Support NeoGAF

[Walpurgis]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/03/robert-mugabe-to-nationalise-zimbabwes-diamond-industry

The president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has said his government will take possession of all diamond operations because existing miners had robbed the country of its wealth.
[...] “The state will now own all the diamonds in the country,” [...]. “Companies that have been mining diamonds have robbed us of our wealth, that is why we have now said the state must have a monopoly,” Mugabe said.

The largest diamond mine in Marange, Mbada Diamonds, sued the government at the high court on Monday and was allowed to take control of its mining assets. Chinese-run Anjin Investments also challenged the government ban at the same court on Wednesday, according to a court application seen by Reuters.

Mugabe said he told the Chinese president, Xi Xinping, during his visit to Zimbabwe last December that his government was not getting much from Chinese-owned mining firms.

Zimbabwe was the eighth-largest diamond producer in the world with 4.7mcarats in 2014, according to industry group Kimberley Process. Last year the government received $23m (£16.2m) in royalties and other fees from diamond mines, down from $84m in 2014.

Zimbabwe's collects a total of $3.263 billion from exports so "$23 million" per year for diamonds is an insulting lie when 13% of the world's diamonds are mined out of fields in Marange, one of the richest diamond deposits in the world. A November 2012 report by a non-governmental organisation revealed a huge lack of transparency of diamond revenues in Zimbabwe. It turns out that nearly all of those diamond dollars have been going to Dictator Robert Mugabe and his rich friends. So then, what is the real number? According to the Associated Press, $2 billion as of Nov. 2012. To put this into perspective, Zimbabwe's mineral exports were $1.8 billion for that year. What's even worse is that some of those diamonds are tainted with blood. In the 2008, the Zimbabwean government used soldiers to mine and enslave villagers to also mine.

I wonder what difference this will make in Zimbabwe. It really doesn't sound like it could be any worse.

-------------------------------
Background:
I just did some reading on this guy and he's a real piece of work. He became an African legend after leading a successful rebellion against the white rulers of Rhodesia. Mugabe easily won the first Zimbabwe election in 1980 and showed his true colours very soon after that. As president, he immediately established a one-party state and put together a North Korean trained security force called the Fifth Brigade. One of their first tasks was genocide against the minority Ndebele tribe, the tribe that the only other candidate of that 1980 election hailed from. Between 1982 and 1985, at least 20,000 Ndebele people were killed and buried in mass graves. Several years later, Mugabe expanded his powers, officiating himself as a dictator. It's been more than 36 years since Mugabe won that 1980 election and he has remained the ruler of Zimbabwe ever since. Born just before the fall of the Ottoman Empire and three years after Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize for discovering the photoelectric effect, Robert Mugabe is 92 years old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Zimbabwe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marange_diamond_fields
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mugabe

 

[TemplaerDude]

I wish people would stop buying diamonds.

 

[FriedConsole]

It will go as well as when Chavez nationalized oil in Venezuela.

 

[sikkinixx]

I wish people would stop buying diamonds.

Basically this. Too bad a lot of really smart people turn into fucking five year olds when they look at something shiny.

 

[diffusionx]

This will go about as well as it did when they confiscated farms.

 

[Jonnax]

Diamonds are so tainted with blood.
It fills me with disgust walking past jewellery stores.

 

[Barzul]

He'll die at some point. One of the gifts of being human, no one lives forever

 

[cirrhosis]

Dude is a regular Mr. Burns.

I do hate diamonds though but he should just leave that industry alone. Country needs fixing but there's so many things to do that I don't know what should come first.

 

[akira28]

cool? So South Africa will either take a greater share or maybe Zimbabwe's people will have a better quality of life. Or maybe the dictator will take the lion's share and piss a little on the elites while everyone else still suffers under him.

 

[lastplayed]

I bet President Xi took that news well.

 

[Walpurgis]

cool? So South Africa will either take a greater share or maybe Zimbabwe's people will have a better quality of life. Or maybe the dictator will take the lion's share and piss a little on the elites while everyone else still suffers under him.

I guess this is better than international companies profiting off of this situation and disappearing into the wind. Mugabe will steal all of the money meant for Zimbabwe in either case. At least now, all of that money will be in one place. Perhaps the international community can freeze his assets after he dies or something and do something to get that money to where it belongs.

Spoiler

Like hell.

I bet President Xi took that news well.

Looking forward to those 2016 numbers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Zimbabwe

 

[Transistor]

I wish people would stop buying diamonds.

For my wife's engagement ring I went with a lab created emerald. Looks fantastic, is super cheap, and no ethical issues.

