Gaming World Forums
General Category => General Talk => Topic started by: Ryan on December 05, 2008, 01:26:43 pm
-
http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=899110
Zimbabwe is basically collapsing. Between a state of tremendous hyperinflation, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Zimbabwe) an illegitimate election (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwean_presidential_election,_2008), and a cholera epidemic (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jd_JZmhdw6XWClfpenWt9g-dqNNAD94SGUD80), it is feared that the entire government of Zimbabwe will totally collapse soon. Desmond Tutu, as well as just about the rest of the world, has called for Mugabe to step down. Now South Africa is moving in to Zimbabwe to assist with the massive rioting and the horrible cholera epidemic. :(
holy shit Zimbabwe's annual rate of inflation is 89.7 sextillion percent per year
-
I thought you were just bullshitting until I opened up the Wiki article...
Welp...
They're fucked IMO...
-
I am not surprised in the least. Let's just hope whatever follows his government is not even worse.
-
another JUST CAUSE looked over by the current administration I guess lets hope our new BLACK MAN will help out after he gets inaugurated.
-
i kind of lost the thread of zimbabwe a little while back. the last i read into it mugabe was trying to finangle as much power as he could away from tsvangirai and tsvangirai was saying "fuck this i'm not even in this government now.". i was aware of the cholera outbreak but emerging epidemic/riots whoops. i don't know shit about this stuff really, just the election story and how much of a stupid asshole robert mugabe is.
so south africa are still saying form a unity government huh. is anyone apart from desmond tutu saying drag mugabe out of his office? cos he's an asshole. i wish they'd do that.
-
And if the government collapses, who takes charge?
-
no one knows! probably a civil war, maybe south africa. maybe both!
-
Isn't their unemployment rate like 83% and Mugabe literally does not give a fuck about anything other than staying in power?
-
80%
:(
also yeah Mugabe is a total piece of shit. he's single handedly run Zimbabwe into the ground
-
"In February 2007, the central bank of Zimbabwe declared inflation "illegal", outlawing any raise in prices on certain commodities between March 1 and June 30, 2007. Officials have arrested executives of some Zimbabwean companies for increasing prices on their products. Such measures, frequently tried during other episodes of hyperinflation, have always failed."
holy shit thats crazy
-
Why would they ban inflation, wouldnt that mean more tax money for the government?
-
because it's increasing by 87.9 sextillion % per year?
their money is virtually worthless because of this?
-
it's sad but i agree with carius.
-
because it's increasing by 87.9 sextillion % per year?
their money is virtually worthless because of this?
ummm but they have MORE of it???
-
your right.. :sad:
wonder why zimbabwe is still so shitty lol? theyve got so much money..
-
WHO THE FUCK GETS CHOLERA ANYMORE :(
-
It's pretty prevalent in Africa, isn't it. That shouldn't be surprising!
Also fuckin Mugabe.. and I was just wiki'ing and I saw 39% of the people in fuckin Swaziland have AIDS!! :fogetgasp:
-
Swaziland is in South Africa
edit: whoops not actually in the country of south africa, but it's an independent nation.
-
Corruption is the cause of all this.
just like corruption during Brezhnev regime made Gorbachev realize of USSR downfall.
-
WHO THE FUCK GETS CHOLERA ANYMORE :(
people who don't ahve steril food and water :( :(
this is so sad :( can you imagine how scary this would be for the people living there? :(
-
If they had chlorinated water they wouldn't have it.
--
Actually this is exactly why they're having it in Zimbabwe their water purification machines are broken
-
Yeah I doubt Africa will become stable for a long time, they're still identifying too much to their tribe or "people" instead of the nation to get any stability.
But that's the colonial powers fault, the borders aren't based on nationalistic ideas and the problems probably won't go away unless every people get their own country. Or if they change their identity.
-
Actually just boiling water is enough to prevent cholera, but most cannot afford the fuel to do it, so I heard on NPR yesterday. I really don't know too much about African politics, but I do know that corruption and tribalism is rampant, a lot of deep-seated issues that won't be resolved anytime soon.
I think the superpowers have had their eyes on the continent for a while. Supposedly the US has been paranoid about China occupying some areas in Africa.
-
i wasnt being mean with WHO GETS CHOLERA its just, man, this isn't a concern for the first world at all and yet it's killing people in africa, thats absurd.
-
Yeah I doubt Africa will become stable for a long time, they're still identifying too much to their tribe or "people" instead of the nation to get any stability.
What do you mean by AFRICA? Africa north of Sahara (the Arabic part) is pretty much completely stable, as is South Africa.
also saying first world is fucking dumb
-
Looks like George bush needs to go in and kick some ass.
-
I know that inflation is when money has no value so they print those bills with several zeroes, but I don't understand exactly how it happens?
-
What do you mean by AFRICA? Africa north of Sahara (the Arabic part) is pretty much completely stable, as is South Africa.
also saying first world is fucking dumb
oh lars!
also don't be so facetious, you know he meant those regions of africa that have been in constant turmoil for some time now and not JOHANNESBURG.
