← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Blond Knight
Thread ID: 20801 | Posts: 7 | Started: 2005-10-30
2005-10-30 14:12 | User Profile
At least Africans excell at one thing...failure.
[url]http://www.nationalvanguard.org/story.php?id=6715[/url]
Heart Sore with Shame Report; Posted on: 2005-10-30 02:08:37 Eyewitness report of Zimbabwe hell
Cathy Buckle
Dear Family and Friends,
A friend of mine recently had occasion to visit a commercial farm that had been seized by the government for re-distribution. Just five years ago every acre of the farm had been involved in intensive agricultural production. Eggs, tobacco, beef, maize and mutton had come off this land every year. Over 50 men had been employed on this farm less than five years ago and these men, with their wives, children and extended families had lived and thrived on this property. And now, my friend who visited this farm recently, said that what he had seen was so painful that it made his "heart sore with shame." My heart is also sore to have to relate this story as I too knew this farm, this piece of land, the owners and many of the farm workers and their families who had made such a good life and living on this land.
The boundary fences surrounding the property are mostly non existent, the wire stolen, the poles long since taken for firewood. The chicken houses have been stripped, wire mesh gone, tin roofing sheets removed and all that remains is the concrete floors - cracked, chipped and with grass crawling through in tough runners. The farm house, my friend says, is "finished". The ceilings have gone. There is no longer electricity in the house; electrical wires and their conduits have literally been dug out of the walls, along with the wall plug sockets, light fittings and connections. Windows are just holes in walls as window frames and burglar bars have gone, chiseled out of the walls. There is no longer water in the house; the bathroom and kitchen geysers have gone, the stainless steel kitchen sinks have been removed and in the bathroom the taps have been taken.
Outside, on the land, there is little activity. Aside from a few little scratches where rape and tomatoes are being tended near the dam, there is not much else going on. Big fields are unploughed, seed does not wait stacked in the sheds, fertilizer and chemicals are not piled in workshops. In less than two weeks Zimbabwe's rainy season will begin and tragically what my friend saw is not an isolated incident. The Governor of the Reserve Bank is repeatedly pleading for massive increases in production on seized farms. Vice President Joseph Msika keeps on threatening to remove farmers who are not using the land they were given but hints that this is a delicate process. Barely a month ago Vice President Joyce Mujuru said :"If you are not farming properly, this is sabotage at its highest level .... We want farmers who work the land for maximum production, not incompetents and idlers who just sit and do nothing."
Zimbabwe's main growing season is right now. Little is happening. In the supermarket this week piles of seed maize sits on the shelves. People cannot afford to buy it and have no no fuel to transport it. People talk of how new farmers are becoming multi billionaires this October - they queue for their government fuel allocation which they buy at 30 000 a litre and then sell for 100 000 a litre on the black market. You certainly can't make that much money farming so why even bother.
Until next week, love Cathy.
2005-10-30 16:16 | User Profile
[quote=Blond Knight]At least Africans excell at one thing...failure.
Ok you just hit the nail on the head. [I]Winning and failure are constructs of the white man. Therefore we reject these constructs and are therefore succesful according to our law of the jungle.[/I]
2005-10-30 16:26 | User Profile
This is not hell. This is simply natural state of Africans. There's no way to fix it, and there's no need. It's all in their heads.
2005-10-31 02:48 | User Profile
[QUOTE=madrussian]This is not hell. This is simply natural state of Africans. There's no way to fix it, and there's no need. It's all in their heads.[/QUOTE] This is how everybody thought just 25-30 years ago. Didn't take long for people to quit believing their own eyes and ears.
2005-10-31 02:58 | User Profile
Vice President Joyce Mujuru said :"If you are not farming properly, this is sabotage at its highest level .... We want farmers who work the land for maximum production, not incompetents and idlers who just sit and do nothing."
The blacks are pathetic.
Greg
"'He is a prodigy,' he said at last. 'He is an emissary of pity, and science, and progress, and devil knows what else. We want,' he began to declaim suddenly, 'for the guidance of the cause entrusted to us by Europe, so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose.'" - Heart of Darkness : Joseph Conrad
2005-11-01 16:27 | User Profile
"It be Whitey's fault". "Please Mr. White man, gives us some food so's we don't starve."
How many times has this scenario been played out?
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4395472.stm[/url]
Zimbabwe admits 'errors' on land A Zimbabwean minister has said that many of those given land since 2000 know little about farming and this has led to food shortages.
The authorities have previously blamed hunger on poor rains, while critics have pointed to the seizure of most of the country's white-owned land.
Up to three million people will need food aid this year, the UN says.
At the same time, the UN has criticised Zimbabwe for refusing aid for people made homeless by housing demolitions.
'Letdown'
Deputy Agriculture Minister Sylvester Nguni was quoted in the state-owned Herald newspaper as saying that while a few of those given land were committed to agricultural production, many others were doing "nothing" on the farms.
A large number of vulnerable groups... remain in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, including shelter - Kofi Annan
[B]Although he mentioned the poor rains, he also told a meeting of the Zimbabwe Farmers' Union: "The biggest letdown has been that people without the slightest idea of farming got land and the result has been declining agricultural output."[/B]
In a secretly filmed report for the BBC, villagers said they had only been eating one meal of porridge a day since May.
A woman said her two children had died after eating poisonous roots because they were so hungry.
[B]Much of Zimbabwe's best agricultural land was previously owned by whites, but over the last five years 4,000 white farmers - out of 4,500 - have had their land seized and redistributed to blacks[/B].
Critics say that many of the beneficiaries have been government cronies.
UN concern
On Monday, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan criticised the Zimbabwean government for rejecting humanitarian aid to those in need.
Earlier this year, the UN said about 700,000 people had been left without homes or work by an eviction campaign that began in May.
A statement by Mr Annan rejected claims by the Zimbabwean government that it required no international assistance as it had already provided shelter for those in need.
"A large number of vulnerable groups, including the recent evictees as well as other vulnerable populations, remain in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, including shelter," Mr Annan said.
"Furthermore there is no clear evidence that subsequent Government efforts have significantly benefited these groups," he added.
[B]Annual inflation is running at 360% and about 75% of the population live below the poverty line.[/B]
Critics blame the disruption caused by the land seizures to the agriculture-based economy.
[B]President Robert Mugabe has always accused western countries led by former colonial power Britain of sabotaging the economy because of opposition to land reform.[/B]
2005-11-02 01:23 | User Profile
"We want farmers who work the land for maximum production, not incompetents and idlers who just sit and do nothing."
Better get rid of the current "tenants" then!