Mugabe is a smart ruthless character. He learned hard lessons from the best snubs. When put in prison during the Ian Smith regime of Rhodesia, he pleaded with London for help. If I remember well, his wife was refused asylum in England after a few years and deported. And London did not give him anything. Mugabe had to fight his own battle, left drifting alone with his mob of revolutionaries and "freedom" fighters. Rhodesia, becoming Zimbabwe, did not have the geography of Cuba — a geography that allows some defensive isolation, thus Zimbabwe could have been "infiltrated" politically. Nor did Zimbabwe have the support of a major country like Cuba had for a while.

Thus, Mugabe was alone and weary of the west. Still is, even more than before... Is there is a bit of international "payback" for Mugabe having eliminated the "white" power base in Zimbabwe? Has he been painted as a wrecker of the "economy" for returning rich "white" farmlands to slow "black" traditional methods?...

Mugabe has not succeeded in steering Zimbabwe away from the ensuing doldrums resulting from his "changes" but were these doldrums helped along as well by the international community giving him hell?  When one mentions inflation of one million per cent per annum in that country, I feel that this only reflects "imported" goods and our own willingness to remove him.

Are all the fields growing stuff under the white men abandoned or are they cultivated by hand rather than by machine? Are they somewhat less productive, but still "cropping" enough if barely enough?

Mugabe has developed massive Hitlerian tendencies because he had to fight dirty and there is a strong historical parallel here in survival, except he is kinder in his deluded thuggery than the Fuhrer... Many other regimes have become ruthless, such as in Darfur. And nothing is done about them either...  China and Russia would know the answers to the questions above in regard to Zimbabwe... Is this why they did smooth the corners for Mugabe to carry on, albeit with a bit of caning on the backside?. Mbeki from South Africa appears to be in the same bind. He would know the torments of "slavery" or of rejection, and knows that when you shout for help, you might be ignored or shot. He may know things that we've ignored too well to justify our strong dislike of Mugabe.

Mugabe should go, no doubt about that... He has served his time, good and bad, for too long. And Zimbabwe should be helped to become itself, not to become a subservient part of another empire, even by default — see Iraq for this meaning...

African leaders urged to act over Zimbabwe crisis

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is attending an African summit in Egypt amid growing calls for African leaders to act after the Zimbabwean President's widely discredited election win.

African Union (AU) Commission chief Jean Ping told the summit that Africa must assume its responsibility in the Zimbabwe crisis, amid fears that it could destabilise southern Africa.

"Africa must fully shoulder its responsibility and do everything in its power to help the Zimbabwe parties to work together so as to overcome current challenges," he said.

The two-day meeting of the 53-nation bloc in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh opened the day after the AU's top conflict prevention body, the Peace and Security Council, failed to rule on Zimbabwe and referred the thorny issue to the summit itself.

Mr Mugabe, 84, was sworn in for a sixth term on Sunday (local time), having been declared the overwhelming winner of a one-man election run-off after Opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew because of violence.

A delegation of AU observers said that the election fell short of the AU's standards of democracy, while UN secretary-general General Ban Ki-moon slammed Friday's vote result as illegitimate.

African leaders have warned that the crisis could destabilise southern Africa and that power cannot be handed entirely either to Mr Mugabe or to Mr Tsvangirai because of the country's political polarisation.

Zimbabwe sanctions vetoed at UN

A draft resolution to impose sanctions on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and a number of his key allies has been vetoed at the UN Security Council.

China and Russia both rejected the proposed measures, including a freeze on their financial assets and travel.

There has been growing international criticism of Zimbabwe since the re-election of Mr Mugabe in a run-off boycotted by the opposition.

The UK foreign secretary called China and Russia's stance "incomprehensible".

David Miliband said Russia used its veto despite a promise by President Dmitry Medvedev to support the resolution, when it was discussed at this week's summit of the G-8 group of industrialised nations.

Britain's ambassador to the UN says the Security Council has failed Zimbabwe's people

The US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Russia's veto raised "questions about its reliability as a G8 partner".

