Zimbabwe is a classic story of liberal/progressive policies put into action.

It will take generations to rebuild what Mugabe has destroyed. Someday, hopefully, the streets in Harare will again be paved and the folks there will be able to appreciate the beautiful Jacaranda blooms again.

The world should be ashamed for not helping sooner.

BacaDog on March 2, 2008 at 4:14 PM

It is the scale of transformation in Zimbabwe which is so horrific. This wasn’t some tinpot state dependent on bags of aid: this was one of Africa’s most prosperous and plentiful nations. So much of the infrastructure has been destroyed that it will take decades to rebuild.

Funny that for all the moonbats shrilling about Iraq you hardly hear a word from them about Mugabe. For them, everything is motivated by hatred of America.

Thank you for the information. I for one don’t trust newspapers and tv to give me correct information. Forums and threads illustrate several different points of view. I try to take as much information as possible, and it is good to see different stories. I, like probably many, am wrapped up in day to day things, so I try to glean from reading several different sites. So I appreciate your willingness to share your experience and piece of the puzzle. It does no good to insult and mock others for not having a “clue.”

shibumiglass on March 2, 2008 at 3:55 PM

Chudi’s right, shimbumiglass. Granted, he could’ve said it a little better.

It’s pretty easy to find information on Zim. Google Mugabe and you’ll have plenty to read.

I’ve been traveling to Zim for over 25 years and seen a magnificent country change into a horrible place. The trouble really started with Mugabe’s land reform policies where he nationalized the white farms and redistributed the land back to the indigenous citizens.

This resulted in farm production falling to record lows and changed Zim from a net exporter and the “breadbasket” of southern Arica to a country that can’t even begin to feed it’s own citizens now. At one time, tobacco production, and the resulting exports made up over 70% of the hard currency influx into the country. Since the land reforms, production has fallen from over 250,000 tons to less than 50,000 tons. Again, due to the land reform policies where inexperienced farmers with no capital or machinery try to farm. Now, there’s no money to buy fertilizer and other inputs, and it’s a downward spiral.

The fiscal policies are also a joke. Inflation is the highest in Zim than any non-warring country in history. My friends there live day to day and you can’t buy anything in the stores. Meat, flour and other goods are available if you have dollars, marks or euros to pay on the black market. Also, Mugabe set the “official” currency rate at a level that is laughable. What it means is if you are lucky enough to be in business and get hard currency in payment, once you put it in the bank, it will revert to Zim dollars at 500:1 or so, while the black market (true) rate is 2,000,000:1.

Power is intermittent, there’s no petrol, bottled water, bread, or worst of all, no beer.

I was there a couple of years ago when Mugabe was bulldozing the “illegal” housing on the outskirts of Harare. Those shacks had been there for years, and it was heartbreaking to see those folks holding their few meager possessions while the riot police protected the dozer drivers.

It will take generations to rebuild what Mugabe has destroyed. Someday, hopefully, the streets in Harare will again be paved and the folks there will be able to appreciate the beautiful Jacaranda blooms again.

The world should be ashamed for not helping sooner.

Chudi on March 2, 2008 at 3:24 PM

Instead of just insulting, could you perhaps clue us in, or point to some information with which we can educate ourselves?

This is the difference between a Pinochet, Franco, or Fujimoro on the one hand and a Mugabe or Chavez on the other: the right-wingers left a relatively prosperous society ready to become free and healthy; the left-wingers leave a ruined society in which the property ownership is so screwed up that it will take at least a generation to make the nation self-sufficient. (Mugabe threw farmers off their land and gave it to thousands of city-dwellers who knew nothing of farming.)

By all means pray for a miracle. Hope for it if you must. Work for it if you will. But expect it at your peril–and the peril of all around you.

I’m not much up on my Zimbabwean politics, but anyone would be better than Mugabe.

Go Jimmy!!!!!!! Sacrifice what little dignity you still have to support a petty dictator.

americanranger on March 2, 2008 at 12:05 PM

Jimmy Carter has dignity?

I wonder if Bush will win the Nobel peace prize?

tomas on March 2, 2008 at 12:28 PM

What do you mean by this? Bush has been trying for years to get neighbors, South Africa in particular, to apply pressure to force Mugabe out. Bush has pushed for international sanctions, travel embargoes, etc to try and help the people of Zimbabwe.

Just wondering what you meant…

Mugabe’s most notable accomplishment of late is to push the inflation rate over 100,000%

That means that the price would go up between the time you were trying to buy something and the time you were finished paying for it.

Kinda reminds me of buying gas the other day……….

tomas on March 2, 2008 at 12:28 PM

Ummmmm, No. They’ll beat him with “FUZZY MATH”. They will deduct the hundreds of thousand of lives his African policies have saved from the 700.000 lives lost due to his “illegal war” in iraq. Result. Mass murderer by a few hundred thousand lives.