Land ... a sensible solution

This issue is endemic to this region. It arises in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, in particular. During colonization the White settlers grabbed the land, privatized it and then excluded the Black majority from ownership. The resultant legacy is that the White group owns most of the land with the Black majority still dispossessed and, worst still, mere consumers of produce from this land to the economic benefit of the direct descendants of the settlers.

It is therefore perfectly understandable that there is real anger and dissatisfaction with the current situation.  In Zimbabwe the grotesque disparity was used as a populist tool to garner flagging political support, with the White landowners brutally victimized in the process. Land was simply grabbed and “redistributed” in accordance with the political interest of those already in power. 

Still what happened in Zimbabwe, as crude, grotesque, cruel and inhuman as it was, is generally approved of among the dispossessed, disadvantaged masses of Africa, and in many other parts of the World. The reason is that the land issue is not only inherently emotive, it is a touchstone, litmus test of prevailing socio-economic injustice.  No amount of legal and “technically correct” reasoning will alter this reality in the hearts and minds of, not only the disadvantaged masses, but also in the mind of any fair minded human being. 

It is a well established truism that if you want to see if there is racism, ignore all the rhetoric, policies and laws,  just see who is benefiting. If one racial group is benefiting, and another excluded from such benefits, the presence of racism is proved. (per Beverley Tatum internationally recognized expert on racism). In this instance the gross disparity as regards land ownership, on racial lines, proves racism in this sector as a matter of systemic reality.

Obviously a constitutional democracy like South Africa is obliged to address this. Its Constitution expressly requires that all forms of “previous disadvantage” be redressed. There is a constitutional, legal and moral obligation that has accrued. In addition the matter requires attention purely in terms of “risk management”. Such grotesque social imbalances precipitates social upheaval, sometimes with catastrophic consequences.  Just ask those who found themselves in the tumbrils during the French Revolution.

So what is the solution?  To date we have not seen any sensible solution advanced.  The Zimbabwe model is thoroughly objectionable for obvious reasons, which include gross breaching of fundamental human rights. The SADC Tribunal has correctly ruled accordingly. Land grabbing WILL also guarantee a collapse of the economy, as South Africa becomes an international pariah State as happened with Zimbabwe.

This problem, as a component of sound socio-economic macro management, is not new. None other than Peter F. Drucker with an established international reputation as both a perceptive analyst of the present and an astute seer of the future, whether in management and decision-making theory, economic policy, or political events, tackled this issue head on in his seminal work “The New Realities”, New York.- Harper & Row, Publishers, 1989.

In simple terms, he advocates that the current management of the land issue is fundamentally flawed/misplaced. This should undergo a paradigm change as follows : –

1. The owners of productive land should receive tax breaks. 

2. The owners of unproductive land should be taxed for every square meter that is unproductive ... on an increasing scale over time.  

The result will be that –

a) owners will be forced to make land productive, including providing employment;

b) more produce per acre will be the necessary outcome;

c) with owners forced to sell unused land;

d) which land government is compelled to take up for redistribution to those who can, and will, produce.

Simple!   Logical!   Fair! … and a very sound business model for the country, particularly if combined with an astutely calculated limit on how much land any one person can own. ...

  Obviously government is then in a position to prosecute innovative, imaginative, sensible programs to make land available to the dispossessed masses in a way that will guarantee good outcomes all round.  Typically the graduates of agricultural colleges receive preference and are then supported after receiving land.  At this point the racial disparity is addressed in a fair, reasonable and advantageous manner.

The model I am advocating takes care of an important fundamental. In African law and custom there was NO concept of private ownership of land. ALL land was communal. The underlying philosophy was that land could only be used for "communal benefit".  This model includes that philosophy!

Now what could be simpler?? … relatively speaking?? 

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Posted on social media 4 years ago.
No one has been able to fault this.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe surrenders

At 17:52 hours this 21 November 2017 BBC interrupted its Hard Talk interview with my friend Dr Ibbotson Mandaza to flash the news of the resignation of Robert Gabriel Mugabe as President of Zimbabwe, the country of my birth and upbringing.

