The ability for human beings to tolerate brutality and dictatorship is truly amazing;
“Once the bread-basket of southern Africa and one of the continent's wealthiest countries, Zimbabwe is now a basket-case and suffers a severe shortage of food. It is also the world's fastest-shrinking peacetime economy, with unemployment now standing at 80%. Its inflation rate is the world's highest: currently 1,730%, although the IMF thinks that figure could rise to over 4,000% by year's end. From infant mortality to life below the poverty line, the country's unhappiest trendlines run remorselessly upwards. To stifle dissent and quash opposition, Zimbabwe has been turned into a police state where elections are routinely rigged.
The effect on ordinary Zimbabweans has been dreadful. Some 3m of them (out of a population of 13m) have fled the poverty and chaos of home, many to neighbouring South Africa. Despite all this, until now Mr Mugabe has been able to count on support from his rural heartlands. Yet even his backers there are being hurt by the scale of the economic collapse. And therein lies the hope.”
Related Podcasts;
Mugabe Profile
Pressure for Zimbabwe change
President Mugabe said Western critics of his rule could "go hang" after they blamed him for the mistreatment of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
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