The Cool Blue Blog

Big Bills

As I've pointed out in the past, under the stewardship of dictator/thug Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe has gone from the bread basket of Africa with a thriving and robust economy to the basket case of the world. The inflation rate today stands at 1,042 percent.

No worries though, the central bank has issued new $100,000 bill to make it more convenient for Zimbabwaians to buy a loaf of bread.

The note makes its debut barely four months after the Reserve Bank introduced the $50,000 note, the highest denomination at the time. In only two weeks the Zimbabwe dollar has lost half of its value.

Despite the hyperinflation, mass unemployment and crippling shortages of fuel and foreign currency, Zimbabwe is a country of millionaires. Shoppers have to carry huge wads of cash to buy the basic foodstuffs available in most shops.

“Last week I filled a single trolley with $30 million of groceries, and I had to count out 600 notes of $20,000 at the checkout counter,” John Robertson, an economist, said.

Despite the economic gloom, he said that at least the new note “means when we go shopping, we don’t have to take a suitcase of money: we can carry it in a shoulder bag”.

But the Mugabe Government says it has things under control. Gideon Gono, governor of the central bank says that inflation should be down to a mere 50% within a year.

And pigs will fly.

Dicing with Death

Things are deteriorating rapidly in Zimbabwe, home of the dictator thug, Robert Mugabe. Rigging an election to stay in power is fine, I suppose, if you deliver something to the people of your country. If not, people may use undemocratic means to get rid of your ass.

Mutambara, chosen last February to head the faction that broke ranks with MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai last October after disagreeing on how to unseat Mugabe, appeared to endorse Tsvangirai's calls for mass revolt, saying he and his group were not afraid to "engage in confrontation" against the government.

"We are saying to Mugabe change the way you are doing things, if you don't change immediately, you are creating a revolution and we are presenting ourselves as leaders of this revolution," Mutambara told about 200 supporters at Mount Pleasant hall near the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) in Harare on Tuesday night.

He added: "We are not afraid to engage in confrontation through democratic resistance. If jambanja (protests) does not work we have other plans, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D and so on and so forth."

The problem here is that the economic conditions in the country, once the breadbasket of Africa, have gone code red.

"For many people, especially in the urban areas, life has become unaffordable and unbearable and these people are waiting to vent their anger through mass demonstrations," said Makumbe, a critic of the government.

The government, while acknowledging the economic crisis, says it remains optimistic but in private officials say rising prices and unemployment above 70 percent are stoking anger, especially in cities.

Last week Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate, measured through the consumer price index (CPI), jumped to 913.6 percent for the year to March from 782 percent in February.

Experts expect the rate to soar way over 1,000 percent by mid-year and Zimbabwe also faces shortages of fuel, food and foreign currency and breaking sewerage systems, power and water cuts, uncollected domestic garbage and deteriorating roads.

It amounts to the worst economic situation since Mugabe led the country to independence from Britain in 1980 and the time when Zimbabwe was one of Africa's most prosperous states is a distant memory, political and economic analysts say.

Mugabe, for his part, is not one to take threats to his position lightly

The Zimbabwe government hinted at ordering the security forces to shoot citizens who heeded calls by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to join mass protests pushing for political reforms.

Powerful State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, who is also in charge of the spy agency, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), reminded Zimbabweans that the ruling Zanu-PF party had "shed blood before" to liberate the country from colonialism and would not hesitate to do so again to maintain its grip on power.

Mutasa's remarks came shortly after President Robert Mugabe himself vowed to kill Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change, if he proceeded with plans for mass action.

But a defiant Tsvangirai said he was prepared to die to free Zimbabwe from Mugabe's dictatorship.

"Mugabe, 82, warned Tsvangirai he would be "dicing with death" if he tries to use protests to drive him from power but officials sources said the government was worried and working on plans to clamp down on the opposition."

All of which sets the stage for more bloodshed in Africa.

Unholy Men

Number four on the list of the Worlds Top Ten Worst dictators, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, is calling President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair Unholy Men

"Must we allow these men, the two unholy men of our millennium, who in the same way as Hitler and Mussolini formed (an) unholy alliance ... to attack an innocent country?" he said, occasionally gesticulating for emphasis.

So to Mugabe, Saddam is just an innocent victim.

"Where are their democratic tenets? Where is their morality? Where is their compliance with the salient principles of good government?" Mugabe said.

Um

According to Human Rights Forum, Mugabe's government has killed or tortured and displaced more than 70,000. While allowing elections, he has restricted opponents' ability to campaign and shut down media that don't support him. When opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 42% of the vote anyway, Mugabe had him arrested and charged with treason. As his support has slipped, Mugabe has played the race card, confiscating farms owned by whites and giving them to his supporters.

Of course, Mugabe is a friend of Chirac.

And he sounds a lot like Cindy Sheehan

Steal a lot and they make you King

Bush has made it clear that he is willing to increase aid to Africa; but only to a point.

He said that he wanted to speed up the flow of African aid money passing through Congress but made it clear that US donations depended on African leaders spending money on health and education projects, while tackling corruption.

He took issue with Mr Blair’s aim of doubling global aid to Africa to $50 billion (£28 billion) and disagreed with campaigners who say that the 0.16 per cent of US GDP that Washington spends on overseas aid is too low.

It's nice to think that simply giving money to Africa will solve all the problems there, after all, it doesn't require much of us. We could simply, er, go to a concert. Whoo Hoo!

But the fact of the matter is, who would the money really got to? Because the fundamental question really is, what is the cause of poverty in Africa?

