Posted on 02/26/2012 5:33:50 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
FEW people would include “farmer” in a list of the world's most dangerous occupations. But a South African might. With rural land ownership a particularly contentious part of apartheid’s legacy, over 3,000 predominantly white farmers have been killed in attacks on their farms since 1994. Some people resort to self-defence. A South African farmer told Eurasianet last year that a typical evening would be spent “sat outside [on the porch] with a gun and a radio [walkie-talkie]". On top of that, farmers feel nervous about the government, not least because of mooted land reforms that could threaten their farms
In August 2010, showing commendable imagination from a 5,000-mile distance, the authorities in Tbilisi invited South African farmers wanting a change of scene to consider an alternative: farming in Georgia. The country has an exuberantly pro-business government, low crime rates, and soil that positively squelches with underexploited potential. Once an agricultural power-house, Georgia now farms less than half of its arable land. It has less than half the number of cows and one-third of the pigs that it had in 1990. Agriculture employs over half the population, yet contributes less than a tenth of GDP. Ridiculously, this fertile country now imports 70 percent of its food. As a result, many of Georgia’s poorest people live in the countryside. Agriculture contributed over 16% of GDP in 2005, but only 8% in 2010.
A new report from the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI), a think-tank, suggests that this idea, backed with €65m ($84m) in taxpayers' money, was not as wacky as some thought at time. The 90 or so South African farmers who have visited Georgia so far have been impressed. Five have already moved to Georgia; more may come, subject to clearance of property rights. But the scheme also supports partnerships between farmers in both countries; the government also hopes to increase investment from those who prefer to stay put.
Many local farmers are still suspicious. Most of them are subsistence-level producers; nation-wide, the average farm is less than one hectare. Seeing a government that has long paid them little attention suddenly court South Africans has produced mixed feelings. Last year, local farmers demonstrated in the village of Zeghduleti, near Gori, after common pasture that they had long used for grazing was cleared for sale to a foreign investor. After a number of arrests, the farmers were eventually advised to slaughter their cattle or graze them further afield. Georgia’s impatient government has a taste for dramatic change and short-term results. But as farmers know better than most, patience can be a virtue too.
Interesting.
I thought it must be a misspelling of boars or even bores, but no, it’s really Boers in Georgia.
I am disappoint. Not only are they really Boers, but it's the other Georgia as well!
Felix Unger was right: when you "assume," you make an "ass" out of "u" and "me."
Everyone who takes a safety course knows that farming is in the top few most dangerous occupations.
Those Boer farmers better take Georgia up on their offer and get the heck out of Dodge.
Else they might wind up like the white farmers in Zimbabwe — much worse.
The kulaks in 1930's USSR would have especially agreed with you.
Within 10 years, I expect South Africa to be like Zimbabwe.
With Mandela 93 and ill, it’s only a matter of time for white South Africans. The ANC is only holding off expropriating the mines and seizing the farms out of respect for Mandela and the vision of a united and fair South Africa. All hell is about to break out.
"...and Georgia's always on my mind..."
Maybe it would prevent confusion if we used the natives' name for their own country, but it's a hard name to remember (sort of like the native name for Greenland is, or the Maori name for New Zealand). Or we could follow the Russians and call it "Gruziya." Or maybe go back to "Colchis." Maybe the Boers can take up raising sheep...with golden fleece.
I have been reading The Great Boer War by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He relates when the war started the British were contemptuous of the Boer burghers, saying they were a surly and slouching bunch, looking like strange grotesque figures, walnut brown, and shaggy bearded in their scruff coats and hats. But he said the Boer’s marksmanship with the Mauser rifle soon changed that attitude. At the early battle of Nicholson’s Nek, the British on the hill were lounging relaxed watching the Boers advancing from over a thousand yards away, when the Boers opened with rifle fire from that distance. The bullets hit right in their midst, slapping and pinging off the rocks, the dull thump when they found a human target and the men began dropping.
The British found the marksmanship of the Boers almost incredible and officers quickly learned to not distinguish themselves by dress or action when in contact with the enemy.
I heard about this so I knew the title was correct.
We could use some good Boers in KY, they make great Afrikaan Americans!
We could use some good Boers in KY, they make great Afrikaan Americans!
Well if they get a bunch of Boer farmers maybe they will put a little steel in the spine of the Georgian armed forces.
The South Africans make damn fine soldiers , they also don’t have any love for communism.
I’d like to know where the Economist got the figure of 3,000 white farmed killed in So. Africa since 1994. I know that scores, if not hundreds have been killed or wounded in Zimbabwe, but “3000” is one helluva figure and no major neww coverage of it.
DOes anyone know a reliable source for this?
thats for sure, they killed off all the white farmers that knew how to farm and now have a shortage of food problem..The farmers had been there for more than 3 generations
They started killing and/or kicking the white farmers off the land to give to their buddies...farmers is easy they thought and cannot grow a crop....food shortages result, a few of the South Africans have held on but a lot killed...Africa is a lost cause, tribal killing and ignorance is their heritage in quite a few of those countries.....
Lol!
Ironically, once incorporated into the Empire the Boers were superb soldiers on behalf of the Crown.
I remember reading a wartime account by an American armorer who was in both the European and Pacific theaters. During his time in North Africa he allowed a visiting South African Boer officer to try out an M1 Garand...apparently the Boers still retained a love of fine firearms, because he recalled that the officer fell so in love with the rifle that it practically had to be pried out of his hands!
For those wondering, Boer is the Dutch/Afrikaans word for “farmer”, rooted in the German word “bauer”. The Dutch settlers in southern Africa were originally called “trekboers”.
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