Further down the spiral

Zimbabwe threatens white farmers

'OHANNESBURG, South Africa - Zimbabwe's national security minister has told the country's last remaining white farmers that they will be jailed if they refuse to abide by a deadline that passed over the weekend for them to leave their farms, according to a newspaper report on Monday.

The official Chronicle newspaper quoted the minister Didymus Mutasa as saying police would be "unleashed" to deal with white farmers who ignored the eviction notice.

"Those farmers who do not comply with the orders to vacate the land will be dealt with severely," said the minister, known to be close to President Robert Mugabe. The deadline was on Saturday'

No compensation is mentioned in this story. People just told to get out so black "farmers" can move in.

Why do I put the quotes on black "farmers"?

'Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence, with acute shortages of hard currency, food, gasoline, medicines and essential imports. The meltdown is blamed largely on disruptions to the agriculture-based economy after the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms began in 2000.'

Doesn't sound to me like the black "farmers" moving onto the farms taken from whites know how to make food grow.

'There were around 4,500 white commercial farmers in Zimbabwe in 2000, when Mugabe launched the program of land seizures that has seen agricultural production plummet. Now only around 400 white farmers remain — and at least 150 of them were handed eviction letters in December giving them just 45 days to leave their land to make way for new black farmers.'

The obvious cure to a bad policy? More of the same bad policy, apparently. Note that the agricultural production has plummeted. How in the name of whatever they hold holy do they expect to feed people?

'Mugabe says land reform was necessary to correct colonial-era imbalances in ownership. The longtime Zimbabwean leader blames the more-than-40-percent drop in production on repeated drought and Western sanctions.'

Okay, so to correct the land grab by Euorpeans a hundred or more years ago the CITIZENS of Zimbabwe who happen to be WHITE are being evicted. They, just like the black citizens were born there. They didn't do the land grabbing, they just happened to be born white in a majority black country.

Are those "Western santions" because Mugabe is mean to whites? More like he's mean to anyone who isn't Mugabe, like all dictators.

'The U.S. State Department last year put Zimbabwe on a list of six countries where restrictions on rights were particularly severe, along with China, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar and North Korea.'

So, what sort of production did Zimbabwe have before Mugabe?

'Once known as the breadbasket of southern Africa, Zimbabwe has seen its status reduced to an importer of its staple maize crop since land reforms were launched.'

'U.N. agencies estimate that about 4 million people are in need of food aid in Zimbabwe.'

From breadbasket to beggar bowl in less than a decade. That's possibly a record for bad leadership.

This post isn't about being black or white. It's about policies based solely upon whether someone is black or white. Taking people who were born in your own country and dispossessing them of their way of life based upon the color of their skin is wrong. Replacing them with people who don't know how to be as productive is stupid.

Mugabe could have used the tax revenues from being an exporter of food to educate his black citizens. Train them to be doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, accountants, engineers and everything else. Just throwing them onto land they can't work effectively is a stupid, useless and deadly mistake. Soon those who wanted to be farmers would buy the farms from the white citizens. The rising tide would float all boats.

Instead Mugabe has sunk their ship.