Zimbabwe only has $217 left

[brainhulk]

http://news.yahoo.com/zimbabwe-down-last-217-031022981.html

There are cash-strapped governments, and there are broke governments. And then there's Zimbabwe, which, after paying last week's government salaries, has just $217 in the bank. No, we didn't forget any zeroes to the end of that figure. Zimbabwe, the country that's home to some of the world's largest plutonium and diamond reserves, is literally as rich as a 14-year-old girl after a really good birthday party.

lol

 

[Quantos]

Wow. I think they should revert to the inflation thing; they'd have trillions of dollars again!

 

[dmcowen674]

http://news.yahoo.com/zimbabwe-down-last-217-031022981.html

There are cash-strapped governments, and there are broke governments. And then there's Zimbabwe, which, after paying last week's government salaries, has just $217 in the bank. No, we didn't forget any zeroes to the end of that figure. Zimbabwe, the country that's home to some of the world's largest plutonium and diamond reserves, is literally as rich as a 14-year-old girl after a really good birthday party.

Well they have $217 more than the U.S.

The U.S. is $100 trillion in debt

 

[Rifter]

I dont see the big deal thats billions more than the US.

 

[SagaLore]

Well they have $217 more than the U.S.

The U.S. is $100 trillion in debt

I dont see the big deal thats billions more than the US.

Yea this is the first thing I thought of when reading that - sounds like they have a balanced budget.

 

[Doppel]

Come on, people. Ever heard of google?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt

 

[CPA]

C'mon guys, really? Money in bank has no correlation to whether a country or business has debt.

Remember Zimbabwe was the country that kicked out white farmers and relocated hundreds of thousands of black citizens to the farming land. Since then their farming industry has collapsed. Right or wrong, it had a devastating effect on their agriculture industry.

This country also has an unemployment rate in the 90 percentile. You heard that right. 9 out of 10 Zimbabweans don't have a job.

The government is 98% of the country's GDP. Everything is state run...everything.

Oh, and they have over $15B in debt. Now while that's a drop in the bucket compared to the US, keep in mind that it's relative to the country's economy. $15B is a lot more taxing to Zimbabwe than $12T is to the US.

 

[randomrogue]

Zimbabwe is poor as fuck. I couldn't stay there since it was driving me nuts that there was never any power. They would only turn on the power right at sunset and only for a few hours. Was very frustrating. I couldn't cook food. You literally had to use propane or wood to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don't carry propane or wood with me to hotels.

They don't have any money at all. People make a living selling the old money to tourists since that's a decent job. Cops get no salary so they literally use whatever gas they have to drive cops out to different highways leading in and out of cities to collect bribes.

I do recommend visiting though. Briefly. There's some cool stuff to see. Great Zimbabwe for example. Nothing dangerous there as long as you don't say shit about Mugabe or wander off in the night and get trampled by an elephant. Victoria Falls is kinda an exception to the rule and is pretty normal. They even have power. You run the risk of getting killed by Elephants though.

 

[MayorOfAmerica]

Sounds like a lot of people here who make >$250K / year

 

[brainhulk]

Zimbabwe is poor as fuck. I couldn't stay there since it was driving me nuts that there was never any power. They would only turn on the power right at sunset and only for a few hours. Was very frustrating. I couldn't cook food. You literally had to use propane or wood to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don't carry propane or wood with me to hotels.

They don't have any money at all. People make a living selling the old money to tourists since that's a decent job. Cops get no salary so they literally use whatever gas they have to drive cops out to different highways leading in and out of cities to collect bribes.

I do recommend visiting though. Briefly. There's some cool stuff to see. Great Zimbabwe for example. Nothing dangerous there as long as you don't say shit about Mugabe or wander off in the night and get trampled by an elephant. Victoria Falls is kinda an exception to the rule and is pretty normal. They even have power. You run the risk of getting killed by Elephants though.

Do they kidnap people for ransom there?

Can you shoot the elephant of it's coming right for you?

 

[lozina]

217 US dollars?


That's still worth about 300 trillion Zimbabwe dollars. They are swimming in money!

 

[randomrogue]

Do they kidnap people for ransom there?

Can you shoot the elephant of it's coming right for you?

It was safe. No kidnappings. The cops might want a bribe of $20 but that's about the worst thing that can happen. You're not the one paying that either. It's always the taxi driver.

As far as animals I didn't realize how serious the problem was until I started going to bars and clubs with the locals. They had all kinds of crazy stories. During the day it was pretty common to see warthogs and whatnot running through the streets. However at night the Elephants would come into town and they're hard to spot in the pitch dark. People would get trampled since they would suddenly be surrounded by 20 elephants and Elephants can get upset if there are babies around. I'm sure google has plenty of interesting stories. And no, you can't shoot it. They live there. You move out of the way.

