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December 11, 2008
Zimbabwe Blazes the Trail Into Socialism
Posted by Dave Blount at December 11, 2008 10:11 AM
Race-based socialism is heading toward its end game in Zimbabwe:
Robert Mugabe — the octogenarian despot who liberated Rhodesia from white rule to form the new country of Zimbabwe — appears to believe that, since he created the country, he can and will destroy it. …
Prices double every day; disease is killing off many who go without the means to buy food or treatment; death and emigration have halved Zimbabwe's population of four years ago; and those that remain have the lowest life expectancy in the world — roughly 34 for men and 35 for women.
The politically favored elite in Zimbabwe have sucked the lifeblood from many formerly productive areas of the economy. Until recently — when they completely destroyed tobacco and other productive farming sectors by mismanagement — they had made vast amounts from land redistribution.
Despite the misery, things are still working out okay for the socialist rulers:
One area which is still profitable for the elites is the lawless and murderous diamond-mining region in the extreme east of the country. The 170-acre Chiadzwa diamond field on the border with Mozambique should provide over $1 billion per month in revenue, says Gideon Gono, the chairman of the Zimbabwean central bank. Outside experts don't disagree with that rough estimate. Yet somehow the Zimbabwean government officially gets nothing from this entire field. The mines were nationalized in 2006, after the former owner — the British company, African Consolidate Resources (ACR) — was banished. The place has been commandeered by some of the army elite, who pay paltry sums to their "staff" — many of whom die due to violence and poor conditions. Favored officers pocket a few millions in diamonds every month — no one knows exactly how much.
This explains why the Three Stooges — Obama, Reid, and Pelosi — will continue to push America into socialism, even as it radically reduces the country's capacity to produce wealth. Socialism isn't about producing more; it's about making sure that what little the government allows to be produced is distributed in accordance with social justice — i.e., all profits are controlled by the ruling elite.
As for the PEOTUS's policy on Zimbabwe:
President-Elect Barack Obama and his expert foreign-policy team — notably Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice — have said nothing about Zimbabwe in over five months.
Without Western aid, Mugabe's regime would finally collapse. But the pipeline of free money that leads from your pocket to his is in no danger of getting cut off.
Maybe socialism will turn out differently in America than it has in Zimbabwe. Then again, maybe I'll step out the front door and through a wormhole into an alternate universe just like this one, only without moonbats, and the streets will be paved with gold.
On a tip from V the K.
