with all the zeal I can muster.
Sincerely,
joe
Libertarians aren\'t funny|10.11.07 @ 12:33AM|#
Also, it would help if Mugabe shouted "death to Israel" or some
such"
Hahahaha, how hilarious. Did you hear that other hilarious new joke
that is making the rounds? It has the following opening: " A
palestinian walks into a Sbarro Pizzeria."
Better yet, for real comedy, instead of just "death to Israel", we
need to have a thugocracy, whose nominal head has a habit of
denying the holocaust, call for the destruction of Israel and the
United States while developing nuclear weapons with the explicit
goal of making its absolutely hilarious "death to Israel" rhetoric
(pure comedy gold)a reality, all while providing money to people
who actually kill those lousy jews. Man, that would be fucking
hilarious. And it's even more funny because it's at the expense of
those worthless jews; those bastards control everything, including
the presidency and the US congress. How else to explain the United
States making a pillar of its foreign policy in the middle east the
support of a country with the region's only stable democracy, a
country bordered by nations that which to destroy it.
And when all our jokemaking is said and done we can come to the
website of a magazine that acts as the intellectual organ for a
totally irrelevant political party and record our tired, unfunny
smartass jokes tinged with antisemitism.
Jennifer|10.11.07 @ 12:35AM|#
Wow, L.A.F. How short are you, anyway? I'm only five-three, but the joke didn't go over my head.
|10.11.07 @ 1:12AM|#
laf- Done beating up your straw man yet?
The whole thing about "any criticism of Israel = anti-semitism" is
a chickenshit copout, a gutless ploy to stifle speech by ad
hominem.
There is a difference between not wanting American soldiers to
bleed and American money to pay for the defense of Israel versus
wanting Israelis to die. If you can't figure out the difference
between those two, you are a moron.
Finally, since you think libertarians are irrelevant, you should
probably know we support freedom - including your freedom to go
elsewhere and not come back.
|10.11.07 @ 4:16AM|#
I fell for the reel people of Zimbabwe, but Robert Mugabe and
his government are DOGS. There{government} kids get an oversea
education payed with taxpayer money, while the poor people stave
and die.
I ask why Robert Mugabe is still alive??
Sean Healy|10.11.07 @ 7:30AM|#
BP,
Sorry, which Americans have bled for Israel? Your initial comment
seemed to imply that America had invaded some country because its
leader had shouted "death to Israel". Can you name that country? If
you can't, can you think of a reason other than invidious
Jew-baiting for making that joke?
|10.11.07 @ 10:01AM|#
Sean,
First off, The whole thing about "any criticism of Israel =
anti-semitism" is a chickenshit copout, a gutless ploy to stifle
speech by ad hominem. This goes for you, too.
Sorry you haven't been paying attention. Our government is laying
the groundwork to invade Iran. Ahmedijad has said some very nasty
things about Israel. I suspect if we do wind up invading there, the
Israeli government will have played a role in convincing the
current administration to do so. That is what my joke was referring
to.
If you personally want to go fight Iran, or just join the IDF to
defend Israel, go ahead. Just don't drag the rest of the US with
you.
Let me also add this, because you don't seem to want to get it:
Jews ≠ Israel. I will go further: Israelis ≠ Israeli
government.
Alice Bowie|10.11.07 @ 10:29AM|#
BakedPenguin I Couldn't agree w/u more...I
don't believe that I'm anti-semitic just b-cause I don't support
the Aparthied in Israel. We didn't support South Africa with it's
WHITE-ONLY world. Why should we support Israel with a JEWISH-ONLY
state.
From 1990 thru now, Israel lost a lot of innocent civilians due to
the Antifada (Palestinian Uprising). May buses, pizza places, and
discos where blown up in Israel killing many people during those 15
years.
On Sept 11, 2001, We (Americans) lost MORE innocent
civilians than ISRAEL did during BOTH Antifadas.
And with the rising number of refugees in IRAQ ... u know, people
that had futures, businesses, families, homes ... and lost them ALL
to us INVADING IRAQ. I don't think the # of WORLD TERRORIST against
US and ISRAEL will go down.
As a NYer...I'm deathly affraid of what will be happening NEXT.
Simply b-cause we ALL (Jewish or NOT) have to support ISRAELs
ANTI-ARAB champain.
|10.11.07 @ 11:56AM|#
"The UN has a reputation for accepting a certain amount of graft
will happen, but in this situation it appears they have totally
caved."
The UN's reputation is for participating in graft, not just
accepting it. They shut off aid to Mugabe because they weren't
getting their share. They made Mugabe understand that he was being
a little too greedy, then re-opened the spigots.