 

[Stinkles]

I know probably a dozen educated liberal people who are aware that diamonds are very common, can be synthesized easily and cause untold bloodshed, yet still insisted on diamond engagement rings. It's a global sickness created entirely by advertising.

 

[Giant Panda]

This gives every employer in Zimbabwe a great incentive to not invest because the state can just come in and take their business at any point. I hope for Zimbabwe's sake that the leader after Mugabe switches to freer markets. We are seeing South America turning back this way so I hope Africa follows suit.

 

[Walpurgis]

I wish people would stop buying diamonds.

Half of the world's diamonds are mined out of central and southern Africa. The other half are from Canada, India, Russia, Brazil and Australia. I don't know about the others but Canada has an organisation called the Canadian Diamond Code of Conduct. It claims to be a stringent tracking system of diamonds that helps protect the "conflict free" label of Canadian diamonds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond#Political_issues

In 2003, the UN established the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition (KPCS) to prevent "conflict diamonds" from mixing into the mainstream diamond market. The actual purpose was to prevent rebel movements from profiting off of the diamond trade to fund insurgencies - not to prevent blood diamonds from being sold. The chair of the KPCS oversees the implementation of the program. 2015's chair was Angola, 2014's was China and 2011's was the DRC - each of them shining beacons of human rights. There's a long Wikipedia article about this process that I can't be bothered to read because I have already come to the conclusion that it is a complete joke.

To make matters even worse, the entire western world holds a membership to the KPCS and relies upon it to determine what is and isn't a "conflict diamond". In 2010, the KPCS has declared Zimbabwe's diamonds "conflict free".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marange_diamond_fields#International_response

 

[Walpurgis]

As of 2006, here is a map of Zimbabwe's exports.

Zimbabwe itself is located here.

 

[adamsappel]

Half of the world's diamonds are mined out of central and southern Africa. The other half are from Canada, India, Russia, Brazil and Australia. I don't know about the others but Canada has an organisation called the Canadian Diamond Code of Conduct. It claims to be a stringent tracking system of diamonds that helps protect the "conflict free" label of Canadian diamonds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond#Political_issues

In 2003, the UN established the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition (KPCS) to prevent "conflict diamonds" from mixing into the mainstream diamond market. The actual purpose was to prevent rebel movements from profiting off of the diamond trade to fund insurgencies - not to prevent blood diamonds from being sold. The chair of the KPCS oversees the implementation of the program. 2015's chair was Angola, 2014's was China and 2011's was the DRC - each of them shining beacons of human rights. There's a long Wikipedia article about this process that I can't be bothered to read because I have already come to the conclusion that it is a complete joke.

To make matters even worse, the entire western world holds a membership to the KPCS and relies upon it to determine what is and isn't a "conflict diamond". In 2010, the KPCS has declared Zimbabwe's diamonds "conflict free".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marange_diamond_fields#International_response

Even if you have a source of "conflict free" diamonds, they are still artificially expensive. Diamonds are not rare. There are enough diamonds kept from the market that diamonds are effectively worthless.

 

[KTallguy]

They're rare because of the DeBeers cartel.

 

[Walpurgis]

Even if you have a source of "conflict free" diamonds, they are still artificially expensive. Diamonds are not rare. There are enough diamonds kept from the market that diamonds are effectively worthless.

They're rare because of the DeBeers cartel.

Even if you have a source of "conflict free" diamonds, they are still artificially expensive. Diamonds are not rare. There are enough diamonds kept from the market that diamonds are effectively worthless.

I remember seeing something like that in the movie Blood Diamond. It appears that the situation has improved with the marginalisation of De Beers (which was founded by Cecil Rhodes - funny how everything connects back to this fuck).

Throughout the 1900s, De Beers used its dominant position in the diamond trade to manipulate the international diamond market. To this end, they convinced independent producers to join their single channel monopoly. If that didn't work, they flooded the market with diamonds similar to those who declined to join them. They also purchased and stockpiled diamonds produced by other manufactures to keep prices high by limiting supply.

In 2000, De Beers was forced to adapt to Canadian and Australian producers boycotting them. To avoid bad PR, they began to only sell diamonds that they mined themselves. Their market share fell from 90% in the 1980s to 33% in 2013. In 2011, the Oppenheimer family (Rhodes's succesors) sold off all of their De Beers shares for $5.1 billion, ending their 80 year dynasty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers#Diamond_monopoly

 

[Tallshortman]

It doesn't matter how much money Zimbabwe gets from it's natural riches because it's pocketed by Mugabe and friends. What a complete hack, I wouldn't celebrate someone's death but thank god for Zimbabwe's sake that Mugabe is 92.

