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February 25, 2007

Surreal in Zimbabwe

The financial disaster that is Zimbabwe today was highlighted by President Mugabe's $300 million birthday party yesterday. When the fundraising for the event began in December, that amount was worth about $290,000 U.S.; by the time the party happened yesterday, the value of Zimbabwe dollars had plummeted so far that the $300 million was worth only $45,000 U.S. In the 1980s, U.S. and Zimbabwean currency had the same value.

The celebrations were disrupted by strong winds and rain from Cyclone Favio. But giant cakes had been baked and thousands of children wearing red sashes were bussed in to the stadium where, according to the state-controlled Herald newspaper, they would “interact with political leaders and role models that would inspire them to serve their country with decorum”.

The “role models” turned up in an array of luxury vehicles. They were the same party officials whom Mugabe, in a rare moment of realism, had described in an interview last week as ambitious, corrupt cheats trying to drive him out.

The party was held as bread disappeared from shops, inflation was forecast by the International Monetary Fund to rise to 4,000% by the end of the year and demonstrations and political gatherings were banned by the police in Harare for fear that they would trigger looting.

Zimbabwe's story is absolutely heartbreaking. From the 1980s, when hope was everywhere and people could live comfortably (though certainly nowhere near the accepted level in the U.S.), until now, the change has been brutal. Zimbabwe's infant mortality rate is as high as Somalia's (60 deaths per 1000 births), it's postnatal maternal mortality rate is one of the highest in the world, its inflation is the highest in the world, its economic decline is the fastest in the world (other than nations at war), and its corruption and suppression of the press are the worst in the world. The life expectancy for men is 37 years and for women 34 years. One in five adults has AIDS. Nearly half of the country's people are clinically severely depressed and anxious.

One of the unexpected side effects of Zimbabwe’s 1,600% inflation is that people who bring their dying relatives to hospital are simply disappearing. Families deliberately give fictitious names and addresses because they cannot afford the fees for the hospital, undertakers and burial sites. So the country’s mortuaries are choked with unclaimed dead.

The country's professionals don't earn enough money anymore to pay for their gas to drive to work and the country has an unemployment rate of 80%. Mugabe has responded to the problem by printing more and more money, seizing white-owned land, and last week nationalizing the diamond industry, a move that might lead to a coup.

The nightmare is difficult for me to grasp. I remember from my year in Zimbabwe in 1982-83 a beautiful country full of happy people who had dreams of a bright future. I cannot even imagine what has become of that wonderful place I once knew.

Posted by Becky at February 25, 2007 10:34 AM