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October 02, 2007

A Dust Bowl Hell Hole

...of his own making.

Ringed by a clutch of Zimbabwean soldiers clicking automatic weapons, Charles Lock handed over the keys to his farm and drove off his land for the last time.

Scores of white farmers, the last survivors of President Robert Mugabe's land grab, and thousands of their black workers are going through similar agonies.

They now face the final deadline. As from today, any white farmer still on his land will be deemed to be trespassing on state property.


Once the Garden of Africa, all their natural resources are staggering against the ropes now.
.
..The GOZ is attempting to offset this by encouraging investment from China and other Asian nations.

...who aren't as offended by tyrants and dictators, not to mention only being in it for what they can pull OUT of the country, vice build IN it.
...The economic decline has resulted in renewed shortages of food, fuel, electricity, and other critical imports. A once-thriving industrial sector is suffering. Forty-eight formal businesses closed in 2004, bringing the number of closures to 350 since 2002. The official unemployment rate of over 70% excludes hundreds of thousands of former farm workers who were internally displaced by the GOZ's fast-track land reform program.

Zimbabwe's once robust social services continue to collapse due to the economic crisis, the AIDS epidemic and the extraordinary brain drain. Over the past five years an estimated 25% of the population has left Zimbabwe in search of economic opportunities and political protection. Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world, with a prevalence rate of 24.6% among the adult population. Life expectancy dropped from 61 years in 1990 to 34 years in 2003; infant mortality is 76 per 1,000 live births; and under-five child mortality is 123 per 1,000 live births.


I'll revisit one of my favorite quotes from "Dark Star Safari":
Even the kindly winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Reverend Desmond Tutu, had said,
"The man is bonkers."

Posted by tree hugging sister at October 2, 2007 04:16 PM

Comments

And that's exactly why the rich and fertile continent of Africa will remain a third world dung heap.

Posted by: Gunslinger at October 2, 2007 06:50 PM

Can't we just kill the mofo yet?

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at October 3, 2007 09:03 AM

I'll call it what no one else will: it's racism. And it's racism that is excused by the left, even when dark-skinned people are its ultimate victims.

Posted by: RebeccaH at October 3, 2007 06:24 PM