Rhodesia and the Chinese Connection

I have grabbed the entire shooting match from Zimdaily.com. It is long but well worth reading to discover the Chinese involvement in what was once one of the most prosperous countries in doomed Africa.

Giving up one master for another

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:32:00

Tambu Kahari

Who has called Zimbabwe from overseas in the past months and been welcomed by a Chinese woman speaking to herself. She goes, “Ching, ching, chong,chong!” All you want to do is call your family, but here it is, a Chinese person, whose language you don't understand telling you something you are never going to get in this lifetime.

As difficult as it is these days to call Zimbabwe, that is enough to make you weep. I know because I have wept upon hearing, “Ching, ching!! Chong, chong, chong!!.” I feel like saying “let me bring my handbag sister and chong you! What the heck are you doing speaking to me in Chinese in the heart of Africa??!!”

We know dear Mr President, that you don't have this problem, but here is our reality, day in, day out. We have to call the parents and relatives back home in Zimbabwe, because if we don't, they may die of starvation or Heaven help us, flu. Sometimes all they need are pain killers. We need to keep in touch with them. It means their very lives are at stake.

We take our time synchronizing our watches so that we can catch them. We buy phone cards when we have no money to spare, but it is important to keep in touch with the family. We look at the phone as if its from God and we dial with reverence and hope that we will get through.

We pray to the ancestors to allow us to get through. “Dear ancestors, we say, I need to talk to my father before he goes to the other side. Pleeeaaassseee!! Fix Robert's phone lines even for a minute so that I can hear my father's voice! Please Ziruvi, Seke Mutema, vaya vaya vakabva kure, vakagara muchinyakare, fix the phone lines so that I can talk to my father!”

After that, you send a small prayer to Heaven. It is always good to have all the forces of goodness on your side. For that you get, “ching, ching, chong, chong, chong!!” It fries the brains citizens. Completely and totally!

It is not easy when families are scattered. As for me, my father is in Seke rural areas and I have not been able to speak to him for two years. I can only pray to the stars. That is what is left for me. I have to ask the family grapevine and that is how we communicate.

A cousin three times removed, actually hops into Zimbabwe from South Africa carrying messages and then he does it again to go back. It is a trying time for everyone. I can say one thing for you Mr President. The Zezuru who were not into extended family now understand and rejoice in it. We have learnt that to survive we have to be our own network, well oiled and always working.

And so citizens, this is freedom from the West. Enslavement by the East. I get it. This is truly a genius plan beloved President. We traded in a master we could understand for one we have no idea of. How much did the Chinese pay you again to destroy your own people so that we can work for them? Do tell beloved President.

Well, Mr President, let me introduce you to our new colonizers because clearly you never came across them before you made the decision to sell our country for cheap gadgets. Or perhaps you saw them only from the top, while us, the bottom feeders see it from that point.

The Chinese and slavery

Here it is Mr President, in black and white. I will try to go slowly for you. Once upon a time, the Chinese valued male children above females. Since they were only allowed to have one child by their gracious rulers, they dutifully killed the little girls by throwing them out into the streets or drowning them in wells. My father actually watched the drowning of an unwanted baby girl because the mother was going to have a boy. Her father took her out to the well and pushed her in. She pleaded to her last breath. He did not care.

Years later, your friends have no more women. And so now, they are looking to other cultures to deliver females to them. North Korean women who went there to run away from hunger 2006 were sold as brides.

It is not me who is saying it, but China Digital Times, a reputed Chinese paper. They say they got the report from radio Free Asia. It said, “Thousands of North Korean women who fled famine in their homeland in recent years are believed to have been sold as brides to Chinese men who often put them to back breaking labour and subject them to constant fear, physical assault and sexual abuse.”

I can see you laughing over a cup of tea and biscuits in State House, saying, “Iwe Tambu, what does that have to do with us?”

