The OK supermarket in Mbare township is so empty that your voice echoes off
the high warehouse roof.
On row after row of white shelving, wiped clean each day, sit a dozen
cabbages. The bakery has ten plain scones. That is all the food there is in
the largest supermarket serving tens of thousands of people in the oldest,
and teeming, township in Harare.
One night last week, Rosa, a church volunteer, scoured Mbare for supplies to
make the daily ration of maizemeal, the national staple, and some green
vegetables, to be cooked without vegetable oil and often without salt. She
found two loaves of bread.
“How do I feed the 14 people in my house with two loaves of bread?” Rosa
asked. “Sometimes there is nothing and you go to bed with no dinner. We are
living like orphans.”
Her neighbour’s breast milk for her one-year-old daughter dried up recently,
she said. “She couldn’t find fresh milk or sterilised milk anywhere. So she
feeds the child on Mazoe.” It is a brand of orange cordial.
It is now ten weeks since President Mugabe forced businesses to slash prices
of all goods and services in the belief that he could crush inflation, which
he says is a plot by the Zimbabwean private sector, in collusion with
Western governments, to overthrow him.
Two things have happened: inflation has rocketed and, according to the
Government, the country will run out of wheat in three days. Zimbabweans
appear set to face an almost total absence of food and ordinary household
goods. An eruption of public anger, to be met with violent suppression by Mr
Mugabe’s security forces, is likely to follow, observers say.
Initially Mr Mugabe’s June 25 price blitz sparked a gleeful storming of shops,
where managers looked on aghast as their businesses were stripped at the
Government’s bidding.
Then household basics such as meat, chicken, cooking oil, milk, maizemeal,
margarine, sugar and soap vanished into the black market. In the past couple
of weeks it has become almost impossible to find beer, cigarettes, tea or
baked beans in shops.
Outside the OK in Mbare rows of women stand behind little stools, each bearing
a long bar of carbolic soap, packets of cigarettes or bottles of vegetable
oil. “These are the policemen’s wives,” Rosa said.
They gain their name from the latest phase of Zimbabwe’s descent into hunger
and chaos: thousands of vendors have been arrested and their goods seized in
Mr Mugabe’s attempt to smash the black market. “The policemen grab the
goods, they give them to their wives and then they come and sell here,” said
Rosa (not her real name - nearly everyone is too afraid to be quoted in Mr
Mugabe’s Zimbabwe).
The black market too is starting to dry up. “Now people are buying because
they don’t know when they are going to see them again,” a supermarket chain
executive said. The two main supermarket chains in Zimbabwe are each due to
lay off 1,000 workers this month. The country’s main bakery closed one of
its largest outlets yesterday because of lack of wheat – a shipment of
36,000 tonnes is being held in a Mozambique port because the Government
cannot pay for it. “Manufacturers are going to run out of stock to produce
with,” the executive said. “There is a very strong possibility that food
will disappear completely.”
At a commemoration last month of the 20th anniversary of the death of the
Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera, author of The House of Hunger, the
snacks comprised small squares of dry bread and glasses of water. Last week,
another retail executive said, a Cabinet minister telephoned a supermarket
chain manager and asked for beef. He offered to pay more than ten times the
official price that he was instrumental in setting.
Schools reopened this week amid deep anxiety among parents of boarding pupils
that their children will not be fed. Reports this week have said that prison
authorities have stopped feeding prisoners and asked their relatives to
bring food.
The conspicuously wealthy ruling party elite feels none of this. Joice
Mu-juru, the Vice-President, has just seen her daughter married in
celebrations that included chartering an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 737 for $10,000
(£5,000) to fly guests to a lavish ceremony at a five-star hotel at Victoria
Falls.
Annual inflation in July, a month after the crackdown began, hit a record
7,600 per cent. Last week the value of the Zimbabwean dollar on the black
market fell to a new low of £1 to Z$500,000. Mr Mugabe’s most recent act was
to freeze wages and give new sweeping powers to the state commission that
alone can sanction wage and price increases.
