ZIMBABWE'S central bank governor rang the alarm on the country's crumbling economy this week in a frank account which analysts say shook officials by airing fears of possible food riots and political unrest.
About time.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono -- known as a Mugabe favourite -- cut through the government's usually rosy self-assessment in his monetary policy statement this week, giving a rare public warning of possible food riots and slamming bureaucratic inaction. Gono said the country's army chief was concerned and had recently warned him that the central bank had to ensure adequate food supplies for a country where millions are surviving on food aid.
President Robert Mugabe, accused by the West of pursuing hardline domestic policies, has deployed riot police to crush demonstrations since violent protests broke out against his government in 1998, and analysts say his opponents are largely cowed.
Gono said the government had finally pledged to end farm invasions by ruling party supporters -- blamed by critics for the decline in food supplies -- and to do more to respect private property rights.
Thinking of inviting the white farmers back?
Mugabe's government is mired in its worst crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, fighting food shortages, triple-digit inflation, a jobless rate above 70 percent and shortages of foreign currency and fuel. Political analysts said Gono's stark forecast revealed deepening fears within Mugabe's inner circle.
Gono, regarded as one of Mugabe's trusted technocrats, said mineral-rich Zimbabwe had potential but needed to boost farm output, which has fallen by half since the government started seizing white-owned commercial farms six years ago. He also said Zimbabwe had to tackle graft and rebuild its ties with the international community, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which this week has an inspection mission visiting Harare.
Inspection mission? Legume? Blix? Ritter? All of them?
John Robertson, a private economic consultant and business commentator, said while Mugabe regards the IMF as a hostile institution, he has allowed Gono to try to mend fences and win crucial aid in the hope of staving off further economic decline. "I don't know whether the political fears that Gono was talking about will force the government to do more although those fears have been around for a while," he said. "But on their record, I don't think they will be able to do enough and in time"
#3
jeebus, now ya got Ritter all a twitter over lil brown gals
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2006 18:38 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Thinking of inviting the white farmers back?
Seriously, I doubt they'd come, having your land, home, and money confiscated once they'd be morons to return.
Seriously if such a deal was offered to me, I'd first make them pay the complete cost of all land, etc I had lost IN CASH before I set foot back in their country, then I'd take the money, laugh at them, and never return.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/29/2006 23:56 Comments ||
Top||
A FORMER female wrestler, accused of killing 11 elderly women in the Mexican capital, had an altar to the skeletal, scythe-wielding Santa Muerte death cult figure in her home, newspapers said.
Police searching the home of Juana Barraza, 48, after her arrest this week found a statue of Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, who is popular with thieves and drug smugglers, Reforma newspaper said.
She has confessed to several murders, police said.
Barraza, accused of being the feared "Mataviejitas," or "Little Old Lady Killer," sought by police for years, left offerings for the figure and also had a dead snake preserved in a jar in her home, papers said.
Barraza was arrested on Wednesday after she was spotted fleeing the home of an 82-year-old woman who had been strangled with a stethoscope. Barraza has been charged in the woman's death.
Police say fingerprints link her to the murders of 10 other old women in the capital since 2000 and say she may have murdered another 30 people, most of them elderly women.
Santa Muerte is a centuries-old pagan cult which has seen a resurgence in interest in recent years and now claims some two million faithful in Mexico. Followers range from elite politicians to kidnappers and gangsters.
The Catholic Church frowns on the cult.
A muscular woman with short ginger hair, Barraza once fought professionally as a wrestler under the name The Silent Lady.
She had recently worked as a popcorn vendor at the wrestling shows.
#1
Santa Muerte is a centuries-old pagan cult which has seen a resurgence in interest in recent years and now claims some two million faithful in Mexico. Followers range from elite politicians to kidnappers and gangsters.
The Catholic Church frowns on the cult.
That last statement seems a bit on the understated side. I suspect the official Church position on "Santa Muerta" is "they're going to hell".
