Rhodesia: Taken to Its Logical Conclusion

I have been following the downfall of Rhodesia for decades. You may not remember “Rhodesia”. You may have heard of Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was one of those horrible British colonies in Africa, you know, where the poor native people are subjugated by hateful white interlopers who raped the nation for its riches?

Well, in the 1980s Rhodesia’s fine citizenry threw off the shackles of the white man and became self-governing, with one Robert Mugabe, once a brave guerrilla fighter, now an astute and wise political leader, as its president. In a move to guarantee future prosperity they changed the name to “Zimbabwe” alluding to an earlier failed attempt at an civil society, in the manner of the Aztlan movement’s use of Aztec imagery. That was the early 1980s.

In a pattern reminiscent of Chicago or New Orleans politics, Mugabe is STILL the ‘president’. In the ensuing twenty-odd years the country has gone from eminently productive “Africa’s breadbasket” to a nation with 80% unemployment and an inflation rate that is off the scale in MILLIONS of percent.

Starvation WAS the big problem as productive farms once managed and worked by white farmers were confiscated by Mugabe’s “war veteran” lackeys who knew NOTHING about farming.

Now they disease - naturally - following on the heels of hunger. Cholera outbreaks are killing hundreds and after twenty-odd years of Mugabe telling the world to stay the hell out of his country and just send money, he’s seeing the waters covering the deck of the sinking ship that WAS a fertile and productive nation.

Robert Mugabe appeals to Britain for help as cholera crisis brings Zimbabwe to a halt

Robert Mugabe’s regime declared a national emergency and appealed for international help to combat rampant cholera yesterday in an unprecedented acknowledgement of its failings.

With the official death toll from the cholera epidemic reaching 570 and 13,000 people infected, the Government admitted that Zimbabwe’s once-proud medical system had collapsed and appealed for help even from Britain, which Mr Mugabe has blamed repeatedly for his country’s many problems.

The “once-proud medical system” wasn’t run by socialists and plutocrats.

It was built by [white] people with centuries of science and the rule of law behind them.

When Mugabe’s bunch took over THEY brought nothing but a user mentality: nothing to add. Nothing to maintain. Only to use.

“Our central hospitals are literally not working,” David Parirenyatwa, the Health Minister, said. “Our staff is demotivated and we need your support to ensure that they start coming to work and our health system is revived.”

They won’t go to work because the bale of money they get paid in the morning won’t buy a tomato in the afternoon, thanks to inflation. Silly people, thinking that they should get paid for working.

Gordon Brown responded by pledging an additional £10 million to combat the crisis. “For once we agree with the Government of Zimbabwe — this is a national emergency,” the Prime Minister said. “Mugabe’s failed state is no longer willing or capable of protecting its people. Thousands are stricken with cholera and must be helped urgently.”

Britain’s Gordon Brown, though, does the WRONG thing: He’s gonna send money. Sending money to Africa generally means that a paltry few percent MIGHT actually reach the people who are dying. The people at the top, Mugabe’s cronies, they’ll have new cars and shopping trips to Europe and Singapore and Hong Kong. That’s just the way it is.

The appeal by the regime will heighten the sense that Mr Mugabe is losing control of a country that he has practically destroyed during 28 years of misrule. The official inflation rate is 231 million per cent — but in reality the Zimbabwean dollar is effectively worthless and defunct. The country is almost out of food and fuel.

Let me say this ONE MORE TIME. Zimbabwe used to EXPORT food. It’s in a lush part of a continent brimming with beautiful land and natural resources and people who will work.

It’s been raped. Not by the white interloper, though, but by the very people who drove the British out.

Other African states are stepping up the pressure on Mr Mugabe. Yesterday, in unusually robust words for an African leader, Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga called on African governments to work together to topple Mr Mugabe.

“Power sharing is dead in Zimbabwe and will not work with a dictator who does not really believe in power sharing,” said Mr Odinga, referring to the negotiations on forming a unity government with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that Mr Mugabe has strung out for nearly three months. “It’s time for African governments to take decisive action to push him out of power.”

“Other African states” didn’t want to say too much because most of them are only a few steps behind in the slide down into chaos themselves, even the once-mighty South Africa.

Most of those countries are kept afloat ONLY by huge natural resources needed by the rest of the world: diamonds, gold, metals, minerals, oil. And each of them is government by the few with at best the tattered vestiges of democracy blowing in the winds of time.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa expressed similar sentiments, openly calling for Mr Mugabe’s removal. “If they say to him ‘step down’, and he refuses, they must do so militarily,” he said.

One senior Western diplomat was cautious about declaring this the beginning of the end of the Mugabe regime, but conceded that there were “more than a few straws in the wind”.

Archbishop Tutu is one of several “elders” on the world stage that have tried to talk Zimbabwe’s Mugabe into change. Others of the “elders” include such success stories as former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and our own hugely successful (snark!) ex-president Jimmy “I never met a dictator I didn’t love” Carter. And when a group like THAT says your crap is falling apart, then sorry… 'tis too late.

The cholera epidemic has been caused by the collapse of the country’s water and sewage systems since the ruling Zanu (PF) party removed control of those services from cities with MDC mayors three years ago and set up the inept Zimbabwe National Water Authority.

Pay attention to that little tidbit: The ‘ruling party’ pulled the plug on cities that didn’t ‘vote’ the right way.

Many poor urban areas go weeks or months without water, and Harare lost its entire supply for 48 hours this week. Even the Parliament and High Court closed down recently for lack of clean water.

The main hospitals in the capital, the second city of Bulawayo and other centres have been closed by doctors and nurses demanding better pay and conditions, and because they have run out of medicines and equipment. On Wednesday riot police baton-charged a demonstration by more than a hundred doctors and nurses.

But the medicine is ’socialized’ and doctors and nurses are paid by the government. I thought that this meant they’d provide better care under these circumstances. Of course, when you factor in the idea that GOVERNMENT POLICIES have been bringing the country down around the ears of doctors and nurses as they tried to keep doing their jobs, then you begin to see what failed government fiscal policy can do.

And Mugabe has been trying to print his way out of a crisis, rolling out trillions of Zimbabwe dollars onto the streets to fix the problem.

Until last week the Government claimed that it was in control of the crisis, though it offered little practical help beyond an appeal to Zimbabweans to stop shaking hands.

Or drive fifty-five and put air in your tires…

Make no bones about this: Zimbabwe is in the condition it is in today NOT because of the British colonialists and NOT because of the Zimbabwean people. This is a failure of GOVERNMENT.

This is ’socialism’ and this is the natural order of man, to govern for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.

Zimbabwe is an allegory. That certain nations have held off from this natural order is a fluke of history and almost always due to the benefit of the ideas and mores of [white] Europe and its application of the Judeo-Christian ethos.