On a more serious note, on my travels I was right on the Zimbabwean border at Livingstone, Zambia. There the street vendors were selling what you see in the photo as tourist curios. I gave a guy all the Namibian change I had left in my pocket (less than $1) to get this note from him. It is what passes for Zimbabwean currency these days, although if you look closely, you will note that it has already 'expired'. How money can expire is beyond my comprehension, but then so too is money that is worth 50 billion anything. And I didn't have enough change for him to give me the 100 billion note. It really is a sad commentary on a country that is destructing right now. The Robert Mugabe-led regime in Zimbabwe is currently making a mockery of that country and while I don't know what the solution is, more awareness of the problems the country faces can't hurt. People there are starving and dying of a disease that is easily treatable in a country with working health systems--cholera. International condemnation by 'the west' (aka Britain and the US) has so far backfired in that Mugabe just twists whatever is said to present himself as the victim. I would like to think it couldn't get worse, but it really could. Right now Mugabe can't really govern because he slipped up and let the opposition win Parliamentary elections last March--he most likely lost the presidency as well but delayed the results long enough to rig them. It could get worse if he declares a state of emergency and is able to govern without the small level of checks he (and the heads of the police and army, who currently hold the real power) has now. So, while I don't have an easy solution to the problem, the least I can do is help raise awareness and showing the joke that passes for 'money' right now there is a powerful image.
I don't know if writing Congresspeople, Senators, President-elects, Members of Parliament or whoever your local representatives might be will help, but the least you can do is to not skip another newspaper article about Zim that is buried on page 8 of the local paper and to add your voice to those calling for peaceful and meaningful change there.
Stay well.
2 comments:
I check in on this woman's blog every now and again, to check on one person's situation over there: http://fieldtofeast.blogspot.com/
She's not political, it started as a food blog, but the top post right now is about the Cholera/water situation. She briefly lost the heart to post after last year's elections, but still gets something up there every now and again, when she has electricity. I think she is an American who is living in Zimbabwe.
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