Posted on 03/18/2002 3:43:09 PM PST by Clive
Harare - The shooting death of a white farmer overnight has spread fear through Zimbabwe's small white community, many members having already begun thinking about fleeing into exile following violence-wracked elections here.
"It's the end for us," said a neighbour of Terry Ford, who was found dead in the early hours of Monday at his farm in Norton, some 40km west of Harare.
"The white farming community is very frightened. People I spoke to feel we are going to be exterminated if we don't leave," he added.
Ford was the eighth white farmer killed in the country since early 2000, when ruling party supporters began invading white-owned farms under President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reforms.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which is generally backed by the white farming community, has recorded more than 100 deaths among its supporters since 2000.
The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said Ford's farm was looted by supporters of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).
He called for help but the police did not respond, and when neighbours showed up it was too late.
"Terry called me around midnight," said the neighbour, who is alone on his farm after having evacuated his family.
"He was very upset, he told me to go and get the police as soon as I could because his life was at stake."
He added: "He told me, 'Don't come alone, they'll kill you,' and then the line went dead. I couldn't sleep, I knew deep down that the worst had happened to him."
Another white farmer, in Mazowe to the north of the capital, would give his name only as David.
He said: "Since Mugabe was re-elected, the invaders know they have a free hand.
"They gave me three hours to leave on Saturday. I'm still here, but I think my death will come soon and through violence."
In Seke, south of Harare, a white farmer named John said he was considering joining his wife and children in Britain, where they
fled after their farm was occupied by black settlers last year.
"It's not our homeland, we don't belong there, but the only choice we have is between exile or death," he said.
Mugabe, who led the nation to independence in 1980 following a bloody guerrilla war, was widely praised for the conciliatory attitude he adopted towards whites who wanted to stay on in the former Rhodesia, renamed Zimbabwe.
By 2000, race relations had remained surprisingly good considering that two decades after independence whites, making up less than one percent of the population, still hogged 70 percent of the prime farmland in the country, despite early efforts to correct the inequities.
But in February 2000, Mugabe was stung by the failure of a constitutional referendum that would have allowed him to seek two more terms, as well as measures enabling the seizure of white farmland without paying compensation to the owners.
With parliamentary elections looming in June, Mugabe played the race card, promising to take back the land from the whites and actively encouraging his supporters to invade their farms.
Only days after the referendum, pro-Mugabe militants began forcibly invading white-owned farms, saying they were protesting the slow pace of redistributing land to the majority black population.
Though many of the invaders were too young to have fought in the 1970s guerrilla war, they were referred to as war veterans, and their colourful leader Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi, who has since died, added his revolutionary rhetoric to the cause.
Only some 40 000 whites remain in the country out of a total population of some 12 million. Among them, some white farmers still have a reputation of being bigoted.
Many poor landless blacks, on the other hand, view Mugabe's re-election and his vow to carry on with the land reforms as a long-overdue victory, since whites began chasing blacks off their land more than a century ago.
"Now it's the whites' turn to lose everything and leave," a beaming black peasant said last Friday. - Sapa-AFP
That was no " rant ", it was refutation. Shall I call what you type , " rant " or can ?
Look, I don't want to argue , I am upset by what's happening in Zimbabwe, scared to death about what has / is / and in all probability shall happen in South Africa. I also KNOW what has historically happened and is happening now, in the USA. The places aren't at all similar and neither do they share a commonality of historical events .A Marxist, black take over, of America isn't in our future. For starters, they don't have the numbers. Secondly, even the MOST diehard white Liberals, aren't going to help elect an Al Sharpton , Louis Farrahkan , Jesse Jackson , etc. president. The government doesn't yet censor / run ALL of our media , and even rabid , white Liberal talking heads won't support the likes of the above. Will Hispanics and Asians ? Not bloody likely. They have their own agendas.
