Everyone in Zimbabwe is a millionaire

[웃 910]

INFLATION-wracked Zimbabwe plans to introduce a 200 million dollar note just days after a 100 million dollar note came into circulation, the government has announced.

The 200 million dollar note, announced in a notice in the government gazette on Friday, will bring to 28 the number of notes put into circulation by the central bank this year alone, as the country struggles with the world's highest inflation rate of 231 million per cent. On Thursday the central bank introduced 100 million, 50 million and 10 million dollar notes while at the same time increasing withdrawal limits for individuals and companies. The 100 million dollar note is worth only about $US14, and its value erodes by the day. Cash can now only be withdrawn once a week from banks, according to the latest measures by the central bank. People can withdraw 100 million dollars a week while companies are permitted to withdraw 50 million dollars. Prices of basic goods and services rose sharply on Thursday when the 100 million dollar note was introduced. Long queues in banks and cash shortages are commonplace in Zimbabwe as people take hours to withdraw money which is still not enough to see them through the day. The 100,000 banknote is worth only one US dollar on the widely-used parallel black market and is only half the amount needed to buy a loaf of bread. Zimbabwe's political leaders are currently deadlocked over who should control key ministries in a power-sharing deal brokered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) after March elections thrust the country into crisis. Once the region's breadbasket, the country is facing widespread food shortages while cholera has killed 575 people, the UN said on Friday.

I actually wrote a little bit on Zimbabwe for extra credit in an economics class. Very sad situation, and it has gotten at least 10X worse since I wrote this in April of 2007:

April 18, 2007

Zimbabwe is a nation plagued with complication. They are in a dire situation that will take a miracle to correct. The statistics in Zimbabwe are overwhelming and shocking. Six out of ten people are infected with AIDS, four out of five people are unemployed, an unknown number thought to be between 2 and 4 million people have fled the country, hyper inflation is expected to reach between 4 and 5 thousand percent by the end of the year, life expectancy is the lowest in the world, currently 37 years for men and 35 years for women. I read these statistics in awe and could not believe it to be possible that a country could be in such turmoil.

In fact, their economy is so atrocious that they removed three zeros from their currency and told Zimbabweans that in three weeks, if they don't exchange or spend the old currency, it will become worthless. With these new adjustments, a loaf of bread will now cost 220 Zimbabwe dollars, as opposed to 220,000. The rate of exchange used to be 101,000 Zimbabwe dollars to $1. In other words, if you had 10 bucks in your wallet it could be exchanged for over a million Zimbabwe dollars! As of April 18th, 2007, the exchange rate is roughly 259 ZWD to $1.

Zimbabwe didn't always have the doomed outlook it has today. Back in the 1980s Zimbabwe had a thriving economy and was a prosperous nation. They were the second largest economy in southern Africa and had millions of tourists flocking to the country every year. They came to see the national parks, the hippos and the lions, and perhaps the most famous attraction of all, Victoria Falls. Back then, in the 1980s, the prices weren't so ridiculous. The exchange rate was respectfully 24 ZBD to $1.

"My gran used to give me 50 Zimbabwean cents to go buy bread, butter and milk – all that for so little! It was easy to live well. And when we were at junior school, five cents in your pocket could get you sweets to last the whole week. I tell you, finding a five cent piece on the pavement was like finding gold! Now if you see a 1,000 Zimbabwean dollar note on the floor, you just keep walking. You don't stop. It is nothing – no-one will even pick it up."

Much of the blame for all this disaster in Zimbabwe is directly connected to its President, Robert Mugagbe. His regime is said to be very brutal, using secret police and torture methods to control his country. Torture techniques including subjecting various body parts to electric shock and beating the soles of victims' feet. Another popular torture tactic is rupturing peoples eardrums by the continuous slapping of the ears with the purpose of inflicting pain and long-term hearing damage. A government affiliate who identified himself as Reeler was quoted as saying, "I think it's no joke to say that in Zimbabwe, by our figures, probably 20 percent of the entire population has had intimate experience with torture." The country is now faced with widespread famine as a result of severe drought and farm seizures by the government. The World Food Program reports that 46% of Zimbabwe's population – more than 5 million people – face starvation.