I also suspect "Santa Muerta" has a strong native influence to it, considering the penchant for death cults and human sacrifices in that part of the world.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2006 21:22 Comments ||
Top||
#2
good thing I quit picking up hefty femalian popcorn vendors in Mexican wrestling masks....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2006 22:19 Comments ||
Top||
Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, has appointed a coca grower to oversee his country's efforts to combat drug trafficking. During a trip to the heart of Bolivia's coca-growing region, Morales announced the appointment of Felipe Caceres, a co-founder of his Movement Toward Socialism party, to the job. "A coca farmer is going to be in charge of the fight against drugs," Morales said, wearing a hat weaved of coca leaves and drawing loud applause from the assembled crowds, many of them coca farmers.
In recent years, the head of Bolivia's anti-drug efforts has worked closely with Washington, which spends about $150 million a year on coca-eradication programmes in the country. But Morales, who took office last Sunday, first rose to political prominence as the leader of the country's coca farmers, and led protests against US-backed eradication efforts.
#1
I have been to the coca plantation areas of Bolivia. The level of production that I saw, hardly is limited to the mate de coca (two leaves) tea market. Most growers probably do not sell directly to the Cocaine producers, but they know where its going. It looks like the fox is guarding the hen house.
#2
We are never eally going to get a handle on the drug trade from the grower to the seller unless we get a handle on the end user. As long as there is the money to be made the trade will be there. If one could find economically viable replacement crops for the coca growwers then you might have a chance of stifling it from that end. But what crop could they grow that would earn as much and how much would it have to be subsidised.
#3
I don't know much about the coca crop market but I would imagine the farmers do not get the large cash influx that comes from the cocaine market, not unlike the farmers in the US.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/29/2006 11:17 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Ummm, Set a thief to catch a thief?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/29/2006 12:44 Comments ||
Top||
#5
making sure Evo gets his cut
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2006 16:26 Comments ||
Top||
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has visited the shrine several times. Japanese foreign minister Taro Aso has called for Emperor Akihito to visit a controversial war shrine - a move that could enrage China and South Korea. The Yasukuni shrine, which honours 2.5m war dead, has been avoided by Japanese emperors ever since 14 top World War II criminals were enshrined there in 1978.
China cancelled a bilateral summit last month because of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits.
Mr Aso is seen as a contender to succeed Mr Koizumi when his term ends. He believes Emperor Akihito should visit the Tokyo shrine because those who died in wars did so in honour of their emperor. Mr Aso is reported as saying in a speech in the central Japanese city of Nagoya: "From the viewpoint of the spirits of the war dead, they hailed 'Banzai' ['long life'] for the emperor. None of them said, 'Long live the prime minister'.
"A visit by the emperor would be the best."
WWII's Emperor Hirohito, in whose name Japanese soldiers fought and died, visited the Yasukuni shrine until 1978 when war criminals tried at an allied tribunal - including hanged Prime Minister Hideki Tojo - were quietly enshrined. His son Emperor Akihito has also refrained from praying there since he was enthroned in 1989, unlike Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi who has prayed at Yasukuni every year since taking office in April 2001.
The move has caused relations with China and South Korea, which were invaded by imperial Japan, to become increasingly frosty. Earlier this month, Japan and China resumed talks over energy resources in the East China Sea after a summit planned for December was called off. But both sides failed to agree on proposals for exploring gas fields and could not resolve a row over the suicide of a Japanese diplomat.
#1
Mr Aso needs his head examined. This would be most unhelpful. The Prince should have a member of the honorable royal Court explain this to the foreign minister.
#2
Yasukuni Shrine is their equivalent of Arlington. What should happen is that the Emperor should demand that the War Criminals be removed from the shrine, and then he can visit it.
A $40 million fighter jet which ditched into the sea 220km southeast of Brisbane after failing to land on aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is unlikely to be salvaged.
The pilot was forced to eject from the US Navy jet off the Australian coast late on Saturday after a night landing "mishap".
The single-seat F/A-18C twin-engine strike fighter was the first plane lost from the 97,000-tonne carrier, which spent last week moored at Brisbane's Fisherman Islands.
It was not clear last night if the jet had been carrying weapons.
It was the second incident involving a US Navy F/A-18 jet in the past 10 days. A pilot was killed when a jet crashed in California during a training mission on January 18.
The US Navy is investigating both incidents.
The pilot of the plane ditched on Saturday night, whose name was not released, spent 15 minutes in the ocean before being rescued but was not injured.
