Platinum: It's not just for Jewelry

LINK


ZIMBABWEAN PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE has signed a deal with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Beijing. The details have not been made public but sources say that China has been given mineral rights to platinum and other minerals. A land deal for tobacco may also be included. Mugabe requires Chinese investors to finance ferrochrome production, irrigation projects, power plants, and transport. The reward is a stake in the nation's platinum reserves.

The big loser in the deal may well be the largely privately owned Impala Platinum Holdings (Implats), which controls most of Zimbabwe's mines. Implats annoyed Mugabe after it put a $750 million expansion program on hold in February. Implats, the world's second-largest platinum producer, was worried about government proposals that would force the company to sell an unspecified stake to black investors and keep foreign currency earnings in Zimbabwe.

Translation: He is going to steal from this private company, probably by "nationalizing" it...taking a clue from Castro, who did the same, which is why Cuba still harvests using donkeys instead of John Deeres or handplows, like our "poor" Filippino farmers.. (HMMM...Maybe China can have them import handplows instead of Jet planes...they are widely used in China...and Chinese farmers could show them how to irrigate).

Implats main holdings are in Zimbabwe (with an estimated 187 million ounces of platinum worth over $40 billion--three times the resources it has in South Africa). Implats holds 84 percent of Zimbabwe's platinum reserves and has remained largely untouched by Mugabe until now, since the foreign exchange earnings made by the mines have kept the regime alive by buying much needed fuel and machinery and, more recently, food.

A month ago, however, the concerns were that Implats and other companies would be forced to relinquish some of their assets at unattractive prices to black and Chinese investors. Today the situation looks far more grave.

CHINA KNOWS that Mugabe could fall from power any day and cannot assume that mineral rights deals done today will survive regime change. It's likely that what they have agreed to is a substantial portion of currently mined platinum, as well as significant short-run mining rights. The Chinese will also have longer-term rights included, in case Mugabe survives for another several years, but it's unlikely they will be relying on such rights to make the deal worthwhile to them.

.....China's involvement is economically astute, but their willingness to take over the economic means of production in a pariah state is politically worrying.

White farmer report

This Toronto newspaper has a report on Zim from the standpoint of Roy Bennett...

LINK

I am always skeptical about reporters who find heroes in white people when they manage to ignore the many Bantu spokesmen...but it does give some inside information...

...Paradoxically, he sees improvements for Zimbabwe as conditions worsen. Mugabe's only international ally is China; leaders of other African states fear defying Mugabe or his close supporter, South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki.

"It's fair to say everyone in Zimbabwe is waiting until Mugabe (age 81) goes, and then we will return to being a normal country."

Bennett sees foreign aid and the policy of forgiving debts and increasing loans as a formula for expanding -- not curtailing -- corruption and tyranny. With the exception of Norway, Bennett says the West does little to protect human rights or deter despotism in Africa in general, and Zimbabwe in particular....

I was going to lable this a "white bwana" report, but then the white farmers tended to be hard working blokes...it is the "save the animal" types from the Uk and US who irritate me...and get the lable "white bwana"...

Amenesty International report

AI tells the African Union to ignore gov't pressure from Mugabe's govt:

LINK

....Amnesty International today urged the African Union (AU) to challenge attempts by the government of Zimbabwe to frustrate the AU's investigation of the current human rights crisis in Zimbabwe.

The call came following yesterday's departure from Zimbabwe of Bahame Tom Nyanduga, a member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR). Mr Nyanduga had been sent to Zimbabwe by the AU to undertake a fact-finding mission, but left the country having been prevented by the government from fulfilling this mission. The government of Zimbabwe has reportedly claimed that there were "procedural irregularities" regarding his visit.....

On 23 June 2005, Amnesty International, along with a coalition of over 200 international and African human rights organizations, launched an urgent "Joint Appeal" to the AU and UN urging them to publicly condemn the violations taking place in the context of the campaign of forced evictions and house demolitions and to take effective action to stop them....

Their March report on Zimbabwe is found HERE LINK...it notes a lot of human rights violations...of individuals..

And LINK is the report on the dehousing operation on Porta Farm...

