So not to long ago there were the news reports that Robert Mugabe was forcing all of the white farmers off of their land, and arresting those who wouldn’t leave. So the farmers were going to the Zimbabwe supreme court, or whatever it’s called, to have his decision overturned.
But after a while, the story seemed to disappear. So what happened? Is there still a struggle going on? Did Mugabe prevail? Did the court order the land returned to the farmers? What happened? 
Last I heard, Mugabe was still blaming everything from economics to AIDS on those evil nasty white people.
No word on exactly what was being done about it, though. I would assume all the saner and/or smarter white people are getting the hell out of Dodge, though… which would lead to a shortage of white people being terrorized, which means that it’s just another African country full of black African people shooting each other and collapsing their economy and generally coming apart at the seams.
When non-white, non-English speaking people are shooting each other and destroying their own country, the American news media doesn’t take much interest.
I never did understand why they seemed to break this rule back when the Hutus and Tutsis were merrily butchering each other…
I think in that case it was a matter of scale, Wang-Ka. But your point is well taken. Mugabe’s regime has been responsible for the deaths of thousands upon thousands of Zimbabwean blacks, but for some reason this never got anywhere near the amount of press his eviction of the white farmers is getting.
Getting back to the OP, the Guardian’s archive of recent articles can be found here.
The most recent development is whether or not the Australian and English cricket teams will play in Zimbabwe in the World Cup.
The respective governments of each of those countries is putting a lot of pressure on their teams to make a political statement and not play. Nelson Mandela, no less, has called on the players to play cricket.
I also recall that the British Commonwealth is to decide in the very near future whether or not to extend Zimbabwe’s exclusion from the Commonwealth, because of, amongst other things, its government’s treatment of white farmers.
The really sad part is that most of the white farmers allowed their fields to lay fallow last year - not that anyone could blame them for it - and now the country is suffering major famine.
Mugabe is an idiot to think that he can return the country to what amounts to substinence farming and not lose half of his population, or more, to starvation.
Could you possibly imagine what would happen if the government decided to break up the giant farming combines the U.S. in order to give every slave decendent their “40 acres and a mule?”
This has nothing to do with what may be fair and equitable. It has a lot to do with being able to produce the food you require to feed your population. You just can’t make the kind of decisions that cause the people who produce 90% of your foodstuffs to stop production. That’s just dumb.
[sarcasm]Well, yeah, but killing people who look like you is different.[/sarcasm]
No, seriously, I think its because another report of random killings of black people in Africa has been pretty dull for the last century.
I’m afraid in this case you are wrong. Mugabe isn’t stupid, but he is vicious and evil. It isn’t that he doesn’t realize what’s going on, its that he doesn’t care. Its all happy for him if Zimbabwe goes down the tubes, because he retains power, at the end of his cronies’ guns if need be. And hey, he can import food for himself. I’m sure he dines very well every night.
Cillasi, the famine has been brewing for several years.
The area has been hit by droughts, and Mozambique, Zaire, Zambia and Botswana also face severe famine. An estimated 14million people could die in the region.
The Zimbabawe famine is exacerbated by the fact that Mugabe has put controls on the price of maize (the staple food crop), meaning that the farmers would only be able to produce it at a net LOSS to themselves.
And not of a few dollars here, we’re talking absolute bankcruptcy if they tried to farm.
Most of the white owned farms produced cash crops (tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco) for export, something which is even less economically viable because of the huge taxes imposed.
At present in Zimbabwe you have to produce a card showing your support for Zanu PF before you can buy food, and the black market is heavily restricted and only really available to Zanu high-ups.
Mugabe is a nut-case, but also a strong believer in Communist principles (for the plebs, obviously, not him),.
This famine has strong parallels with the Russian famines of the early part of Stalin’s rule. Also man-made, also diastrous.
My mother’s family is from Zim, her sister and brother in law left Bulawayo for Broken Hill, Australia in October.
He is an abdominal and paediatric surgeon, she is a music teacher. He hadn’t been paid for 6 months when they left.
As you can imagine, they weren’t able to take much.
Both of them felt that as they are in their late middle age there was little they could do if they stayed. My cousin is still there, he works for the Red Cross, and wants to stay and help when the famine hits.
He’s pretty brave.
So that’s it huh? The only pressure being put on Mugabe is maybe English cricket teams won’t play over there? Gee, he must be shaking in his boots.