Many years ago, Robert Mugabe decided to reward his cronies for their war efforts. The fact that they had won no war was neither here nor there. The truth of the matter is that, after imposing some of the harshest sanctions imaginable, the West finally managed to force Ian Smith to surrender at the Lancaster House. But that's history. So you may put on it whichever spin may fit your vision of the world.
No better way for Mugabe to achieve his purpose than to allow the self-styled war veterans to kill white farmers and rob them of their land. There's an efficient political methodology for you! It worked.
Once in possession of all those farms, those no-goodniks had two problems: they didn't know the first thing about farming and they didn't have capital to start operations. The first problem is easily overlooked. Who is going to hold it against you for having stolen a car and not knowing how to drive? The second one seemed a little insurmountable at first, but Zimbabweans are resourceful people. The government confiscated the foreign reserves of private companies.
The problem with your neighbour's pocket is that it is never as deep as you wish it to be. So, when there was no more money in the kitty, Mugabe looked to the governor of the central bank for some creativity. After all, the party faithful have to be paid to continue to vote for you at every election.
If my memory serves me right, the then governor of the central bank was a whiz-kid called Gono. Having listened to his master's voice, he promptly oiled up the printing presses, which soon were working at atomic speeds. Once more, money was flowing freely.
For a while, some people, those that go through life in a more distracted fashion, even started to feel a wealth effect. That too came to end. According to some sources, last year inflation reached some 500 billion percent, and the currency had to be abolished.
One more piece of useful information. Under Smith, life expectancy was 60 years. Under Mugabe, it has gone down to 44. By contrast, levels of poverty have increased astronomically.
Zimbabwe would be only an episode in History, if it weren't for the fact that it has suddenly become very relevant. Recently, Julius Malema, leader of the ANC Youth League, went to Harare to undertake a thorough two-day study of this model of economic progress with the purpose of applying it in South Africa.
It shows you how a little unintelligent ballot box and a proper printing press are able to go a long way into solving just about every human problem.