Now,for the crime issue / political corruption . Yes and no ; criminality wasn't punished quite so well, as you seem to imagine it was, decades or even centuries ago. That is historical fact, whether you like it ( know it ) or not.
Rashly pontificating spurious / groundless speculations, and then lambasting well thought out refutation, doesn't make your position stronger. In fact, it considerably weaks your case. Detroit is a hell hole. So are other American cities. So are cities in England, France, and most other places I could waste time on typing. Does that portend the eventual copycatting of what has happened to Zimbabwe ? No, it most assurredly does not. What happened in Zimbabwe, is closer to the Stalinist USSSR , than it is to other places. It has wiffs of Nazi tactics ; however , it is even closer to the events in South Africa, when Zimbabwe / Rhodesia was still part of that country and mfecane / difaquani,tribal wars , treks , and black nation building were all going on. That never happened in America, amongst blacks. Canada, Mexico, and Cuba aren't going to step in , as Lybia,Cuba, South Africa, etc. has , in Zimbabwe , should your scenario even have a distant glimmer of a possibility here.
I have to run right now or MY spouse will order ME off FRee Republic for a week or two. [And then what will you do??] But I will return -- and I will respond with another of my signature well-thought-out and pithy and succint zealotry-FRee responses!
Best ones -- Brian.
It would be more likely, following the Zimbabwe blueprint, for Hispanics to take over the USA . You are neither " pithy " , or prescient, in your suppositions, dear. : - )
Why must you mention "black."
Do you believe "blacks" are essential to a "marxist takeover?"
[I won't insult you with the "R" question although those who oppose us wouldn't hesitate!]
Nor does anything here have any connection with natives of the mountain regions of South Eastern Europe, on Azerbaijan, Armenia, Geogia and Russia!
On the other hand, though, do you not see it likely that what you call "the blacks" are being used as cover in a bigger game. The battle between barbarism and Western Judeo-Christian ["Human," that is] Civilization?
For starters, [The blacks] don't have the numbers. Secondly, even the MOST diehard white Liberals, aren't going to help elect an Al Sharpton , Louis Farrahkan , Jesse Jackson , etc. president. The government doesn't yet censor/ run ALL of our media , and even rabid , white Liberal talking heads won't support the likes of the above. Will Hispanics and Asians ? Not bloody likely. They have their own agendas.
Again I find your apparent obsession with what seems for you, to be "a 'black' issue," puzzling, to say the least. Why are you confusing anything I have said in any of my posts to this thread with anything to do with what you call "the blacks?"
Now,for the crime issue / political corruption . Yes and no; criminality wasn't punished quite so well, as you seem to imagine it was, decades or even centuries ago. That is historical fact, whether you like it ( know it ) or not.
Whatever that means, you certainly would not contend I am sure, that crime was ever historically held to be the fault of its victims? Nor the pursuit of any of its perpetrators called: "rascism?"
Rashly pontificating spurious / groundless speculations, and then lambasting well thought out refutation, doesn't make your position stronger. In fact, it considerably weaks your case.
A point I trust you made whilst looking squarely into a mirror?
Detroit is a hell hole. So are other American cities. So are cities in England, France, and most other places I could waste time on typing.
Detroit and Washington DC have worse crime rates than any two cities in the Western [IE Civilized] World. There are any number of American cities, all with something in common, that are almost as bad. There are none in Britain even remotely similar insofar as rates of crime are concerned!
Does that portend the eventual copycatting of what has happened to Zimbabwe ? No, it most assurredly does not. What happened in Zimbabwe, is closer to the Stalinist USSSR , than it is to other places. It has wiffs of Nazi tactics ; however , it is even closer to the events in South Africa, when Zimbabwe / Rhodesia was still part of that country and mfecane / difaquani,tribal wars , treks , and black nation building were all going on. That never happened in America, amongst blacks. Canada, Mexico, and Cuba aren't going to step in , as Lybia,Cuba, South Africa, etc. has , in Zimbabwe , should your scenario even have a distant glimmer of a possibility here.
