Farrakhan, Mugabe, and Jimmy Carter - Zimbabwe is doomed

I remember President Jimmy Carter and his poor judgment in international affairs.  Rhodesia transitioned to Zimbabwe with his help in 1980.  This transition was seen as a model of representative democracy.  President Jimmy Carter praised Rev. Mugabe.  Rev. Mugabe promised a bright future as the new president and people danced in the streets as they sang songs of freedom and hope.  Unfortunately, it took the leaders of Zimbabwe 20 years to turned a productive country into a starving, non-producing, terror filled nightmare.

ONCE it was Africa's shining city on a hill, a beacon of prosperity and economic growth in a continent shrouded by poverty. Emerging in 1980 from a seven-year civil war against white-settler rule, the newly independent nation of Zimbabwe embraced racial reconciliation and invited the country's whites (one in 20 of the population) to remain and contribute to the new nation.

Today the country is unrecognisable. Zimbabwe has the fastest-shrinking peacetime economy in the world. This week, one US dollar will fetch 55 million Zimbabwe dollars on the street. Hyperinflation has soared well above 100,000%. Commercial agriculture — the backbone of the economy — lies shattered.

All but a few of the country's 5000 large-scale farmers, most of whom were white, have been run off their properties by Government-backed squatters and militia. From being a food exporter, Zimbabwe would now starve without UN famine relief. And even with it, half the population is malnourished.

I wish Zimbabwe the best in their struggle to survive.