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Present problems not unique to Zimbabwe

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MANY people who read foreign owned Sunday ‘papers’ of January 25 were made to believe that President Robert Mugabe had been taken prisoner by the Zambians in Lusaka.
However, when we took stock of what had really happened in Lusaka, it turned out that the particular press was exaggerating a small demonstration that was staged by an opposition party in Zambia.
That demonstration was very small in comparison to the hero’s welcome that he was given by thousands of Zambians at the National Heroes Stadium where the new Zambian President Mr Edgar Lungu was inaugurated.
If we reduce the matter to figures, it was like comparing one percent for the demonstration and 99 percent for the President in the stadium.
Many of us were tempted to simply throw away the papers sighing: “Well, it’s the usual witches’ brew they dish out.”
However, we feel we would have failed to do our duty if we did not show that the foreign-owned press in this country preoccupies itself with tarnishing our country’s good name and the integrity of her leaders.
To prove our point we are going to use the misinformation these ‘papers’ write about our country’s economic performance vis a vis that of the rest of the world.
Every day, the foreign-owned press in Zimbabwe paints this fake picture about the country’s economy.
On one hand there is the rest of the world’s economy which they say is always full of bright, warm sunshine and great glory.
On the other hand Zimbabwe’s economy which they say is always full of doom and gloom – low commodity prices, no foreign direct investment (FDI), deflation, blackouts, bad leadership, etc.
Just listen to this witchcraft coming from the foreign-owned press only this past week.
The Independent (January 23 2015): “Zimbabwe is resource rich yet is home to one of the world’s most poverty stricken people who desperately need new investment inflows beyond pie in the sky deals if the people are to extricate themselves from the economic abyss.”
To start with I really don’t know which Zimbabwe these people are talking about.
Definitely not the one between the Zambezi and Limpopo where today, especially in towns it is not surprising to find a so-called ‘garden boy’ or ‘cook’ driving a car.
Furthermore, in the rural areas, the average peasant farmer has cattle, goats, chicken and grain.
Now if a so-called ‘garden boy’ a street vendor and peasant farmer etc has all the things we have described above and still these people are described as ‘poverty stricken’, I must definitely go back to college and study the whiteman’s language called English.
If an investor puts millions of dollars like the Chinese have done so that Kariba Hydropower Station can generate an extra 300 megawatts and this is still called a ‘pie in the sky deal’ then the foreign-based press do not stay on earth, but on either Mars or Jupiter!
The world economy and not only that of Zimbabwe is in a spin.
The World Bank has forecast that, “this year (2015) may well see a rare occurrence for world commodity markets – a decline in all nine key commodity price indices.”
Other writers support this position when they say, “commodity prices and capital inflows are expected to decline in 2015 as growth in emerging markets remains subdued.
“(FDI flows are projected to remain that in 2015.
“The mining sector is expected to decline for the first time in five years due to plummeting commodity prices.”
Oil is a good example here.
Now what has the above dire economic situation in the world got to do with the leadership in Zimbabwe?
If the price of platinum falls as predicted above, why should the present Zimbabwe leadership be blamed as the foreign press urges everyone to do all the time?
Then there is the issue of deflation.
There is deflation in Zimbabwe, but why is the foreign-owned press giving the wrong impression that deflation is only a problem peculiar to Zimbabwe.
The truth is today deflation is a worldwide problem.
So is the liquidity problem.
For example, one of the biggest agenda items of the so-called World Economic Forum of so-called developed nations that was recently held in Davos, Switzerland, was deflation.
By the way, deflation is characterised by falling prices which means consumers are bound to delay purchases and this leads to real wages falling and jobs being lost.
Now at Davos, because Europe is gripped with deflation and a high liquidity crunch delegates were told that, “The European Central Bank to try and cure the problem of deflation was set to print 60 billion Euros a month until at least September 2015.
“Deflation was seen in Davos as a significant threat to any chance of economic recovery in Europe.”
It is therefore not correct for the foreign-owned press in this country to misinform the people of Zimbabwe by saying deflation and liquidity problems were a uniquely Zimbabwean problem.
It is not.
And the problem needs to be sorted out in the global economy and not by Zimbabwe alone.
We also have the problem of power outages.
The MDC formations and the foreign-owned press in this country always want to mislead people to think that power outages are a uniquely Zimbabwean problem.
South Africa has load shedding, Botswana the same etc.
In some countries, power outages are more severe than Zimbabwe.
And so whoever tells you that load shedding is an entirely Zimbabwean problem is a liar.
The foreign-owned press in this country must wake up.
Instead of talking the country down every time, they must now write the good things that are happening all around us today.
For instance, Zimbabwe was voted the best tourist destination in the world. That is surely something to celebrate as much as the numerous business delegations coming into the country now and again looking for business opportunities.
For example, only this week a huge French delegation arrived in the country to bring about FDI in the country.
Yes the world economy is in a bad shape, but there are many positive things happening in our great country.
Let us all celebrate those.

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