If we look at Zimbabwe, for instance, how did it go from the bread basket of Africa to an impoverished state?

The simple, and accurate, answer is dedicated Marxist Robert Mugabe.

After he ran all the experienced farmers out of Zimbabwe under the guise of "land redistribution" (i.e. the farmers were white), things just went to hell. But since it is ostensibly a Democracy, how does he keep getting elected?

Easy, just withhold food from people until they vote for him.

Ms. Kasambala also echoed concerns aired by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, whom the government has condemned as a mad liar because of his allegations that food is being used as a political weapon in rural Matebeleland, an opposition stronghold. The archbishop says government supporters are threatening to withhold food from areas that do not vote for ZANU-PF.

Ms. Kasambala and Human Rights Watch says those threats are real.

Or we could look at Sudan. Whats the cause of poverty there?

Oh the usual: Civil War and genocide.

And when I say "the usual" I'm not being facetious. The most common cause for poverty and privation in the world is lack of political and economic freedom. As  R.J. Rummel, Professor Emeritus of Political Science clearly shows here

Political and Economic freedom not only go together, but also they are an engine of a people’s wealth and welfare. Add this to the fact the democratically free countries never have had a famine, virtually never murder their own people, have the least internal violence, and never any wars between them, and you have freedom as the closest thing to a general solution to humanity’s ills.

Now take a look at the index of Economic Freedom here and notice where the African countries are placed on the list. None are in the "Free" category and the ones that are in the "Mostly Free" category are not suffering from poverty and war.

And here is a table of Political Freedom and notice how much better off countries who are free are when compared to countries that are not free. Notice where the African countries that are worse off fall. Here, maybe this map of freedom will help you visualize it. (click for a larger image)

It is clear, economic and political freedom go hand and hand with prosperity.

You want to fix Africa?

Figure out a way to make their governments less repressive and their economies freer.

Don't be fooled into thinking the answer is simply "forgiving debt" because those you are helping by doing that are the governments of people like Robert Mugabe not the people who suffer under his boot.

And don't be fooled into thinking that just giving money is the answer because for the most part the money never sees its way to the people who need it. Case in Point: the Oil for Food program run by the UN.

To fix Africa you've got to do the hard work.

And make the hard choices:

Wanna go to war?

Didn't think so...

Daily Dish

Thugs are dissatisfied with Mugabe. They were promised jobs. They were promised money. All they got was beer. So they are switching sides. And as a result of the switch, they are talking about the kinds of things they were hired to do.

"ZANU [Zimbabwe African National Union] used to get us to stay outside polling stations to frighten away the opposition. If the DC came, we would chase them away," Succumbs said. "But we never got the money or jobs that they promised us; all we got was beer."

...One member of the notorious pro-Mugabe youth militia known as the Green Bombers recalled an earlier campaign:
    "They used to give us pills before we went to beat people, but never food. We beat up one old man, he must have been in his 60s, for criticizing the lack of development in the area. He kept apologizing, but none of us stopped. If you were not enthusiastic enough, you would be the next victim."

And opposition party members are not the only targets of Mugabe thugs (the ones who can live on beer); reporters who do not report good things about the ruling regime are also at risk. In fact, the story reported by the Washington Times notes that they are withholding the name of the reporter for fear that he may be the target of the corrupt government. In fact, two British journalists are in prison right now in Zimbabwe. The government claims they were arrested for working without accreditation.

What the hell does that mean?

Well, according to a Zimbabwean policeman, the reporter and his cameraman were arrested for illegally covering the election. Oh. Well. No Westerner either from the US or Europe was allowed to observe the elections either.

It would seem to me that despite the testimony of the disgruntled Mugabe thugs, no new elections are likely to occur. I mean who is going to order it? And if ordered, who is going to prosecute the order?

While there may be widespread criticism among the Western Democracies, there seems to be little if any criticism in Africa itself. The most disappointing example is South Africa President Thabo Mbeki who is telling critics of Mugabe and the election to just shut up already. And he made his remarks to a gathering of South African Communists.

Unless Britain decides to make a big deal of their journalists (and I mean a big military deal), or the people of Zimbabwe rise up against Mugabe in vast numbers, I don't see that there will be a big change there anytime soon.

And South Africa is not looking good either.

It appears that there are mass protests against Japan on-going in China. Japan blames China. China says "hey, what can we do? It's just the people expressing themselves. And you know, China is all about the 'people' After all, we had a 'people's' revolution." But as we know from the Tienanmen Square incident, protests don't happen in China unless the government wants them to happen. It seems that China doesn't like Japan vying for Security Council status, and they really don't like Japan making noises about a security agreement with Taiwan.

For its part, China says people are mad about a Japanese history textbook that glosses over Japanese atrocities during WWII.

But the crowds in China are getting violent and it would seem that Chinese police should be better able to prevent such violence.

But they don't seem to be interested.

Meanwhile, China and India seem to be getting along swimmingly.

Anna Nicole Smith was going to go to Newfoundland for PETA to protest the killing of seals, but she has canceled since she learned that she may be mistaken for a seal by the seal hunters. I can see it... In other animal-friendly news, scientists searching for a rare bird in Borneo can't find them because the residents there eat them. Can't be too rare....

Two school reporters in Canada are suspended for taking pictures at a school event and publishing it. OK, so the picture was of a stripper who was only wearing a chain-mail bikini, but she was a "presenter" at the school approved event. And if the school didn't want the pictures published in the school newspaper why did they have the event at all?

What was the event you ask? The Students’ Union’s Sexual Health Awareness Show of course.