Zimbabwe - How much does a newpaper cost?

This is one of the most eye opening articles on Zimbabwe I have read...

Published on The Independent online Sunday, 20 April 2008

To the casual visitor, which is what I was pretending to be in Zimbabwe, the country does not immediately appear like an impoverished autocracy. It is quite possible to drive around Harare and Bulawayo, the country's two main cities, without encountering a roadblock or seeing unusual numbers of policemen. There are potholes in the roads, sure, but unlike many parts of Africa, a 4x4 vehicle is not essential in urban areas. And at traffic lights, most of which still work, there are people selling newspapers that condemn President Robert Mugabe in the roundest of terms.

But then you notice the price of one of these papers – the weekly Zimbabwe Independent – and any semblance of normality is dispelled. The current issue costs 85 million Zimbabwean dollars, up from Z$55m last week. This Friday the vendors will probably want more than $100m.

While much of Zimbabwe's political life under Mugabe consists of pure illusion – the President blames British colonialism for anything that goes wrong, and acts as though the election defeat three weeks ago simply did not happen – nobody can escape the reality of the world's worst inflation rate. Even the Zimbabwean authorities admit it is in the region of 160,000 per cent, but independent economists believe it could be more than twice that level.

A bag of bananas costs Z$150m; a loaf Z$300m. At least, they did a couple of days ago. One housewife said she was buying groceries recently for Z$100m when there was a hitch with her cheque guarantee card. By the time she returned from sorting it out at the supervisor's desk, her bill had gone up to Z$250m. The widow of a man who worked all his life for the postal service gets a pension of Z$1,295 a month: not enough for a box of matches – possibly not even one match. A note smaller than Z$10m is small change, and anything below one million is simply scrap paper.

In most basket-case economies, paper bills are sweat-stained and rubbed to near-illegibility. Not in Zimbabwe, where the central bank's presses keep churning out crisp new notes in ever-higher denominations. The Z$50m note is a popular innovation – considerably more so than the $750,000 bill, introduced a few thousand per cent ago, which made calculations difficult – but many believe it is only government pride which is delaying the Z$100m note. Even then, Zimbabweans will have to carry sharp-edged bricks of new notes for all but the most trivial of transactions. The struggle to keep up with soaring prices – those with bank accounts can withdraw only the equivalent of a pound or two a day from the few cash machines, and often have to queue for more than a hour to do so – has driven many half-way out of the cash economy.

Above the high walls of Harare's smart northern suburbs, maize stalks often wave. Few people can afford not to grow their own food, and lawns and flowerbeds have been ploughed up for kitchen gardens. Joseph Massundah, 70, a former senior civil servant, is part of the generation that came into its own after independence in 1980. Government loans helped him buy a three-bedroom bungalow in the city's Mount Pleasant area, and both his daughters received the best education. But his pension has been drastically eroded. How does he cope?

Click the link to read the rest of the story.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/the-z50000000-question-how-long-will-the-world-stand-by-and-allow-this-tragedy-to-continue-812201.html