According to Agence France Presse, Finance Minister Tendai Biti told reporters in Harare today that that’s the amount that was left after the government paid its civil servants last week.
“The government finances are in paralysis state at the present moment,” he said. “We are failing to meet our targets.”
Ummmmm … that is incredibly scary.
(Source: onionlike)
Actually briefly held this in our hands. Pretty amazing. The flag is embossed. And the numbers actually work, with Washington Post reporter Emily Heil scoring this quote from Zimbabwe’s art ministry: “I’m sure it didn’t come through our ministry.” (photo by us)
destroyedkingdom asks: I don’t get it. Why is a foreign country using our currency? Isn’t that sort of a bad thing for our economy because people are spending our money that isn’t going into our economy?…..Maybe I’m just not informed enough about this but that just seems weird.
» SFB says: This is actually a common thing, and a good thing because it underlines the stability and maturity of our own currency. They wouldn’t do it if the U.S. dollar was weak, y’know. As the result of the gold standard becoming less common throughout the world, some smaller countries with less economic stability have used the currency as a way to build up their own economic strength. Zimbabwe is the perfect candidate because their local currency was so weak that the stability of the U.S. dollar could only strengthen them. The U.S. already has a global currency used throughout the world; this just underlines it. And it’s worth pointing out that some countries, such as Panama, Ecuador and the Federated States of Micronesia, have done this for decades — in Panama’s case, over 100 years. The International Monetary Fund did a report on this phenomenon, if you’re curious, complete with pros and cons. — Ernie @ SFB
(Source: The New York Times)
Zimbabwe’s ongoing currency struggles: In which we attempt to break down the gist of a great New York Times story into two photos with some text on top. Suggestion: Coinstar should mail all the change people don’t want in the U.S. to Zimbabwe. (photos via The Zimbabwean, Wikimedia Commons)
This is an interesting development. Worth keeping an eye on it. Transitions from sultanistic regimes are never easy—or pretty.
From clubrelaford:
Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe was yesterday said to be fighting for his life in a Singapore hospital with an undisclosed illness, amid reports he had agreed to hand over power to his feared Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The Zimbabwe Mail, quoting a senior official of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, said the President was undergoing intensive treatment in Singapore and that some members of his family had joined him after boarding a chartered private jet on Saturday.
Continue reading HERE
Of the world’s leaders, few have as bad a reputation as Mugabe, he of hyperinflation and questionable political tactics. So we’ll be watching this one closely.
A torture camp run by Zimbabwe’s security forces is operating in the country’s rich Marange diamond fields, BBC Panorama has found.
The programme heard from recent victims who told of severe beatings and sexual assault.
The claims come as the European Union pushes to let some banned diamonds from the country led by President Robert Mugabe back onto world markets.
This isn’t far from my dad’s hometown.
Disturbing.
The brother leader’s delegation has accepted the roadmap as presented by us. We have to give cease-fire a chance.South African President Jacob Zuma • Pushing to get folks to back a peace plan that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has agreed to. The plan, which could lead to a cease-fire, may be just what Libya needed. Now we’re sure Zuma, representing the African Union, probably has a better handle on Gaddafi than most, but we’re going to say that this probably isn’t going to be particularly effective. And Zuma has a history of backing a soft-pedal approach to leaders that probably don’t deserve it. Robert Mugabe for starters. We’re sure Morgan Tsvangirai feels pretty good about Zuma’s help in that situation right now. source (via • follow)
lateralsymmetry answered: What story (or stories) do you feel are very significant right now, yet significantly under-reported?
» We say: To that, we defer to The Onion. We couldn’t have said it better than they did. Also, the situation in Zimbabwe is always underplayed. Always. Here’s the latest from there. It’s very unfortunate that African continent doesn’t get a fifth of the press that it deserves. We try hard to play stories from Africa when we can.
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