Zimbabwe 'asks farmers to return'

[ECH1969]

Zimbabwe's white farmers say they have been invited to apply for land - in an apparent U-turn by the government which has seized their land.

Mr. Mugabe blames Zimbabwe's economic problems on a plot by Western countries to topple him.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4932060.stm

[demosincebirth]

1. He kicked them out once.

Like they're going to line up to return

[AngryAmish]

2. Fool

[bunkerbuster1]

3. Fun fact: "Mugabe" translates literally to

"Wad of homophobic homicidal fuck."

[LostinVA]

8. I always suspected that!

[Javaman]

4. If I was one of those farmers, I'd tell him to go fuck himself...

His "land reforms" have done nothing but destroy the land.

When he took those lands away and gave them to non-farmers, they in essance, sucked the land dry for all it was worth and leaving nothing but barron wastelands, in many areas, in their wake

Giving the land back to the original farmers is a sign of sanity, but honestly, it's a hollow jesture at best. Concidering that they have to apply to get their old land back again. And given the lands shape, what would they be getting really?

That country, to put it simply, has been fucked by Mugabe.

[BillZBubb]

5. Yes and no.

Yes Mugabe has screwed up an already bad situation. But, the white landowners also resisted any form of urgently needed land reform. Had they been more wise and fair-minded, Mugabe might never have happened.

[Robb]

9. Fair point

...but landowners resistant to change isn't what I'd call an open invitation to slaughter them. :shrug:

[Vogon_Glory]

6. Shaft Me Once, Shame on You...Shaft Me Twice...

While I'm sure that a lot of former Rhodesian/Zimbabwean farmers do feel strong emotional ties to the land where they grew up, I'd think that they'd feel leery about returning to Zimbabwe--even with all those ZANU--PF assurances.

Why the Hell SHOULD they trust the Mugabe government? It's still as corrupt and authoritarian as ever, even if it treated the whites less harshly than it did the Matabele.

Also, just how much is ZANU--PF's word worth? What's to stop some politically connected thug associated with the Mugabe regime from expropriating the old farm again after the trusting farmer comes back and pours his labor and capital into putting the farm back into shape?

[Nihil]

7. Maybe if he says "pretty please" ...

... and wears a burning tyre around his neck ...?

Nah, even then any sensible farmer will stick two fingers up
to the murderous hypocritical bastard.

[Odin2005]

10. This is one of the reasons that Africa is stuck in the mud.

No one wants to invest in a country where the investment risks being seized by populists wanting to blame everything on "the evil white colonialists" in order for that politician to distract people from his government's own problems.