Mugabe admits he needs food aid to rescue Zimbabwe
By David Blair in Johannesburg
Telegraph.co.uk
(Filed: 19/05/2005)

President Robert Mugabe yesterday abandoned his confident forecasts of a bumper harvest in Zimbabwe and confessed that international food aid was needed to avoid famine.

Mr Mugabe, who declared last year that Zimbabweans would be "choked" if aid was "foisted" upon them, climbed down and agreed to meet the head of the United Nations World Food Programme.

Having previously pledged that his seizure of white-owned farms would make Zimbabwe self-sufficient, Mr Mugabe said he would accept outside help if it came without conditions.

Renson Gasela, agriculture spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said the president should "eat humble pie, forget about the claim of a bumper harvest and accept food from whoever can offer help".

Last year, Mr Mugabe hailed the "success" of his land seizures, saying they would yield a record maize harvest of 2.4 million tons, more than enough to supply Zimbabwe with its staple food.

In fact, this year's harvest was below 600,000 tons. The government has quietly admitted trying to import another 1.2 million tons to meet the annual demand for 1.8 million tons. But imports on this scale are affordable and logistically possible only with international help.

Yet Mr Mugabe still refused to ask for food aid. It took a personal intervention from Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, before he agreed to yesterday's U-turn.

George Charamba, the regime's spokesman, said Mr Mugabe had "acceded to the secretary-general's request" to meet James Morris, the WFP's director. Mr Charamba added that food aid would be accepted only if it came without "political conditions".

He claimed that the sole cause of the food shortages was a drought that had recently hit Zimbabwe. Critics dismissed this as face-saving.

Mr Gasela pointed out that Zimbabwe avoided a drought last year and a desperate shortage of seed, fertiliser and farming equipment prevented a substantial harvest.

The shortfall had been caused by the seizure of white-owned farms, Mr Gasela said. "Whatever machinery the commercial farmers had was vandalised after they left," he argued. "You go to those farms today and you find large areas of land are lying fallow.

"The way the land issue was handled was the prime cause of the problem. There have always been droughts in Zimbabwe and we have usually been able to handle them. What is different this time? The land issue is the only difference."

Mr Mugabe's request for help comes very late. The WFP has already planned its food distribution in southern Africa for 2005, having been assured by Mr Mugabe that Zimbabwe did not need help.

Would somebody kill him?

Sorry. I mean it.

CRC

Color me whatever you like, but we need to put that entire continent under quarantine. It's a danger to civilized man.

Having previously pledged that his seizure of white-owned farms would make Zimbabwe self-sufficient, Mr Mugabe said he would accept outside help if it came without conditions.

I say again kill him.

Quoted: Would somebody kill him? Sorry. I mean it. CRC

I would kill him. Just pay my airfare and give me a .308 scoped rifle when I hit the ground, and a getaway.

Having previously pledged that his seizure of white-owned farms would make Zimbabwe self-sufficient, Mr Mugabe said he would accept outside help if it came without conditions.

Fuck that shit.  He's a murdering scumbag dictator.  What the fuck are we supposed to do, pull his ass out of the fire and leave him in power? NFW.  It will only prolong the suffering that the country has had to endure under this lunatic.  He'll profit from the food aid like all his type do and "his" people will still starve.

But, it's the UN so I expect they'll be falling all overthemselves to validate this asshole by dealing with him.

Goddamn UN idiots... but I repeat myself.

I know somebody who must be nervous as a whore in church if Zimbabwe is unstable.


Coulndt happen to a nicer guy.

Get rid of Mugabe, bring in whitey.  Watch the starvation disappear.

Quoted: Get rid of Mugabe, bring in whitey.  Watch the starvation disappear.

Get rid of whitey's aide, let nature take its course. Watch starvation disappear.

Africa is one fuckin' self inflicted disaster after the next.

Quoted: I know somebody who must be nervous as a whore in church if Zimbabwe is unstable. Coulndt happen to a nicer guy.

AmI the only onw here who has both read and watched the Movie "The Dogs of War"?

Good novel, relatively decent movie.

I think the reality is the UN does not have the food to help them.

Hence it will be up to the US to fly in food.

CRC

Quoted: Quoted: I know somebody who must be nervous as a whore in church if Zimbabwe is unstable. Coulndt happen to a nicer guy. AmI the only onw here who has both read and watched the Movie "The Dogs of War"? Good novel, relatively decent movie.

What is it about?

