Internet service to Zimbabwe cut as govt has not paid the bill

Sad, broke Zimbabwe finds itself with little to no access to the Internet today, as Intelsat has almost completely choked off bandwidth due to an unpaid bill by Zimbabwe's govt-owned telecom.

Tel-One, the state-owned communications company, apparently owes Intelsat over $700,000. Given the state of Zimbabwe's economy, along with the recent currency devaluation (which was not a devaluation, according to the Mugabe govt), it's difficult to say where that much spare cash is going to come from.

Mugabe, by the way, blames the UK and other Western powers of conspiring against Zimbabwe. For what, he doesn't say.

Start mailing your checks to UNICEF and Oxfam. Zimbabwe is circling the drain, and it's not going to be pleasant when it goes down.

UPDATE 9/26/2006 11:43 CT: Tel-One has been bailed out by the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank, at least for now. Both the telecom and the bank say they have very low foreign currency reserves, so the reconnection to the Internet may be a temporary thing.

Zimbabwe: Time to pay the piper

As has been predicted for some time, Zimbabwe's economy is now circling the drain. Years of mismanagement, boneheaded decisions, thuggery, corruption, and total governmental incompetence has brought the country, once the breadbasket of Africa, to the brink of complete collapse and chaos.

The increasingly corrupt and incompetent government of the increasingly paranoid and delusional Robert Mugabe has, apparently, driven a stake into the economic meltdown by trying to reverse several years worth of increased-money-supply-driven rampant inflation (by some estimates over 9,000%) by ordering drastic price cuts and jailing managers and business owners who refused to comply.

This colossal shock to the already-free-falling economy has resulted in widespread hoarding, riots, empty shelves in stores, and approaching chaos in the cities.

It seems, tragically, almost inevitable that there will be widespread violence and starvation in Zimbabwe in the near future.

All of this could have been avoided by competent governance, as Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) is exceptionally blessed with fertile soil and abundant natural resources. Prior to Mugabe going off the deep end, Zimbabwe/Rhodesia fed most of sub-Saharan Africa.

There are lessons to be learned here. However, since there are no real strategic issues at stake in Zimbabwe, most of the world will ignore them.

Start writing your checks to Oxfam right now. I'm sure they're stocking up for what's coming.

Zimbabwe: My God

First, a little scene-setting: Go read this Newsweek article on the state of the Zimbabwean economy. It is the most shocking thing you will read today. Guaranteed.

Now, we switch over to election news. Zimbabwe went to the polls this past Saturday. While it appears the opposition has won a majority in the Assembly, no one knows who won the presidency yet. That sound shady to you? It should.

Robert Mugabe, president since Zimbabwe was formed from unilaterally-independent Rhodesia (actually, there was a British colonial step in-between, called Zimbabwe-Rhodesia) in 1980, has rigged elections in the past. And that was before he went completely nuts. In recent years, his paranoia and isolation from the rest of his countrymen has grown at an exponential rate. Think he's not capable of stealing an election? Then I have some Zimbabwean currency I'd like to sell you.

How do you bankrupt a country which is blessed with fertile soil and abundant natural resources? Well, the Burmese have managed to do it, but even they can't hold a candle to Zimbabwe. This nation has been screwed for over a hundred years - read a bit about how it was treated by Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company to get a sense of just how bad the screwing was - but, even with that, it has been a relatively prosperous and stable country until recently. Now? It's the most f**ked up country on Earth.

Zimbabwe: Monopoly money is worth more

The Beeb has an article today on the game Zimbabwe and its people are playing with cash in the midst of long-term ultra-hyper inflation. The examples in the story are truly beyond belief.

An example: If you win the Harare Herald Lotto Bonanza, you get 1.2 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars. That's quadrillion, with 15 zeros. The prize's worth in US dollars? About $4,000. And that was last week. Who knows what it's worth now?

