Showing posts with label Zimbabwe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zimbabwe. Show all posts
Saturday, May 17, 2025
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Zimbabwe threatens to seize farms of party defectors
JOAO SILVA/NEW YORK TIMES
A worker shucked corn on a farm in Zimbabwe that may be seized because its owner opposes the rule of Robert Mugabe.
By Norimitsu Onishi
NEW YORK TIMES AUGUST 27, 2016
BINDURA, Zimbabwe — Dozens of angry young men jumped off a truck in front of Agrippah Mutambara’s gate, shouting obscenities and threatening to seize his 530-acre farm in the name of Zimbabwe’s president. They tried to scale the fence, scattering only when he raised and cocked his gun.
Zimbabwe made international headlines when it started seizing white-owned farms in 2000. But Mutambara is not a white farmer. Far from it, he is a hero of this country’s war of liberation who served as Zimbabwe’s ambassador to three nations over two decades.
But when he defected from President Robert Mugabe’s party to join the opposition a few months ago, he immediately put his farm at risk.
“When it was happening to the whites, we thought we were redressing colonial wrongs,” said Mutambara, 64, who got his farm after it had been seized from a white farmer. “But now we realize it’s also coming back to us. It’s also haunting us.”
Zimbabwe is suffering one of its worst economic crises in years. Banks have run out of cash. The government is struggling to pay its workers.
Public protests, including one in July that shut down the capital and a united show of force by the nation’s biggest opposition figures on Friday, have rattled Mugabe’s government.
Desperately seeking loans, Zimbabwean officials have visited Washington and European capitals in recent months, swallowing years of resentment toward the West to promise economic and political reforms, including ending the history of farm seizures.
Even Mugabe, now 92 years old and increasingly frail, has pledged to compensate white farmers.
But despite the promises, prized farms are at the center of heated political infighting in Zimbabwe. As the battle to succeed Mugabe intensifies, dozens of political figures who have fallen out of favor, like Mutambara, are facing the seizure of their farms.
With the economy in peril and the governing party split in a scramble for power, land is being used as a vital tool in the struggle for control.
“No one is safe,” said Temba Mliswa, 44, who was chairman of the governing party’s chapter in Mashonaland West province before his expulsion from the party in 2014.
Mliswa got a 2,000-acre farm belonging to a white Zimbabwean in 2005. When he took possession, Mliswa said, police officers beat the white farmer and his workers.
But last year, Mliswa said, hundreds of youths sent by the governing party invaded the farm again, destroying property and beating his workers. They eventually left, but one of Mugabe’s ministers recently held a rally in which he threatened to take Mliswa’s farm unless he stopped criticizing the president’s party.
“They use the land to control you,” Mliswa said.
Zimbabwe’s political uncertainty has weakened the economy, already hit hard by a severe drought and a fall in global commodity prices.
People have been hoarding cash — Zimbabwe adopted the American dollar in 2009 — and taking it out of the country, leaving bank ATMs empty.
Mugabe’s “Look East” campaign, which focused on attracting China as a counterweight to Western influence, has suffered from China’s economic slowdown and recent disagreements over economic policy, though billboards still laud China as Zimbabwe’s “all-weather friend.”
With few other options left, Mugabe’s government has turned to the International Monetary Fund, an organization he vilified in the past as an instrument of colonial domination.
In talks with the fund, the government has agreed to reforms in the hope that it will qualify for loans for the first time since 1999.
The fund has sent positive signals about government steps in areas like curbing the size of the public workforce and cleaning up the banking sector.
But significant hurdles remain. The Zimbabwean government must clear $1.8 billion it owes to the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. It must also convince the IMF, where a skeptical United States holds the most votes, that it is committed to change.
Resolving the land issue is central to reviving the country’s economy and reestablishing ties with Western governments.
Under a program financed by the European Union and the United Nations, the government has begun mapping the more than 6,000 commercial farms that have been seized.
For the first time, the government recently held a workshop on the compensation of white farmers. But compensation is another matter, and some analysts doubt that will happen while Mugabe is alive.
Beyond pride, settling land ownership could strip Mugabe of an important tool he has wielded over the political class.
Dozens are believed to be facing threats of losing their farms, according to former governing party members and the local news media.
Many were expelled from the governing party, ZANU-PF, in the past year because they were considered close to Joice Mujuru, a former vice president who was once regarded as Mugabe’s likely successor but was purged by Zimbabwe’s powerful first lady, Grace Mugabe.
And for all the talk of compensating white farmers, politically connected Zimbabweans are continuing to grab white-owned farms.
This year, a white Zimbabwean couple were expelled by police officers from their 2,000-acre tobacco farm. The new owner was a Zimbabwean medical doctor living in England; the media uncovered photographs showing the doctor and his wife with Grace Mugabe.
In 2000, two decades after Zimbabwe’s independence, the country’s best farmland remained in the hands of descendants of white settlers. Mugabe’s government forcibly removed white Zimbabweans from their farms, which were supposed to be distributed equitably to black Zimbabweans.
Thousands of poor black farmers suddenly got access to land, often small plots, bringing them into the economy and spreading the profits from crops like tobacco to a much broader share of Zimbabwe’s population.
But high-ranking officials in the governing party received the best farms. Or, like Mutambara, the former ambassador, they were given the best tracts of a large farm, usually with the main farmhouse and farming equipment.
“Contrary to what we had expected, some people because of their position in government have gone on to acquire multiple farms, huge farms,” Mutambara said.
Chinamasa, the finance minister, denied that some members of the political elite were violating the government’s policy by owning more than a single farm. He said members of one family could each own a farm, creating the impression that they owned multiple farms.
“We have a policy that it was one person, one piece of land,” Chinamasa said. “The policy is clear. It’s not a problem.”
But if Mugabe’s government can reward loyalists with prime land, it can also easily take it back, especially with the lack of deeds or long-term leases.
Mliswa said he received his farm when his uncle headed the lands ministry. Once considered Mugabe’s right-hand man, the uncle was also expelled from the governing party in 2014 and now risks losing his farm, too, Mliswa said.