What I have yet to find in these reports or other rep0rts is the fear level in the villages, which face little food, more people/relatives returning from the cities after losing their homes, and the fear that the village will not receive food aid if they had voted against Mugabe or voice complaints...Indeed, what is also not being reported is the illnesses in villages due to famine related diseases...

House destruction continues, genocide looming...

LINK

Gateway pundit has an email from Zimbabwe...the genocide is continuing...

...We are all terrified of what they are going to destroy next........I mean they are actually plowing down brick and mortar houses and one white family with twin boys of 10 had no chance of salvaging anything when 100 riot police came in with AK's and bulldozers and demolished their beautiful house - 5 bedrooms and pine ceilings - because it was "too close to the airport...

You can't just be in denial and pretend its not going on. To be frank with you, its genocide in the making and if you do not believe me, read the Genocide Report by Amnesty International which says we are IN level seven (level 8 is after its happened and everyone is in denial). If you don't want me to tell you these things then it means you have not dealt with your own fear, but it does not help me to think you are turning your back on our situation.

We need you to get the news OUT that we are all in a fearfully dangerous situation here. Too many people turn their backs and say - oh well, that's what happens in Africa. This government has GONE MAD and you need to publicize our plight or how can we be rescued? You can't just say "oh you attract your own reality". The petrol queues are a reality, the pall of smoke all around our city is a reality, the thousands of homeless people sleeping outside in 0 degrees Celsius with no food water, shelter and bedding are a reality.

Today a family approached me, brother of the gardener's wife with two small children. Their home was trashed and they will have to sleep outside. We already support 8 people and a child on this property and electricity is going up next month by 250% as is water. How can I take another family of 4 - and yet how can I turn them away to sleep out in the open? I am not asking you for money, or a ticket out of here - I am asking you to FACE the fact that we are in deep and terrible danger and I want you to pass on our news and pictures and don't just press the delete button. Help in the way that you know how. Face the reality of what is going on here and SEND OUT THE WORD. The more people that know about it, the more chance we have of United Nations coming to our aid.....

Zim China part ....25? Whatever

LINK

Analysis of Publius Pundit...I may have posted it before...but in a later post, he notes China is doing the same thing with the dictatorship in Burma...

On the relations between China and Africa, Wen said: “China is the largest developing nation in the world and Africa is the continent which has the largest number of developing countries. China and Africa share many common interests.”

By “common interests,” of course, Wen means that Africa has vast exploitable resources to fuel its growth, and Africa has many dictators that need propping up. That’s what I call a sweet deal! We’re talking potentially billions of dollars worth of shiny lucre supplied directly to the Zim government in exchange for countless contracts for Chinese resource rapists, er, businessmen.

Meanwhile, the United States and Britain have raised the issue at the UN Security Council, hoping that it will finally address the crisis. But wait! An entrenched communist government with billions in business interests voices opposition to stopping genocide! Who’da thunk?

Mugabe returns with peanuts

LINK

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe managed to secure China's veto in the United Nations (UN) Security Council on the world body's searing report on Zimbabwe's demolition blitz, but failed to get the economic rescue package he had hoped for.

China was quick on Wednesday to show its position by trying to block UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's envoy Anna Tibaijuka, who investigated the demolitions, from appearing before the Security Council to discuss her report.

However, China, which was supported by Russia and African countries, lost the motion and Tibaijuka duly appeared to explain her report and take questions from the floor.

Ah yes, can't condemn Mugabe for allowing his people to starve so he can pursue socialist policies...like throw out the best white farmers to redistribute land to....well, some to poor people but mostly to his cronies and to the Chinese...

While Mugabe might feel victorious in winning Chinese support, he failed to make progress where it mattered most: on the economic front. He might come back triumphant after what he is likely to see as a diplomatic coup against the West, but his failure to get substantial economic aid to deal with a litany of problems will overshadow the political benefits of his trip.

Instead of getting meaningful assistance - beyond the paltry US$6 million to buy grain - Mugabe entered trade and investment deals that will not be of any help to the battered economy in the short to medium term.

Barring a last-minute miracle, Mugabe had by yesterday not got lines of credit to secure the supply of critical imports - fuel, power, drugs, and food - but only managed to get the US$6 million handout. Government had hoped to obtain a comprehensive economic rescue package to prevent economic collapse.

