...And Brief Tirade About Crazy Old Leftists

I went to a panel discussion today about xenophobia in South Africa and how the Zimbabwe crisis is contributing to it. Elinor Sisulu, a native Zimbabwean who married into the very powerful South African Sisulu family, and two guys were talking. All were in some way involved in the anti-apartheid movement, or what is here often simply referred to as "the struggle."

So all due respect.

HOWEVER. Crazy old leftists annoy the heck out of me. These three are going on and on about imperialist agendas and how the US and UK just want a piece of Zimbabwe and resistance, struggle, imperialism, fight the power, ad infinitum. And one well-meaning little American tourist (not me, because at this point I'm too annoyed to ask civil questions) asks, "What can we do as Americans to help the situation in Zimbabwe?" And one of the panelists said, "We truly thank you for your solidarity with us in our struggle, but the best thing you can do is work on your own country." And some people applauded.

Now look here. My country is not perfect. We have our share of shady machinations, to be sure. Do you know what we don't have? We don't have A) hordes of people rising up to torture, maim and kill political refugees, or B) a country that over about 15 years has totally degenerated to a state of nature where the life expectancy is the lowest in the world (just think about who you have to beat out to be the lowest in the world--it means you are better off in Chad or Sudan or Burma right now than you are in Zimbabwe) and the currency is totally worthless. What we do have: a PEACEFUL TRANSFER OF POWER AFTER ELECTIONS. Can you even imagine, in your wildest dreams, an American president saying, as Mugabe did today, that he will simply not cede power, no matter the outcome of the election? Try and imagine it. You are laughing, aren't you? Because it's absurd.

So maybe the glare from your glass house is blinding you a little and you want to put down those stones, crazy old leftists. That's all I'm saying.

I talked to one of the guys afterwards. I said look, let me freely admit I'm a bratty American. I think we're kind of awesome. I might note that people flee *to* us and not *from* us, ahem. But here is my question: what do you think the imperialist agenda is? Do you think they want to take over Zimbabwe again? Because here's what I think: I think they want to invest in it. I think in a global food shortage, they'd get those farms back up and running. I think the mining industry would take off again. And I think investment is preferable to aid and more sustainable. So Ol' Boy says, "I disagree." Riiiight...depending on aid for...ever? Is a sustainable solution? And he said, "The people who profit there are the mining companies and the industrial farms, not the people." Ah, leftists, always with The People. Well, I pointed out, The People do not currently have an infrastructure or the machinery or skills to go about mining or farming on a large scale. This is not a kibbutz we are talking about, these are highly skill-specific industries that will require a significant outlay of capital on the front end. (Papa, are you reading this? And you thought I didn't know anything about economics.) So of course they will get something back, but I think the country benefits too. And I would point to our very own lovely South Africa as an example. Mbeki, who is crazy and disappoints me every day, nonetheless has done a lot to make South Africa attractive to foreign investors, and I think South Africa has benefitted from it. By, you know, being the only thriving economy in the region. And this guy actually said, "Sure, there's a tiny slice of a black middle class now, but it's about 11 million people. That is only about a quarter of the population."

I was floored.

Fifteen years ago--FIFTEEN YEARS AGO--as in, when Bill Clinton was president; as in, not long ago AT ALL--this country's people were being strangled by the apartheid regime. They were grossly undereducated, poorly housed, underemployed, and had their psyches damaged in ways many of them will never recover from. Yet a short 15 years later, a quarter of them are middle-class. I'm not saying the work is done, there's a long way to go. But 15 years in, a full 1/4 have reached the middle class. And that number is only set to grow as education improves.

I'm sure the Old Left has something valuable to contribute to the process. All voices are welcome in the marketplace of ideas. But I would say of capitalism what Winston Churchill said of democracy: "It is the worst form of government, except for all the others."