FARK.com: (6949238) Your country's economy is in ruins, many families have to scavenge for food and millions remain out of work. Do you save money any way possible and try to create jobs? Or do you throw yourself a $1m birthday bash?

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		Your country's economy is in ruins, many families have to scavenge for food and millions remain out of work. Do you save money any way possible and try to create jobs? Or do you throw yourself a $1m birthday bash? (dailymail.co.uk)		118
		More: Fail, Mugabe, morgan tsvangirai, international sanctions, Harare, February Movement

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Gulper Eel		2012-02-18 06:56:25 AM

Yay, soft power.

www.corbisimages.com

August 27, 1980.

"This is an exciting time in our country's history and the history of the world, and we're delighted to have you, Mr. Prime Minister, here with us.

On all too rare occasions, there is achieved a result which thrills the entire world, based on decency, based on freedom, based on independence, based on equality, and based on human courage. The independence of Zimbabwe is the result of all those factors. And the small role that our Nation played in the support of these efforts for freedom and independence and for equality and for elimination of racial discrimination is indeed gratifying to me and to the 240 million people that I represent.

In the past few months and years, the leadership of people like Andy Young and Don McHenry in our country has helped to shape and to change opinion among the American populace in support of this notable achievement. And the admiration, Mr. Prime Minister, for your courage over long and sometimes lonely years under the most difficult possible circumstances is a feeling which I share with millions of Americans who admire you very deeply.

I want to congratulate you on the acceptance of Zimbabwe as a new member of the United Nations, on your tremendous speech on that occasion which exemplified the principles and ideals of your own life and also of proving already that you are the leader not only of a great new republic but a notable world leader exemplifying the finest aspects of humanity.

Ed Finnerty		2012-02-18 06:57:35 AM

blackheart666: Herb Utsmelz: This might be a topic worthy of debate if we lived in that alternate universe, you know the one with that one really amazing person who allegedly leads by example.

You know who else led by example?

Bob Ross?

Terrydatroll		2012-02-18 07:33:01 AM

He is merely trying to be more like his hero, Obama.

casual disregard		2012-02-18 07:35:08 AM

Tatterdemalian: Handing out the money (and constantly printing more) is how Zimbabwe got so bad in the first place.

/the money doesn't even make very good toilet paper any more

My understanding is they stopped printing their own money a few years ago and use of all kinds of foreign cash instead has been legalized, especially USD.

According to the perfectly reliable Wikipedia (new window) Zimbabwe experienced an inflation rate of 231,150,888.87% in the year 2008. That's such a phenomenal level of change that I don't think anything in human or natural history can be compared to it. I can barely comprehend a percent change that enormous. It's almost hard to say it aloud.

KellyKellyKelly		2012-02-18 07:36:21 AM

xl5150: Was anyone else surprised that it wasn't an article about Obama?

Since his birthday's in August, not really.

stratagos		2012-02-18 07:45:49 AM

KellyKellyKelly: xl5150: Was anyone else surprised that it wasn't an article about Obama?

Since his birthday's in August, not really.

The Liberal Media obviously suppressed the truth until now.

Or something.

Mr. Right		2012-02-18 07:47:30 AM

Gulper Eel: Yay, soft power.

[www.corbisimages.com image 609x480]

August 27, 1980.

"This is an exciting time in our country's history and the history of the world, and we're delighted to have you, Mr. Prime Minister, here with us.

On all too rare occasions, there is achieved a result which thrills the entire world, based on decency, based on freedom, based on independence, based on equality, and based on human courage. The independence of Zimbabwe is the result of all those factors. And the small role that our Nation played in the support of these efforts for freedom and independence and for equality and for elimination of racial discrimination is indeed gratifying to me and to the 240 million people that I represent.

In the past few months and years, the leadership of people like Andy Young and Don McHenry in our country has helped to shape and to change opinion among the American populace in support of this notable achievement. And the admiration, Mr. Prime Minister, for your courage over long and sometimes lonely years under the most difficult possible circumstances is a feeling which I share with millions of Americans who admire you very deeply.

I want to congratulate you on the acceptance of Zimbabwe as a new member of the United Nations, on your tremendous speech on that occasion which exemplified the principles and ideals of your own life and also of proving already that you are the leader not only of a great new republic but a notable world leader exemplifying the finest aspects of humanity.

