Talk:Robert Mugabe/Archive 4

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Archive This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Contents

Zimbabwe revolutionary war

I have a mind to break out the subject of the war of independence and its immediate aftermath, and the Alphabet soup of ZANU, ZAPU, ZIPRA etc. There are things to say about Intertribal rivalries, Intratribal rivalries, factions, some glossing over of irregularities in the 1980 election, and assassinations of leaders and US tourists. It is very relevant to Mugabe, but this page is getting too long already, and I do not want to have to repeat it all on the Zimbabwe page. Yes, no, Name of page, please ? Wizzy 15:41, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Land reform

The article speaks of the 1990s. Really, it was the referendum for a change in the constitution in 2000, and it rejection, that galvanised Mugabe to take care of 'unfinished business'. He subsequently rejected the results of the referendum by passing laws whose subject was addressed by the ref. My edits are 'sticking' these days, so I will try a minor one .. :-) Wizzy 14:37, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

There is an article Problems of land distribution in Zimbabwe that is a placeholder for digging all the woffle off this page .. however, I do not like the title. Can I rename it to Land reform in Zimbabwe ? Wizzy

I'm amused to see that Land reform in Zimbabwe-- what a title!-- has to be removed to a separate article in order to preserve the laudatory tone of this entry. It needs three or five more photos of Mugabe in different outfits with medals, I think. Wetman 10:41, 5 May 2004 (UTC)
Praise be to the anti-imperialist Führer who will lead us to victory over the Ku Klux Kapitalist exploiters!
Yeah, I think that's how it goes. EDR 10:22, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)
I love the last Mugabe quote in this article. It's always cute when Marxists turn people's own anti-Communist ideas against them. Too bad he's still full of shit. EDR 10:24, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Problems of is inherently POV. Yes, I think we can lose some of the pictures. My edit left some pictures flopping around - but I felt I should leave things alone in case others had problems with the edit. I tried to leave a summary of the issues on this page - they were taking up a lot of space before. Do you want to add some back ? Can anyone dig up the British Government's commitments to Zimbabwe in the Lancaster House Agreement ? Wizzy 11:13, 5 May 2004 (UTC)

www.freedomhouse.org

Perhaps this link belongs on the Zimbabwe page, rather than here.

http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2003/countryratings/zimbabwe.htm

Our anonymous editor has been trying quite hard to find a compromise, and it was suggested that they add an external link. I think 172's point is that anyone reading this page for the first time can easily see that Bob is not a popular guy, and a little more mud doesn't make him any muddier. Wizzy 11:19, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Unclear paragraph

"On 18 March 1975, lawyer and ZANU leader Herbert Chitepo, who had avoided detention, was killed by a bomb placed in his car while in Zambia and Mugabe, in Mozambique at the time, unilaterally assumed control of ZANU. Later that year, after squabbling with Ndabaningi Sithole, he became leader of a militant ZANU faction, leaving Sithole to lead the moderate Zanu (Ndonga) party, which renounced violent struggle." --- I think this paragraph needs a cleanup/rephrasing, at least of the first and second sentences. Way too many commas. :S I would do it myself, but I haven't quite figured out what it is supposed to say. If you know, please fix it. :) Brutulf 23:34, Mar 4, 2005 (UTC)

At the Pope's Funeral

I just heard on several different news services, CNN Fox and MSNBC, that Robert Mugabe apparently showed up at the Pope's funeral and there was a loophole in Italian law that prevented anyone from arresting him - apparently Mugabe himself is Catholic - and he used the occassion to attack European leaders for their hardlining stance on his country. He also said something along the lines of "I'm praying for God to kill him" in regards to the Zimbabwe Archbishop calling for an uprising against him. --TheBurningHelm 22:41, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)


Knight Commander Order of the British Empire

Does anyone know anything about this (he was apparently given this distinction in 1994)? 20:20, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

At the OBE article, it lists Mugabe having the order since 1994, and his post-nominal letters are KBE. However, I mainly see it at the German Wikipedia. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 20:12, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I cannot seem to find it. I could try to launch an email, but I have no idea to where. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 20:20, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Looks like he still is. There has been calls for it to be stripped but the govenment doesn't see as a priority. [1][2] josh 10:34, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

unsurprisingly?

I found the following in the article.

"Mugabe's supporters, unsurprisingly, tend to dismiss much of the criticism as being racially motivated, and characterize it as being little more than the bitter remarks of those who have been disadvantaged by his policies."

