Ian Smith, last PM of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), dies

[Steven Bickford]

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Uh yeah, Beautiful Apartheid. Glory, glory.

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Apartheid was in South Africa, not Rhodesia.

[xorbie]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Uh yeah, Beautiful Apartheid. Glory, glory.

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Apartheid was in South Africa, not Rhodesia.

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Ok. Beautiful blatantly racist regime supressing a people's right to self-determination. Much different, I'm sure.

[Steven Bickford]

Rhodesia was called the breadbasket of Africa and produced enough food for of southern Africa; Zimbabwe cannot even feed its own people. Average life expectancy in Rhodesia was 60 years; life expectancy in Zimbabwe is 37 years, the lowest in the world.

[xorbie]

So because Ian Smith's successor was one of the brutal dictators in the world is supposed to excuse the fact that he headed a blatantly racist regime that supressed a people's right to self-determination?

[Phil153]

"Self determination" in that part of the world has always been the whim of the biggest strongman.

[DblBarrelJ]

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life expectancy in Zimbabwe is 37 years, the lowest in the world.

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In all fairness, this statistic is as much a result of violence as health/nutrition problems.

[ConstantineX]

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life expectancy in Zimbabwe is 37 years, the lowest in the world.

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In all fairness, this statistic is as much a result of violence as health/nutrition problems.

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Nice!

[NewTeaBag]

Jammy,

WOW! Didn't actually think Mugabe apologists existed?

Learn something new every day.

Not liking murdering filth makes people racists. OK makes sense.

[xorbie]

Who is a Mugabe apologist?

[JammyDodga]

[ QUOTE ]
Jammy,

WOW! Didn't actually think Mugabe apologists existed?

Learn something new every day.

Not liking murdering filth makes people racists. OK makes sense.

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Don't be such an insulting prick. I was protesting against Mugabe before you could have even pointed out Zimbabwe on a map...

There's big problems with the western coverage of Zimbabwe, and you don't need to be a mugabe supporter or apologis to realise that.

In 1980 when Mugabe came to power and he rigged the elections, no one said a word in the west.

When his North Korean trained 5th brigade massacred 10,000 zapu supporters in matabeleland, and raped and beat thousands more, no one said a word of protest.

When mugabe rigged every presidential and parliamentary election from 1980 onwards and beat and arrested opposition supporters, no one said a word.

As long as Mugabe left the white farmers alone, left them their land and allowed the tobacco shipments to keep being exported, no one gave a [censored] what Mugabe was up to.

Then suddenly, a few thousand white farmers lose their land, and half a dozen get killed and suddenly Zimbabwe is big news, getting more coverage than any of the other dictators in Africa who are as bad or worse.

Do you not think that there is some hypocrisy here? Some racism? SOmething wrong that makes the lively-hoods of a few whites be valued more than the lives of 1000s of blacks?

At independence, Ian Smith and Britain essentially made a deal with Mugabe that he could do whatever the hell he liked as long as he left the white farmers alone, it was only once he broke that deal that they started opposing him.

So don't call me a [censored] apologist, until you have an understanding of african politics that goes above what you can get out off a 2 minute tv news headline.

The way to deal with murdering bastards like mugabe and saddam is not to ignore them for 20 years and then get all outraged when they bite the hand that feeds them. To do so is hypocricy on a staggering scale.