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A Gundwane in my pocket
As I sat on the grass with about 12 000 other Zimbabweans at yesterdays
rally in White City Stadium I thought how do we explain just what has
happened to these ordinary, hardworking people just what has happened
to
their spending power and standard of living? Then it occurred to me
that
they might understand the example to all of us of a rat infestation.
Rats operate very largely in the dark. They leave few signs of their
presence - a bit of dung but mostly you see the evidence of the damage
they
cause. It is like having a rat in your pocket - you receive your
salary, put
it in your pocket and when you take it out it is not worth the same
amount
as when you put it there! The rats of Zanu PF have been at it and
stolen
what you earned with the sweat of your brow.
How do they do that? It's all a matter of modern economics. A hundred
years
ago when we did not have reserve banks and Ministries of Finance with
their
computers and when trade was paid for in gold or gold equivalents,
manipulation of the value of wealth was more difficult. We still had
wealth
and poverty - but if you wanted to accumulate wealth or take more than
your
fair share, you had to do so in the full light of day. Now an official
in
the Reserve Bank can reach out in the still of the night and steal what
is
yours while you sleep!
If we take export proceeds for example - hard currency earning
generated by
workers in our mines and factories. Paid into our bank accounts by
foreign
buyers. No sooner has it arrived than the Reserve Bank reaches out and
takes
a bite - and gives you back a tenth of its real value in local
promissory
notes. 90 per cent of the portion's taken real value goes into the
rat's
nest where it is used to keep the rats warm and well fed.
Then a while later, they reach out and take the rest at half its value
- it
too goes into the rats nest where it is also used to keep the rats warm
and
well fed.
But it does not end there - the bits of paper given back to you by the
rats
as promissory notes have a certain value when they are issued to you.
This
is because when they were issued to you there were only a set number -
divided to cover the real value of your work. But while we are sleeping
these rats - being devilishly clever, print more notes, so that when
you
wake up and go to the store to convert your paper back into real
things, you
suddenly find the rats have eaten another 25 per cent or more of what
you
have in your pocket.
So the daddy rat - who else - gets fat and indolent and arrogant -
these
simple peasants he thinks, they all work for my rats and me. Mommy rat
just
loves to shop - does not think for one minute about where her wealth
comes
from just knows that daddy rat keeps it coming. The rat's uncle - a rat
called Gono the Gundwane does it with a smile and every now and then he
calls all the suckers in to a meeting where he tells them what he is
going
to do next to keep the flow of resources to the rats going.
You get a rat infestation when the conditions are right and the
predators of
rats are few. When that happens you need an eradication team to clean
house
and destroy the rats themselves. That is where we are today and nothing
else
will stop the erosion of our living standards and economy.
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