Thereafter all the news channels provided wall-to-wall video and audio footage of our people euphorically celebrating Mugabe’s demise in the streets of Harare, our capital city. 
I was not moved to share in this euphoria, as welcoming as the news was. I have been overwhelmed by feelings and thoughts steeped in memories … really, really bad memories.
The first is that of my school friend, a boy genius and brilliant guitarist, Stanford Abrahams, who disappeared in the hands of then Prime Minister Mugabe’s CIO. So did a wonderful member of our community, Yousf Carim, and a bright young lad named Rodman.
I remember being solicited by a really beautiful Zimbabwean lady at a Botswana hotel who had to leave and talk to a man who had just arrived with that look of hopelessness that we have become accustomed to. The Hotel manager then approached me and explained, with tears in his eyes, that the lady and the man were husband and wife. Both were graduates but had resorted to the wife having to prostitute herself in order to ensure the survival of their family back home.
I think of how my wife and I had to uproot our family in 1992 and thereafter work in three different countries, as second-class citizens, because our homeland had degraded to a hell hole.
I think of how our community has been decimated by the necessity of most of its members having had to leave and seek refuge, sanctuary and hope in countries across this planet.
I think of my son in Auckland, Zealand, my Daughter in Canada and friends all so far, far away.
I think of my 6 goats, the progeny of 6 goats that were given to me by a great spiritualist, named Fuyane, who had subjected me to the lungisa ritual after my birth. They were bayoneted to death together with my extended Ndebele family at Lupane during Mugabe’s Gukurahundi genocide.
I think of my sham interview at the Judicial Services Commission of South Africa where I was denied basics of procedural fairness and made the victim of outrageous lies on account of the ever present xenophobic undercurrent that insidiously infuses interactions in foreign lands that we find ourselves in.
I think of how Pam and I have suffered pernicious discrimination and xenophobia despite being at the very top of our professions.
I think of how we lost all our savings and investments.
In my mind's eye, I see that little dog lying on the body of its owner during the brutalization of farmers as victims of ethnic land cleansing.
I think of all those of our people who were cremated alive and thrown off trains in the so called xenophobic violence of free South Africa.
Most of all I think of how we have been stripped of our innate dignity as human beings even though we are born of one of the most richly endowed countries on this planet. Despite being human beings of exceptional talent our people have been reduced to apologists, refugees, beggars … international migrants … ever grateful for just being treated as human. 
My mind just continues to play out like a horror movie …. 
The greatest crime that Robert Mugabe committed, apart from genocide, was stripping our people of their dignity. 
As I watch our people, delirious with joy, I wonder if they will lose that tinge of hopelessness in their eyes that has been with them for too long. 
Like me. Robert Mugabe, was schooled in the loving way of Jesus Christ ... and yet chose the way of Satan.
I am smothered in the darkness of the past, struggling to see the light.
God forgive me but I really cannot help hoping that his demise as President is the first step to him soon burning in Hell.

The Mugabe Dynamic … in summary

As much as our people detested racism in Rhodesia very few were interested in an armed struggle and there was a huge appreciation of what White folk had to offer. That is why our people became by far the most skilled in Africa and for a good chunk of the planet. In addition our people had a nervous scepticism about the Communist/Socialist ideology.
That is why most did not join the armed struggle even though this is now an inconvenient truth.
What Ian Douglas Smith did was to recklessly squander the deep-seated respect their goodwill that our people had for Whites. Time and time again he was warned that his ideological commitment to White supremacy would guarantee an eventual takeover by a Mugabe type leader.
Bishop Abel Muzorerwa was essentially a man of peace desperately trying to reconcile all or people to a road map of peace, goodwill and brotherly love. Our people did respond en masse to his culture and, for a while, the UANC was a vehicle for delivery to freedom.
However our people did an overnight switch in 1980 from Muzorewa’s UANC to Mugabe’s ZANU-PF because psychologically Mugabe presented as the counterpoint to Ian Smith’s racist ideology of White dominance. As said, Smith and his racist supporters had recklessly squandered the incredible good will of our people.

Mugabe made a good start and was genuinely committed to reconciliation as regards the bad past. Eloquent proof of this was the appointment of none other than Ian Smith’s General Peter Walls as our first Army Commander.

However, when his army committed the Gukurahundi genocide in 1983 Mugabe was hopelessly compromised once he found that he could do nothing about the perpetrators.
From that moment Zimbabwe was a de facto military State and its operational mode and culture proved this with increasing intensity.
Things deteriorated for Mugabe until 2008 when he and his Party lost the election.
As Zimbabwe had been a de facto military State from 1983 the military leaders declined allegiance to Morgan Tsvangirai and his winning MDC Party as this would have meant a change to a democratic State.
Tsvangirai's problem was that he was from a labour background. This was a BIG problem for African leaders, as they had not forgotten how another labour nobody, Frederick Jacob Titus Chiluba, came from nowhere to unseat the elder statesman of African leaders, Dr Kenneth David Buchizya Kaunda.