Quoted: Quoted: Get rid of Mugabe, bring in whitey.  Watch the starvation disappear. Get rid of whitey's aide, let nature take its course. Watch starvation disappear.

"Whitey's aide"?  I was referring to letting Euro farmers back onto land that Mugabe pushed them off.  What are you referring to?

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Get rid of Mugabe, bring in whitey.  Watch the starvation disappear. Get rid of whitey's aide, let nature take its course. Watch starvation disappear. "Whitey's aide"?  I was referring to letting Euro farmers back onto land that Mugabe pushed them off.  What are you referring to?

They all starve to death.

HARSH. I dont want to see Zimbabweans/Africans die.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Get rid of Mugabe, bring in whitey.  Watch the starvation disappear. Get rid of whitey's aide, let nature take its course. Watch starvation disappear. "Whitey's aide"?  I was referring to letting Euro farmers back onto land that Mugabe pushed them off.  What are you referring to?

I was referring to the millions in food aide that Mogambo is asking for and the the UN will in all likelihood give him.

It's shitty but we just have to stop helping those people. It's not help, it's enabling.

If it gets bad then maybe they will overthrow him.

CRC

Quoted: It's shitty but we just have to stop helping those people. It's not help, it's enabling.

Aid in exchange for Mugabe leaving seems fair to me.

Quoted: HARSH. I dont want to see Zimbabweans/Africans die.

Then don't watch.

The cold hard facts are that either 1,000,000 will die now or 10,000,000 will die in ten years and there ain't one damn thing we can do about it either way.  

If we give them aid we are just propping up Mugabe.

You can bet he is eating caviar and lobster at night.

Quoted: Quoted: Get rid of Mugabe, bring in whitey.  Watch the starvation disappear. Get rid of whitey's aide, let nature take its course. Watch starvation disappear.

Nature is taking it's course. I give you Exhibit (A) "Natural Selection Among Humans"

Quoted: Quoted: HARSH. I dont want to see Zimbabweans/Africans die. Then don't watch. The cold hard facts are that either 1,000,000 will die now or 10,000,000 will die in ten years and there ain't one damn thing we can do about it either way.

They're ordinary people.  They dont deserve to die because of the moronic ambitions of a two-bit totalitarian who has no idea how to run a political system.  That's just wrong.

Like the Middle East, most of the big problems in Africa stem from political dysfunctions. If the proven system (liberal democracy and free trade economics) is adapted, life will at least be tolerable in Africa. At least by African standards.  But starvation is no one's standard. But I guarantee they'll be able to feed themselves. There's no reason to starve off hundreds or thousands of people to prove a point that they should fend for themselves.  In a lot of cases, they haven't had the chance.

They wanted their country back..now they have it. Let them have it, it's what they wanted.
When the asked for independance they wanted to be fucking independant. Let 'em.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Get rid of Mugabe, bring in whitey.  Watch the starvation disappear. Get rid of whitey's aide, let nature take its course. Watch starvation disappear. Nature is taking it's course. I give you Exhibit (A) "Natural Selection Among Humans" news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/710000/images/_710568_boy300.jpg

Sad, yes. But would 10 times as many of those in the next generation make you feel better?

Because that's what you'll be creating if you keep wanting to prop up and "save" Africa.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Get rid of Mugabe, bring in whitey.  Watch the starvation disappear. Get rid of whitey's aide, let nature take its course. Watch starvation disappear. Nature is taking it's course. I give you Exhibit (A) "Natural Selection Among Humans" news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/710000/images/_710568_boy300.jpg Sad, yes. But would 10 times as many of those in the next generation make you feel better? Because that's what you'll be creating if you keep wanting to prop up and "save" Africa.

Trust me, propping up Africa doesn't even make my list.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: HARSH. I dont want to see Zimbabweans/Africans die. Then don't watch. The cold hard facts are that either 1,000,000 will die now or 10,000,000 will die in ten years and there ain't one damn thing we can do about it either way. They're ordinary people.  They dont deserve to die because of the moronic ambitions of a two-bit totalitarian who has no idea how to run a political system.  That's just wrong.

They don't deserve to die, and yet more and more are dying every year. They have children by the bushel over there because they know most won't live beyond a few years. They KNOW they can't feed their children yet the have more and more all the time.

Where are THEIR values???

Do you think this is the first time THEY'VE ever seen starvation of small children in Africa!??