I am, by no means, a Mugabe supporter but the word "unsurprisingly", which I have italicized, is clearly there to discredit the views made afterwards. This is certainly very POV, and does not belong in an encyclopedia. I'm removing the word; both sides should be heard, fairly.--Zoso Jade 09:31, Jun 8, 2005 (UTC)

Good idea. Personally, unless the BBC gets shown at my house, I will not be able to hear his name in the news. Though, based on some Google searches, he and his supporters do seem, in my view, to play the race card every so often. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 16:30, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I also agree with the opinion stated by using the word "unsurprisingly"; it's just that it is clearly POV. --Zoso Jade 21:04, Jun 12, 2005 (UTC)

Any idiot

knows that the Commonwealth consists of "mostly white" countries. the not-so-subtle push of including this phrasing is to tar American, British, Australian, and others' opposition to Mugabe as solely based on "neocolonial" interests. 64.7.89.54 02:22, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

That's right. It does take an idiot to think that the Commonwealth consists of "mostly white" countries. However, idiots shouldn't be writing these articles. Someone interested in doing some serious work should check the list of Commonwealth members, and see that members in Sub-Saharan Africa far outnumber the "mostly white" members. 172 02:26, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

the major industrialized powers, I mean. 64.7.89.54 03:51, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

You could have stated that earlier, as opposed to distorting your own initial comment and deleting portions of my response... The article was making reference to Mugabe's speech, in which he referred to a "White Commonwealth." In this sense the reference was made, not to tar anyone. 172 05:31, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

This edit war is getting nowhere, and we all know when passions are inflamed there's not much progress. How about the following as a compromise.

In 1991, amid international pressure and short on hard currency, Zimbabwe embarked on a neoliberal austerity program, but the International Monetary Fund suspended aid, claiming that the reforms were "not on track.

So leave the word neoliberal in, it's fairly descriptive, but leave the word program, as regime is quite negative.

Since Mugabe began to redistribute white-owned landholdings, he has faced harsh attacks, externally from Western countries including the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, and internally.

In this case, as someone who's well aware most of the external criticism has been white, I prefer the use of 'Western countries', as 'white colonial powers' excludes the United States (using the classic definition of colonialism), and they've been a major critic. I suggest listing the western powers is sufficient, it's obvious enough that they're mostly white. Feel free to add other major European critics if appropriate, but to my knowledge the US and the UK have been at the forefront. Also, if we're going to use white for the external critics, then we should use black for the internal critics, and there's no need to do that. The fact that the western powers only complained after white-owned land was redistributed is inference enough. --Greenman 14 June 2005

Mugabe's racism

Note to those monitoring this article, I plan to read up on Mugabe and then add a section about his anti-white racism. I'm announcing this because people tend to get their panties in a bunch when I edit articles and I'd like to get the local taboos and heresies hashed out before I go a-editing.

No one? No one has anything to note about Mugabe's racism or its inclusion as a subject in this article?

No one? No one has anything to note about Mugabe's racism or its inclusion as a subject in this article?

What can we say when you don't do anything ? If you would like review, why don't you post your suggested change here, and we have something to discuss. Wizzy…☎ 06:56, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Actually there is something up there now about the seizing of land of European farmers. XD

Bad comment

I dont know if anybody here heard this, or can back it up. A few months ago I heard a speech by Robert Mugabe in which he described himself as the "..black Hitler". This is a rather damning comment, has anyone else (on wikipedia) heard this, can back it up? If so, perhaps it should be added somwhere in the article as this is quite a statement. ( It would read a bit POV, though.) Banes 13:28, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

The quote was "This Hitler has only one objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people and their rights over their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold. - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe." [3]. This was in response to Western accusations comparing him to Hitler. Greenman 15:39, 5 August 2005 (UTC)
Righto! I thought it was something like that, I could have sworn he called himself a new Hitler or something. Oh well, never mind. If that is what he said then it is not that important.--Banes 19:47, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

Ian Smith is twenty times the man that Mugabe will ever be.

dododododododododoodod WAT IS UP WITH mugabee I think dats hom u spell it.

This is not a neutral article

Becuase it suggests that he is mainly criticised by foreigners. There is nowhere near enough about criticism of him by Zimbabweans to balance it out. Rhollenton 17:10, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

Can you elaborate a bit more on what you feel isn't being covered? I do see a number of references to the MDC here as well as several to the work of Pius Ncube. Who else do you feel we need to include to make it neutral? Don't hesitate to add the information in yourself--after all, that's what Wiki is all about! Let's see if we can get this edited to everyone's satisfaction so we can get that tag back off the article. --Dvyost 01:47, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Followers

I read in a newspaper, Mugabe had camps that had harsh conditions and brainwashed youths or something. They were then told to do horrible things like attack relatives who didn't support Mugabe. Is it true and is it a bit POV?

You're thinking of the 'Green Bombers'; the Zimbabwe version of the Hitler Youth. You can find a short Wiki entry for it.

Mugabe - a raving nutcase!

I have met some Rhodesians who left after Mugabe took over. They reckon that Mugabe was a raving nutcase even as early as the late 1960's. One could say that he is on a par with Gerry Adams, who is the leader of Sinn Féin/I.R.A. & a mass murderer as well. - (Aidan Work 05:45, 6 December 2005 (UTC))

Wish other African leaders could be more like Mugabe

Most african nations now have lost averything like thier language, music and other things that make the afican culture unique from others. Mugabe is now trying to restore all those things. He is the only true african leader. He isn't scared of the west or any other supper power that threatens him or his government.