And that was one of Carter's better moments.

Crudbucket		2012-02-18 07:53:51 AM

casual disregard: Tatterdemalian: Handing out the money (and constantly printing more) is how Zimbabwe got so bad in the first place.

/the money doesn't even make very good toilet paper any more

My understanding is they stopped printing their own money a few years ago and use of all kinds of foreign cash instead has been legalized, especially USD.

According to the perfectly reliable Wikipedia (new window) Zimbabwe experienced an inflation rate of 231,150,888.87% in the year 2008. That's such a phenomenal level of change that I don't think anything in human or natural history can be compared to it. I can barely comprehend a percent change that enormous. It's almost hard to say it aloud.

That .87% really drives the point home.

Smidge204		2012-02-18 08:37:07 AM

The "trickle-down" theory: the principle that the poor, who must subsist on table scraps dropped by the rich, can best be served by giving the rich bigger meals.

-William Blum

Monophtalmos		2012-02-18 08:39:41 AM

That's called "stimulating the economy".

wombatoftruth		2012-02-18 09:10:33 AM

Somacandra: Didn't have to click--knew it was that asshole Mugabe.

I dunno-sounds like something most of our leaders would do too.

Vaneshi		2012-02-18 09:21:20 AM

Lunchlady: DiRF: rockforever: LewDux: doglover: The Onion is prophetic: No problem

[en.nkfu.com image 580x352]

Why's there a butt on it?

He likes big butts

Can he lie?

I dunno, but I can't deny.

We need to bring in the other brothers on this one.

Other brothers are confirming his enjoyment of large posteriors.

Pharmdawg		2012-02-18 09:23:07 AM

Fat cats like him are why God made hungry hyenas.

LewDux		2012-02-18 09:24:05 AM

cpw49684		2012-02-18 09:26:35 AM

I was in Zimbabwe a couple years ago to revisit Victoria Falls. The desperation of the populace was palpable. I had people aggressively begging me for money to feed their kids. Robert Mugabe needs to die, but what's going to replace him? Corruption is rampant in that part of the world (not that they've got the exclusive on that) and his cronies will likely just perpetuate the existing system. I was there as a kid decades earlier when it was still Rhodesia. It is a beautiful country that used to feed sub-Saharan Africa.

Vaneshi		2012-02-18 09:32:05 AM

greenz: Zimbabwe would be better off under british rule

Technically "back under". But we don't want it. It's a shiat hole that would consume vast quantities of our resources to put right and Mugabe has stated in so many words "fark the English"... to a camera... that had BBC written on its side.

The English have in turn decided "Fark Zimbabwe", although I suspect once this idiot is dead and they are truly on their knees begging for help our colonial instincts will kick in and we'll park some big grey baby makers nearby and get our empire building on... again.

give me doughnuts		2012-02-18 09:40:16 AM

The only thing that is going to save most of Africa is the return of Colonialization.

Nemo's Brother		2012-02-18 09:43:44 AM

But he did run out whitey and their rich farmers. The liberals should love this guy.

Nemo's Brother		2012-02-18 09:46:19 AM

Natsumi: As someone living in a country quite close to Zim... and hearing the same rumblings about land grabs and killing white people - this man can seriously do us all a favor and just die already.

I always have two questions for those "comrades" who go on about how great he is and how wonderful Zim is after they got rid of most of the white people in the 80's and turned the bread basket of Southern Africa into a freakin wasteland. If its so great there why do you live there and why do so many Zimbabweans come over our borders illegaly? I never get an answer...

Who, except someone in his cabinet, would ever say Zimbabwe is a good place to live right now? I put it and Haiti neck and neck for shiat holes of the Earth.

Day_Old_Dutchie		2012-02-18 09:54:03 AM

greenz: Zimbabwe would be better off under british rule

img813.imageshack.us

Maybe, but you see there's no profit in it.

imnotadoctor		2012-02-18 09:54:15 AM

xl5150: Was anyone else surprised that it wasn't an article about Obama?

i.imgur.com

Vaneshi		2012-02-18 09:55:50 AM

imnotadoctor: xl5150: Was anyone else surprised that it wasn't an article about Obama?

