Why can nothing be done about Mugabe and his destroying of Zimababwe???

[tiredemma]

Im watching the news aghast and saddened for the people of Zimbabwe. I will admit that I am not at all familiar with world politics- but why is Mugabe being allowed to get away with this?
the world was quick to interfere with Iraq's business - why does nobody in power seem to care about the terrible plight here?

someone please educate me.

Iraq has oil, Zimbabwe doesn't - simple as that in Bush's world

oh b*gger in the news again??? (haven't seen it today)......do I want to watch it later or will I end up trying to throw the TV out of the window ?

if that is how it is- its incredibly sad.

You will probably throw yourself and tv out of window.

Im amazed that this man can be allowed to get away with his persecution of his own people.

what an evil man

Oh I agree - DH tried to explain it to me in more complicated terms but it always boils down to that.
You have to extrapolate it - no oil, no transport, no transport, no industry, etc etc - but it does just come down to that. Everything is always about us in the west, in some way.

But I do agree Mugabe is a monster and something SHOULD be done.

well - I suppose that could change (the oil thing) last year Zambia discovered oil reserves close to it's border with Angola....and there's speculation that as it's close to Zimbabwe they too could have some (wishful thinking I suspect but you never know).

The man's a lunatic - I genuinely thing that he's gone mad! I had the (dis?)pleasure of meeting him very briefly when he came and did the prize giving at the school I worked at once.

It's very grim isn't it.

I do agree that he has gone mad but he seems to have taken a lot along with him. His whole government are as bad. Although I realise most of them are hangers-on and yes-men and doing well financially out of it all.

It is shockingly awful.

you know I'm not sure he is a monster - there was a time under his leadership that the country thrived and was (quite literally) the breadbasket of southern africa (producing so much Maize that it could export to surround countries) - as he's aged he's totally lost the plot though.....and things have gone down the sh*t hole

many of them are "yes" men.....because if they dare to argue against him they'll more than likely "die in a terrible accident"......

I saw a news report last week and they were talking to people who lived in nothing more than cardboard boxes ( families)- then they drove out of the main city and on the outskirts were huge mansions- like the type in beverley hills- these were the homes of mugabes followers.

so bloody cruel.

I think he is mentally ill. seriously.

depends which bit they went to in the report emma - many of the homes in the northern suburbs of Harare are actually owned by opposition supporters, the whites, expats etc and many are rented by foreigners working out there (they're bl**dy nice though - I had a friend live up there and many a glorious bbq was had there )

anyhow shall return to this thread later - have a rehearsal at church in a few minutes.

Forgive me for being ignorant QoQ ( im trying to keep up with it all!) about 18mths to two yrs ago- was it mugabe who forced many of the white farmers off their lands ( im sure it was there).

These people in opposition- who votes for them? are voters scared to vote because of fear of reprisals from Mugabes 'henchmen'?

yep - one of DH's cousins died a few weeks ago - mid 30's and from a "wealthyish" (in Zim terms anyhow) family too....

inflation currently stands at approx 7500% - IMF reckons it could reach 100,000% by the end of the year!

He isn't castigated, because he's black.

He stands accused of many crimes, but the crime that makes it difficult for the British government to deal with is it racism towards whites.

It isn't just whites, of course, it's anyone who disagrees with him, but he has purged the country of whites, and we are not ready to deal with white racism.

It is, in MN terms, a thread killer. He is a dictator in the same way that Hitler was. The difference is that we don't have a politician of any stature who will stand against him.

My opinion? The raw result of political correctness. He is Black, so he can do no wrong. He can murder millions of blacks, but it's nothing to do with us, because we're white.

All the white, middle class exponents of Political Correctness have got much to answer for. You're no different to the Nazi apologists from the 1930s. You make this happen.

I have heard it said that M is a victim of his own success - as QofQ points out he was, at a certain time, a succesful leader - most particularly he was able to dominate because of his credibility as a leader in the fight for independence. what he has done since then is to entrench his power by keeping all of his seconds in command regional - he is, I am told, the only senior one in Zanu with true national credibility. result - there is no-one ready standing in the wings. the man is in his eighties and no-one has a clue what will happen when he goes. what this means is more complex than a bunch of yes men behind him - rather it's a bunch of people more concerned with Zimbabwe after Mugabe and their own political careers than tackling the issues now.

the question of why "we" haven;t done anything is more complex than oil/lack of. I assume people are thinking of military intervention - while I don;t deny that if there was a will there would be a way - but there is no wiggle room in the case of Zim - there are no arguments to be had about ignoring UN resolutions (Iraq) or about self defence and terrorists (Afghanistan) - the only possible justification for intervention would be the parlous state of the country. and that's a pretty difficult argument to make - politically and legally. look how long it's taken in Darfur.

Why? Because there is no oil in Zimbabwe. Britain and other countries doesn't want to get on wrong side of South Africa, which leads African opinion. Chinese are rapidly getting into Africa and taking out mineral resources (as Europeans did in 20th Century) - West wishes to keep on good terms with as much of Africa as possible to maintain supplies of raw materials. Zimbabwe is a small player in all this. Great pity because the country had a good economy at one time - now it is as poor as some of the Saharan states.

absolute rubbish desiderata. it would be a nice pat answer to blame "political correctness" (whatever that is) but the situation is so much more complex than that.

as far your last sentence - that ranks pretty highly on my list of offensiveness on mn.

Zimbabwe did well when it had white farmers. We know how to farm land.