Land Politics In Zimbabwe - from Al-Jazeera

It breaks down like this. The ZANU-PF wants to fund New Farmers with $500 million. The anti-land reform, western funded puppets of the MDC want to only use $50 million. In effect, he wants to destroy the land reform program by underfunding it.

The spin put on this by the presenter is unprofessional. For instance, what does

"The perception here is that most new farmers support ZANU-PF". Who's 'perception'? Either they do or they don't. They do. So why doesn't she just say "Most new farmers support ZANU-PF"? Is that against AL-JAZEERA editorial policy? And then she goes on...

" ... and they're not fully utilizing the lucrative farms seized from white farmers over a decade ago."

Who cares? It is THEIR land. They had it back. That they are not running feudal systems with hundreds of serfs to grow cancer sticks - kind of is a big plus for them. And by the way, the white farmers had so much land, that they only utilized 1/5th of what they had. But that is too much truth for Al-Jazeera.

Sam Moyo states: "The land issue favors ZANU-PF". Getting their land back would sort of dispose them favorably to the party that gave them their land back, as opposed to the party that wants to take it away from them again (MDC), now wouldn't it?


"ZANU-PF'S 'trump card' has always been land".

No dear, not a 'trump card', but the most important national issue aside from ousting the racist minority government that stood in the way of getting the land back. spirit medium Mbuya Nehanda went to war for the land as early as 1896.

http://www.bulawayo1872.com/history/nehandambuya.htm

Then comes our neoliberal puppet, finance minister Tendai Biti, and his Thatcherite disdain for dole scroungers and those who aren't corporations but would like state support anyway:

"The largest complain(t) against the ministry of finance has been coming from those people that have been 'killed' and destroyed by the dependency syndrome from the state who are actually not genuine farmers. But genuine farmers are farming."

What a scumbag.

So state subsidies and infrastructure don't matter to ordinary farmers, do they mr. Biti? Just those with 'dependency syndrome from the state'. Obviously massive farm subsidies are good enough for the home of capitalism, but not for Zimbabwe. I should say that it is very clear that the MDC want to destroy the just, successful and popular land reform program by underfunding it. That is who they are, because that is who they represent. Rhodesian farmers and foreign capital.

If anyone wants to read more on the effects of land reform in Zimbabwe, check out:

* WORKING PAPERS IN ECONOMICS No 322
Fast Track Land Reform and Agricultural Productivity in Zimbabwe
Precious Zikhali
October 2008
http://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/18362/1/gupea_2077_18362_1.pdf

" This paper uses data on beneficiaries of the programme and a control group of communal farmers to investigate the programme's impact on the agricultural productivity of its beneficiaries. The data reveals significant differences between the two groups, not only in household and parcel characteristics but also in input usage. The results suggest that FTLRP beneficiaries are more productive than communal farmers. "

* A new start for Zimbabwe? by Ian Scoones
Ian Scoones, Challenges the myths about Zimbabwean agriculture and land reform
15 September 2008
href="http://www.lalr.org.za/news/a-new-start-for-zimbabwe-by-ian-scoones

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

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• zimbabwe
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[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?

[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]

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

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]

@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

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.