Posted on 12/07/2002 3:44:23 PM PST by Clive
In Zimbabwe, an additional list of controlled prices for consumer goods has been published. Wholesalers warn the controls will remove many products from open sale. The new shortages will make life only more miserable for Zimbabweans.
Toothpaste, washing powder and imported rice are among the latest items added to the long list of products subject to price control in Zimbabwe.
The price controls are widely ignored. Many supermarkets in urban areas break the law everyday by selling goods at prices above those fixed by the government. They claim the price controls are unrealistic.
A spokesman for one supermarket chain says, for example, that the controlled retail price of chicken is only one quarter of the wholesale price.
He says when stocks run out in early January, his stores will not be able to fill their shelves.
The government introduced the first batch of controlled retail prices ahead of the elections in March, which gave President Robert Mugabe another six years in power.
Those prices led to the disappearance of many staple foods, as retailers said they could not afford to sell them at a loss.
A woman sells vegetables in the marketplace VOA Photo - C.McDonough
Zimbabwe has a sophisticated retail sector. Even in small towns, supermarkets provide most food needs for the increasingly hungry urban population. But as their shelves become bare, many staple foods could only be found on the black market, at prices too high for the majority of people.
Police and government officials have increased inspections of price-controlled goods, and more supermarket managers are being prosecuted for violating price controls.
The government repeatedly accuses retailers, especially those with white management, of profiteering.
Some veterans of Zimbabwe's war for independence raided bakeries and outlying supermarkets in the last week, threatening staff for breaking price controls.
The Second Chimurenga ended in 1980.
When the assumption of the title "war veteran" started to sound silly, they started to call their thuggery the "Third Chimurenga" or the "hondo yenzara" so as to dignify their actions as being part of a popular war of which they now lay claims to being "veterans".
But thuggery is thuggery and crimes against humanity remain crimes against humanity.
When I recall that "Zimbabwe" is Rhodesia and that "Harare" is, in reality, the beautiful and modern capital, Salisbury, it really drives home the damage that's been done there.
Not too long ago, this was a first world country existing in the middle of Africa.
Not too long ago, it was the breadbasket of southern Africa and surrounding countries are now also facing starvation because the Zimbabwean food supply has dried up because of Mugabe, another African dictator. He wines and dines, lives high off the hog, is driven around in armour-plated Mercedes, and murders his political enemies, but the majority of the Western press won't report this. Why? It's un-PC, and they helped put him in office.
Supply appears when profits are possible, and supply disappears when profit is impossible.
Demand appears when rational prices are set, and demand disappears when prices are impossible.
Price controls disrupt the free-market process. When people are free, they will not work without profit -- no matter what the demand is.
End of lesson.
Next comes the resort to force in the countryside to try to collect produced food and the like. The carrot having been removed, the stick is next applied. The countryside is ravaged to bring spoil back to the cities, where said spoil is distributed at make believe low prices. Then to avoid said stick, the oppressed in the countryside will flee to the towns. The countryside will become a wasteland. Then full scale famine. The people will eat bark.
But never, oh never, will the government admit it has done anything stupid. Evil sorceries and fiendish plots will multiply in direct proportion to the deterioration of the actual economic situation. Paranoia sets in. The infallible enlightened ruler is exhalted into the heavens as hordes of anonymous and faceless, imaginary demons ravage the beaten and starving populace.
Over and over again. Nothing is admitted, so nothing is learned. The price for infallibility in the ruler is the entire populace being cast into hell. The ruler is willing to pay it.
Most all that you've written applies also to religions; they do the same, in more subtle ways. Once your soul has been "saved," for instance, your death means far less to them than the loss of your contributions.
The price for infallibility in the ruler is the entire populace being cast into hell. The ruler is willing to pay it.
Worthy of Bartlett's!
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