Personal Musings on Zimbabwe

My personal observations are just that- my opinions, though they are based on a wide-ranging interest on economies and geopolitics.

 

First and foremost, however he started out, Robert Mugabe has turned into a bit of a thug.  He has changed the constitution so that he could stay in office, has had opposition candidates arrested and beat up, and has harassed voters at the polls.  His elections are invalid, and he appears to be borderline insane at this point (in my opinion).

 

He has trampled on the rights of his people to his benefit.  While Rome burns, he plays the fiddle.  The madness started with the seizure of white-owned farms and redistribution to indigenous peoples.  While I will not condone the European carving up of Africa (in fact, I condemn it), two wrongs do not make a right.  It was wrong for the Europeans to take away the land for themselves, but it was wrong for Mugabe to take it away brute force the way he did.

 

Reform, gradual reform, would have been the best solution.  The white farmers living in Zimbabwe inherited their land, or bought it long after colonization.  They employed many, many local people and helped the economy.  The indigenous people that were given the land did not know what to do with it, and productivity has plummeted and, as a result, the government started printing currency, causing a massive currency devaluation and hyperinflation.

 

Quietly, the white farmers are being invited back as a result of this debacle.

 

Again, I state that I abhor what Europe did to this continent (as well as the US with regard to slavery), but two wrongs do not make a right.  Attempts to do so end up hurting the indigenous people the most.  They suffered through colonization, and they have suffered through independence.

 

It is a tough balancing act, and we hesitated even to visit Zimbabwe so as not to support Mr. Mugabe.  However, the money we did spend there went largely into local and needy hands.  I urge you to at least visit the Victoria Falls area- you will help support at least that local population, and perhaps in the end, the capitalism that exists there can be a lesson to the rest of the country.