“There was blood spilt on my farm, there was violence, which I really, really, really, really regret,” he said of the seizure of his farm from its white owner in 2005. “I apologize profusely, but it was because of the system I was involved in. I belonged to a party whose culture is violence.”
BINDURA, Zimbabwe — Dozens of angry young men jumped off a truck in front of Agrippah Mutambara’s gate, shouting obscenities and threatening to seize his 530-acre farm in the name of Zimbabwe’s president. They tried to scale the fence, scattering only when he raised and cocked his gun.
Zimbabwe made international headlines when it started seizing white-owned farms in 2000. But Mutambara is not a white farmer. Far from it, he is a hero of this country’s war of liberation who served as Zimbabwe’s ambassador to three nations over two decades.
But when he defected from President Robert Mugabe’s party to join the opposition a few months ago, he immediately put his farm at risk.
“When it was happening to the whites, we thought we were redressing colonial wrongs,” said Mutambara, 64, who got his farm after it had been seized from a white farmer. “But now we realize it’s also coming back to us. It’s also haunting us.”
Zimbabwe is suffering one of its worst economic crises in years. Banks have run out of cash. The government is struggling to pay its workers.
Public protests, including one in July that shut down the capital and a united show of force by the nation’s biggest opposition figures on Friday, have rattled Mugabe’s government.
Desperately seeking loans, Zimbabwean officials have visited Washington and European capitals in recent months, swallowing years of resentment toward the West to promise economic and political reforms, including ending the history of farm seizures.
Even Mugabe, now 92 years old and increasingly frail, has pledged to compensate white farmers.
But despite the promises, prized farms are at the center of heated political infighting in Zimbabwe. As the battle to succeed Mugabe intensifies, dozens of political figures who have fallen out of favor, like Mutambara, are facing the seizure of their farms.
With the economy in peril and the governing party split in a scramble for power, land is being used as a vital tool in the struggle for control.
“No one is safe,” said Temba Mliswa, 44, who was chairman of the governing party’s chapter in Mashonaland West province before his expulsion from the party in 2014.
Mliswa got a 2,000-acre farm belonging to a white Zimbabwean in 2005. When he took possession, Mliswa said, police officers beat the white farmer and his workers.
But last year, Mliswa said, hundreds of youths sent by the governing party invaded the farm again, destroying property and beating his workers. They eventually left, but one of Mugabe’s ministers recently held a rally in which he threatened to take Mliswa’s farm unless he stopped criticizing the president’s party.
“They use the land to control you,” Mliswa said.
Zimbabwe’s political uncertainty has weakened the economy, already hit hard by a severe drought and a fall in global commodity prices.
People have been hoarding cash — Zimbabwe adopted the American dollar in 2009 — and taking it out of the country, leaving bank ATMs empty.
Mugabe’s “Look East” campaign, which focused on attracting China as a counterweight to Western influence, has suffered from China’s economic slowdown and recent disagreements over economic policy, though billboards still laud China as Zimbabwe’s “all-weather friend.”
With few other options left, Mugabe’s government has turned to the International Monetary Fund, an organization he vilified in the past as an instrument of colonial domination.
In talks with the fund, the government has agreed to reforms in the hope that it will qualify for loans for the first time since 1999.
The fund has sent positive signals about government steps in areas like curbing the size of the public workforce and cleaning up the banking sector.
But significant hurdles remain. The Zimbabwean government must clear $1.8 billion it owes to the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. It must also convince the IMF, where a skeptical United States holds the most votes, that it is committed to change.
Resolving the land issue is central to reviving the country’s economy and reestablishing ties with Western governments.
Under a program financed by the European Union and the United Nations, the government has begun mapping the more than 6,000 commercial farms that have been seized.
For the first time, the government recently held a workshop on the compensation of white farmers. But compensation is another matter, and some analysts doubt that will happen while Mugabe is alive.
Beyond pride, settling land ownership could strip Mugabe of an important tool he has wielded over the political class.
Dozens are believed to be facing threats of losing their farms, according to former governing party members and the local news media.
Many were expelled from the governing party, ZANU-PF, in the past year because they were considered close to Joice Mujuru, a former vice president who was once regarded as Mugabe’s likely successor but was purged by Zimbabwe’s powerful first lady, Grace Mugabe.
And for all the talk of compensating white farmers, politically connected Zimbabweans are continuing to grab white-owned farms.
This year, a white Zimbabwean couple were expelled by police officers from their 2,000-acre tobacco farm. The new owner was a Zimbabwean medical doctor living in England; the media uncovered photographs showing the doctor and his wife with Grace Mugabe.
In 2000, two decades after Zimbabwe’s independence, the country’s best farmland remained in the hands of descendants of white settlers. Mugabe’s government forcibly removed white Zimbabweans from their farms, which were supposed to be distributed equitably to black Zimbabweans.
Thousands of poor black farmers suddenly got access to land, often small plots, bringing them into the economy and spreading the profits from crops like tobacco to a much broader share of Zimbabwe’s population.
But high-ranking officials in the governing party received the best farms. Or, like Mutambara, the former ambassador, they were given the best tracts of a large farm, usually with the main farmhouse and farming equipment.
“Contrary to what we had expected, some people because of their position in government have gone on to acquire multiple farms, huge farms,” Mutambara said.
Chinamasa, the finance minister, denied that some members of the political elite were violating the government’s policy by owning more than a single farm. He said members of one family could each own a farm, creating the impression that they owned multiple farms.
“We have a policy that it was one person, one piece of land,” Chinamasa said. “The policy is clear. It’s not a problem.”
But if Mugabe’s government can reward loyalists with prime land, it can also easily take it back, especially with the lack of deeds or long-term leases.
Mliswa said he received his farm when his uncle headed the lands ministry. Once considered Mugabe’s right-hand man, the uncle was also expelled from the governing party in 2014 and now risks losing his farm, too, Mliswa said.
“There was blood spilt on my farm, there was violence, which I really, really, really, really regret,” he said of the seizure of his farm from its white owner in 2005. “I apologize profusely, but it was because of the system I was involved in. I belonged to a party whose culture is violence.”
