Opinion Guilt And Rain at Last.
It has happened despite my best efforts. Following some of the subject matter in last week's blog during the early hours of Sunday morning, I found myself lying awake and began to worry that perhaps what I had written may have been inadvertently offensive to some. I write this blog with the freedom of thought, expressing my own views. Often some personal questions may appear like statements in the way I write. That is my personal self-inquisitiveness. I think most of my era are too thick-skinned or tolerant to take offence over my muses, especially those that know me. It is the so-called new liberals, self-appointed who have decided to speak for all that seems to have the thinnest skin. Yet, they also hand out the most abuse both in voice and action.
“Progressives are on the whole viciously intolerant of people who don’t share their convictions, and therein lies the inconvenient truth of today’s new religion.” - Gavin Mortimer
Mulling over it, I decided to bring it up at our small occasional Sunday Evening rumination group which at present consists of three. The three of us from diverse cultures and backgrounds. An Englishman, John Tidey, a German, Micheal Kemper and exile Scot-Zimbo, me. Certainly diverse enough you would have thought to have varied opinions, although, in fact, we find we have much in common. Discussion is mellowed by a cigar and excellent, not good, red wine. This combination induces a freedom of speech although John does not partake of the cigar allowing him to have more to say. All of us are well travelled, have run businesses and although of diverse backgrounds, we all understand the need for open discussion and the importance of listening to the views of others.
“Without listening you will fail to learn let alone be able to garner any empathy for others’ views, especially those opposed to your own.” - Peter McSporran
In regard to my guilt narrative, their view was that you should be able to speak your mind while equally listening to others. You can disagree with it, even ridicule it but accept it as it is a differing opinion from your own. It is important to voice it, so I will continue to do so on their advice.
"I am right, everyone else is wrong" and two, if you attempt to express your view, you'll be punished. That's a hallmark of dictatorship, and it's a hallmark of wokeism.'- Frederick Forsyth CBE
We still have our general Tuesday group, Old Farts Drinks on a Thursday where subjects are generally less controversial. We expect healthy discourse but it has slowly dawned on me that the more liberal, not just in our group, of the world have created a fear to offer an opinion on controversial subjects. It has happened to us. Subjects commonly instigating this pronounced offence are gender identification, colour, climate change and immigration. Religion in our group is rarely discussed except in reflection on the failures of the Christian churches in regard to children’s safety. Our Old Farts group discussions are normally placid.
Not so in this new world of instant offence. All those subjects mentioned are the leading contenders that seem to cause instant ire. Even a word can have this effect.
“Some words can be used freely by some ethnic or gender groups, while when used by others can lead to this new thing called ‘Cancelled’. A sort of modern-day phrase for ‘Sent to Coventry' but much more intrusive and broader likely to even affect your career. This is nothing short of out-of-hand bullying.” - Peter McSporran
In fact, to the extent that if you do not agree with their views, you are perceived as an enemy. In some instances, a social moron. Mind you, there have been times when I thought of myself as such.
“Personal opinion if voiced and does not fall in line with the Woke community, Snowballs, Vegans or the Stop Oil Now’s or their like will bring a verbal assault on yourself along with your space and or property in danger of being violated along with possible career loss in the manifestation of this unjustifiable ire. They think this ire or action is legitimate and society is fast allowing this behaviour to be acceptable. It is not.” - Peter McSporran
Recently, we have seen orange paint thrown at the world snooker championship and more recently the Gallagher League rugby final. How do these idiots expect to get sympathy from the public? My feeling is it is all a charade, purely to generate self-notice rather than constructive action.
“'The Stop Oil Now Movement’ is a misnomer, it should be, ‘See Me! I am a spoilt idiot with nothing better to do.’” - Peter McSporran
At last, we have had some good rain in Central and Northern Portugal. Good soaking rain with little run-off, the kind we prayed for when farming in Zimbabwe rather than the vicious thunderstorms which were the norm. Unfortunately, the South, including the Algarve and Alentejo have had little. Dams are still at record lows, plantations are in danger and farmers are having to slaughter cattle for lack of grazing as their fodder banks from last year are depleted. Sound familiar?
Commercial Oilseeds Chairmanship
I was enjoying my freedom in England with the Whaleys and Whiteheads a day or so after my plunge into the fishpond at the local ball when I received a message informing me, could I return to Zimbabwe expediently as our chairman at Commercial Oilseed Association (COPA) Robbie McManus, had suffered a heart attack. Luckily, he did recover. As Deputy Chairman I was required to return as soon as possible to prepare for the COPA AGM. All crop and livestock associations, including COPA had their AGMs in July prior to the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) Conference in August each year. In the oilseeds industry, soybeans were the most important crop and while I did grow them my favoured crop was groundnuts not so widely grown, despite this, I was voted in as chairman. In agricultural associations and farmers' organisations, elections can be won as much by default as by popularity. I suppose it is always similar in politics, be it an association or government. Whatever, I became chairman unopposed without having to lobby or make any false promises. Obviously, this job entailed representing all oilseed producers, soya, groundnuts and sunflower, along with taking a seat on the CFU council.
