Holocaust Europe and present day Africa: “When a crocodile eats the sun” by Peter Godwin.

On numerous occasions, the author returns home to Zimbabwe over the course of an eight year period between 1996 and 2004. During this time he sees the ever declining conditions of his homelands economy and civil society. At the beginning of Godwin’s story, Zimbabwe is akin to Switzerland (p32-3). On subsequent visits he tracks the ever perpetuating decline into near anarchy. And during his moving story, Godwin discovers that his familial roots are not as ‘English’ as he was led to believe. In fact, his father leaves Poland and mainland Europe just in time to narrowly avoid being caught up with other Jews in the holocaust.

The modern day villain of the piece is clearly Mugabe. White farmers are evicted from their lands. Both Black and White people are physically threatened and actually assaulted. Living standards for all decline rapidly. Godwin’s story brings to us the effects of Mugabe’s actions, but very little analysis of its causes. The exception being during pages 153 to 158, where he discusses African problems in general rather than Zimbabwe specifically; Africa, large as it has lower population density compared to other continents, hence few large cities; which means African agriculture is subsistence farming for millennia; European imposed borders cut across cultural and linguistic lines dividing natural constituencies and storing up potential conflict for later; and of course, corrupt elites.

This brings us neatly to Mugabe. Godwin is very good at describing the human cost of Mugabe’s regime. The land seizures by the ‘war-vets’ (ostensibly veterans from the 1970s civil war), are more akin to Mugabe’s rent-a-mob of hired thugs than the genuine veterans they claim to be. By replacing efficient and experienced, but white, farmers, with ill-experienced black ‘war-vets’ is a reversal of the industrialised agricultural revolution. Put simply, big farms are more efficient and better at producing food. Subdividing the land is not. Zimbabwe’s food crisis over the last decade was entirely avoidable and politically created.

But what Godwin fails to do is ask why Mugabe would do this? LBR does not have an answer but hypothesises that the ‘war-vets’, foot soldiers of the Zanu-PF party, grew tired and restless and began to demand a reward for their loyalty. Mugabe, in a move that only Stalin could approve of, having nothing else to offer them, willingly turns a blind eye to the abuse meted out to white farmers. Thus he then prepares to profit from the turmoil that engulfs his country by clamping down on the opposition and tightening his grip on political power, scape-goating white farmers and Imperial perfidious Albion to boot. Sneaky eh?

Interesting for students of IR to ask is the role of South Africa. What on earth were the land of Mandela and the rainbow nation doing whilst all this was happening on their doorstep? Thabo Mbeki, South African President at the height of the Zimbabwe crisis, called for diplomacy, which was ineffectual. Of course, SA leaders may feel unable to act. LBR suspects there are plenty of African leaders that never tire of reminding South Africa, regional superpower they maybe, but they were the last African country to rid themselves of imperialism; so what business do they have to teach other Africans on how to organise their internal affairs?

Through all of this Godwin’s account is a reminder that real people are suffering and are oppressed if they even express their frustrations. Black and White have suffered under Mugabe. A real shame as Zimbabwe was an African success story. Despite the opposition leader Tsvangirai now being Prime Minister, will Zimbabwe ever be a democracy with Mugabe still as its president?

A new recruit against the drug war: Jane Asher

The picture is from the front page of the Daily Mail (7-7-10). Back in July Jane Asher raised concerns that the war on drugs has failed, after a visit to Glasgow.

But lets make this clear. Glasgow faces the same problems that urban areas all over the UK face. Drugs are readily available and prohibition is unable to do anything to prevent their availability.

Jane Asher was right to draw our attention to this issue.

Links below are from The Telegraph and news.scotsman.com . Interesting to ask why The news.scotsman.com felt the need to give more space to Mothers Against Drugs (MAD) than a serious discussion of the issue.

The Telegraph gives Jane Asher a more balanced report.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/7875642/Jane-Asher-calls-for-drug-laws-to-be-liberalised.html

http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment/Jane-Asher-attacked-over-drugs.6407526.jp - for 'Mothers against Drugs' quote

Politicians that support our drug laws: Cowards !

Paul Flynn explains how history will view his colleagues for not speaking out on the War on Drugs.

Steig Larsson, Swedish politics and The Economist

The Economist felt compelled to declare; The Economist 18-09-2010 “The strange death of social-democratic Sweden” p14
“Outside Scandinavia, Sweden is generally known for two things: social democracy, and the books of Stieg Larrson.”

This prompted LBR to send the following letter;
Dear Editor,
you say that Sweden is only known for its social democracy and the books of Stieg Larsson. Have you never heard of Abba? Or were outrageous clothes and cheesy pop so de rigeur for The Economist offices in the 1970's, that Abba passed you by?

