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Booted Zimbabwe farmers turn to Aviation

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WizardPilot

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Posts
145
I recently returned from a safari trip to Zimbabwe and was surprised at what I found. Most of the farm owners, who are white, have been kicked off of their farms and ranches by the government and "War Vets" (of the 1985 civil war to rid a white government.) The government corruption is extreme and in such a dire need for money, they are selling passports to the chinese government who is sending people over by the hundreds and looking at the long term outlook of a chinese colony. I am not racist at all but these men and their families , all white, were removed from their farms and their homes of generations at gunpoint, with blessings from the government. Most have left the country for the UK or south Africa to start new lifes. But there are few who have stayed behind.

These who have stayed behind have had a love for and previous experience in flying. They have upgraded their tickets to commercial and are now flying charter aircraft for busisness started by these farmers kicked off of their land to try to make a living. They are very professional in everything they do and they are so positive in their thinking. After having everything taken away from them, they remain very positive about what will hopefully happen in the future when the dictatorship in that country will disolve. Hopefully they will get their farms back, which might I add they still have the titles and deed's to in out of country depositories and which were taken illegaly.

The Aviation community in Zimbabwe is very different than it is here. They all must file 24 hours before a flight to the government where they are going, why they are going and who is flying with them. If this procedure is not followed, it could be fatal. A few of the airstrips I flew out of had manned Anti-Aircraft guns at the ready. Fourtunately I never heard of any time of them being used, but this gives you an idea of what this country is like and some of the hostilities still held by the government and militants still there.

It was a pleasure to fly with these pilots and listen to their stories of their lives, what is going on now and what they plan on for the future. They have come out of these situations with a most positive attitude from what has happened. It was amazing to me to hear about what these people have gone through and how they are still looking to the future. They are great pilots, and great men who have happened to come into unfortunate circumstances. They are part of our community and I felt I should share a little about what is going on elsewhere in the world and how people in the Aviation community are living and what they are coming from. We all come from very different walks of life and we are all blessed in our own sense. This was one of the most exciting and amazing trips I have ever been on. The country is beautiful, the animals are plentiful and some of the experiences are indescribable.

We need to pay more attention at what is going on in our worldly aviation community. These guys are living by trying to hang on to whatever they can and sometimes that grip comes loose. Their outlook on life is amazing and I have learned so much by associating with these good men.
 
WizardPilot said:
I recently returned from a safari trip to Zimbabwe and was surprised at what I found. Most of the farm owners, who are white, have been kicked off of their farms and ranches by the government and "War Vets" (of the 1985 civil war to rid a white government.) The government corruption is extreme and in such a dire need for money, they are selling passports to the chinese government who is sending people over by the hundreds and looking at the long term outlook of a chinese colony. I am not racist at all but these men and their families , all white, were removed from their farms and their homes of generations at gunpoint, with blessings from the government. Most have left the country for the UK or south Africa to start new lifes. But there are few who have stayed behind.

These who have stayed behind have had a love for and previous experience in flying. They have upgraded their tickets to commercial and are now flying charter aircraft for busisness started by these farmers kicked off of their land to try to make a living. They are very professional in everything they do and they are so positive in their thinking. After having everything taken away from them, they remain very positive about what will hopefully happen in the future when the dictatorship in that country will disolve. Hopefully they will get their farms back, which might I add they still have the titles and deed's to in out of country depositories and which were taken illegaly.

The Aviation community in Zimbabwe is very different than it is here. They all must file 24 hours before a flight to the government where they are going, why they are going and who is flying with them. If this procedure is not followed, it could be fatal. A few of the airstrips I flew out of had manned Anti-Aircraft guns at the ready. Fourtunately I never heard of any time of them being used, but this gives you an idea of what this country is like and some of the hostilities still held by the government and militants still there.

It was a pleasure to fly with these pilots and listen to their stories of their lives, what is going on now and what they plan on for the future. They have come out of these situations with a most positive attitude from what has happened. It was amazing to me to hear about what these people have gone through and how they are still looking to the future. They are great pilots, and great men who have happened to come into unfortunate circumstances. They are part of our community and I felt I should share a little about what is going on elsewhere in the world and how people in the Aviation community are living and what they are coming from. We all come from very different walks of life and we are all blessed in our own sense. This was one of the most exciting and amazing trips I have ever been on. The country is beautiful, the animals are plentiful and some of the experiences are indescribable.

