The Sound of Silence
Samizdata asks a foolish, foolish rhetorical question.
Robert Mugabe continues his insane demolition of houses and businesses as he increasingly starts to look like Pol Pot reborn, seeking to depopulate the cites and drive the now homeless and unemployed population into the countryside to eke out an even more miserable living, thereby dispersing and isolating people from communities which might oppose his tyrannical rule.
And where are the marchers in the west? Where are the protesters calling for justice in Zimbabwe? Where is the outrage from those tireless tribunes of the Third World, the UN? Why can I not hear the snarls of fury from the alphabet soup of NGOs? What of the legions of Guardian readers finding out about all this? What are they going to call for? Amnesty International is getting a lot of (bad) publicity from having called Guantanamo Bay 'a gulag' whilst now admitting they do not actually know what is happening there, yet why are they not straining every fibre of their being in opposition to this African horror? There is tyranny aplenty to be opposed without having to invent any.
Zimbabwean Pundit has a report is written by Sister Patricia Walsh of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe, which describes what is actually happening on the ground. It isn't exactly the expropriation of rich white farmer's land that we are told not to worry about. It is reprinted below without comment. None is needed.
"Family and Friends, thank you for your telephone calls, your e-mails and all your support and encouragement in these dreadful days and hours - it is a great help.The international press says that the police are destroying "illegal structures" in Zimbabwe. Let me share with you a little of what is very legal but has been destroyed.In 1992 many thousands of people were put into a Holding Camp at a Place called Hatcliffe Extension, they were not allowed to build permanent structures because this was going to be temporary.
In 1995 one of our student Sisters, Tarisai Zata who was a student at the School of Social Work and was doing some studies for her degree, one evening she came back Home and said "we must do something to help these people to live like human beings" and that was the beginning of the Dominican Missionary Sisters involvement in Hatcliffe.We have worked with the people there for the past 10 years, peoples of all religions and none, people of all political persuasions and none.Over the years through the generosity of you all we were able to sink 8 bore holes, help to feed thousands of people, build and run a crèche for AIDS orphans (180) of them. We visited once a week and two of our nursing Sisters, Gaudiosa and Carina treated people, helped to get about 100 People on to an Anti-Retroviral medicine programmers etc do home based care, took people to hospitals etc.The people of Hatchliffe have become friends and family of us the Dominican Sisters.
Yes, some people had moved in illegally, but the majority were there because they were put there and were repeatedly told that they would be moved to a better place at some time, most of them paid their monthly "rent" for The little square patch.
On Friday morning last week I got a call that the riot police had come into a section of the area and demolished everything - most of the wooden Shacks are just broken to pieces. I went out on Friday and Saturday - people were sleeping out in the open, many of them sick, cold and hungry. On Saturday I visited again some had managed to leave (those who have Z$500 000 - and have some relatives in "legal" places".On Sunday morning I got a call that the police had given instructions That all structures in the original section have to be demolished within 24 hours, including the crèche, clinic and other structures which we had built with and for the people. Where do I get people on Sunday to come and dismantle all the buildings. I decided to wait until Monday. On Sunday evening I received one phone call after another saying "come quick they are going to kill us" - others would say "don't come you might be killed".Early on Monday morning I drove out to Hatcliffe, already in the distance I Could only see smoke rising up - nothing else. I arrived, I wept, Sister Carina was with me, she wept, the people tried to console us - they were aLL outside in the midst of their broken houses, furniture and goods all over the place, children screaming, sick people in agony. Some of the people who are on ARV drugs came to us and said we are phoning Sister Gaudiosa (Sister is doing the ARV programme) but she is not answering us, we are going to die". We explained that Sister was on Home leave but that we would help in whatever way we could.
It was a heartbreaking situation.The structures "mentioned above" that we the Dominican Sisters were working from were left untouched but had to be dismantled immediately otherwise They too would be destroyed. Sister Balbina from the House of Adoration came with carpenters and other staff members and started dismantling the structures.We are distributing all of them to people who have nothing, they will be OK if we leave them lying on the ground. Some friends arranged for a crane to come in to lift out two containers where we had medicine and food stored - it was one of the saddest days of my life.How does one say that Peter aged 10 and his little brother (John) aged 4 (not their real names) are "illegal". We had provided them with a wooden hut when their Mother was dying, she has died in the meantime, these two Little people had their little home destroyed in the middle of the night, we get there, they are sitting crying in the rubbish (that was their home until Sunday) - what do we do with them? They are only one example of the many vulnerable orphans whose little lives are destroyed.Veronica (not her real name) is an elderly widow who is chronically ill herself, she has 3 young grandchildren from her dead daughter - her home is destroyed. She is wearing a Rosary Beads around her neck, an apron with the picture of the Sacred Heart and a tee shirt with President Mugabe's photo - she has tried all means to survive!Some people came and said, "Sister there are two people who are dying, please come." One of them Mary (not her real name) who is out in the open all night lying on an old damp mattress can't move with pain, she has shingles, which is open and bleeding. What is worse her tears or her bleeding wounds?
