Yes Basso I'm sure you had only the best interest of the people of Zimbabwe in mind when you started a thread about their plight designed to antagonize. You treated the situation like a juvenile game and you were met in kind. If your support for global human rights goes beyond posting on this message board, you don't get too worked up about pathetic, feigned outrage.
Don't walk away, ripping out the roots of love: Toni Childs -- what you gonna do zimbabwae what you gonna do zimbabwae zimbabwae is a man who tried to teach his children what was right but then there came a time when war split the family from inside he said no fighting no more what you gonna do zimbabwae what you gonna do zimbabwae the old man sits and shakes his head while the multitudes insist war is the cause of unity with just one thought there could be peace men gathered in silence the same can there be some peace on earth can there be a love greater than the world we see greater than us all it's the last station home it's the last station home you ran your heart in those days when no-one could see days you want to run in the wind you want to go back inside see no more crime in your lifetime zimbabwae, zimbabwae no more crime in your lifetime zimbabwae, zimbabwae
Here's a suggestion Basso. The Pres. in his second innaugaral speech talked about "Spreading democracy everywhere." Not just the Middle East or North Korea, everywhere. Apparently the Admin. has forgotten about Zimbabwe so perhaps you would be better served by writing a letter to the President, your Senator, your Rep., Donald Rumsfeld and Condaleeza Rice demanding they live up to the rhetoric of the second innaugural. You will find this far more productive than complaining to Amnesty International or the UN and especially to Clutch BBS since none of those groups can unilaterally impose sanctions and more importantly none of those groups have a military capable of doing something about it. Just a helpful suggestion.
gasso!!! anyways.... it's Africa, that's why nobody cares. that continent is so incredibly f***ed up, why even bother. if they want to kill themselves, let em. save a huge military invasion, it's a lost cause over there. sad but true.
I was hearing an NPR sotry about Africa the other day and apparently there are a lot of places in Africa that are doing surprisingly well.
It's f***ed up because European powers carved up and began liquidating the riches of every last inch of it (except for Ethiopia) by the middle of the 1800's. And through the IMF and World Bank, the West was able to keep 50 odd countries there in perpetual enslavement during the 1900's. Mugabe has now been in power for 25 years. It was only after he told the IMF to f*#k off a few years ago that we have been hearing jackshht about his regime from the western media now. Before that, when he was our buddy and providing us with tobacco, cotton, corn, etc etc, everything was A-Okay. His decision to seize white farms and redistribute them to blacks was in reaction to the usury the IMF was exacting on Zimbabwe. It turned out to be a really stupid decision on his part of course, because once those farmers left (along with all their farm equipment and know-how) his country could suddenly not produce enough food to sustain itself. But the mass starvation and famine in Zimbabwe was clearly caused by the West, who placed mass sanctions (a la Iraq) on the country and killed the Zimbabwe currency in the process. Devalued currency = no ability to buy food from anyone. The fact of the matter is that Africa has HUGE and VAST natural resources that all industrialized nations seriously covet. West Africa will likely be the largest source of oil to the US by the end of this decade. Gold from South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, copper from Zambia, cocoa from the Ivory Coast. These are all the world leaders in production. So a lot of people do care. In fact, Zimbabwe's new best friend the last few years all of a sudden is now China. Zimbabwe supplies them with among many commodities, much needed sugar. And China provides aircraft, technology, loans, etc. But anyways, getting back to how f***ed up Africa is, you cannot ignore the fact that much of it is due directly to American and European involvement. Whether it was the Belgians coming in and in classic conquer and divide textbook fashion designating tall, fair skinned Rwandans as Tootsies and the rest of the population as Hutu's (which led to inevitable civil war). Or McNamara going in and privitizing every last drop of drinking water he could get his greedy little paws on. To admit that we are indeed just letting them kill each other now after we've been raping their land and people for centuries is uhh.....sad but true.
Africa is not a country. There are plenty of countries in Africa that are on the right track and with a little help could completely turn things around. Of course you won't hear this on CNN or FOX because it's not good for their ratings. They would much rather report about the countries that embroiled in civil wars and corruption scandals.