This is not just a problem with Zimbabewe - it's endemic in all of subsaharan Africa. They KNOW MOST of their children will starve to death or die of AIDS, malaria, ebola, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, dengue fever, meningitis, dysentary, rabies, E. coli, Salmonella, hepatitis A, B and C, marburg virus, tetanus or any number of parasitic infestations. Yet they continue generation after generation living in absolute squallor.

Yes, no one "deserves" to die like that - but don't you see that ALL the Western World has done with their aide over there is allow their populations to swell even further beyond their ability to feed themselves and create larger and larger generations of diseased and starving aborigines?

In "helping" them, we're only making it worse, IMO.

Like the Middle East, most of the problems in Africa are political.

No. Not "political" - it's cultural and biological. Third-world culture and lifestyle is primative, tribal, brutal and full of pestilence, famine, death and disease.

Unless you got a plan to magically transform the whole culture of 200,000,000 Africans living in dirt, that's what your'e going to see for generation upon generation - famine, disease and death.

Some people are culturally unequipped - culturally disqualified, even - for self-rule, assuming they want a lifestyle elevated above hunting, gathering, and bartering. That's the sad lesson of the last 60 years.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: HARSH. I dont want to see Zimbabweans/Africans die. Then don't watch. The cold hard facts are that either 1,000,000 will die now or 10,000,000 will die in ten years and there ain't one damn thing we can do about it either way. They're ordinary people.  They dont deserve to die because of the moronic ambitions of a two-bit totalitarian who has no idea how to run a political system.  That's just wrong. They don't deserve to die, and yet more and more are dying every year. They have children by the bushel over there because they know most won't live beyond a few years. They KNOW they can't feed their children yet the have more and more all the time. Where are THEIR values??? Do you think this is the first time THEY'VE ever seen starvation of small children in Africa!?? This is not just a problem with Zimbabewe - it's endemic in all of subsaharan Africa. They KNOW MOST of their children will starve to death or die of AIDS, malaria, ebola, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, dengue fever, meningitis, dysentary, rabies, E. coli, Salmonella, hepatitis A, B and C, marburg virus, tetanus or any number of parasitic infestations. Yet they continue generation after generation living in absolute squallor. Yes, no one "deserves" to die like that - but don't you see that ALL the Western World has done with their aide over there is allow their populations to swell even further beyond their ability to feed themselves and create larger and larger generations of diseased and starving aborigines? In "helping" them, we're only making it worse, IMO. Like the Middle East, most of the problems in Africa are political. No. Not "political" - it's cultural and biological. Third-world culture and lifestyle is primative, tribal, brutal and full of pestilence, famine, death and disease. Unless you got a plan to magically transform the whole culture of 200,000,000 Africans living in dirt, that's what your'e going to see for generation upon generation - famine, disease and death.

+1

It was mostly ignored in Western media, but many of the whites who refused to turn over their land to Mugabe's mobs were murdered in cold blood. So, in a sense, this is their revenge - In some cases, from beyond the grave.

Many innocent people will suffer from Mugabe's rule, but only as long as they tolerate him. This is a leadership problem, and will only go away when citizens accept nothing less than honest, fair leaders. IMO, this is something that Zimbabweans have to resolve for themselves.

What's fucked up is that the United Nations will pledge them aid which the United States will most likely end up supplying and paying for.

Right and it will come down to armed revolt.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Yes, no one "deserves" to die like that - but don't you see that ALL the Western World has done with their aide over there is allow their populations to swell even further beyond their ability to feed themselves and create larger and larger generations of diseased and starving aborigines? In "helping" them, we're only making it worse, IMO. Like the Middle East, most of the problems in Africa are political. No. Not "political" - it's cultural and biological. Third-world culture and lifestyle is primative, tribal, brutal and full of pestilence, famine, death and disease. Unless you got a plan to magically transform the whole culture of 200,000,000 Africans living in dirt, that's what your'e going to see for generation upon generation - famine, disease and death.

I disagree.  In my life and experience, people are a lot more alike than they are different.  I know that things in Zimbabwe wont be peaches and cream once democracy and free trade arrive there, but I can read about what it was like when was.  And it's clearly a better situation than the present one. Maybe it was a function of white minority rule.  Actually, in honesty, it probably was; but a big part of that was the Anglo tradition of politics.  But the same sort of system without white minority rule can be tried, without reverse racism or seizing property.

This is not just a problem with Zimbabewe - it's endemic in all of subsaharan Africa. They KNOW MOST of their children will starve to death or die of AIDS, malaria, ebola, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, dengue fever, meningitis, dysentary, rabies, E. coli, Salmonella, hepatitis A, B and C, marburg virus, tetanus or any number of parasitic infestations. Yet they continue generation after generation living in absolute squallor.