As I noted earlier, the Chinese are reverting back to their pre communist business accumen... they won't give Mugabe too much money because they don't trust him...but they will "invest" i.e. let him pressure or steal mines, farms, and businesses from his enemies and then sell them legally to the Chinese...

The Chinese think long term...fifty years from now, when the famine deaths are forgotten, they will still have businesses there...

NYT on Zim-China trade

LINK

JOHANNESBURG, July 23 - His new 25-bedroom palace is clad in midnight-blue Chinese roof tiles. His air force trains on Chinese jets. His subjects wear Chinese shoes, ride Chinese buses and, lately, zip around the country in Chinese propjets. He has even urged his countrymen to learn Mandarin and nurture a taste for Chinese cuisine.

That President Robert G. Mugabe rules Zimbabwe, which resembles China about as much as African corn porridge tastes like moo shu pork, is irrelevant. Tightening his embrace of all things Chinese, the 81-year-old Mr. Mugabe, Zimbabwe's canny autocrat for 25 years, arrived in Beijing on Saturday for six days of talks with China's leaders, led by President Hu Jintao.

If this all seems nonsensical, however, it is anything but. Shunned by Western leaders and investors for his government's human rights policies, Zimbabwe has begun a determined campaign to hitch its plummeting fortunes to China's rising star....

...

The Chinese are widely reported to covet a stake in Zimbabwe's platinum mines, which have the world's second largest reserves, and Mr. Mugabe's government has hinted at a desire to accommodate them. The mines' principal operator denies being pressured to deal with the Chinese, but negotiations are under way to sell a stake to as-yet-unidentified Zimbabweans. The operator has postponed major spending on the mines, citing political uncertainty.

Meanwhile, from Angolan oil to Zambian copper mines, China is investing billions of dollars securing access to resources for its fast-growing economy. And because they show few scruples about their partners' human rights policies, the Chinese are becoming entrenched in some states, including Zimbabwe and Sudan, that bridle at Western criticism.....

China won a contract last year to farm 386 square miles of land seized from white commercial farmers during the land-confiscation program begun by Mr. Mugabe in 2000. Zimbabwe's air force has bought $200 million in Chinese-made Karakorum-8 trainer jets, a copy of the British Hawk trainers that the air force has had to ground because of parts shortages.

Rumors abound that China has sold Zimbabwe's internal-security apparatus water cannons to subdue protesters and bugging equipment to monitor traffic on the nation's three cellphone networks....

Zimbabweans complain, sometimes bitterly, that their new Chinese buses break down with alarming regularity and that the Chinese goods that flood stores and roadside stalls are so shoddy as to be worthless. Indeed, they have coined a term for the phenomenon: zhing-zhong.

"To call something zhing-zhong means that it is substandard," said Eldred Masunugure, the chairman of the political science department at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare. "The resentment of the Chinese is not only widespread; it's deeply rooted. It's affecting even other Chinese-looking people, like the Japanese."

Professor Masunugure and others say that Harare's few Japanese residents complain of being taunted and called zhing-zhong. Harare newspapers report that high-yielding robberies of Harare's Chinese residents are on the upswing.

A solution, however, is in the wings: in a meeting last month, China and Zimbabwe signed a letter of intent to cooperate in law enforcement and the judiciary. Atop the list is a plan for China to train Zimbabweans in managing prisons.

Zim student protest

LINK

Sokwanele Report: 29 July 2005

It is interesting to note how, despite the massively intimidating effect of all the police state apparatus Mugabe has put in place, the voice of protest is still heard. The dictator has not succeeded - and surely never will - in silencing all dissent to his autocratic rule. For the most part the challenge to the ZANU PF monopoly of power is expressed in muted fashion, with angry mutterings and quiet acts of defiance. Yet now and again a bolder act of defiance takes place and the people of Zimbabwe catch a glimpse of the boiling cauldron beneath the battened-down lid. The pity is that all too often these courageous acts of protest pass unnoticed and unrecorded. The State media is certainly not going to draw attention to them and often the severely circumscribed independent press and media fail to pick up on the stories. As a result the impression remains that this murderous regime has achieved total dominance of all the political space, driving even the opposition into a sullen subservience.

