Quote: (11-18-2017 09:19 PM)Higgs Bosun Wrote:
If this is indeed the case (and it sounds reasonable) then it's a great opportunity for China to come swooping in with some of their vast-and-sure-to-lose-value-over-time dollar reserves and dispense some benjamins to the desperate military leadership. In exchange they could demand to low-key rule the country with a firm pimp hand behind the scenes and make it China's bitch along with all the mineral rights of course.
Zimbabwe doesn't have any major mineral resources to speak of. Zimbabwe's great resource is its huge swathes of fantastically fertile land, which is Zimbabwe used to be a net exporter of food in the region and a massive producer of tobacco.
This is why the army can't just take over. If Zimbabwe had oil, or minerals, or something that could be quickly be packaged or exported, the army would have just taken over directly and start looting.
But Zimbabwe has no easy, exportable resource to speak of.
The only way for the economy to grow is get people in to engage in large scale farming, but because in the last 10 years property rights became irrelevant (the Mugabes had a bad habit of conviscating productive farms as soon as they caught their eye), no one has been willing to farm.
China could perhaps be given a ton of land for agricultural use, but there is nothing else of value in Zimbabwe.
[/quote] Serious question: Why would anyone give a fuck about Zimbabwe?
[quote]
Business opportunities. Should property rights become respected again in Zimbabwe, it is likely to turn into an economic rocket. The country could easily be rich again with an agricultural based economy, meaning a whole lot of consumers for our products. First movers could win a lot of gains, assuming the government holds onto a decent trajectory.
Alternatively, a Zimbabwean collapse into civil war would ruin markets in neighbouring countries, reducing opportunities for trade.
As for migrants, Zimbabweans prefer to flood into South Africa and Botswana rather than Western countries. South Africa has a huge problem with Zimbabwean 'refugees'. For me as a South African, a stable Zimbabwe would allow us to throw all these people back and build a border wall to keep them there.