anybody watching the Zimbabwean elections?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best...


but by all accounts things aren't going that well

saw someone doing the running man the other night - looked pretty good too

err no


last I heard Mugabe was buying votes by giving away cars to doctors and widescreen TVs to other professionals

I guess one should not give up on any nation - there should always be hope - but the country looks so hopeless with 100,000% inflation, food crisis, HIV crisis, etc

opposition looks set to win by a landslide

what better reason doe we need to declare a state of emergency and suspend democracy?

$165,000 for a bunch of carrots!

no wonder they're giving away tv's then

yeh that's a collapsed currency right THURR!

Why would I watch the Zimbabwe election?

Any lessons to be learned that havent already been played out in other nations? No? Well they should get their shit together then...

There is NO WAY that fuckward will just had over Zimbabwe. The election is so that the world can see something is happening and will make the few people asking questions shut up.

Mugabe needs a bullit and that is the ONLY way that country will carry on without him being the leader.

I supported him when he kicked out all the white farmers tho

yup

While it may have satisfied a temporary inclination for retribution, such policies aren't always the most beneficial in the long run for society are they?

Maybe there is a lesson in that...

Nice troll buddy.

love that last line

nah, just thinking what most Africans are thinking.

if African are thinking that then they really are as stupid as some make out to be but then they did elect a rapist and fraudster to be next head of the ANC and believe in AIDS fairy stories about white supremacist conspiracies right? oh and not the small matter of fucking little virgin children and killing them in voodoo ceremonies

the white farmers were the only thing standing between starvation and a reliable harvest

sane, sensible Africans elsewhere recognise this

You stupid bastard...

Europeans colonised and raped Africa forever, it's the spread of European dominated Christianity thats causing most of the aid problems there.

http://www.martinrothonline.com/MRCC11.htm

Catholic fucking churchs in Africa are still stopping people from using condoms. It is ultimately an EUROPEAN cause.

All the ethnic problems in Africa are cause by European colonials drawing up borderlines and whim and shifting different ethnic groups left and right to cause new ethnic tensions that never existed. White farmers are still the richest people in Africa, simply due to their white previlage. GOOD Riddance to them!

Christianity and monotheism ultimately can be blamed on the Middle East so that brings us back to square one as far as that argument goes.

However the spread of AIDS has nothing to do with Christianity as Christians preach abstinence before marriage, monogamy and most definitely NOT promiscuity.

Which, however seems to be the practise of Africans independent of any religion be it theistic or animist.

get your facts right ignorant one

utter nonsense

woop woop!

so ZANU-PF has lost it's majority in parliament! And there will be a run off for the Presidency..

I'm starting to feel really optimistic... it'll take a while but hopefully Zim will turn into a functioning society again where the people can actually make a life for themselves again...

(and maybe they can start playing test cricket again too, and return to the glory days of the flower brothers )

is the opposition party - or soon to be ruling party going to be any better for ZM?

Excuse my ignorance but all too often in these sorts of situations we see one lot of scumbags replaced by another

*hopes his thoughts are unfounded

yeah, well the problem with Zim now is that it's so fucked, it's going to be incredibly difficult to get out, and getting out is probably going to mean some really really unpopular decisions are made. Things won't get better overnight, and people are still going to suffer at the hands of the MDC.

It took pinochet to get chile out of hyperinflation...

Probably the West and Western institutions will be more willing to help Zimbabwe out under a new, more moderate leader.

LMAO!!! The West helping Africa....

Despite the past, it is possible for better assistance from the West.

This time though the IMF and World Bank are more likely to direct investments into the private sector rather than towards Government and require measurable results in allocating funds.

There has already been written acknowledgement towards a preference of using grants instead of loans too, to relieve the burden of unsustainable debt.

It is possible, I wouldn't regress into complete cynicism yet.

Guess you don't know about disaster capitalism...

I guess you're talking about Naomi Klein's new book.

While I enjoyed No Logo, I have not read this most recent work, but I watched a few video interviews on You Tube recently regarding it and all I can say is that she grossly misrepresents Milton Friedman.

While Milton certainly had his flaws, a tendency to over simply things and to take libertarianism to an extreme of privatizing parks etc, he's not the guy Naomi is trying to make him out to be, he has good ideals and believes in what he says, its simply a conflict in ideology on how to approach problems.

He has a very different approach and She's distorting things, If the interviews I have seen are anything to go by, I would take what she says regarding Disaster Capitalism with a grain of salt.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe has conceded defeat

So you are one of those fucks...

whilst its great to have new CA blood.... Dark_light you might want to read this:

www.biggie.co.nz/interaction/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57888

you forget bob he's an anrachist

also fails miserably at comprehension

Depends what "one of those fucks" constitutes?

If you mean I'm a Monetarist then no, not strictly, but if you mean someone who believes that claims should be accurate rather than distorted then yes, I'm one of those fucks.

Naomi Klein misrepresents Milton Friedman and makes him out to be some kind of antidemocratic dark-night using a shock doctrine to force free market reforms into existence.

I think she has the right heart (as many liberals do) but I suspect that she misunderstands him and economics. Whatever his faults Milton Friedman is not who she thinks he is....

Here you go dark light, this is Milton Freidman's last interview and the title is aimed at Naomi Klein to indicate how she has distorted things.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-gardels/naomi-klein-read-milton-_b_66591.html

this scenario looking more likely by the day

I suggest reading the book also before commenting on it.. and did you know milton personally ? first name and comments on his personality..

Do I need to?

I never met him but I have read a number of his books, online interviews and watched many of his Free to Choose series on video. As a schooler I greatly respect his contributions to the field of economics which are vast.

His 'Monetary History of the United States' is monumental scholarly accomplishment, as is his refinement of the 'quantity theory of money' and his alteration to Keynes 'consumption function'

While Keynes ruled the first half of the 20th century, Friedman most certainly ruled the second. And for the record I doubt it most people on here, including Naomi Klein have as in depth knowledge on him as I do.

And its obvious she has a few things wrong about him because from watching her speak directly about Milton Friedman on You Tube when discussing her new book, she is clearly warping things, especially his influence in Chili which is made out to be disaster shock therapy.

I don't need to read the book to already know these aspects. She lacks academic understanding in economics and she makes references to Keynes and calls for a return to the Keynesian paradigm without realizing there are some genuine problems in Keynes work and advancements have been made since then.

Indeed I am a conservative Post Keynesian, my economic philosophy is strong mix of Keynesian and Monetarist economics, being influenced greatly by both these men, I know where Keynes is wrong (Naomi doesn't seem to be) and I know where Milton over exaggerates Government causing harm (crowding out), which Naomi focuses on but doesn't seem to understand that he has legitimate reasons to support his position.

Re: Naomi Klein's Disaster Capitalism - Here is a series of video edits from Naomi and Milton put together to show you how she misinterprets things and has a very a distorted understanding of history.

It's official. Mugabe has 'requested' a recount which will give him the presidency again (by his historical standards). There just isn't any other reason why they'd have delayed any announcement this long.

Votes from 23 constituencies will be recounted on Saturday.. The govt has had possession of the ballots for over two weeks so the opposition claim this has given Mugabe every opportunity to rig any recount.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7345097.stm

A sad, sad state of affairs. Shame on SA's Mbeki for not being more outspoken about this.

R

The first electorate has been recounted and Mugabe has won it... No surprises there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7362278.stm

R