Zimbabwe to nationalise all land

[Gustaf]

Zimbabwe...*shakes head*. Stupid ers. I wish they'd have free elections and let the MDC win, maybe we would get some order then.

[Gustaf]

The Rhodesian government was far superior to the current regime in 'Zimbabwe'.

The Smiith-regime nearly destroyed the countrys economy an a lot of rebuilding had to take place after 1980 - oh, and a few were better of during the "Rhodesia"-intermetzo but the majority were living in absolute poverty. I can under no circumstances accept a regime that define people by colour and that believe that because your skin colour is "white" you are more important than those whose skin is darker.

All good points.. and I never said it was perfect, just better than the current regime.  The real heyday in that part of the world was the British Empire.

For the majority no. There still is a lot of poverty and disaster, but countries like Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia (I know - never a british colony - only RSA and Der Kaiser) and even South Africa the majority is better of than they where 10, 20, 50 and 100 years ago. They are all still very poor but in these countries people have a chance to do something about it. THAT is my main dislike when it comes to Zimbabwe. The Zanu-FP have taken away that right and is abusing real problems like the need for a land reform, to promote their own agenta. Take this from a man who spends most of his time studying the "Good Old Days." There is very little good about those days (oh and remember it was only a few hundred kilometers south of the Limpopo that those nice British fellows invented the Concentration Camp. What a jolly bunch )

You cannot simply make intertemporal comparisons though. You have to try and reason about what it would be like today if those countries had remained parts of the British Empire.

[Gustaf]

The Rhodesian government was far superior to the current regime in 'Zimbabwe'.

The Smiith-regime nearly destroyed the countrys economy an a lot of rebuilding had to take place after 1980 - oh, and a few were better of during the "Rhodesia"-intermetzo but the majority were living in absolute poverty. I can under no circumstances accept a regime that define people by colour and that believe that because your skin colour is "white" you are more important than those whose skin is darker.

All good points.. and I never said it was perfect, just better than the current regime.  The real heyday in that part of the world was the British Empire.

For the majority no. There still is a lot of poverty and disaster, but countries like Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia (I know - never a british colony - only RSA and Der Kaiser) and even South Africa the majority is better of than they where 10, 20, 50 and 100 years ago. They are all still very poor but in these countries people have a chance to do something about it. THAT is my main dislike when it comes to Zimbabwe. The Zanu-FP have taken away that right and is abusing real problems like the need for a land reform, to promote their own agenta. Take this from a man who spends most of his time studying the "Good Old Days." There is very little good about those days (oh and remember it was only a few hundred kilometers south of the Limpopo that those nice British fellows invented the Concentration Camp. What a jolly bunch )

You cannot simply make intertemporal comparisons though. You have to try and reason about what it would be like today if those countries had remained parts of the British Empire.

Do you think that I would have been better if Zimbabwe still was a part of GB??

That obviously depends on the forms of the government. If the scenario is that Britain tried to keep it as a colony or an integrated part of the country against the will of the population, then obviously not. If an agreement that both sides agreed on had been reached and in which the black population was not discriminated against (let's remember that GB was a much more tolerant country after WWII than RSA or Rhodesia and that they even planned to overthrow the Rhodesian government in the 60s) then yes, it would most likely have been better. Though not likely to occur, of course.