...Earlier in the month and almost unnoticed by the media, was a protest at Bulawayo Polytechnic. Yet over 2,000 students took part in this peaceful demonstration which was sparked by student discontent caused by repeated delays by the College authorities in paying out student loans.

...a group of about 15 anti-riot police appeared suddenly, dressed in full combat gear including helmets, and wielding batons and tear gas canisters. The moment the students caught sight of them they began to disperse. The less alert among the student body however and those who did not manage to slip away in time, were soon pinned down by the riot police who moved into action mode immediately, lashing out with their batons at any unfortunate students in their path. Yet again these ruthless agents of State repression asked no questions and showed no restraint. Sensing a vulnerable crowd of defenceless youth who were not going to stand their ground anyway, they resorted to their customary "crowd control" tactics; never mind this crowd was already perfectly controlled and a threat to no one.

....Traditionally, the world around, student activists have been at the forefront of those protesting human rights abuses and demanding democratic change. Zimbabwe's dictator has not been slow to appreciate this potential threat to his continued hold on power, and he has used great cunning as well as brutal force to undermine the natural leadership emerging from Zimbabwe's tertiary institutions of learning. To some extent he has succeeded in subduing the student body nationally and diverting their attention to personal issues of survival. Nonetheless it is most heartening to observe that the flame of protest still burns strongly in the hearts of a significant number of the students of today who will undoubtedly be numbered among the leaders of the new Zimbabwe.

The bright side of China

link
Chinese business people have established retail shops in the capital, Harare, and other major towns, mostly selling cheap electrical goods, clothes, blankets, toys and beauty products.

Retailers are enjoying brisk business after informal markets offering cheap alternatives were closed down under Operation Murambatsvina, a government cleanup exercise launched in mid-May ostensibly to crack down on illicit trade in foreign currency.

It's called wiping out the competition...

The shops are popular with people who cannot afford to buy at the upmarket departmental stores because many items, especially clothing, are often only a quarter of the price. While a modest television set is sold at around Zim $8m (US $450) at established shops, Chinese ones cost as little as Zim $1m (US $56).

As that old saying goes: "Let them eat televisions"...

However, Makwiramiti warned that the country may soon find itself unable to sustain the business deals it has struck with China due to ongoing forex shortages. "The ZNCC is aware that the Chinese are demanding international commercial rates for whatever services they would be rendering to Zimbabwe - nothing is coming for free or at preferential rates, and if we do not find ways of generating forex we might find ourselves in a worse situation soon," he said.

HINT: The Chinese are excellent businessmen, but they are smart, and won't give you stuff for nothing...and their economic expansion into Southeast Asia predates the communist revolution by at least a century, and has caused a lot of local resentment...In Indonesia, many were killed in an uprising (see the film: The Year of Living Dangerously), but here in the Philippines, we insisted that if they wanted to own land or shops they needed to be married to a Philippina...as a result, half of our elite politicians and most of our rich merchants are part Chinese...

Harare-based economist John Robertson has recommended that the government mend its relations with the IMF, World Bank, USA and European countries in order to revive the economy. "China itself is looking to the West, and there is no way we can sustain our economy by limiting trade to China, or one or two other Asian countries, because that will give the country short-lived relief, Robertson told IRIN. "Let's make sure that we talk to the IMF so that it can resume financial assistance, for that is how we could once again get steady forex inflows."

He complained that some Chinese products, such as the buses and planes, were seen as unreliable; the same complaint has been made against apparel and electrical goods.

Same problem here...so most poor people buy Chinese clothing, paper goods, plastic dishes etc..., but when we buy TV's we buy USED TV's made in Korea...from our local Metziso merchant, of course...

Mugabe sells bankrupt Zim's assets to China

LINK

"We will never be a colony again!" This has been the catch-cry of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe throughout his 25-year reign.

But while he rails against perceived imperialist, colonial agendas and denounces anything white-skinned or Western, Mr Mugabe has spent this week in China signing over his bankrupt country's resources to the Asian economic superpower.

UMM...in both the US and in the Philippines, a country's assets belong to their people, not the government...

