Zimbabwe anniversary

[HenryLB]

Not a happy one. Zimbabwe celebrated its 26th anniversary of independence the day before yesterday. A good article from the Timesonline here:

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Quote:

Last week the World Health Organisation said that Zimbabwean women had the lowest life expectancy in the world, at 34 years.

The country has the highest inflation, at 913 per cent. The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe estimates that a family of six needs Z$35 million a month to survive. Six years ago Z$1 million dollars would have bought a whole block of luxury apartments.

State school fees have recently risen by 1,000 per cent. “Zimbabwean children are faced with some of the worst hardships confronting children anywhere in the world,” a Unicef spokesman said.

Horrific.

[egb_hibs]

Another triumph for collective farming
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It's fckn tragic.

[wee 162]

Originally Posted by egb_hibs

Another triumph for collective farming
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It's fckn tragic.

It's not collective farming. It's giving productive land to armed militias so that they can intimidate people into voting ZANU PF. The land goes into ruin because they don't want to farm it, they prefer extorting local people.

[egb_hibs]

I think i've previously mentioned the lecture i attended on africa at last year's book festival.

it was a horrendous catalogue of disaster. the gold coast (now ghana iirc) going from a tremendously wealthy former colony to a basket case in a decade. the whole output of equatorial guinea's oil industry (or was it mining
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) piped straight into the president's bank account - and on and on and on.

only south africa is holding up in anyway (having an established bourgoiese was the given explanation). it really is a horror story - the place is actually undergoing devolution (not sure that's the right word - i don;t mean in the scottish govt sense but as in the oppoiste of evolution), which is unprecedented (on that scale anyway) in recorded history.

one even cant help but wonder whether de-colonisation has actually been a good thing.
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[wee 162]

Originally Posted by egb_hibs

I think i've previously mentioned the lecture i attended on africa at last year's book festival.

it was a horrendous catalogue of disaster. the gold coast (now ghana iirc) going from a tremendously wealthy former colony to a basket case in a decade. the whole output of equatorial guinea's oil industry (or was it mining
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
) piped straight into the president's bank account - and on and on and on.

only south africa is holding up in anyway (having an established bourgoiese was the given explanation). it really is a horror story - the place is actually undergoing devolution (not sure that's the right word - i don;t mean in the scottish govt sense but as in the oppoiste of evolution), which is unprecedented (on that scale anyway) in recorded history.

one even cant help but wonder whether de-colonisation has actually been a good thing.
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Wasn't a guy called Robert Guest on the panel by any chance was there? Read a book on Africa by him called The Shackled Continent recently.

IMO the guy is a complete neo-liberal ideologue, but the book is worth reading. His analysis of the problems are pretty good, but his proposed solutions swim in absolute mentalness. Claiming that all the countries in Africa who have got IMF loans just haven't tried hard enough to follow their doctrine and that's why their economies are failing just doesn't cut it for me.

[egb_hibs]

Originally Posted by wee 162

Wasn't a guy called Robert Guest on the panel by any chance was there? Read a book on Africa by him called The Shackled Continent recently.

IMO the guy is a complete neo-liberal ideologue, but the book is worth reading. His analysis of the problems are pretty good, but his proposed solutions swim in absolute mentalness. Claiming that all the countries in Africa who have got IMF loans just haven't tried hard enough to follow their doctrine and that's why their economies are failing just doesn't cut it for me.

tbh i can't remember the names, but that doesn't ring a bell.

the main problems the panel pursued at the lecture (IIRC) were:

- bad governance (above everything)
- very much linked to that, corruption - more money is nicked by the ruling classes than is received in external aid
- trade barriers; these are catastrohpic - on the part of the west but also within africa itself (the most damaging ironically)
- premature exit of colonialism - a rushed job that abandoned countries with uni graduates numbering in the 100s to suddenly govern themselves

[wee 162]

Originally Posted by egb_hibs

tbh i can't remember the names, but that doesn't ring a bell.

the main problems the panel pursued at the lecture (IIRC) were:

- bad governance (above everything)
- very much linked to that, corruption - more money is nicked by the ruling classes than is received in external aid
- trade barriers; these are catastrohpic - on the part of the west but also within africa itself (the most damaging ironically)
- premature exit of colonialism - a rushed job that abandoned countries with uni graduates numbering in the 100s to suddenly govern themselves

Certainly similar themes apart from the rushed exit of colonialism.