[i.imgur.com image 640x533]

Dunno, he's gotten some bites. They're tiddlers though.

wambu		2012-02-18 10:05:48 AM

Mugabe brings new meaning to 'party animal'.

schatzie		2012-02-18 10:11:19 AM

Zimbabwe would be better under Rhodesian rule.

GibbyTheMole		2012-02-18 10:14:29 AM

No matter where you go, the poor are merely food for the rich. (metaphorically speaking.)

LoneWolf343		2012-02-18 10:29:08 AM

Terrydatroll: He is merely trying to be more like his hero, ~~Obama~~ Hitler HUSSEIN Fartbongo.

At least get his name right.

sharkbeagle		2012-02-18 10:53:38 AM

And yet he's still a hero to the 'progressive' left.

Allen. The end.		2012-02-18 11:03:04 AM

I'm torn...kinda want to be a colonist again...pith helmets, elephant safaris, hunting tigers, and wind it all up with GnT's back at the plantation house...

"Ah, Nigel, my good man, pull up a porter and have a rest!"

netcentric		2012-02-18 11:29:05 AM

That's a stimulus package. You know, when your country is hitting tougher times.

....you gotta spend more.

PaLarkin		2012-02-18 11:39:57 AM

padraig: xl5150: Was anyone else surprised that it wasn't an article about Obama?

No. It's probably just you.

He's not the only one. There are probably a lot of people who have seen subby's headline and thought it was about B.O.

Mister Peejay		2012-02-18 11:51:21 AM

Vaneshi: I suspect once this idiot is dead and they are truly on their knees begging for help our colonial instincts will kick in and we'll park some big grey baby makers nearby and get our empire building on... again.

I, for one, would cheer on the English Empire rising again.

But I'm afraid I don't understand your banter. Big grey baby makers?

Mister Peejay		2012-02-18 11:55:35 AM

PaLarkin: padraig: xl5150: Was anyone else surprised that it wasn't an article about Obama?

No. It's probably just you.

He's not the only one. There are probably a lot of people who have seen subby's headline and thought it was about B.O.

"Waahh, I can't afford a new 4G phone, I'm going to be stuck with a 3G for another year, WE'RE SO POOR OMG"

Even the poorest Americans would be in the 1% in Zimbabwe.

quoinguy		2012-02-18 12:09:45 PM

Maybe there are places in the world white colonialism is actually better than self-rule?

Just sayin'...

Capt_Fodder		2012-02-18 12:35:46 PM

Mister Peejay: Vaneshi: I suspect once this idiot is dead and they are truly on their knees begging for help our colonial instincts will kick in and we'll park some big grey baby makers nearby and get our empire building on... again.

I, for one, would cheer on the English Empire rising again.

But I'm afraid I don't understand your banter. Big grey baby makers?

Yeah, I'd like to know what the heck he is referring to as well... Rapey elephants on Viagra? I HAVE NO IDEA AND I MUST KNOW.

ciderczar		2012-02-18 12:45:20 PM

I am so happy my family (not my parents, but an aunt, uncle and cousin) got out of there. I went to visit my cousin in '09, just after the worst of the famine and after they'd given up on Zim dollars completely. I can't wait for that asshole Uncle Bob to pop it, not that Tsvangirai or any of the others are much better.

It's such a tragic country to be in. You can see how good it could be underneath how terrible it is. Also, there was a 6 foot wide pothole outside Parliament of all places. Dudes need to learn how to embezzle efficiently, or they'll wreck their bentleys.

Vaneshi		2012-02-18 01:02:19 PM

Capt_Fodder: Mister Peejay: Vaneshi: I suspect once this idiot is dead and they are truly on their knees begging for help our colonial instincts will kick in and we'll park some big grey baby makers nearby and get our empire building on... again.

I, for one, would cheer on the English Empire rising again.

But I'm afraid I don't understand your banter. Big grey baby makers?

Yeah, I'd like to know what the heck he is referring to as well... Rapey elephants on Viagra? I HAVE NO IDEA AND I MUST KNOW.

Warships. They're grey and usually the men on board are rather horny have been stuck on a floating chunk of metal for weeks/months. It is the term I've heard several ex-Navy people use to describe warships: big, grey, baby makers.

