South Africa: Now with EXTRA Neo-Lib® ‘Poverty Boost‘™
Whoda' thunk it?
Most black South Africans were BETTER OFF (!?) under the racist Apartheid regime.
A report published by the South African Institute of Race Relations demonstrated that the living conditions for millions of South Africans have worsened since the ending of apartheid 13 years ago. Official unemployment currently stands at 26 percent, but the real figure is 41 percent—double what it was 10 years ago. Millions of workers earn less than US$150 a month, and 4 million people are living in conditions of extreme poverty, defined as less than US$1 a day.
Anglo Platinum (a subsidiary of Anglo American PLC) produces most of the platinum in SA.
So maybe the ANC should consider a name change to:
Zimbabwe has the world's number 2 reserves of Platinum.
the MDC supports neo-liberal, i.e. Bush/IMF type economic policies. SO, here I am trying (with some help from Wikipedia) to make a little sense of a country that’s had a very rough time. Remember Ian Smith and a country called Rhodesia? That was Zimbabwe before it gained independence as Zimbabwe in 1980. It was the Patriotic Front (PF) — an alliance of two movements that was formed in 1976 that overthrew Smith’s white minority regime. By the way, Zimbabwe is a landlocked country with rich mineral resources — the world’s 2nd largest platinum deposits, high-quality chrome, gold (50% of Zimbabwe’s mineral exports), and some other metals. The British have mined a lot of the gold. Uranium has also been found. Perhaps there are diamonds, too.
As mentioned earlier:
Right Wing British War Mongerers for Democratic Change?
The Zimbabwe Democracy Trust, whose patrons include former Tory Foreign Secretaries Malcolm Rifkind, Douglas Hurd and Geoffrey Howe has been accused of using the organisation as a cover for promoting the interests of Western multi-nationals in the troubled region.
So maybe Morgan and his MDC-posse should be called:
Labels: American, Anglo, Douglas Hurd, Malcolm Rifkind, MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe, Platinum, PLC, South Africa, Zimbabwe
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posted by Hubris @ 4:01 pm
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