Zimbabwe...

[Donk]

I'm going to be flamed for this, I'm going to be castigated from all sides, but sometimes I'm beginning to think that Apartheid wasn't altogether a bad idea. Because of tribalism, what many outsiders tend to forget, is that one of the main tenets of Apartheid wasn't only to keep whites and blacks apart, it was also to keep the tribes apart. Tribes had their autonomous homelands, KwaZulu for the Zulus, Bophutatswana for the Tswanas, and so on. Today, you can't get into government unless you're a Xhosa. White/black doesn't have anything to do with it. The Xhosas are running the show, and they simply will not let anyone from another tribe into their little circle. And now? Guess what - the Zulus are getting tired of it. The Zulus are taking up arms, and have been running a low-scale war of terror against the Xhosas in both the Gauteng and KZN provinces. This would not have happened, had the tribes been kept apart.

I was one of the many who campaigned against apartheid.

 

It looked like a no-brainer - how can any civilised human being support a system so blatantly racist, so stacked against equal rights?

 

We should have looked at history. There have been other no-brainers in the past. The French and Russian revolutions to name two. Looking back, the revolutionaries were clearly right in their anger about injustice and their determination to overthrow an evil system. But looking back also shows that it's a lot easier to demolish than to build.

 

As you say, when we took the British Empire apart we should have redrawn the boundaries to something that made sense for the new situation. Instead, we assumed that the people we'd left behind were going to be better than we'd been. That they'd care for their nation and their citizens instead of playing favourites. Stupid. We hadn't done things that way - why should we expect them to?

[Eclipse Now]

One good that may come of the energy crisis is the fact that for intermittent renewable energy to be most stable and economic, it may require a large regional, continental, and even WORLD energy grid. I re-wrote one of my campaign pages to basically conclude that this could lead to a global government which would bring some level of economic security to all and end regimes like Zimbabwe... if we WORK at it.

 

Eclipse Now: Refuel on renewables

 

3. Vision for a global grid

There are a few reasons I support a world-wide grid, including stable power supply, ending poverty, and increasing geopolitical co-operation.

 

Stable power supply.

Many scientists and sustainability campaigners take the view that a worldwide energy grid is the most efficient way we can use often intermittent renewable energy. Terrawatts.com and Geni.org both cover the emerging technologies and strategies for a world-wide renewable Super-grid. I love the sound of it, and hope it can happen soon, while we still have some oil with which to build it!

 

A grid of this size means that somewhere the wind will always be blowing and the sun will always be shining. Mix in a diverse energy grid also using 24 hour CETO wave energy, 24 hour Solar thermal power, 24 hour geothermal power, micro-hydro, smaller biomass power and even some energy storage methods, and we have the potential for a stable base-load renewable energy source!

 

Super-efficient High Voltage Direct Current transmission systems (HVDC) offer the hope of super-regional and even a global energy grid! These extremely efficient transmission lines are so good that "Losses are quoted as about 3% per 1000 km." (See HVDC Wiki) This would allow us to transport electricity longer distances from a variety of sources. We are looking at image from the Australian TREC website which illustrates the shape of the future power grid in Africa and some of Europe. Note the multiple sources, but scattered over vast distances. The TREC Australia division have even written a piece on how HVDC could allow a 100% solar & geo-thermal economy by 2050, in a vision remarkably similar to Tim Flannery's "Geothermia". Just being able to extend a grid across a few time zones will drastically improve peak load management, let alone the ability to shunt power across continents! Indeed, Herman Scheer clearly argues that there is a conspiracy of misinformation by Big Oil, gas, and King Coal to deliberately misinform the public about the potential of renewable energy because hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake! (See Big Picture TV — about 3 minutes).

 

 

Ending Poverty.

Imagine Africa supplying power to Europe, poorer Asian nations sending wind up to central Asia, and the United South America trading across its own continent renewed energy and economic independence. It can happen. The Dymaxion map of the earth (below) illustrates the possibilities. Much of it is already built, we 'just' need to connect America to Eurasia, and Australia to Indonesia. Now imagine a steady trickle of wealth slowly infused into the poorer southern nations rich in solar energy. It would provide sustainable industries, a great source of jobs, and good money.

