Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) Land impasse with the West must be reconciled

Land impasse with the West must be reconciled
Dambudzo Mapuranga - Opinion
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:36:00 +0000

THE following is the first part of an article by DANAI MAPURANGA. The second part will be published tomorrow. Mapuranga argues that the land impasse with the West must be reconciled. The argument presented here is that the land issue in Zimbabwe is at the core of the current problems, and Western media has exacerbated some problems emanating from the land conflict. Mapuranga traces the history of land problems in Zimbabwe and makes comparisons with other places where indigenous people's have been moved from their lands.
____

WHILE the mainstream media across the globe, in cahoots with their Western leaders, has managed to deceive people that the cause of Zimbabwe’s problems is President Robert Mugabe, the inception of the inclusive Government is only but the beginning of the cracking of the West’s propaganda.

For so long any news about Zimbabwe has been based on the premise that President Mugabe sacrificed Zimbabwe’s future to remain in power. With the coming in of the Unity Government President Mugabe is still characterized as a belligerent man who refuses to give up power.

When all is said and done there is one important fact that Zimbabweans need to fully appreciate. President Mugabe was the darling of the West until he decided to upset the status qou by embarking on the Land Reform Program. This action, which was described by both Former Secretary of State Condolezza Rice and her boss George Bush as a threat to American Foreign Policy, set Zimbabwe on the bumpy road it has been on for the past decade.

The land issue is of great consequence not just to Zimbabweans but also to many indigenous people across the globe.

In the great United States of America, remnants of American Indians are kept in reservations with nothing more to do but drink and run casinos. Their young are urged to integrate themselves into the American society and pay little if no attention to their heritage. This is all in order to erase the fact that American Indians were robbed of their land and turned into second-class citizens by the whites that moved to the Americas from Europe. The same can be said for the Aborigines in Australia, the Maori in New Zealand, and the many Africans who were displaced to make way for European settlers.

It is funny now that the disposed are told to respect property laws, rule of law and human rights by the very people who gained when their forefathers criminally stole land from blacks. No consideration has ever been given to the blacks who were displaced and in most cases had to change their way of life as their circumstances deteriorated due to illegal displacements by whites.

One could go on and say with the exception of the Jews there are no other people who have received support from the Western world when it comes to issues of land. In the fact that the dominant religion in the West is based on neo Judean principles (Christianity) while the Arabs in the Middle East subscribe to Islamic teachings has been an added factor. In terms of race relations one can say the Jews are white and the Palestinians are a variation of black.

Is it any wonder that the Jews who have more in common with Europe are favored, while the Palestinians who in all sense are just like the blacks, different in color and religion are discriminated on?

In the case of Zimbabwe the facts are quite clear, in today’s world where, equality, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are cornerstones of democracy, the only logical thing that any government would have done would be to reverse the imbalances of its this colonial legacy.

The history of land in Zimbabwe

The issue of land distribution holds the key to Zimbabwe’s history, from the colonial past to the present. Unless resolved the Land issue will remain the single biggest problem in Zimbabwe.

It is common knowledge that Zimbabwe’s white farmers prior to the Land Reform Program owned much of the country’s agricultural land. According to statistics of early 2000, 4 400 whites in a country of close to 10 million blacks owned close to all the prime farming land. This situation was created in colonial times when blacks were forced off their ancestral lands.

Records of the colonial era underline the cruelty of the settlers who drove blacks savagely off lands they had considered home for centuries. Sacred tribal areas were desecrated, homes and property were destroyed and these people were forced to begin life in hostile sterile environs under traumatized conditions.

These people never received compensation for their losses in fact they were forced to come and work as cheap labor on what was once their ancestral property that had been converted into white owned farms.

It all began with the imperialist Cecil John Rhodes and it should end with him. Considered a true Brit even up to this day, the man who is in most respects responsible for the first parceling out of Zimbabwe is seen as a visionary by his people because they still uphold to their superiority notion.

Rhodes is glorified for all that he did in expanding the British Empire, but it is never mentioned that in this so called expansion would in today’s terms be called crimes against humanity.

Have we been conditioned to believe that the only correct logic comes from our colonial masters?

It might be sugar coated many times over but colonialism was a heinous crime, which is glorified by the west to the detriment of all blacks. Black people lost not only their dignity, sense of self worth and their most prized possession; land but even to this day they are treated in a paternalistic manner by whites because both races have been conditioned to believe that a black person can never do anything without the proper guidance from the superior intellect of a white person.

This is why in any situation a report or statement from a white person is considered more credible that that of a black person. This is why a black judge is always said to be biased but a white judge can never be biased. This is why the African Union is always considered ineffective and uncooperative when it refuses to toe the West’s line.

