Thread: Zim farms - UK asked to pay

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/...393852,00.html

Click. Laugh. I just provided a short reason for eveyone to sit on the Outrage Bus and make a noise. However... don't start the engine, not worth it... but its good to be able to say ' your vuck up... deal with it'

If this is how Morgan Tsvangirai is going to make his name.... he's really not going to win any friends... thats my opinion....

Hollow laughter, Bruce.

Brown will be itching to give money as he has a thing about Africa.
john
Not one penny.

Didn't we sign a treaty or agreement or something like that when we finally got rid of the place that we'd help finance land reform programmes to get more blacks owning land, but under a free and fair willing seller willing buyer system? If we did agree to something then my general response is to keep to out word. The situation in Zimbabwe however where the farms certainly weren't given up by willing sellers, they were simply run off their land by violence and intimidation and then given to Mugabe's cronies for the most part, means that we don't owe them a penny. If they want to unfuck things and restore the farms to their rightful owners then maybe we can start talking about some financial aid to help move parts of it to smaller black farmers in a legal and fair manner then fine. Then we'll honour our commitments, until then no way in hell. Quite frankly I wouldn't like to see Zimbabwe get anything other than the barest necessities to stave off starvation and cover the most basic needs until the odious little man is gone for good.

Committments my arrse! Not a fecking penny!

Let's be honest, at some level you have to admire the neck this prick has got on him. The last time I checked the British Govt were already sending Zim 40m a year and there are plans for that to be doubled already. Now he's asking for us to underwrite the policy that has caused agricultural production to fall by 85% and caused the professional class to flee. IIRC, we left them with a parliamentary democracy and one of the most vibrant economies in that God-forsaken shithole of a continent.

Um Bob is acting like a 5yr old who breaks his toys and then throws a temper-tantrum until he gets a new one.

Originally Posted by crabtastic

Let's be honest, at some level you have to admire the neck this prick has got on him. The last time I checked the British Govt were already sending Zim 40m a year and there are plans for that to be doubled already. Now he's asking for us to underwrite the policy that has caused agricultural production to fall by 85% and caused the professional class to flee. IIRC, we left them with a parliamentary democracy and one of the most vibrant economies in that God-forsaken shithole of a continent.

Um Bob is acting like a 5yr old who breaks his toys and then throws a temper-tantrum until he gets a new one.

What's the betting he gets the cash though?:(

Or, rather than settle this their way, why don't we send in 2 Para to get the farmland back from the 'villains' thereby negating the compo issue, providing a good training environment before Afghanistan and reducing their starving millions issue all in one neat package.

Cost to taxpayer is a C130 flight, (they can even, finally, chute into battle), ammo and suncream. Much cheaper . . .

It doesn't really solve the problem of having no skilled farmers left to work the land.

The problem is not the lack of skilled farmers it is the lack of assets for farmers to get loans on. A friend of mine was recently explaining this to me so some of it could be wrong.

Basically, farms are run on loans which are then paid at the end of the year once the produce from the farm is sold on. The problem in Zim stemmed from the fact that white farmers generally had assets to get these loans but in theory when the famrs were given back to the majority black population, they would not have assets to get the loans and could not, therefore, run the farms.

The agreement we signed (I forget the name) said we would help the majority black population out by giving them the loans or providing them with something to help them get the loans and not leave the country high and dry.

The problem came when Mugabe got power he forced the white farmers off the land and then only gave it to his supporters, hence how he stayed in power so long. In return the UK quite right refused to keep up their end of the bargain. However, if Tsvangirai and the government now go on to share the land as agreed in the treaty, we should then keep up our end of the bargain, albeit 28 years late. It is the only way IMHO that Zim will ever get back on its feet again.

Before you all start calling Tsvangirai, have a look at him during the press conference when Mugabe blamed the UK and the US, he hung his head and shook.

Originally Posted by jest265

... if Tsvangirai and the government now go on to share the land as agreed in the treaty....

More hollow laughter.

You have got to laugh at the initial claim that it was 'black' land in the first place.

As in South Africa, the local tribes did not own land or farm: they were one-step removed from the stone age hunter-gatherer types. The population in the region was also extremely small (any black African who claims the Dutch stole their land is a liar as there were no 'blacks' south of Durban in those days - only the poor bástards of the San (Bushmen) who were victims to Zulu raids from the north (who themselves only moved out of the Congo area in about the 16th century).

So when the white settlers came along there was no farming, the Bushmen and Hottentots had almost been wiped out by the Zulu and Xhosa (who came from what is now Zaire) were hunter-gatherers and had no permanent pasture.

Uncle Bob is a theif, and surrounded by cronies all wanting a slice of the pie. The good news is that the communist pedarast will be dead within a couple of years... leaving the way for nice people like Air Marshal Perence Shiri (murderer of over 30,000 Matebele) to castrate the MDC and take power (again, as scum such as he are already the real rulers of Zim).

So how much money should they get? Square root of búgger all (that being the most generous estimate). How much money will they get? Fat Gord will print off some more money (ever wondered why inflation has more than doubled in the UK?) and give it to his old comrade.

Originally Posted by Dread

You have got to laugh at the initial claim that it was 'black' land in the first place.

As in South Africa, the local tribes did not own land or farm: they were one-step removed from the stone age hunter-gatherer types. The population in the region was also extremely small (any black African who claims the Dutch stole their land is a liar as there were no 'blacks' south of Durban in those days - only the poor bástards of the San (Bushmen) who were victims to Zulu raids from the north (who themselves only moved out of the Congo area in about the 16th century).

So when the white settlers came along there was no farming, the Bushmen and Hottentots had almost been wiped out by the Zulu and Xhosa (who came from what is now Zaire) were hunter-gatherers and had no permanent pasture.

Uncle Bob is a theif, and surrounded by cronies all wanting a slice of the pie. The good news is that the communist pedarast will be dead within a couple of years... leaving the way for nice people like Air Marshal Perence Shiri (murderer of over 30,000 Matebele) to castrate the MDC and take power (again, as scum such as he are already the real rulers of Zim).

So how much money should they get? Square root of búgger all (that being the most generous estimate). How much money will they get? Fat Gord will print off some more money (ever wondered why inflation has more than doubled in the UK?) and give it to his old comrade.

Don't you go confusing the situation with facts FFS Dread I say again ..... give them feck all!

Rhodesia was a going concern when it received independence a quarter of a century ago. If it's not now then it's the populations own fault. We have our own problems. I suppose though that, like slavery, the British will be blamed for their problems for the next two hundred years.