Insight: Rhodesia falling into decay

[Ian Smith]

VICTORIA
December 6, 2013
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VOICE OF RHODESIA (Newspaper) - Rhodesia. the name conjures up visions of prosperity, riches of diamonds and gold, beautiful cities, beautiful people, rich farmlands and technical innovation. A strong and vibrant country with a modern army and air force and an air of expectancy, handed down from father to son, that their land would be the greatest in the whole continent.

 

This is what the country used to be like. Victoria (Lusaka) was a thriving metropolis of great buildings and the frenzied rush of people going about their affairs much like any other major city in the world. It was such a powerhouse of people, ideas and innovations and the strong egalitarian mentality over rode all.

 

Today, Victoria appears to be a run down shanty town with decrepit buildings, boarded up windows, filthy garbage riddled streets and squalor everywhere. This utopia, this land of riches, this gemstone in the center of the continent, is now like so many other third world nations, a struggling mix of different cultures coming to terms with life in the 21st century.

 

Unfortunately, after the Civil War Rhodesians are cursed with a background that has not reached the stage which would enable them to mentally grasp all the requirements that are needed to administer a complex and busy country in a post-civil war environment.

 

From being a protectorate of Transvaal, to being the an independent country today, has created major schisms within the overall Rhodesian society. There is an ongoing payback mentality that encourages citizens to steal from other citizens in many different ways. In one way the houses are regularly burgled and effects stolen. This is not done covertly, and gangs of criminals regularly threaten households.

 

Law and order is a thing of the past now. There is no law of protection for citizens, and no laws for criminals abide by. 

 

Apart from the trashing of cities which have become sleazy rubbish dumps the hospital services are almost non existent. It’s hard to accept that a successor state of the country that pioneered the first heart transplant has now a run down medical service which once used to be the envy of the world. Everything about Rhodesia today, smacks of total incompetence with inmates running the asylum for the rest of the inmates who just have no idea what is going on.

 

Apathy is probably the correct word to describe how the rest of the world views this former nation. It just seems that the power brokers amongst Rhodesian society are just sitting on the sidelines waiting for the country to implode before they wake up in perhaps 10 years time or so, and pick up the pieces once more. From being a rich farming country, Rhodesia now faces the prospect of importing food to feed the masses.

Edited December 6, 2013 by Ian Smith