Land Politics In Zimbabwe - from Al-Jazeera

[fixzimbabwe]

I worked in Zim education as a volunteer from 1985 till 1988 and had no contact whatsoever with the white local community, my worries lie elsewhere.

I remember the Shona as a proud and hospitable people. Some of my collegues were poor temporary teachers but there was also the emerging middle class of university graduates.

I recently found one of them, my former (black) headmaster, looking for a job on the internet. Apparently he has become one of the 90% unemployed.

[tigerone1970]

@fixzimbabwe

Economic sanctions have had disastrous effects on the economies of Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Iraq, where they are responsible for an estimated deaths of 500,000 children. Why would economic sanctions have a more humane effect on Zimbabwe?

Zimbabwe has been on a credit freeze since 2002, when the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 came into force. They are in Section 4C titled Multilateral Financing Restriction, Section 3 titled Definitions.

[tigerone1970]

@fixzimbabwe

SEC. 4.

(c) MULTILATERAL FINANCING RESTRICTION- ... the Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against--

(1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or

(2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution.

[tigerone1970]

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

(1) INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS- The term `international financial institutions' means the

multilateral development banks and the

International Monetary Fund.

(2) MULTILATERAL DEVELOPMENT BANKS- The term `multilateral development banks' means the

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the

International Development Association, the

International Finance Corporation, the

Inter-American Development Bank, the

[tigerone1970]

@fixzimbabwe

Asian Development Bank, the

Inter-American Investment Corporation, the

African Development Bank, the

African Development Fund, the

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the

Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency.

You can find ZDERA and read all of it yourself by googling:

zimbabwe demcracy economic recover act govtrack

You may be surprised to know that the co-sponsors are Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Russ Feingold and Jesse Helms.

[tigerone1970]

" You must admit that the whole process has been conducted in a very chaotic way, there? is nothing heroic about it. "

A total of 11 white farmers were killed in the whole process, out of 4500. In contrast, compare that to South Africa, where the absence of landreform has festered so much hatred that 3,200 white farmers have been killed. Letting problems fester and hope that everything will be alright is not an option.

[tigerone1970]

" What standards are set for the Zimbabwe young, that it is allright to take the possessions from Asians and Europeans? "

The original theft was almost 50% of Zimbabwe from the Shona and Ndebele. Did you really expect that the population of Zimbabwe would continue living in the barren 'communal areas'? When the land was stolen in 1891, there were 250,000 Africans in what is now Zimbabwe - today that is 12,000,000. And they are supposed to stay away from 50% of the country?

[fixzimbabwe]

@tigerone On the land reform:

You must admit that the whole process has been conducted in a very chaotic way, there is nothing heroic about it.

What standards are set for the Zimbabwe young, that it is allright to take the possessions from Asians and Europeans?

A whole generation of Zimbaweans is denied prosperity because of the greed of the present rulers.

It is sad to see that there is so little interest in Zimbabwe problems in general, nobody cares.

[tigerone1970]

@fixzimbabwe

I'm sorry, but I couldn't disagree more. What you are seeing is the process of decolonisation in action. There is no blueprint for it. Having said, it has gone pretty well, considering all the opposition to it.

Most of what you hear in the corporate mainstream media about Zimbabwe is propaganda. You should google an article called "A new start for Zimbabwe?" by prof. Ian Scoones, who describes in detail the effect of land reform in Masvingo Province.