It is apparent that Zimbabwe is headed for destruction and will have to make drastic changes in order to recover from all of the country's devastation. Mugabe has lead the country into massive food shortages, drought, and economic collapse. It is going to take a titanic amount of effort to stabilize Zimbabwe from the treachery she is currently troubled with. As for the 83 year old nefarious oppressor, a quote from Hillary Clinton confirms his madness: "The worst person I have ever met in my life is Robert Mugabe. I met him at a meeting and all he did was look at me and giggle menacingly and annoyingly."

Victoria Falls:

[Ling Ling 22]

Interesting articles...yours as well

Wonder if I can get one of those 100 million dollar notes at the airport...

[Ban Hammer 14,286]

oooo i gotta get some of that for my monopoly game so i can play with real money!

[Ling Ling 22]

oooo i gotta get some of that for my monopoly game so i can play with real money!

Now THAT'S funny

[웃 910]

And people think our economy is bad:

January 16th, 2009

Zimbabwe unveils $100 trillion banknote (otherwise known as $300 U.S. dollars )

HARARE (AFP) — Zimbabwe unveiled a 100 trillion dollar note Friday in the latest grim measure of its staggering economic collapse, heightening the urgency of a new round of unity talks set for next week. Veteran leader Robert Mugabe and opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai are set to hold talks Monday with key regional leaders in a bid to salvage a four-month-old unity accord, which has yet to be implemented. The stalemate over disputed elections last year has only fuelled the economic and humanitarian crisis that has impoverished the country, leaving nearly half the population dependent on food aid as a cholera epidemic sweeps the country. The Reserve Bank announced in the government mouthpiece Herald newspaper a series of trillion-dollar denominations to keep pace with hyperinflation that has left the once-dynamic economy in tatters.

The new 100,000,000,000,000 Zim-dollar bill would have been worth about 300 US dollars (225 euros) at Thursday's exchange rate on the informal market, where most currency trading now takes place, but the value of the local currency erodes dramatically every day. The move came just one week after the bank released a series of billion-dollar notes, which already are not worth enough for workers to withdraw their monthly salaries. Inflation was last reported at 231 million percent in July, but the Washington think-tank Cato Institute has estimated it now at 89.7 sextillion percent -- a figure expressed with 21 zeroes

When Mugabe took power at independence from Britain in 1980, the Zimbabwe dollar was equivalent to the British pound. For years, the nation's farms, schools and health care were considered a model for Africa. Now 80 percent of the population is in poverty, 1.3 million are living with HIV, five million depend on food aid, and more than one million others have fled overseas. A breakdown in basic sanitation and water has spawned a cholera epidemic that has killed 2,100 people since August and shows no sign of slowing. Despite the ever-worsening crisis, Zimbabwe is locked in a political limbo following elections last March, when Tsvangirai won a first-round presidential vote and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) seized a parliamentary majority for the first time. The MDC victory was greeted with a wave of political attacks that Amnesty International says left more than 180 people dead -- mostly opposition supporters. Citing the violence, Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off election in June, allowing 84-year-old Mugabe to claim a one-sided victory condemend by western powers. Former South African president Thabo Mbeki brokered a power-sharing deal signed September 15, but the rivals have yet to agree on how to form a unity government, while attacks and arrests of MDC members have continued. Hoping to salvage the deal, South Africa's new President Kgalema Motlanthe plans to fly to Harare on Monday with Mbeki and Mozambican President Armando Emilio Guebuza to mediate new talks. "They will focus their discussions on the outstanding matters in the implementation of the global agreement," Motlanthe's spokesman Thabo Masebe told AFP in Johannesburg. Tsvangirai told reporters Thursday that he remained committed to the unity accord. "All I lack is a willing partner," Tsvangirai said. But he said he was not willing for talks to drag on indefinitely. "At some point we will have to decide whether it is worth going into this government or not," he said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/artic...pMij4dDUWP3jc6g

Edited January 16, 2009 by Confucian

[Jasman0717 9]

Maybe they should just scrap everything and start fresh

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I guess taking over the farms of white farmers wasn't such a good idea. Imagine going from having a food surplus to this situation.

Racism sucks.

According to The Economist, cereal production has fallen by two-thirds over the past two years, turning Zimbabwe from a provider of surplus maize, which provides the staple food for the region, to stubborn recipients of foreign food aid. “In two short years, Zimbabwe has gone from a food supplier to becoming one of the largest humanitarian emergencies on the continent,” says one report from the Christian Science Monitor. Based on figures from the United Nations World Food Program, the country faces a 1.5 million-ton food-production shortfall over the next six months.

http://www.fpa.org/newsletter_info2583/new...ution%20Program