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: 2008-07-17 Time: 06:00:01 Posted By: The BeardedMan
Howzit
Foreign currency mid-rates updated.
In the past few weeks we have seen summit on summit and Zimbabwe is meant to ‘be on the agenda’ – and either it isn’t, or, when brought up, Mugabe’s allies step in to save the day.
Now it is the African Union’s turn to have the wool pulled over their eyes – by South African President Thabo Mbeki – ostensibly the mediator between Mugabe’s ZANU PF and Tsvangirai’s MDC.
Officials from Zimbabwe‘s ruling ZANU PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change met last week for the first time since President Robert Mugabe’s June 27 re-election, which was boycotted by the opposition and condemned by the West.
South Africa‘s government is mediating the talks in Pretoria.
“The president called the meeting in order to brief (Jean) Ping on developments in the Zimbabwe facilitation process,” Mbeki’s spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said. Ping is the most senior permanent AU official.
The MDC has downplayed the importance of talks with the ZANU PF and demanded that Mugabe’s government halt violence against opposition supporters and recognise MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s victory in a March poll.“
Why bother with the meeting? I can tell you now what Mbeki will say. That a ‘breakthrough is imminent”… and that “talks are progressing”…
Mbeki has done this to African nations for almost 2 years – you would think that they would have learned by now.
“The AU has urged both sides to negotiate a power-sharing deal that would pave the way for a unity government, which is seen by many African leaders as the only way to avert further violence and total economic collapse in Zimbabwe.
The once prosperous African nation has the world’s highest inflation rate, estimated to be at least two million percent, and unemployment hovers around 80 percent.
Millions of its people have fled abroad in search of food and work.
Tsvangirai has come under African pressure to enter into full-blown negotiations with Mugabe, who has branded the MDC puppets of the West and vowed to never let them take power.“
If that is the case – what is there to talk about?
Two weeks ago, Mugabe stole the second round of the Presidential election and in double-quick time, he was ‘sworn in’ as President of Zimbabwe. Two weeks later, the country is still being run by Mugabe and his band of re-assembled – and in some cases – unseated cabinet members.
When was he going to convene Parliament? Or is that a legal necessity that he has decided can be overlooked?
I am unsure of the requisite statute, but I am somehow confident that Parliament would have to be convened sometime this week – or someone has done something illegal – and I think that that person is none other than Robert Mugabe.
The world has been watching the run-off election and then the summit in Egypt, and, in my mind, the niceties of the legislation in Zimbabwe have been ignored.
And yet the like of China and Russia stand up for Mugabe instead of standing up TO him…
A special negotiations task force was locked in a meeting with the party’s top brass, including its leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, a day after MDC representatives met their ZANU PF counterparts in Harare to discuss a framework agreement to allow the start of substantive negotiations, the sources said.“The standing council is meeting for its regular briefing and obviously the MOU (memorandum of understanding) will be high on the agenda,” said one source.
“Why are we still talking about talking? Where is the new government? The new cabinet?
Or is Zimbabwe to be run by a one-man government? Mugabe on his own?
And what is there to discuss? We know that Mugabe will never cede power to the MDC – and any government he appoints is going to be heavily stacked in his own party’s favour.
“Negotiators from the rival political parties met in Pretoria last week under the mediation of South Africa to cut a deal on how to proceed with talks on the Zimbabwean political crisis.
While South African media has suggested the fully-fledged talks could begin in Harare as early as Thursday, Tsvangirai has said such a timetable is unrealistic.
“We will not sign until the conditions are met,” he told The Star newspaper in Johannesburg. “And Wednesday is too early.“
This agreement is likened to the Groote Schuur Minute…
“The crisis in Zimbabwe intensified after the 84-year-old Mugabe defied international criticism and pushed ahead with a one-man run-off election late last month that handed him a sixth term.
Tsvangirai pulled out of the vote five days to the poll, citing rising violence against his supporters that left dozens dead and thousands injured.
The opposition leader finished ahead of Mugabe in the March 29 first round of the election, but officially fell just short of an outright majority.“
Mugabe does not miss a trick, does he? And if he can’t take the battle to the people in the country, he takes it to their children in the schools.
I wrote about this very thing in an editorial last evening. Mugabe is not just precluding these children from an education, but he is stunting the cerebral progress of tomorrow’s leaders. Has he no conscience whatsoever?
According to villagers from Lupane, a vast rural district in Matabeleland North, the crackdown began at the beginning of this month.
