Mugabe: Yeah, OK, people are starving …
posted at 12:15 pm on March 11, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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… but guess who’s fault it is? If you said “evil colonial empires,” then you win free copy of Das Kapital. (You may have to pay 10 million in Zimbabwean dollars for shipping and handling.) Mugabe finally acknowledged the desperate straits of his nation, but somehow managed to blame everyone except the man who has run it for more than the last quarter-century:
Robert Mugabe has, for the first time, admitted that Zimbabwe faces a grave food crisis amid the collapse of the country’s agriculture. But he blamed it on “racist” Britain trying to oust him at this month’s presidential election.
Responding to pleas at a campaign rally in Plumtree, in the province of Matabeleland South, from local officials of the ruling Zanu-PF party “to ensure the speedy distribution of food in the province as people were running out of supplies”, Mugabe accepted there was a crisis.
“There is hunger in the country and a shortage of food,” he said, according to the state-run Sunday Mail newspaper. Mugabe promised to speed up food imports which have so far met only a fraction of the country’s needs.
The World Food Programme says 45% of Zimbabweans are suffering chronic malnourishment because of “poor agricultural policies and a declining economy”. The WFP feeds about 2.5 million people and other agencies are providing food to about 1 million. But large numbers of people are surviving on far fewer calories than they need, leaving them vulnerable to illnesses, particularly the large proportion of the population with HIV at risk of developing full-blown Aids.
It seems that the food crisis has worsened to the point where Mugabe has little choice but to acknowledge the hunger that ravages his nation. He faces a tough election, assuming he can’t succeed in fixing it, and members of his own party may make that difficult. Mugabe needs to provide someone to blame, other than himself, and the former colonial masters make a handy scapegoat.
However, when the Brits left the former Rhodesia, the farms actually produced enough food to feed Zimbabwe and a few other African nations as well. Zimbabwe was a net exporter of agriculture until Mugabe decided to seize the land and redistribute it to his cronies. No one doubted that some manner of land reform was necessary at the end of the colonial period in order to engage black Zimbabweans into the national economy, but Mugabe botched it badly — and now the Zimbabweans starve on some of the best land in Africa.
This again proves something Westerners will do well to remember: almost all famine is political. Even weather-created crises usually pass quickly in systems based on stable and free-market economics. When oppressive regimes start making five-year plans and seizing land from proven producers, one can predict with deadly accuracy the starvation that will follow. In that sense, Mugabe differs little from Mao and Stalin.
The cause of Zimbabwe’s famine is its leader. Zimbabweans should get rid of him at the earliest possible moment and reverse the disastrous economic and agricultural policies that led them to their present pauper status. We’ll soon see if Mugabe can prevent them from doing so. Venezuelans may want to take a few notes as well.
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15 million…20 million33 million50 million78 million102 million………Seven Percent Solution on March 11, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Maybe Mugabe ought to arrange a loan from Nigeria…I hear there’s tons of money just languishing in their banks with nobody to claim it.
James on March 11, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Wind Rider on March 11, 2008 at 12:30 PM
So when does he get to chair the human rights commission at the UN?
lorien1973 on March 11, 2008 at 12:35 PM
Sam Kinison warned these people 20 years ago …..
“Move to where the food is!”
fogw on March 11, 2008 at 12:35 PM
Funnysad because it’s true.p40tiger on March 11, 2008 at 12:36 PM
A copy of Das Kapital for only 10 million in Zimbabwean dollars? It’s a deal at twice the price and still cheaper than toilet paper. Perfectly appropriate.
Vote Sauron 08 on March 11, 2008 at 12:38 PM
Who cares, really? These savages obviosly couldn’t build normal, modern economic system if their lives depended on it. Bush, UN and stupid libs say pouring billions of dollars into Africa will help them – but there has been absolutely no proof to that it is nothing more than welfare on national scale. No matter what you’ll do they will continue starving each other to death by millions, raping each other into HIV and chopping each other with mechetes.
Aristotle on March 11, 2008 at 12:43 PM
that actually got shit done
LimeyGeek on March 11, 2008 at 12:45 PM
I’ve never said this to anyone here before, but shut up jerk.
The people are not savages, they’ve been savaged by a leftist thug. There is a difference….
ScottG on March 11, 2008 at 12:46 PM
That’s not fair. They were primitive, and had no idea how to build an economy more advanced than a ’subsistance economy’. The Brits ran the show, and everyone thrived – especially the Brits (ahem).
Tragically, educational advances did not keep pace with economic ones, so the natives were dumb enough to buy the nationalistic marxist bullshit Mugabe touted.