Another example: At a private school in Harare, parents are being asked to pay supplemental fees of Z$2.1 trillion. Yes, trillion. And if you wait until next week, you have to pay Z$3 trillion. Nine hundred billion dollars more to extend for a few days.

How would you feel if you had a few crisp, new Z$500,000,000.00 bills in your wallet, and knew you might be able to buy a newspaper and a sandwich with them? Five hundred million dollars, in a single bill, now practically worthless.

The numbers being tossed around in Zimbabwe's economy these days are truly mind-boggling. Banking and other financial systems are completely unable to process the sums being exchanged for trivial things. Think about it - could 7-11's systems could handle it if your Super Big Gulp cost four billion dollars?

I am way too dumb when it comes to economics to even begin to know what the solution is for this problem. The solution in Weimar Germany was to elect a fascist to the Chancellorship. Zimbabwe already has it's fascist, and that hasn't worked. What's next?

Zimbabwe: Mugabe's tactics may be working

Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is apparently considering withdrawing from the June 27 presidential run-off election.

The reason: As many as 70 MDC supporters and/or family members have been murdered in recent weeks. It's pretty clear that thugs allied with Mugabe and ZANU-PF are behind the violence, although Mugabe himself blames the MDC. Mugabe is, of course, a delusional, paranoid tyrant who will do just about anything to hang on to power, so I don't know that we should be taking his word for much.

The MDC is saying that, unless something changes dramatically, the election will be a farce. Difficult to argue with - how do you vote your conscience when some addled "war veteran" is holding a Kalashnikov to the back of your head?

I understand what MDC is doing here. They are trying to draw international attention to the travesty underway in Zinbabwe. They are trying to force the international community, particularly the African community, to pressure Mugabe to back off and permit truly free elections.

However, this tactic may well backfire. Zimbabwe's neighbors, esp South Africa, have been reluctant to get too terribly involved in Zimbabwe. It may very well turn out the MDC hands the election over to Mugabe, and Zimbabwe continues its fall from the ranks of democratic states, and into the status of the failed.

Zimbabwe: It's not a devaluation. Really.

In a move the central govt refuses to call a currency devaluation, Zimbabwe has announced that three zeros will be taken off every bank note. In other words, that $1,000 Zimbabwe note you have in your wallet is going to be replaced by a $1 Zimbabwe bill.

The move is an effort to help consumers deal with the 1,200% annual inflation rate. No typo. Inflation is running at 1,200%.

President Robert Mugabe, as you would expect, blames shadowy internal and external "enemies" for the current mess. More clear-eyed commentators point to Mugabe's failed land reform and the subsequent collapse of the once-robust agricultural sector.

Oh, and by the way, consumers are being given three weeks to exchange all of their Zimbabwean currency for the new and improved notes.

Start giving to Oxfam now. Zimbabwe is going to need the help sooner rather than later.

Zimbabwe on the verge of big trouble?

From Reuters today: An analysis piece on the current situation in Zimbabwe. The news ain't good.

Growing up Jewish in Dallas, I had lots of friends from southern Africa - for whatever reason (similar climate, growing city w/ lots of opportunity, an even sillier local accent than their own?), many South African and Rhodesian Jews relocated to Dallas in the late 70s and through the 80s. Today, quite a few of my kids' schoolmates are 2nd or 3rd generation southern African immigrants, and many of their parents (our contemporaries) retain the distinctive accent and drive for success that characterized the first wave.

So, with that background, I do keep an eye out for news from southern Africa, and have written about the region several times here. While South Africa has had it's share of problems since majority-rule, the overall trend has been mostly positive. Not so in Zimbabwe.

Back when it was called Rhodesia and it was ruled by minority whites, this south-eastern African country was the breadbasket of the continent. Easily able to feed itself and it's neighbors, it was one of the leading exporters of food in the world. Further blessed by abundant natural resources (nothing like the treasure-house next door in South Africa, but better than most countries), Rhodesia was among the most prosperous countries in Africa and, indeed, the entire world.

