evolution?
As I have visited Zimbabwe twice, both times mainly on business from my home in South Africa, I am as qualified to comment upon the disaster which Black rule has become as any other. Disaster as a description is only an air-brush of the reality which is everyday life in the country which once, quite rightly, was termed the 'Breadbasket' of Southern Africa. Most observers have touched upon the means by which Mugabe and his gangster friends in the ruling Zanu-PF Party have clung to power, destroyed a once booming economy, and managed to drive the only people who knew anything about farming out of the country. The end results of their scheming is now apparent in the headlines which warn that the President is days away from ending the last fictions of democratic government, and through a rigged 'second vote' declare himself the winner once again.
What I am attempting to do is to discuss how it is always Africa, and the poor, benighted nations of that sorry Continent, where these sorts of plots and headlines emerge. If we look away to, say, India, we see an entirely different result. From a Sub-continent which once was described as the 'Jewel of the Empire' to a nation which, it is true, has a population of many millions who still live in direst poverty; but also whose very Governance changes hands from one political Party to another in a peaceful tradition. Both Parties have diametrically opposed viewpoints on virtually everything, and as we are only too well aware, politicians like to remain in the positions of power which they are given via the ballot box but; and it is a huge 'But', when the Indian voters speak, their wishes are respected above all, and the reins of power are handed obver to the successors of a democratic election. There are many things in India which need change, and the politicians are as loathe to fund the needs of their oppositions' supporters as any other Party organisation worldwide, but the basic rule of democracy is scrupulously observed.
So why is it always Africa, and the Black man within? Why is it that the Congo, a country rich beyond belief in all sorts of minerals, is dysfunctional almost to the point of collapse? Why is it that Nigeria, whose oil wealth exceeds the Congo's, has been run by a collection of crooks, thugs and criminals almost from day One? Why do the Interahamwe still pillage on the borders of Rwanda? Why do the headlines of ballot-rigging and corruption blaze from the newspapers and screens of Kenya?
Are they incompetent? Are they always corrupt? Should the ex-colonial powers such as France, Belgium and Great Britain accept blame for what is happening some forty-odd years after the flags were unrolled at the multifarious 'Independence' ceremnies? Should we stand by and condemn Africa and the Black rulers of that Continent to 'wither on the vine', while releasing such stinging phrases as "But the international community's patience with the regime is wearing thin".
I would invite those commenters who always seem to rush to imply that I long for the 'old days' to state that I am wrong in my conclusions and thinking, that Africa isn't on the edge of an abyss, and that the headlines are all wrong, and the Zimbabwe voters are only too keen to see Mugabe returned to power? As ever, all workings and calculations shall be shown, and arguments shall be impersonal but robust!
Mike Cunningham
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Africans have made Africa as it is in the same manner as the Japanese have made Japan what it is. Likewise, Germans and Germany etc....
Unfortunately for the utopianist left, peoples are different, with different outcomes in different fields. Nigeria would beat Japan at athletics, but not at physics.
This kind of stuff always reminds me of how until relatively recently my distracted countrymen were held by mainstream opinion in Britain to be congenitally feckless, mischievous and generally incapable of ruling themselves. The people of Tipperary and Cork were particularly bad, it seemed. This was followed by the departure of Britain and several decades of absolute peace (nowhere more absolute than in Cork and the Glen of Aherlow) tho with economic woes and told-you-so's from our neighbour.
Then suddenly old economic, social and religious policies were jettisoned, and now - lo and behold - the same feckless Paddy doesn’t even have time to look back over his shoulder at the Englishman struggling along behind.
Spot on Noel. One may also note that Russia where there is no shortage of either physicists or athletes managed to be a corrupt economic basket case for years under communist dictatorship. Russia of course spread her errors throughout Africa. Mugabe is a Marxist as are the majority of leaders of failing African countries. Why is Cuba a failure? And North Korea? It has nothing at all to do with race. Are the South Koren's a different race to the North Koreans?
Why were East Germans living in poverty while their cousins next door in the West were booming? Race? No. Freedom? Yes.
It has to do with failure to implement the only system that works. Free market democracy with property rights and the rule of law works.
Good point Henry. Marxist doctrine has failed the people of Africa just as it has failed everywhere else it has been tried. No doubt it is much more to blame for the failed states in Africa than the colonial legacy. At least Britain handed over to democratic systems, even if they didn't survive.
Mike
Not all black African countries are basket cases. Kenya and Botswana are reasonably successful economically and both are generally stable democracies, despite the recent problems in Kenya.
Henry,
Noel is, as usual, making his nationalistic 'petit point', but I certainly agree wholeheartedly with your post.
Of course I firmly believe that 'socialism', as practised in the West, is a very flawed concept, which were I fall out with Noel.
As with mosts religions, it has become corrupted by those who use it for their own purposes and in the process tend to forget the truth of the original idea.
Long live freedom and the rule of Law!..
In passing, the opinion others have of us is largely of our own doing. Perhaps the Irish passion for liquor may have something to do with the perceived opinion, - just as many of those in Britain are now seen by outsiders as a bunch of feckless louts and drunks...the demon drink has much to be blamed for.
I thought I would mention that before anyone else did...
What 'cautious' pc comments so far.
You all speak as if marxism/communism has been the lot of Africa/Korea/Russia/east Germany for their entire existence.
It has not. It is a recent phenomenon and of the early 20th century.
Russia before the revolution was magnificent in architecture and art, as was Germany and Korea before partition. Proper civilisations.
There was no period in Africa history, before communism, that could be remotely called a 'vibrant civilisation'. It was always primitive. Still is.
As for freedom & democracy....this is the very error the USA and Britain made about Japan and it's god-king-feudal structure in the late 1930s; and then were gobsmacked when these "funny little nips" developed ships and aircraft way ahead of the allies.
The truth is some races of people are ingenious nation builders.
Africans have never been.
Bernard
Are some races more intelligent than others then?
A phrase that comes to my mind Peter is: "self evidently so".
Bernard
So are the "Aryan" races of Europe more intelligent than, say, the negroes or the jews?
Hmmmm... the answer to that question depends upon the subject of the exam, methinks. Are we sitting an exam on current political thought or on pure science?
To both exams, there could be a right answer, a left answer and a wrong answer. In one case, the right answer is the right answer and the left answer is the wrong answer....in the other case, the left answer is the right answer and the right answer is the wrong answer.
...Meanwhile, I'll bet that somewhere in Africa, perhaps on www.atarantulasweb.com, some outraged, self-loathing leftist African is asking another commentator "So, Mbetu, are you suggesting that us Africans are athletically superior to, say, the Aryan races of Europe?", and poor Mbetu faces the same dilemma in deciding how to answer this loaded question....
Tom.
Your witty reply reminds me of the rhetorical questions asked at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland ;o)
Peter is just playing the part of the dormouse, so....
"into the teapot!"
Bernard
So are the "Aryan" races of Europe more intelligent than, say, the negroes or the jews?
Saturday, April 12, 2008 at 11:29PM | Peter
What do SATs' results in the US suggest, or the relative performances of countries which have predominantly white, black, oriental etc populations?
(Jews - a race?)