 Despite its often prophesised collapse, Zimbabwe is still standing - but experts have warned that planning for economic recovery by the international community is now critical.
| Seems like Zim should be the one planning for economic recovery. They're the ones with the problem, not the international community. As far as I know, there's nothing in the international community's contract that says it exists to bail out kleptocracies and other sorts of failed states. |
Presenting a paper on the economic, political and security situation in Zimbabwe, Tony Hawkins, professor at the Graduate School of Management of the University of Zimbabwe, commented: "Eight years into economic decline that has cut GDP [gross domestic product] by 40 percent and halved income per head, Zimbabwe is still standing - highlighting the yawning chasm that separates economic decline and political change in Africa."
| The only way Zim hasn't collapsed is politically, and it's entirely likely that when Bob croaks the same political establishment will continue running the place further into the ground. It's only still standing because Bob couldn't sell off the pieces and the Movement for Democratic Change isn't made up of Somalis. |
A recent report, 'After Mugabe: Applying post-conflict recovery lessons to Zimbabwe', published in the Harvard University Africa Policy Journal (APJ), underscores the need for the international community to "start preliminary planning now for responses to a transition in Zimbabwe", given the "war-like trauma experienced by the country and acute conditions today".
| That's the donor aid the first paragraph mentions, of course. The logic of that escapes me, silly little man that I am. When Bob shuffles off this mortal coil there will be some sort of a line of logic that says those remaining behind to continue his iron-fisted ways should be rewarded with a fresh shipment of boodle. That's the part that triggers my intellectual gag reflex. Were I advising the international community — which I'm not, since I don't even own a turtleneck and haven't smoked a Gauloise since I was about 19 — I'd say that once post-Bob Zim shows signs of changing its ways we might offer aid if asked politely and given guarantees that it didn't go into the pockets of Bob II. |
The report warns that "the southern African country is in a perilous state of decline and could face a transition at any time. Waiting until the day after the fall of [president] Robert Mugabe could be too late". President Mugabe's current term in office ends in 2008.
| Too late for whom? Not for the international community. Bob, Grace & Co. have thoroughly fouled their own nest. Their people suffer. But their people haven't risen up in their wrath and cut their tormentors' heads off. Zim's oozing corruption remains an internal problem and therefore no skin of our collective fore. |
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