Re: NACLA on RCTV

["David B. Shemano" <dshemano@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Walter Byars writes:

>> This is the second time in the last few days that David Shemano has made a
>> strong, controversial (on here) assertion without providing any evidence
>> or elaboration. Since he provides no argument it is difficult to
>> critically respond to him, but his last comment is pretty blatantly false.
>> There are lots of examples of land redistribution increasing agricultural
>> productivity, including in Zimbabwe (I am not referring to the land
>> redistributions of this decade which David is probably referring to. I
>> haven't seen evidence that they  were harmful, though. I may be wrong but
>> it seems people assume those land reforms had negative consequences since
>> they coincided with a bunch of bad stuff happening there). Even if land
>> reforms reduce food production, why would this imply that starvation is
>> more likely. Reduced food production makes starvation more likely, but a
>> more egalitarian distribution makes it less likely.

Look. land collectivizations in Russia and China were followed by mass starvation.  Mass starvation is going on right now in North Korea.  Do you dispute these events?  If you do, nothing I say is going to convince you to the contrary.  Regarding Zimbabwe, I googled and pulled up the Wikipedia entry on "Land reform in Zimbabwe."  From Wikipedia:

"The scale of the drop in farm output has produced widespread claims by aid agencies of starvation and famine. However Mugabe's expulsion of the international media has prevented full analysis of the scale of the famine and the resultant deaths. What is not in dispute is that a country once so rich in agricultural produce that it was dubbed the "bread basket" of Southern Africa, is now struggling to feed its own population. A staggering 45 percent of the population is considered malnourished."

If you can't trust Wikipedia, google pulled up the following from a charity group called "Progressio":

"A Zimbabwean government minister has admitted that farm seizures have led to repeated crop failures and severe food shortages.  . . . ." http://www.ciir.org/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=92214

David Shemano