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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:28 am Post subject: |
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Why Mugabe Won
By Douglas Farah
The tragic failure of the African Union to take any steps to sanction the fraudulent and violent regime of Robert Mugabe was a given as soon as the despot sat at the table. Because Mugabe knew his audience, or what was to be his jury.
Mugabe, correctly, told many other leaders that "their claims to power were no more legitimate than his," and chastised other for holding even worse elections than he did.
The tragedy for Africa is that Mugabe is right. And because he is right, Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, remains an open wound, hospitable to radical Islamist groups (Somalia, Kenya, South Africa etc. for al Qaeda. The west coast, from Sierra Leone to Cameroon, for Hezbollah, and the Congo as a free for all, for criminals, terrorists and rogue states) and rapacious militias (the Lord's Resistance Army) and countless criminal gangs (Nigeria being the prime example.)
It didn't help that host Egypt and main mover Libya have such wretched histories of their own in terms of elections.
In addition to Mubarak and Gadaffi, here is a partial list of those sitting in judgement of Mugabe and his thuggish regime, as I wrote about for the Washington Post My full blog is here. |
http://counterterrorismblog.org/2008/07/why_mugabe_won.php
How can democratic reform be born in Africa? |
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dirty_scraps83
Joined: 02 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
How can democratic reform be born in Africa? |
Africa is so far behind that many of the pre-requisites that existed in North American and European societies for an indigenous democratic reform aren't even on the far horizons in most of Africa.
=> put the Whites back in charge  |
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RJjr
Joined: 17 Aug 2006
Location: Turning on a Lamp
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| Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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| I hope we're not paranoid of Zimbabwe to the point where we would invade their nation or or assassinate their leaders. What danger does Zimbabwe pose to America or Americans? And we're doing nothing about slowing down inflation in America, yet we find the time to lose sleep over inflation in Zimbabwe?? America doesn't need another war, we need a psychiatrist. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:47 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
How can democratic reform be born in Africa? |
Just a decade ago, much of Africa was gripped by hope as a wave of democracy swept the continent.
It began with the extraordinary sight of protesters in the West African state of Benin taking hammers to a statue of Lenin. Within three years, 26 countries had held multiparty presidential elections on a continent known for one-man rule.
When elections in South Africa ended white minority rule in 1994, there was not one single-party state left in sub-Saharan Africa. Western nations tied aid to free elections and severed ties with dictators they had supported in the name of the Cold War fight against communism.
But the optimism, backed by theories that opening socialist economies to the free market would help pull Africa out of poverty, has evaporated and the democracy movement has stalled.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080704/ap_on_re_af/africa_s_silence_1;_ylt=Arjh6kBiybCDEwYTE3IwCmvAwtcA |
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saw6436
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Daejeon, ROK
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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| I've reached the point where I would be perfectly content if the world just wrote-off sub-saharan africa. African nations need to get their own houses in order. And until they do f'-em! If Zimbabwe is such a crap hole then the people of Zimbabwe need to do what it takes to clear things up. |
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Wangja
Joined: 17 May 2004
Location: Seoul, Yongsan
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee wrote: |
| just kill Mugage |
Good idea: Saddam's execution certainly settled Iraq down. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:47 am Post subject: |
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| saw6436 wrote: |
| I've reached the point where I would be perfectly content if the world just wrote-off sub-saharan africa. |
Especially now that South Africa's President Mbeki is threatening to follow Mugabe's example of land reform... these numskulls will not stop until their people are reduced to eating eachother.
Both South Africa and Zimbabwe were doomed the moment white rule ended. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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Another perspective, from Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress.
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Fair play for Mugabe
Opposition to African leader is rooted in the same colonial attitude that supported the racist regime of Ian Smith
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Poor are the Africans. For the last 500 years they have been victimized, oppressed, enslaved and exploited by European colonizers and still are today.
Why there's so much attention in the U.S. to Zimbabwe, when the average American does not know if Zimbabwe is a country or a river?
Why did President George W. Bush lead the charge that last month's election, won by Robert Mugabe, was a fraud?
Why so did many Western media outlets, including Canadian ones, send their own correspondents to cover an election in a poor faraway African country of about 13-million black people?
The answer is that Mugabe is hated by the British now as he was hated in 1980 when he was elected the first president of free Zimbabwe, after 90 years of British colonization under the name of Rhodesia (reference to the land Cecil Rhodes and his men grabbed from the black African natives).
The country had to fight a long and bitter war of liberation.
The British government made no secret then that it hoped the winner of the first free election would be Bishop Abel Muzorewa; Muzorewa was prepared to share power with the white minority that controlled the nation's economy. But Muzorewa, tainted by collaboration as a prime minister, with Ian Smith's racist Rhodesian regime, was hooted out of office, and his rival, Mugabe swept the polls.
