Word: mugabeã
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2002-2002
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...required in Zimbabwe, where white farmers own 65 percent of commercial farmland, or 18.5 percent of the total area of the country. This is an entirely indefensible proportion given the miniscule percentage of whites living in Zimbabwe, but far less than the inflated figures often put forward by Mugabe??s proponents. However, the need for reform has been undisputed since independence. In fact, land reform was an important part of the 1979 negotiations that paved the way for the country’s independence. One must therefore ask why this reform has taken so long. Often, white governments...
...Mugabe??s greatest moves has been to simplify and polarize the debate on Zimbabwe such that it focuses exclusively on land reform and redistribution so, according to Mugabe, you are either for land reform or against it. This is a simplistic description of the situation, as in most cases it is the methods and legality of Mugabe??s reforms that are being questioned, not their necessity. Almost no one disputes the need for land reform. To do so is all but pointless anyway—the majority of white farmers have been forced off their land...
...land reform. According to data from the Commercial Farmers Union, compiled from lists published by the government in Feb. 2002, several hundred prime farms have been allocated to wealthy government ministers and their associates, rather than the landless farmers land reform is supposed to benefit. One member of Mugabe??s cabinet told the government-owned Herald newspaper recently that farmers should, “make sure they are members of Zanu-PF or risk losing land.” This program is not merely “marred by corruption and cronyism,” as Mugabe?...
...agriculture is based on loans from banks (requiring title deeds as surety) and the farms are designed to be worked as large, single plots (requiring technology and infrastructure). External observers agree that the estimated 6.5 million people currently facing starvation in the country are doing so largely due to Mugabe??s destructive policies...
...unfortunate side effect of a focus on the land issue is that it allows other vital concerns, such as human rights violations, to be virtually ignored. While some Western governments have criticized Mugabe??s human rights record (48 political deaths in the three month run-up to the presidential election in March, of which 32 were opposition members or supporters), the Western press focuses almost exclusively on white farmers and the land reform question, ignoring the more significant issue of widespread political torture, rape and murder...