Paying attention to Zimbabwe now. One story about Mugabe’s corruption mentioned ‘farm invasions’, which needed more explanation.
From Cato’s account, which may be biased:
= = = = = START CATO:
In the early 2000s, Zimbabwe’s former dictator Robert Mugabe gave the green light to his paramilitary supporters to invade commercial farms, seizing some 23 million acres of land. The property rights of commercial farmers were revoked and the state resettled the confiscated farms with small‐scale agriculturalists.
Most of the new would‐be farmers had no real knowledge of commercial agriculture and many soon returned to subsistence farming. With much of the country’s arable land now uncultivated, agricultural production quickly dwindled. The actual commercial farmers left for other African countries such as Zambia, Nigeria, and Ghana, taking with them their intricate knowledge of farming practices.
= = = = = END CATO.
We did the same thing under Wilson. Poor land was sold cheap to unskilled farmers. They ruined the land resulting in the Dust Bowl. Henry Wallace repaired the damage by training and subsidizing skilled farmers.
Now EU/US/UK are doing the same thing for the sake of Gaia, which is a fancy name for greedy billionaires. Our paramilitary leaders like Gates and Bezos, and the governments in Europe, are kicking skilled farmers off the land and expropriating it for pure Conspicuous Consumption. An inaccessible and unproductive “wildlife preserve” is a Luxury Good to be abstractly enjoyed by Luxury Prospects. In other words it’s pure schnitzel measurement.
Enrich the rich and kill the poor. That’s all we do.
Polistra's Mill 