Friday, October 26, 2007

Mugabe launches Robert Mugabe intelligence academy; Chicago Economists to Aid Inflation-Weary Zimbabwe

I've got Zimbabwe on my mind and this shows up in the reader.
Zimbabwe is the Chair of the U.N.'s Commission on Sustainable Development.

From Reuters:
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has launched an intelligence academy named after him, saying it would produce officers able to counter growing threats from Western powers, state media reported on Friday.

"The important role of defending our country cannot be left to mediocre officers incapable of comprehending and analytically evaluating the operational environment to ensure that the sovereignty of our state is not only preserved, but enhanced," Mugabe said....MORE
From AFP:
Zimbabwe inflation surges to 7,892 percent


From Reuters (South Africa):
On Wednesday, central bank governor Gideon Gono said the government had provided unprecedented financial support for farmers in order to end food shortages.

"We are geared for the mother of all agricultural seasons ... the state of our preparedness for the forthcoming agriculture season could never be compared with anything we've seen over the past few years," he told reporters.

From Thes p'oof:
Chicago Economists to Aid Inflation-Weary Zimbabwe

Inflation has ravaged this landlocked country in southeastern Africa for decades, but recent events have surprised even hardened observers such as Zanu Nkomo (pronounced "Jim Smith"). "I asked the man at the store how much he charged for a cup of mukaka wakakora (curdled milk)," Nkomo explains. "He said 120,000,000 Zimbabwean dollars, but by the time I got my wallet out, the price had gone up another 30 million."

The rate of inflation recently hit its highest level ever, 7,000 percent per year, causing international bodies to seek help from leading academics around the world to stabilize the situation before the country descended into chaos. A group of inflation fighters from the economics department at the University of Chicago has stepped into the breach, offering hope that the country may be able to reverse its current course with an infusion of market discipline.

"We were hoping for Bono," says Nkende Masvingo, referring to the rock singer who has made sub-Saharan poverty his personal crusade, "but they sent us Gary Becker because U2 was on tour."

Becker, the winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Economics, will lead a "dream team" including Steven Levitt, co-author of the best-selling pop economics book "Freakonomics", that will set up camp in this city, the nation's capital. "First, we need to understand the situation," said Becker...MORE

You either laugh, cry or kill.

Here's The Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo:
"We should do it ourselves but there's too much fear. I'm ready to lead the people, guns blazing, but the people are not ready."