Zimbabwe to rest of world: We lead the way....

Wookster

Generali wrote: »

It's easy for me and others to jest but I really feel sorry for Zimbabweans.

Mrs Generali worked for a Zim family in London. 'Ma ended up losing everything in Zim and Mrs Generali lost her job as a result of 'Ma's bitterness.

Zimbabwe truly is in an appalling state. Had there been change there, I might actually be tempted to go back and make a go of things with the current climate here and all.

Generali wrote: »

I'm very interested in the politics between the Aboriginals and later settlers of Terra Australis. Clearly the Aboriginal people were here first but it's also clear who has the Whip Hand.

There are some interesting dynamics going on there - I remember the first (iirc) apologies from an Australian PM to the Aboriginies from Kevin Rudd not too long ago making the news here. I saw him TV when I was in Oz last February and thought he was quite a straight talker.

Andrew64

The Z$ is now so worthless that the government have given up and allowed the use of other currencies - the US$, the Pound, the SA Rand, the Euro, even Botswana's currency!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7859033.stm

Wookster

Just a little story to show how the Z$ has devalued:

August 1999: return flight ticket from Harare -> London -> Vancouver Z$21k
December 2003: People's bus Masvingo -> Harare (about 300kms) Z$22k
December 2005: 300ml bottle of coke Z$19k.

Between December 2003 & December 2005, three noughts were taken off the currency, not once but twice.

Since then inflation has increased at an ever faster rate with prices doubling twice a day in most stores.

Generali

Wookster wrote: »

Zimbabwe truly is in an appalling state. Had there been change there, I might actually be tempted to go back and make a go of things with the current climate here and all.

Zim is in a horrible position for most people living there AIUI.

The only way to return would be on a tank I reckon. I'd lead you in if I thought we'd be successful!

Wookster wrote: »

There are some interesting dynamics going on there - I remember the first (iirc) apologies from an Australian PM to the Aboriginies from Kevin Rudd not too long ago making the news here. I saw him TV when I was in Oz last February and thought he was quite a straight talker.

IMO, apologies mean nothing. Actions are everything.

I spent some time in Darwin a few years back and I saw the whole 'long grass Abo' thing going on.

The Poms took the country from the Aboriginals in the C18th. Many Aboriginals were murdered afterwards which was Horrid. There were massacres on both sides.

Now we are where we are. The White Australia policy went in the 1980s and the result is increasingly visible.

Rudd is still an idiot no matter who he apologises to.

Rudd promised fiscal prudence and has delivered a deficit. Sir H may gloat but he doesn't have to help pay it off.

Wookster

Generali wrote: »

Actions are everything.

No one has really got an answer to this, be it the US with the American Indians, Canadian's with First Nations people, South Africa with the Black population or Australia with the Aboriginies.

I'm not sure there is an easy solution - certainly sticking people on bits of land in the middle of nowhere with nothing isn't going to solve any problems.

Generali

Wookster wrote: »

No one has really got an answer to this, be it the US with the American Indians, Canadian's with First Nations people, South Africa with the Black population or Australia with the Aboriginies.

I'm not sure there is an easy solution - certainly sticking people on bits of land in the middle of nowhere with nothing isn't going to solve any problems.

It seems reasonable that an Aboriginal person could have claim to the Opera House.

How to value the increase in value that occurs from having the Sydney Opera House built on the land? Alternatively, how to value the cost of having the Opera House destroyed so the land can be returned to hunting ground?

It's all very hard. My sympathies lie with the Aboriginal people although not the horrid PC manner in which they are dismissed....

Wookster

Generali wrote: »

It seems reasonable that an Aboriginal person could have claim to the Opera House.

hmmmmm

What do you say to the theory that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? That is something substantive was to be done that it should be focused around education and levelling the playing field between the people whose opportunities were greatly reduced through disposession?

purch

No one has really got an answer to this, be it the US with the American Indians, Canadian's with First Nations people, South Africa with the Black population or Australia with the Aboriginies.

I think Carol Thatcher has a generic word that covers all of these poeple :eek:

whathavewedone

Oh leave her alone, she was only describing someone's barnet and she wasn't even on air.

ray123

It is very sad that more is not being done for the poor people of Zimbabwe, which used to be the bread basket of Africa.
Even more sad is that the West are waiting like vultures for Mugabe to drop dead and are then likely to heavily re-invest and make a lot of money out of its re-devopment...