The US has its challenges right now and its human nature to become complacent about things you take for granted -- like freedom.  As I enjoy my "Independence Day" BBQs and fireworks, its nice to know that all we have to complain about is the price of gas and not 1000% inflation rate. We may have mortgage problems and declining real estate values but we haven't had to resort to barter.  Maybe we should rename this 4th of July holiday to Thanksgiving instead.

This will be my last post about Zimbabwe for awhile. The charade that Mugabe called an election is over, and the tyrant remains. I heard a good story on NPR this week that gives some historical context for the situation. The report warns that like a cornered animal, Mugabe will attack, and the ordinary people of Zimbabwe will be the likely victims.

Here's the latest update from my friend in Zimbabwe.

Date: June 27, 2008
Subject: Hello
One may ask, why go to the polling station when you will spoil the votes? The answer is simple. Remember I did say some landlords were now evicting the tenants that were MDC supporters, thus if one did not go to vote the landlords who are Zanu-PF will just tell you "Go." Thus the tenants wanted to just have the ink on their fingers to prove that they voted, or else they risked being told to go and stay at the MDC houses.

Accommodation is a problem here. The landlords charge in U.S. dollars or Pula, the Botswana currency, as they use that for shopping. The fun one was where the landlord would give the tenants a list of the groceries that they want bought for them from Botswana. In this case, you go to Botswana to buy the groceries and pay duty for the goods at the border, then use one's money to pay for the transport. When you get home, you give the groceries to the landlord. Then you know the rent has been paid. One might think it is cheaper to buy groceries instead of paying in hard cash. Alas, it is not true, as they would want to buy sometimes more [groceries] than what you would pay for the rent.

When it started, it sounded like a joke, but it has spread out now. The reason is simple. The Zimbabwean dollar is valueless. The Governor is printing Zim papers that are being used as legal tender. At present the highest note is 50 billion. I cannot give my kids money to go to school as I would need up to 20 billion per day for the child to use at school. That is today. Tomorrow it would be 2 times that figure and 4 times in 2 weeks. So now we give them something to eat rather than the money.

I remember when I was a school-going kid my parents used to give me 5 cents. That was enough for one week. I used 1 cent per day. Nowadays the money printed recently becomes useless in a week's time. It is now a common scenario to see 10 million notes on the ground and nobody would pick them up to buy something. let alone keep as mementos, as they are useless.