 

 

Geopolitical co-operation.

Indeed, will the international energy agencies needed to set the international energy standards bring around a global economic agreement that gradually transforms the world into a global Federal Union? Imagine a global currency simplifying all trade issues and 'runs on the dollar', a global energy grid, global economic security all resulting in a stable global population? We could nudge these humble international renewable energy agreements along and gradually build upon them economic agreements, legal agreements, fostering universal human rights and democracy. How do I know it's possible, and not just another case of beauty pageants mouthing 'world peace'? Because it has happened before. Modern Europe evolved from the extremely basic foundation of the 1951 European Coal and Steel Community.

[Boerseun]

Zimbabwe... what can I tell you about Zimbabwe?

 

Well, this thread has been neglected over the last few months, seeing as I was a bit busy with non-hypo related things. And in those few months,

 

a) The MDC and ZANU-PF agreed on a shaky power-sharing deal as brokered by Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa. In this deal, Morgan Tsvangirai will become Prime Minister, and Robert Mugabe will stay Executive President. Keep in mind that Tsvangirai was the clear winner of the past elections.

 

:) ZANU-PF unilaterally claimed all key portfolios for itself. These include defence, police and finance. The MDC was rewarded with such portfolios as education and environment. The MDC withdrew from the power-sharing deal unless key portfolios are shared. This just makes sense, because if ZANU-PF keeps those portfolios, then the status quo will merely be propagated. Those high up in the military establishment, of course, fear for what will happen if the MDC takes over and they have to answer to crimes committed by them in ZANU-PF's name.

 

c) Not a peep from the African Union (AU), the Southern African Development Community (SADEC), the South African Government, or any other African government. Opposition parties all over Southern Africa express their outrage at their impotent governments condoning the Zimbabwean farce through their silence.

 

d) Infrastructure in Zimbabwe completely collapses. Those in the water departments of large municipalities stay at home, not because they're not getting paid, but because there's simply no chemicals to treat water for municipal supplies any more. There's no money with wich to buy those sorely needed chemicals. The water supply to Harare is shut down. For three days Harare is in chaos - imagine going for three days with no water in the taps. Remember, bottled water is no solution, because nobody's got the money to buy it. Bottled water is a luxury taken for granted in the West.

 

e) Eventually, after desperate fighting in the streets over hijacked water trucks and clean drinking water smuggled over the border from other municipalities and South Africa, the wise managers of the Harare municipality decided to open the taps and flood the city with raw, untreated water. Just to shut the bastards up, you see. And that, of course, led straight to...

 

f)...cholera breaking out. Current estimates put the infected on more than 80,000, with thousands already dead. Cholera have now spread to Mozambique, Limpopo (the Northernmost province of South Africa, and Eastern Botswana. The disease is waterborne, sure - but the population movement between Southern African states acts as aggressively as any disease spreading vector you'd care to mention. People have now started dying in all countries mentioned above.

 

g) Not a peep from the African Union (AU), the Southern African Development Community (SADEC), the South African Government, or any other African government. Opposition parties all over Southern Africa express their outrage at their impotent governments condoning the Zimbabwean farce through their silence.

 

h) Right after the power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe (which have fallen to pieces), South African president Thabo Mbeki was "recalled" as president by his party, the ruling ANC. He was recalled because there was rumours of him interfering in a court case against the ANC president Jacob Zuma. Also, there was a big noise in the ANC about Thabo Mbeki's soft approach towards Zimbabwe. Mbeki's replacement, Kgalema Mothlanthe, promised to be tough against Mugabe. So he took over as interim president (until the 2009 election), and from the very next day of having taken over till now, he turned from vocal about Zim to completely silent about Zim. In the face of South Africans now dying because of cholera imported from the collapsed state of Zimbabwe, the South African president remains utterly silent. Why?