I felt/feel paralyzed.Anne (not her real name) delivered a baby a week ago, she is Critically ill and is on the verge of death, what do we do with her? We give her pain killers, we give her blankets, we give her food (which she in unable to eat) - what is going to happen to her baby?Some of you have asked if I am safe, don't worry we are well "protected" by the riot police who are cruising around this disaster area all day, I was so relived to see them eating sugar cane which means that they are not hungry and will have the strength to "protect us", I don't for a minute believe that they accepted this sugar cane from "illegal people" on an "illegal settlement".A Grandmother asks, "Sister why has God abandoned us? I do not try to answer. People call out "Sisters pray for us".
An emergency taxi (mini bus) stands in the middle of this "war zone" with the words "God is Faithful" written on it!Just now we are going back there with food, clothing, medicine and cash, we can only try.I am NOT cold, I am NOT hungry but I am very ANGRY. I pray that this will pass.We stand in shock and cry with the people but we also have to try to keep them alive. When will sanity prevail?Where is the outside world? Busy talking about a "NO vote by France".How can the "little ones of this world be brutalized in this way"? Their only crime - they are poor, they are helpless and they happen to live In the wrong part of town and in a country that does not have oil and is not very important to the West.One bystander told me that he had phoned the Red Cross asking for help but was informed "it is not a war situation" so there is nothing we can do!PRAY FOR US.
God bless and reward you for your concern.
posted by wretchardthecat at 6/06/2005 05:56:00 PM
68 Comments:
Another terrible reality, unfolding petal by petal, ignored by news media and decision-makers alike!
Shame, eternal shame be yours, cowards! May you reap what you sow!
If you go to Zimbabwean Pundit, I think you will find ways get in touch with the Sisters. One of the things they ask for is help in getting word out.
This comment says it all:
"One bystander told me that he had phoned the Red Cross asking for help but was informed 'it is not a war situation' so there is nothing we can do!"
Ayn Rand noted this moral inversion nearly 40 years ago: "Observe the nature of today's alleged peace movements. Professing love and concern for the survival of mankind, they keep screaming the the nuclear-weapons race should be stopped, that armed force should be abolished as a means of settling disputes among nations, and that war should be outlawed in the name of humanity. Yet these same peace movements do not oppose dictatorships; the political views of their members range through all shades of the statist specturm, from welfare statism to socialism to fascism to communism. This means that they are opposed to the use of coercion by one nation against another, but not by the government of a nation against its own citizens; it means that they are opposed to the use of force against armed adversaries, but not against the disarmed.
"Consider the plunder, the destruction, the starvation, the brutality, the slave-labor camps, the torture chambers, the wholesale slaughter perpetrated by dictorships. Yet this is what today's alleged peace-lovers are willing to advocate or tolerate-in the name of love for humanity"
From Caplitalism the Unknown Ideal. 1966.
Cecil Rhodes must be weeping in his grave. The racist white men that ran Rhodesia would have never permited this type of atrocity to occur. It was the breadbasket of Africa in that era. No one starved to death in the bad old days
Dafur and Zimbabwe the blights of Africa, the shame of our civilization.
Where is Mandela, Tutu and the other South Africans? Where is the outrage? Where is Blair?
If Mugabe is not a terrorist who is? Where is the US and our vaunted War on Terror?
Tin horn dictators kill thousands and we worry about Korans and water balloons. People are raped and starved as matters of Govenment policy and we worry about naked prisoners with panties on their heads.
Where is Mike Hoare or his 21st century replacement, now when he is needed?
Never Again...right
"My personal political views have nothing to do with Amnesty's position," claimed William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International, regarding the "gulag" comment"
"The racist white men that ran Rhodesia would have never permited this type of atrocity to occur."
---
This is none of your business Whitey:
I heard a black lady on the radio say that we have no right to interfere, and black rule is what they wanted.
Who is they?
Not those poor children the Sister wrote about. Nor, I think, the woman dying of shingles. The lunatics are running the asylum.
The Brits wanted Black rule in Rhodesia, back in the day when they were embarrassed by white rule and black prosperity. Now there are black rulers and black death. It is worse than the Plague
Will South Africa follow down this path? One hopes not.
If this is not on the top Blairs action today list he should resign.
Zimbabwe is in England's sphere of influence, they had better excert some.
What is the SAS up to nowadays any way?
AI doesn't want e-mail. Here are their current projects.
AI
"...so breathtakingly blatant that no one really wants to believe that they can do such things, and do them in public, and still keep a straight face.
"
---
That way, with the passage of time and it's ravages on the public memory, (or mere "normal" ignorance) when a critic makes a claim against these well meaning do gooders, one can sound reasonable in calling the critic mean spirited, because "obviously" these nice folks would never engage in such shameless acts.
I can't comment on the wealth of different topics that have become a part of this discussion right now. I appreciate the discussion.
For those who want real practical ways to help, please come over to http://zimpundit.blogspot.com and click on the "Zimbabwe NGO Network" link or just go directly to http://www.kubatana.net There you will be able to pull up lists of relief organizations according to their specific focus. There's details about how to contact the organizations there too. If all else fails, email me at zimpundit@gmail.com As much as possible contact the organizations directly, they need your help now.
We, meaning the West and the rest of the civilized world, have sat by and watched as genocide unfolds in Africa, our only action the shaking of our heads and saying "How sad." I am afraid that until Western interests are threatened in some way this will continue as millions are starved, tortured, raped and murdered.
