Zimbabwe Update

Well, it's been about a month, so it's time for another update on Zimbabwe.

Basically, things are still screwed up, and it's all thanks to little Bobby Mugabe.

While, the IMF is offering technical assistance to the government again, most of the potential donor nations are unwilling to provide aid until the see evidence that the government has gotten it's sh%$ together.

The lofty phrase used is, a "Commitment to economic stabilization, restoration of the rule of law, respect for property and human rights, and freedom of expression," but it basically comes down to the fact that everything that ZANU-PF touches becomes a miasma of corruption and incompetence.

What they are really saying is that Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono has got to go, after creating the hyperinflation that made multi-trillion $Z banknotes necessary, and also the stealing from private accounts.

Finance minister Finance minister Tendai Biti has accused the RBZ of operating illegally, and he's probably right.

Meanwhile Gono has complained to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai about the "attacks" against him.

Dude, in any sane world, a the word to describe a central banker who engineered a 516,000,000,000,000,000% inflation rate, prices doubling every 2 days or so, would be unemployed.

Just be glad that they are not trying to throw you in gaol...Yet.

Gono is where he is because he is a ZANU-PF loyalist who manages to create enough money to keep the ZANU-PF cabal satisfied.

This has led various aid agencies to take measures to avoid the government, and government agencies when distributing aid.

The MDC has called for his removal, see here and here, and have called for international intervention to remove him, see here, here, here, and here.

This has, of course, upset the delicate sensibilities of ZANU-PF officials, and Mugabe has dug his heels in on this too, probably because he needs him to, "pay the entourage."

What a damn mess.