Zimbabwe Considers Returning Farmland to Whites

[glenn1]

We all know the kleptocratic Zimbabwe government dun goofed with white farm land grab, now 15 years later they're hoping the white guys they stole from will bail them out. Hopefully the farmers aren't stupid enough to take them up on their offer and have their capital seized yet another time.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...ign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150802

 

[davmat787]

What's also crazy is the level of anti GMO hysteria that so many African governments have bought into. Hope you don't consider this off topic but any discussion of food production in Africa should involve the anti GMO problem plaguing the continent.

In Africa, however, countries have fallen like dominoes to anti-G.M. campaigns. I am writing this at a biotechnology conference in Nairobi, where the government slapped a G.M.O. import ban in 2012 after activists brandished pictures of rats with tumors and claimed that G.M. foods caused cancer.

The origin of the scare was a French scientific paper that was later retracted by the journal in which it was originally published because of numerous flaws in methodology. Yet Kenya’s ban remains, creating a food-trade bottleneck that will raise prices, worsening malnutrition and increasing poverty for millions.

In Uganda, the valuable banana crop is being devastated by a new disease called bacterial wilt, while the starchy cassava, a subsistence staple, has been hit by two deadly viruses. Biotech scientists have produced resistant varieties of both crops using genetic modification, but anti-G.M.O. groups have successfully prevented the Ugandan Parliament from passing a biosafety law necessary for their release.

What's really interesting is the gap between science and deniers is GREATER FOR THE ANTI GMO CROWD than climate deniers.

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center and the American Association for the Advancement of Science showed a greater gap between scientists and the public on G.M.O.s than on any other scientific controversy: While 88 percent of association scientists agreed it was safe to eat genetically modified foods, only 37 percent of the public did — a gap in perceptions of 51 points. (The gap on climate change was 37 points; on childhood vaccinations, 18 points.)

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/opinion/sunday/how-i-got-converted-to-gmo-food.html

 

[alcoholbob]

Hah. Anyone dumb enough to come back to Zimbabwe is just consigning their descendants in some time in the future to be scapgoats for the next socialist revolution.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Maybe handing the farms back to people they took it from might lead to a turnaround.

 

[davmat787]

Isn't Zimbabwe the country formerly known as Rhodesia?

 

[waggy]

Hah. Anyone dumb enough to come back to Zimbabwe is just consigning their descendants in some time in the future to be scapgoats for the next socialist revolution.

agreed.

 

[Auric]

Isn't Zimbabwe the country formerly known as Rhodesia?

Be a Man Among Men: Rhodesian Farmy.

 

[pcgeek11]

I'm thinking that not too many are going to take them up on their "generous" offer. There is a whole lot of stupid down there.

more than 4,000 white-owned farms were taken

But the country, once known as the breadbasket of Africa, continues to feel the effects of the meltdown. It is still forced to import most of its food.

What did they think was going to happen. Run off 4000 white farmers from the breadbasket of Africa. And then wonder why the economy is in the crapper.

 

[davmat787]

I wonder what Africa would be like today had colonialism skipped that continent. Some aspects might be better but I'm cynical enough to assume the ingrained tribalism would have caused all sorts of problems and as a whole not leave the continent in better shape.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Hah. Anyone dumb enough to come back to Zimbabwe is just consigning their descendants in some time in the future to be scapgoats for the next socialist revolution.

The government in Zimbabwe is as much a socialist group as the Tea Party is striving to turn the US into an Islamic Republic.

They're a facist dictatorship, so the exact same as what Donald Trump hopes to turn the US into.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I wonder what Africa would be like today had colonialism skipped that continent. Some aspects might be better but I'm cynical enough to assume the ingrained tribalism would have caused all sorts of problems and as a whole not leave the continent in better shape.

It would be a tribal hellhole. The world likes to blame white people for Africa's problems but the reality is Africa was a hellhole centuries before white people interfered (granted, colonialism actually failed also)

 

[davmat787]

It would be a tribal hellhole. The world likes to blame white people for Africa's problems but the reality is Africa was a hellhole centuries before white people interfered (granted, colonialism actually failed also)

True, and often overlooked or willfully ignored is the role of Africans in the slave trade. Tribes had no problem capturing and selling others to the slave buyers.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

I wonder what Africa would be like today had colonialism skipped that continent.