I'm going out on a limb by saying this, but here goes ... World Wars break out when the Great Powers run out of pitiful and inferior races to feed predators. On that day, as on Sept 1, 1939 or Dec 7, 1941 or Sept 11, 2001 the predators finally attack us and war begins. The shame of Munich, the ignored rape of China and the willful blindness towards the poison the Saudis were spreading were all various forms of appeasement. It didn't seem to matter so long as the victims were gomers somewhere far away. Then one day it mattered.
I wonder if the world will ever have to pay the price for letting Africa suffer so. Europe and the UN think not. But we should know better because they are going to pass on the bill when it comes due and hand it to us.
I've often wondered why appeasement was so easy. Every generation seems seduced by it. Maybe it's because the apparent marginal cost of appeasement seems so low. Extortion often begins with pennies. But the real cost is deferred because the cumulative implication of acquiescence to the principle doesn't manifest itself until the very end, like a bad installment plan.
The UN was supposed to address problems like Mugabe, but by some cruel historical twist, it has become a club of the very sorts it was designed to guard against. It has lost its way as an institution, but the real shame is that the liberal intelligensia, the ones who should know better, have come to shepherd it further into the dark. That makes my blood run cold because although I don't believe in karma as a religious prosposition, it's weaker American form, the idea that "what goes around comes around", seems to have a certain validity. Someone will pay for the horrors inflicted on Africa one day.
Unfortunately, there's not going to be any accounting for Africa. Period. Nobody cares. Apparently not the Africans themselves, not the UN, certainly not the 1st World.
A friend mine who was on the ground in Rwanda during the genocide, (and got shot at by French Commandos) said to me, "you don't forget the smell of 300,000 people crapping in the jungle".
It's simply too big and too broken. The Blogger (and ex-South African) Kim du Toit suggested that the best thing for Africa would to be to simply build a wall around the place and walk away.
He might be right.
Ok, that does it, Verc:
You're stealing that stuff, right?
Fess Up!
(tries to remember Verc's url to see if there's more over there)
Verc's Place
How many Marines would it take to effect regime change in Zimbabawe? My guess is about three companies worth with air support.
Treat Zimbabawe like Haiti. Whenever the people running the place get so completely offensive to normal sensibilities we go in and get rid of them so that the locals have another chance to start over and build a better life for themselves. Maybe this time they will get it right.
In about 30 years, we go back and do it again.
"Anyone who has taken a vacation in the Caribbean has been driven from the airport right past some of the worst poverty in the world. The roots of those people are deeply imbedded in Africa."
---
Don,
I have not vacationed there, but have several friends from Haiti.
Seems what has allowed things to remain as bad as they are is an extreme elitist (French) view of the world.
A view that would be characterized by us as reminiscent of Robert Byrd's glory days in the kkk.
But to the intelligentsia, the French view is much superior to ours.
Appeasement is easy because it puts off the day of reckoning. I think that is human nature; you see it in the day-to-day actions of many people as well as nations. (Studying for tests, doing chores around the house, coming up with a real energy policy, fixing Social Security, facing the reality of Islamo-FAscism, doing something about Africa.)
Agree with Monty and the others noting the long long history of African poverty, disease, famine, and genocide. I have African fatigue when it comes to being asked by Tony Blair, once again, to throw money at the problem.
If Mr. Bush *were* to contribute buckets of nice green American dollars, why would any sane person think it would make the slightest difference, and that Zimbabwe will be able to pull itself out of its self-imposed downslide?
Every 3 to 5 years, some new dictator steals the headlines in Africa, as they seem to pass the horror around from one country to another. South Africa. Uganda. Sudan/Dufur.
The story of the nuns above is heart-tugging, but it's nevertheless just a microcosm of the overall anarchy there. Until the Africans can figure out how to live with one another and how to feed themselves and how to grow up and be adults, I *really* am not interested at all in contributing towards keeping them alive so they can breed and replenish their stocks of self-annihilators.
Before they get another red American cent, they need to show how at least one dramatic change has been accomplished, so there is at least a chance that the outcome will also be different.
Besides, we're sort of busy re-fashioning the Middle East right now. Can we *really* be responsible for leading TWO continents into the 21st Century kicking and screaming? We're rich and we're powerful and we're wayyyyy smart ... but this is getting ridiculous.
Next, someone will want us to help France grow up.
I agree that sending aid to these nations makes the long term situation worse; the problem is that no one is willing to state that as a matter of policy.
I would favor air/commando strikes against the governments/military involved; I do think that that would make them think twice about these actions. But then, of course, we would need to do the same to the other side in six months or a year, because they'll just do the same thing back if they have the opportunity.
Were President Bush to announce a massive aid program for Africa, to be preceeded by military strikes designed to eliminate the biggest problem on the continent - and the ultimate cause of the other problems - the Mugabes and their ilk - such action would be denounced as racist.
The current policy of looking the other way and giving tyrants a pass based on their skin color is not seen as racist - depite the fact that the disasterous consequences fall largely on one particular race.
Ever since Orwell wrote 1984, we have feared the arrival of the Ministery of Truth.
Who could have ever guessed that the hated twister and inverter of words would come in the form of private news companies, NGOs, and "human rights" advocates?
Maybe the book should be retitled 1984inc or Move On To 1984.Com
go dan go
Lo those many years ago, sitting on a hill above Fort Kobbe, Canal Zone, the truth of American Colonialism came to me.
