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Zimbabwe's Redistribution of Wealth Reaches Its Logical Conclusion: Starvation

The people of Zimbabwe are now starving, thanks to the Mugable regime's expropriation of farms owned by whites and his other runinous economic policies that attempted to override the laws of the free market.

They are reduced to eating anything they can find, including an elephant that died of old age (disturbing images).

Yesterday, the Red Cross warned the situation in the former British colony is 'critical' with 2.17million - one in four of the population - requiring urgent food aid.

In July 2007, the government of Zimbabwe attempted to impose price controls in an effort to stop galloping inflation that the government itself had created. The price controls were a predictable failure.  Supermarket shelves were soon stripped of bread.  By September 2007, desperate Zimbabweans were beginning to abandon their pets or slaughter them for food.

As I wrote in October 2007:

Mugabe and his government are rapidly managing to turn Zimbabwe from a poor nation to a destitute, starving nation.  Their actions in seizing control of the property of white farmers and expropriating businesses are racist, selfish, foolish, and immoral.  At the rate Zimbabwe's government is going, the consequences will soon be deadly.  The people of Zimbabwe will pay a gruesome price.

And from March 2008:

Around the world, too many on the left still believe that unequal distribution of wealth is the primary explanation for intractable problems of hunger and poverty. They support policies such as heavily taxing the rich and redistributing some of that wealth to the poor. They do not realize that poverty is a symptom of deeper troubles, not the cause. A nation's poverty is a usually a symptom of bad governmental and economic policies, including laws that interfere with the free market and destroy incentives to produce. Corruption, violence, and lack of basic human freedom don't help either.

"This is what Robert Mugabe has done to us, turned us into a nation of peddlers and beggars," she said flatly, allowing her thoughts to then wander off into the future. "If he remains, we will just die."

Zimbabwe started out as a prosperous breakbasket. Now, thanks to its forcible redistribution of wealth, it has turned itself into an economic basket case. A nation that once helped feed the world has no bread to feed its own people.

There is no surer way to make everyone poor than to take from the rich and give to the poor.

Hope... Change... Hope-and-Change-and-Hope. And Change... and, and...

By DemocracyRules

H/t Captain Capitalism

As inaugural speeches go, Oblama's was pretty average, hope-and-change wise.  Bill Clinton's speech of '93 holds the US changey record.

Zimbabwe's Inflation Now Ludicrously High

Zimbabwe's inflationary crisis (entirely the fault of Robert Mugabe's heavy-handed government) is so totally out of control that it has become a farce:

HARARE, Zimbabwe —  Zimbabwe's bank chief plans new currency reforms _ removing "more zeros" from the plummeting Zimbabwe dollar and raising the limit on cash withdrawals _ to tackle the country's runaway inflation and cash shortages, state media reported Sunday.

Previous currency reforms have failed to tame Zimbabwe's inflation _ officially pegged at 2.2 million percent a year but estimated by independent analysts to be closer to 12.5 million percent. It also has become virtually impossible to get access to cash as the country's economic collapse worsens.

Authorities last week released a new 100 billion dollar bank note. By Sunday it was not enough even to buy a scarce loaf of bread in what has become one of the world's most expensive _ and impoverished _ countries.

. . .  Computers, electronic calculators and automated teller machines at banks have not been able to handle basic transactions in billions _ nine zeros _ or trillions _ 12 zeros _ or even quadrillions, with 15 zeros.

A new laptop computer was advertised Sunday at 1.2 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars. That's the equivalent of about $25,000 at the official exchange rate, $8,500 at the black market cash exchange rate, or $2,000 at a third exchange rate used in electronic money transfers through bank accounts that don't involve the physical issue of Zimbabwe dollar bank notes.

Gee, is inflation 2.2 million percent or 12.5 million percent?  Such a dilemma.

I'm picking up subtle indications that Robert Mugabe's "land reform" (i.e., forcibly taking land away from white farmers) and other economic policies have not been entirely successful.

On the plus side, if you ever wanted to be millionaire or billionaire, your dream can come true!  Untold wealth awaits you in Zimbabwe!

Just don't try to buy a loaf of bread.

African Bootstraps

By DemocracyRules

h/t Economist.com

Africa continues to show broadly-based and widespread economic improvement.  Governance is terrible, but not bad by African standards.  As the economies grow, the demand for good governance will also grow.  Most foreign aid is wasted in corruption.  The rest contributes to helplessness and economic dependence. 

Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day.  Teach him to fish, and he feeds himself as long as the fishing holds out.  Teach him how to run a fishing business, and he and his family and his employees eat well.  If fishing is no longer profitable, he and his family can start another business.

Pro Patria

Mugabe Now Even Loses On The Recount

By DemocracyRules

Violent attacks on the opposition continue, and even after efforts at retroactive ballot-box stuffing the recount shows Mugabe and his party still lost.  The government still refuses to release the full results of the election, one month after it happened.    This seems to have paralyzed the MSM into a "wait and see" attitude.  Wait for what, global warming?  That won't happen until after the next ice age.

Zimbabwe's best hope at this point is Dr. Jendayi Frazer. She is the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, and she speaks plain English that anyone can understand. She just met with the Zimbabwe opposition.

Frazer said, "We are certain that Morgan Tsvangirai won based on the reporting of the Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network and other independent monitors... I think [Mugabe] is -- with this great delay in announcement -- trying to steal the election. He is intimidating population and election officials as well. [We've] also heard reports of the police stuffing ballots."

 

Mugabe Defeated in Zimbabwe?

Robert Mugabe's party has lost control of parliament, and Mugabe himself has either lost outright or will have to participate in a run-off, the opposition party is claiming. 

HARARE, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe's long-ruling party lost its parliamentary majority Wednesday, bolstering opposition claims that impoverished Zimbabweans voted for change in this struggling southern African nation.

The opposition also claimed victory for leader Morgan Tsvangirai in Saturday's presidential vote, but the state-controlled newspaper predicted a runoff — the first official admission that Mugabe, the nation's autocratic leader of 28 years, had not won re-election.

The Movement for Democratic Change expressed confidence Tsvangirai could win a runoff with an even larger margin, but there were fears an embattled Mugabe would roll out every weapon in his considerable political and government arsenal to stay in power.

Election observer Imani Countess of the Washington-based TransAfrica Forum told The Associated Press that the most frightening conversation she has had in Zimbabwe was with a senior official of the ruling ZANU-PF party discussing a runoff.

"He was very calm and jovial but made it very, very clear that if there was a runoff, that ZANU would use all the state organs at its disposal to ensure victory, and that is very, very worrisome," she said.

Will Mugabe go quietly?  Even in the best case scenario, there is much pain and hard work ahead for Zimbabwe.