John|10.11.07 @ 11:56AM|#
AB, you need to get out more. Israel has a substantial
non-Jewish population and non-Jewish MKs in government. That hardly
sounds like a Jewish only state.
As a NYer, are you at all concerned about Arab nukes in the hands
of despots and religious nutcases? If so, thank those uppity Joos
for taking out Boy Assad's nuke program. You may yet get to thank
them for taking out Ayatollah Wackjob's nuke program as well.
|10.11.07 @ 12:21PM|#
Surely assassination is an act of morality when it comes to taking out Mugabe and others like him whose existance is responsible for the deaths and misery of millions?
|10.11.07 @ 1:10PM|#
Baked Penguin,
joe, what Warty said. I was referring specifically to the
foreign business seizure.
Ah, my bad. I thought you talking about seizing the
plantations.
Chavez-boy,
Actually, my neighors said exactly the opposite of that - that
Mugabe had gone crazy. But why let something like truthfulness
interfere, when you've got your hate on?
|10.11.07 @ 1:13PM|#
Let's compare:
joe | October 3, 2007, 2:46pm | #
My neighbors are from Zimbabwe. They tell me that the reason Mugabe
has so much public support, and the reason other African countries
have backed him up, is that when he first came to power, he didn't
do this type of thing.
The expropriation of white-owned plantations was a popular policy
among many of the independence movements of Mugabe's era, but not
his. My neighbors tell me that he actually stood out among many
such leaders for his moderation and adherence to sane social and
economic policies.
Then, according to them, his wife died. Apparently, she kept him in
line, kept him from going off the deep end. They trace the problems
back to her death.
I don't think the man's right in the head. He's either gotten
senile, or he was always mentally ill and was able to keep it under
control while his wife was alive.
To...
Hold on, I have a next door neighbor from Zimbabwe and he tells
me that the people there love Robert Mugabe and tell me he was once
a great man and they also tell me that the west is in fact meddling
in the affairs of that great country. I also have five or six
neighbors from Venezuala who tell me with absolute authority that
those TV stations were committing acts of sedition and absolutely
had to be silenced. I feel I owe it to my neighbors to defend Hugo
Chavez with all the zeal I can muster.
Sincerely,
joe
And then you wonder why you get your ass handed to in every debate;
you're zeal for straw-work leaves you incapable of rational
thought.
Alice Bowie|10.11.07 @ 4:15PM|#
John,
I'm afraid of ALL Nuclear Wakos...Especially the President of
Iran...and especially the US and Israel.
But, from what I've seen in history, Governments are NOT REALLY
SUICIDAL. Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and America have
never attacked each other with Nuclear Bombs. I think it's b-cause
they all know that a Pre-emptive Nuclear attack would be
SUICIDE.
There is a lot of American Propaganda that the
Arabs are suicidal. I don't believe that. Do ARAB Leaders and
PRIEST CON their youths to strap on BOMBS and blow up buses...for a
useless cause...well, Yes But I still haven't seen an ARAB Leader
or PRIEST perform a Suicide ATTACK.
Now, do American PRESIDENTS and GENERALS CON their YOUTH into going
into DANGEROUS situations (reasonable expectation of DEATH or
SERIOUS INJURY)...for a useless cause...well yes.
As for the President of Iran, he made it clear that if we do go
into his country and try to HANG him on You-Tube...the way we did
Sadam...there will be consequense.
And in a way that makes me feel very sad and scared...I
know that there will be peace if IRAN obtains a Nuclear BOMB. Why,
b-cause I know the US nor Israel will attack. I know the FRENCH
like to talk YANG-YANG. But they won't attack either.
Iranians are NOT suicidal. The President of Iran is NOT suicidal.
Iran using a Nuclear BOMB in a pre-emptive attack...would be
suicide. I think they want a BOMB so that the US/ISRAEL does not
invade and destroy their country and hang their president on
YOU-TUBE.
And from the precident that AMERICA has set, ONLY COUNTRIES without
NUCLEAR BOMBs are at threat. We've never done anything to North
Korea.
Kevin Carson|10.12.07 @ 2:56AM|#
I think "libertarians aren't funny" is really Stephen Fetchet,
but I won't be sure until he slips a "[stage whisper] J.E.W.S." in
somewhere.
I used to think Jesse Jackson was a virtuoso at reading "racist
code words" into everything, but compared to the way people like
"libertarians aren't funny" play the anti-semitism card, Jackson
was a penny ante amateur at playing the race card.
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