“We wonder on what planet President Mugabe lives,” said Wellington Chibebe,
secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. “He has never
slept on an empty stomach, he has never walked from State House [his
official residence] to his office, and he has never experienced water and
electricity cuts.”
Cost of living
Z$30,000 Price of a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe, the equivalent of $120
at official exchange rate but $1.30 on the black market
Z$55,561 The cost of producing a loaf of bread
7,600% Current rate of inflation
450,000 Tons of wheat needed by Zimbabwe per year
78,000 Tons yielded by last year’s harvest
325,000 Tons yielded in 1990 harvest
80% Of Zimbabwe's population is estimated to be living below the
poverty line
3.4m Zimbabweans (estimate) - one quarter of the population - have now
fled the country
Sources: Wires, Bakers' Association of Zimbabwe, fas.usda.gov,
CIA World Factbook, hungercentre.org
And people dare to equate Ian Smith with Mugabe, and everybody thought Smith was a reactionary racist old fool; everyone forgets how mahy blacks fought on the Rhodesian side in the war, to avert exactly the kind of mess described above. Has stupditiy no bonds? We are scuppered by our ideals, when paradoxically we may even attain our ideals by facing practical realities, and this is no more so than in Africa where Europe tries to assuage its guilt, when in fact when Britain was in charge you didn't have this kind of needless mayhem. Bring back the District Commissioners!
Wilhelm snyman, cape Town, south Africa
Diane
You are perfectly correct with your statement of the Romans colonising England (46Ad),
But most people who do not know their history do not even consider that the Vikings(Norwegions,Danes,Swedes) also colonised England for 267 years, long before we ever colonised any country.Not to mention the Saxons,Phoenecians.
But the whinging nations only choose to be selective in their information and failure to recognise their own failure to run their own countries after Independance(much easier to blame England for their lack of Governmental Knowledge)
Fact is they do not even understand that the colonists in order of quantity was:
1.England 25% and the following 75% of the world at various times.
2.France -
3.Spain -
4.Portugal -
5.Holland -
6.Germany
But do we ever hear of England whinging and whining of the bad things done to us and wanting compensation? no I dont think so,we just rebuilt our country and got on with it.
Malcolm
Malcolm, CAMBRIDGE, UK
How right you are Colin.
I am sick to death of Britain being blamed for all the wrongs of the world,
Magabe was educated in our public schools in England and later became a prominent figure in the Labour party of the same.
But that did not stop him or educate him from stealing the bread from the mouth of his own people and with the peoples stolen money has now bought 500 acres of land and a large castle in Scotland. Ready for exiting the disaster of leaving his poor people to a world disaster.
My heart goes out to them.
No doubt our kindly nations will pick up the pieces and give them the necessary aid that they will desperately need.Well done Jan on exposing this Murdering Despot!
May his ill gotten gains never benefit him.
Malcolm, CAMBRIDGE, UK
John Iteshi, London, London:
What are you doing here? If we whites are so bad and Robert Mugabe is a noble and intelligent man forging a new destiny for the black people of Africa, why arent you there helping him?
I'll tell you why, because you're not stupid. You know that if you go back there it won't be long before you're starving to death too.
But having said that I agree with you, we should leave Africa alone. Maybe the complete destruction of Zimbabwe and the starvation of all its people is the only thing that will make the rest of Africa see sense and stop putting immensly corrupt and murderous savages in charge of their countries, but I doubt it.
J Roberts, Manchester, UK
im living in zimbabwe and i can rell you the shop are empty it almost seems as though there is no hope however it must be ststed that the Presidents views of Zimbabwean owning thier own means of production is a noble one at the sme time sanctuins have not helped solve the situation the problem in zim is greed corruption by ministers and polititions tasked to help people abd the silence by the presidiaum which refuses to see facts for what they are
long live zimbabwe!!
muchero, harare, zimbabwe
We have to stop meddling in the affairs of African countries. Absolutely no interference unless formally requested in public by the Africans themselves and overseen by a neutral body. No aid, no sanctions, no exploitation via commercial companies, no attempting to influence the UN, no welcoming of opposition leaders in the UK and especially no playing silly politics over EU meetings. The Portuguese have got this one right by inviting everyone and if GB decides not to go the whole of Africa will side with Zimbabwe. i doubt if GB will be missed. The issues are very serious in Zimbabwe but we are hopelessly discredited in most of Africa and must leave their resolution to others.
