What's Your Views On This Evil Person

[TWR]

Mugabe?

[kvalidir]

Oh well if all the indiginous populations of our former Empire thought it was so much better with us in charge why don't we offer to go back and do it again, they'll obviously jump at the chance, and if they don't then what does that tell you?

[Zacs-Master]

Yes Tora, I think Britain is in a different place to when we had influence in SA.

[EDDIE51]

TTT if your 'Anti British' comment is aimed at me then I must say I am VERY proud to be British and VERY patriotic . However I firmly believe it is possible to be proud of your own country and proud to be a member of the EU at the same time. One does not rule out the other as so many 'Brexit' supporters seem to think.

[ToraToraTora]

eddie I was referring to jno, hence my use of his name; "did you read what eddie wrote jno? Still not an unexpected dig from one of our top anti British. " - was actually asking him to rethink his assertion that the locals would not think it better by referring him to your earlier post.

[EDDIE51]

Kav , I took care to explain to all the Zambians who asked that it was not possible for a return to British rule and that they should be proud of their country and do all possible to help it progress. My main job was teaching Zambians to become Laboratory workers and so take over the jobs that were being done by Expats such as myself.So I was actually working myself out of a job so that the local population could do it.
I went on to do the same in Saudi Arabia where I was one of very few western men who was allowed to teach Muslim females without them wearing veils. Again I taught Laboratory technique aimed at allowing Saudi nationals to take over expat jobs.

[EDDIE51]

TTT, thanks for the clarification.

[anotheoldgit]

jim360

Not the height of arrogance, but the height of common sense, prove otherwise.

[ToraToraTora]

hope you didn'y annoy any of their husbands eddie: http://www.newsweek.com/saudi-arabia-man-shoots-doctor-assisting-wifes-labor-463616

[anotheoldgit]

jno
/// Africans don't seem quite so sure. Funny, that. ///

And how do you know that?

Africans and their descendants who have chosen to live in other countries are much better off than those still in Africa.

[Zacs-Master]

They might be better off financially but those I heard on R4 would move back in a heartbeat because it’s their home. Apparently it’s a beautiful country.

[tiggerblue10]

A former colleague of mine who came from Zimbabwe thought Mugabe's rise to power decades ago was the best thing to happen to the country. That was his response when I expressed to him my views of Mugabe as being a despotic tyrant!

This was around 10 years ago and I think he went back to live there. Wonder what he's doing now.

[Zacs-Master]

About 10 years probably.

[jim360]

"Not the height of arrogance, but the height of common sense, prove otherwise."

I would have thought that Brexit supporters would understand why Africans are better off now than before, under British Rule, better even than I could.

[ToraToraTora]

jim are you really saying that Rhodesia is better off since independence?

[jim360]

I think I'm actually saying that it's better off independent.

[douglas9401]

Not evil really, just African.

[andy-hughes]

Mr Mugabe is an evil person, but his evil has been allowed its long and powerful indulgence because other governments have not seen fit to do anything about it - to their shame.

As has been opined many times, if Zimbabe had something the West needed, like oil, his downtrodden people could have enjoyed the liberation 'enjoyed by Eastern countries ruled in a similar fashion.

That said, Western intervention is often far from the rescue that any oppressed people have a right to hope for.

Mt Mugabe has not obtained, and maintained his power by being a shrinking violet, he will fight for power to his dying breath, which we have to hope will not be too far away.

[New Judge]

“I would have thought that Brexit supporters would understand why Africans are better off now than before, under British Rule, better even than I could.”

I don’t know too many Brexit supporters who have thought seriously about the question would necessarily say that the UK will be better off after we leave. The answer of course is that we simply don’t know and never will because any comparison made post-Brexit will have to be made with an unknown quantity– the situation the UK would have enjoyed if it had remained.

What most Brexit supporters believe is that decisions that are currently taken by unelected foreign civil servants should be taken by the UK government. Whether those decisions turn out to be good or bad is not the point. It is who takes them that matters. So it is with the colonies. They wanted to determine their own destiny and now they have. Whether or not they are “better off” only they can tell.

[jim360]

I think NJ was making the point I was trying to for me. The key difference with Brexit is that we voluntarily joined the EU -- but still, if you are going to hail Brexit as a glorious chance to take back control from oppressive overlords in Brussels, then you may as well extend that principle to former colonies.

In practical terms I am certainly not going to argue that Mugabe's regime was better for his people than what preceded it. Perhaps Ian Smith, among others, has something to do with that, but I'm not going to pretend to understand properly the transition from British rule to Home Rule.

Either way, the answer to Zimbabwe's problems is certainly not a return to, or a nostalgia for, colonial control.

[mikey4444]

A rare event here on AB.....100% condemnation of the horrible dictator Mugabe !