Analysts claim the Chinese are forging a "colonial extractive relationship" with Zimbabwe, which has sold forward more than a year's worth of gold and tobacco production in exchange for Chinese military hardware and diplomatic support.

"We will never be a colony again!"

Zimbabwe is the world's fastest shrinking economy and as it looks east for a saviour, China has a keen eye on the southern African nation's rich platinum deposits...

..............While Mr Mugabe was coy about the exact nature of his deals with the Chinese, Zimbabwean economist Eddy Cross claimed yesterday the Zimbabwean Government had forward-sold precious gold and tobacco to "pay" for Chinese-made military consignments that included 12 jet fighters, three 60-seat turboprop planes and 700 troop carriers.....

Ah, priorities. Not enough money for food for the starving, so let's buy jet fighters and troop carriers...must have priorities straight...

Yet while the booming informal trading sector has been razed and goods either confiscated or destroyed, every Zimbabwean city is awash with cheap Chinese goods, from glassware to clothing and trinkets.

Government contracts are awarded to Chinese businesses for major works such as hospitals and bridges.

Mr Cross claims Chinese interests have also been given farms, from which some white Zimbabwean farmers were evicted allegedly on the basis of redistribution to landless blacks.

"The Chinese have been granted the rights to develop 100,000 hectares of irrigation land in the Mwenzi area, about 450 kilometres south of Harare," he said.

"Also, they have been looking at a set of farms in the Banket-Raffingora area and these are farms on the Hanyani River and they constitute some of the largest farms in the Mashonaland area.

"Settlers (newly established black residents) are being removed from those properties right now. Apparently this is what was agreed in Beijing, that the Chinese are going to take these properties over — and Chinese State farming organisations are actually going to run them."

So much for land reform...

Zimbabwe, increasingly isolated internationally, is also expecting China to use its veto to block any censure at the UN Security Council.

Translation: Yes, the Chinese will be my new colonial masters, but they will veto any attempt by evil Blair/bush to dethrone me...

Trade AND aid needed for Africa

LINK

Continues the discussion about aid to Africa...

Yup. you need both...but be wise as serpants and as gentle as doves...

Hoping against Hope

LINK

Mother Jones interviews the UK Guardian's correspondent in Zim...


...Meldrum says Mugabe and his cronies are doing whatever they can to keep a grip on a tenuous situation: “They’ve run out of any new ideas of how to run the country.”......

MJ: It seems that there is going to be even more pressure on the land due to the current campaign to raze urban shantytowns. I recently heard an opposition politician say that she believes this move is a Pol Pot-type tactic of clearing people out of the cities and into the countryside where they are easier to control. Do you see it as having that effect?

AM: Absolutely. I hesitate using Pol Pot. Although we haven’t had the killing fields, when you tear down the homes of thousands of families, in winter weather, force people who are already in poverty to live in the open, it won’t be long before people start dying. The whole idea of reducing the population of the cities and sending them back to the rural areas where they are more easily manipulated is exactly what Mugabe is trying to do. However, what we can see here is one of these situations where Mugabe is trying to turn back the hands of time. Urbanization is a historical trend in Zimbabwe and Africa. Very few leaders can try to turn that around. He may well be overstretching himself.

Please read the whole thing...

World council of Churches condemn policies

LINK

LINK

In a statement issued by its

International Affairs director's office, the WCC labeled the evictions

that have left hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans homeless as

"an operation of segregation against the working poor".

"To carry out such acts of

cruelty," the statement says, "shows

clearly that the government is losing the moral and ethical ground

for leadership, healing and reconciliation."

The WCC statement

affirmed and supported the recent messages of the Zimbabwe

Council of Churches (ZCC) and the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops'

Conference (ZCBC), which condemned the so-called Operation

Murambatsvina because of the "untold suffering" caused

and its "cruel and inhumane means".

While calling on the

government to "urgently address the pressing needs" of the

evacuees, the WCC affirmed that "churches and relief organizations

should also be given unrestricted access to the displaced

persons".

If Zimbabwe is to be

reconciled, rebuilt and healed, the WCC statement affirms, its

government should "dismantle the restrictions on fundamental

freedoms" and initiate dialogue with the opposition, churches and

civil society.