colin f, Shrewsbury,
ruth London says that the downfall of Zimbabwe started due to the involvement in the war in Congo. I beg to differ, i think it all started when Tony Blair came into power and refused to pay the subsidiries that had been agreed by the Zim govenment for the Brits to pay for the farms. Having said that Tony Blair is not the one to blame, in any case, all this money that the govenment was receiving was only going to Mugabe's croonies. The problem is that the man (Mugabe) is evil and stubborn that he is taking this personal and therefore started to cease farms forcefully to make a point. Now, western governments should realise that sunctions are not working and are only making things worse for the Zimbabweans. Mugabe and his croonies are living comfortably. So unless they are planning to use some military force to get him to resign or ensure fair elections, i suggest they stop the sunctions on the country as a whole because its just making people suffer more>
ally, manchester,
Valid point Ruth, insofar as it was one of the straws that broke the camels back. But bear in mind that Zim was in a default crisis from the mid-eighties. The shops were very empty from 1989 – long queues and patchy availability of basic commodities. Forex restrictions were vice-like. 1993 was crunch time – they had to comply with some strict repayment arrangements on loans and on this basis they would receive IMF support. This happened and things were better (but on borrowed forex 1994-1997). Then things became a shambles again. Basic locally driven private industrial and commercial investment has been absent post 1980. The canners, bottling plants, printing companies – all this is as it was in 1980 – there was by contrast considerable reinvestment during the 1965 – 1980 years. Rod in CT and Kay in Leeds - too right!! Forget the "madness" ticket - this guy has always been like this. Tinto - the answer is no - we do care about Africa - it's Africans we don't care about - only winding you up!! Vincent in Moscow, RF: there never was "apartheid" in Rhodesia - only in SA - and if there's anyone who faced utter trade and financial embargos - it was Ian Smith, the PM of Rhodesia. One should never forget that in a succession of elections, the people of Zimbabwe have voted this cretin back in every time. Democracy is an example of societal freedom. The cost of freedom is responsibility - as unavoidable the law of gravity. Exercise it badly and you get what you deserve. The voters of Zimbabwe together with the misguided, ignorant and outmoded beliefs, opinions and ideologies of the rest of the interfering world in 1980 – they put Zanu PF in power – and Mugabe at the top of the hen-house. Pambere ne Jongwe!!
Marc, Bloemfontein, South Africa
I agree with Vincent from Russia, this site populated by Rhodisians or the so-called ex Zimbabwe. There are more than 150 000 westerners living in Zimbabwe right. I am here in the west but I am being asked to leave because of my views about country Zimbabwe, what I want to know are these westerners resident in country Zimbabwe leave as well before I can leave? Answer me please I thought democracy is about living together even when you disagree on certain issues.
Name Withheld, London, UK
Rod, Cape Town, South Africa/Diane , Chertsey, Surrey
If you have read my views properly(both here and in other related articles), you would understand that I do not dispute the fact that the Black race has failed! I also do not shy away from the fact that the white race has done my people far more good than evil. All I am condemning here and will always, is the notion that Black people should accept that they are meant to be inferior and should never strive to sort themselves out as Zimbabwe is doing. Those I call white supremacists are people like you two (whatever your colour) who are obsessed about Zimbabwe. Believing that Zimbabwe and other Black societies are naturally incapable of developing mordern agricultural systems as Rod does, is the most blatant racism.Even the most racist white south Africans would not dispute that! I simply believe that my people can build successful societies on their own as the Asians have done. If this harmless dream offends you, God help you!!
