Big Man Economics

Robert Mugabe is what Africans still call a 'big man' .... this of course is simply another term for 'thug, dictator, criminal etc etc'. He has remained in power despite blatant corruption, nepotism, and cronyism towards his main supporters.

He is currently trying to engineer his wife 'Grace' (was ever a woman so misnamed?), taking over when his soul eventually shrivels away and he is gone ... this is principally as he can find no bolt-hole for his criminal family to take their ill gotten gains to, where it doesn't risk seizure from the regime after his being ousted.

African Big Men Come In Many Sizes ....

I almost feel sorry for the people of Zimbabwe, but despite his highly visible crimes and some electoral vote rigging, the fact is that he continues to get voted back into power in sufficient numbers for it to be clear, that although the numbers claimed might be dubious, there is little doubt that he got a majority, albeit lower than he claimed.

South Africa's Surprising Maturity

South Africa has had nationwide local government elections - these have passed off peacefully and with nearly 80% of the votes counted the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says voter turnout stood at about 58% of eligible voters - slightly more than the previous municipal elections in 2011.

ANC Stay In Power, But Not
Everywhere ..... But Peacefully

More importantly the vote was peaceful and there was even enough space for the IEC boss Mosotho Moepya, to appeal for patience, as people waited for final results, saying his team wanted to make sure there was "due diligence and accuracy”. Mr Moepya also thanked over 200,000 election officials for their work, as well South Africans for voting peacefully and passionately.

Last Of The BIG Men

I have always been surprised that Robert Mugabe has managed to cling onto power in Zimbabwe for so long (The 92 year old has governed the country since independence in 1980). But perhaps 'cling on' is the wrong simile ... he has actually retained an iron grip on the country for decades. One of my earliest posts on this blog, was on his then position, and I was very wrong in assuming that he would have fallen long ago.

Bread And Circuses have Worked For Centuries .....

Now finally perhaps his grip may be slipping .... any tyrant has to think about 'bread and circuses' .... the two key elements to keeping the mob, err population, happy. Despite his total economic incompetence and corruption, Robert Mugabe has always found money for his key support base, the Army and Public Officials. He has always managed to make sure these two groups are paid, and therefore have a feel good factor, even while the rest of the country, particularly in rural areas, suffered great poverty.

The Things Men Do

There is probably one thing that most women can agree with, and that's that 'men are the same the world over'. And in those three quarters of the world where women are free, and alcohol is allowed, there is no greater reason for men to lie, than to make excuses for 'having a drink with the lads'.

But in the annals of male excuses for this event, I suspect that even in the ports of Europe, no man has ever used the excuse of mermaids as a reason for a piss up, but certainly not in a land locked country. However, in what I can only continue to consider a world first, the builders of two irrigation pump reservoirs near Gokwe and Mutare  in Zimbabwe, downed tools, claiming that they were being 'menaced by mermaids'. Apparently this belief in mermaids, aka Njuzu, is very strong in Zimbabwe, where they are supposed to have supernatural powers and are bad Juju. 

Pictures of Zimbabwe Mermaids aka Njuzu are circulating the Internet

The water resources minister Samuel Nkomo reported that "All the officers I have sent vowed not to go back there, we even hired whites thinking that our boys did not want to work but they also returned".

The solution? Ah, well, this is where many women would share a knowing glance, the minister suggested that they would solve the problem the African way by "brewing a traditional beer to carry out rites to appease the spirits" .... well we all know what those special rites are, don't we lads, 'wink'.

Mugabe, Lord Of Corruption

The disgrace of Africa, Robert Mugabe is still wielding terrible power over the country he has all but destroyed.

His latest little scam is to stop the 'register of land holdings' being completed, because it will prove that he, his family, and his cronies have benefited most from the theft of 'white farmer' lands over the last couple of decades.

Northern Mashonaland Central province is a favoured area with prime agricultural land and the ownership of the 'appropriated farms' reads like a 'who's who' in Mugabe's government. Even within that corruption, there are further layers of criminality with many top officials owning more than one farm, which is in direct violation of the dictators own rule of "one man, one farm".

"They are registered under different names, relatives - even children" says one 'resettled' farmer.

However as it's common knowledge that Mr Mugabe owns Highfield Farm, in Norton, about 40km (25 miles) outside Harare and he and his wife have also appeared on state TV declaring that they jointly owned Gushungo Dairy Farm in Mashonaland Central, then its fair to assume that the "one man, one farm" policy is really just an aspiration.