If the Europeans had left the continent alone, it probably wouldn't be much different than it was 1000 years ago.

 

[KMFJD]

A friend of my Dad had his house and 200 acres taken away by the government's thugs....i wonder if he will get it back?

 

[CitizenKain]

It would be a tribal hellhole. The world likes to blame white people for Africa's problems but the reality is Africa was a hellhole centuries before white people interfered (granted, colonialism actually failed also)

White people pretty much are responsible for Africa's problems. Showing up, killing thousands of people, enslaving even more, stripping the land of resources. That tends to mess things up for a long time.

True, and often overlooked or willfully ignored is the role of Africans in the slave trade. Tribes had no problem capturing and selling others to the slave buyers.

It is funny when people try to pin the blame on a global slave trade on the people who are caught in it.

 

[davmat787]

It is funny when people try to pin the blame on a global slave trade on the people who are caught in it.

I hope this baseless accusation isn't directed at me. I merely commented on a historical fact, a fact rarely mentioned in conversations of the slave era and specifically the machinations that brought so many from Africa westward.

How does simply pointing out a historical fact lead you to conclude that I am in any way assigning blame?

 

[Jaskalas]

Is there anyone dumb enough to farm that land?

 

[davmat787]

Is there anyone dumb enough to farm that land?

Anti GMO'ers ironically?

 

[CPA]

They're a facist dictatorship, so the exact same as what Donald Trump hopes to turn the US into.

LMAO. Yes, Trump is a facist dictator, or wants to be one. That's a good one.

In any case, good luck Zimbabwe, but I don't expect many to take you up on your offer.

 

[Darwin333]

I wonder what Africa would be like today had colonialism skipped that continent. Some aspects might be better but I'm cynical enough to assume the ingrained tribalism would have caused all sorts of problems and as a whole not leave the continent in better shape.

Colonialism did leave a huge power vacuum and that combined with the tribalism could very very easily made things many times worse. OTOH, it's impossible to say that they wouldn't be in the same boat or at least close.

 

[PottedMeat]

Is there anyone dumb enough to farm that land?

sounds like an opportunity for one of the giant agriculture companies in the midwest. hire a private military contractor for anyone that tries to fuck with you, buy a bunch of equipment, train the locals. more than enough cash should be left over to buy the zimbabwe gov't. for decades.

 

[Genx87]

I wonder what Africa would be like today had colonialism skipped that continent. Some aspects might be better but I'm cynical enough to assume the ingrained tribalism would have caused all sorts of problems and as a whole not leave the continent in better shape.

I'd assume Africa would transform itself like Europe, Asia, and the Americas. A lot of tribal wars that lead to the formation of countries ect ect. Colonialism set Africa back centuries in this regard.

 

[Genx87]

We all know the kleptocratic Zimbabwe government dun goofed with white farm land grab, now 15 years later they're hoping the white guys they stole from will bail them out. Hopefully the farmers aren't stupid enough to take them up on their offer and have their capital seized yet another time.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...ign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150802

The collectivists took the farms and like collectivists before them failed miserably. The Soviets, the Chinese, Cambodians, the list goes on and on. I cant imagine why anybody would take their govt up on an offer to farm the land. Because once the going gets good the govt will take the land back again.

 

[cabri]

I'd assume Africa would transform itself like Europe, Asia, and the Americas. A lot of tribal wars that lead to the formation of countries ect ect. Colonialism set Africa back centuries in this regard.

They had the same amount of time as the Europeans, if not more.

Countries were a European concept, not an African concept.

 

[Exophase]

So if I'm understanding this right, there was farmland owned by 4,000 people that was divided to at least 180,000 families plus at least 18,000 commercial farm owners. That sounds like a huge step backwards in agricultural efficiency. No wonder the outcome has been disastrous.

If the government wanted to seize private agriculture they should have replaced the previous owners with a similar (or at least only moderately higher) number of government trained employees to run the farms. They should have hired a bulk of the same people who were already running the land. They shouldn't have started dividing the land for private residency, at least not without careful evaluation first.