25 February 2007

Mugabe feasts, Zimbabwe starves


Robert Mugabe celebrated his 83rd birthday yesterday with a lavish feast in a football stadium in the town of Gweru. Attended ministers, diplomats and ruling party officials the feast is believed to have cost over $1m. Inside the stadium, Mugabe received gifts, including a luxury coach from Zimbabwe’s “all weather” friend China and a stuffed crocodile from cabinet ministers who said it represented the President's 'maturity and wisdom'. Critics quipped that it more aptly sums up Mugabe's cold-blooded, voracious nature.

In a speech broadcast live on radio Mugabe accused the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change of being a front for Britain (the former colonial power). He also laid the blame for Zimbabwe’s current situation on sanctions imposed by the EU. "Our nation faces continued socio-economic challenges from the illegal sanctions (imposed) on us by our detractors as punishment for repossessing our land," His programme of white land seizures has caused agricultural production to plummet by at least 40 percent in the last six years.

Zimbabwe is in economic meltdown: Inflation has hit 1,600 per cent and is predicted to rise to 4,000 per cent later this year. Unemployment is at 80 per cent and severe shortages of fuel, staple foods and medicines have caused thousands of deaths.

Marie Antoinette was alleged to have said “Let them eat cake” when told that the poor did not have enough bread to eat (she didn’t say that at all The phrase comes from Rousseau’s confessions and possible refers to the wife of Louis XIV) Mugabe is not telling his people to eat cake – by having this banquet he appears to be telling them to eat shit. His departure cannot come too soon for the people of Zimbabwe.

5 comments:

elasticwaistbandlady said...

Billy Joel was right, "Only the good die young...." I've been following this story on talk radio for awhile because that's pretty much the only medium in America that will discuss Mugabe and his racist tactics. I guess unless it's vapid Anna Nicole Smith and her trove of prospective baby daddies, its just not fit for headline news. By forcing out the largely Dutch farmers by means of murder, rape, and other atrocities, his people are now starving.

Agnes said...

I fail to see any similarity between Marie Antoinette and the good president, but I hope there will be one, the end so to speak.

jams o donnell said...

Africans may have needed land but destroying agricultral output in the way it was - an idiotic move... I think he's a loathesome piece and Zim would be better off without him...

To be honest REd, I would like him to have a long miserable life but at 83 that's not much of a prospect

beakerkin said...

The similarity with Cuba is important to note. Zimbabwe was a loathsome place under aparthied. It was loathsome but people did not starve to death and the country exported food.

The mindless far left holds Mugabe accountable to no standards at all.
It makes excuses for his racist policies and cronyism. Oddly Zimbabwe is a state that persecutes homosexuals, but the far left says zero about this as it doesn't fit the narritive.

Mugabe with the help of Marx has transformed Zimbabwe into a place where suffering is the norm.

jams o donnell said...

There is no excusing Mugabe's behaviour. Sadly his sort of behaviour does not get the condemnation it deserves...