Indeed one unnamed cabinet minister has defended the president's conduct, saying: "If it's true that Mugabe owned more than one farm, we mustn't forget he is the father of the nation. He spent over a decade in jail fighting for your freedom. Don't compare yourself, or even me, with him."

Old Africa, Same Old Politics

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is not getting with the program.

This week he insulted Johnnie Carson, US assistant secretary of state for African affairs with the terms "an idiot".

Mr Mugabe told the state-owned Herald newspaper in Zimbabwe that his first meeting with a US government official for many years had angered him. "You would not speak to an idiot of that nature," he said. "I was very angry with him, and he thinks he could dictate to us what to do and what not to do."

"We have the whole of SADC working with us, and you have the likes of little fellows like Carson, you see, wanting to say: 'You do this, you do that. Who is he? I hope he was not speaking for Obama. I told him he was a shame, a great shame, being an African American."

Mr Mugabe apparently also took exception to Mr Carson's predecessor, Jendayi Frazer. In May last year he described her as "a little American girl trotting around the globe like a prostitute" after she suggested that the then-opposition Movement for Democratic Change had won the disputed presidential election.

President Obama has got his work cut out in Africa ..... colour only goes so far with the African "Big Man".

South African Slide Begins

And so it starts ..... Helen Zille the duly elected and "English" (aka white) premier of Western Cape Province in South Africa, has been subjected to increasingly racist attacks by President Zumas supporters, because she pointed out that Mr Zuma had put his wives at risk of contracting HIV by having sex (allegedly forced) with a HIV positive 'family friend'.

A fact that should cause no problem as that's exactly what Mr Zuma did by cheating on his three wives in the "Rape" case, as well as the fact that he took no precautions, and had a shower to 'stop catching AIDS'. However to the 'veterans' (doesn't this sound oh so familiar already?) this was a part of a 'racist' attack that had upset their delicate sensibilities.

They have also racially abused Ms Zille because she chose a male only cabinet of the talents, by saying that this was to 'service the white woman' or that one of them was her 'boyfriend' ...... the irony of blacks accusing whites of being too sexually active, is all the more funny because, these are illiterate black men (the rapists of South African society).

Kebby Maphatsoe, chairman of the Military Veterans Association, and leader of President Zuma's shock troops, gave an ominous warning for the Democratic Alliance.

"Should Zille not immediately cease her racist tendencies that bring pain to all military veterans of South Africa... the association will not hesitate to implement a militant programme of action to take back the streets and our communities," he said.

Ah, the sniff of Zimbabwe is in the air, "Umshini wami" (Bring Me My Machine-Gun)!!

SA "Land Reform" aka 'State Organised Theft', fails

South Africa like its 'revolutionary' comrade Zimbabwe, has a policy of 'land redistribution' (from white owners to black owners), which although nowhere near as violent as Zimbabwe's has proved just as pointless. Following apartheid, the ANC government had set a target of handing 30% of all agricultural land back to the black majority, by 2014.

Well guess what? After they handed over around 95% of the targeted land, the vast majority has simply gone out of production, and has lain idle for years. Yes the whole thing has resulted in less food being produced, and white farmers are still being attacked by "Activists".

Now the South African government has been forced to act by declaring it will seize back any idle land with the Agriculture Minister, Lulu Xingwanat, stating "I have... instructed my directors general to, with immediate effect, implement the principle of use it or lose it. Therefore, those who do not use the land must immediately be removed and the land must be given to emerging farmers and co-operatives."

What a condemnation of the political nature of land grabs .... in Zimbabwe its been confirmed as 'racist' by the regional courts, and has resulted in a complete collapse of all farming, so that the country is now a food aid recipient. Now that SA has acknowledged the failure of its scheme, maybe the political pressure to steal from whites will cease ..... or maybe not.

Cholera stalks Africa

I mentioned in an earlier blog that getting Mugabe out of power would a bit more than problematic, despite votes against him at home and condemnations abroad ..... well here we are some months later and Mugabe is still in power, despite losing an election, reneging on a forced power sharing scheme, and every other cop out that SADC could devise.

Now comes the news that the country has collapsed to the state that the scourge of Cholera now stalks southern Africa, with well over 600 deaths (probably double that or more) in Zimbabwe and outbreaks in other countries, as refugees take the illness with them across the borders. Previously it has only been the ruins that comprise the DR Congo, that have threatened to sink to this level of misery after independence.

How low can a country in Africa sink before other Africa leaders admit that its failed?

They still refuse to depose Mugabe, and even when figures suggest that nearly fifty percent of the population are in exile or heading for refugee camps, they will not condemn the criminal incompetence that has destroyed a whole rich country inside twenty five years.