CFU council was a big step up and at that time, it had an excellent relationship with Government although with the British withdrawing their support to land reform, a misnomer by that time due to its abject failure, there was increased political pressure in land ownership. Small but persistent rumblings. As white commercial farmers, we still had some protection under the Lancaster House Agreement, but as 1990 (ten years after the agreement) grew closer, it was obvious that that protection would soon be lost. Bob Rutherford was our CFU President taking over from John Laurie. Both these men I would consider realist liberals and genuinely thought Zimbabwe could and would succeed. Most of us farmers, even the few remaining right-wingers agreed with them. Many of the very hardliners left following Independence. Perhaps, they were correct in doing so in hindsight but for myself, those post-independence years were the best of my life doing what I loved - farming. I would readily do it again, although with hindsight slightly differently.
Council consisted of regional chairmen and a commodity chairman. The regional chairman represented their farmer members in everything but focused more on subjects like labour, transport, inputs, and farmer association matters, this a hot pot of local politics, security, legal, local and regional politics or anything that affected them.
The commodity chairmen lobbied for better prices, discussed marketing including logistics, crop-specific inputs from fertilisers to chemicals and seed varieties. In fact, anything to do with the crops under their portfolio. There were natural divisions amongst the groups mostly brought about by climate and environmental location. Matabeleland and the lowveld for instance were more interested in cattle and wildlife rather than crops. There was an overlap in many instances but the majority of producers from each region would ensure their needs were catered for. The climatic regions generally were divided into extensive farming, low rainfall, and intensive farming, high rainfall. The exception was sugarcane which flourished under irrigation in the Lowveld. It was an extremely interesting forum with much healthy argument, always resolved by consensus.
The topics discussed most in council in those years were security, crop prices, input and spares availability, wages including our labour’s social and housing issues, research and of course marketing. Of interest, at that time farm workers were referred to as farm labour. Although the Matebele atrocities had finished by that time and farmers were no longer being routinely attacked, security was an issue due to rising crime as Independence did not live up to everyone's expectations. Most, if not all the farming areas ran their own security with the tacit support of the police and Government. Isolated farmsteads have always been seen as soft targets in Africa, just look at events in present-day South Africa. During 2021 in South Africa, there were over three hundred farm attacks and fifty murders. This figure may well be understated. In my home area, we had taken it a step further and had a fully-fledged security company which covered Banket, Trelawney, Darwendale and Nyabira called Tredar. This was under the management of an ex-regular army officer Paul Hopcroft. It not only supplied farm guards with dogs but also fully armed reaction sticks to respond in the event of an incident. As time passed and the police became less effective or rather totally ineffective due to lack of leadership and resources including vehicles, they were happy to tag along with Tredar sticks which legitimised Tredar’s actions, especially in the more sticky situations.
Crop and cattle prices were fixed annually with the Government as they were all deemed ‘controlled products.’ Therefore, each year as chairman of oilseeds I would be required to negotiate with the Government on the prices of those crops and with the Seed Co-op on seed prices which were marketed under a Tripartite Agreement. CFU, Government and Seed Association.
Wages were always a headache and our problems were compounded further when the Government decided in its wisdom that plantation workers would be paid more than farm labour. The main trouble of this was in defining a farm labourer or plantation worker. This was further confused by some of the larger farming enterprises having both normal farming and plantation enterprises. Some days workers would work on the plantation, other days herding cattle or weeding crops. As the difference in wages between the two badly undefined worker groups was substantial, labour unrest became a real issue and the CFU hierarchy spent many hours flying around the country trying to extinguish these flare-ups of unrest.
As commodity chairmen, we were asked from time to time to speak at regional and farmers’ meetings and for the first time since the war, I found myself travelling in areas I would have never visited otherwise. In doing this duty when visiting distant venues, you either stayed with friends or the Farmer’s Association chairman for the night. Normally after the meeting, you were expected to get into the main bones of any given subject matter in the bar, drink being a great remover of reticence. Those vocal in the bar rarely said a word in the meetings. Therefore it was always wise to stay the night. For those not from a Zimbabwean farming background, distances to some of the far-flung associations could be as much as five hundred kilometres, that is a one thousand-kilometre round trip. Most were within three hundred kilometres or less. You were not supplied with transport therefore, your private vehicle clocked many miles in service.
So many new friends, so many things to be learned, so many beers to drink. To cater for my more frequent absences from the farm, we strengthened our management team. We employed a full-time farm workshop manager, Malcolm Middleton and a farm secretary, his wife, Alwyn, the first to fill this role, while his father, a true gentleman, Bill Middleton took over management of Rydal Farm, our farm in the Mazowe Valley. Busy, but good times. Recreation was tennis at Nyabira Club or fishing on Darwendale Dam.
Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.
Comments