John Iteshi, London, London
Most of your commentators forget that the origins of the crisis in Zimabawe stem from the involvement of Mugabe and his army in 1998 in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mugabe was lured into the conflict with promisses of rich mining and transport contracts. The subsequent land distribution in Zimbabwe was no act of selfless and inspired leader "advocating for self realisation and self determination of his people" Rather it was an act of desperation by Mugabe who realised in 2000 that his disasterous campaign in Congo was bankrupting the country and that he needed to pay off the returning soldiers with more than bread and water. It is Mugabe's personal greed that has destroyed Zimbabwe
Ruth, London,
What is this fascination about Zimbabwe? Have Brightons started caring for Africa? really?
Tinto, Harare, Zimbabwe
John Iteshi, London, UK
Dear, oh dear, methinks you protest too much. For the record, I have never said black people are inferior to whites, nor have posters on this site, because blacks are not inferior or superior. You still have no answer to the fact that Mugabe has destroyed a thriving agricultural industry. Also, perhaps you may be aware of this, but black workers on those white owned farms lost not only their jobs but also their homes. The fact is: farming is not easy, and when you take good farmers off the land and replace them with your cronies who know nothing about farming, you are heading for a disaster. Mugabe’s policies are racist, and those who support his policies need to take a long hard look at themselves. Fact: Zimbabwe WAS an exporter of a range of agriculture products – food being one of them (largely maize). That was because white farmers are good. Zambia, which took a number of farmers from Zim within months was able to export maize. What does that tell you?
Rod, Cape Town, South Africa
Zimbabwe Will not come to war just that the people in Zim do not tell you that they are all benefitting from this. One is selling beef the other cooking oil, others bread then list goes on. The unemployed have time to queue for food then sell it to the employed who have probably stolen something from their employer. So the circus will continue. What we need is all these outsiders not connected to Zim in anyway to leave us alone. Those that I here I just here to milk somemore. Please let us find our own way. Noone is saying Mugabe is good. The old man has played his part but the foregn press is out to confuse us that in Zim not to do anything. Long live Zimbabwe.
maximus, harare, zim
John Iteshi in London, its time to stop blaming white people and realise that what is wrong with Zimbabwe today is poor leadership. Remember if you want to quote history that the Romans colonised England for early 500 years. Then the Norman's with a cruelty that you can only imagine. Time for Zimbabwe to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their own actions now.
Diane , Chertsey, Surrey
It is very clear that after the Lancaster House Agreements of 1979, the West (including the US and Britain), backed the wrong horse in a race of a post-independence Zimbabwe.
Had Britain and the US backed the more pragmatic Joshua Nkomo, things would have been different, and perhaps more tolerable, howver, the clear loser in this tragedy of a nation in its last stages of self-destruction, is the people who have backed this "madman" of Mugabe, and his cronies.
Yuri Viera, Miami, USA/Florida
The fact of the matter is that until the vast majority of Zimbabweans decide thay have had enough of the current regime ,nothing is going to happen. Why should the west do anything when the people in the country won't. Why have 3.5 Miilion people left rather than change the system in which they live and understand.
Maybe we need this current situation to run its course if there is to be any hope of a once beautiful country getting back to where parents can feed their families and give them a future.
Mike, Dubai,
nhau is saying leave zimbabweans to run their economy ,from your name you are zimbawean what are you doing in London go back to zimbabwe and help run the so called economy if there is any left,i believe you are one of mugabes people contributing to the suffering of the masses while you sit pretty GOD will judge you one day
brian , crewe, uk
Rod, Cape Town, South Africa
The meaning of racism cannot be diminished by irrational counter accusations of racism! Saying that a Black person advocating for self realisation and self determination of his people is a racist and not the white people insinuating that Black people are meant to be inferior is the most ridiculous case of idiocy I have ever known!
John Iteshi, London, UK
the fact that zim people are starving and the govt is actually making it impossible for anyone to get basic commodities would imply that no one IS actually sending any food. U seem to forget this actually stemmed from britain and their romance with colonising forein land and raping it of all it's wealth. It wouldn't have got this far if Labour did not renege on the lancaster agreement with regards to land distribution. Wake up and realise the doing of your forefathers. Ofcourse this is now ultimately down to the people of Zimbabwe to work through but that attitude of yours is typical of a brit, and is infact excatly what Mugabe would have us believe the British people are....cold and heartless colonial rapists that go back for generations & generations of brits. From before the times of even your most disgraceful 400 year affair with none other than the slave trade.
donnie, london,, UK
John Iteshi in London, Vincent in Moscow... there is no point even trying to argue with you: you have left reality way behind and cannot see reason even if it jumped up and bit you. But your anti-white racism is firing on mall cylinders.
