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[scriver]

Bah. The proper way of spelling it is januari, obviously. Down with the capital class!

[Aklyon]

Bah. The proper way of spelling it is januari, obviously. Down with the capital class!

januarI?

[Teneb]

Bah. The proper way of spelling it is januari, obviously. Down with the capital class!

januarI?

No, no. "januar I", as in: a regnal name.

[Helgoland]

PTW.

[Sheb]

PTW.

You're coming late to the party, friend. :p

[Helgoland]

What, Africa ceased to exist?

Sure, the Gambia situation is over, but I thought this was going to be a more general type of thread...

[Aklyon]

Only if someone brings some more african news, I'd guess. Its certainly got the title to be a general thread.

[IronyOwl]

In non-news, everything continues to be terrible in Zimbabwe as 93 year old tyrant Robert Mugabe persistently refuses to die and magically transform the country into a prosperous, functioning democracy. Also, several decades of rampant mismanagement and cronyism might have affected things slightly, but that's less elegant to blame than That One Asshole.

Also, presumably fewer people are declaring "the government" as akin to Jesus:

In an interview last week, the ruling party’s national youth leader, Kudzai Chipanga, declared that Mugabe’s birthday, which falls on February 21, should not be treated like an ordinary day, but given the same status as Christmas Day, which is celebrated annually by Christians as Jesus Christ’s birthday.

“To us, February 21 is not just a day. To us, it is a special day we treat in the same manner Christians treat December 25, the birthday of Jesus Christ. I don’t want to be blasphemous, but in my humble view, President Mugabe is second to Jesus Christ. He is our saviour, so his birthday means a lot for us the youths of Zimbabwe,” he said.

Chipanga went into overdrive, saying Mugabe, approaching 93, was also blessed with divine wisdom and was the only person capable of steering Zimbabwe from its current economic mess.

“We will not allow those plotting to take over his post, saying he is old to do so. Look, this is not an age contest that we have at hand, but dealing with wisdom, not just wisdom, divine wisdom for that matter,” he said.

Needless to say, the country was once regarded as a bastion of progress and civilization, before Mugabe n Co took over and gradually ran it into the ground. If you recognize the name, it's probably from the fiasco they had few years ago where inflation rendered their currency worthless. Several times in a row. And then again after they slashed several zeros off to try again.

They finally gave up, and to this day Zimbabwe does not possess its own currency because it cannot be trusted with its own currency. This is, I think, all you really need to know about the general state of things in Zimbabwe, financial or otherwise, and accordingly the connotations of insisting Mugabe is Jesus the Lesser and in possession of Divine Wisdom.

Alternate summary: I'm not sure if this belongs here or the DPRK thread.

[Aklyon]

Does the DPRK have a currency?

...Because if it does, I'm not sure if it means its more trustable or if it just does a better job at being terrible.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It does, the North Korean won. On the other hand, it's been revalued at least once, and to my understanding many grey and black market activities in NK happen through USD or barter.

[Arx]

I believe Zim has actually started printing bond notes, which aren't quite actually a currency or some such- I have forgotten the details.

It's a move that has been met with widespread approbation, in anticipation of another hyperinflation debacle.

I also seem to recall Mugabe having seemed slightly less insane over the last months, but I can't remember why.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Perhaps senility made him forget to be an asshole.

[Sheb]

Needless to say, the country was once regarded as a bastion of progress and civilization, before Mugabe n Co took over and gradually ran it into the ground. If you recognize the name, it's probably from the fiasco they had few years ago where inflation rendered their currency worthless. Several times in a row. And then again after they slashed several zeros off to try again.

I don't remember Zimbabwe ever being a bastion of progress and civilization before Mugabe, unless you have a strange fondness for soldiers in really tight shorts hunting guerilla to enforce apartheid.

[Reelya]

Data is always your friend as well

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/zimbabwe/gdp-growth-annual

If you set it to "max" years you can see 1961 - 2017. You'll note that other than the recession in 2002, the growth rate since Mugabe has been about the same as before him. For example, in 2010-2012, Zimbabwe's economy grew at over 10% per annum for a full three years in a row, outstripping China's growth in a relative sense. And if you take 2009-2014, Zimbabwe's relative growth outstripped USA's for a full 6 years straight. It's the kind of stuff they're never going to mention when they do the "media narrative" on a country.

Or if you think GDP growth rates are bullshit, how about picking a random stat such as infant mortality. Looking that up:
http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=zi&v=29
You can see that there's been an absolutely amazing drop in infant mortality since 2005 (it dropped by 2/3rds from 2005-2014), which is supposedly the period in which the Zimbabwean economy was melting down and everyone was suffering. Basically, never trust the media about other countries. They'll tell you all about the bad years, but not about the boom that often follows.

[Sheb]

Data is always your friend as well

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/zimbabwe/gdp-growth-annual

If you set it to "max" years you can see 1961 - 2017. You'll note that other than the recession in 2002, the growth rate since Mugabe has been about the same as before him.

For example, in 2010-2012, Zimbabwe's economy grew at over 10% per annum for a full three years in a row, outstripping China's growth in a relative sense. And if you take 2009-2014, Zimbabwe's relative growth outstripped USA's for a full 6 years straight. It's the kind of stuff they're never going to mention when they do the "media narrative" on a country.

Comparing the growth rate of a country like Zimbabwe with a country that operate at the technological frontier like the US is never done because it's stupid, not because of some media conspiracy. You also didn't take into account the population growth. GDP since 1980 (When Mugabe came to power) roughly doubled, from 7 billions to 14 billions USD (accounting for inflation).  But population also increased, so that GDP per capita (again, in constant 2015 USD) is actually lower than it was in 1980. It stayed roughly constant at 1200 USD until 2002, then Mugabe fucked up the currency and the GDP per capita fell and is now at about 800 USD.

But yeah, let's blame it on the media narrative.