MovieChat Forums > Mugabe and the White African (2009) Discussion > Blessing-Miles Tendi -Your Review

Blessing-Miles Tendi -Your Review

posted 14 years ago by kuurgen-1
3 replies | jump to latest

Seeing as your comment was a direct cut and paste job from your Guardian article,
I'll link directly to it, as many people have already responded to your flawed view.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/05/mugabe-white-african-zimbabwe

This doesn't change the fact that people are dying from famine and being killed to keep Mugabe in power.

The documentary points out, rightfully so, that the people benefiting most are cronies of Mugabe, as evidenced by their brand new 50k cars.

This is just going to be the case of yet ANOTHER African country stripped bare by
it's current dictator and left for the rest of the world to help through aid.

If you want to see chaos, I recommend the Vice Guide to Liberia to see what the aftermath is going to look like. vbs.tv

As I watched the documentary my only thought was "Leave them to it"

It's a shame, because Mugabe has destroyed the country by dismantling the most important resource. Food production.

Nobody wins.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/AZHU-856RBC?OpenDocument

[–] tingiemang 14 years ago

You're entitled to your criticism but lets not pretend Mugabe caused an 18 year long drought.
He did cause the international boycott against Zimbabwe though (which didn't really help anyone :P )
But I betting even he would have kicked the white farmers out later if he knew the drought would be still be this persistent.

Further more he won the elections promising just that.
His supporters were very anxious for him to keep his promise of redistribution.
Let alone his cronies who got most.
Take care of your home base and the armed forces before you take care of the people. A wise lesson Jean-Bertrand Aristide should have learned from Mugabe before he got ousted.

I also do not think we should pretend that the white landowners are/were there to help the poor blacks, the (1% of the population) white farmers weren't exactly protesting that they owned 75% or all arable land since the Land Apportionment Act now were they?
Mugabe is without any doubt a cruel and power hungry despot but the big landowners were not at any time willing to even think of giving up their way of living.
In hindsight they were probably right to protest as the government didn't have the funds to buy them out.

Oh BTW,
I think you forgot to read some of the arguments in favor of
Blessing-Miles Tendi's article
The tread is actually very good.

pro the gust is: why not talk about how the situation came to be, ignore that
and you're a colonialist.
against: "innocent" blood is flowing and anyone who disagrees is a racist
because life WAS better before Mugabe.

I think that in the western hemisphere we read about the against argument constantly But I think it's a bit early to call the "pro" argument history....

The doc itself plays on emotion brilliantly.
I just can't seem to shake the historical perspective.

No country with natural resources will ever be left to "fend for themselves"
As always vested interest and future interests will prevail.
I'm guessing China will keep Mugabe afloat a bit longer.

My message for all those of you about to see this very well made documentary ; Read up a bit there's more to the story than what you see

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ManFromSanFernando 14 years ago

People do win, that's why its happening. The ppl winning will be the black African racists holed up in the urban areas that can import food from abroad. This film enrages me, as many liberals always complain about the racism of the white man.