ZIMBABWE: "MAKING IT"?

The attached article tells a tale of today’s Zimbabwe, or more precisely Harare, that seems a bit at odds with the gloomy and terrifying reports we are getting used to:

“A Zimbabwean who recently visited Harare for the first time in more than nine years remarked that the biggest change in the capital over a decade had been the increased evidence of wealth. He mentioned the large four wheel drive vehicles that ply the roads, huge mansions in the upmarket suburbs and supermarkets stocked to the brim with imported goods.”

And, apparently, it’s not just members of the ruling party who are “making it”! How can this be, against a backdrop of unbelievably high rates of inflation and unemployment and virtually null GDP growth? The author comes up with a number of economic explanations, all of which put together don’t succeed at completely overshadowing the more common picture arising from current reports on Zimbabwe:

“With no end in sight to the distortions in the economy resulting from the political climate, many people will still make a lot more money but the issue is not about their unethical ways of creating wealth, it is something much more serious. The more the economy benefits these people, the less incentive they have for supporting change. That is far more dangerous than flaunting your wealth in the faces of an increasingly miserable population.”

The attached article tells a tale of today’s Zimbabwe, or more precisely Harare, that seems a bit at odds with the gloomy and terrifying reports we are getting used to:

“A Zimbabwean who recently visited Harare for the first time in more than nine years remarked that the biggest change in the capital over a decade had been the increased evidence of wealth. He mentioned the large four wheel drive vehicles that ply the roads, huge mansions in the upmarket suburbs and supermarkets stocked to the brim with imported goods.”

And, apparently, it’s not just members of the ruling party who are “making it”! How can this be, against a backdrop of unbelievably high rates of inflation and unemployment and virtually null GDP growth? The author comes up with a number of economic explanations, all of which put together don’t succeed at completely overshadowing the more common picture arising from current reports on Zimbabwe:

“With no end in sight to the distortions in the economy resulting from the political climate, many people will still make a lot more money but the issue is not about their unethical ways of creating wealth, it is something much more serious. The more the economy benefits these people, the less incentive they have for supporting change. That is far more dangerous than flaunting your wealth in the faces of an increasingly miserable population.”