[DEBATE] : a bit galling

[John S. Saul]

perhaps this (below) is of interest, although it's a bit galling to 
have the attached, fairly accurate, editorial [but, a query: a 
"racially-inspired" seizure of lands, or rewards for the vets, or a 
manifestation of mainly opportunist political craft for the 
quasi-populist end of covering his own tracks while hoping thereby, to 
nobble "public opinion"?: "Discuss," as we say in the academic game] 
staring out at me this morning over coffee from my "national 
newspaper,' when you know that the paper would never criticize Britain 
or Australia (or Canada for that matter) for any of their/our own 
high-handed imperial excesses in Africa or elsewhere - I like to think 
that the editors (momentary and severely constricted) enlightenment 
owes a lot to the very good reporter, Stephanie Nolen,  that they have 
out there in the region at the moment, however: the struggle for 
enlightenment (among other things) continues - jss

ROBERT MUGABE IN ROME
The hunger-maker
June 3, 2008

Zimbabwe was once one of Africa's major food producers. President 
Robert Mugabe has turned it into a country where millions rely on 
international food aid. Mr. Mugabe is now in Rome for a UN conference 
dealing with global food shortages to share his secret recipe for 
starvation with the world.

The Food and Agriculture Organization, a UN agency, has assiduously 
studied and documented the havoc that Mr. Mugabe's policies have caused 
to Zimbabwe's economy. It has reported major year-to-year declines in 
the amount of arable land planted under all crops, which it has blamed 
on "problems stemming from the country's land-acquisition activities." 
This is a reference to Mr. Mugabe's racially inspired seizure of land 
from white farmers, which saw the farms then turned over to so-called 
"war veterans" - cronies of Mr. Mugabe - who promptly ran the farms 
into the ground.

Mr. Mugabe's government has compounded the problem by introducing 
uneconomic, government-set prices that have, according to the FAO, 
"discouraged many farmers from producing surplus cereals for sale." The 
result has seen a further "significant decline in the amount of land 
planted with cereals." Last year, grain production was down by 44 per 
cent. Add to this grim picture the collapse of the country's 
agricultural infrastructure as a result of the wider economic crisis in 
Zimbabwe. Irrigation systems have largely broken down, and fuel and 
fertilizer shortages have seriously hampered food production.

Over the past year, 2.4 million people in Zimbabwe were kept alive by 
the World Food Program. The FAO estimates that up to a third of the 
country's population is "at risk" of serious food shortages during 
2008. Just under half of the 11.8 million people of Zimbabwe suffer 
from malnutrition. This is the disastrous legacy of Mr. Mugabe's 
misrule, a legacy he perpetuates by jailing and killing his political 
opponents and fixing elections.

Britain and Australia correctly describe Mr. Mugabe's participation at 
the Rome FAO summit as "obscene." Clearly, he has no place at such a 
meeting, except perhaps as an exhibit to show how to starve a nation.


John S. Saul,
Professor Emeritus, Political and Social Science,
York University, 4700 Keele St.,
Toronto M3R 1P3,
Ontario, Canada,
Phone: 416-921-7127
E-Mail: <johnsaul at yorku.ca>