But in a vain attempt to bring you back to planet Earth:
THERE ARE NO SANCTIONS ON ZIMBABWE - ONLY TRAVEL AND FINANCIAL SANCTIONS ON MUGABE AND HIS CRONIES.
Zimbabwe is free to buy food etc from African countries - which are NOT barring trade.
So why is Mugabe not able to buy from these countries - SA, Malawi, Zambia etc?
Because through sheer corruptions, cruelty and moronic stupidity, he has ruined his country.
Clear enough?
Rod, Cape Town, South Africa
This site is populated by racists, and they all have small brains.
The reason for Zimbabwe's economic problems is sanctions imposed by the USA and Britain.
George Bush's Zimbabwe Democracy Act blocks all access to financial resources from all international financial institutions.
Can Britain or any country survive without access to international financial resources?
If Ian Smith is so good, why does he come back to rule Britain, using the aprtheid system he used in Zim?
Vincent, Moscow, Russia
Stop sending food.
I agree with the one person that wrote they need to stand on their own and learn to live and feed themselves.
Hammer, Brighton, UK
Not mentioned in the article is how Mugabe's racist socialist practices of expelling white farmers from the country and "redistributing" the land has directly caused the drastic reduction in agricultural production. Unfortunately, even if Mugabe is removed in the near future (which I doubt he will be), I think it will be very difficult to coax the expelled farmers back to Zimbabwe, thus the effects of Mugabe will devastate the people of Zimbabwe for years to come...
Stuart, California, USA
When is the international community going to wake up and do something about Robert Mugabe?
This man is systematically robbing, torturing and murdering his own people and should be arrested and charged with crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court under Article 7 of the Rome Statute.
Why can't the UN actually do something about a situation as grave as this?
Adrian Slattery, London, United Kingdom
there is no hope
graham, lymington,
Before you play "IF THEY HAD OIL" card, Susan you should be aware that none of Mugabe's neighbours were prepared to assist in any action taken against that despotic regime.
Zimbabwe is a land locked country with access limited to the main highways through neigbouring states. Would you have the UN drive their ranks through those peaceful Nations without their permission to do so?
Terry Harris, Brighton UK,
Africa was better off when we were in charge, giving them back control of their own countries was a big mistake, they weren't ready.
We should have stayed for another 50 years to teach them how not to rape, murder & starve your own people. Africa is one big pit of corruption, genocide and death and in it's current state it offers nothing to the world except misery and suffering.
J Roberts, Manchester, UK
Zimbabwe once exported food to where? Even those who probably never knew about a place called Zimbabwe pre-2000 are now moaning about a once food exporter becoming hungry. What kind of food produce where the white farmers producing and which parts of Africa did they export them? The fact that white commercial farmers who usurped the juiciest lands in Zimbabwe, exported food to their people in Britain did not make Zimbabwe the food basket of Africa. What Mugabe is struggling for remains the best way for the Black race, self determination! I clearly appreciate the fact that the white race has generally saved the Black race from extermination, but we must not remain their raw materials! I believe we must prove we are not inferior by trying to build our own societies. The only way to challenge the racist notion that we are inferior is to build our own successful societies like the Asians many other non-whites have since done!!
John Iteshi, London, UK
Dear Susan, Americans do care and are trying to help the people of Zimbabwe. Just because you don't read about it in Australia doesn't mean we aren't there. I get your point about the oil, Very Funny. I don't know if you've ever been to Zimbabwe but I have. Just last year I went there on a mission trip to help get precious water to people in desparate need. We didn't need an army to do this, just the will and a little bit on money. The people I met were beautiful, humble human beings and I and many others in the U.S. are trying to help them. It is truely a shame that the world stands and watches as Mugabe starves the people of Zimbabwe to death.
