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Zimbabwe – Comments by a Former Reader"s Digest Editor

WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.

Original Post Date: 2002-03-22  Posted By: Jan

From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 3/22/2002 12:10:34 AM
Zimbabwe – Comments by a Former Reader"s Digest Editor

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/columnists/ponte/…br>
Zimbabwe and the Global Left
FrontPageMagazine.com (124)| March 21, 2002
Author: Lowell Ponte

DEMOCRACY IN NEWLY-INDEPENDENT COLONIES, it was said, would be œOne Man, One Vote, One Time. Thereafter those who won power would make sure that they could never be replaced by a genuine vote of the people.

Nowhere has this patronizing prediction proven more true than in the former British colony of Southern Rhodesia (and briefly independent white-ruled Rhodesia), now the southern African nation Zimbabwe, whose name in the Shona language means œHouse of Stone.

Two weeks ago its Marxist dictator Robert Mugabe, 78, was œelected to a fifth term as Zimbabwe™s President in an election so obviously rigged that only fellow African nations applauded the outcome.

Since his 22-year misrule began in 1980, Mugabe has turned this nation into a prison of stone and degraded what had been a breadbasket of the continent into a basket case verging on famine and economic collapse.

Three out of four of this once-prosperous land™s unlucky 13 million citizens are now poor, and 60 percent are unemployed. œThe average worker, reports even the Leftist New York Times, œearns less than he did under the white government. Industry and investment has largely shut down since, to cope with rampant inflation and national debt, Mugabe imposed confiscatory price controls.

Mugabe also turned Zimbabwe into the most openly racist nation on earth, permitting his gangs of thugs to expropriate white-owned farmland and murder white farmers almost without restraint. 1,700 white farms have been occupied by Mugabe™s followers “ except for the choicest, which have been given to his cronies in this Marxist kleptocracy. The result has been a devastating drop in food production.

In his inauguration speech last Sunday, President Mugabe vowed to speed up the seizure of another 4,500 white-owned farms. A day after Mugabe scapegoated œBritain and its white allies for his nation™s problems in this speech, yet another white farmer was dragged from his car, tied to a tree, and killed with a bullet to the head. People found the body of Terry Ford and, guarding it, his faithful 14-year-old Jack Russell terrier dog Squeak.

œAt least 150 people have died and tens of thousands have been left homeless, reports Associated Press, œin a two-year campaign of violence human rights activists blame mainly on [Mugabe™s] ruling party militants.

The government-encouraged genocidal pogrom against what Mugabe calls Zimbabwe™s œgreedy, arrogant and conceited.white tribe has prompted most Caucasians under age 65 to flee the country, as this column has discussed. Following the election, nearly four dozen more whites have been targeted for arrest for the œcrime of giving help to the black MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) party whose presidential candidate nearly defeated Mugabe.

Mugabe™s government is a textbook example of racism and ethnic cleansing, not unlike the former Rhodesia or apartheid South Africa against which Leftists righteously demanded global economic and political sanctions. Where are those Leftists now? Where are Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton “ and other Leftist supporters of existing anti-white government preferences in the United States “ to call for cutting off trade with racist, Marxist Zimbabwe? (The usual Politically Correct claptrap that œBlacks cannot be racist because they have no power won™t wash in Zimbabwe, where government power is entirely in black hands and whites are less than three percent of the population.)

But Mugabe™s dictatorship is arguably worse than even apartheid South Africa, which at least provided democracy for its white citizens. Mugabe now indicates that he aims to confiscate and œredistribute property owned not only by whites but also commercial property owned by Asians, who were never œcolonial oppressors, (and presumably the property of any other non-blacks) living in Zimbabwe. Why should we be surprised? All socialism and Marxism is based on theft. And like his fellow Marxist Fidel Castro, Mugabe encourages the torturing and killing of homosexuals “ yet both go uncriticized by the Politically Correct Left.

And, of course, under Mugabe™s dictatorship the black citizens of Zimbabwe are denied democracy, liberty, justice, human rights, free speech and honest government. As even the New York Times reported, œIn the fever of Zimbabwe™s recent presidential campaign, more than 20 opposition party supporters were killed while the authorities looked the other way. Officials eliminated polling stations in opposition strongholds, effectively disenfranchising thousands of voters, and the police fired choking clouds of tear gas to disperse hundreds more who were waiting to cast their ballots.

Mugabe has also unleashed goons on his opponents, jailed journalists, destroyed the offices of one opposition newspaper, and intimidated critics with his soldiers, mobs, and implicit threats to their lives and property. Many international election observers were prevented from doing their job, and Mugabe™s refusal to let observers freely monitor the election brought European Union sanctions. And two days following the vote, Mugabe announced œsharp limitations on local and international news organizations operating in Zimbabwe. This has been justified as complying with œAfrican standards of democracy.

In the wake of this stolen election, Germany cut off aid to Zimbabwe and urged the European Union to do likewise. But on Tuesday, March 19th, the 54-nation Commonwealth of Britain and its former colonies voted only to œsuspend Zimbabwe™s membership for one year because of the œhigh level of politically motivated violence during its election, even as those engaged in a three-day general strike in Zimbabwe were being threatened with police and military retaliation.

By refusing to expel Zimbabwe, the Commonwealth revealed its common moral bankruptcy. By refusing to condemn Mugabe and demand his immediate resignation, many on the political Left worldwide are revealing both their hypocrisy and evil.
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Mr. Ponte hosts a national radio talk show Saturdays 6-9 PM Eastern Time (3-6 PM Pacific Time) that can be heard on 213 station and via TalkAmerica.com. The show™s live call-in number is (888) 822-8255. A professional speaker, he is a former Roving Editor for Reader™s Digest.