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.

BacaDog on March 11, 2008 at 3:32 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.

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.
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.

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.

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

Canada and Australia don’t really fit the model, because the bulk of the population of both countries are the “colonists”, so to speak. But yes, India was the one country that adopted the British buearocracy, and stuck with it after the British left, although India was already a country with a loooong history of civilization and interaction with other nations, not a scattering of stone-age villages.

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

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

Interesting.

***

Tragically, educational advances did not keep pace with economic ones, so the natives were dumb enough to buy the nationalistic marxist bullshit Mugabe Obama touted.

LimeyGeek on March 11, 2008 at 12:49 PM

Very astute

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

Very ugly

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’.

ROB MUGABE BEFORE HE ROBS YOU.

..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.”

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.

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.

LimeyGeek on March 11, 2008 at 1:29 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.

Tragically, educational advances did not keep pace with economic ones, so the natives were dumb enough to buy the nationalistic marxist bullshit Mugabe Obama touted.

LimeyGeek on March 11, 2008 at 12:49 PM (fixed)

Wow…Might be a future blog post.

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.

Looks like the $15 billion George Bush sent there for AIDS education / prevention has really paid off!!
Maybe we need to send more /sarc

Robert Mugabe has now admitted his country is starving but instead of acknowledging his own mistakes he is still blaming white europeans for the catastophe of his own making. He has no choice than to try and convince his people that outsiders are to …..

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

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…

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?

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.

Limerick on March 11, 2008 at 1:49 PM
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 ;)

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 1:49 PM

A Lord of the Flies foreign policy.

LimeyGeek on March 11, 2008 at 1:29 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.

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.

However, when the Brits left the former Rhodesia

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.