 

[Olikan]

This country also has an unemployment rate in the 90 percentile. You heard that right. 9 out of 10 Zimbabweans don't have a job.

IIRC...half the population have AIDS, too

 

[brainhulk]

It was safe. No kidnappings. The cops might want a bribe of $20 but that's about the worst thing that can happen. You're not the one paying that either. It's always the taxi driver.

As far as animals I didn't realize how serious the problem was until I started going to bars and clubs with the locals. They had all kinds of crazy stories. During the day it was pretty common to see warthogs and whatnot running through the streets. However at night the Elephants would come into town and they're hard to spot in the pitch dark. People would get trampled since they would suddenly be surrounded by 20 elephants and Elephants can get upset if there are babies around. I'm sure google has plenty of interesting stories. And no, you can't shoot it. They live there. You move out of the way.

$20??? that's ~10% of the country's total savings

 

[randomrogue]

$20??? that's ~10% of the country's total savings

lol

The logic generally goes like this. Taxi has 15 people in it. Each person paid $1.25. Cops ask for $20. That's more than the driver got in fares so a huge bargaining takes place until he gets to a sum he can actually pay.

 

[bearxor]

do they kidnap people for ransom there?

Can you shoot the elephant of it's coming right for you?

"it's coming right for us!"

 

[brainhulk]

"it's coming right for us!"

 

[Silver Prime]

An still they got like 217--thousand diamonds just floating all up and down there rivers.

How the hell did africa an India's landscape produce so much jewels...seen this documentry of a man cutting a diomand in black an white a few months ago an it was the size of a base ball. He was sweating while the narrirator was talking saying this is the crucial part an many men have lost there lives from the owners dis-please shattering the diomand while applying to much or to little pressure upoun the strike.

XD XD

 

[NetWareHead]

http://news.yahoo.com/zimbabwe-down-last-217-031022981.html



lol

Largest plutonium reserves? I'm sure they must mean uranium. Who wrote this article...

 

[nehalem256]

Remember Zimbabwe was the country that kicked out white farmers and relocated hundreds of thousands of black citizens to the farming land. Since then their farming industry has collapsed. Right or wrong, it had a devastating effect on their agriculture industry.

This country also has an unemployment rate in the 90 percentile. You heard that right. 9 out of 10 Zimbabweans don't have a job.

Sounds to me like they wanted to re-enact Atlas Shrugged

The government is 98% of the country's GDP. Everything is state run...everything.

So when will we start hearing reports of Cannibalism?

 

[Squisher]

Zimbabwe is poor as fuck. I couldn't stay there since it was driving me nuts that there was never any power. They would only turn on the power right at sunset and only for a few hours. Was very frustrating. I couldn't cook food. You literally had to use propane or wood to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don't carry propane or wood with me to hotels.

They don't have any money at all. People make a living selling the old money to tourists since that's a decent job. Cops get no salary so they literally use whatever gas they have to drive cops out to different highways leading in and out of cities to collect bribes.

I do recommend visiting though. Briefly. There's some cool stuff to see. Great Zimbabwe for example. Nothing dangerous there as long as you don't say shit about Mugabe or wander off in the night and get trampled by an elephant. Victoria Falls is kinda an exception to the rule and is pretty normal. They even have power. You run the risk of getting killed by Elephants though.

Pardon me if I just look at the post cards.

 

[randomrogue]

Pardon me if I just look at the post cards.

Your call but Victoria Falls alone makes it worth visiting. It's one of the most amazing things to see on the planet.

 

[waggy]

An still they got like 217--thousand diamonds just floating all up and down there rivers.

well company's like dabeers won't let them be sold. they are worthless if nobody will sell them.

it is part of the reason diamonds are so high. restricting the amount on the market.

if they put out as many as there are the market would get flooded and prices would drop.

 

[Jimzz]

well company's like dabeers won't let them be sold. they are worthless if nobody will sell them.

it is part of the reason diamonds are so high. restricting the amount on the market.

if they put out as many as there are the market would get flooded and prices would drop.

Yep diamonds are not that rare. They are only "rare" because of monoploys controlling them.

 

[Dari]

C'mon guys, really? Money in bank has no correlation to whether a country or business has debt.

Remember Zimbabwe was the country that kicked out white farmers and relocated hundreds of thousands of black citizens to the farming land. Since then their farming industry has collapsed. Right or wrong, it had a devastating effect on their agriculture industry.

This country also has an unemployment rate in the 90 percentile. You heard that right. 9 out of 10 Zimbabweans don't have a job.

The government is 98% of the country's GDP. Everything is state run...everything.

Oh, and they have over $15B in debt. Now while that's a drop in the bucket compared to the US, keep in mind that it's relative to the country's economy. $15B is a lot more taxing to Zimbabwe than $12T is to the US.

The problem was not taking farmland away from whites. The problem was the government gave it to its cronies and supporters, who knew nothing about farming.