Ah, you ask: What's that line about "losing the mortal and ethical

ground for leadership?
Well, the WCC actually funded Mugabe during the

revolution...

LINK

Well, you might say,

why not... they were figthing an unjust government...well, I

agree...the problem was that Mugabe was NOT the only one fighting

that unjust government...essentially the WCC decided that since he

was a Marxist idealist, he was the "horse to back" so to speak...not

other revolutionary leaders who were willing to compromise with the

"evil" Smith government...

And indeed, the WCC

actually held a meeting in Harare back in 1999...LINK

which was amazing,

given Mugabe's open homophobia...

But LINK This presentation in 1999 shows that they preferred

Mugabe and socialism to capitalism and globalism...the big evil for

the PC World council of churches.

Now, I see both the

good and the evil behind globalism and the market economy in my

own country...however, when I see the economic improvements here

since 1999 and the economic collapse of the WCC's favorite third

world country, it makes me think that clergymen need to read

Hayek...see previous post for comic book version, which should be

easy enough for them to understand...

However, the good

news is that all of us in Southeast asia are aware of how Chinese

businessmen are at the forefront of globalization...so the pact of

Mugabe with a pragmatic expanding China might actually lead to

improvements in the Zim economy in the long run...

However, it is very ironic that

the WCC still idolizes socialism, while the Chinese are the major

capitalists...

But I might be wrong:

as I said before, I know little about economics. All I know is how the

Chinese are active in the Philippine economy....and that for better or for worse they are working with the capitalist and globalist economy...

HIV people dispersed in "cleanup" campaign...

LINK

Mtshumayeli and his wife said the authorities instructed them to find their own way to their rural home area. But the Ndebeles do not have a rural homestead to return to and, to make matters worse, they are both HIV positive: eviction from their home has forced them to abandon their antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. "We would get drugs every month from Mpilo hospital, and everything just looked better for us, but we are no longer able to do that because we have moved; we are now several kilometres away and have no money for transport to go and get our consignment," Mtshumayeli told IRIN. "Now, it's like we are just waiting to die." Pointing to his wife he said, "She says she feels pains all over her body, and she has not had decent sleep in the past four days that we have spent here." Scores of HIV/AIDS patients whose treatment programmes have been disrupted find themselves in a similar plight after being forcibly relocated to parts of rural Zimbabwe. Health experts warn that most of them will certainly die prematurely because of the lack of AIDS drugs and inadequate food in the countryside.

Calling Andrew Sullivan...calling Andrew Sullivan....

Mugabe needs to read Hayek

If I remember correctly, Mugabe got a ph D from a London university by mail while he was in detention...the degree was in economics.

Now, the problem with many economics degrees is that unless you studied at the Univ. of Chicago, they tended to stress centralized planning, aka socialism. And, of course, Mugabe is a Marxist.

So the LINK for today is from the think tank the Cato Institute (libertarian--think "government should stay out of our way" type pro business philosophy) :

Mugabe needs to read Hayek

.....Fast-forward to Zimbabwe in the 21st century. Between 1999 and 2003, its economy contracted by more than 30 per cent. Last year, unemployment stood at 80 per cent for the economically active population, and income per head was lower than in 1980 - the year Mr Mugabe came to power. Life expectancy fell from 56 years in 1985 to 33 years in 2003. Inflation, after rising to 500 per cent in 2004, continues at triple digits. Foreign direct investment and tourism have plummeted. In January, more than half of Zimbabwe's population needed emergency food aid. Of a total 13m population, 3m to 4m Zimbabweans have emigrated abroad.

What led to this? In 2000, Mr Mugabe gave the green light to his supporters to invade commercial farms, many of them held by white Zimbabweans. Private property rights of commercial farmers were revoked and the state resettled the confiscated lands with subsistence producers - many with no previous farming experience. Agricultural production plummeted.

The farm invasions had economic ripple effects. The banking sector, which used farm land as collateral, was hit by bad debt and curtailed the issuing of new loans. The manufacturing sector, which relied heavily on processing agricultural goods, went into a tailspin. Declining domestic production deprived Zimbabwe of the ability to earn foreign currency and buy food overseas. Famine ensued.

