Mugabe Blames Picky Eating For Famine
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, The WorldThe Zimbabwe despot keeps telling lies.
The problem is reliance on corn, he said during Friday’s interview, “but it doesn’t mean we haven’t other things to eat: We have heaps of potatoes but people are not potato eaters … they have rice but they’re not as attracted (to that).”But the cost of potatoes is beyond the pocket of ordinary Zimbabweans.
Internationally, Mugabe has become a pariah and looked set for further isolation at the weekend, when the U.S. government said it was preparing travel sanctions against him, his government and family members, prohibiting them from traveling to the United States.
That would be punishment for alleged gross human rights abuses, including torture of opponents, and theft of elections, most recently in March.
I’m not a violent man, but have you ever wanted to just want to punch somebody in the face?
Of course, Zimbabwe wasn’t always like this.
Zimbabwe became one of Africa’s most vibrant economies under Mugabe, who was elected in landslide 1979 elections after a seven-year guerrilla war forced an end to white minority rule in Rhodesia, once a British colony.He assured nervous white farmers, then fleeing the country that “there is a place for you in the sun.”
Zimbabwe became the regional bread basket, with some 5,000 white commercial farmers growing enough to feed the nation and export. Buyers from all over the world came to Zimbabwe’s annual tobacco auction, tourists flocked to the Victoria Falls and wildlife reserves, while its Sandawana emeralds and renowned Shona stone sculpture were widely popular.
On a sidenote, when are these African nations going to get their acts together? If they formed coalitions and started working together, the continent could be a major world power, instead of a major world suck. But year after year, we continue to hear about these guerilla leaders carrying out unspeakable acts against their own people. It’s sad indeed.
(HT: AMERICAblog)
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