 

i) South Africa lends Zim more than $800 million as an emergency relief with which to buy urgently needed food, medical supplies, etc. The very next day, Grace Mugabe (the crazy syphillitic old bastard's wife) leaves for an extended overseas holiday on which she spent more than a million in shopping. Nice going, guys. Tell that to the dead and dying because food and medical aid couldn't get to them. Tell that to the cholera-stricken because there was no money with which to treat the water supplies of Harare and Bulawayo.

 

j) South Africa's ruling monolithic ANC split, because of, amongst a host of other issues, the Zimbabwe issue. The ANC's useless policy of "silent diplomacy" against Robert Mugabe (which have comprehensively shown itself to be a total and utter failure of foreign policy for more than eight years now) caused, amongst other issues, the ANC to split into the "ANC" and the "Congress of the People", or "CoPe". They estimate to erode the ANC support base by more than 30-40% in the coming elections. And indications are that they might just do that. And this put the fear of God into the ANC. So much so, that they have reverted to their tried-and-tested methods that they used to bring the Apartheid regime to its knees: Yep, you've guessed it: Political violence. The ANC, like any revolutionary party in Africa, have won their "right" to govern through the barrel of a gun. And as God is my witness, that is the same way they will let go of their power. Like Robert Mugabe said, a ball-point pen is no match for an AK47. What's the use of the ballot when you can simply take what you want with a gun? So, the spectre of political violence have once again reared its ugly head in the South African landscape, and in a big part because of this crazy buffoon north of our border.

 

Nice one.

 

Who's got an empty room in their house (a basement will work fine - heck, if you don't use your sofa between 23:00 -05:00, that'll be fine, too) and are willing to take in a South African refugee? I just wanna know, you see, so I can see in which airline's wheel well to hide out in. The last country in Africa to offer any hope for any kind of a future in Africa, is now, as we speak, going to the dogs.

[Pyrotex]

Boerseun,

I am so sorry.

We can't even GET this kind of detailed news in the USA.

Not unless someone (like you) has the courage to inform us.

My heart goes out...

 

:mad: :) :eek2: :mad:

:mad: :mad:

:mad: :lol: :doh: :mad:

:mad: :mad:

:mad: :mad:

:mad: :mad:

:mad: :mad:

:mad: :mad:

 

...yeah, you can stay with me if'n you can get here.

I'll keep a light in the window for you, my friend.

[modest]

No, no, Pyrotex, I just saw something on the news about Zimbabwe or South Africa today. Something about Prince Harry and "foreign relations". I forget the particulars, but I'm sure it was very pertinent and newsworthy. :rolleyes:

 

 

My heart goes out to you Boerseun. I've emailed the link to your post to everyone I could think of... nobody here knows, and the few who do, don't know what to do. Sorry, Mate.

 

~modest

[Boerseun]

Thanks, guys. Will keep you posted on the lunacy this side of world as it develops.

 

The hardening attitudes amongst people here is real interesting fodder for a PhD thesis in sociology - wonder if there are any takers out there?

[REASON]

It's good to hear from you, Bo, despite the subject in which you are posting again. I have to admit I was getting a bit worried about you considering what's going on over there and the fact that you haven't been posting.

 

Although modest is right about the fact that we aren't hearing much about the situation in Zimbabwe, and SA for that matter, I do pick up on a smattering of information periodically such as the article I've posted below. It's a Reuter's article that I found on t r u t h o u t.org, which is a site that compiles articles from various sources. I tend to trust the information I get from there for the most part.

 

t r u t h o u t | Red Cross: Zimbabwe Cholera Epidemic Could Top 60,000

 

Geneva - Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic is "far from under control" and could exceed 60,000 cases over the next week, the Red Cross warned on Friday.

 

Torrential rains are expected to spark major flooding and exacerbate the water-borne outbreak that has killed 2,773 people among 50,000 infected since August, the United Nations said.

 

"The outbreak in Zimbabwe is only increasing in scale, it's claiming more lives," Dr. Tammam Aloudat, senior health officer at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told journalists in Geneva.

 

The World Health Organisation (WHO), a U.N. agency, warned in December that up to 60,000 people could be infected if the country's worst cholera epidemic spiralled out of control.....