[egb_hibs]

Originally Posted by wee 162

Certainly similar themes apart from the rushed exit of colonialism.

what, to this book you mean?

I don;t see anything intrinsically neo-liberal about these things, tbh I can't see how they can be disputed!

[hughieo]

It's hard to imagine the brutality and tragedy that passes for commonplace every day in African countries
I used to live in Nigeria.
Nothing gets done without a "dash"..a backhander
In Zimbabwe Mugabe's antics are surely now coming to an end
The place will explode soon I predict and if wee Morgan can survive he will take over

[HenryLB]

Truly depressing stuff. It's the speed of the destruction of the economy, education system, agriculture, indeed just about everything that is so phenomenal. How has he managed this? How has it been allowed to happen? I rather think that South Africa have some responsibility.

Now in the interests of mischief I'm going to post this picture, and then I'm going to go to the pub.


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[wee 162]

Originally Posted by egb_hibs

what, to this book you mean?

I don;t see anything intrinsically neo-liberal about these things, tbh I can't see how they can be disputed!

Aye to the book. It was the guys solutions which were neo-liberal. Totally illogical train of thought imo which argues that education and health spending which has to be cut under the conditions IMF loans are given and are the most important things for development (this is in his opinion mind), should be cut more rigorously.

Not so sure about the trade barriers thing since that's where I got the figure of over £1b a day in agricultural subsidies in the developed world.

[wee 162]

Originally Posted by HenryLB

Truly depressing stuff. It's the speed of the destruction of the economy, education system, agriculture, indeed just about everything that is so phenomenal. How has he managed this? How has it been allowed to happen? I rather think that South Africa have some responsibility.

Now in the interests of mischief I'm going to post this picture, and then I'm going to go to the pub.


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The theory which I subscribe to is that S Africa cannot afford to economically support a new regime which is what would be needed.

ps

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[Smurf]

Originally Posted by wee 162

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The theory which I subscribe to is that S Africa cannot afford to economically support a new regime which is what would be needed.

ps

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Was it Straw or Charles who said it was a dark room?
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[egb_hibs]

Originally Posted by wee 162

Aye to the book. It was the guys solutions which were neo-liberal. Totally illogical train of thought imo which argues that education and health spending which has to be cut under the conditions IMF loans are given and are the most important things for development (this is in his opinion mind), should be cut more rigorously.

Not so sure about the trade barriers thing since that's where I got the figure of over £1b a day in agricultural subsidies in the developed world.

the guys i saw certainly weren't advocating cuts in these areas.

[part/time supporter]

Originally Posted by Smurf

Was it Straw or Charles who said it was a dark room?
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Straw. He also said that he didn't recognise 'Uncle Bob' until it was too late. That was the funniest Newsnight skit ever.

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The handshake with Prince Charles was at the Pope's funeral last year. Mugabe did that having already kicked up a fuss by just attending the funeral, despite his being banned from travelling to the EU. He was able to get around that because a) the Vatican City isn't in the EU; and b) the Vatican has an agreement with Italy that people are allowed transit via the nearest airport (forget which one). It could be suggested that Mugabe attended the funeral purely just to get it right up European (particularly UK) leaders.

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[HenryLB]

Originally Posted by wee 162

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The theory which I subscribe to is that S Africa cannot afford to economically support a new regime which is what would be needed.

ps

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The first one's obvioulsy a dick. He's a member of the labour government after all. The second at least undid his mistake by ousting the tyrant.

And notice how they're just shaking hands. Not having some big totalitarian love-in wankfest. "I salute your indefatigability." "Me too. Gizza snog."

[part/time supporter]

Originally Posted by HenryLB

The first one's obvioulsy a dick. He's a member of the labour government after all. The second at least undid his mistake by ousting the tyrant.

And notice how they're just shaking hands. Not having some big totalitarian love-in wankfest. "I salute your indefatigability." "Me too. Gizza snog."

And then proceeded to make a brand new mistake.


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