BrianH
At the Start
President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has just been declared the winner of the Zimbabwean elections...
Shock Result
- Thread starter BrianH
- Start date
Diamond Geezer
Gone But Not Forgotten
- Joined
- May 2, 2003
- Messages
- 13,884
Now that was the mortgage job Merlin
jairducochetfan
At the Start
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2004
- Messages
- 400
Makes my blood boil this! :angy:
There's not really much else that can be said on this matter.
There's not really much else that can be said on this matter.
Merlin the Magician
At the Start
My luck stinks D/G I had a monkey on.... Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) @ 10-1 JUST THOUGHT I WAS ON A TRIER..........I want a stewards enquiry about this result I smell a RAT somewhere??????? :lol: :lol:
D
Derek.Burgess
Guest
ebagum! a reet do,that. can't do nowt reet fur sum folk.
BrianH
At the Start
But you don't believe in capital punishment in England, do you?
Huh? :blink: Okay, his followers have beaten up, intimidated, and occasionally battered to death some of Morgan Tsvangarai's MDC members. But this is Africa, folks! Where a country's not a one-party state, that's the way African democracy works. Sure, farms were grabbed from white farmers, their workers dispossessed, their animals starved or killed (or mutilated for sport), but again, it's Africa, it's the way things get done.
What's really interesting is the demonizing of Mugabe, as if he's another Saddam. He hasn't gassed thousands of villagers to death, he hasn't sent into exile an entire tribe (as per the Kurds), he hasn't tortured to death thousands of Africans who don't believe exactly what he believes (viz. the Shi'ites), and while he may well be on the way to demolishing a huge chunk of Zimbabwe's economy, so what? If things get bad enough, the populace or the army will rise up, kill him, torture and mutilate his cohorts, and almost-normal transmission will be resumed. The army will be brutal, food and medicine will be black-marketed, and the West will writhe in agony about another military despot, as against an elected one.
What's extra interesting is that a tiny handful of white Zimbabwean farmers were murdered in order that their farms be seized: Mugabe admits that these were 'bad mistakes'. Meanwhile, in South Africa, under the benign gaze of St. Mandela, a minimum of 1,500 white farmers were brutally murdered - not for their farms, which weren't awarded to their killers - but for revenge, for money and goods, and sometimes just for the hell of it. The figure's now well past that. I've lost count, but it's probably nearer to double, if you include the farmers' family members and loyal workers shot, stabbed, or hacked to death. Is Pres. Bush about to send troops to invade the Orange Free State? What do you think?
What's really interesting is the demonizing of Mugabe, as if he's another Saddam. He hasn't gassed thousands of villagers to death, he hasn't sent into exile an entire tribe (as per the Kurds), he hasn't tortured to death thousands of Africans who don't believe exactly what he believes (viz. the Shi'ites), and while he may well be on the way to demolishing a huge chunk of Zimbabwe's economy, so what? If things get bad enough, the populace or the army will rise up, kill him, torture and mutilate his cohorts, and almost-normal transmission will be resumed. The army will be brutal, food and medicine will be black-marketed, and the West will writhe in agony about another military despot, as against an elected one.
What's extra interesting is that a tiny handful of white Zimbabwean farmers were murdered in order that their farms be seized: Mugabe admits that these were 'bad mistakes'. Meanwhile, in South Africa, under the benign gaze of St. Mandela, a minimum of 1,500 white farmers were brutally murdered - not for their farms, which weren't awarded to their killers - but for revenge, for money and goods, and sometimes just for the hell of it. The figure's now well past that. I've lost count, but it's probably nearer to double, if you include the farmers' family members and loyal workers shot, stabbed, or hacked to death. Is Pres. Bush about to send troops to invade the Orange Free State? What do you think?
My pleasure, AC. He is a thug only if you aren't an ardent supporter, or one of the many cronies he's given tracts of once-fertile farmland to for 'weekend retreats'. The so-called 'war veterans' who were all promised vast acreages after Independence found that white Zimbabweans (most of them 2nd or 3rd generation) weren't going to donate their well-kept land in a hurry, or even at all, hence the forcible seizures, sanctioned by wee Rabbie. The ensuing violence and deaths are what he's admitted were the 'mistakes'.
Pee, I don't doubt that there's been some killing done - but it's mostly politically-driven and not tribally, nor anywhere on the scale of Rwanda's inter-tribal savagery, or the Serbs and Croats. When Northern Rhodesia was heading for Independence (as neighbour Zambia) by 1964, the two parties then contesting for leadership regularly beat up and intimidated each other. Africans sometimes got around this by joining both and carrying both parties' cards - hopefully presenting the right one when challenged by groups of thugs. Fortunately, though the country's suffered because of low copper prices and the usual levels of corruption, it has never descended into brutal tribalism, and its' attitude to its' long-term white residents, many of whom are now true Zambians, is one of pragmatism. If they harrassed them to leave, the rest of the economy would fail, and the British Govt would scale down or withdraw support. It has a pretty fair tourist industry with game lodges, riding holidays, bird-watching and riverboating. "The Times of Zambia" will give some flavour of the country if it's Googled.
Pee, I don't doubt that there's been some killing done - but it's mostly politically-driven and not tribally, nor anywhere on the scale of Rwanda's inter-tribal savagery, or the Serbs and Croats. When Northern Rhodesia was heading for Independence (as neighbour Zambia) by 1964, the two parties then contesting for leadership regularly beat up and intimidated each other. Africans sometimes got around this by joining both and carrying both parties' cards - hopefully presenting the right one when challenged by groups of thugs. Fortunately, though the country's suffered because of low copper prices and the usual levels of corruption, it has never descended into brutal tribalism, and its' attitude to its' long-term white residents, many of whom are now true Zambians, is one of pragmatism. If they harrassed them to leave, the rest of the economy would fail, and the British Govt would scale down or withdraw support. It has a pretty fair tourist industry with game lodges, riding holidays, bird-watching and riverboating. "The Times of Zambia" will give some flavour of the country if it's Googled.