Rhodesia

[RLD]

Uh well Wheels is from Tanzania so perhaps he has some firsthand knowledge instead of your book knowledge. You ever been to Tanzania or Zimbabwe?

Yes to both. Interestingly my wife grew up in Kenya and my father-in-law was responsible for the installation of telephones in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda when Bell Canada put them in over a period of years. One of my closest friends was hired by the government of Uganda to co-ordinate their negotiations with the LRA over a number of years, a project I assisted him with. Another good friend was the Minister of Mining in Zambia. I am happy to go on at length about my connections with Africa and why I feel I have a good grasp at it, but I am not big on bragging. One's arguments should stand on their own.

One of my rules is not to talk about things I don't understand well. My knowledge of African history and development is actually pretty good.

But that still doesn't mean Zebras have been domesticated does it?

 

[Scott CWO]

Yes to both. Interestingly my wife grew up in Kenya and my father-in-law was responsible for the installation of telephones in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda when Bell Canada put them in over a period of years. One of my closest friends was hired by the government of Uganda to co-ordinate their negotiations with the LRA over a number of years, a project I assisted him with. Another good friend was the Minister of Mining in Zambia. I am happy to go on at length about my connections with Africa and why I feel I have a good grasp at it, but I am not big on bragging. One's arguments should stand on their own.

One of my rules is not to talk about things I don't understand well. My knowledge of African history and development is actually pretty good.

But that still doesn't mean Zebras have been domesticated does it?

Impressive although I don’t think your work with the LRA bore enough fruit. I have firsthand experience with the LRA.

 

[RLD]

Impressive although I don’t think your work with the LRA bore enough fruit. I have firsthand experience with the LRA.

The work with the LRA was tragically not successful. Although one wonders if they ever negotiated in good faith.

Would love to hear your LRA stories sometime. They were a blight on history but nonetheless it is important to understand them.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

B.S. is B.S. no matter how much affection you feel for the source.

If @Wheels was a little older we might think he took those photos on his own.

 

[Scott CWO]

The work with the LRA was tragically not successful. Although one wonders if they ever negotiated in good faith.

Would love to hear your LRA stories sometime. They were a blight on history but nonetheless it is important to understand them.

DM sent

 

[Scott CWO]

The work with the LRA was tragically not successful. Although one wonders if they ever negotiated in good faith.

Would love to hear your LRA stories sometime. They were a blight on history but nonetheless it is important to understand them.

That is an understatement.

 

[RLD]

DM sent

Thank you. Appreciate that.

 

[Rare Breed]

When A Crocodile Eats The Sun, IMO

Just finished When A Crocodile Eats The Sun…excellent book told by a family not a soldier. The last chapter is about 2007 which is only 19 years ago. If you were ever thinking of buying a home in Zim forget it after reading this book. This book combined with two Safaris with Lou Hallamore who fought in and lived it gives a very real picture of what took place

 

[Tanks]

There is a lesson here for those who would allow their own countries demographics to swing in favor of illegal immigration, anchor babies, welfare supported higher birth rates, etc. You can lose your country and your culture--to an invasion which has really nothing much to either culturally or economically validate it.

In this case though the white settlers were the illegal immigrants with anchor babies. I am sympathetic to Rhodesians however what happened to Rhodesia is a result of anti-colonial movement around the world. Not a result of illegal immigration. Could it have been done better? Of course.

 

[Bullhunter]

Zebra, "Spezialkräfte"-Soldat, vor mehr als 100 Jahren.

 

[steve white]

In this case though the white settlers were the illegal immigrants with anchor babies. I am sympathetic to Rhodesians however what happened to Rhodesia is a result of anti-colonial movement around the world. Not a result of illegal immigration. Could it have been done better? Of course.

I was inferring that status on Africans from without Zimbabwe who immigrated in en masse to take advantage of greater opportunity than where they came from, and then joined an anti-colonial movement. The people who had benefited from the improved conditions are now suffering much worse conditions since fomenting revolution. I find no justification for the wholesale theft of all the capital and infrastructure which was stolen by those without the means to build it or maintain it.

