In a city that during winter is perhaps the alter-ego of San Diego for it's constancy of cold-dark-wetness, one of London's compensating charms is its pubs. Last night I was in a beautiful pub tucked in an alley just off of Berkeley Square drinking a pint with my good friend Pavetto and, as always seems to happen everytime I've been in a London pub for the last 15 years, I ran into an interesting gentleman and had yet another fascinating conversation.
His name was Joey, and he looked to be in his mid to late 50's with a kind face but hard eyes. He was from Zimbabwe and said he used to own a farm there, as had many of his family - who had migrated there from England about 160 years ago. Zimbabwe is an incredibly fertile area and as late as 2000 was a rather signficant bread basket for Africa. Many of the established farmers were white.
Around the year 2000, President Robert Mugabe was in trouble: his soldiers weren't getting paid after coming home from brutal assignments in the Congo where they were sent to help fight that civil war - and the citizens weren't voting for his party. He declared white people as enemies of the state - saying they had stolen their land from the native citizenry so many generations ago (I don't know if this is true or not) and ordered his returning vets to occupy the farms. Many farmers and their workers were beaten and sometimes killed (especially if they were known supports of the opposition).
The Zimbabwe courts ruled the farm invasions illegal and ordered the invaders to leave. Mugabe ordered the police not to intervene. Results? Utter destruction of farming, the flight of educated workers to safer countries, rampant starvation and zero incentives on the part of the remaining white farmers with know-how and any surviving capital to risk investing it by planting any new crops.
And those thugs who now occupy the other 1000+ farms? Of the small minority who express any interest in farming, there's no equipment to do it with - for now. The current issue of the Economist reports that Mugabe plans to sieze farming equipment that's been stored in warehouses by farmers whose land was stolen...
I remember Tom Palmer saying that beer and wine are the libations of liberty and progress - they foster fellowship and a coming together... whereas a drink like vodka is the tipple of totalitarianism and control. Nursing my pint in that pub with Pavetto and the Zimbabwe refugee, I supposed that Mugabe and his thugs were probably big fans of vodka.
