Zimbabwe: 2007 till Mugabe resigns

[davidbfpo]

On a Zimbabwe related emailing it appears that the new joint government has failed to restrain the thugs, nor have the joint military ops centres been dissolved - where the "robber barons" sit. There are so few white Zimbabwean farmers left, The thugs also attack non-white farmers when directed.

One link, if you want commentary is: www.sokwanele.com/zigwatch.

Now when will President Zuma say, or do something?

davidbfpo

[jmm99]

30 years to the day - interesting lead.

[davidbfpo]

Two items on the BBC: MDC minister says assassin lists being prepared: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8090641.stm and the violence still happening: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8077533.stm

I wonder how President Zuma views such developments?

davidbfpo

[davidbfpo]

No real surprise: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8120931.stm

There has been some reporting in the UK, on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's visit, which has had a mixed reception - notably being shouted down in Southwark Cathedral by exiles who called upon to return.

davidbfpo

[davidbfpo]

Rarely does one see such writing and respect for a judge in Zimbabwe, alongside some pithy comments on President Mugabe: http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=17991 and http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/...on_Sansole.php

davidbfpo

[davidbfpo]

Yes a lull in posting on Zimbabwe, although there has been some news - none good - and more signs that the coalition is is far from being a work in progress.

Riding to the rescue of President Mugabe, no, not the Chinese, but an academic journal: Third World Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 6, 2009, pp 1139-1158, with the title Making Sense of Mugabeism in Local and Global Politics: `So Blair, keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe´

ABSTRACT

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has emerged as one of the most controversial political figures since 2000, eliciting both admiration and condemnation. What is termed `Mugabeism´ is a summation of a constellation of political controversies, political behaviour, political ideas, utterances, rhetoric and actions that have crystallised around Mugabe´s political life. It is a contested phenomenon with the nationalist aligned scholars understanding it as a pan-African redemptive ideology opposed to all forms of imperialism and colonialism and dedicated to a radical redistributive project predicated on redress of colonial injustices. A neoliberal-inspired perspective sees Mugabeism as a form of racial chauvinism and authoritarianism marked by antipathy towards norms of liberal governance and disdain for human rights and democracy. This article seeks to analyse Mugabeism as populist phenomenon propelled through articulatory practices and empty signifiers. As such it can be read at many levels: as a form of left-nationalism; as Afro-radicalism and nativism; a patriarchal neo-traditional cultural nationalism and an antithesis of democracy and human rights. All these representations make sense within the context of colonial, nationalist, postcolonial and even precolonial history that Mugabe has deployed to sustain and support his political views.

Phew, you read this far. No wonder Mugabe remains in power.

davidbfpo

[Tom Odom]

I have a headache now

3rd World Quarterly is a statement in and of itself...

[Stan]

Well, Tom, this should clear any misconceptions

TWQ examines all the issues that affect the many Third Worlds and is not averse to publishing provocative and exploratory articles, especially if they have the merit of opening up emerging areas of research that have not been given sufficient attention.

I suspect you're ready for leave

Best, Stan

I have a headache now

3rd World Quarterly is a statement in and of itself...

[Tom Odom]

I suspect you're ready for leave

Best, Stan

48 hours but who is counting?

Moi!

Tom

[Tom Odom]

And so the Mugabe thuggery continues with no end in sight. Campbell and his wife were beaten up last year in an earlier attack.

Activists Mike Campbell and Ben Freeth’s farms ‘set alight by henchmen’

President Mugabe’s henchmen were accused yesterday of setting ablaze the homes of their opponents after fires consumed the farmsteads of two prominent white activists.

Mount Carmel Farm, owned by Mike Campbell, who led a campaign against Mr Mugabe’s land seizures, was burnt to the ground yesterday. It had been occupied by a mob claiming to be war veterans since Mr Campbell, 78, and his wife, Angela, 67, were forced out in April by the 80-year-old Nathan Shamuyarira, a member of Mr Mugabe’s politburo. On Sunday the nearby home of Ben Freeth and his wife, Laura, the Campbells’ daughter, also burnt down.

[M-A Lagrange]

Talking about Bob, what I like with him, it is capacity to basically eat up opposition.
He created ZANU on an ethnic base to liberate his country (at least we have to give him that) and challenge ZAPU. Once he deep put Smith on his knees, he had to face ZAPU. First he won the civil war but to be sure to stay in power, heintegrated ZAPU into ZANU and made it ZANU-PF.
Now MDC is challenging him on the elections once again. Well, last time he managed to stay in powerwhile openingly loosing the elections.
He is (we like it or not) a hero for all politicians in the sub region. I do not know much of them that do not hown him their job. Also he has china behind him with their "win/win cooperation".
(I saw the effect in Harare in 2007. After selling all beef meat to china against weapons,we had to eat chiken for months and we were lucky.)
Next step is a ZANU-PF-MDC one party.

[davidbfpo]

Via Zimbabwe mailing list: http://www.mugabeandthewhiteafrican.com/index.html

A "fringe" film about a white farmer fighting eviction via a SADC court. Two short clips say enough.

davidbfpo

[M-A Lagrange]

Well, I cannot say that I like Mugabe. I must say that I did not like much most of the white people I met in Zimbabwe. The black and white fight in that country has been fuelled by both parts.

What Mugabe did to the white farmers is not acceptable, for sure.