Mark, Blythewood, SC, USA
God Bless the majority of right thinking Zimbabweans who have refused to dance the tune of white supremacists by sabotaging their own economy! Right thinking people know that the hardship being experienced in Zimbabwe is largely caused by white world conspiracies and local economic sabotage by some dubious elements. It only makes sense to white supremacists that Mugabe was running the economy of Zimbabwe very well so much so that it was the food basket of Africa as some fake messiahs often claim (even though it never supplied food to anywhere else in Africa), but suddenly became a bad manager the moment he sacked white farmers. I still stand by my view that any one who is so obsessed about Zimbabwe or began caring for the Black race since the year 2000 when white farmers were sacked must be a white supremacist!
John Iteshi, London, UK
White european (British/French) rule for all it's un-niceness, is the only governing style that works everywhere it is tried. It even works when it is copied by people who aren't either white or european.
My take, this is our mess. There's no nice way to handle it. No nice way to say it. These people are savages. Every time the west comes in there is order and that's "bad". Every time we leave there's a bloodbath followed by famine and then more blood. (check world history for the past 200 yrs) We need to re-colonise.
Doktor Christ, Las Vegas, USA
We in South Africa sit and watch helplessly, we know the same is coming our way!
Nzo, Gauteng, South Africa
With the support of his fellow African leaders and his liberal apologists in the West, Mugabe has turned a 'Bread Basket' into yet another 'Basket Case'.
Our own Clare Short was fulsome in her praise of this man only several years ago, when she was International Development Minister.
I just wish that there were somewher in Africa where this was not the sadly predictable case.
Nick Hill, London,
Slap on the face to those loons who say west is to be blamed for all the world,s problem and belive destruction of america will amke this world heaven.
marcus, wellington,
I wonder what Zim VP and other government officials think the future holds for them? Do they really think they will survive the inevitable bloodshed that will mark the final bottoming out of this once great land? Even the police and army...do they think that rifles will protect them and thier own families from the wrath of starving mobs?
Once again, Africans miss an opportunity for maturity in politics and leadership. Get ready for cries of "help" to the West, the same West supposedly the cause of all ills on the continent
James, Accra,
Mugabe is my hero ! He is a financial Genius. He has created a nation of Billionaires. What a pity the Zim dollar buys nothing !
Jack, Johannesburg, South Africa
Britain neve installed Mugabe, stop those lies please. The people of Zimbabwe simply wants to control their economy and natural resources. I am sure God will help to achieve that thus why he put Mugabe to lead us into economic Independence. If you check properly Mugabe has broad support in Africa not the west thus what matters. Leave Zimbabweans to run their country, human rights are being broken in other parts of the world but your eyes are on Zimbabwe.
Nhau, London, UK
Mr. Mugabe needs to take more WHITE farms. This and only this,...will solve his problems. Then again I could be wrong?
T. Silvio, Monroeville, USA Pennsylvania
As I recall, Zimbabwe was a food exporter when the country was run by Brittish ex patriots. Is there a black run country anyplace in the world that is self sufficient? Not in the western hemisphere. For that matter there isn't a city in the USA run by blacks that is safe and prosperous. All you politically correct liberals out there will call me a NAZI, Klansman, or racist,but it isn't racist to tell the truth. From the historical evidence I can only summise that blacks simply cannot run a government. Any government.
Dale G, Canon City, Colorado, USA
Crunch point will come when the security forces cannot be fed. I would it give two years.
Thomas Fitzpatrick, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Where have all the demonstrators who did such an good job of being anti Ian Smith and Rhodesia gone? Why are they so quiet and not out demonstrating against Mugabe?
Siân, Frankfurt, Germany
It's a shame it has come to this, but...let's hope the ensuing bloodshed is minimal.
Jeremy in Oz, Perth, Australia
Susan of Perth - Nice try in spinning this as the fault of the US. You're yet another one of the clueless in thinking the US is the blame for all the worlds ills. All of your Anti-US ilk scream the US should keep its nose out of other nations business. You should be happy of this result.
