Zimbabwe

[neanderthal]

please watch this short video on the sham election in zimbabwe.
feel free to post it in other forums that you may frequent. if enough people are outraged, perhaps change can come about.

thank you.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/jul/04/election.zimbabwe

[Gurkha]

Are there any oil deposits in Zimbawe?

[Botnst]

No.

Is there any other strategically important factor in Zimbabwe? No.

Does the USA have any historically important ties to Zimbabwe? No.

Good luck, Zimbabwe.

B

[Chad300tdt]

People from the US like to see Victoria Falls.

[LUVMBDiesels]

My Brother almost got killede over there...


ABout 10 years ago my brother, a misguided law student, thought he could help the democratic forces inside Zimbabwe He took off for a summer internship at a solicitor's office in Harrare (Salisbury) He promptly ran afoul of Mugave's thugs and had to hide out on a farm in the countryside. It took a pretty big effort on our part as well as on the Dept of State to get him back safely. So much for democracy in Zimbabwe. After what has been going on there for the past 10 years it is amazing that there is any opposition to General Secretary Stalin I Mean Mugave left in the country.

Back to my brother, he did this foolishness because his gf at the time (now his wife) decided that she needed to join Doctors w/o Borders in PAKISTAN I have stories of a young BLOND FEMALE med student in the NW Territory that till curl your hair!

[pj67coll]

Zimbabwe is a cluster **** and will remain so until Mugabe is dead. Even then it will likely remain so. That kind of damage cannot be undone easily.

- Peter.

[OldPokey]

Originally Posted by Chad300tdt

People from the US like to see Victoria Falls.

People from Zimbabwe would like to see Mugabe Fall.

[aklim]

Originally Posted by LUVMBDiesels

My Brother almost got killede over there...


ABout 10 years ago my brother, a misguided law student, thought he could help the democratic forces inside Zimbabwe He took off for a summer internship at a solicitor's office in Harrare (Salisbury) He promptly ran afoul of Mugave's thugs and had to hide out on a farm in the countryside. It took a pretty big effort on our part as well as on the Dept of State to get him back safely. So much for democracy in Zimbabwe. After what has been going on there for the past 10 years it is amazing that there is any opposition to General Secretary Stalin I Mean Mugave left in the country.

Back to my brother, he did this foolishness because his gf at the time (now his wife) decided that she needed to join Doctors w/o Borders in PAKISTAN I have stories of a young BLOND FEMALE med student in the NW Territory that till curl your hair!

Maybe he will learn to be less idealistic in the future. I guess it MIGHT NOT be all bad.

[LUVMBDiesels]

Originally Posted by aklim

Maybe he will learn to be less idealistic in the future. I guess it MIGHT NOT be all bad.

They are both pretty conservative now... For Madison, WI -- By that I mean that they still eat dead animal flesh and vote for (non-green party )socialists

[aklim]

Originally Posted by LUVMBDiesels

They are both pretty conservative now... For Madison, WI -- By that I mean that they still eat dead animal flesh and vote for (non-green party )socialists

That doesn't say much. Madison is probably behind the Republik of Kalifornia when it comes to that.

Well, he survived it. IOW, it didn't kill him. Maybe it will make him stronger (less likely to be so idealistic and hence live longer).

[tankdriver]

Originally Posted by Chad300tdt

People from the US like to see Victoria Falls.

You can see it from the Zambia side.







As Bot so eloquently put it, Americans don't care about Zimbabwe. And it doesn't really matter because it's not for us to meddle, and even if we did, there's nothing for us to do. Unless you advocate preemptive invasion and removal of any foreign leaders we don't happen to like, of course. Then our only course of action could be invasion and removal of Mugabe. Now, if your vid had some ridiculously amorphous non existent link to some guy in a turban, then you could get some action.

[Botnst]

Originally Posted by tankdriver

... And it doesn't really matter because it's not for us to meddle, and even if we did, there's nothing for us to do. Unless you advocate preemptive invasion and removal of any foreign leaders we don't happen to like, of course. Then our only course of action could be invasion and removal of Mugabe. Now, if your vid had some ridiculously amorphous non existent link to some guy in a turban, then you could get some action.

Only if there were a strategically important attribute OR if Mugabe went (even more ...) nuts and protected people who chose to fly airliners into buildings in the USA.