I will tell you what it has to do with us. Little girls today in Malawi, Mozambique and now Zimbabwe are being stolen by Nigerian and Asian gangs and sold into prostitution. Yes. We wrote about it already in our magazine. Our poverty has made it easy for prey to land on us and take what belongs to us. Our very lives. A long time ago, Zimbabwe was not a child grabbing option for these slavers.

But now, all Chihuri does is chase political opponents and drag women out of their beds much to the bewilderment of their husbands and children. Of course he is aware that the “dear Asian friends” are doing away with some poor souls who happen to be girls, but does he care? Not for one or two children.

Obviously Sir, you don't care because you know Bona will be the last to be taken. Mark my words, now that we have opened a door to them, they will come for us in our hundreds. Whats worse, we will all now be able to talk to our masters as we are being pushed to talk Chinese. How fortunate they have been, to come across you, Mr President.

Chinese gangs

Let me introduce you to some of the most ruthless gangs the world has ever seen. The Chinese gangs have existed since time immemorial. They are part and parcel of their culture just as brewing beer to our ancestors is to us. These gangs make the Mafia look like Angels from Heaven.

This is a report from a Chinese citizen in China who will not be named. “in northern china, like shanghai, beijing...triads are the main one....southern china, guangzhou, hong kong, macau, 14 k are the biggest...in hong kong, the term "triad" is used to title gangs in genereal...in this city, gang members are everywhere, they dont usually harrass people, but most are intimidating...i read some where, there are about 2 million gang members in hong kong alone...personally, i respect chinese gangs...”

This is what the Chinese say about their own gangs, from China, “A friend of mine is from HK and he saw his best friend who was in a gang slashed up real bad in an alley, laying there dead.”

In South Africa, in April 2007, The Washington Times reported this:, “JOHANNESBURG - The rise in organized crime with links to larger crime syndicates in Hong Kong and Shanghai has led the South African government to increase surveillance of Chinese nationals. In the past year, raids on Chinese-owned shops by special police units, often accompanied by tax inspectors, have netted millions of dollars in counterfeit clothing, unlicensed weapons, drugs and imports on which duty and sales taxes had not been paid.”

What does this have to do with us, you ask besides the fact that we are right next door to South Africa? Their own newspaper ran this story last month “China Daily, 24 August 2007 Four men from Hunan province are standing trial in China for allegedly trying to sell 8 kg of uranium. The Tianhe District Court in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, was told that one of the defendants, Zhang Sangang, met a uranium mine owner in April 2005 and who said he wanted to sell the uranium for $26,400 per kg. Zhang agreed to act as the middleman and would keep the difference if he sold it for more. He was joined by the three other defendants in trying to find a buyer for the uranium....”

What the newspaper does not say is where this Chinese gang, and it is a gang got the uranium from. Ahem?? Sir, please excuse me, but, what did you do with our uranium? As far as I know, we don't have nuclear power. In fact, electricity is a thing of the past. You are the one who proudly told us about the uranium find. If you don't remember, let me remind you with your own words.

“Zimbabwe has recently discovered uranium deposits and plans to process the mineral in order to resolve its chronic power shortages, state radio quoted President Robert Mugabe as saying yesterday.

"The discovery of uranium will go a long way in further enhancing the government's rural electrification programme," he was quoted as saying, according to Associated Press.” the Guardian unlimited, 2005.

What did you do with the people's uranium? You and your friends sold it to the gangs of the People's Republic of China, no doubt. Let us hope your families got fat on our money.

How long are Africans going to live without benefitting from their own resources? Dear Mr President, you hemmed and hawed about how the white man had to find his way home. I see we are going to have to do the same with China, because they are stealing our resources. But the problem is, there are too many of them and we are too hungry to fight them.

Let me just take a moment to gloat at Mr Robertson, an economist in Harare who said snootily and comfortably from his Harare office in 2005, "Where would Mugabe source the substantial finance and technical expertise needed to build a nuclear reactor?"