Drug Testing: good for parents, then good for the Police

The one objection to ending prohibition that you often hear is the increased use of driving under the influence, with the police being unable to detect drug use by the roadside like they can with drink.

Breathalysers are portable, but drug detection was always a wee bit more problematic. This begs the question as to what the Police having been doing all this time to detect driving under the influence of drugs until now?


Well ask no more -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8017473/Five-minute-drugs-test-can-tell-parents-if-their-children-use-cocaine.html



However, a quick look at the Daily Mail's comment page suggests that these kits could be used as another tool in the fight to control drugs and keep them illegal. (Comments were accurate at the time of publication of this article on LBR)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1314041/Vantix-Parents-drug-test-childrens-saliva-cannabis-cocaine-use.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Of course this assumes that these tests work as advertised. Is it possible somebody may be found guilty on one of these machines, and yet they are in fact innocent?

Change the title Elizabeth Burton-Smith: what my family did on drugs

There is no doubt this is an authentic and heartfelt book. It comes with much high praise, from no less a source than our former PM Gordon Brown and current home secretary, Theresa May. Anyone aware of the inadequacies of the Misuse of Drugs act will begin to hear alarm bells ringing as soon as they have read such endorsements. For how could such members of the establishment ever endorse a book that is then critical of prohibition?

The obvious answer is that they wouldn’t. Not that this should detract from this book. No, the book in many ways condemns itself. This is a story of one family’s tragic loss of one of its members to drug addiction, whilst the surviving twin is a recovering heroin addict.

Time and again the narrative by the family’s mother, Elizabeth Burton-Phillips wastes no opportunity to warn of the dangers of drugs and to tell the reader drugs are evil. In many ways this is conventional fare and herein is the problem. Alternatives to current drug policy are not on the agenda in this book.

Here it is worth taking a further look at the book’s title. Mum Can You Lend Me Twenty Quid: What Drugs Did to My Family. And there you have it. This is a story of what the drugs did. This reviewer is certain that this family has suffered during the period of time its’ sons were addicted to heroin. But what follows in the narrative is that the blame lays at the door of drugs, and what drugs did to my family. Yet it never asks if an alternative future for Burton-Phillips sons could have been had under a regime that regulated and controlled drugs, rather than leaving this to criminal gangs.

It does not take a person with a cold heart to adapt the subtitle and question whether it should read: What my family did on drugs. Not when you consider that parents that have lost their children to drugs, but want to see the back of the Misuse of Drugs Act, face a much harder time in getting their voices heard by an unsympathetic media. Indeed, it would be interesting to see former Prime Ministers and current Home Secretaries address their concerns once in a while.

Beer !

Recently LBR found himself in the envious position of having either no beer, or resorting to supping American beverages. Now, LBR has always been hesitant to take on American beer. Any country that has experienced prohibition could not possibly provide beer worthy of the name to this Euro-trash ale enthusiast. Indeed Peter Carey wrote about drinking an American beer: "What a jar of cat's piss that turned out to be." (Butcher, in the book Theft, p199)

Never let it be said that LBR clings to an opinion despite all evidence to the contrary. Given the choice between no beer, and American beer, the latter wins. In fact American beer is pretty decent stuff.

The Millenium Trilogy: The Girl Who Plays with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson

Quite simply - forget my previous reservations and believe the hype. The whole series has entered into my favorite top five fiction books of all time.

The whole Millenium Trilogy gets 5/5.

Counting the cost: the end of the review

Helen Dunmore’s ‘Counting the Stars’
In the early part of this century, a couple of friends recommended The Siege by Helen Dunmore to me. Not all word of mouth recommendations satisfy, but on this occasion LBR was pleased. Later in the century LBR had cause to encounter Robert Harris’s excellent ancient Roman novels Pompeii and Imperium.

It would therefore be safe to assume that with Dunmore having produced a Roman novel, it too would receive the LBR thumbs up. Alas no. Dunmore’s book Counting the Stars is a staggeringly dull piece of work. It isn’t badly written, but lacks sufficient interest for the reader to care for the characters. Without this the constant the question that came to mind was; what is this book for? Until a moment ago, LBR had struggled to search for an answer.

LBR has clearly suffered for Dunmore’s art, but does not expect its readers too as well. This had led to a radical editorial decision so that some good can come from having read such a turgid piece of dullness. This column will continue to highlight to its readers any strikingly good piece of art that it comes across. Or even a bad piece from which discussion of interest can be had.

However, dull pieces of trash, or just mediocre, should not have to be revisited by the reviewer. Reading it is bad enough. But having to work on a review is even more time that cannot be got back. This book would have got 1/5.