The news seemed good in 1980 when, in a largely bloodless transition, the country moved to majority rule and changed it's name to Zimbabwe. The business and agricultural environment remained robust and prosperous, and it seemed like the success story would continue.

The wheels have been slow, but steady, in coming off since then. Robert Mugabe, President since 1980, has become more and more radical as time has gone by, foisting ever-more destructive economic and agricultural policies on the country. His disastrous land-reform methods (revocation of whites' right to own land and making most farmland available to any black who could grab it and hold it) were the most visible, but only average in terms of damage caused to the economy.

So, now here we are, in April of 2006 and the economic news from Zimbabwe is beyond bad - it's nearly incomprehensible. The inflation rate has topped 900%, unemployment is over 70%, an entire generation has never held a job, and the country is on the brink of... what?

Well, we'll find out in the next few weeks. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has proposed mass demonstrations in the next few weeks (no dates have been announced yet, just the intent). While the government is outwardly blowing this off, internal, unnamed sources are saying they're worried.

They should be.

Robert Mugabe deserves the Nicolae Ceausescu treatment more than any world leader not in Burma. And he appears likely to get it.

Stay tuned to this one.

Zimbabwe: Economic emergency? Understatement of the decade!

I'm not sure how this is even possible, but Zimbabwe's already-breathtaking annual inflation rate jumped from 2,233,713.4% (don't you love the ".4" at the end?) in May to just over 11,250,000% in June.

That's an official increase of 9,035,045.5 percentage points in a month! Many Zimbabweans think it is, in fact, much higher.

Mugabe's govt thought they were going to slow things down by lopping 10 (10!) zeros off the end of the Zimbabwe dollar, making Z$10 BILLION equal to Z$1 of new currency. Um, not working, buddy.

How can this country continue to function? Is everyone simply bartering for goods and services now? It sure seems like there's no way this can be sustainable for any significant amount of time, but we've been saying that about Zimbabwe for two and half years now.

The reality is everyone who has any means has already left. Most of the people left in the country are either on Mugabe's payroll, in which case money means nothing, or were already so poor that they had no money to be made worthless.

What a frickin' mess...

Zimbabwe: Follow up to yesterday's nugget

Yesterday, we made mention of the out-of-control inflation and stupefying dollar amounts being thrown around in Zimbabwe.

Today, "official figures" from somewhere, perhaps Zimbabwe's Central Bank although that's not clear from the Beeb article, place Zimbabwe's inflation rate at 2,200,000%. You read that right, 2.2 million percent.

What is going to give first in the most effed-up country on Earth?

Zimbabwe: Tales from the front

An unnamed Newsweek reporter recently saw, firsthand, the thuggery now ruling the streets of Harare, and files this chilling report.

It's a mess, obviously, and it's easy to shout, "Ian Smith was right". I have written a few things here which might sound exactly like that. In this case, events have validated some of the old RF fear-mongering. But I think that's more an unhappy coincidence than any kind of psychic ability or inherent rightness of the minority rulers of the past.

Rhodesia was, as has been pointed out here and in many other places, able to feed itself and economically sustain itself (at least in the short term) despite near-complete isolation from the rest of the world. No one, and I mean NO ONE, would touch Rhodesia, with the exception of equally-racist and equally-shunned South Africa. Yet, even with trade and diplomatic sanctions levied by nearly the entire world, Rhodesia was a pretty good place to be if you were white and willing to ignore outrageous injustice around you on a daily basis. The Lake Wobegone-ish hagiography which has grown around the old Rhodesia ("...where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average...") isn't totally made up.

So, nearly forty years after the white rulers were sent packing, Zimbabwe finds itself in serious competition with a host of other failed states for the unenviable role of "Most Screwed Up Country on Earth". Mugabe and ZANU-PF have taken a country blessed with natural resources out the kazoo, a ton of initial international goodwill, and a motivated population, and, through insane land and economic policy followed by retaliatory (and equally racist) treatment of the white landowners, have found themselves facing possible famine, hyper-inflation which makes Weimar Germany look stable, and a full circle back to international condemnation. Quite a record.

