Shut up and send the check!

By Aussiegirl

While the G-8 countries meet to consider eliminating Africa's debt, Africa says butt out of our business. If one of our leaders wants to raze homes and bury children alive in them, that's our business -- and not the business of meddling colonial powers. Oh, yes, but it IS the business of meddling colonial powers to send reams of money, forgive debt, and to singlehandedly solve all of Africa's problems while being criticized and reviled for being evil, racist, capitalist war mongers. I get it. Just shut up and send us the check.

Meanwhile, Mugabe carries out his policy of urban renewal -- coming soon to a neighborhood near you, courtesy of our own Supreme Court decision yesterday legitimizing the seizing of private property for commercial development "for the good of the people".

Note that one of the motivations behind Mugabe's policies in these urban areas is to punish people in these areas who did not vote for him or support him. Who is to say that the same punitive political motives will not underly forthcoming decisions in our own municipalities where properties in areas which do not vote for the party in power are condemned and seized for the "common weal", thereby eliminating an inconvenient group of votes. There is no end to the economic and political mischief that can be imagined emanating from this stinking penumbra conceived by the Supremes. I never thought I would be making a legitimate comparison with what is happening in an African Marxist tyranny to what is happening in my own back yard.

Read the article from the BBC and be sure to click on the article and see the before and after shots of the "urban renewal project" of the madman Mugabe.

The African Union has rejected calls from the UK and the US to put pressure on Zimbabwe to stop its demolition of illegal houses and market stalls.

An AU spokesman told the BBC that it had many more serious problems to consider than Zimbabwe.

The UN says that 275,000 people have been made homeless. At least three children have been crushed to death.

Urging the AU to take action, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described recent events as "tragic".

The opposition say the demolitions are meant to punish urban residents, who have rejected President Robert Mugabe in recent elections.
He denies this, saying the crackdown is designed to "restore sanity" in urban areas, which he says have become overrun with criminals.

"If the government that they elected say they are restoring order by their actions, I don't think it would be proper for us to go interfering in their internal legislation," AU spokesman Desmond Orjiako told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

Presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo said he was "irritated" by calls from UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to do more to end the "horrors" in Zimbabwe.

"South Africa refuses to accept the notion that because suddenly we're going to a G8 summit, we must be reminded that we must look good and appease the G8 leaders," he said.

"We will do things because we believe they are correct and right."

The G8 summit of the world's most powerful nations is due to discuss efforts to relieve poverty in Africa on 8 July in Scotland.

The UK wants the G8 to do more to forgive Africa's debts and improve its term of trade.

The US insists that such efforts should only be made if African countries improve their standard of governance.

How shockingly arrogant of us!! To demand that the governments be accountable for their actions!

Correspondents say that many African leaders see Mr Mugabe as a hero for leading the fight against colonial rule.

. . .The children who have died were crushed to death when their homes were knocked down during Operation Murambatsvina [Drive out rubbish].

Meanwhile -- the dispossessed are still waiting for that UN Special Envoy.

. . . The United Nations is due to send a special envoy to Zimbabwe to investigate the demolitions.