Stationary Bandit

Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe

The official numbers finally surpassed 100,000%.  I suspect the actual number is much higher.  It will be interesting to see if President Mugabe is re-elected next month or if he loses, will he give up power peacefully. 

Inflation in Zimbabwe

The tragedy continues.

The state central statistical office said September's inflation heated up to an annual rate of 7,982 percent — meaning an eightyfold jump in prices over a year. The official rate was 6,592 percent in August, but independent estimates put real inflation closer to 25,000 percent.

Here is the whole story.

Will Eritrea Be No More?

Few people have taken notice of the plight of Eritrea for the past four decades.  Its long struggle for independence finally bore fruit in the 1990s.  But now troubles have arisen both within the country and with neighboring Ethiopia (not that they have ever ended).  Today's NYT has a little piece on the current situation. 

There are bread lines, milk lines and lines for rationed cooking gas. At night, dissidents meet on dark streets to chat secretly in parked cars.  Because of the rising prospects of war with Ethiopia, essentially Round 2 of a border conflict that has already killed 100,000 people, tens of thousands of Eritrean students have been conscripted into the army.

Furthermore, problems with the US government have developed.

Relations with the West, especially the United States, have deteriorated to a historic low point, with the State Department threatening to designate Eritrea, a tiny country on the Red Sea that most Americans have never heard of, as a terrorist state for its support of Islamist rebels in Somalia.

Its independence is threatened and its economy appears on the verge of implosion.  What can be done?  The simplest policy is to resolve its problems with Ethiopia which would improve the economic situation.  Of course, this is easier said than done but economic integration would be a good place to start.  Second, once stability is attained, improving economic and political freedom would spur entrepreneurship (I assume Eritrea is "repressed" as it is not scored in either the Heritage Foundation or Freedom House index).  After that, Eritrea probably would be on the path towards prosperity. 

Addendum: Sam, in the comments, suggests that Eritrea had been doing relatively well and recent political decisions have caused or exacerbated the crisis.  According to the most recent Human Development Report, life is not well in Eritrea and has not been for some time.  Even by African standards, it not doing well.  It ranks 30th out of 50 African countries in terms of the human development index. In other words, it scores near the bottom of the distribution in terms of income, education, and life expectancy. 

Will More Farm Equipment Save Zimbabwe?

As I have observed the continuing crisis in Zimbabwe over the past few years, I remain amazed that Mugabe continues to deny that the land redistribution program in 2000/1 caused the current malaise.  It seems pretty straightforward that taking away land from skilled farmers land and giving it to unskilled farmers and political allies is a sure fire way to significantly reduce ag production.  However, Mugabe disagrees and offered a way to improve the situation.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday said his government's drive to give farm equipment to resettled black farmers would raise agricultural production and prove critics of his controversial land redistribution wrong.

So giving unskilled farmers new technology will raise productivity.  Don't the unskilled farmers need to obtain knowledge on how to efficiently use the new farm equipment?  Mugabe has simply adopted a more general failed policy to promote economic development: import technology from the rest of the world without the necessary complementary policies and institutions. Here is the whole story.

Darfur or Harare-Which is a worse crisis?

The tragedy in Darfur has received substantial attention yet a greater disaster continues in Zimbabwe.  Economic collapse, hyperinflation, increasings levels of HIV/AIDS, food shortages, and a dictatorial regime has severely harmed the lives of millions in Zimbabwe for years. Hundreds of thousands citizens of Zimbabwe have fled to other countries in the past decade.  Like the Sudan, the light at the end of the tunnel has yet to appear.  Who knows when either el-Bashir or Mugabe will no longer rule their respective countries.  Yet, I have yet to see a banner for SaveZimbabwe.org or hear of a rally for the people of Zimbabwe.  Why?

Inflation in Zimbabwe

The policies of the Mugabe regime continue to devastate the standard of living in Zimbabwe. 

Zimbabwe's rate of inflation surged to 3,731.9%, driven by higher energy and food costs, and amplified by a drop in its currency, official figures show. April's inflation rate jumped up from the 2,200% recorded last month, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) said.  The announcement came after Zimbabwe's government created a commission charged with finding a way to curb the country's spiralling cost of liing.  There is high unemployment, and fuel and food shortages across the nation.

Here is the story.  Of course, this could be a public relations stunt by the West.  More likely, the problems have arisen from the government printing press working overtime.

Was France Involved in the Rwandan Genocide?

Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, thinks so.

A Rwandan government-appointed commission launched a probe on Tuesday into allegations French troops supported soldiers behind Rwanda's 1994 genocide and helped facilitate mass murder..  France had replaced ex-colonial power Belgium as Rwanda's main Western backer. When Kagame's Tutsi-dominated rebel army launched its war against the Hutu authorities in the early 1990s, France sent soldiers to Kigali.   France helped stop the advance of Kagame's forces and then stayed on, as military advisers, up to the start of the genocide.

Kigali says France backed the government of Rwanda's former President Juvenal Habyarimana, providing military training for government forces, despite knowing that some within the leadership were planning to use the troops to commit genocide.

This is a serious charge.  However, if the commission finds that France provided some type of support, I doubt it will change anything.  France's reputation will remain about the same.  Story here.

The Zimbabwe Disaster Continues

Here is a headline from the BBC: Zimbabwe prisons 'embarrassing'

Is there anything about the present situation in Zimbabwe that is not embarassing?  It seems that the BBC could have a daily story that simply changes the last word.

Housing in Zimbabwe

Not surprisingly, the government of Zimbabwe has not built homes for those individuals who were destroyed by the government last year.

Amnesty International today condemned the Zimbabwean government's much publicised housing programme set up ostensibly to help the victims of Operation Murambatsvina, a programme of mass forced evictions which left hundreds of thousands homeless.

Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle (Better Life) was launched in June 2005, with the government claiming that it would provide better housing to those who lost homes during Operation Murambatsvina.

One year after the mass forced evictions, Amnesty International returned to Zimbabwe to investigate what, if any, action had been taken by the Zimbabwean government to restore the human rights of the hundreds of thousands of victims of Operation Murambatsvina.

Story here.

Chaos in Somalia

The latest attempt to form a government in Somalia appears to be failing.

The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) has consolidated its hold on Somalia's central coastline taking another port.  Reports from the town of Hobyo say heavily armed Islamic courts militiamen moved in at dawn without any fighting.  The Islamists have taken control of most of central and southern Somalia since seizing the capital in June after defeating an alliance of warlords.

Story here.