Ship spokesman Lt-Cdr Gary Ross said the plane was lost at 10.17pm on Saturday during a failed "arrested landing" on the deck of the giant aircraft carrier.
"It was attempting to land on the flight deck during night flights," he said. "The pilot ejected and was rescued using one of our helicopters."
The Ronald Reagan was not damaged and remained "mission capable".
"We're continuing operations in the west Pacific," he said. "We train for this ? we train for regular operations as well as for emergencies, so our pilots are ready to act."
The ship, on its maiden overseas deployment, left Brisbane on Friday morning and had been due to conduct naval operations in support of the war on terror as well as security commitments in the western Pacific.
Lt-Cdr Ross said it was not yet known whether the F/A-18 ? worth $40 million ? would be recovered.
However, another US military official said it was unlikely even though the military usually tried to recover aircraft to safeguard top-secret electronic equipment.
Lt-Cdr Ross refused to reveal the exact location of the ship when the incident happened for security reasons but it was believed to be in deep water past the edge of the continental shelf.
Lt-Cdr Ross said the plane had been correctly maintained as required under military regulations.
"The aircraft is maintained constantly during operations," he said. "We constantly monitor how long the aircraft operates and flies ? and according to our maintenance regulations, that is when we perform maintenance on the aircraft."
Another five F/A-18s, which were also involved in the night exercises, flew to Brisbane after the incident.
"We just did the safest option, to send them to Brisbane International Airport." Lt-Cdr Ross said.
Brisbane Airport spokesman Jim Carden said the five other planes had landed at the Brisbane international airport about 12.30am yesterday.
The five pilots stayed overnight in Brisbane and returned to the carrier about noon.
#1
A $40 million fighter jet which ditched into the sea 220km southeast of Brisbane after failing to land on aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is unlikely to be salvaged.
If the airframe can be recovered it will be. Landing on a carrier is just flat dangerous, I'm glad to see the pilot recovery went well.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/29/2006 20:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
That's why we build them.
Wait for the headlines when the first Raptor crashes.
The Catalan Republican Left (ERC) party which gave vital support to Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's minority government has withdrawn from a coalition with the ruling Socialist party.
Josep Carod Rovira, ERC leader, said his party had taken the step after Zapatero had failed to live up to promises over the Catalan autonomy bid. "We no longer feel obliged to guarantee the stability of the government nor vote in favour of its laws," he said. Carod-Rovira said efforts to make a "plural Spain" had failed.
Watching the various parts of Europe trying to devolve into smaller parts makes me wonder how in the world anyone could have been serious about pushing the EU Constitution through.
It will leave Zapatero without a key congressional ally. But it came after the prime minister agreed a deal with other Catalan parties, the CiU and the ICV, over the region's bid for greater autonomy. The deal tones down the demands made by the Catalan regional government when they agreed the so-called 'estatut' last September.
Meanwhile, a new group which opposes the Catalan autonomy bid, the Association for the Defence of the Spanish Nation, has called for resistance to what it calls the "decomposition" of the country.
#1
Watching the various parts of Europe trying to devolve into smaller parts makes me wonder how in the world anyone could have been serious about pushing the EU Constitution through.
Actually, the EU sort-of makes the separatist urges worse: since everyone's part of the European Union, why should the Catalans have to continue to put up with the Middlemen in Madrid?
Posted by: Phil ||
01/29/2006 18:06 Comments ||
Top||
#2
that makes a lot of sense, Phil. I never thought of it that way. Would the Catalans have their own bureaucrats/ministers/et al alongside Zappy's in the EU format?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2006 18:36 Comments ||
Top||
#1
"The plans have come about because the European commission wants to harmonise EU rules on pre-packaged food quantities that prescribe the size of packs in which some types of food such as milk, butter and bread must be sold."
The European urge to regulate, for the sheer joy of regulating, is nothing short of awesome.
I got to witness it up-close and personal a few years back on a working group of the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) that was drafting a data communication standard for industrial instrumentation.
The American firms on the team sought to arrive at a datacomm standard that would prescribe the minimum requirements necessary to have sensors and actuators work together on a network without interfering with one another. Same with the British representatives, and the Brazilians.
