Settling Scores - Setting Priorities
The bad boy of the African Union is at it again, setting priorities, looking out for the well-being of his people, bearing the burden of leadership, setting an enviable example for other members of the AU, some of whom are doing their best to capitalize on his successes and even making great strides in outdoing him.Now that the score has been settled and white Zimbabwean farmers have been put out of business, their once-fertile land lying fallow, their enterprising farm workers unemployed and huge segments of the population crying out for food, he rests on his laurels. Like any proud ruler of a deserving country he doesn't see himself engaging in false modesty and will accept a party to celebrate his birthday.
Inflation has gone from serious to rampant to critical. Fully 180,000 civil servants whose salaries were trebled in January to keep up with the cost of living now demand another increase of no less than 400 percent. That munificent raise would translate to the equivalent of one dollar a day in earnings. An increase whose value, due to the galloping inflation rate, will be wiped out within four months.
Those are the lucky ones, the people who actually have paying jobs. President Robert Mugabe rules triumphant over Zimbabwe - once an African cornucopia of food production, a food exporter - now teetering on the edge of total collapse. Prices double every 30 days in the country and food prices are believed to be rising even more steeply and speedily than the general inflationary rate.
The economy lies in ruins, but Mr. Mugabe's point has been made; Zimbabweans will not tolerate interference from the white world. That the farmers whose lands were wrested away from them for the noble purpose of allocating the land back to the "people", that those farmers who happened to be murdered in the process were also Zimbabweans who loved their country and honoured their love for it by making it an agrarian success, is rather irrelevent, just one of those nuisance bits of data.
But enough of grumping about unfortunate byproducts of social/cultural triumphs. A propitious event lingers on the horizon, soon to become reality. Emmanuel Fundira, chairman of the 21st February Movement (no he's no sycophantic slave, he's one savvy social climber very aware that adulation will get him everywhere) has announced that his committee is "looking for 300 million zimbabwe dollars ($1.2US).
Ah, a national celebration in honour of Zimbabwe's sterling success in providing for its people, in ensuring that this once-proud nation is again standing tall, prosperous and forward-looking. Well...kind of. February 21, it would appear, is the date that Mr. Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front has traditionally thrown a massive party attended by thousands of party loyalists and diplomats.
None other need attend. February 21 marks the celebration of yet another recognition that this very glorious leader of his nation turns 83. Enough cannot possibly be said for the joy and jubilation being felt at this very moment by thousands upon thousands of food-deprived Zimbabweans and the zeal with which they will empty their pockets of spare change to assist in the raising of these celebratory funds.
For it is ordinary Zimbabweans who struggle daily to cope with the effects of poverty, becoming accustomed to this rather new state of their being in this great country from whom the required funds are to be extracted. The country's treasury, after all, is in a rather depleted state. Zimbabweans are being ordered to dig deep to mark this great event - deep into their own pockets.
One cannot adequately, from this remove, appreciate the deep and abiding love the people of Zimbabwe owe and feel toward their leader.
Party on, Zimbabwe.
Labels: Heroes and Villains
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, February 13, 2007
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