Sunday, January 29, 2017

After Years Of Reckless Lavish Spending By Robert Mugabe And Wife Grace Mugabe Zimbabwe Is Running Out Of Money While The Poor Go Hungry

 
Robert Mugabe and Grace Mugabe

In past Judiciary Report articles, such as on January 20, 2011 "Zimbabwe's First Lady Spending Money Like It's Water", the site denounced and warned against the lavish spending of Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe and his wife, Grace Mugabe. Using their nation's oil and gold riches, the couple took six figure shopping trips, bought luxury vehicles and built lavish mansions, which featured expensive furnishings and amenities, such as gold toilets and crystal chandeliers. 

This is one of my pet peeves, world leaders using state money to live in absolute luxury, while the people of their nations starve and go homeless. It is not right that a man is peeing in a gold toilet, while the poor in his nation "don't have a pot to p*ss in" as the phrase goes.

A new report issued a week ago indicates Zimbabwe is running out of money. One is not surprised. The Mugabes have misappropriated a few hundred million dollars that could have gone to feeding, clothing and housing the poor, as well as educating the country. Low income housing and newer hospitals could have been built as well. Low interest rate loans could have been issued to Zimbabweans to start small businesses to pull their families out of poverty. 

 
The lavish dining room in one of the $26,000,000 palaces Grace Mugabe built with the people of Zimbabwe's money, despite the fact there are high poverty levels in the country. There should be a law against such financial misappropriation of government funds. So many poor people could be fed, clothed and housed selling the Mugabe mansions bought with state funds. 

Over a decade ago, I saw a fascinating documentary on micro-loans issued to low income people in developing nations to start small businesses. It worked and they paid the loan money back. Some people who received micro-loans started small businesses that specialized in things such as selling and fixing bikes (in third world nations that heavily depend on biking as a mode of transportation). Some made clothes and other textiles by hand and sold them to the public. Some invested the loan money into agriculture, buying seeds to plant crops and raised chickens. 

A few months ago, I read an interesting article about Bill Gates, who has been working through his foundation to help poor people in places such as Africa. Gates stated if he was poor, he would buy a chicken, as they lay eggs that in turn produce more chickens and eggs that can be sold. Good turn over and a great idea for people in impoverished regions of the world.

Low cost housing with solar panels and water tanks (to catch rain water), communal wells, small vegetable patches in backyards, as well as chicken coops to raise chickens, could go a long way to helping poor people around the world. It is possible, but some nations' leaders, such as Mugabe, misappropriate money that could be used for such endeavors.

World leaders, especially in third world nations, which usually have a higher poverty rate, need to help the poor. There are small things that can be done to set them on the path to financial stability. Global healthcare also needs to improve. We need a stronger universal standard of care in the world, especially the third world, to address the problems facing the poor. Everybody deserves good health care.
 
STORY SOURCE

As Zimbabwe's money runs out, so does Mugabe's power

Fri Nov 25, 2016 | 10:04am EST - In Zimbabwe, where worthless $100 trillion notes serve as reminders of the perils of hyperinflation, President Robert Mugabe is printing a new currency that jeopardizes not just the economy but his own long grip on power. Six months ago, the 92-year-old announced plans to address chronic cash shortages by supplementing the dwindling U.S. dollars in circulation over the past seven years with 'bond notes', a quasi-currency expected at the end of November. 

According to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), the bond notes will be officially interchangeable 1:1 with the U.S. dollar and should ease the cash crunch. The central bank also promised to keep a tight lid on issuance. After a 2008 multi-billion percent inflationary meltdown caused by rampant money-printing, many Zimbabweans are skeptical. The plan has already caused a run on the banks as Zimbabweans empty their accounts of hard currency. Internal intelligence briefings seen by Reuters raise the possibility that the bond notes, if they crash, could spell the end of Mugabe's 36 years in charge... 

A Sept. 29 Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) report revealed the powerful army was as unhappy as the rest of the population with the new notes and had told Africa's oldest leader to "wake up and smell the coffee". "Top security officers have told Mugabe not to blame them if Rome starts to burn," the report said...


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