Even in issues regarding the Middle East when has the Arab voice been given center stage? Has the Western World not demonized Islam as a religion, not because it is dangerous but because its values do not prescribe to Western capitalistic values?

It is always the interests of preserving the state of Israel that are on the agenda. In the case of Israel to further silence any criticism on the racist policy that the West has adopted on the Palestian-Israeli question any opinion that seeks to have the debate shifted to the fact that Israel is racist and discriminatory towards Palestinians is labeled anti-Semitic.

For years now the American government has either pulled out of or vetoed any attempt on the global arena to discuss issues of race in order to protect Israel. The international media as always has adopted the see no evil, hear no evil, stance in order to protect the racist approach of their governments and their major corporations who benefit immensely from these unfair practices.

International Media and the Land Reform Program

In the case of Zimbabwe one can make out a pattern in relation to the government’s policy the Land Reform Program and its decrease in popularity in the West.

The history of land in Zimbabwe has never been discussed by any of the prominent broadcasts and newspapers across the globe and this is not by coincidence. Watching BBC, CNN and the rest one would think that from no where black people in Zimbabwe woke up one day and decided to take over white owned farms.

The truth is however very sad. They are but a handful of media groups in the West that control just about everything their audiences see. The biggest media group in the world is based in New York City is News Corporation, which is owned by; the right wing Republican Rupert Mudorch, Time Warner, is considered the world’s second largest media company and is American. Close behind these two comes the German based Bertelsmann AG, which operates in 63 countries; Hearst Communications, which is also based in New York City, is the largest group when it comes to print media.

These four companies control the flow of information on the Internet, newsprint, film, publishing, telecommunications and television across the globe. These companies are privately owned meaning that their impartiality has been compromised. The foundation, which the Mohn family set up to run its 76% stake of Bertelsmann, is a political think tank.

News Corporation owned by the republican Mudorch holds an annual conference to discuss media issues related to geopolitics open only to selected politicians, senior journalists and celebrities. Notable attendees have included Senator John McCain, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tony Blair and Israeli vice Premier Shimon Peres. One only needs to add one and one to make two. There is no way these media groups will ever give a balanced view of global political issues when their owners are major players in politics.

The British Government appoints the BBC’s entire top management. In fact one can safely say the BBC is a mouthpiece of the British government. This being said how then can the BBC be expected to report objectively concerning the Zimbabwe. CNN while privately owned is known to first check with the US State Department to ensure that any reports they might flight are in line with the US’s foreign policy.

Their monopoly is very impressive such that they have managed to deceive their audience that it has a choice and yet all they are getting is the same witch on a different broom. Looking at our own region of Southern Africa one can get this choice through satellite channels. A run down of these channels will prove that the majority of these channels are divided between these companies. BBC, CNN, know their loyalties are with their respective governments.

SkyNews is part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp; AlJezzera has become a BBC clone, which is run by David Frost the white haired guy formerly of BBC. Bloomberg is of course the baby of billionaire mayor of New York City the Republican Michael Bloomberg.

Our own regional private media has not legged far behind when it comes to spreading capitalistic opinions disguised as news. In a bid to be seen as being on top of things in gathering news many have picked up stories from the major news media and have run then without any research or verification of their own.

This is a common practice in the media fraternity; I recall last year the internationally acclaimed New York Times was forced to make a retraction after splashing pictures of a child with rickets claiming he was a victim of political violence in Zimbabwe. It turned out this was false and the mother admitted that she had been urged by some mischivieous “political activists” to do this so she could get money for her child’s treatment.

From all this it goes without saying that there is no way the global media would have embraced Zimbabwe’s Land Reform Program when it goes against the institutions of capitalism. The British government which was the other party involved in the Land Issue was able to exploit the mechanisms within the media establishment to demonize a move the Government of Zimbabwe made which when objectively scrutinized is decent and legitimate.

What we got from the media were sensationalist pictures, deceiving information that portrayed a totally wrong picture of what the Land Reform Program was about. There was no bulletin within the western world that made any mention of the role Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi played in Zimbabwe’s history. Their death by hanging and that of thousands who in the two wars of liberation from white settler oppression which the British establishment calls Rhodesia’s Bush War. When the history of the war of Zimbabwe’s liberation is shown on ZTV then it becomes propaganda but no one thinks its propaganda when the BBC goes to great lengths to support their kith and kin in Zimbabwe who are about to face the wheels of social justice.

The war of liberation was for the land and the land is what the black people of Zimbabwe wanted still 20 years after they attained their independence.

_______________
Dambudzo Mapuranga

[Part Two of this piece is published tomorrow.]

Labels: LAND REFORM

posted by MrK @ 7:41 PM