Q&A

A month after Zimbabwean autocrat Robert Mugabe issued a decree to merchants to counter constant hyperinflation by slashing prices down to half the original cost or more, the nation's long-suffering economy is at a standstill.

I mean, what was Mugabe trying to gain by telling merchants to slash down their prices in an attempt to get all this horrific inflation off Zimbabwe's back? From the looks of things, nothing has been accomplished but more tribulations & suffering.

Basic essentials like sugar & cornmeal have disappeared. So has meat. Gasoline is practically unaffordable. Patients in hospitals are dying because of an immense shortage of basic medical supplies. Such things as power shortages & water cutoffs are becoming commonplace. In the case of manufacturing, business is down to a mere trickle since hardly any businesses can produce goods which cost less than what the government demands they should be. Raw materials are almost out of the picture since suppliers have to sell to factories at a loss. Businesses are cutting down on labor & reducing their work hours...all this in the name of combating severe overinflation.

Look at what life in Zimbabwe has come to & it would be best summed up in two words: "Dire straits." Or "sheer survival" if you will. However, it is not the underclass (which comprises the majority of the nation's 10-11 million people) who are likely to be affected by the latest crimp on their country's economical well-being: the rural poor survive on whatever they're able to grow; both rural & urban poor are lucky enough to be staying afloat on food & money which their relations/friends have sent from abroad.

Rather, it is the middle class who will feel the brunt of the decree which Mugabe has imposed. Somehow slugging by for several years running, they will soon be new casualties to an epidemic of poverty which has already engulfed Zimbabwe to the gills. For the 15 to 20% of Zimbabweans who still have employment, factory shutdowns & layoffs are the last thing they want to hear about, given the fact that unemployment is rampant throughout the country. Pensioners, whose incomes have been virtually reduced to almost nil through inflation, are discovering that no amount of money can pay for the basic necessities which they are most reliant on.

This is to say how troubling the economic situation has become in Zimbabwe; for those who choose not to comply with Mugabe's draconian orders, jail time or the forced closure of their stores (by the government) are the two end results.

An old saying used to go that things must get worse before they get better. In Zimbabwe, worse has only come to worst. For the majority of the nation, it will only be a matter of time before the inevitable must be faced once & for all. The next question is, when will that moment of truth arrive?