Heroes of the Left - Part XVII

Presenting President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (the BBC kvells here, British ministers kneel here, even the Voice of America throws softballs)...:

Zimbabwe is reaching the endgame, witnessing the last, desperate throes of a regime that has destroyed one of Africa's few successful economies, plunged millions of people into grinding poverty and led to the deaths of tens of thousands from malnutrition and lack of medical care.

The world's worst hyperinflation is spiralling out of control, bringing shortages of food, fuel, medication and electricity....

Mugabe blames sanctions, drought and former colonizer Britain for the collapse of an economy based on exports of a wealth of agricultural and mineral products.
Others blame land grabs over the past several years in which Mugabe encouraged blacks to violently force out most of the 5,000 white commercial farmers who owned 40 per cent of all agricultural land and produced 75 per cent of agricultural output.

White farmers had employed the country's largest workforce and their ejection led to the displacement of 300,000 families. The farms, most given to Mugabe relatives, allies and cronies, lie fallow today and Zimbabwe does not have the foreign currency to import food.
The World Bank estimates it would take more than 20 years for Zimbabwe's economy to return to levels in 1980, when the country was considered the breadbasket of the region.

The rate of hyperinflation – running at near 1,600 per cent – that economists say soon will be represented by an upright line on a graph has the country in revolt. The number of Zimbabwe dollars that bought a three-bedroom house with a swimming pool and tennis court in 1990 will buy a brick today.
A lifetime public worker's monthly pension can't buy a loaf of bread...

My God, how many more liberal victories can the world absorb?

Toronto Star link via Damian Penny , who posits a few different ends for Mr. Mugabe...