But, it's stupid, not to mention flat-out wrong, to generalize and say, "This is what happens when the 'civilized' folks bail and leave the 'savages' to run the shop." There are many, obvious examples of the complete opposite being true. Just in the southern Africa neighborhood, Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia) is a stable, relatively prosperous nation.

It's somewhat more than bad luck, but not much more, that a psycho like Mugabe winds up with his hands on the levers of power. The destabilization of the Rhodesian Bush War made it nearly inevitable that a violent nut-case would emerge as the strongest guy on the block.

For those "Rhodies" around the world who point to Zimbabwe as proof of the failure of majority rule, I would say Zimbabwe is reaping what Rhodesia had sowed.

That doesn't make it any less tragic, though.

Zimbabwe: Stop me if you've heard this before

Zimbabwe's population, facing quadruple-digit inflation, food and fuel shortages, and President Robert Mugabe's increasingly distant relationship with reality, are heading over the border into neighboring South Africa in droves.

The South Africans are, for whatever reason, not patrolling the border too enthusiastically.

The astute reader will immediately equate this to a situation a little closer to home.

BTW, the UN is asking relief agencies to start stocking supplies for the inevitable famine about to hit Zimbabwe. God Himself has, apparently, become involved in the situation, as the Zimbabwe harvest is predicted to fail badly this year.

Zimbabwe to "process" uranium

Um, this can't be good news.

According to the AP, Zimbabwe's President Mugabe is saying that Zimbabwe will begin "processing" recently discovered uranium deposits in the country.

Zimbabwe has ties to both Iran and North Korea, for those of you keeping score at home.

Update from Zimbabwe: A disaster that keeps getting worse

We're way past the point of any good, or even encouraging, news coming out of Zimbabwe. The only question one asks when stories come across with Harare in the dateline is: How much worse is it now?

The answer today is: Lots.

The cholera epidemic has taken hold, with the official death toll now approaching 600. Unofficially, the number is MUCH higher. The total collapse of Zimbabwe's health-care and communications systems means there is no way to really count the number of sick, dying, and dead.

The rainy summer has started and will continue through Feb. Malaria will appear. Cholera will spread faster. The population, already weakened by lack of food and medicine, will become more susceptible to both. The ruined economy, ultra-hyper inflation, and 80% unemployment rate ensure the general population has no hope of escaping the despair or obtaining help. Mugabe's "government" continues to see invading foreign troops behind every tree, and will never open the country up for the kind of international humanitarian aid which would have any hope of averting catastrophe. Mugabe himself will continue to stall and stymie regional and international efforts to get him out of power, or to even share some power, and the situation will not change, except to get worse.

We are witnessing the death of a nation, one conceived less than 30 years ago amidst high expectations, higher hopes, and positive initial results. Looking back to the early 80s, although there were rumors of atrocities in Matabeleland, the average Zimbabwean, white or black, enjoyed a thriving economy, plenty to eat, international goodwill, and a seemingly brilliant future. Now, disaster is upon us, and the only questions are how many will die and how long will it take for them to die.

What can we do about it? Not much. Give to Oxfam and the Red Cross. Pray. If you're ambitious, you might write a note to Kgalema Motlanthe or Levy Patrick Mwanawasa. Write your representative. Suggest to Sir Bob the Knob or Bono the Dog Biscuit they get Band Aid back together. The West isn't going to fix this one. I'm not sure anyone is.

Tsvangirai's wife killed in car wreck, Zimbabwe PM injured

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and his wife, Susan, were involved in an auto accident earlier today in a rural part of the country. Susan Tsvangirai was killed, and the PM was injured.

Details are sketchy, but it appears a large truck was involved. According to the BBC, the driver of the truck was asleep at the wheel.

