You have chosen "ZIMBABWE"
Zimbabwe - Another Nail in the Coffin of Black Africa.
Ah, yes, the color red around Mugabe suites him very well.
My ancestors arrived in Africa in 1688 and fought for Britain in three major wars yet that country, and the rest of the world - except South Africa, turned on Rhodesia & forced its pro-western government to collapse. Zimbabwe is now ruled by a ruthless dictator and ex-terrorist, Robert Mugabe.
Soon after coming to power he used his 5th brigade, trained by the North Koreans, to massacre about 30,000 Matabele tribes-people, his political opposition. The world's media hypocrites of course said absolutely nothing about this. You see, they don't care about black people killing other black people in Africa as that is not news and does not generate ratings.
I visited Zimbabwe in 1999 and again in 2012 and was shocked by the state of the country and how Mugabe's government has destroyed it in less than twenty years. I was appalled at the state Bulawayo is in and the hardship that many of the people, especially the Matabele, endure. What is so crazy is that the world's governments forced the Smith government into surrendering to majority rule and thereby "liberated" all of its occupants, black, white and other, into decades of hardship and oppression far worse than anything that ever existed in the previous almost 90 years of white rule, unless of course, you are part of Mugabe's inner circle.
When he came to power Mugabe was lauded by western political commentators, governments and media as being the new hope of Africa, as a wonderful educated leader who would demonstrate that majority rule in Africa could work and as a great statesman. How wrong they all were. But, this was not surprising to us in Africa, the western world did the same with the abominable Idi Amin of Uganda a few years earlier. The British government and journalists kissed Idi's backside and fell all over him calling him "...a rather jolly fellow..." when he was one of the most despicable and brutal dictators ever to exist in Africa. Mugabe, true to the form of every other majority leader in Africa, revealed his true colors a few short years after coming to power. He has followed exactly the same path of abuse adding another ring of truth to the saying in Africa that when you have a majority government in Africa you have: "One Man, One Vote, One Time" Or at least until the dictator dies or is overthrown by some violent act. Now that he is in power Mugabe is only interested in keeping himself in power at any cost.
As a teenager growing up in Rhodesia I remember activists like Peter Hain working for the overthrow of the Rhodesian government. We saw the unbelievable chaos and bloodshed in black countries to our north and wondered why Hain & others like him could not see that the same chaos and brutality would result in Rhodesia should it be handed over to majority rule. Majority rule had not worked anywhere else in Africa yet these people defied history and logic and claimed it would work in Rhodesia.
Today, Peter Hain is an MP in Britain and I would like to know where his screams and protests are about the atrocities, that have continued, unababted, for almost 20 years in Zimbabwe, committed by a government he helped install? He has done nothing tangible to stop Mugabe from brutalizing his own people and destroying their country. Hain's hands and the hands of those who worked with him carry the blood of innocents killed and tortured at the behest of Mugabe.
(Note: On January 4th, 2008 Peter Hain resigned in disgrace from his post in the British government brought about by a financial scandal regaring his non-disclosure of about 100,000 GBP donated to him. Hain claimed he "...forgot..." about this money he had not declared. The investigation continued, and as they put it, "...further dubious financial practices have surfaced including employing his 80-year-old mother on a Commons salary..." See the Wiki article).
And oh, the British government threatens to expel Zimbabwe from the commonwealth - how tragic - I am sure Mugabe must be shaking in his boots over this...When I was a teenager the British government blockaded our country, sent warships to patrol the Indian Ocean coast to stop us from receiving supplies, applied major economic sanctions & even provided arms for communist-backed terrorists - yet, what is the British government AND Peter Hain doing today to stop the atrocities in Zimbabwe?
And, by the way, where is the Royal Family in this? They supported the "liberation" of Africa too but never seem to have noticed the tribalistic slavery into which the people of their former colonies in Africa have been "freed."
And, where are the outraged cries from Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Bishop Desmond Tutu and the "great" Nelson Mandela, (who, in my book, is just another terrorist) the latter two, both winners of Nobel Peace prizes? Shouldn't they all be screaming about the abuse of their brothers and sisters in Africa by another brother - or would this not do much for their popularity?... I wonder. Strange how these men of the cloth are so quiet now.
Sorry, but Rhodesia never got a fair deal in the world's media and Zimbabwe barely features now because Mugabe, the media's darling African leader, has not exactly lived up to expectations and they don't want to look at him too closely. The media painted us white Rhodesians as racists of the worst extreme. They made out to the world that we were living in luxury off the backs of poor oppressed masses but this was simply not true. They used exceptions to distort the perception of the whole country and the world's unthinking masses fell for it all hook-line-and-sinker. Never did they show the good that the white government of Rhodesia actually did. The media ignored tribalism in Africa that is racist to the extreme coupled with vicious brutality and deliberately oversimplified the whole situation to a black / white issue. What angers me today is that were the situation reversed, i.e. a white government taking only one black farmer's land the media would be screaming from one end of our planet to another. The double standards are amazing and sickening.