Right there constitutionalism and democracy in Zimbabwe were comprehensively challenged.
Right there SADC and the African Union were also comprehensively challenged.
Right there, led by Thabo Mbeki, the SADC and the AU comprehensively failed our people.

Instead of standing up for our people the SADC and the AU, led by President "no crisis" Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, implemented something called “quiet diplomacy” and forced a diabolical “GNU solution” that guaranteed that Mugabe and ZANU-PF retained power.
That solution was as much a "packaged military coup" as is what is occurring right now. Both apparently place the military above the Constitution.

Today the military have not so much staged a coup as simply exercised its status as our de facto government as endorsed by the SADC and the AU in 2008.

So it was crass hypocrisy for President Jacob Zuma to turn on the military and preach “constitutionalism”.
South Africa, the SADC, and the AU, tore up “constitutionalism” in 2008.

Ironically, we have Grace Mugabe to thank for having triggered this situation with her diabolical machinations to hijack our country into the lap of a Mugabe dynasty.

Mankind and hallucination

Man as a species is fundamentally distinguished from other species because we have the power of reason. We are able to appreciate reality, learn from it and thereafter make decisions that are logical and in accordance with reality.
This is what is meant by intelligence.

We are also able to indulge in abstract  thoughts.
Abstract thought may or may not be related to reality. It is at this point that imagination kicks in.  We see examples of this in paintings that are imaginative creations that may or may not be related to reality.
Dante's Inferno is an example of pure imagination.
Crucifixion, by Nabil Kanso, relates to a historical reality.

We use imagination to amuse ourselves and that is why we have "Father Xmas" and the "Tooth Fairy".
We also use imagination to fill gaps in our knowledge and in this mode we spent a very long time imagining that the earth was flat and the center of the universe.

The good thing is that we are pathologically curious and throughout history we have been on a journey of discovery.
As we made discoveries our understanding of reality improved and we were able to progressively replace imagination with understanding.
Absolutely critical to this progression to better and better understanding has been our discovery of more and more FACTS, i.e, objectively observable and provable reality. So telescopes opened up the sky and we soon learned that we were not the center of the universe.

It is the understanding of reality that has ensured that we have progressed as a species to this point and ensured our dominance on this planet.
All of the above is good, very good indeed.

The problem is that the imagination component of these attributes can and does go wrong.
Imagination is but a hairs breath aware from hallucination.
So regrettably it is often the case that in trying to fill the gaps of that which we do not understand by imagination we slip into hallucination.
Hallucination is often a failure of our attempt to understand. Because of a limitation in our power of reason we struggle imaginatively and start to hallucinate.

The limitation in our power of reason is often driven by ignorance, i.e, a failure to appreciate the reality of whatever issue or circumstance is confronting us. That failure occurs because intelligence is not unlimited. Intelligence varies from man to man ... just as there are huge differences in the processing powers of computers.
The bigger the limitation in intelligence, the more likely it is that we will have our appreciation of reality distorted to the point of hallucination.
The same result is ensured when we miss-appreciate perhaps just one fact in a compendium of facts that make up a whole.
In each case we start to imagine things ... and when we imagine things we may well slip into hallucination.

This hallucination can then become a pandemic when it is propagated by a dominant group.  In any grouping of our planetary species there are those who are dominant and who seek to maintain that dominance by embedding their reason, imagination or hallucinations. Because we are also imbued with a herd instinct we tend to succumb to, connive at and collude with the machinations of the dominant groups. In this way we have experienced mass hallucination.

Mass hallucination induced by a dominant group was witnessed by the whole world as regards the apartheid saga.
It is very important to note that apartheid was not conceived and propagated by evil wicked human beings that got up one morning and decided that they needed to indulge themselves in gratuitous violence and cruelty on other humans.
NO, No, NO ... the fathers of apartheid were otherwise "normal good human beings", just like you and me.

What went wrong was that there was a failure in which intelligence and understanding was replaced by imagination to the point of hallucination.
This was, in part, triggered by a miss-appreciation of just one fact, i.e., that ethnic difference could never render one human a lesser human.
That miss-appreciation was induced by acceptance of a statement in perhaps the greatest product of human imagination, i.e, the Bible.
That statement was to the effect that some humans were predestined to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. Joshua 9:21

Another good example is that we used to imagine that natural misfortune, such as falling ill, was on account of "witchcraft" perpetrated by humans riding hyenas at night in order to do us harm. So we got a con man, garbed in feathers and animal skin, to prance about and "smell" out innocent humans as witches and wizards. We then skewered them alive up the rectum.

The apartheid founders were not bad humans. Just ignorant.
We were not bad humans. Just ignorant.

