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End Near for Zimbabwe's Last White Farmers
VOA ^ | May 30, 2011 | Peta Thornycroft

Posted on 06/02/2011 7:47:24 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

Zimbabwean farmers attend a meeting of white commercial farmers in capital Harare

Zimbabwe's Supreme Court heard a case on behalf of three farmers who claimed the constitution excluded confiscation of their land because they bought their properties after the colonial era ended with independence in 1980.

The Supreme Court did not agree and quickly dismissed their application.

One of the farmers, Colin Cloete, a former president of the Commercial Farmers’ Union at the height of often violent land invasions seven years ago, was one of the applicants.

He, like many of his colleagues, has been arrested, harassed and appeared in court many times, to try to stay on his farm.

Like most surviving white farmers, the cost of going to court to try to fight his eviction has been unaffordable.

Looking back over the long and difficult years, Cloete, now 58, said his struggle to remain on his farm did not make economic sense.

“Economically we should have moved off then, at the beginning, as we would have been 10 years younger and that much more energetic,” said Cloete.

Cloete said he had begun looking looking for a house in Harare, not least so he could move his possessions to safety.

He said the land invasions launched after Mr. Mugabe lost a referendum in 2000 had hurt him and Zimbabwe’s economy, and no one had benefited from this except the elite in the ZANU-PF Party.

“We are treated like second-class citizens, we are treated like we are still just visitors to this place. My father was born in this country, before Mr. Mugabe, but I am still a visitor,” said Cloete.

(Excerpt) Read more at voanews.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: genocide; rhodesia; zimbabwe; zimbabwefarmers; zimbabwewhitefarmers; zimbabwewhites
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To: reg45

There’s a big big difference given the racial makeup here. An interesting historical question, can a racial minority, or coalition of racial minorities, successfully cower, bully, and intimidate a larger cohort with occupancy rights into submission. And if they can, how long can it last? Oh, and the cultural identity can never be taken away. Look at the Balkans. Look at Russia.


61 posted on 06/03/2011 12:33:03 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Nuts; A house divided against itself cannot stand.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Where’s Obama’s no-fly zone over Zimbabwe?


62 posted on 06/03/2011 12:42:50 PM PDT by MeganC (NO WAR FOR OIL! ........except when a Democrat's in charge.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I am in complete agreement with you; someone asked about apartheid in Rhodesia, and I answered to the best of my knowledge.

Mozambique approached Portugal years after independence, to see if they would administer it again; Portugal declined. They’re weren’t fools.


63 posted on 06/03/2011 12:43:42 PM PDT by kearnyirish2
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To: kearnyirish2

Bump!


64 posted on 06/03/2011 12:47:43 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: muawiyah

As they said, they should have moved 10 years ago.


65 posted on 06/03/2011 12:53:03 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Islam is the religion of Satan and Mohammed was his minion.)
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To: Chickensoup

Besides the legalized discrimination against “white” & Asian men (in jobs, promotions, education), there are the constant anti-family, anti-Christianity messages of the government & its media (FWIW, this pre-dates Barack Obama). I constantly receive advertisements from banks and other businesses (and my alma mater) looking for my money, but they aren’t willing to show a face that looks like mine on their literature. They’ve created a fantasy world where everything is run by wise women and black men, the wishful thinking of their non-existent utopia (that certainly isn’t the reality of any workplace I’ve been in); we’re just spectators. I understand what they’re trying to accomplish; I don’t think they understand what they did accomplish. To think they’ll motivate me about an “enemy” halfway around the world, when my enemies are here, is silliness; if “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”, then who should I be rooting for?


66 posted on 06/03/2011 12:56:47 PM PDT by kearnyirish2
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To: MinorityRepublican

“...farmers attend a meeting of white commercial farmers in capital Harare”

Where?


67 posted on 06/03/2011 12:58:44 PM PDT by VanDeKoik (1 million in stimulus dollars paid for this tagline!)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Dunno why they’re still there.
The need to get whatever money they might have out of the country, destroy the farm equipment and infrastructure, and RUN!


68 posted on 06/03/2011 12:58:49 PM PDT by Little Ray (Best Conservative in the Primary; AGAINST Obama in the General.)
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To: kearnyirish2

“Mozambique approached Portugal years after independence, to see if they would administer it again; Portugal declined. “

That’s interesting - do you have a link to more information?


69 posted on 06/03/2011 12:59:33 PM PDT by OldNewYork
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To: kearnyirish2

Got it.


70 posted on 06/03/2011 1:01:53 PM PDT by Chickensoup (The right to bear arms is proven to prevent government genocide. Protect yourself!)
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To: familyop

As for other concerns about people near the Equator, many Americans have had their children permanently and officiously stolen by the globally concerned for no more reason than carrying their own water in containers while building their own water systems.

What do you mean?


71 posted on 06/03/2011 1:06:08 PM PDT by Chickensoup (The right to bear arms is proven to prevent government genocide. Protect yourself!)
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To: Lancey Howard
I wonder what happened?

Jimmy Carter happened.

72 posted on 06/03/2011 1:13:44 PM PDT by Prokopton
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To: kearnyirish2

No-one ‘abandoned’ Rhodesia: they chose to become independant. More power to them.

But look what happened. The Rhodesians had Mugabe foisted onto them by America. Right in the middle of the cold war Rhodesia was forcibly converted into a murderous kleptomarxist state which even today starves and kills its own people. Not one of America’s greatest foreign policy coups.

But don’t let actual history interfere with your blinkered anti-British bigotry.


73 posted on 06/03/2011 1:37:38 PM PDT by agere_contra ("Debt is the foundation of destruction" : Sarah Palin.)
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To: kearnyirish2

I’d sow my acres with salt in the middle of the night then leave the country.


74 posted on 06/03/2011 1:41:02 PM PDT by LizardQueen (The world is not out to get you, except in the sense that the world is out to get everyone.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Blacks have proven in Africa, they aren’t up to the task of running countries. Whites need to remove themselves completely from Africa and let the blacks have it.


75 posted on 06/03/2011 1:52:00 PM PDT by shield (Rev2:9 "Woe unto those who say they are Judah and are not, but are of the synaGOGue of Satan.")
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To: MinorityRepublican
Only 17% of Zimbabweans approve of Robert Mugabe’s job performance – Gallup Poll

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/1766

An old poll, but I'm sure the numbers are even worse now. How he's remined alive this long is a wonder.

76 posted on 06/03/2011 1:56:55 PM PDT by americanophile (Paul Ryan 2012)
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To: LizardQueen

I don’t think the salt would be necessary.


77 posted on 06/03/2011 2:16:23 PM PDT by robertwalker62
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To: BaylorDad

I wish those farmers good luck and hope that they would take 2 of each species of animal with them when they get on the boat...


78 posted on 06/03/2011 2:30:19 PM PDT by Rocketwolf68 (Bring back the crusades)
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To: ladyjane

Oh, it would help all right. The problem is that so little of what is funneled in there, mostly by the US gooberment ever gets down to the people who need seed and books.


79 posted on 06/03/2011 2:36:58 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Nuts; A house divided against itself cannot stand.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has described the court’s expansion as a political ploy designed to turn the court into a government puppet.

Just like the Progressive we know as FDR tried to do. Look for 0 to try the same.

80 posted on 06/03/2011 2:37:54 PM PDT by Drill Thrawl (Are you prepared?)
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