Most African countries don't have real democracies or transparent economies, either.  I realize it's asking a lot of Africans to adopt them, but it's not impossible.  And it's a much better long-term route than just giving them food and medicine for free.

Quoted: Some people are culturally unequipped - culturally disqualified, even - for self-rule, assuming they want a lifestyle elevated above hunting, gathering, and bartering. That's the sad lesson of the last 60 years.

But has anyone learned the lesson?  

Seems pretty obvious to me and you........but the "International community" refuses to acknowledge the fact.

Bottom line: Africa is a shit-hole when left to the natives........it's that simple.

Quoted: So the once largest agricultural exporting country in Africa is now in a famine. ........ they got their Marxist utopia.

And "they" will do it again!............and again..............and again

No amount of aid will cure starvation in Africa. Like was posted above. Starvation will end on it's own. I say let it go. No aid or money to Africa period.

Quoted: Quoted: Get rid of Mugabe, bring in whitey.  Watch the starvation disappear. Get rid of whitey's aide, let nature take its course. Watch starvation disappear.

I know a white family from Zimbabwe that owned a farm and told me what it was like for them and their neighbors. Not pretty. A few years after the Brits left, they told me that the infrastructure began falling apart because no maintenance was done. Imagine potholes big enought for you entire care to fall into.

Quoted: I know a white family from Zimbabwe that owned a farm and told me what it was like for them and their neighbors. Not pretty. A few years after the Brits left, they told me that the infrastructure began falling apart because no maintenance was done. Imagine potholes big enought for you entire care to fall into.

Heard the same thing from a bunch of South Africans I used to shoot with.

Quoted: I know somebody who must be nervous as a whore in church if Zimbabwe is unstable. Coulndt happen to a nicer guy.

Is that redirection?  The discussion was about Mugabe and you post your dictator d'jour.

What do YOU think of Mugabe, and the way he ran off the productive farmers?

I saw a news item about the farmers who were displaced by Mugabe going to a neighboring country and the government of that country realized what an assett they are.  They are going to use their expertise (agriculture, irrigation, etc.) to make that country the breadbasket of Africa.

I'll see if I can find anything on it.

Giving that a@@hole food won't solve the problem.

Here is something:

