Zimbabwe Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono should quit worrying about his country’s cash shortages – there’s a simple solution:
All he has to do is switch the official currency to Monopoly money, because Hasbro lets you print out your own Monopoly money. They have PDFs for 1,5,10,20,50,100, and 500 dollar bills on their site. Print, cutout, buy, no bank required.
After all, the Zanu PF knows all about a monopoly.
[via: kottke.org]
Mr Mbeki, (I have given up calling you President, sir) the “xenophobia” and resulting violence which is gaining rampant coverage in the press these days is your fault. Yours alone.
The South African people have been as accomodating as they can towards foreign nationals, but there comes a time when enough is enough. Zimbabweans have been streaming across the border with little resistance from us and our police for many years. We accepted them with open arms because they were placed in exile by tyranny and economic need, and because they are hard workers and were simply looking for opportunities to better their lives. Unfortunately there aren’t that many opportunities here either, so inevitably some South Africans started losing out to Zimbabweans. (or other nationalities, but I choose to presume the majority of these foreigners are Zimbabwean). Can you blame your people for being angry at losing what little birthright they have to another person from another land? Of course I do not support the manner in which this discontent has been expressed.
But, Mr Mbeki, you have had every damn opportunity to fix Zimbabwe and you just mucked around. You let a tyrant destroy one of the strongest and richest and most beautiful countries in Africa on your watch, and you did it with a cheap grin on your face. This mess is your fault Thabo. Instead of being decisive and forcing Mugabe out of power, you rambled on with your quiet diplomacy BS. And now it is happening again – we can sense that Mugabe is going to steal control of his country Zimbabwe again, which will only worsen things.
Yes of course I’m angry. Your people are angry. The immigrants Your guests are angry. Grow some damn balls and fix this mess. Please.
When Jacob Zuma starts sounding like the voice of reason in the whole Zimbabwe election-stealing saga, you know you’re in trouble.
I caught a glimpse of a true president yesterday – someone who stood up and said enough is enough to corruption in his government. Sure Thabo Mbeki had plenty of opportunity to hide behind the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”, but apparently there is sufficient evidence to implicate Jacob Zuma from Shabir Shaik’s verdict alone.
The result: Thabo Mbeki fired Jacob Zuma’s ass.
Well done Thabo! That took grit and courage – it took a true leader to defy the many Jacob Zuma supporters within your own political party and ultimately show them who is the boss.
Four words to comment on President Mbeki’s required actions following the conviction of Shabir Shaik and the implication of Deputy President Jacob Zuma in a “generally corrupt relationship”:
“Thabo, fire JZ’s ass!”.