-
Actually just boiling water is enough to prevent cholera, but most cannot afford the fuel to do it, so I heard on NPR yesterday.
All you would need is a match and some dried wood?
-
All you would need is a match and some dried wood?
I think that is sort of the point when people try to communicate how horrible the situation is.
-
I know that inflation is when money has no value so they print those bills with several zeroes, but I don't understand exactly how it happens?
The more money you make the more worthless it becomes, this is why chugging out bills all the time is a bad idea since you'd have to chug out more and more with more zeros to "keep up" with the inflation increasing the very inflation you are trying to control by throwing money at it. How you handle your money as a nation and deal with inflation is a very difficult thing to deal with for developing and unstable nations. Hyper Inflation is when inflation is at a point where it's unbelievably ridiculous, like Brazil where a can of pop is say 1000 in currency then within a few days it's over 5000. Or more recently the inflation rate of Zimbabwe.
-
yeah but why do they print more money? i actually have no idea how inflation really happens either.
-
when countries incur massive debt or budget deficits they can pay it off by just making more money. however, this increases the amount of money in circulation too and SUPPLY AND DEMAND etc more money = less value, thus inflation occurs.
-
Holy shit, that's bad! A friend of mine visited Zimbabwe like less than a week ago and apparently the phone network of large parts of the country was down.
-
On 18 April 1980... Zimbabwean Dollar was worth about 1.59 United States dollars.
On December 6, 2008...500,000 Zimbabwe dollars...is the equivalent of about 25 U.S. cents.
wow
apparently i make 16million zimbabwe dollars an hour
if only i could make a time machine and convert all these zimbabwe dollars into 1980 us dollars...
-
On August 19, 2008, official figures announced for June estimated inflation of over 11,250,000 percent (i.e., prices doubling every 22 days).
wow thats so ridiculous and its only gotten worse since
i mean whats a can of soda cost? like $1.50? in 6 months its like $100 for a can of soda jesus
-
On 18 April 1980... Zimbabwean Dollar was worth about 1.59 United States dollars.
On December 6, 2008...500,000 Zimbabwe dollars...is the equivalent of about 25 U.S. cents.
This is the sort of thing that happened in Germany back before/beginning of Weimar.
I suppose Zimbabwe is pretty fucked then, with inflation like that.
-
that's the sort of thing happened during the middle/nearing the end of weimar, allowing certain unfavourable parties to gain power.
I remember when I studied it, people with fucking wheelbarrows of marks going out to buy their bread.
-
that's the sort of thing happened during the middle/nearing the end of weimar, allowing certain unfavourable parties to gain power.
I remember when I studied it, people with fucking wheelbarrows of marks going out to buy their bread.
Ah. I couldn't remember when I posted whether or not it was the beginning or end. I haven't studied Weimar for a while. But yeah, wheelbarrows of marks. Crazy.
-
if only i could make a time machine and convert all these zimbabwe dollars into 1980 us dollars...
ahahaha this was my first thought, i'm a horrible person.
this is pretty awful, i remember reading earlier this year that Mugabe doesn't actually even have any zimbabwe dollars and privately funds his own government through deals with foreign corporations that pay off in american dollars or euros. apparently even if he's removed from power he'll literally have funneled MOST OF the country's wealth into private accounts somewhere.
i wonder what it's like to work at the zimbabwe national central bank.
-
Yeah where would he go. he's banned from travel in the US and the EU and there are international warrants out for his arrest, and he's not getting out of Africa without the AU or other neighbor states doing something to stop him.
like Al-Bashir he's pretty much a prisoner in his own country.
-
ok who would win in a fight, bush or mugabe.
-
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n23/mamd01_.html gift from joe.
-
not reading that whole thing (it's pretty long..sorry truth) but correct me if i'm wrong isn't it basically lifting blame from mugabe and putting it entirely on international sanctions?
-
I can't wait for the film ten years from now.
Who'll play Mugabe? For that matter, does he have a mustache in the dimple of his lip or is that his natural skin color? THIS QUESTION HAS BOTHERED ME FOR MONTHS
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n23/mamd01_.html gift from joe.
Yeah, this is a long but very informative article. Anyone who even cares just a little bit about this event in history should read it. Pretty illuminating.
not reading that whole thing (it's pretty long..sorry truth) but correct me if i'm wrong isn't it basically lifting blame from mugabe and putting it entirely on international sanctions?
The decline of Zimbabwe (hell, most of Africa) is because of international sanctions. Nothing in history is ever the result of one man. It's either political pressure or a series of events that build up over time. Mugabe is terrible but to say that all of this is HIS fault and his fault alone is incorrect. He just added fuel to the already burning fire.
-
i wasn't dismissing it or anything! also yeah it's pretty obvious that the decline of Africa has basically one cause: western imperialism. i'm gonna read it later though, i really don't know much at all about sub-Saharan Africa
-
:(
http://www.caritas.org/newsroom/press_releases/PressRelease10_12_09.html