One nasty civil war later, exacerbated by the most mindless economic policies, and the results are all too gruesome and predictable.
LimeyGeek on March 11, 2008 at 12:49 PM
I doubted it. The farmers had been there for centuries. They were just as Rhodesian as anyone else, only white.
tlynch001 on March 11, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Ah yes, of course it was the British who ruined Zimbabwe by playing the race card and embarking on a ‘land redistribution’ exercise that was nothing more than an exercise in common theft and national economic suicide.
Still, if he labels the UK government a bunch of ‘gay gangsters’ again I’ll find it hard not to chuckle.
Ares on March 11, 2008 at 12:49 PM
I’m waiting for someone to blame Bush…
PoliticallyIncorrectSandy on March 11, 2008 at 12:52 PM
Damn. Beat me to it.
drjohn on March 11, 2008 at 12:55 PM
I think I can come up with that. Hold on, let me sort thru my change stash. About US$2, right?
I R A Darth Aggie on March 11, 2008 at 12:57 PM
Tip of the iceberg.
Probably a good half of the African population is doomed to starvation and AIDS.
And blame can be placed right of the feet of the leaders of African countries. The ignorance is breathtaking.
In Nigeria TB vaccination is discouraged as a plot to make African men infertile. The Health Minister of the RSA claims AIDS can be warded off with the consumption of beet roots, olive oil and garlic. The President of the RSA, Mbeki, does not believe the HIV virus causes AIDS. Jacob Zuma claims that taking a shower after sex with an HIV-positive woman cleanses one of AIDS.
You can’t make this stuff up.
drjohn on March 11, 2008 at 1:02 PM
Skip the middleman- at this point Zimbabwean dollars are cheaper than toilet papaer.
Hollowpoint on March 11, 2008 at 1:02 PM
Seems to me that a great seal of Zimbabwe’s problems could be ameliorated by a single, well placed .308 round…
Frozen Tex on March 11, 2008 at 1:04 PM
Well, last year, Zimbabwe was actually voted to head the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.
CP on March 11, 2008 at 1:04 PM
If you actually had any proof they could handle the farms by themselves even if you took Mugabe out of the picture, i’d be the first to agree with you. But so far, they had western farmers to grow their food until the famine. Are they civilized enough or at least determined to become civilized enough to feed themselves? Seriously doubt it.
That’s not fair. They were primitive, and had no idea how to build an economy more advanced than a ’subsistance economy’. The Brits ran the show, and everyone thrived – especially the Brits (ahem).
Is it OUR responsibility to make them run a state in the right manner? It didn’t work even in SA, with gradual transfer of authority and best education any African could get. I say let them be as they are, this is their culture of savagery. There are still tribes in the pacific islands who still live like cavemen and nobody forces modern economy on them.
Aristotle on March 11, 2008 at 1:05 PM
I just did a spit-take all over my monitor…!
Frozen Tex on March 11, 2008 at 1:07 PM
The cynical spirit coming from the power mongers of the region is too much to bare. Prediction The next thing these monsters will do is air drop millions of pictures of food. Creepy evil things.
saved on March 11, 2008 at 1:08 PM
I am not speaking to this. I am only trying to clue you in on how the Rhodesian colony went tits-up.
LimeyGeek on March 11, 2008 at 1:10 PM
Speaking to this – I see a narrow gradient between isolationism & independence.
Is it our responsibility? No. Is it in our interests? Arguably so.
Those primitives on the pacific islands you mentioned – their success or downfall does not affect us at all. They are, to all intents and purposes, largely invisible.
Africa is a seething cauldron of conflicting interests. These interests are not best served when thugs rape, plunder and spoil the abundant resources that can indeed support a prosperous continent. There is no need for Africa to be poor and hungry. As Ed succinctly puts it – it’s always political.
However, what wealth is generated, combined with the absurd amounts of ‘aid’ money being poured into the multitude of shitholes there, ends up under the control of these very same thugs. Thugs + money = thugocracy. The kind of thugocracy that can trade with other rogue states and enable destabilising influences around the world.
This truth is at the root of why I could not support Ron Paul. He’s all for free trade within the global economy, but then insists that we can simply duck our exposure to global concerns. Isolationism like that is petty and thoughtless. Our 21st century world is truly global in every respect – mobility, economy, politics, communication – and the dysfunctional acts of those that are unequipped to comprehend this truth can have far-reaching consequences that are very much our concern.
LimeyGeek on March 11, 2008 at 1:29 PM
Ari, had you said it that way I wouldn’t have responded in my manner. Being “uncivilized,” which they aren’t, and being uneducated and untrained doesn’t make them savages.