I give up on that! That's incoherent and, once again, you seem obsessed with the idea that what you call "blacks" are at the heart of what we are discussing here.
Do me a favor of reading my posts # 34, 36, 48, 51, 54 and [Ignore my "rant" reference] 60 -- and tell me where I have talked about this being about "blacks."
And then re-read your post # 49, in which you correctly assessed my contribution to this thread.
To summarise what I have said here, you will notice that I am more concerned by far with Kaddaffi's part in the Rhodesia situation than with Mugabe's, with Khaddaffi's and his co-islamanazis and the part played by Russia's totalitarians in South Africa than with the thieving bastards associated with Mandella's mob.
And far more concerned with the part being played in the attacks on America by the feral-gummint's Immigration and Nauralization Service -- than I am concerned about "the blacks" upon whom you seem so fixated!
All of that said, however [And notwithstanding your occasional vehement scolding] -- I reckon that your heart is in the Right place, that we are on the same side and that given you seem to be quite a quick study, there is much hope for you!
Take care -- Be safe -- Be well -- Be happy -- B A <];^)~<
Well, they will leave if they can. I certainly hope any one of them who has the opportunity, does so. I see no chance of a "cooperative future" involving whites and blacks in sub-Saharan Africa, and think that a genocide is in the not-too-distant future.
Thanks for the details--I fully expected something of the sort was the case.
..... "over zealous" and "uneducated" is precisely the impression their hysterical and paranoid posts project.
Thankfully they are the exception on FR.
ROFL! The Mugabes are everywhere! Sound the alarm!
Such glibness is not only irrelivant, it makes the person claiming it, look much more than simply foolish.
I agree -- your posts do make you look like a fool nopardons.
Truly.
It already happened in Detroit. There were once 1,500,000 whites. Now there are less than 200,000. Many were killed, the rest fled.
True. It's happening in California too. Texas is next on the list. It's sad that so many have chosen to close their minds to the truth.
as in reparations? hmm?
Exactly. The reparations movement continues to gain steam in the black community despite 35 years of welfare and affirmative action.
Who knows -- reparations could be a reality as soon as the next Democrat assumes the presidency. A Hillary or a Daschle, for example, wouldn't hesitate to push through reparartions.
The next move will no doubt be for the hispanic hate groups to climb aboard and claim that any reparations settlement must also include compensation for the "genocide" inflicted on hispanics during the Mexican American war.
Why do I keep talking about one certain race ? What race are Mugabe, Mbeki, and Obasanjo ? What race are those who are responsible for the deterioration of Detroit ? What race is Marion Berry ? What race employs such tactics as necklacing ? Did Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Lenin necklace the opposition ?
Far more than Marxism / Socialism / Communism is at work in Africa. Whether you want to ignore it or not, tribalism and ancient blood fueds are in this mix. We don't have that in the USA. If you want to say that America is at risk for a Commie like take over, then say so. Don't say that what has happened in South Africa , Zimbabwe, Nigeria, etc., is a roadmap, for what might happen here. Words mean things. Those of you, who say that today's events, in Africa, is a foreshadowing of what could / will happen in the USA, is far fetched ! It is just as patently ridiculous, as those who keep typing that all whites should leave, and haven't an iota of an idea, that that is far and away, an almost impossibility.
Brian, you apparently haven't any knowledge of actual criminal history, in earlier times, in America. This country wasn't an Eden, where all was milk and honey. There were gangs, there was political crime / fraud that went unpunished, and it was just as bad, as those things are today ! Is Washington D.C. and Detroit and L.A. totally lawless ? No. Is crime very bad there ? Yes. Was it always this bad, in those places ? Probably not, but it was in other places, in other times. And, dear, THAT was my point.
With so many things to worry about and pay attention to, let's no fight about " maybes", " perhaps ", and " might " ; especially not when your crystal ball has a crack in it. : - )
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