Whither Zimbabwe

A hundred years ago, the population of what is now Zimbabwe was perhaps 6% of what it is now. It was possible to feed and house the former population with the attitudes toward social and economic organization that then prevailed. However, the current population is unsustainable without white farmers.

Life expectancy has fallen by about a quarter century since Robert Mugabe "liberated" his countrymen from the oppression of white people. Nevertheless, total population continues to rise. There is simply no way to sustain the population without persuading some of the diaspora to return, but instead, the regime is intent on driving away the few who remain.

Death, as someone once said, is nature's way of telling you to slow down. It's also nature's way of balancing resources and requirements in a population. I doubt that Mugabe's new cleansed Zimbabwe will be able to feed more than three or four million, and with food suddenly no longer in surplus worldwide, it would take an act of serious altruism for donor nations to make up the difference.

The future of Zimbabwe is death on an unprecedented scale. There's little to be done to prevent it. The politics of race in Africa is such that those who have some influence, such as the rulers of South Africa, will not act because to do would be to admit that Robert Mugabe did not produce an improvement in the lives of black Africans and that maybe Ian Smith was not evil.

Instead, they will prevaricate while many, eventually millions of, Zimbabweans die. I wish I could feel more empathy, but when a people collectively commit suicide with their eyes wide open, I figure it's their choice. Not a wise choice, but not one that we are required to overturn.