Mugabe was trying to implement a land reform; to redistribute the land of about 5,000 white farmers to his country's poor black people. And that is a great sin. So he was and still is in the West called a dictator, an arrogant, aging autocrat who has run the economy into the ground, fanned racial hatred and abused his power to suppress political foes, the courts and media, etc. etc.
Western media seldom report that Mugabe was and still is popular especially in the rural areas; his land reform has won him support among his own people. When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, 70 per cent of the country's farm land was in the hand of 5,000 European settler landowners.
In a 2004 poll conducted by the popular monthly magazine New African, for the most influential African leaders of the 20th century, Mugabe came third after Nelson Mandela and Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah.
Following the presidential elections in March this year the opposition claimed Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change was the winner with 50.1 per cent of the votes. The government claimed it was a tie.
Mugabe decided to hold a run-off election last month. But Tsvangirai pulled out and sought refuge in the Dutch embassy, which to some observers is a proof that he is a stooge of Western powers.
Back in 2002, Mugabe defeated Tsvangirai at the polls; Mugabe secured 56 per cent of the vote, Tsvangirai 42 per cent.
Zimbabwe was once among the most promising economies of Africa. The country is rich in mineral resources and has the second-largest deposits of platinum.
But thanks to Western sanctions the country's economy is in ruins. High inflation, high fuel costs and high unemployment are crippling the economy.
Millions of Zimbabweans have fled their country for economic reasons, 3 million to neighbouring South Africa.
Mugabe is no worse than many leaders in the developing world. Because he is challenging 100 years of soical injustice in his county (albeit, in a clumsy way) sanctions are imposed on his country by the rich and powerful nations including Canada, so the poor African blacks suffer some more.
Today, as it was years ago under the colonialists, it does not pay to be African, black and poor.
Mohamed Elmasry is national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress.
[email protected] |
http://www.canada.com
So, there you have it. |
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Pligganease
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: The deep south...
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| Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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| RJjr wrote: |
| I hope we're not paranoid of Zimbabwe to the point where we would invade their nation or or assassinate their leaders. What danger does Zimbabwe pose to America or Americans? And we're doing nothing about slowing down inflation in America, yet we find the time to lose sleep over inflation in Zimbabwe?? America doesn't need another war, we need a psychiatrist. |
Zimbabwe's failure does endanger the lives on millions of people. Not just Zimbabweans, but many other people suffer when what was once a great breadbasket and agricultural exporter has been reduced to a country dependent on food aid. That drives the price of food up and reduces the amount of aid for countries that truly need it. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:33 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
| Another perspective, from Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress. |
He tries hard to present the other side by overlooking and misrepresenting an awful lot of history....its actually quite easy to dismantle this old chestnut.
| Quote: |
| Opposition to African leader is rooted in the same colonial attitude that supported the racist regime of Ian Smith |
The west did not support Ian Smith, in fact they placed sanctions on it and brought it down..
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| For the last 500 years they have been victimized, oppressed, enslaved and exploited by European colonizers and still are today. |
The victimization was overwhelmingly at the hand of muslims, of whom the writer is one. Islam has gradually committed mass genocide through north Africa and displaced/ islamicised the indigenous tribes there over centuries. it continues now in Darfur.
South of the Sahara, muslims were the main force behind the slave trade. Even as far south as Zimbabwe, the rivers still have age-old mooring posts for Arab dhows used to fetch and transport slaves.
European colonialisation never involved slavery. It brought massive advancement in the form of infrastructure, education, agriculture that saw for example the indigenous population of Zimbabwe double every decade.
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| Why there's so much attention in the U.S. to Zimbabwe, when the average American does not know if Zimbabwe is a country or a river? |
Because unlike other third world toilets, Zimbabwe was held to a higher standard- as a far more developed country than the rest, that was fairly democratic and prosperous until recently. We're trying to hold the line, -not let it slide further.
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| The answer is that Mugabe is hated by the British now as he was hated in 1980 |
I hardly think so. Mugabe was loved, and installed by the British. Prince Charles presided at the handover ceremony.
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| after 90 years of British colonization under the name of Rhodesia |
Rhodesia was an independent state, not a British colony. It became a British territory momentarily for a few days so the British could ceremonially hand over power to Mugabe.
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| and his rival, Mugabe swept the polls. |
That first election in 1980 was not free and fair- and involved a significant amount of violence and intimidation of the same kind Mugabe is using today. Violence is how he has stayed in power for 30 years.
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| Mugabe was trying to implement a land reform; to redistribute the land of about 5,000 white farmers to his country's poor black people. |
Most of the siezed farms have been awarded to Mugabe's friends and political allies- the elite, not the poor people. In any case, if redistributing land was such a priority for Mugabe, why did he wait 25 years to do it? Its because this policy was a last ditch ploy of a madman desperate to court popularity and remain in power.
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| Following the presidential elections in March this year the opposition claimed Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change was the winner with 50.1 per cent of the votes. The government claimed it was a tie. |
No, they claimed it was 47% Tsvangirai, 42% Mugabe.