Mr Mugabe's response was to rig elections and tighten the government's noose around the economy through price controls. Many prices — including those of bread and gas — were set too low. That led to shortages and the emergence of black markets. As more of Zimbabwe's economy moved underground, tax revenue dried up and the government coffers emptied.

The emergence of the black markets was partly why Mr Mugabe decided to launch operation Murambatsvina in May. The security forces arrested more than 20,000 vendors and destroyed their vending sites. They levelled entire townships where the government was unable to exercise control over the shadow economy, leaving some 700,000 people homeless. Zimbabwe's Catholic bishops warned: "We have on our hands a complete recipe for genocide; we're witnessing a tragedy of unprecedented enormity." They may yet be proven right. According to Didymus Mutasa, one of Mr Mugabe's ministers of state, Zimbabwe would be better off with only 6m people, with our own people who support the liberation struggle." The rest are evidently expendable.

Just as Hayek warned, the government's initial attack on private property led to intervention in the economy and, concomitantly, the destruction of political freedom in Zimbabwe. If Mr Mugabe continues along the path marked by other socialist dictators, the world may yet see Zimbabwe descend into an orgy of violence...

Heads up was from Donjim at Dappledthings...and, oh yes...he also posted a link to the comic book version of Hayek LINK

we report, you decide...

Zim as a new Chinese colony

LINK

Publius pundit has a large entry discussing the Chinese connection...

What’s worse is that this is a trend across the entire continent; as the West is finally beginning to confront rampant tyranny, China is all the more willing to help out friends in need. Business is good with these countries; in fact, China’s share of Africa’s market is rising about 1% a year. So why aren’t people feeling the poverty-relieving effects of trade with China? Because it isn’t about the people. It’s about plundering resources and, in exchange, fueling the stability of long standing dictatorships. The people never see the benefits that they should be harvesting. Instead, their countries are slowly becoming colonies, with China ready and willing to use its unearned status at the United Nations to defend despotism.

Follow the money take two

LINK

Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, yesterday won financial and diplomatic support from China, although neither side said what the deal contained. According to David Monyae, a lecturer in the department of international relations at Wits University, China has aggressively been pursuing its economic interests in Africa – a consideration which could account for the agreement.

Monyae says China is interested in Zimbabwe’s chrome and gold resources. As such, China would not really be concerned with issues of good governance, he adds.

I bring up China because it's veto threat is stopping western governments from stopping the genocide in Dafur, and now in Zim..but also because as one who lives in Asia, I see how our local industries are undermined by low wages and an undervalued currancy in China makes our local products too expensive in the global marketplace...

However, at least China, for all their rhetoric on "solidarity" with the revolution, is really only interested in money, so in the long run, the Chinese will replace the Europeans and Indian entreupeneurs, and improve the economy... after the disasters and famines by Mao's policies, China is pragmatic and back to old fashioned power building.

However, the disease of rhetoric over reality still plagues much of Africa, and explains why the African union is blind to the realities around them:

LINK

"It's sad that heroes like Mugabe have now become despots," he added.

Actually, the twentieth century has filled cemetaries with the victims of revolutionary heroes who became despots...where have YOU been for the last 100 years?

And earlier in the article shows the reality that just might wake up South Africa from their ideological slumber:

The food shortages and economic decline that have come to characterize life in Zimbabwe have prompted a mass migration of its citizens.

More than two million Zimbabweans now live in South Africa, according to Daniel Molokela, a Zimbabwean lawyer who works for the Peace and Democracy Project, a non-governmental organisation based in South Africa's commercial hub of Johannesburg. Molokela is involved in organising Zimbabwe's diaspora to work for change in the country.

Political repression in Zimbabwe has also played a role in the exodus of citizens to neighbouring states, and countries further afield...

Follow the money...

LINK

Zimbabwe finds a steady backer in Beijing

By Richard Spencer
Beijing
July 28, 2005

Zimbabwe has won trade, aid and sympathy from China as President Robert Mugabe was given a warm welcome to Beijing.

Mr Mugabe and his opposite number, Hu Jintao, signed an economic and technical co-operation agreement. Details were not released but a Zimbabwean spokesman had earlier said that his country was seeking lines of credit.