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Robert Mugabe: African liberator, former honorary knight, aging ruler
By Faith Karimi, CNN
updated 5:14 AM EDT, Sun August 4, 2013
Robert Mugabe has been the leader of Zimbabwe in southern Africa since 1980 and is the country's only leader since it gained independence from Britain. He was declared victor for his seventh term as president of Zimbabwe on Saturday, August 3, according to the head of the country's Election Commission. Allegations of voter fraud have surfaced for this most recent vote, and tensions were already high due to a troubled 2008 vote. That election left Mugabe as the only candidate after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai dropped out amid election fraud, violence and arrests targeting his party and supporters.
Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
(CNN) -- After more than three decades, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is not ready to give up power.
Referred to by locals as "old man," the 89-year-old leader trudges on, holding on to his presidency by suppressing the media and intimidating his opponents, rights groups say.
But his supporters have dismissed the claims, saying the bespectacled leader wins hearts based on his popularity and policies.
Zimbabwe election praised by African Union, sidesteps rigging claims
Last week, Zimbabwe's election commission handed him another five years in power when it said he won 61% of the votes in the country's presidential elections.
His rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, cried foul and threatened to mount a legal challenge. The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia all questioned the results.
Mugabe has never been shy about his grip on power.
"This is my territory, and that which is mine I cling (to) unto death," he once said.
Once hailed as a liberation hero, Mugabe became a household name during a guerrilla war against white colonial rulers in Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia.
The white regime threw him into prison for 10 years. After his release in 1974, he launched a fight for freedom from Mozambique. He coordinated a guerrilla war against then-Prime Minister Ian Smith's white minority rule in Rhodesia and returned home a hero in 1979.
"He was very clear of what they were looking for, which was really one person, one vote, democracy for his country," said Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of former South African President Thabo Mbeki. "He was leading this party which had an army, which was credible, which was doing a good job against the white settlers in then-Rhodesia."
He went on to lead the newly independent Zimbabwe -- first as prime minister in 1980, then as president seven years later.
Different paths
Mugabe and South Africa's anti-apartheid icon, Nelson Mandela, both battled to free their nations from white minority rule.
But Mandela, who became president in 1994 after he was freed from prison, kept a promise to retire after only one term. Though both were hailed as liberation heroes, Mandela is considered an iconic statesman. Mugabe, on the other hard, is vilified by some world leaders.
"In western lore he has been a terrorist, a Marxist ideologue, now a bloodthirsty tyrant, stereotypes that he alone on the continent has been able to mock and laugh off," Roy Agyemang said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.
Agyemang, who produced the movie "Mugabe: Villain or Hero?" said the leader is unfazed by the characterizations.
" 'If standing for my people's aspirations makes me a Hitler,' Mugabe once said, 'let me be a Hitler a thousand times.' "
Good ol' days
Zimbabwe's economy was strong in the early years of Mugabe's rule. The country was known as the breadbasket of southern Africa because of its strong agricultural sector.
But that changed in the 1990s, when the economy began a downward spiral and Mugabe's government faced charges of elitism, cronyism and corruption.
His liberation credentials brought him high regard during the early part of his leadership, with many seeing him as a unifying figure committed to the needs of the average person.
Goodwill runs out
But the goodwill from his liberation struggle slowly ran out.
In 2000, he drew criticism for his land reform program that evicted white farmers and gave the land to poor black Zimbabweans, many veterans of the struggle for independence. Most were not as familiar with commercial farming.
"Zimbabwe belongs to the Zimbabweans, pure and simple," he said in a 2009 interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
White Zimbabweans -- even those born in the country with legal ownership of their land -- have a debt to pay, he said.
Soon after, agricultural output decreased sharply.
'One of Africa's bad boys'
Despite his pariah status in the West, analysts say Mugabe's anti-Western tirades have propelled his popularity at home.
To some, he commands respect for challenging the status quo and retaining his image as a critic of former colonial powers, said Ayo Johnson, director of Viewpoint Africa, which sells Africa content to media outlets.
"Mugabe ... is one of Africa's bad boys and wears his medal with pride," Johnson said in a past interview. "He who stands up and shouts the most is usually revered."
Few African leaders have as willfully and spitefully taunted the West, a major source of donor aid, as Mugabe has.
His anti-West tirades especially target Britain and the United States, which he accuses of colonialism.
"Keep your pink nose out of our affairs, please," he told the United States last week in response to criticism of his push for elections without key reforms.
Agyemang says Mugabe's bold economic policies are moving the nation forward.
"Mugabe is more than just a politician, he leads a cause, or as his militant supporters would say, he has become the cause itself," Agyemang said in The Guardian piece. "And the cause has something to do with giving back the African his dignity well beyond symbols of nominal independence."
No longer a breadbasket
In recent years, political rivals have accused him of turning a nation once known as the breadbasket of southern Africa into one racked by hunger and once sky-high inflation.
But Mugabe has clung to power at all costs.
In 2008, his party lost to his closest rival, Tsvangirai, who did not get enough votes to avoid a runoff. Opposition party supporters were beaten, tortured and killed, rights groups said, and Tsvangirai withdrew from the runoff in protest. The post-election violence left about 200 people dead and thousands injured.
Regional leaders dismissed that election as a sham and pressured the two to form a power-sharing agreement, which led to a tense coalition in 2009. Mugabe's main opponent became his prime minister, and the squabbles continued.
Former teacher
Born in February 1924 in then-Rhodesia to a carpenter father, Mugabe spent his early career as a teacher.
His first wife died in 1992, and he married his current wife, Grace, four years later. They have two sons and one daughter.
Mugabe has university degrees in education, economics, administration and law from the University of London.
In 2002, the European Union imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his allies, including travel bans, accusing Zimbabwe of human rights violations.
in 2008, the United Kingdom stripped Mugabe of an honorary knighthood awarded by Queen Elizabeth II. Later that year, the nation plunged into post-election violence.
The European Union eased the sanctions after a successful referendum on a new constitution in March of this year but called for credible elections.
Inflation
As he has continued to lash out at the West, donors have distanced themselves, sending Zimbabwe on a downward economic spiral.