They may be gullible because they are uneducated. Or most likely, so marginalized that they’re willing to believe anyone who promises them they will be given things they have seen others possess while they had nothing. We know for sure that these tactics work, else the Democrat party wouldn’t have used them for the past 100 years.
ScottG on March 11, 2008 at 1:32 PM
Typical! Blame the evil west for all your woes. Damn I’m tired of our nation (a very giving and charitable nation) being blamed for everything that is wrong with the world.
What’s the old saying, give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime. The bottom line is the British colonies developed an agricultural system, economy, etc. and this thug Mugabe in his racist attempt at ethnic cleansing cut off the nose of his nation to spite its/his face.
It would be akin to me being given ownership of the DOW Corporation and firing everyone that wasn’t Italian (like me) and expecting the company to function and stay profitable. If Mugabe had half a brain and wasn’t blinded by his own ego and racism he would of had the people running the farms teach and mentor Zimbabweans on how to effectively manage the farms before getting rid of the “evil whites.”
Unfortunately it is the people of Zimbabwe that are paying the price for his egotistical and racist ways and as is typical with leftist thugs when reality hits home he is blaming the evil west all the while going to bed with a full stomach and living lavishly while his people starve.
I wonder how many pairs of shoes Mugabe’s wife has, more than Imelda Marcos had by now I’m sure, all the while his people are probably scavenging through garbage cans just to eat!
Liberty or Death on March 11, 2008 at 1:33 PM
Quoted for truth.
Sekhmet on March 11, 2008 at 1:35 PM
Sooooooooooooo, it’s the ol’ “racism” and “colonialism” excuse, is it?
I’m wondering, was it “racism” and “colonialism” that caused the mass starvation in Ukraine, under Stalin?
Was it “racism” and “colonialism” that caused the mass starvation in China, under Mao?
Was it “racism” and “colonialism” that caused the mass starvation in North Korea, under Kim Jong Il?
Finally, was it “racism” and “colonialism” that caused the mass starvation in Zimbabwe, under Mugabe?
The answer: Marxism = mass starvation.
Unfortunately, Marxists are a dime a dozen in this country. And, some of them want to be President. It will be the Marxists who destroy our country. From within. And, by popular vote.
OhEssYouCowboys on March 11, 2008 at 1:36 PM
Now that was hilarious!
emailnuevo on March 11, 2008 at 1:37 PM
As much as I love America, one criticism I would aim at our nation is that we are ‘giving and charitable’ to a fault. We should not be feeding the UN. We should not be suckered into forking out billions of dollars to charities that tug on heartstrings with adverts containing pathetic images of doe-eyed black infants.
Our generous and sympathetic dollars can have a poisonous effect.
LimeyGeek on March 11, 2008 at 1:37 PM
drjohn,
You are so right. I am waiting breathlessly for any inclusion of these basic facts from Bono or the NYT or academica.
PattyJ on March 11, 2008 at 1:41 PM
Rhodesia was not being occupied by British forces. The Rhodesians held power and had their own army to fight Communist guerillas. Britain forced them to give up that power, putting the Zanu-PF in government. Some Rhodesians left – to Zambia, Australia, New Zealand – many stayed and some were killed.
aengus on March 11, 2008 at 1:43 PM
Like I said, 175 grains of .308 will handle things nicely.
Or, perhaps, a Hellfire into any room Mugabe is currently using to meet with his top cronies; just to make sure a buddy of his doesn’t try to replace him.
Frozen Tex on March 11, 2008 at 1:47 PM
I won’t vote for a man who wants to hide in his house while the neighbors scream for help but the world isn’t ready for globalization. While we run ahead into the future the rest of the world can’t even PAVE A FRAKKIN ROAD. Then we want to know why everyone is being so difficult. It isn’t our fault, it is theirs. People are responsible for their own government. Make a good one you will prosper. Make a bad one and don’t expect to have any help from America.
Look at Iran and Iraq. 5,000 years of civilization. F i v e T h o u s a n d….and what did they accomplish? Sewers? Libraries? Hospitals? Emergency services? Simple reliable electricity? Safe drinking water? None of these things. So what do we do? We give away billions of dollars hoping the people around the world wake the hell up.
Maybe it is time we try something different. Something that the PC freaks would call racist. Drop a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in these third world cest pools and don’t have a frakking thing to do with anyone until they can match it. If they start a war…bulldoze the place and put up a ‘free land’ sign when we leave.
