EDITORIAL - Mugabe not welcome here
published: Tuesday | December 19, 2006



It has been suggested that Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, may visit Jamaica during next year's Cricket World Cup - perhaps in a private capacity.[/b]
But whether Mr. Mugabe wants to come to Jamaica as a private citizen or on a state visit, our Government should make it plain to him that he will not be welcome. And if he insists on coming, he must be told that he should expect no special courtesies.
That is not an easy position for us to take and at which we arrived at lightly. For Robert Mugabe used to be a hero to the Jamaican people and our country played an influential role in ending Zimbabwe's guerrilla war against white minority rule and the country's move to legitimate independence.
For those who may be ignorant of this once cherished relationship and of Mr. Mugabe prior to his descent into irrationality and vulgar authoritarianism, Mr. Mugabe led the bush war against white minority leader, Ian Smith, after the latter's declaration of what was then Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain. Jamaicans by and large supported the freedom fighters and pushed intransigent British governments to take action against Smith's racist administration.
At the 1979 Commonwealth Summit, the Jamaican Prime Minister, the late Michael Manley, was among those who laid out the moral and political argument to a resistant Margaret Thatcher for a credible British policy in Zimbabwe, ending halfway measures whose practical impact would be to maintain the white minority in ascendancy. Indeed, Bob Marley was the featured performer at the country's independence in 1980.
But unlike the example of Nelson Mandela in neighbouring South Africa a decade and half later, Mr. Mugabe lacked the inclination and moral stature to lead the country he inherited into a state of healing and renewal. Mr. Mugabe has been consumed with personal power and self-aggrandisement.
His ZANU-PF party has sought to gain a monopoly on power, a grab it at first found relatively easy because of its command on popular support. More recently, Mr. Mugabe and his party have continued the erosion of democracy through the rigging of elections and attacks on the free press, which has been subject to repressive laws and its members to intimidation, beatings and arbitrary arrest.
In the process, Mr. Mugabe has led his country to economic and social ruin. At the start of the decade, in an attempt to divert attention from his own policy failures, Mr. Mugabe grabbed farms from white farmers in a crude land redistribution programme that led to a collapse of agriculture. Inflation has jumped beyond the 1,000 per cent mark, food shortages and hunger are rampant, and life expectancy in Zimbabwe has fallen to below 40 years.
Now, at 82, Mr. Mugabe wants to extend his current six-year term, which expires in 2008, by another two years - a move that would require a change in the country's constitution. Apparently, Mr. Mugabe and ZANU-PF want the extra time to ensure that he can find a successor in his own image.
Jamaica must tell Mr. Mugabe that his actions and general behaviour are unacceptable and that unless he mends his ways he cannot be a guest in our country. If he comes, he should expect no warm welcome.
[line]
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published

Jamaica is still headed by HM Queen Elizabeth II of Windsor











so this might have been a direct order from Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)


so whatsthe pointof claiming that they are Independent

niceone.gif

Re: 'Mugabe not welcome here' Jamaic Gleaner 19th Dec 06

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com:80/gleaner/20061219/cleisure/cleisure1.html

" The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
in moments of comfort, but were he stands at times of challenge and
controversy . "

Martin Luther King Jr.

"No hogwashed Jewish Bwoy or Jewish own connected newspaper can tell or
dictate to us Afrikan Jamaican who we can and should have ina Jamaica".
Jamaica, afiwi land and the Rt Hon Robert Mugabe is most welcome to wi
Country Jamaica any-time of de day.

We have faith that our Beloved Prime Minster, The Rt Portia Simpson-Miller
will do her utmost best to welcome a fellow Head of State from our
Motherland, one who looks like us to wi country, Jamaica. We will
therefore, not be dictated to by any white folks especially those from US
Satan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Britain in deciding who we can
invite to our homeland. Robert Mugabe is a family member who is welcome
around the family table.

As a concerned Afrikan Jamaican and reading the above article several times
over, I noted with grave concern, the nasty vitriolic attack upon The Rt Hon
Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean's people's choice as their elected President
and democracy is yet again being used as the tool in which the buffoon (s)
of the article "Mugabe not welcome here" is choosing to follow US Satan and
the common thief Great Britain signalled a direct attempt to discredit the
Zimbabwean people's Government. This is unacceptable that a newspaper
company like the one in question should be attempting to bring down a
democratically elected Afrikan Government whilst we the people of Jamaica
merely stand by and allow this to attack to go unnoticed, thus

" History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of
social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the
appalling silence of the good people. "

Martin Luther King, Jr.