CasperImproved		2012-02-18 01:05:11 PM

batcookie: CasperImproved: Except for the "kill all the peasants" thing, he'd fit right in with the American politicians.

"Except for"? I see someone's never encountered the Texas justice system.

Big difference from dealing with dangerous criminals, and murdering those you rule over.

As for the death penalty... if the proof is beyond a reasonable doubt that someone performed a heinous act and is not someone that can be rehabilitated, their life on this planet should stop. I will have issue with the proof, and I will want a fair process available in place for appeal. But a death penalty in my opinion is reasonable for someone that will never stop being a threat in their actions, and choose to be that way.

That was a really poor analogy and lacked logic batcookie... I am glad you are neither my lawyer, or my persecutor.

You'd turn it off when I was halfway across		2012-02-18 01:09:16 PM

Vaneshi: greenz: Zimbabwe would be better off under british rule

Technically "back under". But we don't want it. It's a shiat hole that would consume vast quantities of our resources to put right and Mugabe has stated in so many words "fark the English"... to a camera... that had BBC written on its side.

The English have in turn decided "Fark Zimbabwe", although I suspect once this idiot is dead and they are truly on their knees begging for help our colonial instincts will kick in and we'll park some big grey baby makers nearby and get our empire building on... again.

The UK Department for International Development is intending to spend around £350 million on Zimbabwe between 2011 and 2015.

/Thought the headline was about Liz's silver jubilee

Tatterdemalian		2012-02-18 01:22:12 PM

give me doughnuts: The only thing that is going to save most of Africa is the return of Colonialization.

Which isn't going to happen unless someone can give a guarantee that the new colonists will never be uprooted and driven back out of Africa by a spasm of liberal guilt from their homelands.

/in other words, it isn't going to happen, ever

Capt_Fodder		2012-02-18 01:27:06 PM

Vaneshi: Capt_Fodder: Mister Peejay: Vaneshi: I suspect once this idiot is dead and they are truly on their knees begging for help our colonial instincts will kick in and we'll park some big grey baby makers nearby and get our empire building on... again.

I, for one, would cheer on the English Empire rising again.

But I'm afraid I don't understand your banter. Big grey baby makers?

Yeah, I'd like to know what the heck he is referring to as well... Rapey elephants on Viagra? I HAVE NO IDEA AND I MUST KNOW.

Warships. They're grey and usually the men on board are rather horny have been stuck on a floating chunk of metal for weeks/months. It is the term I've heard several ex-Navy people use to describe warships: big, grey, baby makers.

I have to admit that I never would have guessed that. Thanks for the extra learnin'! I always like knowing the origins of weird and different phrases and I had never heard that one before.

Delawheredad		2012-02-18 01:31:23 PM

Ahh the legacy of Jimmy Carter. The gift that just keeps giving. Egyptian unrest, Iran, Afghanistan, Mugabe the man had a solid brass touch!

olddinosaur		2012-02-18 01:37:12 PM

Delawheredad: Ahh the legacy of Jimmy Carter. The gift that just keeps giving. Egyptian unrest, Iran, Afghanistan, Mugabe the man had a solid brass touch!

I very clearly recall, when Mugabe was running white farmers off their land simply because they were white, I was denounced as a "racist" for opposing the "natural justice" underway in Zimbabwe.

How's all this hopey--changey thing workin' out fer ya?

Bluesy		2012-02-18 01:39:47 PM

Capt_Fodder: Vaneshi: Capt_Fodder: Mister Peejay: Vaneshi: I suspect once this idiot is dead and they are truly on their knees begging for help our colonial instincts will kick in and we'll park some big grey baby makers nearby and get our empire building on... again.

I, for one, would cheer on the English Empire rising again.

But I'm afraid I don't understand your banter. Big grey baby makers?

Yeah, I'd like to know what the heck he is referring to as well... Rapey elephants on Viagra? I HAVE NO IDEA AND I MUST KNOW.

Warships. They're grey and usually the men on board are rather horny have been stuck on a floating chunk of metal for weeks/months. It is the term I've heard several ex-Navy people use to describe warships: big, grey, baby makers.

I have to admit that I never would have guessed that. Thanks for the extra learnin'! I always like knowing the origins of weird and different phrases and I had never heard that one before.