Chinese media said that Beijing had agreed in principle to finance construction of a power plant and had sold a civilian aircraft to Harare.

Mr Mugabe, whose regime is under international attack for the violent clearance of shantytowns, thanked Beijing for its aid over the past 25 years.

Mr Mugabe, who is on a six-day visit to China, has been greeted as "an old friend" by President Hu Jintao.

At the same time, Britain was calling for a Security Council meeting on the slum demolition campaign. UN chief Kofi Annan has ruled out a visit to Zimbabwe until Harare ends the evictions and allows humanitarian aid in.

Council members said Harare's campaign of razing shantytowns had left 700,000 people destitute and affected a further 2.4 million. But there was no consensus on holding formal consultations.

Diplomats said China, one of the few countries to publicly back Mr Mugabe's drive to demolish illegal housing, was one of the countries that expressed reluctance to have a formal debate.

Mr Mugabe has already bought 12 fighter jets, 100 military vehicles and two airliners from China this year and been given another aircraft and eight military trainer jets as a gift.

He says his Look East policy had been forced upon him by the refusal of Western partners to respond to his economic problems. Inflation in Zimbabwe is in triple figures, unemployment is at 70 per cent and the country has heavy foreign debts.

A report written recently by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, an academic and the head of Johannesburg-based Africa Fighting Malaria, directly links Chinese investment with Zimbabwe's township clearance program.

"Speculation over the motives … has pointed to the removal of local competition threatening newly arrived Chinese businessmen whose stores sell cheap and often poor quality goods," said the report for the American Enterprise Institute.

(The AEI is a washington based conservative think tank)

It estimated that up to 10,000 Chinese citizens had moved into the country under the Look East policy, some moving on to tobacco farms confiscated under Mr Mugabe's "land reform" policies. China has expressed public support for Zimbabwe's reforms....

to be continued next post...

Security council hears about Hatfield etc....yawn....

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However, it hasn't stopped Zim from destroying houses...

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Riot police turned an urban township into a ghost town Wednesday, rounding up the last residents in defiance of a U.N. call to halt a demolition campaign that has left 700,000 without homes or jobs.

After emptying the Porta Farm township — where some 30,000 people lived just days ago — earth-movers were seen lumbering into the area to finish clearing debris from destroyed homes, cabins and shacks as part of what the government calls Operation Drive Out Trash. Police armed with batons and riot shields barred aid workers and residents from entering.

The latest demolitions came as President Robert Mugabe paid a state visit to China, which is building a track record of willingness to do business with African leaders others shun.

Mugabe is confident China will use its veto power in the U.N. Security Council to protect Zimbabwe from any U.N. censure following the U.N. report denouncing the campaign as a violation of international law, a state-owned Harare newspaper, the Herald, reported Wednesday.

China, which has expanded business and diplomatic contacts in African trouble spots like Congo and Sudan, has not joined Western condemnation of Zimbabwe's human rights record.

In fact, China has become a key source of loans and supplies for Zimbabwe. Most recently, Beijing agreed to a loan to expand a power station and to supply a third Chinese-made MA60 commercial aircraft to Zimbabwe, state media in Beijing announced Wednesday. No details of the terms were reported.

Niger famine may kill millions

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INTERNATIONAL aid agency Oxfam has urged the UN to create a $US1 billion ($1.32bn) emergency fund at a summit in September, to prevent future famines such as that devastating Niger.

British Development Secretary Hilary Benn threw his weight behind the appeal, denying the British Government had been dragging its feet over the famine, the scale of which he said became clear only in the middle of May.

However, British-based Oxfam said the famine, which is threatening 3.6 million people in the West African nation – including 800,000 children – was predicted more than six months ago.

In 50 days time, UN countries are due to gather in New York for an annual meeting at which the fund is on the agenda.

"If the proposal is agreed, UN member states would pay into the permanent fund so that when a country such as Niger needs assistance, money would be available immediately," Oxfam said....

On the other hand, given the "money for oil" aka money for palaces and bribes scandal at the UN, perhaps a better idea would be to give the money straight to Oxfam...works for me...