From the frying pan ...

In the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof recounts depressing stories of life under Mugabe. Here's Kristof on the most depressing aspect of these tales of woe:

The hungry children and the families dying of AIDS here are gut-wrenching, but somehow what I find even more depressing is this: Many, many ordinary black Zimbabweans wish that they could get back the white racist government that oppressed them in the 1970's.

"If we had the chance to go back to white rule, we'd do it," said Solomon Dube, a peasant whose child was crying with hunger when I arrived in his village. "Life was easier then, and at least you could get food and a job."

Mr. Dube acknowledged that the white regime of Ian Smith was awful. But now he worries that his 3-year-old son will die of starvation, and he would rather put up with any indignity than witness that.

Why is Kristof so saddened that Zimbabweans prefer bad to starving to death? It must have something to do with incorrect ideology.