[allAfrica.com] Zim's New Business Class Slash And Burn Zimbabwe Independent (Harare) OPINION December 6, 2002 Posted to the web December 6, 2002 By Denford Magora RECENTLY an Ivory Coast politician gave his government's opinion on the troubles facing his country. Speaking about the rebels who were advancing through the country, burning and looting and generally being destructive, he told reporters: "They want to burn the country. Well, we will burn it together and look at the ashes together." This seems to mirror exactly the attitude of the nouveau riche business community in this country. In 1965, Ian Douglas Smith declared UDI. His regime was immediately declared illegal, sanctions were imposed and an oil embargo soon followed. Britain, the US and most of the free world cut ties, disinvested and hung the racist regime out to dry. But the economy was not affected to any material extent. The Rhodesia dollar compared favourably to currencies all over the world. A Rhodesia Calls magazine dated 1971, for instance, quotes one Rhodesia dollar at US$1,42, 57 British pence, 1,005 South African Rand and 4,70 German Marks. This, mind you, six years after the imposition of sanctions. How could this be? It's simple: the white people who remained here were committed to the country. Not all of them supported the folly that was UDI, not all of them supported Smith, but they loved their country, its beauty and its potential. Because of this, whites with foreign citizenship who could easily emigrate to any country they chose, decided that they would make this country work in spite of the sanctions. White businessmen did not moan about lack of forex which prohibited the importation of hardware and spare parts from overseas. After all, a good number of those imports were made with raw materials available within our borders. So they "made a plan". Import substitution became the norm and the economy, imperfect from a social justice viewpoint, strengthened in all other respects. Rhodesia's military aircraft were maintained and repaired within its own borders. Sanctions-busting became an art-form and covert trade continued with the world because no matter how bad the situation got, Rhodesia still had some things the outside world wanted. All this saw the country build the second biggest manufacturing base in Africa after South Africa. Whites in South Africa also went through the same thing. With their country a pariah nation and sanctions raining down on them, they "made a plan". Motor manufacturers pulled out, but management bought the factories and the plants and continued making cars, building one of the most highly regarded motor manufacturing industries in the world. When the world opened up again, their businesses were worth more than when they first got them. Today they export to various countries, including Australia and New Zealand and a BMW factory in South Africa was voted better than those in Europe! The expertise was there within South Africa as it is here in Zimbabwe. Even people who disagreed with apartheid put their shoulders to the wheel to build the economy. Business people realised that building the economy and the country was bigger than a political party, bigger than PW Botha or DF Malan or HF Verwoerd. The benefits would be everybody's and when apartheid finally fell, as all things must, there would be a sound economy on which to build the success of the entire nation and all its people. They realised that economically shooting the government in the foot was the same thing as shooting the whole nation in the head. But in Zimbabwe we are proving to the world that black people, and black businessmen in particular, are pathetic losers, greedy no-gooders and stinking opportunists interested only in filling their ample stomachs and ferrying Aids to the four corners of the country in air-conditioned Mercedes Benzes. Too harsh? Not by half! Today Zimbabwe has a motley crew of pea-brained "businessmen" interested only in themselves and not the nation. Instead of investing in people and the resources of this country to build a strong economy against the odds, they pocket billion-dollar profits and build sprawling mansions for their wives and girlfriends. Mansions where they park a long line of gleaming luxury German cars. Look at it this way: We have the resources to make this country work right now. The technology to manufacture fuel from coal is there in South Africa, just a stone's throw away from us. Zimbabwean companies are setting up shop all over the world and ignoring their own country. Even customers in this country get a shoddier treatment from local companies that are concentrating on pleasing foreigners. Certain sections of the economy are positively booming, raking in billions in profit and pocketing them instead of investing them in the productive sector. Instead of investing in industry, they take their ill-gotten gains and flood the housing market so that today nobody raises an eyebrow when a house goes on sale for half a billion dollars. Let us face it, black business in this country is not "business" at all. They hate their own country and their own people but are willing to use them terribly in order to get a comfortable life for a handful of bloated, besuited sharks. The mentality has now infected the whole country, with the average person in the street dreaming of running off to first world countries to sustain those first world economies even more with their sweat and blood - Zimbabwean sweat and blood! We are proving to the world that we are a nation of cowards and the biggest of them all are the so-called businesspeople in this country. Solutions to our problems stare us in the face everyday. Just as an example, it was recently announced by some enterprising fellow on television that he had managed to get a diesel engine running on vegetable oil and a bit of thinners or methylated spirit. British experts examined the claim and concluded that it was genuine and a diesel engine could indeed run on the stuff, giving better performance in some instances than diesel itself and without any short or long- term damage to the vehicle. A demonstration was done with used oil from a fish and chip shop and, lo and behold, the crazy theory worked in front of cameras. That is a challenge that is still to be taken up by the local business community. Perhaps it is too much to ask them to take their snouts out of the trough long enough to be innovative. Let's get this straight: Patriotism is not a dirty word. It means allegiance to the nation, its people and its spirit. It does not mean support for one political party or another. It means a commitment to building the nation, not for any one individual, but for all of us, our children and all the generations that will follow us. It means pride in the country and a dedicated passion to overcoming the odds in whatever industry we choose to call ours. It means, in the words of an era gone by, "doing your bit". In spite of the cowards who are fleeing to the UK, Australia and the US, in spite of the doomsayers who believe that nothing good can come out of this country, we must all display some spine and look to ourselves to build this great nation to what it should rightly be - a powerhouse in Africa. No excuse is good enough for the destruction of future generations' livelihood. What we are doing right now, all of us, including the business community, is condemning future generations of Zimbabweans to a life where they are spat on by the rest of Africa and the world. Enough already! Denford Magora is executive creative director of DDB Hash Three in Harare.   =============================================================================   Copyright © 2002 Zimbabwe Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). =============================================================================