Text 22017, 60 rader
Skriven 2008-10-16 21:15:19 av Russell Tiedt (5:7105/1)
  Kommentar till text 21945 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Exit RS232
==================
Hello Michiel.

16 Oct 08 01:19, you wrote to me:

 MV> Zimbabwe? That still exists?

Yes, it still exists, in a very, very sorry state indeed ... :-((((

When the sun rises tomorrow, you are not sure if you will have water, power or 
phone services, and how long the non-existant services will be non-functional 
... , often an area goes 10-15 days without telephones due to the exchange not 
having power, when the power comes on, it takes another 4 days for then to fix 
other faults, by which time the power gets cut again, and so it goes, 
yesterday, it took 3 attempts and close to an hour to get thu to Zimbabwe on 
the modem.

Having your own power generator helps, keep things going, but then again, you 
can only buy petrol or diesel using "coupons", when either are avaiable, and 
"hoarding" is not allowed, so you cannot build up a supply of feul, to keep 
your power genrator running 4 hours a day, for 14 days, even if you have 
coupons and feul is available to be exchanged for the coupons.

An item of food, was out of stock at local "supermarkets" for a extended 
period, a friend walked into one, early one morning to buy bread (not always 
available) noticed that this particular item was in stock, bought as much of 
it, as the cash he had on hand allowed, went too his office, collected more 
money and returned to buy some more of  the product, in the intervening 3/4 
hour, the price of that product had doubled ...

Prostitutes, will no longer accept cash, not even USA $, but take 20 liters of 
feul, either petrol or diesel in payment for services rendered ...

A farmer was "hi-jacked" by 3 AK47 wielding black gentlemen, they did not want 
his fairly new 4x4 vehicle, only the petrol in the tank ...

The ruling party is raping the economy for everything they can, bugger the 
consequences ...

The biggest problem is that niether party Zanu-PF or MDC have heirs who can 
pick up the reigns when one or other leader "dies" or retires ... , if one or 
the other dies, it will be civil war ... , Civil war may still become a 
reality ... , despite the efforts currently underway, from here it is way too 
little, way, way too late ...

From here, the only sane workable solution, is for what is left of the SA 
National Defense Force to "invade" Zimbabwe, declare martial law, and as the 
economy recovers, slowly from the ground up, allow and help them build up a 
civil goverment that will have the ability to do a reasonable job of governing 
their country, but that solution, is not without problems of it's own, and if 
that path is followed, I am not sure that the ANC government, will be willing 
to "give" Zimbawe back to the Zimbaweans, but rether keep it a province of 
South Africa ...

A wonderful part off the world that is just a bit more screwed up than the 
rest ... <Very Very Big SIGH>

Russell

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5
 * Origin: Rusty's BBS - Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa (5:7105/1)