Victoribus Spolia wrote:I suppose you are thinking of Zimbabwe on this?
I am also curious as to why you would be for or against the maneuver by the ANC. Its precedent in post-colonialist and marxian thought would make me think you would support this action, but your tone gives me a sense of skepticism on your part?
I am curious of your opinion.
I am indeed thinking of Zimbabwe (as are all of us, and the people in and around South Africa with a vested interest). Zimbabwe fucked itself over by trying to apply racial ideals and reverse colonialism/land ownership by a small racial minority with a plan that wasn't thought out and didn't have long-term goals or even short-term careful management and planning. It's been decades and they still haven't recovered, of course.
I am indeed a Marxist, but the SA government is not socialist in character. Appropriating the land and farms from 200 very wealthy farmers will most likely be mismanaged like Zimbabwe was. I see no indications to the contrary. Further, I see no indications the farms aren't simply going to be handed over to other farmers, who won't have the equipment or money to properly run and maintain them the same way the current owners are. That spells problems for the economy. This is why I am also generally skeptical and dismissive of liberals in the West for similar reasons: their goals are capitalist. In SA, the problem is that even if they do this, there will be wealthy farmers eventually buying and acquiring more of SA's limited farmlands, and there will continue to be a concentration of most of SA's farmland in a very few hands, and nothing will change.
I don't share your optimism here, namely because I don't think it will stop here and if there were any kind of violent backlash, it will spread to those farmers not involved in the initial land-grab.
I work with a lot (literally: I'm not sure why there are so many South Africans of black/white/Indian ancestry working as teachers in Shanghai, but there's quite a lot) of South Africans, and I see no signs of a dire problem around the corner. Taking land from 200 farmers who have too much of a percentage of the overall farmland is one thing, but there's no government plans or justification to take land from any white person like in Zimbabwe. Although SA is a pretty corrupt country, it simply wouldn't work for them to try to apply the same idiotic policies as Zimbabwe.
Overall, this proposed action by the ANC government seems more like a short term political ploy to gain support and seem like they're a party serving the interests of the people. Going beyond taking land from very wealthy landowners is a bridge too far.
The Afrikaners have a history of rebellious rampages when they get put in a corner and unless their character has radically changed (which is possible), I can definitely see this situation turning south.
As Potemkin and I have pointed out, ANC's proposal affects 200 wealthy landowners. There's no reason to think white South Africans will rampage because a small group of rich people are about to have their land taken away, considering there's no chance the ANC government would suddenly turn on white people in general in SA (that's not how the ANC operates, and whites are not second class citizens).
"I don't know if you're a detective or a pervert."
"Well, that's for me to know and you to find out."
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