Bishop Abel Muzorewa was the first elected black prime minister of Zimbabwe. Mugabe of course did not accept Muzorewa's victory and carried on with the terrorist war until another election was held which he won via rampant brutality and intimidation. Muzorewa however won his seat in parliament. Within a short time Zimbabwe started degenerating into chaos under Mugabe's abuse and in about 1983 Muzorewa criticized him in parliament. Muzorewa stated that the enemy of Zimbabwe was not the whites, was not South Africa, was not the Jews in Israel but was their own black government. He stated that the country was suffering more oppression under its black government than it had ever suffered under white rule. Needless to say this did not sit well with Mugabe. Muzorewa was arrested a few days later and thrown into prison where he was left for about a year - with no outcries from the world's media. Freedom of the press and of expression does not exist in Africa - unless of course you preach the party line.
Recently Mugabe called the white farmers "...the enemy of the people..." and gave the population the right to take over any white-owned farm they wanted. In the ensuing chaos hundreds of farms have been taken & destroyed & many farmers AND their loyal black employees killed have been severely assaulted by gangs of black thugs claiming to be "war veterans." The funny thing is however that most of these so-called "war veterans" are so young they were not even born when the war ended. And, oh, by the way, Mugabe's government has now been kicking black squatters off formerly productive white farmers' land & giving the farms to select black members of the ruling dictatorship. Where is the media outcry over this?
The absolute madness of this whole situation is that it is these few remaining white farmers that actually feed the country & bring in much needed foreign currency. The peasant farmers produce nothing. Yet Mugabe, out of political expediency, is destroying the country even further then comes to the western world with his begging bowl. And, for all these years, the western world has been dumb enough to pour money into this bottomless pit in support of a ruthless dictator. 20 years after coming to power Mugabe is still blaming the whites for the countries woes while he and his cohorts live like kings with most of his people destitute and on the verge of starvation.
Rhodesia was, under white rule, laboring under world isolation and misinformation, the breadbasket of Africa yet today, can't feed itself and isn't even able to produce a gallon of milk - all of which is now imported.
Sorry, but the world needs a major reality check when it comes to the "liberation" of Africa.
The concept of DEMOCRACY does not exist in the minds of the governments on that pathetic continent. The strongest tribe rules and only cares about keeping itself in power. That is the lore of Africa & that is why I no longer live there.
Update: 2008-05-29
There was an election in Zimbabwe on March 29, 2008 and Mugabe, in spite of having the leader of the opposition party and many of his supporters arrested and beaten up in the latter part of last year, lost. But, has he stepped down? No, he has held onto power, claiming there were irregularities and has demanded a run-off election, giving him time to practise more intimidation. Of course, outcries from the world's black leaders are nowhere to be heard.
Mugabe is nothing more than a brutal savage and his years of dictatorial rule have provided irrefutable evidence of this. Mugabedid exactly what those of us who left knew he would do, i.e. he became a ruthless dictator and destroyed the country. Tabo Mbeki, president of South Africa actually said recently that Mugabe was giving the black African liberation struggle a bad name because he was fulfilling the predictions of the whites... It seems it has taken Mbeki many years to figure this one out. Probably because he was so busy practising "quiet diplomacy" with Mugabe, i.e. doing nothing.
Pray tell Mr. Mbeki, where is a country in Africa that has produced positive fruit after the black liberation struggle?
It is interesting to note that in 1976, during the bush war, with no aid from the world and sanctions from the almost everyone, one Rhodesian dollar was worth around $1.40 US.
Yet now, after 28 years of Mugabe's bungling incompetence, having no sanctions with billions of dollars of aid being poured into Zimbabwe, as of 1 month ago, (April 2008) 1 US cent was worth Z$150,000 and the country has an inflation rate of 100,000%, the worst in the world.
Just two weeks ago, as reported by the BBC, (May 2008) the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank printed a new half-a-billion dollar note - worth just over 2 US dollars.
And, the excuse Mugabe is now making, is that the western world has sabotaged his economy. Another more novel excuse I heard a few weeks ago is that the black people in the country were "radicalized' by white rule and that is why they cannot run the country. Oh, so, as a white African, it's still all my fault. Just totally beyond belief and defies all sanity.
Take a look at just some of the failed, liberated African countries below and draw your own conclusions...
Update: 2019-11-06
In November 2017 Mugabe was deposed by his second-in-command ex-terrorist, Emmerson Mnangawa and I was amazed at how euphoric some people became. IMO, there was no logical reason to be so given that man's history. IMO, deposing Mugabe was merely done to prevent his much youger wife, Grace from seizing power, which she was clearly working towards. As we are now two years into the reign of this new dictator, my predictions back in 2017 have proven to be correct and Zimbabwe is about to go off another economic cliff to even greater ruin - if that's even possible.
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Everything expressed on this site is my opinion and, the photos, images and drawings, except where noted, are my work and may not be used anywhere, by anyone, without my written permission.