I will not mince my words here, Black Africans politicians are little more than criminals and semi educated scum ..... they are all thieves and tyrants, and Sub Saharan Africa is a basket case, despite the odd 'good news' story.

Maybe we should just abandon the whole continent and leave them to fall back into the tribalism and barbarism that they appear to want.

There is not one, not one single one of these countries, that I would be happy to live in, and I include South Africa in that, as they are only one dictator away from the joining 'African Model'. I have friends in SA who suggest that corruption is increasingly a problem in SA, even at the top with both Mbeki and Zuma under suspicion of taking bribes.

Some more Chickens just came home

I recently posted "When chickens come home to roost", well a few more just clucked again.

Firstly;

• Gordon Browns last act as Chancellor was a slight of hand cancelling the lowest rate of tax collection, which pertained to those on the lowest incomes. At the time he 'buried' it amongst his usual recounting and announcing of the same monies over and over again (a hall mark of his chancellorship), and deferred it for a year. Well guess what, yep the year is up, and over thirty labour MP's in marginal seats (and they are trailing 14 points in the polls) signed an early day motion, calling on the new chancellor to cancel the move. Its predicted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, that with all the changes in the income tax, national insurance and tax credit, about 5.3 million families will lose out overall. Oops!

This government has often claimed that its endless tax hikes were "For hard working families" and to "Protect the environment", which added to their mantra that "Immigration is good for the UK", form the 'holy trinity' of Gordon Browns government policy.

Given that my first point shows that, a lot of low paid and hard working people are going to suffer an income cut this month, and that a high court judge has very publically said that all New Labours social policies have either failed, or done nothing to prevent a social meltdown in the UK, you can assume that Gordon's Gang really don't need the rest of the trinity to be challenged, but no such luck.

Secondly;

• News was released that there would be a drop in world average temperatures this year, which is not so surprising, after all fluctuations are to be expected, but buried within that news, was the fact that there actually hasn't been a temperature rise since 1998. Now, I have questioned the evidence of human driven global warming before, but I had accepted that there were in fact increases occurring, whatever the agent of those changes. Now however, I am less convinced than ever. There has also been new reports on the sun not being linked to this non change in temperatures.

However my key question is, why are we simply not just coming out of the medieval mini ice age?
After all Chaucer wrote of wine vineyards in Durham and Northern England, and we are not at that temperature level yet. According to Henry Ansgar Kelly in his book "Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine" wine was grown 300 miles north of its current limit in the UK.
So what are we paying all these extra "Green taxes" for, especially as I have already predicted that the world will end in 2050AD?

Thirdly;

• In a hard hitting report, the claim that immigration has been good for the UK was totally debunked by a House of Lords committee, who reported that 'Record levels of immigration' have had "little, or no impact" on the economic well-being of native Britons. This came on top of an expose that once again the UK citizenship tests were being criminally abused. So the Government is still presiding over a system of open doors immigration into the UK, where the citizenship test is being taken by criminals, false marriages are still taken at registry offices, and its actually costing us money because of the ever increasing welfare drains. Apparently we still don't count the 'dependents' of 'arranged' marriages as immigrants ...... this is just basically a giant fraud perpetrated on the British People by this government.

Finally, in a little irony, I wrote about both Tibet and China, as well as mentioning Zimbabwe in that first chickens blog, and I said that China was a cruel communist state, not cuddly Olympic hosts, and that Bjork had cried out for "Tibet Tibet" in a concert in China. Sadly within a week Tibetans were dying for the freedom of their country.

I also jokingly suggested that the South African electricity crisis might be the final straw for Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe - and lo and behold, it looks like he has been voted out of office (although getting him out is a bit more problematic).

Nostradamus eat your heart out!

Don't mess with this blog dictators and zealots, I have the power!

Update .... I don't have power ... Mugabe is still in power

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When Chickens Come Home To Roost

I have noticed over the last few weeks, that subjects I have discussed in earlier posts, have been in the news again.

First: Malthusian predictions - this caused a flurry of comments, mostly on the lines that the world would never run out of food, and if it did we could all become Vegans. Well this week the head of the head of the UN World Food Programme has stated that food prices world wide, 'are rising steeply because of food shortages'. These are caused by land degradation, and the use of "Bio Fuels" (another flaky green idea from the land of the loonies - you grow crops to make oil rather than for food - Duh!).

 

Remember When This Caused A Fuss?

The first food shortage riots have taken place in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal, Yemen, Mexico, Guinea and Morocco (Where 34 people were sentenced to prison on Wednesday for participating in riots over food prices).

All ties in nicely with my 2050 predictions!