Brian, Syracuse, US
Please, spare me the poor starving children bit. The world has ignored this brutal dictator ever since he kicked out the white farmers. The people of this country deserve everything they get.....including starving. Don't forget that the majority of these people supported throwing out the white farmers and stealing their land. I think the rest of the African nations need to take a long hard look at what their leaders are doing. If the United Nations starts sending food and money to this country, President Mugabe and his hench men will just steal it and sell it on the black market.
Robert, Summerville, USA/South Carolina
My G0d! And people are upset about Iraq. This is a TRUE crime against humanity. How long must these innocent people suffer?
John, BVille, USA
ian smith was indeed a lot beta,, things are just bda,, honestly how are people surviving
dorca, woking, united kingdom
Susan, you are not the only person on this website who I have seen spouting nonsense about oil. Have you forgotten Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, the Falklands, Northern Ireland, Haiti, Lebanon, Panama, etc. None of these countries had any oil, and yet the US and/or its allies intervened in all of them with no prospect of any financial benefit. What are you talking about exactly?
Even if it was about oil (and it obviously isn't) how exactly would the US or its allies benefit from this? Oil is a commodity traded on global markets. It has one price (basically) regardless of its source. How would invading a county increase that supply and so reduce the price? Again, exactly what are you talking about?
Patrick, Auckland, New Zealand
The headline starts "Violence looms" but the article has no hint of violence other than a prediction of unnamed "observers" who also predict a violent police response to the violence that hasn't happened yet.
Jumping the gun a bit aren't we?
So far Zimbabwe has been admirably peaceful, given the circumstances I would have expected civil war a long time ago.
JonB, Glasgow, UK
After reading this entire article, I am deeply saddened. I am not sure what else to say. I was eating chicken while reading this. I had to set it down. Why is this happening? This country once EXPORTED food. Now it can't feed itself?
C, Portland, Oregon
What is the point of the UN?
rob mchardy, paris, france
It's socialism and totalitarianism taken to its logical conclusion. Mugabe is the classic control freak and economic ignoramus. He shows his utter ignorance of the market - as he tries to control inflation by decree. Any one with a modicum of common sense would realise that forcing businesses not to raises prices (in the face of rampant inflation) could only end in goods disappearing off the shelves. Hopefully the increasingly angry mob will turn on him at last.
David MacGregor, Auckland , New Zealand
Has there ever been a sucessful african country run by the indigenous population? I think history speaks for itself.
chris, wirral,
where are the liberals now?? at the time of Jan Smyth government there were plenty of them around.
Frank, Trieste, Italy
You can't expect anything better from baboons like Mugabe; there are troops of them running most African states. But where is the West? It is clear that we simply don't care but no one has the minerals to say it.
Ripstop, Shanghai, China
Mugabe isn't mad:he is just the latest in a long,obscene line of African 'big'men' who have raped their countries and countrymen more viciously than any so-called colonial power.Backwards into the dark ages seems to be their motto. A tragic situation for the suffering people.
kay, leeds,
So Ian Smith's government wasn't so bad after all......
JBS, London, UK
If only Zimbabwe had OIL, the US with their assorted forces and world allies would be in there like a flash to sort them out.What are their African neighbours doing for them? Sort of speaks volumes really.
Susan, Perth, Australia
The British Government destryed Ian Smith and Carrington installed Mugabe. Carrington is responsible.
Mike, Sydney, Australia
Mugabe and his cronies absolutely have to go. The SADC group's lack of action is absolutely outrageous, and the UN totally impotent and an embarrassment. No thinking person accepts Mugabe's constant tirades against the West - they're just the same old excuses for his utter destruction of a once self-sufficient country. God help the people of Zimbabwe - it seems nobody else can!
Sue Shaw, Morpeth, UK
Another example of socialism and dictatorship ruining a country that until a few years was famous as the bread basket of Africa.
Under Marxism and socialism there are always two sets of rules, one for the ruling elite and another for the masses.
Masood, USA,
Mugabe is now in the terminal stage of his madness. Will he die at the end of a rope, or will he jet off to refuge somewhere and enjoy his stolen fortune?
Rhodesia never looked so good as now.
Ross, Wyoming, USA