The hideous results of 25 Years of Black Rule: Former Rhodesia: Zimbabwe’s infrastructure is worse in 2005 than in 1953!

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[This is from my old AfricanCrisis website. This was published in 2005. In just 25 years of Black rule, Zimbabwe's infrastructure had collapsed and was worse than before I was born! Jan]

Here’s the original article:-

[I’m telling you, Robert Mugabe is a time traveller… the man knows how to take a country and send it back in time. It is my belief that Robert Mugabe would like to return Zimbabwe to round about the time of the Neanderthals, or somewhat earlier. By all accounts, Mugabe’s Time Travelling experiment is a HUGE SUCCESS and he stands to be awarded several Black African Nobel prizes for Physics. I stand before you, ashamed to think that I ever doubted him.

On a more serious note – not bad eh? In 5 years, Mugabe undid 52 years of development. Awesome! He has set a world record I am sure.

It is easier to destroy than to build. And the real kicker is this: Don’t think… for one second… that they can match the rate of development that White Colonials were capable of. It is NOT as easy as it looks, and the failure of post-Colonial Africa is the true proof of that. Mark my words, it could easily take Zimbabwe 100 OR MORE YEARS to get back to the levels it was at 5 years ago. Yes, you heard me right. Watch… and be amazed… at how difficult it will be for them to undo that.

Mozambique is still struggling, after 30 years, to try to undo the damage they did in 1975/6 when they nationalised that country and the Portuguese people ran away. If you think, that these countries can be repaired in a few years… you are completely wrong. White Colonials actually performed unbelievable miracles of Economic Development in Africa which the rest of the world completely underestimates. So far, after 50 years of independence, not one African country has even come close to matching the record of the Colonial Whites. Stick around… Our forefathers did amazing things, and repeating their magical tricks is going to be much harder than anyone has ever bargained on. These Blacks completely undervalue the incredible contributions which a few White people made to Africa. Jan]

* Conversations With A ‘New Farmer’ – About two years ago, while I was under the influence of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, I had a rather interesting series of conversations with the new owner of my house . and my farm, tractors, tobacco, maize, equipment, fertilizer, fuel, furniture, and the crops, and my very life it seemed! Hell he even took my damn dog! Anyway, it was actually quite pleasant to be able to talk to the man for a change instead of our usual mode of communication – him screaming racial filth in my face from a range of about 2cm and threatening to cut my throat, and I trying to get the police out of their offices to take him on, and instill a bit of law and order into him. Which, of course, never worked, as he, been a ‘son of the soil’ and I being ‘non-indigenous’ meant that I now was to give him everything, including the shirt off my back. The opportunity came about eight months after I landed in Harare with two suitcases, no home, no furniture, a heavily pregnant wife and millions upon millions of debt owed to Barclays Bank. I was invited back to my farm to remove my personal belongs. This was when I came to know Mr New Farmer and his banking brother quite well.

* Hatcliffe Clinic Disappears – œLast Friday I visited Hatcliffe Extension for the second time since the people had been allowed back to their stands in the (152)˜New Stands™ area. 4000 stands have been allocated or reallocated. Many people are back, but some have not yet come, presumably because they have not been informed about the reallocation. Some are now too sick, like Mr M.. who is still in Epworth with relatives. Some have not found the money to transport their belongings back, reports Trudy Stevenson, MDC MP for Harare North Constituency.

* Welcome Aboard Air Zim Flight UM 9724 Harare – Gatwick. Departing 07.25 20th July, Arriving Gatwick 16.55. – We got up at 4am as we had to be at the airport two hours before our departure at 7.30am. It was then announced that we would be departing at 10am. We are given breakfast… no explanation, no apology. The plane was delayed and yet it was sitting on the apron linked up to the ‘corridor’. OK 10am – not to bad. We see the crew leaving the plane pulling their pull-along cases behind them. We see the Catercraft truck taking the lunch trolleys off the plane! Then the information changes on the computer display. The time of departure is given as 12 noon. OK. Not a train smash. We are given lunch, and told an announcement will be given at 2 pm, 2pm comes – no announcement. Then we hear a whisper over the loud speakers – they are not working. They are ‘pianissimo speakers’. Everyone runs to the centre of the large waiting area where one speaker IS a loud speaker. The plane will leave at 4pm, no apology, no explanation. Children are getting fractious and a woman with a sick child is gettin gdesperate. The passenger whose father is in ICU in the US is distraught as she has to catch a connecting flight to USA to see him before he dies.. She asks Air Zim if she can take another flight out. You can, they say, but no refund.

* Conditionality – SA government spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe reacted angrily to critics who suggest that the loan to Zimbabwe did not have conditions attached. “It is well known that all international loans attract some conditionality,” said Mr Netshitenzhe. “It is an insult to our intelligence and experience in international finance to suggest that we would give an unconditional loan.” Pushed to reveal the conditions, Mr Netshitenzhe said that he would not reveal all the details. “Although this is South African taxpayers’ money, it would be wrong to disclose what is essentially a commercial transaction. However, he did clarify what he referred to as “standard conditionality” surrounding any loan. Firstly, the Zimbabwean government insisted that they would not accept the loan unless it was agreed that it would not have to be repaid. “In the post-Gleneagles climate, we had no difficulty accepting this condition,” he said. “The G8 agreed that debt forgiveness is necessary for development. South Africa has moved this progressive agenda forward, by forgiving debts before they are incurred.” Secondly, the Zimbabwean government had insisted that 20 per cent of the loan should be paid directly into a bank account in the Easter Islands. “Cabinet debated this condition at length, since we believe that the normal off-take on such loans is 10%,” said Mr Netshitenzhe. “However, recognising the effects of targeted sanctions upon the Zimbabwean leadership, we felt that a small additional premium to make up for past lost income was reasonable.”

* Zimbabwe’s Economy Back To 1953 Levels, Says Report – Zimbabwe, in its sixth year of bitter economic recession, is now worse off economically than it was 52 years ago with the poorest in the country virtually condemned to sickness and death, according to the Washington-based Centre for Global Development (CGD). The CDG is an economic and development think-tank which tracks economic trends across the globe. The group said Zimbabwe’s economic collapse was unusual outside a war zone adding that the gains the southern African nation had made over the past decades had been wiped away with the purchasing power of the average Zimbabwe in 2005 dropping to 1953 levels.

Source: http://archive.africancrisis.info/?p=106046

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