[dynalow]

From today's WSJ

OPINION


How Inflation May Topple Mugabe
By ROGER BATE
July 7, 2008

Amid Zimbabwe's political violence is an economic lesson for anyone who doesn't keep an eye on inflation. The country's dictator, Robert Mugabe, who was sworn in on June 29 to his sixth term as president, has killed a few hundred of his opponents in the past few months, but his country's inflation is killing far more than that. With food aid only trickling back into the country and hundreds of thousands without enough cash to buy food, it was clear during a trip there last month that the crisis is deepening.


Consumer prices have more than doubled every month this year, in some cases doubling every week. A conservative estimate provided by Robertson Economic Information Services, a Southern African consultancy, says that prices are now three billion fold greater than seven years ago. That's right, billion. The exchange rate is currently an astronomical 90 billion Zimbabwe dollars to one U.S. dollar.

When I first went to Zimbabwe in 1996, $1 would buy you eight Zimbabwe dollars – a depreciation in exchange rate of perhaps 10 billion fold in 12 years. A decade ago, 500,000 Zimbabwe dollars would have bought you a house; today it can't buy you anything.

Incredibly, the situation on the ground is even worse than any available data can reflect. Inflation numbers are almost meaningless, with some reports showing that prices triple now on a daily basis, and for some food items prices double hourly. Hyperinflation is approaching the status of the post World War I Weimar Republic and post World War II Hungary, the worst recorded inflations in history.

Joshua Kipuru (not his real name, since he is concerned about reprisals for criticizing the government) told me via telephone that he gave up trying to get cash at his bank in Harare last week, since the lines were too long and slow moving. In the end Mr. Kipuru bought groceries with his debit card, which remarkably still works. The card, he explained, maxes out at just under 10 billion Zimbabwe dollars. So he had to run it 74 times, given that his food bill was nearly 730 billion Zimbabwe dollars.

Buying anything is a "bizarre experience," said Lucy Chimtengwende from Bulawayo, who spent $12 U.S. on lunch recently, with the bill in local currency being an astonishing 1.1 trillion Zimbabwe dollars. The menu had no prices on it, she told me by phone, prices are quoted to you and are constantly changing. And if you want to pay by check, good luck. Most proprietors don't accept them, and for those that do, the price is double, given the time it takes the vendor to receive payment.

Ms. Chimtengwende was breaking the law by paying for her meal in U.S. currency (or "greens" as they're known locally), as was the owner of the restaurant accepting it. But the economy is dollarizing as the local currency literally becomes worthless: "We are billionaires and can't buy anything," bemoaned Mr. Kipuru.

The only immediate hope to end to this inflationary nightmare is if the presses are turned off and the Mugabe government simply runs out of currency. There are local indicators of this; the lines to get cash from Harare's banks are getting longer by the day, suggesting a restriction in the supply of banknotes.

Mugabe's supplier has also reportedly cut off the printing press. In the weeks prior to the March 29 election, the German company, Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), ran its printing presses at maximum capacity, delivering 432,000 sheets of banknotes to Mugabe's government each week. The money, equivalent to nearly $173 trillion Zimbabwe dollars ($32 million at that time), was then dispersed among key constituencies, notably the security forces, as bribes.

After the March election, G&D kept the presses running, worsening the situation. Thankfully, after a public protest outside its German headquarters, critical articles in the German and international press, and pressure from the German foreign ministry, G&D announced on July 1 that it would stop printing the bank notes.

It is uncertain how much of a supply Mugabe's regime still has, but with the current inflation rate driving demand for cash skyward, it is possible the regime will run out of notes in weeks, unless another supplier, perhaps from China, steps in.

While the international community, the African Union and Zimbabwe's neighbors may not be able to stop Mugabe, the economy might. With no means of exchange, a barter economy is already taking hold with services being traded instead of cash. If Mugabe doesn't relinquish power soon, Zimbabwe will resemble a medieval economy – and a poor one at that – within weeks.

Mr. Bate is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

[aklim]

I think this is a great example of how we mind our own business. Zimbabwe is not affecting our life and we don't disturb it.

[tankdriver]

Originally Posted by Botnst

Only if there were a strategically important attribute OR if Mugabe went (even more ...) nuts and protected people who chose to fly airliners into buildings in the USA.

Hold on a minute now. He doesn't have to actually have protected those people. He just needs to be improperly labeled as a guy whose subordinates met with one of those people who choose to fly airliners into buildings.