The power from afar believes it is doing good things by assisting the locals, improving public works, curing malaria, injecting huge sums of cash into the local economy. The Locals believe they are being exploited. Their Rights abused, their manhood dissed and their money stolen.
When left to their own devices the Locals will, without fail, sink to the lowest common denominator. Violence. Usually State Violence aimed at the local population.
In Panama it did not take a long US campaign to remove the "Bully Boy" and replace him. There is a real civil society in Panama and those people stepped up, when safe to do so. They could not, however, have removed their little despot themselves.
In Iraq it has taken longer to develop a civil order to hand off to. The scale of the project is much larger and the distance to be traveled further. In Iraq the Civil Order had been suppressed for a much longer time.
In both countries the Religious Community provided a moral core.
In Africa it would take little time to remove the despots. We would not be rebuilding the societies but having to create them whole cloth from the wreckage of the current situation.
The question of who to hand off to is of secondary import, today.
Today in the Sudan and in Zimbabwe the situation demands action. If we have to burn the village to save it, well there are worse courses of action. To do nothing, to have 'stability' is a disaster, both now and in the making.
This is no ideologue project, not spreading Democracy or Freedom, this is saving peoples lives, like rescuing a drowning child. We do not ask what will become of the child, what schools will he attend, what occupation will he choose, no, we jump into the water to save the life.
Papa bear hints at what I believe is the case:
Obsessive focus of late on America's human rights misdemeanors has had the effect of distracting the world's attention from wholesale genocide by China's client state, Sudan, and China's brutal grab for Zimbabwean influence.
Where are the critics of 'propped-up' dictators and 'interference with sovereignty'?
Just as the Soviet-financed anti-war and nuclear freeze movements kept the West on the defensive, let's not be surprised to find China's hand behind the outsized attention presently being paid to America's shortcomings.
The Cold War is back, and Africa is, once again, a battlefield.
In other words, whipping the press into an anti-American frenzy provides excellent cover.
Some decades back, Bob Geldof got a bunch of his celebrity friends worked up about providing food to people who were starving in Africa. The experience left him somewhat disilusioned as the governments of the recipient nations tended to provide the food to their supporters and starve their opponents.
My modest proposal would be for Mr.Geldof and his well off celebrity buddies to invest in those places in Africa that are not too chaotic. Ghana and Mozambique, for example are semi stable countries, although desperately poor and grotesquely mismanaged. Geldof could finance a plant to produce fuel ethanol from sugar cane either to sell locally to mix with gasoline and improve the local foreign exchange situation or to export to Europe to help them achieve their oft stated and never achieved goal of 2% biofuel.
It's better to light one candle than curse the darkness, but it is easier to keep your candle going if you are not standing outside in a hurricane.
Back in the 1960's, there was a movie called "The Mouse That Roared". It was a comedy and its premise was that if you're a bankrupt country and can't feed yourself, declare war on the United States. And then immediately lose. Because it's well-known that historically after the U.S. wins a war, it then pumps massive amounts of money into the defeated country to help it get back on its feet.
I would like to propose a new meme for American hegemony in the 21st Century. To wit, if a country wants massive amounts of money pumped into it to get back up on its feet, it needs to indicate its willingness to be a participant in the bargain by first removing whatever dictator, tyrant, or nut-case has got it in that position in the first place. And by removing, the more permanent the removal, the more likely said country is to be rewarded by Uncle Sam.
This means that if the Iraqi's had been *serious* about their personal freedoms they would have found a way to kill off Saddam. Same with Mugabe. Is Syria interested in becoming rich, educated and well-fed? Well, it, too, has a figurehead who could be summarily removed at which point the US would send in whatever is necessary to help Syria achieve state-hood.
It would have worked, too, with the Plighted Palestinians and *their* dreadful figurehead, Arafat. He needed to be removed before the process could go forward. Too bad the Palestinians would rather starve to death than figure that out and help themselves.
The French aren't too well off right now either. And guess who *they* have as a figurehead whom I think it would be swell to watch swinging from a lightpole.
You want our help? Prove it.
I have been fascinated with Africa since my teens. I believe it was Dr. Livingstone who opined 150 years ago that Africa seemed to be a place where life, rather than growing and pressing forward, rose up, peaked and folded upon itself in a continuous, often destructive cycle. I traveled to east Africa 6 months ago for the first time, and whether it was Dr. Livingstone that planted the seed of my observations or not, this did appear to be the case.
Recently Dutch MP Hirshi Ali was discussing her early years growing up in Somalia in an interview (I may have found the link to the interview on an earlier Belmont Club post--can't recall). To the western ear she painted quite a bleak picture, and the interviewer was attempting to get her to admit as much (admit her victimhood it seemd to me). To Ms. Ali's credit she didn't take the bait, rather she pointed to the fact that by African standards her upbringing was quite normal and comparatively better than many others.
I guess the point that I am trying to make in a roundabout way is it seems to me that the way adversity is often met with a shrug of the shoulders and resigned to fate seems to be woven into the fabric of Africa. Maybe nothing can be done that will have a lasting effect--maybe a wall around the continent is the answer as an earlier poster suggested. Whatever the answer is, it has to be home grown. And as long as Mr. Mugabe's neighbors continue to turn a blind eye to his shenanigans, and upstanding world citizens like Mr. Chirac continue to invite despots like Mugabe to Paris immediately after an EU travel ban expires (thereby conferring legitimacy in Mugabe's eyes no doubt), nothing will change.
