Zimbabwe Absurdity

Today was pay day and I was anticipating a bad mood. I was not disappointed.

The labour are paid $35 for a full working month. Part of this is in the form of essential food and goods; maize meal, cooking oil, soap and sugar. It involves a fair bit of foraging. There was also a Christmas bonus of some orange cordial, sugar and salt. Christmas bonuses in this country are incorrectly perceived as a right and on a number of occasions my staff have had to be told that it is NOT a right and they should be grateful for what they are given. My company is doing badly; orders are nearly non-existent and the greenhouses are dilapidated due to the lack of funds. Nevertheless I got a delegation asking for a bigger bonus as the neighbouring company owned and run by my landlord had given the labour a thirteenth wage. I held onto my temper, just, and told them that they should be grateful for what they were getting as a significant proportion of the population were starving. They did not see it that way and no-one has bothered to come and say thank you. I can’t help feeling that this is a filter down attitude from the top echelons of government where everyone is out to get as much as possible.

Quote: “I will never, ever, ever surrender. Zimbabwe is mine!” Robert Mugabe as heard ranting on a BBC radio report recently. I suspect he’s been studying Gollum in one of the Lord of the Rings movies.