As a people (Afrikans) we are constantly under attack by white people
wherever we go, we then have a common duty to acknowledge, support and stand
firm with our people's choice of leadership. In this respect, we should be
standing in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe who through democratical
means elected Robert Mugabe as their President. White people such as the
likes of Bush, Blair, Howard of Australia, CIA, MI6, MOSAD, BBC, Fox, Shell
Oil et'al wants to destroy the Zimbabwean people's Government. The fact that
we overstand their game plans, then, we must never again allow any of these
foreign agents to dictate to us if we intend to liberate ourselves and to
gain the respect of the world.

Clearly the author of the article "Mugabe not welcome here" does not speak
for Afrikan Jamaicans living at home or abroad. What he or them is actually
is doing, is using Western style propaganda to cloud our judgement over the
real truth and this we must reject. This buffoon needs to read Dr Walter
Rodney's book, "How Europe underdeveloped Afrika" and to study the Global
Afrikan Congress Bridgetown Protocol at http://www.globalafrikancongress.com. He or
they will see that the mindset of the Afrikan people worldwide is now waking
up, converging and that things and tings have changed because of knowledge
of self. White supremacy is being booted out of our lives and we are now
making the family connection at long last. Our unity is a must.

The truth about what is going on in Zimbabwe day by day can be read online
via the Zimbabwe Herald instead of taking in the BBC, Fox or other white
supremacist racist Western press lies. If Afrikans/Descendants want to see
the real picture of what is going on in Zimbabwe and to understand the
effects of Western attacks, then they really should take a trip Zimbabwe, or
speak to the Zimbabwean Commission. Britain and US Satan are the two
leading countries that have put in place an illegal sanction blockade on
trade against Zimbabwe in order to weaken and destroy the economics
stability of that country in the hope that they may re-colonise Zimbabwe.

The Rt Hon Robert Mugabe, President of the People Republic of Zimbabwe has
won five landslide elections and the lost one he completely crippled the
Western sponsored opposition party, MDC. In fact the author of this article
"Mugabe not welcome here" and I take this to be the undemocratically elected
'Jamaican Gleaner Editorial' team whom I must confess is out of order. It
is my collective inference that the Editorial team has gone too far by
insulting the majority of Zimbabweans who dully elected The Rt Hon Robert
Mugabe as their President and who are they to be going against the will of
the majority of Zimbabweans. As Afrikan Jamaican where we are in the
majority, we should welcome our fellow Afrikan Heads of State as we would
like the same welcome for our Jamaican Head of State, The Rt Hon Partia
Simpson-Miller when she chooses to visit our motherland, then our people
there we hope will accord her the same courtesy.

On a personal note, Robert Mugabe is an Afrikan like us who have fought very
hard to liberate the Zimbabwean land from the European thieves/mass
murderers who represented a mere 4000 in number, but yet upon till the year
2000 controlled over 80% of the land. One should also not forget that after
World War 11, the British gave away lots of Zimbabweans' land to white
soldiers who had fought for them and non to the black Afrikans who also
fought for them. The Zimbabwean Government via the 2000 Land Reform Act has
substantially changed the balance of land ownership today and this has been
Robert Mugabe's main crime in the eyes of white people, those who are
ignorant and selfish like the author(s) that wrote this ridiculous article.
The fact of the matter is that white have never cared one iota about Afrikan
people and if they did, then they would not have stole the land in the first
place and murdered so many Afrikans the real owners at the time.

Dr Frances Creswell in the 'Isis Paper' wrote that, "if you do not
understand how white supremacy works, then everything else will only confuse
you". Clearly the author of this missive is not an Afrikan and if is he is,
then, he is clearly misguided and is in need of urgent self-reparation.

To the best of my knowledge, The Rt Hon Robert Mugabe has the support of
most Afrikan Jamaicans. The Zimbabwean people's President will be most
welcome to visit Jamaica if he decides to come. He is a memember of the
Afrikan family which makes him evermore acceptable than Blair and Bush who
hates us.

Blessed

Bro kilonji Bangarah (Afrikan Jamaican living in the belly of the Beast-
England)

It has been suggested that Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, may
visit Jamaica during next year's Cricket World Cup - perhaps in a
private capacity.

But whether Mr. Mugabe wants to come to Jamaica as a private citizen or
on a state visit, our Government should make it plain to him that he
will not be welcome. And if he insists on coming, he must be told that
he should expect no special courtesies.

