09 July 2003

Murphy Morobe makes a contribution (a good one) to the ongoing debate about non-racialism.  If only some of his colleagues and leaders were as level-headed about implementing the non-racial ideals of the UDF. And Ian Frazer has a few trenchant comments and a whole series of links on the subject of racism. 7:43:40 PM    comment []

Thabo Mbeki on Progressive Politics (The Guardian) Pretty academic stuff - Africa is poor, so market economics will not work.  EU structural funds have helped poorer countries in Europe, gtherefore something similar should be done for Africa. My view of EU stuctural funds, as applied in Greece, is that they are a great source of corruption, and enrichment of a political elite, and that corruption and the enrichment of a political elite would be the inevitable result in Africa too, just like arms deals. Seems like the DA in South Africa have reservations too.   7:37:49 PM    comment []

This is the future of online newspapers. Guardian creates defining moment in the paid-for Web [The Register] Oh dear, just a day or two ago I was congratulating the Guardian on the quality of their site, and remarking that it was all free, and now this happens!  While I haven't been there to read the details, I don't like this development.  I live in Greece;  I love to read the quality broadsheet newspapers, but they are very expensive (2.50 Euros for the dailies, and 4.50 for the Sunday Times) and they arrive a day and a half late, so I spend a lot of money to read stale newspapers.  So, access to the web sites is a necessity for me, but I am not going to pay each one a significant amount of money on the off-chance I want to read content from any of them.  I have stopped visiting the Times web site entirely because they instituted a 40 pound charge some time last year, which I thought was exorbitant.  Interestingly, since that time, I buy the print editions far less frequently, which I think is directly related.  Maybe I will buy the Guardian and Observer less frequently now as well.  I will restrict my news activities to the BBC, which is free, but slanted, and the IHT.  I do subscribe to The Economist, which gives me access to their site and archives, which I consider to be a good deal, being a weekly, since the delay in delivery is not critical.  However, I will miss the range of opinions offered.   7:04:39 PM    comment []

"Success" of Zimbabwe's land Reform Program This item is a couple of weeks old, but I was glad to run across it again and record it here in all its devastating bluntness. If the objective was to take a healthy functioning economy and totally destroy it, Comrade Bob has succeeded magnificently.  How sad. Zimbabwe land reform sees 90% drop in production Johannesburg 20 June 2003 09:21 Zimbabwe's land reform programme has caused a 90% drop in production in large-scale commercial farming since the 1990s, UN food organisations said in a report released on Thursday. Subsequently, about 400 000 farm workers -- who were meant to benefit from the controversial resettlement plan -- lost their jobs and homes. "Following the land reform programme, the large-scale commercial sector now produces only about one tenth of its output in the 1990s," the report on crop and food supply in the southern African country stated.   8:42:07 AM    comment []