We need to pay more attention at what is going on in our worldly aviation community. These guys are living by trying to hang on to whatever they can and sometimes that grip comes loose. Their outlook on life is amazing and I have learned so much by associating with these good men.

Most of the white farmers, who accounted for over 90% of Zimbabwe's economy, fled the former Rhodesia after Ian Smith's regime fell. Robert Mugabe enticed them back with promises of peace and continued land ownership, then betrayed them. Most learned to fly as a simple way to get around when Smith's means of internal communication fell into ruin under Mugabe's corrupt and inept rule, much the same as what happened in the Republic of the Congo under Mobutu Sese Seiko, after the Belgian Congo fell.

GV
 
I've had the pleasure of working with a fair number of Zims at Emirates. To a man they are some of the finest pilots I have ever flown with. Our resident performance expert is a Zim as well as many of the instructors and examiners. To hear their stories of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe is heartbreaking. Mugabe has destroyed that country and forced them to leave their homeland.

I forget the names of the different tribes there, but one is the traditional ruling tribe and the other is the one Mugabe comes from. Mugabe has been systematiclly killing the people of the former ruling tribe. It has been in the news in the last week how he is bulldozing down their homes. Nothing is done to stop him.

A country that was once able to feed itself with plentiful harvests is now at the mercy of the world community. All because of a madman.


TP
 
So what are the Chinese looking to do in SA?
 
The story of the white Zimbabwe farmers is simply surreal. If you haven't read about it, you ought to. It's one of the best real life parallels to Atlas Shrugged i've ever come across. Blame the successful producers for your problems, make it so that they can no longer produce, and then be amazed and distressed when they give up and the country starves.

The Post Colonialist Famine
A Cry From Zimbabwe
 
Last edited:
FN FAL said:
So what are the Chinese looking to do in SA?

The Chinese have been active in Africa for many years. Your old avatar, Mike Hoare, fought against the rebels in the Stanleyville area who were primarily supplied arms from the Chinese.

A year or so ago, I was talking with a Brit and he brought up the subject of Zim. He was just livid that the British government sat back on its hands and did nothing. It was his observation that if these were American citizens, the Marines would have been there in a heartbeat.

www.bdkingpress.com
 
BD King said:
The Chinese have been active in Africa for many years. Your old avatar, Mike Hoare, fought against the rebels in the Stanleyville area who were primarily supplied arms from the Chinese.

A year or so ago, I was talking with a Brit and he brought up the subject of Zim. He was just livid that the British government sat back on its hands and did nothing. It was his observation that if these were American citizens, the Marines would have been there in a heartbeat.

www.bdkingpress.com
Why would the Brits give a rats ass...I thought South Africans were Dutch?
 
Cardinal said:
Blame the successful producers for your problems, make it so that they can no longer produce, and then be amazed and distressed when they give up and the country starves.

It's the same thing everywhere: the poor blame the rich for their being poor. And if that fails, just blame the white dudes. Illiteracy in the illegal immagrant community, a 72% ilegitemcy rate in black childbirths, its all the fault of the omnipotent cracker.
 
typhoonpilot said:
I forget the names of the different tribes there, but one is the traditional ruling tribe and the other is the one Mugabe comes from. Mugabe has been systematiclly killing the people of the former ruling tribe. It has been in the news in the last week how he is bulldozing down their homes. Nothing is done to stop him.

A country that was once able to feed itself with plentiful harvests is now at the mercy of the world community. All because of a madman.


TP

To expand on this, While I was in the country, the police were going around to these small communities of people who no longer had homes due to food problems and this and that. They would set up markets on the side of the street to sell food, clothes, carvings to make a living. Mugabe has determined that these were the people that have voted against him in the past. He is burning these markets and kicking the people from their areas in the bigger cities and booting them back out to the rural areas. He believes that if they are in the rural areas they will no longer be a threat. He is burning their homes. I had a friend down there in Zim with me who was photographing and taking video of the hunts, he actually has pictures of the police, and video of them burning these markets/homes/lifestyles of these people to the ground.

Also he was in a village where millie(sp)meal was being sold. The chief was standing at the head of the line to Identify who has voted for mugabe and who has not. A girl got to the front of the line and was denyed food. my friend later had a chance to talk to her and she had no food whatsoever and a son, she did not know what she would do. She was hoping that some of the people would share. She was asked if she was with the "resistance" against mugabe, she replyed she didnt even know how the system worked and she has never voted. This is a scary sad and very corrupt society. I am glad to know that others know what is going on there also.
 

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