 

[Walpurgis]

It doesn't matter how much money Zimbabwe gets from it's natural riches because it's pocketed by Mugabe and friends. What a complete hack, I wouldn't celebrate someone's death but thank god for Zimbabwe's sake that Mugabe is 92.

I was just browsing for more Zimbabwe articles on the guardian and I found these.

Robert Mugabe falls down steps after speech in Zimbabwe - video

Calls for Robert Mugabe to quit after he reads wrong speech at parliament
Robert Mugabe to rule Zimbabwe from 'special' wheelchair, says wife

This was all in 2015.

 

[diffusionx]

It doesn't matter how much money Zimbabwe gets from it's natural riches because it's pocketed by Mugabe and friends. What a complete hack, I wouldn't celebrate someone's death but thank god for Zimbabwe's sake that Mugabe is 92.

It's not like anyone better is going to replace him.

 

[Ogodei]

The guy's over 90. Surprised he's still kicking around.

The problem with his last, disastrous nationalization policy (where he expropriated all white-owned farmland, basically dissolving the last of the Whenwes) wasn't the nationalization per se, but because he just sort of took the land and plopped black farmers down on there and didn't give them any of the technical support they would have needed to make that land theirs, so the country's agricultural profile, previously strong for the region, plummeted. Fortunately nobody eats diamonds, so this won't be as terrible, but will likely go the same way.

 

[thefro]

They're rare because of the DeBeers cartel.

They actually invented the whole idea of a diamond engagement ring in the 1930s.

 

[Walpurgis]

Today, in Mugabe news. Old dog still has bite.

“Do you want me to punch you to the floor to realise I am still there?” So said Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, 92, to a TV interviewer who asked him about his retirement and who might replace him.

“Why ‘successor’ when I am still there?” Mugabe said in the interview was broadcast on Thursday night. “Why do you want a successor?”

[...] “Grooming a successor, is it an inheritance?” he asked. “In a democratic party you don’t want leaders appointed that way. They have to be appointed properly by the people. Succession is not part of our culture.”

OMG LMAO! This guy is hilarious. That journalist better watch out. Mugabe is famed for his strong grip.

They actually invented the whole idea of a diamond engagement ring in the 1930s.

Disgusting. I never want anything to do with those things.

 

[SenorArdilla]

All I know about diamonds is that if you don't get one for your SO you're branded as a heartless bastard.

 

[Frozenprince]

Oh man you're just learning about Mugabe. He's a treat.

He made up urban legends that his oldest primary political rival escaped the country in drag to discredit him.

Oh also he's killed a shitload of people.

 

[EMT0]

The entire history of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe is a damn travesty. Mugabe's just the latest chapter.

 

[Drazgul]

I bet this will turn out just as well as kicking out all the white farmers did. Mugabe's a shitbag.

 

[Frozenprince]

I remember there was so much hope in 2009 after the elections, too. Horrible what's happened to that country.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

He'll die at some point. One of the gifts of being human, no one lives forever

I wonder if Mugabe is actually human. He might actually be a cyborg. At the age of 92 he looks like not a day past 50.

 

[Kenshin001]

He recently celebrated his birthday with a $1 million party. Putting those diamond profits to good use. Shame about all those Zimbabweans living in abject poverty though.

 

[Walpurgis]

He recently celebrated his birthday with a $1 million party. Putting those diamond profits to good use. Shame about all those Zimbabweans living in abject poverty though.

I heard about that. It's especially bad since they're having a famine. If we're lucky he might forget his birthday next year.

 

[ninjabat]

I wonder if Mugabe is actually human. He might actually be a cyborg. At the age of 92 he looks like not a day past 50.

The hair dye helps. But yeah, he looks in good health.

 

[Chanser]

He had a 92kg cake because of his age.

 

[Macam]

Mugabe has long been notoriously authoritarian and economically incompetent, playing on anti-colonialism to nationalize all sorts of industries and generally just run the economy into the ground while taking money for his cronies. He's one of a handful of longtime authoritarian rulers hanging around Africa (Museveni in Uganda is another, who also just got re-elected in tainted elections for another term).

It's a sad situation all around, and all the more since Zimbabwe used to be fairly self sufficient in feeding itself. Now, it's the same old song: rigged elections, nationalizations of industries, a power struggle to succeed him (IIRC, his most recent wife is a contender), a forthcoming drought, and so on.

When he dies, good riddance.