In case you didn’t know he was still alive, former Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith has finally died. With any luck, Bob Mugabe won’t be far behind.
-
English Books on Korea... and More!
-
Visit My Brother's Film Review Site
Hey, Ian Smith Finally Kicked
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on November 23, 2007 at 11:25 am, filed under Asides, Completely Random Crap. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
9 Comments
“In case you didn’t know he was still alive, former Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith has finally died. With any luck, Bob Mugabe won’t be far behind.”
Two equally rotten leaders and people. Hopefully, they’ll eventually find themselves sharing a single bed in hell.
“Two equally rotten leaders and people. Hopefully, they’ll eventually find themselves sharing a single bed in hell.”
Sounds to me like one hell of a sitcom idea. Quick! Pitch it to a major network before the WGA strike is over.
#3. Don’t know if it has the major network potential that Archie Bunker and George Jefferson living next door to one another did, but could appeal to more of a politically astute - if not politically correct - audience on PBS, the CBC, etc.
Mr Smith, You were great. We’ll miss you.
He was obviously a racist, no doubt and he’ll have a lot to explain to his maker, but to compare the man to Mugabe?!?!
Remember he was forced to hold elections to include the blacks (thanks to the west), and they voted Mugabe into power who eventually destroyed democracy, and in a sick twist of irony, vindicated Smith.
Compare Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, under which country did the citizens live better? Under which system did they have food to eat?
Unfortunately, systems like the one Smith ran in Rhodesia often result in the rise of despots like Mugabe. I don’t think Mugabe has “vindicated” Smith, but he has proven himself to be no better a person (no small accomplishment) and more inept a leader.
We’re enduring a similar, albeit milder form of that same disease here in Korea right now. That the Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo Hwan regimes were anti-democratic and anti-socialist has produced a weird political climate where democracy and socialism are conflated in the minds of those who opposed Park and Chun.
Thus do the 386ers imagine that the problem is not the government being too active, but that it’s not active enough at enforcing righteous policies like state control of the housing market, and the state providing all the new jobs in the economy. They still don’t like all that much in the way of criticism or dissent — witness the ham-fisted handling of the press clubs and Roh’s stream of lawsuits against the press.
I can’t wait for this crew to be out. But I fear the next wave of government will be equally interventionist — just in a different vein. Maybe locking up foreign English teachers.
i’d take South Korea today versus Zimbabwe today. Zimbabwe is a real mess, with whites did that, black did this, racial overtone.
and the international community took their hands off and fled.
I’m not saying Korea’s current situation is the same as Zimbabwe. But the basic theme is quite similar: Opposition to one evil lends legitimacy to another evil.
Zimbabwe, by the way, looks to be one hell of a contrarian play. Once Mugabe is out, Zimbabwe’s economy will post 25-50% GDP growth the first year, followed by a decade of 8%+ annual growth.