President Trump issued a simple tweet stating that he has asked the Secretary of State to look into the allegations of land seizures and genocide in South Africa. “I have asked Secretary of State Pompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers,“.
As expected the mainstream “fake” news media blew up in indignation. “Racist“, “White supremecist“, “Alt right“, “Ignorant“, and the litany of hysterical comments goes on. They scoffed at President Trump. Of course he’s wrong. Former President Obama just a few months ago was in South Africa praising the people and government on the great things that they are doing in their country.
“So, young people, who are in the audience, who are listening, my message to you is simple, keep believing, keep marching, keep building, keep raising your voice. Every generation has the opportunity to remake the world. Mandela said, “Young people are capable, when aroused, of bringing down the towers of oppression and raising the banners of freedom.” Now is a good time to be aroused. Now is a good time to be fired up”, President Obama.
I saw this headline on Yahoo news, “S.African farmers ‘furious’ over Trump land reform tweet“. Could President Trump be wrong about the farmland situation in South Africa?
Reading the story beyond the headline shows that the “furious farmers” interviewed are interestingly all black farmers. They are NOT the farmers whose land might be seized without compensation. It’s the white farmers referred to as Boers who will lose their land and possibly their lives. Do you think the that the “furious farmers” might have a bit of a bias in this issue because they will be the beneficiaries of land seizures?
To be crystal clear this is a racial issue. The South African government is seeking to change their constitution to allow for these uncompensated land seizures. They want this change to speed up their “land reform” plans of taking away white owned farmland and giving it to black South Africans. The government’s underlying philosophy for taking on “land reform” is that they openly state that whites make up only 8% of the population but that they own 72% of the farms, and this disparity is unacceptable. Uncompensated land seizures, by force if necessary, are justified in their world view.
Neighboring country Zimbabwe a few years ago seized white owned farmland with similar racial equity goals fueling the seizures. What was the result? Were the residents happy with the their new ill gotten gains? Zimbabwe had a growing economy up until they decided on “land reform“. After 2000 when all of the white farmland had been seized and redistributed Zimbabwe slid into financial ruin. The new black farm owners were described as “inept or uninterested” in farming and made some short term gains by selling the farm equipment. In 2008 Zimbabwe had it’s peak period of inflation. That year the country had a mere 231,000,000% inflation rate. 231 MILLION PERCENT! Currently Zimbabwe has 95% unemployment and is one of the poorest countries in the world. I’d call that a success.
As the saying goes, “History is a great predictor”. A good time indeed to be fired up.