Chaos and failure continue on Zimbabwe farms

While this article is spot on about most points, these stories need to get away from the "black against white" story. At a certain level perhaps, but the real problem is taking farms away from productive farmers and turning over the farms to cronies who know nothing about farming. Maybe the owners of the farms had been white though many workers who are black were also thrown out of the farms. Robert Mugabe then handed previously productive farms over to cronies to buy influence though few have had any experience with running a farm. None of this will change until Mugabe is gone.

Rainbow's End got its name from its bumper crops of grain, fruit and vegetables. But now the pot of gold is empty. Most of the land is derelict and cut off by a collapsed bridge.

Once one of the most productive farms in this troubled southern African nation, Rainbow's End will have very little to harvest next season, even as farmers' organizations forecast huge crop shortfalls and the U.N. says 2 million Zimbabweans — nearly one-fourth of the population — will need food aid in January.

President Robert Mugabe's campaign to run Zimbabwe's whites off their farms and redistribute them to the black majority continues despite the expectation that being forced into a coalition government with the opposition would at least partially restrain him, restore agriculture and protect human rights.

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Shocking Outtakes from The Year Without a Santa Claus 1974

I'm pretty sure the second outtake is Howard Dean.

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Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime

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China gives 11 years in jail to dissident

Once again, the Olympics changed everything. Well done by the IOC! Thos who dared to protest China during the runup to the Olympics were obviously completely wrong about the government being a bunch of criminal thugs who ought to be in prison themselves for human rights violations.

China sentenced the co-author of a daring call for reform to an unprecedented 11 years in prison Friday in what rights groups called a direct slap at international pressure — and a warning that the treatment for dissidents will be increasingly harsh.

Diplomats from more than a dozen countries were shut out of Liu Xiaobo's trial on subversion charges, and the United States called for his immediate release.

Liu, a 53-year-old literary critic, co-wrote an unusually direct appeal called Charter 08, asking for increased freedoms in China and the end to the Communist Party's dominance. More than 300 people, including some of the country's top intellectuals, signed it before it was made public.

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More about the Yule Goat

Chris wrote the other day about the Yule Goat tradition in the small Swedish town of Gävle. Well, I contacted the small Swedes I know and asked what the background was on this Christmas Goat thing. My blogger friend Björn dutifully responded:

Well, its a traditional thing to make goats out of straw. I believe that the goat had the same role as Santa Claus back in the day.

The city of Gävle decided to place itself on the map some 40 or so years ago by building the biggest goat ever. Of course, more straw means more entertainment to arsonists, and i think most goats have eventually been burned to a crisp. The amount of commitment the locals put into burning down this now heavily guarded - fenced up - goat is nothing short of stunning. There has been archery with flaming arrows, trucks breaking down the fence, and now a hacker attack to take out the surveilence cameras. Of course, the more guarded it is, the more people will want to burn it down. Deep down, all Swedes are rooting for the arsonists, and no one has ever been caught.

But it must be burnt down before christmas (24th), or there will be much disappointment. There is something strange to our national character.

But yeah, it has placed Gävle on the map alright.

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Saturday morning open thread

On the oft-chance that Joe might want a little holiday, I'm doing the morning thread for him. Heading out with my sister and her family to downtown Chicago for their annual shopping excursion that ends with the whole gang taking in the lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo at night. It's really quite lovely.

Christmas was nice, and we followed the usual tradition. Christmas eve we used to all go to my grandmother's house and open the gifts that we bought for her to give us, surprising her with each unwrap. After she died, we decided to continue the tradition at one of her daughter's houses, so this year was at our house. Christmas morning, we wait for my brother and sisters, and families, to arrive, then my bro-in-law makes us all a huge breakfast. While he's busy cooking, mom sets up the table.



Somehow the kids have accepted the fact that we don't open gifts until after we eat. That doesn't stop my niece Sofia from checking out the gifts.



Afterwards, my sister's dog Carmela continues her very strange fascination with the fireplace. She can sit there for hours and growl at it. She does the same at the fireplace at my sister's house. And she has a weird thing for doors as well.

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The Christmas present vote

I hope everyone had a great Christmas yesterday. We enjoyed our big meal yesterday with guinea fowl that worked out well. I opted for brining them and then stuffing them. There are some leftovers so after meeting friends today to see Avatar, we're heading back to eat the rest. Read More......