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| Back in 2002, Mugabe defeated Tsvangirai at the polls; Mugabe secured 56 per cent of the vote, Tsvangirai 42 per cent. |
That election was similarly rigged and violent. It didn't attract so much global attention though, because the country was still prosperous and had all its agriculture still in place.
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| Zimbabwe was once among the most promising economies of Africa. |
Particularly under white rule, and still when it had 5000 white farmers holding it together.
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| But thanks to Western sanctions the country's economy is in ruins. |
 he's making me laugh.
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| High inflation, high fuel costs and high unemployment are crippling the economy. |
All a direct result of Mugabes policies. When you stash the countrys GDP away in foreign bank accounts and use it to buy a dozen hotels in switzerland, then simply print more paper money when the treasury runs dry, inflation is what you get.
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| Because he is challenging 100 years of soical injustice in his county |
Mugabe's rule has seen more injustice, violence, crime and social malaise than anything that preceded it. Yes, Smith's rule was undemocratic, but it was prosperous, and kept law and order.
But nobody is advocating another white minority rule scenario. They're simply advocating that Zimbabweans be allowed free and fair elections to choose who governs them.
Last edited by nautilus on Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:00 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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| RJjr wrote: |
| I hope we're not paranoid of Zimbabwe to the point where we would invade their nation or or assassinate their leaders. What danger does Zimbabwe pose to America or Americans? |
Its not about what threat does Zimbabwe pose to the great United States.
Its about America living up to its world leader status and fostering / spreading democracy in other parts of the world. Thereby, creating political and trade allies, and ensuring its own future.
| Pligganease wrote: |
| Zimbabwe's failure does endanger the lives on millions of people. Not just Zimbabweans, but many other people suffer when what was once a great breadbasket and agricultural exporter has been reduced to a country dependent on food aid.. |
The instability has spread already to neighbouring countries, hence riots in S.Africa against Zimbabwean refugees. Hence Botswanas streets now filled with Zim. refugees begging for food. Hence 500.000 Zim. refugees now dependent on British welfare and living in London.
The thing keeping this going is Mbeki, who is a childhood friend of Mugabe's and refuses to condemn him- despite the fact that everyone else in the region does. Its truly pathetic.
The scenario actually mirrors that of Rhodesia 30 years ago. South africa sustained the Smith regime with fuel and resources. However, South africa cut the cord overnight ,after intervention by American diplomats who promised they would never put sanctions on South Africa, if only they stopped supporting Rhodesia.
A similar tactic is needed now to bring down Mugabe. Put pressure on Mbeki. |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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I do not oppose an invasion of Zimbabwe to topple Mugabe. However, I prefer a pacific settlement, a power-sharing agreement between the two main parties. Two million people have left Zimbabwe. Also, grabbing land from white farmers shouldn't be simply brushed aside by Mohammed El Masry. The African countries themselves don't like Mugabe. His men have also terrorized the opposition. How is that the fault of the West?
Mugabe recently lost the election before the fraud of election last Friday.
The African countries and the West oppose Mugabe and so do many of the clergy, and so does Nelson Mandela. Do you really think a country with an inflation rate of over 1 million percent is supported by most people? I seriously doubt it. Why would El Masry defend Mughabe? What's in it for him? If the Canadian Islamic Congress is led by him, then they need a new person at the helm of their organization. They should give him back his former day job whatever it was.. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Adventurer wrote: |
| Why would El Masry defend Mughabe? What's in it for him? If the Canadian Islamic Congress is led by him, then they need a new person at the helm of their organization. They should give him back his former day job whatever it was.. |
For the CIC and masry this crap is par for the course. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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Tom Friedman chimes in
My favorite part:
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| So let us now coin the Mbeki Rule: When whites persecute blacks, no amount of U.N. sanctions is too much. And when blacks persecute blacks, any amount of U.N. sanctions is too much. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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good read here ..
July 16, 2008
Zimbabwe�s Enabler: How Chinese Arms Keep Mugabe in Power
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Africa/wm1997.cfm
Basically Mugabe is allowing China to plunder his country's resources in exchange for boatloads of weapons to keep him in power. So its hardly surprising that China would veto any sanctions against Zimbabwe at the G8.
meanwhile Mugabe in a speech tells his people Britain is trying to steal Zimbabwe's resources, and that it is their sanctions which are are responsible for the country's 2.200.000 % inflation rate. You couldn't make it up.
I still believe if Britain sent in crack troops they could overthrow Mugabe in a matter of months. After all, the deployment of 1000 royal marines to Sierra leone took 6 weeks to put a stop to a civil war that had raged there for 9 years.
Lets remember Mugabes army is made up of inept half-starved gangs, who are used to beating up old women, babies and unarmed civilians.
If Britain is too afraid of being accused of colonialism, why don't they train up a resistance force made up of the half a million zimbabwean refugees living in London? |
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