Mugabe's Land Reforms Starving Zimbabwe

Hardly a secret. I don't know of anybody who thinks Mugabe is any sort of good guy.

caw

No. I'm just trying to figure out the purpose of your post. It's sort of like posting that the earth revolves around the sun, driving while drunk is dangerous, the French think Jerry Lewis is screamingly funny, that sort of thing.

caw

blacbird said:

Hardly a secret. I don't know of anybody who thinks Mugabe is any sort of good guy.

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The problem with Mugabe is that he came to power (via democratic election) in 1980, and was viewed at the time with high hopes as a progressive African leader.

He gradually devolved over time into an autocratic despot, concerned above all with retaining power and control, no matter at what cost to the country.

And as such he presents a severe problem and embarrassment for liberals. Rhodesia was a classic example of paternalistic colonialism -- 3 or 4% of the population was white, but owned 97% of the land. Blacks were treated as second class citizens, without full rights or opportunities.

Conservatives pointed out, however, that black citizens were far better off in Rhodesia than they were in neighboring black led countries. They predicted disaster would arrive with black majority rule and it turned out they were right.

Mugabe's supposed land reform program was cheered by those who saw the status quo as racist and inherently unfair. (Which it was) However the "reform" turned out to be mostly a crony driven division of spoils, with land handed over to political allies and friends who were totally incapable of farming it.

The long term result has been to transform Zimbabwe from perhaps the most prosperous nation in Africa into a nation on the brink of collapse today.

There's a cautionary tale here, but I'm not sure what it is.

P.S. I'm not as informed about the history of the country as I might be, so my percentages may be incorrect and I welcome corrections.

I think the cautionary lesson is the wrong person was put in charge. How to identify and elect leaders with integrity, a fair heart and mind, more compassion than greed and a deeply held conviction of the sanctity of life is the challenge in every democracy.

I don't know whether you remember this, but Mugabe actually invited the white farmers back because the nation was facing starvation. In fact, right here:

President Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe, which has mounted a six-year campaign to seize white-owned farms, is poised to allow hundreds of white farmers to return to their land as the country faces starvation and economic collapse.
"There could be some 300 whites back on farms by the end of next year," Sam Moyo, a government land adviser, told the Guardian. "Most of them will be running commercial farms."

Since November, 19 white farmers who lost ownership of their land have been granted 99-year, government-backed leases on resettled farms in a spectacular U-turn by Mr Mugabe.

The land minister, Flora Buka, said the government had received more than 200 applications so far from whites to take up farming again. There are only about 600 white farmers left in Zimbabwe, down from 4,500 six years ago. . . . http://www.guardian.co.uk/zimbabwe/article/0,,1982144,00.html

I think his whole policy was bizarre. If what I've read is accurate, he broke up farms and gave chunks to people who had no idea how to farm. That's like saying New Mexico has too many Native American horse trainers, so we're going to break up the ranches and give the horses to a bunch of people who have never ridden a horse in their lives.

Bird of Prey said:

I don't know whether you remember this, but Mugabe actually invited the white farmers back because the nation was facing starvation.

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I wouldn't hold your breath. Like most of Mugabe's "initiatives", the Land Reform business was facilitated by a whole bunch of "inspired" citizens (translation: bloodthirsty mob). The only reason they weren't slaughtered en masse is because they were (mostly) white. The second time around that may not be as much of a deterrant.

The real solution lies within the over half-million refugees scattered to (among other places) Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa, where many of the black farm workers fled to.