Cowboy Confessional

How bad must life be to eagerly emigrate to South Africa?

The AP has a story in circulation today noting a mass migration of people from Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) to South Africa.  The last travelers I encountered returning from SA said it was a barely tolerable cesspool, littered with occasional five-star resorts.  Yet a country that ranks 57th in per capita GDP and 178th in life expectancy is a veritable paradise compared to Zimbabwe.

What makes Zimbabweans miserable?  Nearly everything.  The economy is in free fall, approaching terminal velocity.  100,000 Zimbabwe dollars equals about 40-cents in the U.S., thanks to the non-stop Zimbabwean currency printing presses (apparently these presses are the only working machinery in the country). Little wonder that Zimbabwe per capita GDP ranks 129th, with every man, woman, and misfit taking down a mere $2,600 a year.

With Zimbabwe dollars being worth barely more than plugged nickles, there are rampant shortages of … well …. everything except Zimbabwe dollars.  A fleeing expat might well be better fed eating the currency than trying to buy food with it.

Back when Zimbabwe was still Rhodesia, there was a civil war.  Misportrayed in the media (as things perpetually are) the struggle pitted an avowed communist guerrilla (whose face looks more gorilla than guerrilla) by the name of Mugabe against colonialist and their native hired help.  Mugabe was raiding productive farms that were feeding the population, who bought the food with uninflated currencies.  Yet in the intellectually squishy days of the 1970’s — the same decade that gave us Jimmy Carter and disco — Mugabe was lauded by liberals as a man dedicated to freeing his countrymen (well, at least his non-white countrymen) from oppressive European landowners.

And some people bought the story, including the British who engineered the hostile Zimbabwe takeover.  So far the Brits have botched up the middle east, the far east, and now Africa.  I’m not sure we want Parliament as an ally.

Mugabe (rhymes with robbery) started a schizophrenic pillaging of private property, confiscating everything including dirt, and giving it to his diminishing band of fellow thugs.  Since pirates rarely value their ill-gotten booty, much of what was productive industry and agriculture fell into disuse, igniting a downward economic spiral.  Zimbabwe went from being a land of enough to a land of very little to a land of let’s get the hell out of here.

Naturally some his fellow Zimbabweans disagreed with Mugabe’s management style, which can be politely described as fatal.  From the moment the British blundered in arranging Mugabe’s extortion, he started silencing opposition.  A non-amusing historical footnote is that his original storm troopers were trained in North Korea.  North Korea, being an axis-of-evil, makes Mugabe a spoke-of-evil.

So now after 26 years of systematic decimation of the country, economy, and community, folks are voting with their feet and footing it to any neighboring nation.  Near endless murder and deprivation will motivate anyone.

The sad part is many people saw the insanity before it occurred.  Mugabe did not hide his political philosophy, and his brutal raids on Rhodesian farms showed the violence he was willing to commit.  Nothing in his words, deed or character indicated that he would be anything less than an utter dictator.  And thus he has been for 26 years.

The lesson is that it is better to kill a demon than negotiate with one.  Mugabe was the terrorist of his time.  Let this harsh lesson not be repeated in our times.

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