That is not an easy position for us to take and at which we arrived at
lightly. For Robert Mugabe used to be a hero to the Jamaican people and
our country played an influential role in ending Zimbabwe's guerrilla
war against white minority rule and the country's move to legitimate
independence.

For those who may be ignorant of this once cherished relationship and of
Mr. Mugabe prior to his descent into irrationality and vulgar
authoritarianism, Mr. Mugabe led the bush war against white minority
leader, Ian Smith, after the latter's declaration of what was then
Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain.
Jamaicans by and large supported the freedom fighters and pushed
intransigent British governments to take action against Smith's racist
administration.

At the 1979 Commonwealth Summit, the Jamaican Prime Minister, the late
Michael Manley, was among those who laid out the moral and political
argument to a resistant Margaret Thatcher for a credible British policy
in Zimbabwe, ending halfway measures whose practical impact would be to
maintain the white minority in ascendancy. Indeed, Bob Marley was the
featured performer at the country's independence in 1980.

But unlike the example of Nelson Mandela in neighbouring South Africa a
decade and half later, Mr. Mugabe lacked the inclination and moral
stature to lead the country he inherited into a state of healing and
renewal. Mr. Mugabe has been consumed with personal power and
self-aggrandisement.

His ZANU-PF party has sought to gain a monopoly on power, a grab it at
first found relatively easy because of its command on popular support.
More recently, Mr. Mugabe and his party have continued the erosion of
democracy through the rigging of elections and attacks on the free
press, which has been subject to repressive laws and its members to
intimidation, beatings and arbitrary arrest.

In the process, Mr. Mugabe has led his country to economic and social
ruin. At the start of the decade, in an attempt to divert attention from
his own policy failures, Mr. Mugabe grabbed farms from white farmers in
a crude land redistribution programme that led to a collapse of
agriculture. Inflation has jumped beyond the 1,000 per cent mark, food
shortages and hunger are rampant, and life expectancy in Zimbabwe has
fallen to below 40 years.

Now, at 82, Mr. Mugabe wants to extend his current six-year term, which
expires in 2008, by another two years - a move that would require a
change in the country's constitution. Apparently, Mr. Mugabe and ZANU-PF
want the extra time to ensure that he can find a successor in his own
image.

Jamaica must tell Mr. Mugabe that his actions and general behaviour are
unacceptable and that unless he mends his ways he cannot be a guest in
our country. If he comes, he should expect no warm welcome.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily
reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial,
email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no
longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.

The only question i have to ask in all of this is this: Is Portia Lucretia Simpson-Miller perhaps the new Condoleca Rice serving the interest of the three white commonwealth nations i.e Britain, New Zealand and Australia?
Whilst at the same time trying to gain some kudos with the American government.
The question one has to ask is has the USA met the same democratic standard its sets for the rest of the world???? I think we all know the answer to that.
I don't see the USof A in Darfur dishing out sanctions against the government in Sudan.Do uconfused3

Enuff political activist are often detained without any concrete evidence or proper "fair" trial in the USA for example present day Guantanamo Bay becomes a mainland for injustice e.g how bout the the 60s peeps were locked up for speaking out against the prevailing administration - Assata Shakur, Mumia A Jamal,Leonard Peltier and so many others. I dare say if the same standard was applied in say Africa or the Caribbean it would be deemed as outright criminalconfused3 and the curtailment of human and civic rights by the Western observers say America or the rest of the White common wealth!!!.


There can be no democracy without equitable distribution of wealth amongst the populace who were dispossed by colonialism and neocolonialism. Unfortunately that involves the equal distribution of fertile land for all not just the white populace.
Basically the way i see it is this. The whites do not want the historical injustice of colonialism to be addressed and justice restored instead we all ought to be one loving fcking family!!! . cy'mon inequality needs to be abolished and all who have stolen need to give back what they took -come what may. Don't tell me bout no "willing buyer, willing seller" business and no market force none-sense.

Fzcking Clare Short come tell me bout :
"We are a new Government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and as you know we were colonised not colonisers."

Meanwhile enuff hectares of fertile land in Zimbabwe lay unused which are owned by Lord this and Lord that in the house of common...Fyah on una head....!!!!

The dire legacy of colonialism needs to be addressed and the imbalance of wealth rightly restored. Thats the way i see this instead some black leaders in Africa and Elsewhere are prepared to vilified, strangulated and jump into bed very quickly with the crakers all for a quick pat on the back by my whitey!