 

 

.....Critics blame the crisis on the policies of President Robert Mugabe, a charge he denies. A power-sharing deal signed by the veteran ruler and his opposition rival Morgan Tsvangirai on Sept. 15 appears to be unravelling.

 

"The lack of funding is probably a mixture of several aspects, most importantly we've seen the funding drop when Zimbabwe dropped off the television screens," Aloudat said.

 

"It is not about the politics or persons here. It is about the ability to reach people who are now dying of cholera and need assistance now," he added.....

 

The information is limited and definitely doesn't delve into the impact of the dysfunctional Mugabe regime.

 

 

Take care of yourself, Bo. Keep your wits about you, and you're welcome to come to my place as well if it comes down to that.

 

It's good to have options, ya know.

[Pyrotex]

I found this excellent website that gives the American CIA's current up-to-the-minute overview of Zimbabwe..

 

Boerseun, you forgot to tell us that Zimbabwe is also a major source of drugs and sexual exploitation. It only gets worse. There is other information there that is useful and interesting.

[Pyrotex]

This is the most recent news item on Zimbabwe that I can find, and the only one I've seen in a week or more.

 

It reads awfully tame, compared to Boerseun's accounts. That isn't to demean Boerseun's account. Quite the contrary, I think it shows how little the News Media cares about what happens in Africa.

[Michaelangelica]

Zimbabwe ditches currency for US dollars

February 21, 2009 - 7:59AM

 

Zimbabwe's stock exchange is ditching the country's collapsed local currency and is trading in US dollars.

. . .

The Herald newspaper reported on Friday that trading got off to a slow start with little activity being recorded.

 

© 2009 AP

Sydney Morning Herald - Business & World News Australia | smh.com.au

Zimbabwe ditches currency for US dollars

[DougF]

Look what made it to my local News Paper.

 

 

 

Wife of Zimbabwean PM killed in car crash - CNN.com

 

 

HARARE' date=' Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's wife, Susan, was killed Friday in a car wreck that also left him injured, according to senior officials with his party.

 

President Robert Mugabe visited Tsvangirai -- his long-time political rival -- at a Harare hospital, according to a reporter at the scene.

 

Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, took office last month under a power-sharing deal with Mugabe following a contentious election.

 

Tsvangirai's aide and driver also were injured in the head-on collision with a large truck, according to Tsvangirai's spokesman, James Maridadi.

 

All four were taken to the hospital but the conditions of the driver and aide were not immediately known.

 

State media reported Tsvangirai suffered head and neck injuries but his Movement for Democratic Change party has not confirmed that

 

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told CNN he spoke to Tsvangirai at the hospital and he was in a "relatively stable" condition.

 

He added: "We are still trying to examine the extent of the impact of this tragedy in terms of human life."

 

Chamisa would neither confirm nor deny reports from other MDC officials that Susan Tsvangirai died in the wreck, which he described as "very serious." [/quote']

 

Whats going to happen over there now?? ;)

[Boerseun]

Times LIVE - Secret paper sanctions invasion

 

Cry The Beloved Country, indeed.

 

Such a pity Zimbabwe doesn't have any natural resources, like, uhm... let's say, OIL.

 

Then the world would actually give a ****.

[Eclipse Now]

No no no! An African country with oil? Do you want them to have even more pain? I mean, if they had oil, America might want to 'bring democracy to them!'

 

(What I imagine the average Zimbabwean might say)...

"No, please, don't 'bring democracy to me'... anything but that! Haliburton already have enough money don't they? We don't really need to have America invent WMD's in our backyard, and manufacture a war to test their new bombs, and then after invading divide up our natural resources amongst their companies, and then have their multinationals sue us for lost productivity because of the war THEY started!

[Michaelangelica]

*

Saturday 17 Oct 09

 

Fri, 16 Oct 09

 

Duration:

27 mins

 

Zimbabwe's unity government on the rocks as Morgan Tsvangirai suspends cooperation ZANU-PF * Botswana goes to the polls * And township anger in South Africa over poor service delivery

 

Download 13MB (right click & "save target as")

BBC - Podcasts - This Week in Africa

 

http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/zimbabwe/page.do?id=1011273

[UncleAl]

Zimbabwe now is America by 2015, possibly by fourth quarter 2010. Remember the Weimar Republic and buy your wheelbarrow wallet while you can still afford it.