But look deeper to what he did to his people in the name of Maoist-Leninist-Communism. One thing that is often forgotten is that all the operations he conducted in the cities to "clean" them, were turned against african migrants. He not only hates the whites, but he hates all what is not Shona.

And he is getting a strong support from SADC in his politics. The fall of Zim is just what his neighbours are economically looking for. It is not suprising that white farmers go in an absurd Kafka-like procedure, even in front of SADC. They were a problem for other countries also. No power in Africa is willing to have them coming back.

[Tom Odom]

Mugabe still plays the anti-imperialist card as he destroys Zimbabwe. His rhetoric should anger the continent but it won't.

Tom

Mugabe condemns 'bloody whites,' meets with EU delegation

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has condemned "bloody whites" for meddling in his country's affairs and attacked the West for trying to impose its rule on the southern African nation.


Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe met with a delegation from the European Union.

Mugabe's comments on Friday came a day before he met a delegation of European Union representatives who are in the country to ease relations and push progress on Zimbabwe's political reforms.

[M-A Lagrange]

Well actually it is even worst. Kabila just stated that progress had been done for political integration of opposition and asked for the end of the sanctions.
Zuma was supporting it...

[Tom Odom]

Plucked this off Fox this morning.

The Last Resort

A personal memoir of courage and tenacity in Zimbabwe offers lesson for Americans as well.

Editor's Note: How bad do we really have it in America? New York-based writer Douglas Rogers's parents are among the last white farmers left in Zimbabwe, where rampant corruption, political violence, and voodoo Marxist economic policies have brought the country to its knees. And yet Rogers's parents, displaying a fierce pioneering streak reminiscent of frontiers people of the great West, refuse to leave...

...Darling," my mother said, "don't be ridiculous. We are Zimbabweans. This is our land." Then I heard steel in her voice, fury rise in her throat. "Over my dead body will they take this place. Over my dead body."

"

And from CNN

Desperation stalks Zimbabwe's white farmers

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A desperate Zimbabwean farmer fighting to hold onto his land -- a year after the country's political rivals pledged to govern jointly -- fears he will eventually lose to politics and violence.

Charles Lock is one of an estimated 400 farmers who have remained in the country despite President Robert Mugabe's policy of redistributing white-owned farms to landless blacks.

"Why do they want to remove me when I've complied with everything they want? What more do they want other than for me to pack my bags and leave and if that's the case, then admit that that is the policy. Pass a law: no whites are allowed to farm. Then it makes it clear," Lock said.

The answer is that the white farmers provide a target to vent anger toward rather than have it blow back in Mugabe's face. Ultimately that will happen tp Mugabe or his crony survivors but the white farmers will most likely be gone.

[Tom Odom]

And to complete the thought here is Mugabe

Mugabe denies blame for Zimbabwe woes

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, in a rare interview Thursday, depicted himself as an African hero battling imperialism and foreign attempts to oust him rather than the widespread perception of a dictator clinging to power at the expense of the welfare of his people and country.

The 85-year-old Mugabe, the only leader of Zimbabwe since it became independent from Britain in 1980, rejected repeated assertions by CNN's Christiane Amanpour that his policies have driven the nation once known as Africa's breadbasket to virtual economic collapse.I

nstead, Mugabe accused Britain and the United States of seeking to oust him by imposing economic sanctions, the effects of which he said were worsened by years of drought.

He denied that his country is in economic shambles, saying it grew enough food last year to feed all its people, and defended policies that have driven white farmers off their land as properly restoring that land to indigenous Africans....

..."Zimbabwe belongs to the Zimbabweans, pure and simple," he said, then adding that white Zimbabweans -- even those born in the country with legal ownership of their land -- have a debt to pay.

"They occupied the land illegally. They seized the land from our people," Mugabe said. When Amanpour pressed him on white farmers being forced off their land, he shot back, "Not just off their land. Our land."

[Tom Odom]

Small as it may be, a victory against Mugabe's thugs is worth noting as it requires no small amout of bravery.

Zimbabwe court bars activist Mukoko's prosecution

HARARE, ZIMBABWE (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's highest court granted a permanent stay of prosecution Monday to a leading human rights activist facing charges of plotting to topple President Robert Mugabe's government.

The court said the abduction and torture in custody of Jestina Mukoko grossly violated her rights.

[Tom Odom]

Good piece on Mr. Mugabe from VOA, courtesy of Dave on the SWJ roundup.
Obviously the rules don't apply to the great man or his wife. And you can be sure that the same patronage is taking place among the thuggery elite.

let them eat cake...

Tom

Zimbabwe's Mugabe Has Built a Secret Farming Empire
By Peta Thornycroft
Southern Africa
02 October 2009

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has said his fast-track land reform program, launched in 2000, was to give Zimbabwean land back to landless blacks and that each individual should acquire and own only one farm. However VOA has discovered that he has taken five formerly white-owned farms, while his wife Grace Mugabe has taken six. VOA spoke with several workers from several of the farms, some of whom have been working on the farms for decades.

[M-A Lagrange]

I have just spoken with a Zimbabwean policeman. It is incredible how the people from the security apparatus still support the old man. He can get whatever he wants, they will forgive him. At least the very few ones who benefit from him. Even opponents inside ZANU-PF are in on the farm business. In 2007, the army was more involved into harvesting maize for export than training.