You also said”it could take four to five years to set up a uranium mine. Considerable technical skills would then be needed to produce the uranium concentrate needed for a nuclear reactor.”

Oops, Mr Roberts, you are so lost. Take your economic degree and throw it in file 13. For those of you who have no idea, it is the bin. This is why I have no respect for those who spent too much time in school. They are often out maneuvered by those who spend their lives on the streets. Clearly Mr Roberts you wasted your time. Trash your degree. Afterwards, I suggest, you go to Victoria Falls and drown yourself. Clearly you were outsmarted by Mugabe and the Chinese gangs. They got the uranium in less than five years and are making happy with it. Good luck with your trip to Victoria Falls. May your ancestors welcome you. I know mine are not going to want you. They are tired of people dying.

The Chinese and Racism

This is what the Chinese think of us. This report is from Kippo, an American who lives and does business in China. He asked the good Chinese people to give him their views on all races. They were very nice to the Germans and company. This is what they think of Africans, these “good friends” of ours. “Overall felt to be backward and uncivilized. Racism inside common, non-educated Chinese against the black people. Chinese who have been in touch with better educated black people from U.S. and other developed countries, accept them better.”

“I've heard the most amazing things from Chinese... TEACHERS.. Once I'd mentionned she was black(his ex wife) , I'd seen a shocked look on this teacher's face, asking why I hadn't chosen a white girl. Once I'd explained that I loved her, even more shock and revult on her face, to which she replied that she thought black people were ugly. She saw absolutely nothing wrong with just letting it out as a 'fact' or so it seemd in her mind. And she was studying for a master's degree!” A white man living in China

So said a black man who likes to go to Asia “When I go to Hong Kong everywhere I get dispicable and degrading comments (I can speak Cantonese, Mandarin and I can understand Swatonese).
- I can say that I have had my food spit in at least once by a chef in Hong Kong, once that I know of. In general the only people i have who can see beyond my colorful, magnificent skin color are people generally from any other country but asia Here is one really big thing I do not get is that a lot of east asian individuals call themselves "christians" and then say horrid things about black individuals”

Another black man who loves to go to China said, “I went to China for a few months and I found that most chinese are racist. They tell black people to 'go home' and do not help them.”

“I admit that the blacks can dance and run even without trying (physically strong), but please don't overlook the fact that the blacks overpopulate prisons in Western countries while they are way underrepresented in highly educations like universities and colleges there.” said one of our “friends” from the East.

Need I go on citizens? I think not. If you are as old as me, you have lived in Rhodesia. Rhodesia has come home, in the form of the Chinese. I fear citizens that we should start doing push ups now and eat more porridge, because we are going to have to fight for Zimbabwe again, wrest it from the Chinese, who are not easy to defeat. Ask the Tibetans.

How is a country taken from its people? First you pretend you want to help. Second, you take all their resources right back to your country. The Soviet Union did it to Mozambique many years ago. Third, you ask them to learn your language. Along with that language comes their culture. You make yourself superior and them subservient.

So said Kippo the businessman living in China, “Learning the Chinese way is a long process with no short-cuts: by learning Chinese language foreigners have best chance to understand China. Not simple, since Chinese lifestyle is also in unpredictable change.”

Robert, Sir? Why must we be Chinese? Why can't we be Africans, Zimbabweans and get rid of all colonizers? Why can't we stand on our own feet? I thought that was what your plan was about. Alas, I was wrong. You imported a colonizer who still thinks like the Europeans in 1899. We had to prove ourselves to the Europeans that we could think, that we were not ugly, that we were not baboons. It took more than a century, let me tell you.

Zimbabweans, by now should have moved on to the next step of being independent. But, we are repeating history all over. It will take us another 100 years for us to prove to the Chinese that we think, we are not ugly, we are not baboons and in fact, in many aspects, we are better than them.

Tags: Zimbabwe, China, Chinese