But the continental Europeans-- especially the French-- continually sought to regulate EVERYTHING having to do with these devices, even those functional aspects that were completely unrelated to datacomm. Nail everything down, even if completely irrelevant; cast everything in concrete; don't leave anything undefined or unspecified.
It was astonishing and infuriating, and resulted in a five-year running battle to keep the Continentals from larding up the standard with irrelevant crap whose only effect would be to limit-- gasp!-- competition.
I came away from that effort convinced that continental Europeans have some sort of neurotic attachment to regulation, some deep-seated urge to conformity that's just incomprehensible to the rest of us. Maybe they feel that unless they tie one another down with frivolous rules they'll start fighting again and before you know it there'll be another World War. Or something like that.
No wonder my ancestors got the Hell outta there...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/29/2006 9:23 Comments ||
Top||
#2
whose only effect would be to limit-- gasp!-- competition.
Yeah, that's been my experience too. It's why their OSI data protocol stack never took off, but the simpler TCP/IP protocols that were defined for DOD became the basis for the Internet.
Lots of passive aggressive activity in standards committees ....
#3
I once had the dubious distinction of doing some packaging equipment business in Europe and Japan simultaneously. The Europeans insisted on putting on so many safeties and interlocks that the equipment was almost unusable. The Japanese insisted on almost none -- even less than American practice. I pointed out the disparity in regard to a heat sealer to a Japanese associate. His comment was something to the effect that "only an idiot would stick his hand in a heat sealer. Japanese are not idiots."
LONDON, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- A school in London has banned children from raising their hands in class and teachers from calling on students with their hands raised.
...
Buck said the same children often wave their arms in the air, but when teachers try to involve less adventurous pupils by choosing them instead, it leads to feelings of victimization, the Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.
To spare embarrassment of the students who do not know the answer, the school has incorporated a "phone a friend" system, allowing one child to nominate another to take the question instead.
#5
"Some pupils are jiggling so much to attract the teacher's attention that it sometimes looks as if they need the lavatory, then when it is their turn they often don't know the answer. Boys -- and it is usually boys -- are seeking attention, so they put their hands up before they have had time to think about the question."
Let's see, young boys - waving their arms off "pick me, pick me" and don't know a damn thing when someone does "pick me".
Such horror, such embarassement to be put on the spot - and so unexpectedly. Why it's an offense to the child's "honour".
Why does one suspect that these are muslim children?
Embarassement is a good teacher. Normal children would learn after a few incidents of shame to keep their damn hands down unless they know the answer. Embarassement can be a powerful motivator. Why remove the learning experience from the poor darlings? Why let assholes off the hook?
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2006 16:36 Comments ||
Top||
#9
To spare embarrassment of the students who do not know the answer, the school has incorporated a "phone a friend" system, allowing one child to nominate another to take the question instead.
A powerful earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale has rocked eastern Indonesia, the US Geological Survey says. The quake struck at 1.58am on Saturday (1658 GMT Friday) in the Banda Sea, about 195km south of Ambon city in the Maluku Islands, the USGC said on its Web site. It occurred at a depth of 342km. There was no danger of a tsunami, and no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Internet news portal Detik.com reported from Ambon that people fled their houses in panic when the earthquake, which lasted about two minutes, struck. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said no destructive tsunami threat existed.
This sort of thing never happens in the World's Largest Lutheran Nation™.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2006 02:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
ZIMBABWE'S central bank governor rang the alarm on the country's crumbling economy this week in a frank account which analysts say shook officials by airing fears of possible food riots and political unrest.
The Catalan Republican Left (ERC) party which gave vital support to Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's minority government has withdrawn from a coalition with the ruling Socialist party.
A powerful earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale has rocked eastern Indonesia, the US Geological Survey says. The quake struck at 1.58am on Saturday (1658 GMT Friday) in the Banda Sea, about 195km south of Ambon city in the Maluku Islands, the USGC said on its Web site. It occurred at a depth of 342km. There was no danger of a tsunami, and no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Internet news portal Detik.com reported from Ambon that people fled their houses in panic when the earthquake, which lasted about two minutes, struck. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said no destructive tsunami threat existed. 
