Sunday

Wealth re-distribution, African style

An excerpt from The Last Resort: A Zimbabwe Memoir by Douglas Rogers

Two months later, my parents discovered they no longer owned their own farm.

The Commissar, who'd become strangely subdued, even polite, appeared to have nothing to do with this. Neither was there a mob of chanting war veterans rattling at my parents' gates.

Dad had gone to see an estate agent about selling the backpackers' lodge. 'Are you sure you own the land?' said the estate agent. Dad laughed. 'I bought it. I've lived there for 16 years.'

The estate agent leaned forward and spoke in a low, serious tone, like a doctor about to inform a patient of a terminal illness. 'I'm not sure how to tell you this, Mr Rogers, but in August 2005 the government passed an amendment cancelling the title deeds on all existing farms.'


Is this what we're in for here in Obongo's America? Just a little wealth re-distribution? All in the name of fairness eh?

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