Bunch of monkeys on the ceiling, sir! Grab your egg-and-fours and let's get the bacon delivered!

LewDux		2012-02-18 01:40:25 PM

give me doughnuts: The only thing that is going to save most of Africa is the return of Colonialization.

Tatterdemalian: Which isn't going to happen unless someone can give a guarantee that the new colonists will never be uprooted and driven back out of Africa by a spasm of liberal guilt from their homelands.

Whoa, some people take their steampunk way to seriously

jjorsett		2012-02-18 01:46:53 PM

david_gaithersburg: Not another one of these threads where farkers begin screaming that we must commence killing people in order to save them. We haven't even started killing the Syrians yet, the US can't be expected to kill everyone.

Who here has advocated a war with (or more accurately, since Mugabe has brought it so low that it couldn't afford a rifle bullet, 'on') Zimbabwe? Our new policy is to lead from behind, and you can't get any behinder than letting them have their dystopia without outside intervention. If nothing else, they'll serve as a good bad example of what happens when you let a kleptocratic extreme leftist despot liberate your country from economic freedom and capitalism.

Slam1263		2012-02-18 02:07:22 PM

What did 0bama do now?

/oh, my bad.

Yaxe		2012-02-18 03:04:41 PM

jjorsett: david_gaithersburg: Not another one of these threads where farkers begin screaming that we must commence killing people in order to save them. We haven't even started killing the Syrians yet, the US can't be expected to kill everyone.

Who here has advocated a war with (or more accurately, since Mugabe has brought it so low that it couldn't afford a rifle bullet, 'on') Zimbabwe? Our new policy is to lead from behind, and you can't get any behinder than letting them have their dystopia without outside intervention. If nothing else, they'll serve as a good bad example of what happens when you let a kleptocratic extreme leftist despot liberate your country from economic freedom and capitalism.

Let's put it this way: Zimbabwe had a choice: Be oppressed by white farmers (and let no one kid you here, the Brits are not kind colonial masters), or have five or ten years of murdering your overlords before being oppressed by black kleptocrats.

In all certainty, Zimbabwe really just turned out slightly worse than your average decolonized country in Africa - into an utter shiathole. Right Liberia?

ChuDogg		2012-02-18 03:30:22 PM

olddinosaur: Delawheredad: Ahh the legacy of Jimmy Carter. The gift that just keeps giving. Egyptian unrest, Iran, Afghanistan, Mugabe the man had a solid brass touch!

I very clearly recall, when Mugabe was running white farmers off their land simply because they were white, I was denounced as a "racist" for opposing the "natural justice" underway in Zimbabwe.

How's all this hopey--changey thing workin' out fer ya?

It is funny to now watch the left back off from their support of Mugabe. When the land grabs first started their was a large contigenent of support from the left wing. Not all mind you, but certainly a very vocal and significant minority. You can even look at the threads in Democratic Underground from the early 2000s and people who denounced Mugabe and his thugs were called racists and railroaded out.

Now they blame Mugabe on "colonialism". I don't know when they will understand that politics based on anger, racism, and socialism simply doesn't work.

BolloxReader		2012-02-18 03:48:03 PM

I'm not sure why folks keep calling this guy a "liberal." I associate autocratic dictatorships with the likes of Cheney and of aristocracy. Anyone who has taken a Western Civ clasd understands the conservative-liberal continuum and where concentration of power into the hands of one or a few puts a government. The more dispersed the power and stronger the rights of individuals the more liberal a society is.

Some people here need to get a refund on their education because they certainly don't understand the struggles against centralized unitary authority. I strongly recommend Defensor Pacis as a starting point where a priest makes a reasoned case for separation of church and state, the virtue of secular rule by elected leaders and the proposition that the highest calling of government is to defend the peace so that the peole can prosper. All this in the 1300s, iirc.

Anyway, Mugabe definitely lies on the conservative end of the political spectrum.

relcec		2012-02-18 04:30:12 PM

at first I thought subby was talking about the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, but then I realized a million dollar bill for that celebration would be an incredibly low estimate of how much the british taxpayer will be f*cked over so that those inbreds that live off the public's generosity can party in style.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/Features/DG_WP200687 (new window)

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