Too bad the Selous Scouts have effectively been disbanded... http://www.regiments.org/regiments/africacentral/regts/zw-selou.htm
I am sorry folks - I can't just shrug and say "they made their bed, let 'em lie in it". What did 4,6,8 and 10 year old children do to desrve this. I intend on helping the nuns with a bit of money and trying to spread the news. I can do little to pressure decision makers, but I will try.
I have already had to put up or shut up before. This seems like time to put up.
"And where are the marchers in the west? Where are the protesters calling for justice in Zimbabwe? Where is the outrage from those tireless tribunes of the Third World, the UN?"
What was it the carpenter's son said about stuff like this? Something about straining the gnat and swallowing the camel?
Wretchard is right.
"I'm going out on a limb by saying this, but here goes ... World Wars break out when the Great Powers run out of pitiful and inferior races to feed predators. On that day, as on Sept 1, 1939 or Dec 7, 1941 or Sept 11, 2001 the predators finally attack us and war begins. "
Once a nation begins to feed on its young, it should be declared a pariah and invaded by its neighbors. South Africa could make short work of Mugabe with armored columns and cavalry and the whole population would rise up to support it. One Modern Battalion of free men would do him in.
A man begins by hurting and controlling those around him and gains wider ground by doing it to more and more people. One day he is made a governor then a president, but the seeds have to sprout and grow. All he needs is legitimacy to obtain the final stage for his horror.
If a serial murderer is elected president, does that somehow absolve him of his sickness and thus free him to commit greater crimes?
I do not know why dictatorships are tolerated in this day and age. We know so much about the psychology of the sociopath and the evolution of dicatorship that we sould be able to prevent it or stop it.
Its disgusting. The Moral Relativism of the left blinds them and makes them incapapable of acting.
Mugabe is getting support from Chavez and North Korea as well.
red river
You are right on
There is a Global War, has been for decades. Some Axis powers drop out, others drop in.
Kim, Mugabe, Saddam, the Mullahs, the Sudanese, Chavez and Castro to name the ones on the top of my head all constitute an AntiAmerican Axis. In many ways they are aided and abetted by the Chicoms and to a lesser extent the Russians.
The War has many fronts and avenues of attack, not all military.
We cannot turn our backs to the conflict, it will not just go away, and wishing will not make it so.
foxenburg your observations have alot to say about The Fourth Conjecture
CITW,
“Black Africa is home of one vote one time”. Give me a break.
DR,
In October, 2004; “Mr Blair said building stability in Africa would be to the West's advantage, as "we know that poverty and instability leads to weak states which can become havens for terrorists and other criminals"”.
“He also said Britain hoped to train 20,000 African peacekeepers over the next five years.”
Just this week Blair announced his intentions of “doubling” the monetary aid the UK is allocating to the region.
“UK renews calls for Africa debt plan
Proposals by the UK to write off debt as part of moves to reduce poverty in Africa face US opposition ahead of July's G8 meeting.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/africa/2005/africa/default.stm
“North Korea. In the early 1980s, North Korea sent elite troops to Zimbabwe-Rhodesia to train Mugabe's notorious 5th Brigade. Once trained, Mugabe's troops went on to slaughter 30,000 anti-communist black Matabele tribesmen who opposed his rule.”
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=19102
“There are 40,000 white farmers in South Africa. Over 1,200 have been murdered since 1994 – the year the Marxist African National Congress, backed by the United Nations, European Union, Russia, China and the U.S. State Department, took power.”
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27892
it's the thought that counts
Dusty Rhodes to Doom and Gloom.
DR said,
“This is no ideologue project, not spreading Democracy or Freedom, this is saving peoples lives, like rescuing a drowning child. We do not ask what will become of the child, what schools will he attend, what occupation will he choose, no, we jump into the water to save the life.”
Amen.
The fight was lost in Angola long ago. With Cuba and the soviets on same side as the UK, UN and the US state department, anti-white racism has succeeded in turning Africa into a socialist paradise. Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Rhodesia and others have been had. Face it, killing whities is good and it’s about time according to the apologists of the UN. But they never expected those killers to start killing their own.
"It's politically correct to kill whites these days. What is so strange is the fact that we white farmers feed the black population. But look at Zimbabwe. The black leaders have engineered a famine against their own black citizens. It's as if it's all part of some horrible 'master plan.' Apparently, getting blacks to starve blacks to death doesn't really bother anyone in the Western world."
China is now taking the lead in exploiting the region. See their oil developments in Namibia and elsewhere. The self hating whites of Britain, France, and the guilt ridden Anglophobes of the US state department have given up on Africa cuz the whities gotta go. Murder in the name of hating whites is not racism, it is how the 21st century is going to be played out. Africa is the theater of a proxy war that the West has already surrendered.
So Foxenburg, are you now an African American?
With Chinese managment the farms of Rhodesia will bloom once more. With all the fewer mouths to feed there will be all more to export for cash.
Just because you're paranoid does not mean they are not after you
How is it so easy for many to write off Africa?
Maybe they are just in a different time and place from what are- our cultural norms-and from where we get our bearings and make judgements.
Is it not a form of racism-yes I am being provacative- to say that they are perhaps under more corrupt forms of government than the corrupt historical monarchies of Europe or-heck,today's Chirac?