We need to guard against ignorance by understanding that hallucination may well overtake us when we are not diligent about using our intelligence to deal in FACTS and not imagination.

Newton was able to conclude that gravity existed because the apple falling from the tree was an observable provable fact.

Caster Semenya – “the Other”

The book I penned, based on my life experiences, is titled “The Other”. It was a title that was self-suggestive once I had written the thing.
This is because it became blindingly clear to me that, as a general proposition, people had a regrettable propensity to relate to each other as “us”, “them” and “others”. This was certainly the case in Rhodesia, my birth country. Native Africans and settler Whites were very much in an “us” and “them” relationship. We Coloureds, "makarhaadiis" or "mabusumani", were regarded as “others”.
Conferring human beings the status of being “the other” is to render them as ambivalent and irrelevant. They are divested of, not only the right to equality, but the right to participate and contribute in social and political interaction, be it confrontational or cooperative. They become sub-human.
The key to, and the purported justification for this state of affairs, was that we Coloureds were different from the dominant groups. As much as we had the genes of both these groups we emerged from the womb as neither white nor black, but mostly as a rather nice shade of brown with hair that was also neither really straight nor really crinkly.
We were physically different from the other groups. That difference was ensured by the admixture of our Native African and settler White genes. Genes are capricious. So some of us Coloureds are visually more Native African in appearance and others are more settler White.
That visually obvious difference ensured my status of being “the other”. Being “the other” divested me of the basic human right of equality. It was used to justify subjecting me to pernicious discrimination and exclusion … even as regards the political contestation between the “us” and “them” groups.
Any anthropologist would have certified me as human. Science confirms that my visually obvious difference to the settler Whites and Native Africans is due to the admixture of genes I possess.
And so it is with Caster. Her visually obvious difference ensures, in the opinion of so many, ample justification to discriminate against her and exclude her from sporting contestation. As was the case with me, in Rhodesia, the admixture of her genes guarantees all this, despite the fact that science has fully confirmed her as being female.
Now who are we kidding here.?
Do we really not know that the athlete that is a champion at high jump is tall and has long legs because of his/her genes? So too as regards the burly shot putter and the big chested light weight track stars. Are we really not aware that they are good at the events that they compete and excel in is mostly attributable to their genes??
Caster is no different from you and me. She is human. She is female. Her visually obvious differences have been determined and set by the admixture of her genes, as is the case with you and me.
Because of my gene structure I have an enviable honey brown complexion and have been a champion at shot putt, pole vault, chess, darts and golf. However I came third last in the 100-yard sprint. Because of my gene structure I have never been a runner and could never have been a champion at running. My genes conferred an advantage as regards the events in which I excelled but divested me of any meaningful prowess at sprinting.

Caster is no different. Her gene structure undoubtedly confers an advantage as regards track events. As much as hard work and training helps. Her sprinting prowess is primarily attributable, as always, to her genes. Her visual appearance is due to the capricious nature of genes.

She is to be lauded for having got off her butt, (as I tried to do) explored her capacity and talents and exploited them on the world stage. Caster is not “the Other”. She is not sub-human.
She is part of “us” and “them” as regards the track. She has every right to compete equally … just as I had a right to be treated as an equal.

This strident carping about her status as a human being needs to just stop for being the product of crass ignorance, irrationality, and even bigotry.

The maniacal buffoon Donald Trump threatens genocide.

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened North Korea, promising “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” following new reports the country has escalated its nuclear program. 08 August 2017.

This report was confirmed by video footage showing Trump bellowing and snorting that if North Korea “continues” to threaten the USA it would be subjected to “fire and fury like the world has never seen,”

This is by far the most irresponsible statement/threat that any leader has made in modern times or even history.

It is diabolically irresponsible.

a)      What Trump means is that North Korea will be subjected to an attack that exceeds that experienced by the Japanese at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It cannot mean anything esle.

b)      During the final stage of World War II, the United States dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively.. The two bombings killed at least 129,000 people and maimed tens of thousands of others who suffered terrible lifelong afflictions on account of burns and radiation sickness.

c)      North Korea is ruled by a military junta, headed by Kim Jong Un as its tyrannical leader. This regime undoubtedly deserves its reputation as being evil considering its record on the human rights front. Politically motivated murder is routine with victims even including Kim’s own Uncle. Thousands find themselves starving to death in labour camps and prison farms.

d)      However, the populace of North Korea, the ordinary folk, are no more guilty or responsible for any of this than you and I are.
From cradle to grave they are kept totally subjugated on every count and in every respect.
Access to information and education is restricted to only that which ensures total loyalty and adulation of the “Great Leader Kim…” and includes ridiculous, fatuous nonsense.

e)      Simply put, the people of North Korea are like kids at boarding school, guilty of nothing.

