Michael C. Moynihan
In a rare display of honesty, Zimbabwe's dictator Robert Mugabe has acknowledged that his "redistribution" of white-owned farms (which included giving land and equipment to thousands of people who hadn't a clue how to farm) has been a disaster, and that it has turned his country into a "laughing stock." But, according to Mugabe, it's still not his fault. The Telegraph reports:The malnutrition that afflicts millions of Zimbabweans has reduced the country to a "laughing stock", President Robert Mugabe has admitted. Distributing equipment to black farmers resettled on land seized from white owners, he said: "We have become the laughing stock because of hunger. We all need to eat, whether you are Zanu-PF or MDC. Let's unite." Since Mr Mugabe began confiscating farms Zimbabwe has gone from being an agricultural exporter to a country where millions need food aid. He blames supposed Western sabotage for the situation, rather than his own actions.
Last year, Jens F. Laurson and George A. Pieler made the moral case for ending foreign aid to African dictatorships. As they point out, Robert Mugabe "takes the cash and blames the West, trashing the human rights of both large landowners and defenseless slumdwellers in Harare." |