The UN Oil for Food deal proves that those we feel to be more sophisticate and capable of self rule are no less masters of corruption.
The tribal difficulties just in numbers, language and religious differences are they that much more complex than say the Balkans?
The colonist imposition of false nations and non-organic derived borders in Central Africa-again do they differ from the geographic center of Europe-the Balkans?
I am sure that the conflicts of the Balkan region at one time looked just as hopeless and even though there is still conflict there it does not match the scale of what it once did.
The ignoring of these conflicts and appeasement at the cost of principles eventually cost Europe WWI and perhaps the sloppy resolution of that lead to the continuation- WW II.
Madawaskan,
The colonist imposition of false nations and non-organic derived borders in Central Africa-again do they differ from the geographic center of Europe-the Balkans?
I have the same question, but in Central Europe there are castles, ancient roads, mentions in history books. In sub-Saharan Africa there is precious little if any ancient history of civilization. It's like North America in that sense.
------------
Verc,
Tremendous posts!
Would we consider it moral to do nice things, throw parties for the psychopath in order to calm him down?
The problem there is not just one psychopath per country. I'm afraid there are entire psychopathic countries, and they all have AK's.
When I got stuck in Johannesburg for a few weeks in '79, only one class of citizens had guns, and every man one of them of that class carried guns at all times. I got a kick out of asking guys in bars about their gun, they'd pull up their trouser leg and show me their Star 45 on their ankle like it was a nice pair of cufflinks. It was like they were all cops, and there was very little crime. Heck, when I was there I read a story in the paper where some guy heard a burglar alarm go off so he grabbed his hunting rifle. He shot the three miscreants as they were running away. The thing that struck me is that they got two or three blocks away before he got them. Whoa.
That model is broken, the AK genie is out, literally millions, like locusts on the land.
Smart bombs don't break all the AK's.
Smart aid might be the best we can do.
It's interesting-do you ever see one Liberal blog concerned about this?
Why do they always- in my lifetime seem to enable genocide-right down to Ben Stein's article on how Watergate prevented Nixon from being able to un-do Pol Pot-I think the Ayn Rand quote and the analysis of Liberal's false motives explains it somewhat.
It's noticable how they strive to distance themselves from the religious-such as the nuns who do the work of these talkers...
The comments of some from- who have been in the area- does make it sound like the wild, wild west.
Tony- I agree with you they might have more of a oral history but I also think that maybe they can rapid develop much as North America did.
I think they are capapble of it-unlike Liberals who seem to feel they need or want Communism because they like strong rule or feel a need for enforcement/security-remember those arguments about the Soviets?
It's an arrogance and this is kind of funny- but I think it can be un-done by the Liberal's own noble savage syndrome...
Cultural anthropological studies of [-wow- I've said this before- but] the Mbuti pygmies have come up with a surprisingly democratic system that gives power to the children[ I agree with Major John] and might be rare for nomads but yet it happened with no exposure to Western Civilization's societal norms.
I'm late to the dance with this but Catholic Charities is who I donate to. Not because of religious reasons but cpitalist ones -such as they are the most efficient.
You can put where you want it to go on the form-like to the nuns exampled by Wretchard.
They mailed me a receipt within two days and also let me know that my e-mail was not working-ha.
Here is the link-wish I would have found Wretchard's post earlier-they do not show up on bloggator lately.
http://www.catholiccharitiesinfo.org/
tokyo tom-
You have got to be kidding...
The obvious solution for many parts of Africa is for the donor countries to empower the UN or its members to administer failed countries like Zimbabwe.
Three words for you...
Oil for Food.
Also unfortunately the UN is not backed by anyone more willing than the US, Britain and Aussies to apply force.
Unfortunately for what its worth the countries of France and Germany, and China tie their own hands. The UN to be blunt is an extension of our will-Clausewitz-and the invasion of Inchon illustrates that pretty well in particular with regards to balancing China- of which Africa is a present and future theater.
Nathan-
Oh touche on the oral history line I was trying to enjoin him as to that being his idea-sort of a leap of inference on my part.
The Mbuti pygmies are nomadic so isolated....hmmm given the various tribes in Zaire-I don't know if I will concede that...
Something has to be hoped for and the heart of darkness doesn't seem like a light toward that end.
After dinner it is!
As we are talking about how the Mbutis developed then given the nature of the Ituri forest at that time-
Ya I will have to give you the isolated.
In the present day-no- but that was not the environment of my own argument.
"we all dug holes all over the country and cached all kinds of arms, mines, rpg 7s, etc. and yet i've never heard of any incidents at all. not a single land mine, not a single bullet. i guess talk is cheap."
Q: Why does the Ukranian^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Rhodesian pour oil in his garden?
A: To keep his guns from rusting.
Cmon, they've given us Kofi Annan, haven't they?
Surely they're just ready to explode into the 21st century with such leadership.
Above sarcastic comment was to Nathan.
The Left has half-managed to convince the world of the Inevitability of History. That is why a superstate EU is depicted in terms of Destiny, a thing too foreordained to be derailed by anything as insignificant as voter choice. Other things are our inescapable fate: a UN, a growing secularism and whatnot. The tide of history. What I am afraid to add to that list is the certain doom of Africa and am most afraid because I half-believe in it myself.