[maikeru]

This is an informal poll, so informal that there are no options!

 

What I want, is for you to tell me, briefly, what your impressions are of Zimbabwe, under Robert Mugabe's rule.

 

The only catch is that I don't want you to Google anything at all - I want to hear from you off the top of your head what you know about the situation in Zimbabwe.

 

The reason I'm doing this is simply because I'm interested in the common international perception of this specific issue, I don't want any ready-to-eat instantly-served pret-a-porter microwaved downloaded google opinions; I want to know what you know about this issue. Will I know if you cheated? Hell now! But you will be forever consumed by guilt for lieing to me...

 

 

They have $100 trillion dollar bank notes and we don't. I'm jealous.

[Pyrotex]

[***SYSCMD: MEMDMP "mugabe,zimbabwe" /ORD=0,/T,/M-]

 

(HISTORY) Rhodesia, Cecil Rhodes, Rhodes Scholarship, diamonds, Boers, the Boer War, Winston Churchill.

 

(RECENT) Robert Mugabe, president, warlord, tribal chief, tribal mentality.

Mugabe won what appeared to be a democratic election in Zimbabwe, by blaming the economic ills of the country on the past abuses of the white settlers and colonialists, though the economic ills at that time were not all that bad.

 

Like other "tribal mentality" African leaders of the 20th Century, he began giving the best jobs (and large gifts) to members of his own tribe, ignoring or marginalizing the others. This led to a decline in national infrastructure as roads, electricity, water and other essentials came under the management of political cronies who were incompetent to manage. This led to most tax funds being siphoned off for personal use.

 

Like other "tribal mentality" African leaders, he believes in the use of force, threat and extortion. Political dissidents and opposition parties have been decimated, destroyed or driven underground. Their leaders have been exhiled, imprisoned or murdered.

 

Like other "tribal mentality" African leaders, he engages in an unceasing campaign to blame all problems on others, typically on countries that criticize him and on those within his own country who do not support him. He has given special blame to the whites still in Zimbabwe, and has instigated a "reform" by which white owned land would be "returned" to black citizens. This is being enforced by violence.

 

Like other "tribal mentality" African leaders, he is totally unable to make good on any promise, and unable to comprehend how easy it is for others to see through his lies, excuses and lack of integrity. So the economy is in total collapse because no one is actually "in charge". The appointed leaders have no more concept of "cash flow" than a mosquito understands the human circulatory system. So the land reform is in total collapse because the new black "farmers" have no more concept of managing a modern farm than a cocker spaniel understands how dogfood is made, packaged and transported.

 

Like other "tribal mentality" African leaders, he mistrusts anyone who is intelligent and well educated. So the medical system is in total collapse and cholera and other infectious diseases are running rampant, because doctors cannot be trusted; he replaces them with his cronies. So the educational system is in total collapse, because teachers and professors cannot be trusted; he replaces them with his cronies. So the legal system is in total collapse, and social disorder has destroyed all vestiges of cooperative effort anywhere.

 

Rhodesia was a thriving and relatively wealthy country before it declared independence from the British Empire. It was largely white owned and white ruled, though the creation of a large, efficient black bureaucracy (like that created so successfully in India) was well underway. Who knows--in another generation, Rhodesia may have been ready for independence.

 

But Zimbabwe was and is not. It is no longer a "country" at all, but the fiefdom of an ignorant, tribal-minded, warlord who understands nothing of governance, law and legitimate rule. Zimbabwe is a country imploding. It is a country under the dictatorship of famine, disease, violence, chaos and fear. It is the ultimate expression of tribalism writ large.

 

Zimbabwe. Congo. Ethiopia. Somalia. Sudan. Nigeria. These are the festering sores on our global human civilization. Tribalism is an infectious disease and it kills just as effectively as a cholera epidemic. There is no known cure. The only rational response is to enforce quarantine. And wait.

 

[***END SYSCMD]