Sorry. Not smacking you…just smacking my head against the wall wondering what kind of mess my grandkids will try to make their way through.
Limerick on March 11, 2008 at 1:49 PM
A Lord of the Flies foreign policy.
OhEssYouCowboys on March 11, 2008 at 1:53 PM
LOL…about right I guess. Just frustrated. I know we can’t just go Orkin on the world but just passing out bucks, so we can feel better about ourselves, hasn’t accomplished a damn thing.
Limerick on March 11, 2008 at 2:00 PM
I’m right on your wavelength, and share your frustration :)
I wouldn’t say that the rest of the world isn’t ready per se, but that our desire to see the rest of the world catch up is misdirected.
We’re so phenomenally wealthy, and brilliant at using our wealth to continue to create further wealth, that I think we lose sight of the fact that we’re not merely throwing money around – we’re using our wealth intelligently (overall, not always!), not merely spending willy-nilly.
So we think that if we shower these backwards people with money they’ll miraculously buy themselves an advanced future and keep up with us.
FAIL
It’s a classic “teach a man to fish” metaphor. We need to find smarter political ways of educating the world in how to make intelligent use of wealth. Unfortunately this runs headlong into resistance from people with idealogical blinders and a pathalogical loathing of liberty – and they have all the guns.
If we could just find a way to go ‘Orkin’ on those specific people, we could clean out the vermin and lysol the place. Unfortunately, you then have to deal with the people that step up to fill the void – typically equally backwards and ready to institute their own brand of armed fascism.
It’s an interminable conundrum.
Nuke’em all from orbit – only way to be sure ;)
LimeyGeek on March 11, 2008 at 2:11 PM
Or my preferred solution – find another planet and leave this one for the monkeys to burn.
LimeyGeek on March 11, 2008 at 2:12 PM
Mars is available…. know where we can pick up a Weyland-Yutani Corp. Atmospheric Generator plant for cheap?
Frozen Tex on March 11, 2008 at 2:18 PM
As much as I love America, one criticism I would aim at our nation is that we are ‘giving and charitable’ to a fault.
I completely agree, the UN is as worthless as teats on a boar (actually more worthless) and more times than not the food we send is stolen by the corrupt government and their thugs to sell on the black market and more times than not the money we send is diverted to war lords to buy arms for their murdering army instead of using the gift we give them to educate their people and develop an economy and infrastructure that would in turn create a better standard of living for their people.
The best (worst) example of this is all of the billions in aid we have sent to the government of Palestine (e.g., Arafat’s Fatah, etc.) over the years that only helped to make Arafat and his widow extremely wealthy and helped fund terrorism all the while the Arabs in Palestine continue to suffer to this day, then to add insult to injury these same people we are trying to help danced and celebrated in the streets of Palestine on 9-11.
If it were up to me the gravy train would stop right now (especially for Palestine after their 9-11 celebration) then possibly when these miscreants realize the west (in particular the US) wasn’t going to bail them out anymore they would finally stand up for themselves and say enough is enough, but I won’t hold my breath.
Also, for those of you that would say that if we do cut off all foreign aid the rest of the world will demonize us and say it’s our entire fault; they’re doing that now even though we are currently providing aid. So we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t and I say if the aid isn’t being utilized for good and we’re being demonized while providing said aid then the decision to cut off aid is really an easy decision.
Just my 2 pennies…
Liberty or Death on March 11, 2008 at 2:22 PM
Looks like the $15 billion George Bush sent there for AIDS education / prevention has really paid off!!
Maybe we need to send more /sarc
AZ_Mike on March 11, 2008 at 2:45 PM
Wow…Might be a future blog post.
brtex on March 11, 2008 at 2:48 PM
You have spoken well, but i see no feasible option to make Africans civilized. The options we have are: not to pour ANY money there, leaving them living their primitive life and having their wars conducted by shooting arrows and swinging mechetes – OR – pour money there and have marxist dictatorships / thugocracies that fight wars with advanced weapons, destabilise the world and bring more death to the continent itself.
Aristotle on March 11, 2008 at 3:27 PM
It’s not that simple.
First, why would someone who was forced off of their land, or even under threat of having their land taken away, stay and help train people who have never farmed? Mugabe’s land reform was reminiscent of Nazi Germany’s actions where they showed up in the middle of the night and took people away.
Second, farming is a capital intensive activity. Most farmers would receive bank loans for agricultural inputs secured by the future crop. Banks would freely loan to established farmers with a history of success. Without loans, there’s no seed, fuel, fertilizer, or machinery to grow crops in a big way. Also, experience is critical. It may sound easy, but successful farming is a very difficult proposition. Even if the former farmers would stay and train the natives, it would take years to even begin to get them up to speed.