By 2008, the nation's inflation had soared to 200 million percent. Food shelves were empty, and a loaf of bread cost about 300 billion Zimbabwean dollars.
International isolation continued to hit the economy as corruption remained rife.
Despite widespread poverty, the nation has made major strides in its economy in recent years, experts say. There is food on the shelves, schools and hospitals are open and farming is showing signs of recovery.
Since 2010, the nation's gross domestic product "has grown by an average of over 7% and inflation has remained in the low single digits," the International Monetary Fund said last month. "Government revenues have more than doubled from 16% of GDP in 2009 to an estimated 36% of GDP in 2012, allowing the restoration of basic public services."
Medical trips
Illness has come with Mugabe's advancing age.
He has reportedly made regular trips to Singapore for medical treatment amid growing concerns about his health. In 2011, public documents showed he amassed a staggering $29 million in travel expenses. WikiLeaks released cables detailing party members' reports that he is suffering from cancer, which he has denied.
Despite the reports, a Freedom House survey last year showed that Mugabe's party was regaining its popularity.
Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
He was once called a liberation hero, but rights groups now accuse him of abuses
Mugabe became a household name during a guerrilla war against white colonial rulers
He was Zimbabwe's prime minister in 1980, then its president seven years later
Survey last year showed his party regaining popularity
(CNN) -- After more than three decades, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is not ready to give up power.
Referred to by locals as "old man," the 89-year-old leader trudges on, holding on to his presidency by suppressing the media and intimidating his opponents, rights groups say.
But his supporters have dismissed the claims, saying the bespectacled leader wins hearts based on his popularity and policies.
Zimbabwe election praised by African Union, sidesteps rigging claims
Last week, Zimbabwe's election commission handed him another five years in power when it said he won 61% of the votes in the country's presidential elections.
His rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, cried foul and threatened to mount a legal challenge. The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia all questioned the results.
Mugabe has never been shy about his grip on power.
"This is my territory, and that which is mine I cling (to) unto death," he once said.
Once hailed as a liberation hero, Mugabe became a household name during a guerrilla war against white colonial rulers in Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia.
The white regime threw him into prison for 10 years. After his release in 1974, he launched a fight for freedom from Mozambique. He coordinated a guerrilla war against then-Prime Minister Ian Smith's white minority rule in Rhodesia and returned home a hero in 1979.
"He was very clear of what they were looking for, which was really one person, one vote, democracy for his country," said Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of former South African President Thabo Mbeki. "He was leading this party which had an army, which was credible, which was doing a good job against the white settlers in then-Rhodesia."
He went on to lead the newly independent Zimbabwe -- first as prime minister in 1980, then as president seven years later.
Different paths
Mugabe and South Africa's anti-apartheid icon, Nelson Mandela, both battled to free their nations from white minority rule.
But Mandela, who became president in 1994 after he was freed from prison, kept a promise to retire after only one term. Though both were hailed as liberation heroes, Mandela is considered an iconic statesman. Mugabe, on the other hard, is vilified by some world leaders.
"In western lore he has been a terrorist, a Marxist ideologue, now a bloodthirsty tyrant, stereotypes that he alone on the continent has been able to mock and laugh off," Roy Agyemang said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.
Agyemang, who produced the movie "Mugabe: Villain or Hero?" said the leader is unfazed by the characterizations.
" 'If standing for my people's aspirations makes me a Hitler,' Mugabe once said, 'let me be a Hitler a thousand times.' "
Good ol' days
Zimbabwe's economy was strong in the early years of Mugabe's rule. The country was known as the breadbasket of southern Africa because of its strong agricultural sector.
But that changed in the 1990s, when the economy began a downward spiral and Mugabe's government faced charges of elitism, cronyism and corruption.
His liberation credentials brought him high regard during the early part of his leadership, with many seeing him as a unifying figure committed to the needs of the average person.
Goodwill runs out
But the goodwill from his liberation struggle slowly ran out.
In 2000, he drew criticism for his land reform program that evicted white farmers and gave the land to poor black Zimbabweans, many veterans of the struggle for independence. Most were not as familiar with commercial farming.
"Zimbabwe belongs to the Zimbabweans, pure and simple," he said in a 2009 interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
White Zimbabweans -- even those born in the country with legal ownership of their land -- have a debt to pay, he said.
Soon after, agricultural output decreased sharply.
'One of Africa's bad boys'
Despite his pariah status in the West, analysts say Mugabe's anti-Western tirades have propelled his popularity at home.
To some, he commands respect for challenging the status quo and retaining his image as a critic of former colonial powers, said Ayo Johnson, director of Viewpoint Africa, which sells Africa content to media outlets.
"Mugabe ... is one of Africa's bad boys and wears his medal with pride," Johnson said in a past interview. "He who stands up and shouts the most is usually revered."
Few African leaders have as willfully and spitefully taunted the West, a major source of donor aid, as Mugabe has.
His anti-West tirades especially target Britain and the United States, which he accuses of colonialism.
"Keep your pink nose out of our affairs, please," he told the United States last week in response to criticism of his push for elections without key reforms.
Agyemang says Mugabe's bold economic policies are moving the nation forward.
"Mugabe is more than just a politician, he leads a cause, or as his militant supporters would say, he has become the cause itself," Agyemang said in The Guardian piece. "And the cause has something to do with giving back the African his dignity well beyond symbols of nominal independence."
No longer a breadbasket
In recent years, political rivals have accused him of turning a nation once known as the breadbasket of southern Africa into one racked by hunger and once sky-high inflation.
But Mugabe has clung to power at all costs.
In 2008, his party lost to his closest rival, Tsvangirai, who did not get enough votes to avoid a runoff. Opposition party supporters were beaten, tortured and killed, rights groups said, and Tsvangirai withdrew from the runoff in protest. The post-election violence left about 200 people dead and thousands injured.
Regional leaders dismissed that election as a sham and pressured the two to form a power-sharing agreement, which led to a tense coalition in 2009. Mugabe's main opponent became his prime minister, and the squabbles continued.
Former teacher
Born in February 1924 in then-Rhodesia to a carpenter father, Mugabe spent his early career as a teacher.
