Posted by: McQ on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 Zimbabwe's free fall into poverty and starvation has been appalling to watch (and watch is what the world has done), but, unfortunately, not a surprise, given the absurd racist and anti-capitalist policies of dictator Robert Mugabe (wait, did Jimmy Carter declare their elections "free and open" or am I thinking of Venezuela?). Having essentially destroyed the farming industry in what was once a lush and self-sufficient farming state, Mugabe is left with slaughtering wildlife - rare wildlife - to feed the country: President Robert Mugabe's regime has directed national parks officials to kill animals in state-owned conservation areas to feed hungry rural peasants - a move that could wipe out what remains of Zimbabwe's impalas, kudus, giraffes, elephants and other species.Rather Orwellian wouldn't you say? Killing animals in "conservation areas?" Take this part of the story for instance: National Parks officials said the recent shootings of 10 elephants for barbecue meat at festivities to mark Zimbabwe's 25 years of independence around the country had been carried out in the broad context of the directive to kill animals to feed the hungry, particularly those living within the vicinity of national parks. The 10 elephants were killed by National Park rangers.National Park rangers killing elephants in conservation areas in celebration of Zimbabwe's 25 years of independence ... oh, and to help feed some of the 4 million hungry Zimbabwens - made hungry as a result of Zimbabwe's independence 25 years ago. No irony there, is there? One has to wonder where the greenies are on this one. Where are the protesters outside the Zimbabwean embassies around the world? However those doing the killing at the behest of Mugabe aren't so sure this is such a smart thing: "Killing of animals for any reasons other than conservation can be very disastrous," said one National Parks official. "The politicians think we have enough animals to feed people without wiping out different species. We as professionals don't think so. We are talking to them (the politicians) and we hope we will reach consensus on protecting our wildlife heritage."Meanwhile in the bush: "BOOM!" Another one bites the dust. UPDATE: To add to the misery: Garbage is piling up uncollected in Harare as Zimbabwe struggles with a deep economic crisis that has also left major towns short of water and electricity. The Harare city council said today that rubbish had not been collected in several townships and suburbs of the capital for three weeks because of a national shortage of fuel and the expiry of contracts for some private garbage collectors.This is the sort of thing that happens when thugs seize power and run a country as a "thugocracy". Yes there's a huge dollop of Marxism involved and of course, some black nationalism (which in reality turned into a rational for taking white farms to reward cronies). But in reality it was simply a criminal gang who obviously have had no idea how to successfully govern once the grabbed power. And of course, there's always more: Zimbabwe's fuel crisis worsened on Monday with most garages in the capital Harare saying their supplies had run dry, adding to the misery of erratic electricity and water supplies. The crisis-ridden southern African state has seen an upsurge in commodity shortages since soon after March 31 parliamentary elections which returned President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party to power amid opposition cries of rigging. "We haven't had petrol here for days and the diesel delivery we had over the weekend ran out within hours," said an attendant at a Harare garage which gets its supplies from state oil importer NOCZIM. The government revoked NOCZIM's previous monopoly on imports a few years ago, allowing a slew of mostly black-owned new companies to bring in their own fuel, but these have been stymied by a persistent foreign currency crunch.You can only hope the inevitable collapse will come before they've killed off all the rare wildlife and half the population. |
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