For example, a friend of mine’s family had been raising beef cattle in Zim for over 30 years. Over time they had bred and selected their herd to maximize quantity and quality. They had also refined their feed to an optimum mixture and considered their breedstock and feed formulations very valuable assets.
When Mugabe instituted the land reform policy, they lost it all. The cattle were stolen or slaughtered and their house was burned to the ground. For them, 30 years of work went down the drain. For Zimbabwe, a valuable source of cattle and breeding expertise left and hightailed it to Zambia.
That’s just one example, there are thousands more for tobacco, maize and other farming families.
Mugabe, simply put, is a murderous dictator. He has starved and murdered his opposition. He has implemented such idiotic fiscal policies foreign trade, and the resulting hard currency, has completely dried up. While his country is starving, he declined foreign grain shipments because the corn was genetically modified grain. (Which, by the way, we eat here every single day in the US.)
In the last week, he signed into law an act which requires any public company to be at least 51% owned by native Zims. The remaining few multinational companies (Unilever for one) remaining in Zim cannot restructure or inject additional capital until they sell 51% of their shares.
It just goes on and on and on. Sorry for the rant. It’s personal for me.
BacaDog on March 11, 2008 at 3:32 PM
Poor Robert Mugabe.
ROB MUGABE BEFORE HE ROBS YOU.
iamse7en on March 11, 2008 at 3:33 PM
AZ_Mike: Unlike you- obviously- I’ve been over there. And seen what the AIDs aid has done- and what it cannot do. It has made a huge difference, but only where- like in Uganda- they ignore the PC advice and actually include a substantial abstinence program. (Note the lesson we are learning on our own STD problem). Corruption does get too much of it and a very few people are unwilling to give op shockingly stupid ideas (kind of like our ‘Truthers’), but the progress is palpable.
And to Aristotle, I’d say this: The lowliest begger in Kyebe has more class, understanding and culture than you do. And you wouldn’t last 2 hours on the streets of Kampala with all of your ‘knowledge’.
michaelo on March 11, 2008 at 3:43 PM
Interesting.
***
Very astute
Very ugly
The Race Card on March 11, 2008 at 4:22 PM
What makes everyone here so sure the Brits didn’t teach the Rhodesians how to fish (farm, ranch, make things, etc…. but teach them how to run the place) before they left the country? All too often today we assume “our” colonial ancestors did nothing to teach the natives civilized society and ways to effectively run their own countries. Since only the top administrators of any colony were foreigners, and all of the grunt work of running those colonies in the 20s, 30s, 40s were done by the natives, I’d have to say the education was provided. The students failed/refused to learn, throwing the colonial method “baby” out with the postcolonial bath water disposal.
Is that the Colonial Master’s fault? What do you think the “White Man’s Burden” by Kipling was all about?
The education, freely offered, was ignored in favor of casting aside any hated colonial ways once independence was granted. India, Canada, Australia are the only places which managed to survive their own self defeating habits in this regard. And most of that can be laid at the acceptance of British rule and Western civilization by like minded intelligent people. India almost didn’t make it due to Islam and Hindu friction.
Subsunk
Subsunk on March 11, 2008 at 4:45 PM
Frozen Tex on March 11, 2008 at 5:02 PM
Time for americans to learn this, we are forgetting it too fast. Socialism will not work here any better than it has in anyother nation or time in history. Time to get rid of the pss (public school system).
allrsn on March 11, 2008 at 5:19 PM
Opps forgot the quote
allrsn on March 11, 2008 at 5:20 PM
Yup. Everyone remember the horrific Ethiopian famine from the 80’s (”We Are The World”, LiveAid, etc)? Wouldn’t have been much of a problem except for Ethiopia’s civil war; ditto Somalia in the 90’s, etc, etc.
Frozen Tex on March 11, 2008 at 5:23 PM
Ethiopa is a country I have a lot of time for.
aengus on March 11, 2008 at 5:47 PM
I hear ya and agree. It wasn’t my intention to over simplify the situation, but your point of how Mugabe’s land reform was reminiscent of Nazi Germany goes with the point I was attemping to make. Had he not been so over zealous in his approach and allowed time for his people to learn the agricultural business his people wouldn’t be starving and his country wouldn’t be in such economic dire straights. In other words his ego and racism were more important than the welfare of his people.
Liberty or Death on March 11, 2008 at 6:25 PM
I have only one word to say to Mugabe… Karma.
NNtrancer on March 11, 2008 at 7:47 PM
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