“The war vets say that our children cannot be allowed to attend ZANU PF schools because their parents are sellouts. They tell us that we should build our own MDC schools that we should send our children to,” said Mloyiswa Nyoni of Mathambo area, whose three children doing Grades seven, five and two were chased away from Mathambo primary school by the former freedom fighters, who have caused a lot of harm while pushing Robert Mugabe’s bid to cling on to power since 2000.“
Mugabe used to parade all manner of collective cries whenever he was facing an election – “free health for all”, “free education for all” we would hear. And now he is having his brigands chase the children away.
I would note here that the schools belong to ZIMBABWEANS – not to ZANU PF. Mugabe’s party seems to think that because their man has the top job (obtained by violence, threats and intimidation), then everything in the country is theirs for the taking.
“Teachers at nearby schools also confirmed the crackdown and said that they could not do anything against the war veterans, who they say, have always threatened to turn on them anytime they are prevented from punishing the MDC.
“Last week a parent came here to complain to us, after his children had been sent back home, despite him having no fees arrears. While we were still explaining to him, a group of about five war veterans stormed the headmaster’s office and sent the man packing with sticks. They accused him of trying to run the school yet his party had nothing to do with it,” said a teacher at Siziphile primary school in the same district.“
I wonder if the school fees paid by the parents of those children chased away, will be repaid to those parents? Somehow, I very much doubt it.
“The war veterans are said to have vowed that they will not rest until all children whose parents are MDC supporters stop attending school. At some of the schools, they are alleged to have even threatened to deal with teachers for allowing those children they would have chased to return.
“We have no choice but to follow their orders because they are a law unto themselves and the education ministry is doing nothing about that despite us having reported the matter to them.“
“South Africa has defied a United Nations call to halt deportation of Zimbabweans and has sent 17000 people back to the troubled country in 40 days.
This has raised fears that Zimbabweans fleeing political violence are being returned to face persecution and are unable to use South Africa‘s internationally guaranteed asylum-seeking processes.“
Thabo Mbeki, the ‘mediator’ in talks between ZANU PF and the MDC, who was quoted as saying that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe, ignores everything that is evident on the ground, and his primary interest is to keep Mugabe sweet.
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Time has just about run out for Mbeki who already has his successor waiting in the wings. He obviously has an interest in his post-leadership situation. Following Nelson Mandela was a hard enough job, without having Mugabe causing all manner of problems next door.
But instead, he chose to ally himself with Mugabe – and thereby proved he penchant for self-preservation over nation building.
“The number of Zimbabweans seeking asylum had doubled to more than last year’s total figure in the first quarter of this year, he said.
However, since 2000, the South African government has granted full refugee status to only 710 Zimbabweans.
Over the same period, a total of 66578 Zimbabweans applied for asylum with 4040 rejections in the same period. Over 62000 cases remain pending.
On Friday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said South Africa had sent 17000 Zimbabweans through the Beit Bridge border post in the past 40 days.”
Unbelieveable!
It is hard to comprehend that the paper that they use to print the money, is worth more than the face value of the printed note. I have mentioned before that the few bearer cheques I have here, I actually laminated and use them as bookmarks. The plastic laminate is easily worth more than the note…
Fidelity Printers, the state-owned company that churns out banknotes for the Robert Mugabe regime, was thrown into a crisis early this month after a German company stopped supplying banknote paper because of concerns over Zimbabwe‘s recent violent presidential election. Two-thirds of the 1,000-strong workforce was ordered to go on leave, and two of the three money-printing shifts were canceled.“
I agree – printing more and more large denomination bearer cheques (not legal tender in Zimbabwe) is just like throwing bad money after bad. And that is not a typo – bad money after bad.
Mugabe needs to sustain his faultering regime. Not that he cares about the monetary needs of the people – he needs loads of useless Zimbux to change to very rare forex so that his wife can buy more rubbish and he can spend money on armaments, petrol for his cronies and luxury motor vehicles – all designed to keep him in power, and keep his supporters loyal.
“Fidelity Printers is regarded as Mugabe’s lifeline because it prints the money he uses to pay the police, soldiers and intelligence organs that keep the regime in power. But what would happen if the regime can’t pay the security forces on which it relies to keep up its brutal campaign?
On the streets there has been an immediate cash crunch, with the prices of all items from bread to beer skyrocketing, since the German company pulled the plug on its relationship with the country.“
‘debvhu
Source: http://thebeardedman.blogspot.com/2008/07/wednesday-16th-july-2008.html