Politics

I decided today that I've got to read up on the history of southern Africa. I can't understand why the people in power in that region, and So Africa particularly, seem hell bent on destroying it. I guess thousand-year-old tribal pride, ritual and tradition make enemies for eternity. It's rather like Mormons sealing themselves to their families til the end of time. Gruesome no matter which way you look at it. 

Robert Mugabe ruined Zimbabwe so completely that the once and future "breadbasket to Africa" is a ransacked, treacherous place where farmers are pushed off their land--or murdered off it--just because they are white. Don't make the mistake I did and call that a racist thing to say. Black or white, you shouldn't suffer for your skin color. Whites were not indigenous to Africa, but they've been there a long, long time, the obvious minority. They ruled harshly against the blacks, who now retaliate. For what good purpose? Worse than retaliation is the black-on-black violence that runs amok through that country. "Appalling" does nothing to describe it.

Zimbabwe's inflation rate is 165,000 percent. Life expectancy is 37. We think we've got it bad with our unemployment rates, but Zimbabwe boasts 80 percent. Minimum wage is 200,000,000,000 and one egg costs 20,000,000. The most damning thing is the way Mugabe tortures and kills his opponents. Look around on YouTube if you're curious, but don't do it while you're eating. 

Looks like Jacob Zuma wants to do the same damn thing to So Africa. Zuma's supporters are young and wild and uneducated. And 100 percent black. His foes are numerous, blacks and whites, including the likes of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, once so widely and wildly cherished by So Africans. These two bastions of So African reform are now ridiculed as old men, out of touch with their country.

And Zuma? He was charged with hundreds of cases of fraud, murder and rape, extortion and bribery. Just as he was about to go to trial, the whole lot got dismissed. Can't have the next president of So Africa serving from jail, now can we?

Like Zimbabwe, So Africa bristles with corruption. Will it go the way Zimbabwe did? I don't know, but I'm fretting about it. So I guess I'll find something to read about the politics that brought So Africa to this point. 

I have a feeling it won't make me happy.