Robert Mugabe is what Africans still call a 'big man' .... this of course is simply another term for 'thug, dictator, criminal etc etc'. He has remained in power despite blatant corruption, nepotism, and cronyism towards his main supporters.
He is currently trying to engineer his wife 'Grace' (was ever a woman so misnamed?), taking over when his soul eventually shrivels away and he is gone ... this is principally as he can find no bolt-hole for his criminal family to take their ill gotten gains to, where it doesn't risk seizure from the regime after his being ousted.
I almost feel sorry for the people of Zimbabwe, but despite his highly visible crimes and some electoral vote rigging, the fact is that he continues to get voted back into power in sufficient numbers for it to be clear, that although the numbers claimed might be dubious, there is little doubt that he got a majority, albeit lower than he claimed.
Even ignoring the land thefts, the devastation of the economy has been outright criminal .... and nothing illustrates this more than the country having no currency of its own. I have discussed this subject before, but then it was merely the fact that effectively Zimbabwe had stopped printing money, and so its population were using a myriad of currencies in place of the Zim dollar .... but now that officially its now using the US Dollars.
Locals were entitled to $1 for every 35 Quintillion Zim Dollars that they took to the bank. That's 35,000,000,000,000,000 Zim Dollars to the US Dollar, and is as a direct result of Zimbabwe hyperinflation reaching 500 billion per cent (500,000,000,000%).
Anywhere else on earth Mugabe, would have been dragged out of his mansion, a long with his family, and strung up for this sort of mishandling of his country. Nowhere else have zero's of this magnitude been seen in relation to an economy, even in Germany at the height of Weimar Republic, when by November 1923, the American dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 German Deutsche Marks ... and even that was a large degree less than the Zimbabwe inflation.
Now in Germany, that inflation ushered in a dictator, Adolf Hitler. Perhaps its too much to hope that in Zimbabwe it would usher one out?
He is currently trying to engineer his wife 'Grace' (was ever a woman so misnamed?), taking over when his soul eventually shrivels away and he is gone ... this is principally as he can find no bolt-hole for his criminal family to take their ill gotten gains to, where it doesn't risk seizure from the regime after his being ousted.
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| African Big Men Come In Many Sizes .... |
I almost feel sorry for the people of Zimbabwe, but despite his highly visible crimes and some electoral vote rigging, the fact is that he continues to get voted back into power in sufficient numbers for it to be clear, that although the numbers claimed might be dubious, there is little doubt that he got a majority, albeit lower than he claimed.
Even ignoring the land thefts, the devastation of the economy has been outright criminal .... and nothing illustrates this more than the country having no currency of its own. I have discussed this subject before, but then it was merely the fact that effectively Zimbabwe had stopped printing money, and so its population were using a myriad of currencies in place of the Zim dollar .... but now that officially its now using the US Dollars.
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| Everyone A Billionaire Under Robert Mugabe ..... |
Locals were entitled to $1 for every 35 Quintillion Zim Dollars that they took to the bank. That's 35,000,000,000,000,000 Zim Dollars to the US Dollar, and is as a direct result of Zimbabwe hyperinflation reaching 500 billion per cent (500,000,000,000%).
Anywhere else on earth Mugabe, would have been dragged out of his mansion, a long with his family, and strung up for this sort of mishandling of his country. Nowhere else have zero's of this magnitude been seen in relation to an economy, even in Germany at the height of Weimar Republic, when by November 1923, the American dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 German Deutsche Marks ... and even that was a large degree less than the Zimbabwe inflation.
Now in Germany, that inflation ushered in a dictator, Adolf Hitler. Perhaps its too much to hope that in Zimbabwe it would usher one out?
Is that man in the first picture real?
ReplyDeleteI assume so ... its from the web, but of course that doesn't guarantee squat.
DeleteWell Mugabe and wife were disposed to be replaced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa (the crocodile), following a military intervention that forced MUGABE to resign in 2017, but not much else changed. He won the presidential election in 2018, after a close contest with Movement for Democratic Change Alliance candidate Nelson Chamisa.
ReplyDeleteVice-President Constantino Chiwenga has been treated in hospitals in South Africa and India before leaving for China. High-ranking officials in Zimbabwe have often been criticised for seeking medical treatment abroad while leaving their own hospitals poorly equipped and in disrepair. About 400 doctors have recently been fired for refusing to end the months-long strike.
Zimbabwe still owes $1.7 billion in arrears to the World Bank and African Development Bank and with the economy afflicted by dollar shortages, fuel queues, power-cuts, and soaring prices, police firing on opposition crowds not much has changed. Although finance Minister Mthuli Ncube set aside $24 million to compensate white farmers, 768 of whom had consented to the interim compensation scheme.