His first wife died in 1992, and he married his current wife, Grace, four years later. They have two sons and one daughter.
Mugabe has university degrees in education, economics, administration and law from the University of London.
In 2002, the European Union imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his allies, including travel bans, accusing Zimbabwe of human rights violations.
in 2008, the United Kingdom stripped Mugabe of an honorary knighthood awarded by Queen Elizabeth II. Later that year, the nation plunged into post-election violence.
The European Union eased the sanctions after a successful referendum on a new constitution in March of this year but called for credible elections.
Inflation
As he has continued to lash out at the West, donors have distanced themselves, sending Zimbabwe on a downward economic spiral.
By 2008, the nation's inflation had soared to 200 million percent. Food shelves were empty, and a loaf of bread cost about 300 billion Zimbabwean dollars.
International isolation continued to hit the economy as corruption remained rife.
Despite widespread poverty, the nation has made major strides in its economy in recent years, experts say. There is food on the shelves, schools and hospitals are open and farming is showing signs of recovery.
Since 2010, the nation's gross domestic product "has grown by an average of over 7% and inflation has remained in the low single digits," the International Monetary Fund said last month. "Government revenues have more than doubled from 16% of GDP in 2009 to an estimated 36% of GDP in 2012, allowing the restoration of basic public services."
Medical trips
Illness has come with Mugabe's advancing age.
He has reportedly made regular trips to Singapore for medical treatment amid growing concerns about his health. In 2011, public documents showed he amassed a staggering $29 million in travel expenses. WikiLeaks released cables detailing party members' reports that he is suffering from cancer, which he has denied.
Despite the reports, a Freedom House survey last year showed that Mugabe's party was regaining its popularity.
.
Mugabe: Whites Can’t Own Land in Zimbabwe
By Taylor Wofford
Filed: 7/7/14 at 3:47 PM
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe stands during celebrations to mark his country's 34th Independence Day in Harare April 18, 2014. Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters
Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe as a Marxist dictator since the country became independent from Britain in 1980, is telling his country’s few remaining white landowners: Your time is up.
“We say no to whites owning our land, and they should go,” Mugabe told supporters, according to The Christian Science Monitor. “They can own companies and apartments…but not the soil. It is ours and that message should ring loud and clear in Britain and the United States.”
Mugabe’s declaration is mostly symbolic. Few white farmers remain in the country after Mugabe’s first pogrom, which began in 2000. According toHuman Rights Watch, Mugabe sent “ruling party militias, often led by veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation war,” to harass and expel the country’s then-5,000 white farmers. In 2012, The Guardian reported that no more than 500 remained. Mugabe and his allies now own about 40 percent of the land seized from white farmers, The Guardian said.
Many critics blame Mugabe’s aggressive land grab for Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. In 2000, Zimbabwe was the world’s second largest exporter of tobacco; seven years later, it had slipped to sixth place, the economy had shrunk by 40 percent, and, in 2008, inflation hovered at 500 billion percent,Bloomberg reported.
Peter Godwin, whose memoir When A Crocodile Eats the Sun traces his white family’s loss of their land in Mugabe’s land reform, called Mugabe “a nonagenarian bellowing about antique struggles well past their fight-by date, while ignoring the juggernaut of economic collapse that bears down on him.”
However, Zimbabwe’s ravaged tobacco production finally appears to have recovered. According to the country’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, this year’s crop finally topped 2001 levels, Bloomberg reported. Agricultural Minister Joseph Made told Bloomberg Zimbabwe’s apparent agricultural recovery “vindicates the country and the policy,” though he did not speak to the decade of famine that followed the policy’s implementation.
Whether there exists strong support for Mugabe’s command among government officials and local leaders remains unclear. In the same speech in which he announced his plan to evict white farmers, Mugabe castigated cabinet members and politicians for protecting white farmers. Mugabe’s call to oust white farmers may be simply ignored. According to NewsDay Zimbabwe, one farmer present for Mugabe’s speech said provincial politicians “dine with whites by night and denounce them by day.”
Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe as a Marxist dictator since the country became independent from Britain in 1980, is telling his country’s few remaining white landowners: Your time is up.
“We say no to whites owning our land, and they should go,” Mugabe told supporters, according to The Christian Science Monitor. “They can own companies and apartments…but not the soil. It is ours and that message should ring loud and clear in Britain and the United States.”
Mugabe’s declaration is mostly symbolic. Few white farmers remain in the country after Mugabe’s first pogrom, which began in 2000. According toHuman Rights Watch, Mugabe sent “ruling party militias, often led by veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation war,” to harass and expel the country’s then-5,000 white farmers. In 2012, The Guardian reported that no more than 500 remained. Mugabe and his allies now own about 40 percent of the land seized from white farmers, The Guardian said.
Many critics blame Mugabe’s aggressive land grab for Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. In 2000, Zimbabwe was the world’s second largest exporter of tobacco; seven years later, it had slipped to sixth place, the economy had shrunk by 40 percent, and, in 2008, inflation hovered at 500 billion percent,Bloomberg reported.
Peter Godwin, whose memoir When A Crocodile Eats the Sun traces his white family’s loss of their land in Mugabe’s land reform, called Mugabe “a nonagenarian bellowing about antique struggles well past their fight-by date, while ignoring the juggernaut of economic collapse that bears down on him.”
However, Zimbabwe’s ravaged tobacco production finally appears to have recovered. According to the country’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, this year’s crop finally topped 2001 levels, Bloomberg reported. Agricultural Minister Joseph Made told Bloomberg Zimbabwe’s apparent agricultural recovery “vindicates the country and the policy,” though he did not speak to the decade of famine that followed the policy’s implementation.
Whether there exists strong support for Mugabe’s command among government officials and local leaders remains unclear. In the same speech in which he announced his plan to evict white farmers, Mugabe castigated cabinet members and politicians for protecting white farmers. Mugabe’s call to oust white farmers may be simply ignored. According to NewsDay Zimbabwe, one farmer present for Mugabe’s speech said provincial politicians “dine with whites by night and denounce them by day.”
