What's the story with Zimbabwe?

[Crazy Cooter]

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/zi.html
Ethnic groups:
   Definition Field Listing
African 98% (Shona 82%, Ndebele 14%, other 2%), mixed and Asian 1%, white less than 1%

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051124/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_zimbabwe;_ylt=Aot1oUoY1IbUOpSxovdqlqqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-
Mugabe's government has seized thousands of white-owned commercial farms since 2000 under a land-reform program critics say has crippled Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy and contributed to widespread hunger there. About 4 million Zimbabweans, or a third of the population, urgently need food aid, according to U.N. estimates.

Mugabe defended the seizures as "redressing the past gross imbalances in land ownership which were institutionalized by British colonialism." Until 2000, whites farmed 17 percent of the country and earned most of its export revenue.

It looks like this guy was elected president in 79, led them to independence from Britian in 1980, and has been calling the shots ever since (but rigged the elections this year?) and the place is still in rough shape.  It also looks like he is redistributing the land ownership and the wealth of the country.  Is anyone familiar with the whole story here?

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
   Definition Field Listing Rank Order
24.6% (2001 est.) - OUCH!

[Pipercub]

I am afraid I am. As the nation of Rhodesia it was a prosperous exporter of goods and food with a GDP comparable to that of some European nations. They had fairly modern infrastructure as well, running about 10 years behind the US and European standard, a miracle for sub-saharan Africa. After white/colonial/etc. rule ended the nation went on a steady decline. Farms were ransacked and the equipment burned and looted, then the land handed out in small tracts for peasants and huge chunks that are fallow reserved for his cronies. They now produce about 10% of their former yeild. The economy is in such a state of collapse that the government will not accept Zimbabwe currency and pays only in Zimbabwe currency which has little value. The AIDS rate is about 40% and the unemployment rate is 70%. Once it was a success story and now it holds it's begging bowl out to the world. But hey evil white rule has been crushed and they are free to live up to their true potential free from oppression.

[Dexter]

I had a friend deported back to Zimbabwe about 3 years ago. His family are landowners there. Nobodys heard from him since. Scary ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---. 

[Crazy Cooter]

 
Inflation rose from an annual rate of 32% in 1998 to 133% at the end of 2004, while the exchange rate fell from 24 Zimbabwean dollars per US dollar to 6,200 in the same time period.
 

[Pipercub]

But the IMPORTANT thing is that just like South Africa which has had similar economic and cultural progress, the yolk of white oppression has been thrown off. 

[duffjr]

i feel like i'm supposed to respond with something...white power?

[jbox]

No, tsk, tsk. You're supposed to say something great about how capitalism is simply weeding out this now inefficient country from the market and all of their problems are caused by a lack of zestiness. 

Australia has had similar problems in the land-reclaimation process, where descendants of the previous tenants have on occasion run a pastoral land into ruin because they don't actually know how to farm. 

[Sephroth57]

so basicly i can go to zimbabwe with 20$ and be rich, woot

[jbox]

so basicly i can go to zimbabwe with 20$ and be rich mugged, woot

Fixed that typo for you. 

[NiN^_^NiN]

More like held for ransom then shot dead if they get the payment or not 

[danny_galaga]

No, tsk, tsk. You're supposed to say something great about how capitalism is simply weeding out this now inefficient country from the market and all of their problems are caused by a lack of zestiness.