“The ruin of the "breadbasket" Every time you think that President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has made as much of a mess of his country as possible, he does himself one better. When a tyrant brings destruction to the world around him, it's usually done with some beneficial goal or purpose in mind. What could possibly be Mugabe's goal in wrecking his country's once prosperous and stable economy? Why would Mugabe, almost two decades after he took power in 1980, have targeted for displacement the very class of people most responsible for Zimbabwe's prosperity, i.e., the experienced, competent white farmers? Even if redistribution of some of Zimbabwe's land was the goal, how could an entire government administration not see that there were more viable ways to achieve this than mass evictions and persecution of the country's most productive class? In 2002, economist Walter Williams wrote that "Mugabe has created a disaster for both black and white Zimbabweans in the name of reparations and land redistribution." Members of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party torched at least 10 million acres of cropland, in order to prevent farming on the part of whites. This government-sanctioned action sent signals to thugs to rampage farmland and chase away or kill landowners. Columnist Nat Hentoff writes that Mugabe, the self-styled "liberator" of Zimbabwe, has actually become its "ghoul." Williams, Hentoff, and others have rebuked those black leaders, here in the U.S. and abroad, who continue to give Mugabe a pass. Few will publicly decry the documented evidence of arbitrary arrests, torture, and political killings -- all initiated by Mugabe's government. The loss of thousands of resourceful farmers led to the inevitable. Due to food shortages, there is now near-starvation in rural regions, with thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing the country as refugees. The land once known as the "breadbasket of Africa" now faces famine. And, as is also inevitable, corrupt bureaucrats and politicians are using the distribution of food as a weapon against their opponents or as a gift to their supporters. Mugabe himself has stopped all international donations of food, in order to be in a position to punish his enemies by denying access to food supplies. Now comes news that hungry people are invading Zimbabwe's wildlife reserves, where elephants, lions, leopards and cheetahs roam. In times of natural disaster, where men have no choice but to kill for survival, there is no question of what must be done. But in wake of this totally unnecessary tragedy, a second tragedy would be the swift elimination of massive numbers of animals unique to the continent. The food crisis also has opened the reserves to once-banned hunters, who merely wish to kill the big animals, not for food, but for trophies. The Independent (4/28/05) reports that Mugabe has ordered Zimbabwe's national parks to work with rural district councils to "begin the wholesale slaughter of big game." The wildlife directive is a major blow to efforts by conservationists to rehabilitate a wildlife sector devastated by Mr. Mugabe's confiscation policy. The chaotic farm invasions saw party militants storming into conservation areas -- private and state-owned -- to slaughter animals. Elephants and giraffes are being killed for food, which in many cases is not reaching the starving poor, but is appropriated by government officials, often the military and police. Meanwhile, many displaced white farmers have moved to neighboring Zambia, where they are once again putting their skills to work in the farming of tobacco and maize. In "Zim farmers help Zambia," News24.com (UK) reports: In the southern town of Choma, some 25 Zimbabwean farmers are leasing farmland to grow tobacco and maize for export and creating jobs for many poor Zambians and an "outbreak of money," officials say. "Tobacco production has increased in the last three years because of the white Zimbabwean farmers who have introduced highly mechanized farming in Zambia," says Finance Minister Ngandu Magande. The group is part of Zimbabwe's 4,500 white commercial farmers who had been targeted by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government since 2000 and whose prime land had been taken away and given to landless blacks. . . . The Choma agriculturists are farming on long-term leases from individual Zambians who were unable to develop the land because of a lack of capital and equipment and are being financed through $25m in loans from US tobacco company Universal. "Each farm employs about 120 local people," says Tim Carter, 47, a Zimbabwean who owns Nkanga Farms, a tract of land of around 1,200 acres west of Choma. . . . Mugabe's policy sparked an exodus with farmers leaving for Zambia, Mozambique and a handful even going as far away as Nigeria to rebuild their lives. Most farmers crossed into Zambia without equipment because the Zimbabwean government imposed a ban on the movement of farm machinery. And back in Zimbabwe, the government is planning for major grain imports. It seems that the country has run out of maize, the staple diet of Zimbabwe's 12 million people. As shortages of other basic commodities increase, Mugabe talks like a man living in a personal fantasyland. In an apparent attempt to stave off public upheaval, he downplays, with lies, the seriousness of the country's problems, a pattern that some of his opponents call "treacherous." Wellington Chibebe, of Zimbabwe's Congress of Trade Unions, calls Mugabe's chicanery "a war against the people's minds, playing football with people's brains." Back in 2002, Ghana's Osei Prempeh implored Mugabe to "put your house in order." And an official of Botswana blamed Mugabe's misrule for the refugees that are now becoming economic burdens on Botswana. Mugabe appears oblivious to criticism, and has an excuse for all Zimbabwe's woes -- usually having to do with conspiring whites. An economy once envied and considered a model in Africa has been ruined and sent into a tailspin by fools and incompetents. Present life in Zimbabwe is grim and the future looks even grimmer. http://www.issues-views.com/comment.php/article/23101

Quoted: I know somebody who must be nervous as a whore in church if Zimbabwe is unstable. Coulndt happen to a nicer guy.

Are you sure this guy isn't driving a limo in Vegas?  

Didn't Mugabe reject our offer of corn last year because it was GM?

Quoted: Quoted: I know somebody who must be nervous as a whore in church if Zimbabwe is unstable. Coulndt happen to a nicer guy. Is that redirection?  The discussion was about Mugabe and you post your dictator d'jour. What do YOU think of Mugabe, and the way he ran off the productive farmers?

Yes, it might be nice to see CavVet say something positive about White people for a change.
How about it, Cav?
What is your take on the Whites in Zimbabwe being slaughtered and now the country is starving without the "crackas" to run the production?

Quoted: It's shitty but we just have to stop helping those people. It's not help, it's enabling.

+1 - We EXPORT welfare.

IBTL.  This thread is too un-PC to remain on the new kindler, gentler arfcom.

This has Somalia 1993 written all over it. Piss on the UN bastards. They are to blaim for this as well as the people who let their farms get taken by this ruthless dick. They should have had one massive uprising and destroyed him and his people.

Quoted: This has Somalia 1993 written all over it. Piss on the UN bastards. They are to blaim for this as well as the people who let their farms get taken by this ruthless dick. They should have had one massive uprising and destroyed him and his people.

How are the farmers to blame?  How is a tiny minority, 3% to 5% supposed to take on a whole country?  The people of the country have themselves to blame and the UN just stood by allowing this to happen.