Zimbabwe Crops Fail Despite Good Rain

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 2-1-2006 | Peta Thornycroft

[RedMonqey]

"You mean Marxism really doesn't produce anything except grinding poverty? I am shocked."

The point of Marxism isn't to produce ANYTHING.

The purpose of Marxism is to product Equality.

The share misery equally

[PAR35]

The peculiar part is that the cronies aren't getting much out of the deal. They now own agricultural land that isn't producing a crop. What a valuable asset! And it brings in so much income each year!

No, I finally saw an explanation of how the system works for them. They get an allocation of scarce fuel for the farming operation. They then turn around and sell the fuel on the black market, making a large (by Rhodesian standards, at least) profit. So the money isn't in the farming for them, it is in the fuel trade.

[Restorer]

You are probably right. Although being a straightforward American, it sounds to me like it would be easier to just steal the fuel to begin with, leaving the land in the hands of those who could produce something. You could even sell your stolen fuel on the black market to the farmers.

But nobody ever said thieves and corrupt politicians took the long view.

The whole thing reminds me very much of what happened in Uganda when Amin kicked out the Indians who ran the small stores. His cronies took the stores over and sold off all the stock, frittering away the proceeds and not investing any in more stock. Pretty soon they had nothing to sell and the store closed down. So even the thieves didn't do well out of the theft for very long.

[stocksthatgoup]

"Good rain, bad reign." ROFLMAO

[Max in Utah]

It takes a white man to grow crops in Africa. I once visited Africa and I raised my hands in the air and you could see little green sprouts coming out of the heretofore barren soil.

Careful, Mugabe's boys probably believe in that kind of thing. They'll whisk you back to Africa and you'll be out standing in every field they have, hands raised, eyes straining for a hint of green.