![]() Prices are high, and one wonders how people, especially the lower-paid, make ends meet basic wages are low, and unemployment is high. At least in Harare the shelves are stocked with local and imported products some stores, though smaller, could compete with Washington’s most upmarket establishments. For change one must accept informal IOUs, or perhaps pop back into the store to garner a few more sweets or a bar of chocolate.With dollarization, the shortages that used to plague the hyper-inflating economy have vanished. The notes are indescribably worn and tattered, since there is no bank to replace them as they wear out - in the United States dollar notes are replaced after about 18 months - but people accept them happily. In Harare, the dollar reigns supreme, a contrast to its performance on global markets. Today Zimbabwe is a largely cash economy, with dollars, and some South African rand, British pounds and Botswanan pula circulating. If these hard-to-believe estimates are actually correct, Zimbabwe’s pile would span the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way.So, at least in this dimension, Zimbabwe’s economic performance has been stratospheric, even galactic. A pile from the sun to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star, which is about 10,000 times as far away as Pluto, would scarcely be bigger, a modest 4x10^13 kilometers, a hardly noticeable pimple. ![]() One reaching from the Sun to Pluto (which I still regard as a planet even if officially demoted – how could they do that!) would only be a puny 5.9x10^9 km. The pile of notes equivalent to 1 Zimdollar at the start would then be an impressive 10^18 kilometers high. Then a pile of 10^7 notes would be 1 kilometer high. ![]() How can we appreciate a number like this? Suppose a stack of 100 banknotes is 1 cm high. However, cumulative redenomination of notes (the number of zero’s knocked off the denominations) is reported as 10^25 by trusty Wikipedia. Later estimates are uncertain, so it is not clear how much prices increased in total. Inflation over the first six months of 2008 was 230 million percent. After the Fast-Track Land Reform (aka land invasions), it entered into a hyperinflation second only to that of Hungary in 1946. Perched in a small boat nosed up against the bank of a river feeding into Lake Kariba, we felt somewhat vulnerable as six large lions tore into their lunch of warm, just-killed, buffalo some 20 feet away……they are eying us! Do they recognize a potential dessert? Are the vultures in the trees waiting for the leftover buffalo or for us? Does the guide know what he is doing?Happily we were not eaten, and were able to come back to Harare for the rest of our stay.Zimbabwe has hardly been one of Africa’s “lions”. But, apart from rhino which have been poached out of most areas, there were plenty of animals, including elephants and very large crocodiles. ![]() The domestic terminal at Harare airport was a ghostly edifice, still as the grave. Thank heavens we had chosen another airline. Air Zimbabwe has not helped, with aborted flights and desperate passengers left stranded in various foreign airports due to pilots striking over unpaid wages, and other factors. Tourist facilities were working normally, but there were few tourists. Being unable to pass up a few days of game-viewing we first spent a few days at Lake Kariba. ![]()
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