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Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Zimbabwe food crisis eases, but over million face hunger says UN
Photo (Courtesy) http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/6714.htmAug 10, 2010, 11:39 GMT
Rome - Food security in Zimbabwe has improved 'significantly,' but some 1.68 million people will still need assistance next year, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said Tuesday.
The repor is based on a June mission to Zimbabwe by FAO and another Rome-based UN agency, the World Food Programme, to assess the national crop and food security situation in the southern African nation.
Government efforts and a 70 million dollar international aid programme providing farmers with subsidised input, had boosted agricultural production, the report found.
The area planted under maize, Zimbabwe's main staple, increased by 20 per cent in 2010 to the highest level in 30 years and production rose seven per cent over 2009, the mission found.
Compared with the poor 2008 season when less than 500,000 tons of maize was harvested, production more than doubled in 2009 and 2010 to 1.27 and 1.35 million tons respectively.
'The generous international support ... significantly contributed to this year's relatively good harvest results, even if in some areas of the country rainfall distribution was uneven,' said FAO's emergency and rehabilitation operations in Africa chief, Cristina Amaral.
The mission estimated that some 133,000 tons of food assistance would be needed to feed some 1.68 million Zimbabweans in 2010-11.
The report said that general poverty and chronic food insecurity had led to reduced diversity of consumption and had also contributed to an increased prevalence of chronic malnutrition among young children.
Prices remain comparatively high for families with low incomes and little or no access to US dollars or South African rand according to the WFP's Jan Delbaere, co-author of the report.
.Rome - Food security in Zimbabwe has improved 'significantly,' but some 1.68 million people will still need assistance next year, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said Tuesday.
The repor is based on a June mission to Zimbabwe by FAO and another Rome-based UN agency, the World Food Programme, to assess the national crop and food security situation in the southern African nation.
Government efforts and a 70 million dollar international aid programme providing farmers with subsidised input, had boosted agricultural production, the report found.
The area planted under maize, Zimbabwe's main staple, increased by 20 per cent in 2010 to the highest level in 30 years and production rose seven per cent over 2009, the mission found.
Compared with the poor 2008 season when less than 500,000 tons of maize was harvested, production more than doubled in 2009 and 2010 to 1.27 and 1.35 million tons respectively.
'The generous international support ... significantly contributed to this year's relatively good harvest results, even if in some areas of the country rainfall distribution was uneven,' said FAO's emergency and rehabilitation operations in Africa chief, Cristina Amaral.
The mission estimated that some 133,000 tons of food assistance would be needed to feed some 1.68 million Zimbabweans in 2010-11.
The report said that general poverty and chronic food insecurity had led to reduced diversity of consumption and had also contributed to an increased prevalence of chronic malnutrition among young children.
Prices remain comparatively high for families with low incomes and little or no access to US dollars or South African rand according to the WFP's Jan Delbaere, co-author of the report.
.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Sabbath: Did history play a trick on us?
Sabbath: Did history play a trick on us?
Posted By Lot Masiane on 26 May, 2010 at 2:53 pm
THE Romans had occupied Israel and that was a constant bitter pill to swallow for the Jews. When Jesus came, preaching a “turn the other cheek” message, that seemed out of touch with their immediate needs then. They wanted a military leader to free them from Roman administrators and stop Romans soldiers from patrolling their streets.
On His last trial, Pilate brought in Barabbas, which means, “son of the father”, and Jesus, who was the “Son of the Father” side-by-side and the people chose Barabbas to be released because he was a militant “Robin Hood” type zealot.
Initially, Rome had thought the Jewish religion too ridiculous to be a threat to theirs and declared it a “religio lecita” — a licit or legal religion — and allowed to flourish in the empire. That changed because of the intense nationalistic patriotism of the Jews. Historians say between 65 and l35 AD when Jerusalem was twice sacked, more than two million Jews died in the rebellion and revolt.
Then came a young Jewish guerrilla fighter named Barkokeba, a militant messianic figure many Jews had been looking for to lead them in massive revolt against Rome. And this time the Roman Empire countered with a furious, take-no-prisoners vengeance. After the rebellion things had to change, the Emperor Hadrian (ll7-l38 AD) decreed new policies against the Jews:
1. First, he prohibited any Jew under the threat of death to set foot in the new Roman city rebuilt over.
2. Secondly, he outlawed the practice of the Jewish religion…it was now a “religio illecita.”
3. Thirdly, he outlawed the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath.
Meanwhile, the new Jewish Christians continued working on their friends and families and neighbours declaring the Good News of the Gospel of Christ and the whole place was on fire with thousands turning to Christ. But as far as the Roman Empire was concerned, they were all one and the same — Jews and Christians — just a bunch of fanatical religious zealots.
1. After all, the Christians worshiped on the same day as the Jews…the 7th day Sabbath.
2. They worshiped in the same places as the Jews, the neighbourhood synagogues, unless of course they were expelled by angry Jews.
While Rome saw no distinction between the two religions, no Jew or Christian ever confused their separate identities. The Jews were convinced that the Christian church was out to destroy Judaism. And the new Christians were convinced that Judaism without Jesus was a bankrupt system in the end. Add another dimension, along comes Emperor Nero, whose wife, Empress Poppea Sabrina, converted to Judaism in 62 AD. Nero himself is a friend of the Jews and soon he turns on this growing movement of Christians with a vengeance.
When Rome caught fire in the night, he blamed it on the Christians and a merciless persecution ensued. Christians were covered with pitch and lighted up as human lampposts, they lined the streets of the Imperial City, and their smouldering bodies a testimony to Roman rage. Pressure was definitely mounting on the Christian Church. Were they not worshiping on the same Sabbath as the Jews who were now an illegal religion? They did. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it must be a duck!
So now the challenge was for the Christian church to distance itself from anything Jewish, now “religio illecita.” More and more Christian writers began to distance themselves from the Sabbath. Until one author, Justin Martyr (l00-l64 AD), went so far as to suggest that the seventh-day Sabbath was “a brand of infamy imposed by God on the Jews to single them out for punishment they so well deserved for their wickedness” (Bacch. l84).