Same thing with all that was stolen of foreign investment and oil infrastructure in Venezuela. There will have to be some serious concessions made before anyone wants to risk the capital to bring production back online, IMO.

 

['68boy]

NO!

 

[rwp315]

To paint the conflict as “black versus white” is precisely what the communists wanted. The truth is more nuanced than that. Yes the Rhodesian government was led by the white minority. This is because they established this government in a region that was already populated but otherwise pre-literate and lacking anything else the modern world would consider civilized infrastructure. It would have been immensely impractical to establish a flourishing modern civilization and immediately relinquish control of it to people who had no experience in anything of the sort. The Rhodesian government made a lot of investments in education, healthcare, and infrastructure, much of it to the direct benefit of the black majority population. To my understanding, as much as 30% of the black majority were actually migrants from neighboring African countries, drawn to Rhodesia by the peace, prosperity, and opportunity. The Rhodesian army had many black soldiers during the war, fighting alongside the whites to keep what they too considered to be an acceptable political, social, and economic system. I believe that Rhodesian society would have become more integrated and inclusive as time wore on, had they only had the support of the free world on their side. But the free world ignored the call while the communists carved out yet another foothold for themselves. The promises of racial equality are among the most insidious and seductive of the communist lies; communism doesn’t give a shit about people, only power.

Two books by Robert Raurk, Something of Value and Uhuru. Both lengthy but informative.

 

['68boy]

Why can't we all be friends?

 

[Johnny_2_Knives]

I have read good number of books on the bush wars in Rhodesia as a number of Australians helped out during the conflict and I also enjoy military and history books, more so about Africa.

I have had the pleasure of working with and knowing many former Rhodesians who left during the war and after the war - many with only what they could carry at the time of departure - who made the decision to leave their country (sometimes for good) and move to Australia.

Sadly now... I see an all to familiar theme happening in the country I no longer recognise... Australia.

Not on a conflict sense, but from a very left wing/ communist outlook on the way the government are acting, and planning.

I served as a recce grunt for a decade, my son in the same unit for 6 years, my daughter is a combat engineer and my wife served the state police for 15 years and we feel abandoned and I feel a stranger in my own country... and I'm only 50. Hell, to even fly my country's flag it is looked upon as a racist flag now. I buried friends with said flag.

Apologies for the side track. I just feel sad for all the guys who lived and died defending their country, all to have the media white-ant the truth.


Al Kidner.

 

[Foxi]

Well, I don't know.
My parents' generation (1927+29) was also indoctrinated with the belief in ultimate victory (Endsieg).
It looks like the weekly newsreels(Wochenschau) of the German Wehrmacht, only with musical accompaniment.


@Jonny 2 knives: Socialism is a plague, hostile to performance and unpatriotic.
Here, no one dares to fly their own country's flag, because otherwise they fall into the Nazi category.

 

[spike.t]

I am describing what was in Rhodesia when europeans arrived. Rather than the claims in the OP that it was a sparsely populated empty land waiting for occupants. Which was inaccurate.

Great Zimbabwe was ruins when Europeans arrived.....since the 15th century when it was abandoned....so not sure whst you are on about.....

 

[spike.t]

I guess you havn't even bothered to read Guns, Germs and Steel yet.

And they did not have plenty of natural resources.

The reasons that European and Asian civilizations developed industrial faster than Africa is simply that they were better environments to do so.

For instance, Europe has large deposits of iron ore and coal near the surface, which are crucial for industrializaton. In Africa they are deep (you will probably now that Africa has some of the deepest mines in the world), which are not accessible to developing people.

Africa has no large native domesticable beasts of burden. Like the horse or ox. Kind of an issue.

And perhaps most importantly europe lucked into getting gunpowder from the Chinese who invented it.

Africa became the colonized, to a large degree, because they didn't have firearms. Which was partially due to their geographic isolation, which was a hinderance to developing trade.

But what is your alternative explanation? Do you suggest Africans are simply somehow inferior?

Quite a few open cast coal mines in zambia and Zimbabwe.......