Ian Smith dies

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I think I must become a black dictator, it seems like a good career move money wise.
 
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=325522&area=/obituaries/

"Smith will not be mourned or missed here by any decent person because he was an unrepentant racist whose racist stance and opposition to our independence caused a war, and he was responsible for a lot of deaths and suffering," Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga told Reuters.
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Atleast most of the Mugabe supporters can't be called racists or held accountable for genocide :rolleyes:
 
Like what the South African ministers have to say actually means anything - they're so full of crap.
 
Perhaps I should rephrase that...

All I'm saying is focus on what Smith did, and not on what his successor did, which has nothing to do with Smith.

He was a racist who resisted democracy.
 
chiskop said:
As I said - try to concentrate on what Smith did... not what someone else did.
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But we are where we are today. Thats what matters - not what Smith did in the 70s! What he did 3 decades ago isn't killing people in Zim today because of starvation and massive inflation! Personally I believe that the people of Zimbabwe don't give a damn about what Smith did back then.
 
This may have worked out a lot differently for Zimbabwe if Smith had not been the racist pig he was. Just for a second consider the possibilities if he had led a party that became part of the solution to the issues Rhodesia faced at the time, rather than the problems he created.

One should be under no delusion that the racist attitude of the whites in Rhodesia led to their having to leave and try to find a better life elsewhere. They are the ones reponsible for the f...up that country is today.

Those Rhodesians who "packed for Pretoria" brought with them their ****ty views and approach to life. We've got more than enough idiots like them here already. All they do, both our local fools and the ones from Zim, is bitch and moan and make abosolutely zilch of a contribution to improving the racial tolerance. When they stop their crap and start looking for commonalities in the different peoples here we may start to get somewhere.
 
timgaul said:
But we are where we are today. Thats what matters - not what Smith did in the 70s! What he did 3 decades ago isn't killing people in Zim today because of starvation and massive inflation! Personally I believe that the people of Zimbabwe don't give a damn about what Smith did back then.
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Yes, but we're not discussing why Zim is in the situation its in. We're talking about Ian Smith.

Mugabe actions since don't make Smith any less of a racist or more of a democrat.

FWIW, I agree with Grav!ty, Zimbabwe's problems began long before 2000, and long before 1980 (which is not to say that Mugabe hasn't accelerated things).
 
Grav!ty said:
This may have worked out a lot differently for Zimbabwe if Smith had not been the racist pig he was. Just for a second consider the possibilities if he had led a party that became part of the solution to the issues Rhodesia faced at the time, rather than the problems he created.

One should be under no delusion that the racist attitude of the whites in Rhodesia led to their having to leave and try to find a better life elsewhere. They are the ones reponsible for the f...up that country is today.

Those Rhodesians who "packed for Pretoria" brought with them their ****ty views and approach to life. We've got more than enough idiots like them here already. All they do, both our local fools and the ones from Zim, is bitch and moan and make abosolutely zilch of a contribution to improving the racial tolerance. When they stop their crap and start looking for commonalities in the different peoples here we may start to get somewhere.
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Ahh, so it's all the white mans fault, obviously ;)
 
chiskop said:
Perhaps I should rephrase that...

All I'm saying is focus on what Smith did, and not on what his successor did, which has nothing to do with Smith.

He was a racist who resisted democracy.
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He resisted the Marxist Leninists who wanted to take power by force. Do you think Zim is democratic now??

Perhaps he felt that most Zimbabweans were not ready for democracy. They certainly were not ready to govern themselves. Reasons for that can be debated though..
 
chiskop said:
Perhaps I should rephrase that...

All I'm saying is focus on what Smith did, and not on what his successor did, which has nothing to do with Smith.

He was a racist who resisted democracy.
Click to expand...

Fair enough... don't forget to mention though that the country he ran was the bread basket of Africa and had the highest literacy rate of any African country.
 
Is it up to the local people to decide how they want to be ruled and what system of government they wish to have?

What would Rhodesia be like after decades of perpetual civil war? How would Ian Smith have managed to prevent the country from sinking into an escalating civil war, leaving the country with completely destroyed infrastructure and swamped in mines? Perhaps no worse than it is now, but would it really be any better?

There is much wrong in South Africa and the ANC shows all the signs of being corrupted by power, but where would we be if the National Party had tried to cling to power? How long before civil war broke out?

With respect to the success/failure of African governments/countries in many cases it is not easy to separate out the effects of Western interests which typically favour a situation that gives them access to resources. At the same time the African leaders retain blame for the own actions.
 
Well he was certainly a visionary, taking into consideration what he said about black rule in Zimbos and how it would never work.
 
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