The following post was a response I gave to a fellow blogger, http://zimtweets.wordpress.com, who had asked the Question, "How did we get here". Read on......................................................
It's the "how" we were trying to get where we wanted to get, that put us in the position where we are today. I agree with what you say (somewhat), but I would be an ungrateful bastard if I used this opportunity to lambast the policies of RGM. Kwame Nkrumah (in Ghana) wanted Ghana to progress 100 yrs in 10 yrs! And look what happened to him! His keen disciple, RGM followed suit in 1980, and now look where we are! However, his model of rapid, state-sponsored development ran aground in 1989, and he had to call in the IMF. That was the beginning of the end for the Zimbabwe that we had known from 1980-89.
State-sponsored development goes against the grain of how the major powers want the developing countries to develop. Any country that defies the major countries is forced to pay a price (see Haiti or Congo-DRC). Yes, there was massive corruption and a lack of essential skills, but that's not the real cause of our demise. We were never allowed to chart our own course of development, and the "medicine" imposed on us by the IMF (E.S.A.P) put in motion the de-industrialization and 80% underemployment that we see today.
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