If i were Mugabe i wouldn't be handing power to a muppet like Tsvangirai sponsored by the West a first class legg shuffling,ass licking,boot licking,buck dancing fool! Hell No!!!

Fchckuk Market forces advocated by the west that simply sees the vast concentration of African wealth in the hands of western conglomorates instead i say institute a better policy that sees the concentratio of wealth in the hands of the natives who are better able to manage the resources for the benefits of the people and the future generations with minimal interference from the West. Freedom is a happy slave i tell ya.mad-moonie

Talk bout Legacy!!!

Some of you hate white people so much that you will cut off your nose to spite your face. I don't ever want to see Mugabe in Jamaica. He can stay his arse in his own country. Yes he started out with good intentions but has let himself be corrupted by power. He has destroyed his country, he has reduced hisown black people to a life expectancy of 40,yes 40 years old which means I would be likely dead in 10 years if I lived there. He is not a hero to black people just because he doesn't like white people, he is an ememy of black people because many kids in Zim have no future because of him. He made promises to them and dashed their hopes.

The land grab from the farmers had nothing to do with redistributing wealth to blacks, if this was the case why are many of them starving? most of them didn't get the land he promised them, he gave it to his generals and family or let them run to ruin. He is also still dealing with rich white people who keep him in power. I was reading that Prince Harrys girlfriends dad does a lot of business with Mugabe and they are as white as snow.Its in white peoples interests that he continues to govern that country because soon when its reduced to nothing , they can come and teef all its resources and get back in to power. Zim should never be in the state its in, with the amount of natural resources it has, the people shouldn't have to suffer like this. Why the hell is going on holiday to the Caribbean when many of his people are living on less than a dollar a day?A situation that's needless. He is clearly mad and I don't wish for Jamaican people or any black people to be associated with him (nor bush or blaire for the record). As they said they supported him when he was looking out for his people i the beginningbut now he quite clearly is an enemy of his own they don't want anything to do with him.

I must also add that I am under no illusion that the west is helping to destablise Zim but Mugabe is handing Zim to them on a plate he is making it easy.I also believe that the media may be exaggerating or skewingsome of the facts but you can't argue with afigure like life expectancy of 40.A country like Zim should be almost self-sufficient and not have to rely on the West if it was managed properly. The debt that he will eventually put Zim into will take generations upon generations to sort out. The World Bank have got them by the balls with high interest rates for hundreds of years by the time Mugabe dies.

Iwill say it again, just because he don't like white people and white people don't like him, they doesn't make him a hero to blacks. The enemy of mine enemy is not necessarily my friend.

@babygirl44 "The land grab from the farmers had nothing to do with redistributing wealth to blacks, if this was the case why are many of them starving?"

No doubt Zimbabwe has its own fair share of flaws and is in many ways equally rife with contractions. But i am prepared to stand by my brother than stand with a cracker!
I dare say most of the information you often glen on Zimbabwe are from the Western media sources as opposed to independent researchers and this information is dissimated within a racialized colonial context.

Well, it is called divide and rule same ol' tricknology... If suddenly the international community imposes heavy santions on you,what do you think it means, long live for your citizens, foreign exchange currency, tourism? Nope

In most case once a country is exiled from international community the only way forward is self sufficiency and self reliance!

People say Zims are starving but i don't hear no one talking about the droughts, or the santions imposed and how it has rapidly accelerated the impovirishment of its people. If you have ever lived in a country that practiced SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme) as advised by the World Bank then you will not jump to conclusion in shouting for his exclusion from World Stage.

If live expectancy is to be raised from its present state of 37yrs old to that of the advanced nations then resettled black farmers should also enjoy the immediate benefits of farming associated with commercial farming that their white counterparts employed e.g Supplementary irrigation process,greater use of improved technology, better access to working capital,subsidized credits etc.

If one was to investigate and properly analyze the benefits of land reform at least one should ideally wait possibly a generation before one can see any marked change.

Like i said Freedom is a happy Slave.
Many people who were under the yoke of colonialism in Africa now cry that they were better off under "that" adminstration than they now that they are Free. !!!


Like i said Freedom is a happy Slave.

Yes i agree with much of what you say colo. there is no doubt that the west is making the problem worse and yes being an outcasted country has massive effects. However, if he was a good president his peoples life expectancy wouldn't be so low. Yes there have been droughts, however, the people shouldn't have to deal with such a short life, I feel very bad for them. If the land grab thing was managed properly, the blacks would be farming and even the dollar a day people would get food. Yes there have been dry seasons but if the land is looked afterit will be able to cope for the next season. Farming is a complex thing, if the land is not cultivated properly, you can damage the soil to the point where nothing can grow and it turns like dry desert hence even more droubts.