The "Last Valley" post talked about the ancient battle of Dien Bien Phu. I had not mentioned an incident where a Viet Minh porter threw himself under a gun carriage to keep it from slipping back down the hill. If that Communist porter had really believed in the foreordination of history he would have let it slip. History would have rolled the carriage up the hill again or something else would have happened, because the Viet Minh triumph was foreordained. But of course that is ludicrous: that poor porter made history and by his choice and action kept that gun from sliding back down the mountain, disproving with his life the very tenet upon which his Communist faith rested. Nothing is foreordained and we are free to reach heaven or descend into hell. We are also free to help Africa, whether or not they "deserve" it and even if they cannot preserve the gift. But the only lasting gift one man can give to another is to awaken his deepest reserves of humanity. "For we hold it to be self-evident that ..." nothing is foreordained.
Too many comments to even skim through in the time allotted, so I appologize if this has been suggested already. Instead of sending $$$ that'll only be stolen by Mugabe's thugs, send these people Kalashnikovs & ammo to turn Mugabe & his thugs into fertilizer.
Madawaskan,
My comment comparing Africa to North America was only pointing out the fact that no ancient civilizations, no functioning remnants at least, still stand, unlike Europe, unlike Asia. I appreciate your "leap of inference" and I wish I could be as hopeful as you.
The dark side of the analogy, as Nathan points out, is that in North America, the indigenous population benefitted very little from the explosive development of the previously lost continent. That won't happen in Africa, there are too many people, to say the least, and they aren't armed with bows and arrows against which settler could prevail, they all have AK's.
Unlike our ongoing world war with the Islamofascists, our military is not the answer. Multiplying those nuns a million-fold would be the short-term answer, but only the angels could deliver that. Too bad Chicommunism doesn't produce nuns and charity.
------------
Off topic, but interesting ancient note on the spread of WMD's: The Vela Incident 1979
Or the same fate as the Argintine, Uraguyian and Brazilian Indians.
The Chinese care about the Chinese. They are a Nationalistic and Racist Culture. Always have been, may always be so. I am sure THEY see no reason to change.
The Chinese could not stop US from toppling the despot. Again, we should not worry to much today about the'end game' or 'exit plan'.
The Powell Doctrine of demanding both Over Whelming Superiority and 'If you break it, you own it' were great for the 20th Century. Time and Challenges march on. In the 21st Century we will need a doctrine of Minimal Force for Success and We broke it, Good luck.
Oh no you guys are killing me with realism...dinnertime was my bedtime in Las Vegas...
Which the gangs here remind me of Braveheart...so we came from as violent a start.
The rapid wild west development was an idea I acquired by reading the comments here-I think Africa has to follow its own template and to super-impose an answer from our environment would be simplistic. But yes the Chinese-no problem!
Boy does Wretchard leave a lovely comment and I came close to dispair when I read this-
What I am afraid to add to that list is the certain doom of Africa and am most afraid because I half-believe in it myself.
But-thank God he continues from that point.
How is it to live in a hopeless society?
That would be one that would never reach the stars-never reach the moon...
Is Africa harder than that?
The Heart of Darkness by Conrad- I thought was a critique of imperialism and on low expectations of other races- the dark African. Of course I understood it backwards? I do have dyslexia....and to say that in college I read the book well....would be a stretch...I mostly rely on listening.
But that is how I understood it -but most poets and writers are dark brooders and you probably have the right interpretation after all Hemingway shot himself-and Conrad-I don't know.
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While there are reports of Political persecution in Tibet, I do not recall reports of starvation or genocide.
Topple Mugumbe and let the Chinese administer the place, if they want. Let them understand that the people must eat and be allowed shelter. I'm pretty sure they'd take that deal.
The Zimbabwians would be better off, they'd be alive.
desert rat-
The Powell Doctrine of demanding both Over Whelming Superiority and 'If you break it, you own it' were great for the 20th Century. Time and Challenges march on. In the 21st Century we will need a doctrine of Minimal Force for Success and We broke it, Good luck.
Powell gets on my last nerve but it's because of all of his excuses for inaction....Bosnia...the Balkans...
He was the king of the bon mot -QUAGMIRE back then.
I hate that word it is so French...
papa
They have the man power to do that but not, I think, the inclination.
They like their people closer to home, where they are easier to watch.
That, I think, is my point. There are times when action is required and the outcome cannot be preordained. Semper Gumby thinking is sometimes required.
As much as I disapprove of Ms. Albright she did ask Powell a pertinent question
"What good is this Military if we can't use it?" (paraphrased)
To engage only when there is NO chance of failure is, often, to not engage at all. That can sometimes lead to a worse outcome than muddling thru to a somewhat acceptable, but unknown at the start, conclusion.
Papa,
I have to second Desert, modern China might have the troops, but they don't have a history of imperialism outside the Middle Kingdom. Tibet is a special case, it’s contiguous.
It could change, I suppose. And I do agree with Desert, who I think has posted on China as our most serious, long-term strategic threat. Unlike Islamofascism, we are facing a real civilization.
(Way off topic - That strategic treason is what annoyed me most about the Clinton Administration, the 'Chinagate' scandal that Reno refused to investigate. How could Loral, Hughes, dozens and dozens of other players be admitting crimes and paying (lightly) for them, and the Heart of Darkness at the center be pure? Arrrgghhh.)