On the surface, this event has all the hallmarks of an authentic, tragic accident. Zimbabwe's decrepit road system, rampant drunk driving, and non-existent law enforcement make traveling by car moderately less risky than swimming laps in a pool of battery acid. Huge wrecks and fatalities are all-too-common on rural roadways, especially those in the more-densely populated eastern half of the country.

However, given Mugabe's track record, the "accident" angle cannot be taken at face value. That Tsvangirai himself was in the car at the time of the wreck makes everything about it suspicious. Mugabe and his vile, violent cronies stand to gain from this sort of unfortunate "accident", especially if Tsvangirai had been killed. He was not, but the loss of his wife of 30 years (and mother of his six children)is nearly as good from the ZANU perspective. Tsvangirai is, no doubt, personally devestated. There's every chance this blow causes him to leave public life entirely.

I hate to be cynical, but it's a mistake to put anything past Mugabe.

Zimbabwe invites white farmers to return

Can't let this slip by without making note: Zimbabwe has invited thousands of white farmers, all of whom were forced off their land by the government's "fast-track" land reform in 2000, to apply for leases on that same land.

Obviously, the land reform has been an abysmal failure, which has crippled the economy and caused massive food crises in Zimbabwe. You'll probably never hear President-for-Life Mugabe admit that it was a mistake, but what more proof do you want besides this completely unexpected U-turn?

News from Zimbabwe gets worse

The BBC is reporting that Zimbabwe can no longer adequately feed it's army.

The looming, entirely man-made disaster in Zimbabwe has the potential of unsettling southern Africa. Again, the US and the West don't have any really significant strategic interests in the region, which means it will probably be left to sort itself out, not unlike Southeast Asia and Darfur.

Daily YouTube: BBC report on Zimbabwe

This is a bit dated - it's got figures from Feb 2008, which was, in terms of Zimbabwe's inflation rate, about 10,000,000% ago - and there's nothing reported here that you haven't already heard or read, but it's still plenty sobering.

Cholera? What cholera?

We can all stand down from our concern about Zimbabwe. According to Robert Mugabe, there is no cholera. Zimbabwe's doctors, working with the World Health Organization, have it cracked, so you can call off your emergency.

Well, thank God for that. It must be true, right? Because we all know what a firm grip Robert Mugabe has on reality.

I don't think it helped his credibility that he was shooing flies away from his face throughout the entire, hour-long, televised speech. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but I sorta think it doesn't speak well of the state of sanitation in Harare if the President is being swarmed by vermin.

Zimbabwe: Mugabe fights dirty

Archbishop of Bulawayo Pius Ncube has been sued for adultery by the husband of his secretary. No sooner was the case filed than state media produced photographs allegedly taken by a hidden camera and purporting to show Ncube undressing and having sex with an unidentified woman.

The husband, by the way, is a railroad worker. Just how likely is it that he either knows how to handle a hidden camera or has the means to pay someone who does?

Ncube is denying the charges, but also spending a lot of time talking about "forgiveness". It's a pretty good bet he did what he's accused of.

While this probably makes him a lousy Catholic priest, it does not make him wrong in his harsh criticism of Mugabe and his government. One hopes Ncube is going to keep up the pressure, but its certain his voice will be somewhat diminished.

This is just the latest example of Mugabe's crushing of dissent. Political rival Morgan Tsvangirai spent more than a year in court, defending himself against treason charges. About the same time he was acquitted, he was jumped and beaten nearly to death by what had to have been government thugs.

The meltdown in Zimbabwe continues, although, I have to admit, more slowly than I expected. I had figured the wheels would be completely off by now and there would be rampaging violence in the streets. It certainly seems like that's still in the not-too-distant future, unless someone, somewhere nuts up and does something to prevent it.

Two pieces of SHOCKING news this Friday afternoon

Citigroup, once the biggest financial services firm on the planet, is circling the drain. It's stock, which had stalled around $50 for years, is now selling for $4.

Almost 300 cholera deaths have been reported in Zimbabwe. Is this the summer that finally turns sad Zimbabwe into the Ethiopia of the late 2000's?