A lot of subtle changes started taking place. Under pressure — in a desperate effort to differentiate themselves from the forbidden Jewish religion — historical research conclusively reveals that the Christians of the 2nd and 3rd centuries abandoned the Sabbath of Jesus and the apostles and the New Testament Church. They couldn’t stand the pressure and persecution any longer.
But the fact remains that those later Christians could have chosen Thursday or Friday or even Wednesday instead of celebrating Sabbath on Saturday as they had been doing. Anti-Judaism created the desire to substitute a new day of worship, but it did not determine the specific choice of Sunday.
Why Sunday? Enter Emperor Constantine. His empire divided by two major constituencies: pagan Romans and Christian Romans. He sought to unite them. So in March, 32l AD, Constantine makes a calculated political decision and issues an empire-wide edict that the day of the Sun would be a day of rest, not a religious day of rest but a day for all citizens to refrain from work. A day to build harmony and peace throughout the empire. And soon, it was that Constantine himself was baptised a Christian. Then some say he marched his army across a river and declared them baptised.
For by the 4th century, the Christians in the west had officially declared their day of worship to be the day of the Sun (Sunday), the day the Sun of Righteousness arose from the dead, was how they defended it. And of course their pagan neighbours were already worshiping the sun on Sunday, so what a convenient blending of pagan and Christian truth! Peace at last for all. And when in the middle of the 4th century the church in Rome convened a council at Laodecia, at last was the official stance ratified in the words:
“Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honour and … If possible, do no work on that day.” (Finley 64) {Note how he separates Saturday/Sabbath from the Lord’s day!}
We have a clear line of truth.
God has a day “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” [Rev 1:10]. That day is called the Sabbath “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath” [Mark 2:28]. The Sabbath is the seventh day. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made” [Genesis 2:1,2].
Some more quotes from Catholic scholars:
Bishop Eusebius, the high-ranking Catholic leader during Constantine’s reign:
“All things whatsoever that were prescribed for the [Bible] Sabbath, we have transferred them to the Lord’s day, as being more authoritative and more highly regarded and first in rank, and more honourable than the Jewish Sabbath” (Quoted in J. P. Migne’s “Patrologie” p 23, 1169-1172).
The Convert’s Catechism, the instructional book for those who join the Roman Catholic Church:
“Question: Which is the Sabbath day?” “Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.” “Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?” “Answer: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”
Cardinal James Gibbon:
“You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and you will not find a single line authorising the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday.”
Then why does Rome venerate Sunday? The Catholic Encyclopaedia answers:
“The church, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath of the seventh day of the week to the first made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord’s Day.” (V 4, p 153)
[It says ‘the Third Commandment’ instead of Fourth because the Catholic Catechism dropped the Second Commandment, forbidding graven images, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” (because it condemned their usage of the statues of “Peter”, “Mary” etc.) and consequently divided the Tenth Commandment into two parts in order to still get ten commandments] see Exodus 20: 1-17 for Biblical 10 Commandments.
But if the Catholic Church claims to have changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, why do most Protestant churches also worship on Sunday?
In his book, the Faith of Millions, the late Rev. John A. O’Brian, former professor at Notre Dame University, writes:
“But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn’t it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes, of course, it is inconsistent; but this change was made about fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born, and by that time the custom was universally observed. They have continued the custom, even though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text in the bible. That observance remains as a reminder of the Mother Church from which the non-Catholic sects broke away like a boy running away from home but still carrying in his pocket a picture of his mother or a lock of her hair.”
Whose authority will you follow, clever human devices and Divine command? It is my prayer that every Christian studies the Bible for themselves and stop following human traditions or clever philosophies. They will not save from the fires of hell.
Christ said, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” [Matthew 15:9].
Aristotle in 300 BC made the following scientific observation and wrote it down in his journal: “The spider is a small animal which has six legs.” That declaration was accepted as truth for 1700 years, until somebody else counted the legs of the spider in 1400 AD and discovered that it has eight legs! They had to rewrite their books but for 1700 years nobody challenged the great Aristotle, and so his false count was followed mindlessly by all those behind him!
A reward of £1million was offered to anyone who finds a text of scripture from the Bible instructing us to keep Sunday holy. To date, there haven’t been any takers! We could up the ante to £2 million (just to show our confidence in the Scriptures).
Posted By Lot Masiane on 26 May, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Lot Masiane is a member of the SDA Church. An accountant by profession, he is also a self-confessed bookworm and his interests include football. He supports Chelsea Football Club.
THE Romans had occupied Israel and that was a constant bitter pill to swallow for the Jews. When Jesus came, preaching a “turn the other cheek” message, that seemed out of touch with their immediate needs then. They wanted a military leader to free them from Roman administrators and stop Romans soldiers from patrolling their streets.
On His last trial, Pilate brought in Barabbas, which means, “son of the father”, and Jesus, who was the “Son of the Father” side-by-side and the people chose Barabbas to be released because he was a militant “Robin Hood” type zealot.
Initially, Rome had thought the Jewish religion too ridiculous to be a threat to theirs and declared it a “religio lecita” — a licit or legal religion — and allowed to flourish in the empire. That changed because of the intense nationalistic patriotism of the Jews. Historians say between 65 and l35 AD when Jerusalem was twice sacked, more than two million Jews died in the rebellion and revolt.
Then came a young Jewish guerrilla fighter named Barkokeba, a militant messianic figure many Jews had been looking for to lead them in massive revolt against Rome. And this time the Roman Empire countered with a furious, take-no-prisoners vengeance. After the rebellion things had to change, the Emperor Hadrian (ll7-l38 AD) decreed new policies against the Jews:
1. First, he prohibited any Jew under the threat of death to set foot in the new Roman city rebuilt over.
2. Secondly, he outlawed the practice of the Jewish religion…it was now a “religio illecita.”
3. Thirdly, he outlawed the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath.
Meanwhile, the new Jewish Christians continued working on their friends and families and neighbours declaring the Good News of the Gospel of Christ and the whole place was on fire with thousands turning to Christ. But as far as the Roman Empire was concerned, they were all one and the same — Jews and Christians — just a bunch of fanatical religious zealots.