A BBC correspondent at the UN says the failure of the resolution is a major blow for the United States and Britain.

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Gus: talk to the man... Give him a retirement package he could not refuse.

Boy, the Brits defeated Napoleon... These days no one can defeat a smart little thug?

Have we lied too many times about Iraq, Iran and other situations that we've also lied about Mugabe?... And is he doing anything desperate to fend off a world conspiracy?...

In Zimbabwe Land Takeover, a Golden Lining

By LYDIA POLGREEN

HARARE, Zimbabwe — When Roger Boka started his auction business in the 1990s, this city’s tobacco trading floors were hushed places, save the mellifluous patter of the auctioneer. A handful of white farmers, each selling hundreds of bales of tobacco, arrived in sport utility vehicles, checking into the city’s best hotels while waiting for their big checks to be cut.

During this year’s auction season, a very different scene unfolded underneath the cavernous roof of the Bock Tobacco Auction Floors. Each day, hundreds of farmers arrived in minibuses and on the backs of pickup trucks, many with wives and children in tow. They camped in open fields nearby and swarmed to the cacophonous floor to sell their crop. The place was lively and crowded; two women gave birth on the auction floor. The most obvious difference, though, was the color of their faces: every single one of them was black.

“You used to only see white faces here,” said Rudo Boka, Mr. Boka’s daughter, who now runs the family business. “Now it is for everybody. It is a beautiful sight.”

Before Zimbabwe’s government began the violent and chaotic seizure of white-owned farms in 2000, fewer than 2,000 farmers were growing tobacco, the country’s most lucrative crop, and most were white. Today, 60,000 farmers grow tobacco here, the vast majority of them black and many of them working small plots that were allotted to them in the land upheavals. Most had no tobacco farming experience yet managed to produce a hefty crop, rebounding from a low of 105 million pounds in 2008 to more than 330 million pounds this year.

The success of these small-scale farmers has led some experts to reassess the legacy of Zimbabwe’s forced land redistribution, even as they condemn its violence and destruction.

The takeover of white commercial farms was a disaster for Zimbabwe on many levels. It undermined one of Africa’s sturdiest economies, and as growth contracted and its currency became worthless because of hyperinflation, joblessness and hunger grew. Large chunks of land were handed to cronies of President Robert Mugabe, many of whom did not farm them. It spurred a political crisis and violent reprisals by the security forces that have killed hundreds of people. Yields on food and cash crops plummeted.

But amid that pain, tens of thousands of people got small farm plots under land reform, and in recent years many of these new farmers overcame early struggles to fare pretty well. With little choice but to work the land, the small-scale farmers have made a go of it, producing yields that do not match those of the white farmers whose land they were given, but are far from the disaster many anticipated, some analysts and scholars say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/world/africa/in-zimbabwe-land-takeover...      

 

A smiling President Robert Mugabe has been pictured shaking hands with Zimbabwe's military chief a day after the army seized power, throwing confusion over predictions that the 93-year-old's nearly four-decade rule had come to an end.

Key points:

• Official sources say they are negotiating Mr Mugabe's stepping aside
• Mr Mugabe is reportedly refusing to quit but pressure is mounting
• Soldiers have been cracking down on Mr Mugabe's allies and cabinet

Mr Mugabe unexpectedly drove from his lavish Blue Roof compound in Harare — where he had been confined since troops took to the streets — to State House where official media pictured him meeting military chief Constantino Chiwenga and South African ministers sent to mediate the crisis.

The official Herald newspaper carried no reports of the outcome of the meeting, leaving Zimbabwe's 13 million people in the dark as to what was happening as night fell on Thursday.

Mr Mugabe is insisting he remains Zimbabwe's only legitimate ruler and is refusing to quit, but pressure was mounting on the former guerrilla to accept offers of a graceful exit, sources have said.

Earlier, a political source who spoke to senior allies holed up in the compound with Mr Mugabe and his wife Grace said he had no plans to resign voluntarily ahead of elections due next year.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-17/mugabe-meets-military-chief-with-s...

 

Read also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/31773