Excellent Insight into Daily Economic Survival in Harare

Chris McGreal of The Guardian reports today (July 18, 2008) from Harare of the hardships people confront. He starts with a description of a woman who lives in Dzivaresekwa who walks with others for 2.5 hours to her job in the city center because transport costs have become too high. The woman, who makes more money from informal trading--bringing food from rural areas to sell in the city--keeps her formal sector job because, as she puts it, "'I may never get another one.'"

McGreal then describes the plight of retired war veteran and diplomat, Ishmael Dube, and the impossibility of his government pension to cover even the basic costs of a middle-class life in Harare. Having already sold much of his valuable possessions, his cars and televisions, he is in debt to the private schools where his children attend school. McGreal describes a meeting with Dube at the upscale Westgate shopping center:

"Dube wants to meet in the Wimpy at what had been one of Harare's most upmarket shopping malls, the Westgate complex. It was built with South African money a decade ago and attracted boutiques and bookshops. Most are closed now. Dube wants to order chips but the waitress says there aren't any. No hamburgers, either, despite the luridly coloured menu on the table offering the usual meat-filled buns. Instead she lays down a worn photocopy of typed offerings. The list includes pig's trotters and knuckle bones at $90bn a dish.

"A lot of us have been diagnosed with high blood pressure," says Dube. "It's not surprising. We've been relying on beer for stress management - a drink or two a night. But beer last week was $10bn a quart. This week it was $20bn on Monday (July 7). On Wednesday it was $40bn and now it is $60bn. So this thing we have been using as stress management is beyond our reach. That is very bad." By yesterday, beer was $150bn a quart."

McGreal then explains in detail the ways people are surviving as the Zimbabwean dollar becomes more and more worthless each day and much of the economy has become "dollarized".

He concludes on an ominous note that is worth considering as the AU, South Africa, and the UN delay in getting involved in reaching some sort of new political dispensation in Zimbabwe:

"" so far, there has not been any of the popular protest - either against the economic crisis or the stolen election - that has hit other African countries at such times, most recently in Kenya. "A lot of people regard Zimbabweans as docile," says Dube. "But there's docility based on intelligence that says if there's a chance to survive there is no point in risking your life. But people have their backs against the wall and they are wondering if they can survive.

"It's firefighting. Us and them: ordinary people and the government. No one has a plan. We're all just firefighting to get through each day". "

Excellent reporting. Article should be read in full.