Mugabe Must Go

I try not to be political on my blog, especially
regarding the politics in countries other than my
own. However, something has been bugging me for a
few years now and instead of just ranting about it,
I thought I'd blog about it.
Now, I've never been to Zimbabwe. In fact, I've
never been to Africa...yet. But what Robert Mugabe is
doing to his people in Zimbabwe is being under-reported
by the media and he needs to go.



Mugabe came to power in the early 80's through fairly
democratic means and at first was seen as a not-so-bad
guy around the world. In the last decade though, he's
stripped the country of all legitimacy in this formerly
British African colony of Rhodesia. He's taken money
from not only his own people, but from governments all
over the world and added it to his personal coffers.
The U.S. had been doing a good job of cutting him off
from our aid until this week when we offered 17 million
dollars in aid. Why, I don't know.



In my opinion though, Mugabe's biggest crime has been
his "acquisition" of thousands of farms from legitimate
owners. He then gives the farms to his cronies and
supporters who don't have the first clue how to farm,
let alone feed a country. These displaced farmers only
crime is that they are of European, not African descent.
They've lived in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) for generations,
and have been loyal to their country, but this doesn't
make any difference to Mugabe, who only sees the color
of their skin in a case of object racism.
Zimbabwe used to be a "breadbasket" of a nation. Now,
it can't even feed itself because the new "landowners"
are destroying the land or making it un-farmable.
As a result, thousands are starving to death. Mugabe
recently hired China to run these farms, bringing them
in to do the job rather than admitting his error or
crime. And because the country has no money, he's
paying them in tobacco!
This story of land "acquisition" and theft doesn't even
begin to scratch the surface of his other crimes
committed against his nation. Murder, kidnapping,
rape...all in his name. He must go.