Just as the United States is looking to tighten sanctions on the vicious regime of Bashar Assad in Syria, there is quiet momentum building to remove sanctions against another brutal dictator, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. But arguments in favor of easing pressure on his ruling ZANU-PF at this time are flawed. In fact, removing sanctions now would arguably make matters worse for Zimbabweans’ hopes for a full return to democracy.
Not too many people would think to take a vacation in Zimbabwe. My wife Caroline and I have our reasons. Caroline was born and raised in the country, the descendant of an old Zimbabwe “pioneer” family. I am from South Africa.
Things are still going badly in Zimbabwe, and there’s little doubt that the same old negative forces are to blame. There is also concern that once the attention of the World Cup in South Africa has passed, that the risk of renewed violence will rise.
Zimbabwe is not only a problem for all of Africa, it’s a vexing dilemma for U.S policymakers. Some facts:
Anne Applebaum’s op-ed today is a reminder that just having a new U.S. administration with a boatload of goodwill won’t necessarily deal with underlying policy differences in our foreign relations, hokey plastic “reset” buttons aside. Applebaum was referring to Russia, but this seems to apply equally to South Africa.
Zimbabwe's descent from a hopeful and emerging economic power into today's disaster is one of Africa's saddest cases. (An excellent oped in today's Washington Post explains the collapse of its medical and sanitation system.
This is a joint posting with Robin Kraft
When I lived in Zimbabwe a mere 18 years ago, one U.S. dollar was worth about 2.5 Zimbabwe dollars. A few years later I returned and was shocked that the value of the local currency had fallen by more than 50% to Z$6: US$1. (How quaint!) Since the central bank has spent much of the last few years pointlessly trying to defy the laws of money supply -- printing more and more cash to pay its bills -- we are witnessing both hyperinflation (231 million % at last official count) and a mind-spinning vortex of collapsing value for the local currency. The government released a new Z$500 million note last week. As of last Friday, this was worth around US$10. But let's not forget that 14 zeros have been lopped off the currency in the past two years. Thus, using the original Zim dollar (I must still have a few in an old backpack) the exchange rate is really US$1 to:
Z$ 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
The flurry of weird reports out of Zimbabwe this week would be funny if they weren't so sad.
One of the great underexplored areas in economic development research is rigorous investigation of how bad leaders affect development. A series of actions by Robert Mugabe's regime have coincided with an epic collapse of Zimbabwe's economy, erasing half a century of income growth and bringing on four million percent inflation.