1. After all, the Christians worshiped on the same day as the Jews…the 7th day Sabbath.
2. They worshiped in the same places as the Jews, the neighbourhood synagogues, unless of course they were expelled by angry Jews.
While Rome saw no distinction between the two religions, no Jew or Christian ever confused their separate identities. The Jews were convinced that the Christian church was out to destroy Judaism. And the new Christians were convinced that Judaism without Jesus was a bankrupt system in the end. Add another dimension, along comes Emperor Nero, whose wife, Empress Poppea Sabrina, converted to Judaism in 62 AD. Nero himself is a friend of the Jews and soon he turns on this growing movement of Christians with a vengeance.
When Rome caught fire in the night, he blamed it on the Christians and a merciless persecution ensued. Christians were covered with pitch and lighted up as human lampposts, they lined the streets of the Imperial City, and their smouldering bodies a testimony to Roman rage. Pressure was definitely mounting on the Christian Church. Were they not worshiping on the same Sabbath as the Jews who were now an illegal religion? They did. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it must be a duck!
So now the challenge was for the Christian church to distance itself from anything Jewish, now “religio illecita.” More and more Christian writers began to distance themselves from the Sabbath. Until one author, Justin Martyr (l00-l64 AD), went so far as to suggest that the seventh-day Sabbath was “a brand of infamy imposed by God on the Jews to single them out for punishment they so well deserved for their wickedness” (Bacch. l84).
A lot of subtle changes started taking place. Under pressure — in a desperate effort to differentiate themselves from the forbidden Jewish religion — historical research conclusively reveals that the Christians of the 2nd and 3rd centuries abandoned the Sabbath of Jesus and the apostles and the New Testament Church. They couldn’t stand the pressure and persecution any longer.
But the fact remains that those later Christians could have chosen Thursday or Friday or even Wednesday instead of celebrating Sabbath on Saturday as they had been doing. Anti-Judaism created the desire to substitute a new day of worship, but it did not determine the specific choice of Sunday.
Why Sunday? Enter Emperor Constantine. His empire divided by two major constituencies: pagan Romans and Christian Romans. He sought to unite them. So in March, 32l AD, Constantine makes a calculated political decision and issues an empire-wide edict that the day of the Sun would be a day of rest, not a religious day of rest but a day for all citizens to refrain from work. A day to build harmony and peace throughout the empire. And soon, it was that Constantine himself was baptised a Christian. Then some say he marched his army across a river and declared them baptised.
For by the 4th century, the Christians in the west had officially declared their day of worship to be the day of the Sun (Sunday), the day the Sun of Righteousness arose from the dead, was how they defended it. And of course their pagan neighbours were already worshiping the sun on Sunday, so what a convenient blending of pagan and Christian truth! Peace at last for all. And when in the middle of the 4th century the church in Rome convened a council at Laodecia, at last was the official stance ratified in the words:
“Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honour and … If possible, do no work on that day.” (Finley 64) {Note how he separates Saturday/Sabbath from the Lord’s day!}
We have a clear line of truth.
God has a day “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” [Rev 1:10]. That day is called the Sabbath “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath” [Mark 2:28]. The Sabbath is the seventh day. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made” [Genesis 2:1,2].
Some more quotes from Catholic scholars:
Bishop Eusebius, the high-ranking Catholic leader during Constantine’s reign:
“All things whatsoever that were prescribed for the [Bible] Sabbath, we have transferred them to the Lord’s day, as being more authoritative and more highly regarded and first in rank, and more honourable than the Jewish Sabbath” (Quoted in J. P. Migne’s “Patrologie” p 23, 1169-1172).
The Convert’s Catechism, the instructional book for those who join the Roman Catholic Church:
“Question: Which is the Sabbath day?” “Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.” “Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?” “Answer: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”
Cardinal James Gibbon:
“You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and you will not find a single line authorising the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday.”
Then why does Rome venerate Sunday? The Catholic Encyclopaedia answers:
“The church, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath of the seventh day of the week to the first made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord’s Day.” (V 4, p 153)
[It says ‘the Third Commandment’ instead of Fourth because the Catholic Catechism dropped the Second Commandment, forbidding graven images, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” (because it condemned their usage of the statues of “Peter”, “Mary” etc.) and consequently divided the Tenth Commandment into two parts in order to still get ten commandments] see Exodus 20: 1-17 for Biblical 10 Commandments.
But if the Catholic Church claims to have changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, why do most Protestant churches also worship on Sunday?
In his book, the Faith of Millions, the late Rev. John A. O’Brian, former professor at Notre Dame University, writes:
“But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn’t it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes, of course, it is inconsistent; but this change was made about fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born, and by that time the custom was universally observed. They have continued the custom, even though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text in the bible. That observance remains as a reminder of the Mother Church from which the non-Catholic sects broke away like a boy running away from home but still carrying in his pocket a picture of his mother or a lock of her hair.”
Whose authority will you follow, clever human devices and Divine command? It is my prayer that every Christian studies the Bible for themselves and stop following human traditions or clever philosophies. They will not save from the fires of hell.
Christ said, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” [Matthew 15:9].
Aristotle in 300 BC made the following scientific observation and wrote it down in his journal: “The spider is a small animal which has six legs.” That declaration was accepted as truth for 1700 years, until somebody else counted the legs of the spider in 1400 AD and discovered that it has eight legs! They had to rewrite their books but for 1700 years nobody challenged the great Aristotle, and so his false count was followed mindlessly by all those behind him!
A reward of £1million was offered to anyone who finds a text of scripture from the Bible instructing us to keep Sunday holy. To date, there haven’t been any takers! We could up the ante to £2 million (just to show our confidence in the Scriptures).
.
.
.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Zimbabwe's Mugabe Stripped of Knighthood
Zimbabwe's Mugabe Stripped of Knighthood
Listen Now [26 sec] add to playlist
All Things Considered, June 25, 2008 · Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has stripped Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe of his knighthood. This highly unusual move is a protest by the queen over Mugabe's human rights abuses following complaints by Zimbabwe's opposition of intimidation.
Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91891799&ft=1&f=1004
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