So we need to understand very, very clearly the unavoidable implications of Trump's threat.
It is simply impossible to subject North Korea to “fire and fury like the world has never seen” without killing millions of innocent humans who are the general populace.

This renders Trump’s threat diabolical. It is a threat of mass genocide.

It is the most irresponsible statement/threat by any leader in modern times and historically.

Included in the implications is that fact that it is an open secret that North Korea has a plethora of military assets trained on South Korea to be activated in the event of an attack. This will guarantee the annihilation of South Koreans.

Lastly, it should be noted that Trump’s claim that North Korea is threatening the USA is disingenuous in the extreme. Kim Jong Un has been consistent in posturing that his development of nuclear capacity is so as to ensure that his country "can defend itself", especially in the light of the aggressive stance of the USA.

Since coming to power the Trump regime has indeed subjected North Korea to a continuous stream of bellicose sabre rattling.

An obvious question that remains hypocritically unanswered is - since it was the United Nations that imposed the ban on nuclear weapons why is it not that body that is addressing the issue with North Korea?
Why is it the Trump regime that has assumed the right and responsibility to bring North Korea into line?

The sooner this lunatic Donald Trump is divested of all responsibility as regards North Korea the better.
The USA is not the World’s policeman and the UN is being decidedly shameful in its acquiescence, tolerance and connivance at the dangerous machinations of Donald Trump.


What is utterly appalling, if not contemptible, is that none of the stream of talking heads and so called experts appearing on the news media channels condemned Trump's threat.
What they routinely did was to obfuscate it in every conceivable way.

And there is actually a very, very dangerous elephant in the room here. North Korea is supported by China and Russia. Both are nuclear powers.

World Athletic Champs --- versus --- fickle, unkind, unjust humans

I am on repeated record as saying that we need to understand that most of us have a very poor, fickle and flawed sense of justice. It is why I contend that jury trials are a lotto.
This was proved once again yesterday on the occasion of the 100 meters final of the World Championships in the United Kingdom.
The finalists were each treated to a standing ovation by the crowd, especially Usain Bolt and the English athlete. This was fully deserved.
However, Justin Gatlin was once again booed at crescendo levels of volume.
Perhaps worst still was the fact that all the commentators, treated his incredible win as a none event, hardly acknowledging it and concentrated on heaping even more praise, adulation and worship on Usain Bolt, as if had won the race. Bolt actually came third.
Bolt had already been deservedly praised for his incredible record as an athlete for many hours and in every conceivable way. However, this did not change when he actually lost to Gatlin and Christian Coleman in one of the most exciting finishes in history.
Gatlin’s win was all but ignored.
The reason why Gatlin was subjected to this disdainful, contemptuous treatment by the crowd and the commentators was that Gatlin failed himself and society in the past by involving himself with drugs.
However, and this point cannot be stressed enough. Gatlin paid his dues for his deviant conduct. Society exacted a penalty and he served it out. The same applies to Luvo Manyonga.

So, the question that arises is this --- Do we really not believe that those of us who fail, make mistakes and err should be rehabilitated??
Do we repudiate the wise counsel of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela that it is not that we will stumble, but it is critical that we get up?
Apparently not?
Apparently, Gatlin must forever be condemned and held in contempt … despite the fact that he has got up from his stumble, rehabilitated himself and pulled off an incredible human achievement.

That is why I am on record, as also stressed during the Carte Blanche coverage of “The Oscar Pistorius Trial Of The Century” that most of us have a poor, flawed and fickle sense of justice.

Both Justin Gatlin and our Luvo Manyonga failed in the past. Yesterday they proved Nelson Mandela right.

Please join me in according them a salute for incredible human achievement … Gatlin for winning the 100 meters and Luvo for winning the long jump.

As for Almaz Ayana, who decimated the field in the 10,000 meters, all one can say is that we lesser mortals bow and prostrate ourselves before her in unreserved acknowledgment and adulation. What a star.!! Really!!!
If this were Roman/Greek times we would elevate her to the status of Goddess of the track.

PS: I am soooo bemused by the fact that nearly all the British athletes are migrants, starting off with Mohammed "Mo" Farah. that they shed tears of joy over .... and yet brexit is founded on the proposition that the Brits don't need migrants ... lol ...

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Also recommended is ----- https://coginito.blogspot.co.za/2011/05/osama-bin-laden-some-are-good-even-bad.html

and my book at ...... http://proudlyzimbabwean.orgfree.com/book_page.html