I do not support the West but I do not support Mugabe either. He is now trying to change the constitution to allow him to stay on for another 2 years, this shows me that he is power mad. The Europens will get their'Rhodesia' back because of him and they will use then use it to destroy South Africa completely also so they can control that too.

I understand that it is very easy for us to feel we must defend every black person who whites are against but I cannot support the high inflation and low life expectancy his people are suffering. They have so many resources if he knew what he was doing, the people would be doing well. In addition we can't totally blame the west for holding back cash for the situation of the country. There are plenty of 'rougue' states that would trade with any regime on the sly but even they seem to not be able to help. The people of Zim need a new leader, not a western puppet but someone whose not too confrontational and who can turn this around because with the inflation and debt they are in they will be slaves to the west to get them out of this trouble.

@babygirl44 u wrote "I do not support the West but I do not support Mugabe either. He is now trying to change the constitution to allow him to stay on for another 2 years, this shows me that he is power mad."


I remember when JJ Rawlings was in power in the 80s he was denounced by the International community and Sanctions imposed uopn Ghana. However, today Ghana is remains a strong beacon of hope within Africa particularly in West Africa archiving economic and political stability,

All i can say to you is that When General Pervez Musharraf,Ibrahim Badamosi Babagida, Abacha, Yoweri Museveni,Arap Moi of Kenya,Sese Seko Mobutu,Sam Njoma of Namibia another Puppet! and many others are in power or were in power. They were fulfully embarraced by the West. Even though these guys trampled upon the very lives of their own people or were at one stage or another denounced internationally purely for the sheer cruelly they dealt upon their peeps the west Ok it.

However, if these corrup rulers implemented the prescribed courses recommended by the West/USA they were good democratic governement even if they were in power for say 40yrs ongoing!!!!confused2


Democracy and longetivity of human lifes has got nothing to do with the current vilification of Mugabe. Rather the expropriation of LAND from white farmers is what has so much infuriarated YT. Enuff comestic democracy abound in Africa and the Caribbean Island. Enuff Double Standards too

Better the devil that i know than one i don't. You think Mugabe evil ?well let YT get his hands fully on Zimbabwe then you see the worse to come.

All you gats to do is see if any African Leader has actually publicly denounced Mugabe till date.? Well not many.

Isn't Zimbabwe under an (illegal) embargo imposed by Britian and the US? All the while Blair is signing weapons contracts with south africa and saying that the region should be responcible for its own affairs...

The european farmers there (apparently) own a land mass thats 2/3 of the entire country, their reason for being there is that their forefathers were there and that the land has been passed down, that they are african and have a right to be there....

Who were their forefathers and how long ago were they there?

Did they buy the land?

What was going on around the time that their forefathers, 'settled'in Zimbabwe?

Ever watched the film Zulu?

The same time their forefathers moved into Zimbabwe us disporans were shipped out and yet they talk about being african same goes for those w.south africans they're in cahoots with. You can't deny your own oppression BabyGirl its right t/here infront of you, theres no real comfort in denying whats going on around you.

isolation of a leader who is seen as bad for western economic interests is not a new thing. it has been going on for as long as imperialism has been at it. what's remarkable is the fact that, though years and years, sometimes centuries have flown by, the tactics have stayed the same, and sometimes the figures used to show the state (eg. life expectancy) have stayed the same.

consider Sekou Ture of Guinea who was as radical an Africanpresident as it gets. France demanded that Guinea remain within its sphere of control,but theman refused. his famous statement to that end was: We prefer poverty in liberty to riches in slavery.

the economy of Guineawent downhill after he took power, leaving Sekou Turescrambling all over the place looking for economic help. consider the quote below from the article on him from wiki.

Guinea gained its independence under Sékou Touré in 1958. His early Presidency was notably Leftist as he tried to forge a Socialist revolution through the early years of African independence. As his policies failed, Sékou Touré filled the vacuum with ever-increasing centralized rule and social tyranny. By the time of his death in 1984, life expectancy in Guinea dropped to 40 years, business nearly evaporated, Conakry was in a shambles, and the per capita GDP dropped to US $290.00.

does any of this sound remarkably familiar?

the tactics remain the same.

Zimbabwe'sformal economic sector, so called to distinguish it froman equally large indegenous African informal sector,is indeed in recession, but the GDP of this country still remains higher than MOST African countries. check this fact o