Tokyo Tom:
We've already seen what turning swaths of humanity into permanent dependencies looks like. From the absence of elections in Kosovo to generational welfare dependency in the West, bureaucrats get to rule an infantilized, passive population of tax slaves. I wouldn't want it here, why would I wish it on someone else.
Papa bear:
Right again. You see the long term problem of China's male-to-female birth ratio. I'd thought of this army as a natual occupation force for portions of the middle east, but why not Africa, with its riches.
As for marrying the locals -- maybe -- but having spent a great deal of time in Asia (China in particular) I can tell you that you ain't seen racism till you get a dose of northeast Asian 'purity of the race' nonsense.
And you're right. China doesn't give a damn what the world thinks of it. There will be no Western television cameras on a Chinese battlefield -- and little carping from Western politicians afraid of losing contracts with Beijing.
I'm afraid jihadis are only the 21st century's warm-up act.
Nathan:
Yes, and no.
In the late 1980's, when conventional wisdom held that we would become a vassal state of Japan, I wondered why the amibitious, the creative and those seeking opportunity weren't flocking to Tokyo they way they once did from all over the Continent to Paris, then from all points of the globe to the UK, and then, from all over the world to the U.S. Today, nearly 40% of the population of New York City was born outside the U.S.
But closed, mercantilist Japan was built for Japanese, just as China isn't being built as a global melting pot -- no matter how much the mandarins in Zhongnianhai want the rest of the world kowtowing to Beijing.
The future is entirely in our hands.
The Chinese will become more and more Economicly competitive as 21st century tech is laid over their existing and soon to be completed infrastructure. While their internal banking is weak their foriegn holdings in US debt is substantial.
Cal Thomas discusses the Chinese challenge here:
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_2786019
Their combat power off their mainland is negligable, except that Cal writes, quoting
"a brilliant new book by the late Constantine Menges, Ph.D., titled China: The Gathering Threat"
that
"...estimates by 2008, China will have more than 400 warheads capable of reaching U.S. territory"
Fight them on the fringes of each other sphere. That was the Cold War and if you thought is was over with the collapse of the Soviet Union you never really understood Mao, the PRC or Communists.
China is working clandestinely in Central & Southern Africa, Cuba and Venezuala and through Chavez supports insurections in Bolivia, Ecuador and Columbia. I discount the Chinese commercial interests in the old Canal Zone, but many do not.
Mao was the Master of Revolution, much more so the Stalin. Read his Little Red Book. Like with Mein Kempf, it is all laid out for the reading and just requires a little understanding and knowledge that he was more than serious.
I think that Japan will build an increasingly large military presence, which will be very helpful to us; CHina is much more of a threat to the Japanese than to us.
One should hope so. The Japanese can afford it and are hated by the Chinese, with good reason.
I would hate to be dependent on the US for my survival, our track record of military success is not all that great when it comes to helping our Allies survive and prosper in Asia.
What do you think, would President Hillary or Kerry or Newt chance a nuclear exchange with China in defense of Japan or Taiwan?
The Chinese well may. Remember these are the guys who lost 65,000 KIA in just 20 days in Korea. More than all our loses in either the Korean or Vietnamese Campaigns.
"China is over-crowded. That's why they implimented the "one child per couple" rule. But the rule is having adverse effects in China, with couples aborting females in favor of male children, leading to a shortage of potential wives for the current generation of young men. Having lots of frustrated young men is not good for the stability of a country. What to do with them all?"
I think that is more likely to result in greater age disparity in marriages instead of a war. The 1 child policy has other effects; Western gov'ts aren't the only ones whose policies have unintended consequences. Since parents can't have many children, they pamper the one(s) they do. Scarcity increases their value, like anything else. I have seen 1st hand how Chinese parents and grandparents spoil and dote on these "Little Emperors." It will be much harder for the PRC to sustain the attrition wars of its past without creating huge domestic unrest now that most of those KIAs are the family's one and only precious baby boy. We think of our baby-boomers as the "me" generation. I wonder what the long term effect of China's own spoiled youth will cause. Perhaps their 1968 is just ahead. :)
Less than a year ago, in a fit of proto-fascist pique, President Jacques Chirac invited Mugabe to Paris and sat with him aboard a motorcade up the Champs Elysee on Bastille Day. Did this desecration elicit even one comment from French sources? If so, it was not well-publicized. But then, Saloth Sar (aka Pol Pot) was resident in la belle France for years, imbibing the post-WWII nihilism of Sartre et.al. before returning to Cambodia to fulfill his destiny.
Wretchard,
I've often wondered why appeasement was so easy. Every generation seems seduced by it. Maybe it's because the apparent marginal cost of appeasement seems so low. Extortion often begins with pennies. But the real cost is deferred because the cumulative implication of acquiescence to the principle doesn't manifest itself until the very end, like a bad installment plan.
... has to be one of the most lucid assessments of appeasement I've ever read. Financial debt is insidious because it conceals the true costs of a thing. The insight that appeasement is a kind of political recapitalization, which must be repaid later with blood and treasure, is brilliant.
This is a bit of a tangent, but it makes me think of the increasing willingness of some large corporations to take the risk of fighting frivolous lawsuits rather than settling.
publius jr's comments are also tangential, but spot-on. It will be interesting to see how 1968 replays in the Chinese context.
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