Can a fiscal policy possibly curb the inflation in our heads?

February 5, 2009 by imakando musho ·
Filed under: Economy, How Zimbabwe can be better, Zimbabwean diaries

The better part of last year saw me living in a secluded place where life is still relatively easy but not necessarily unharmed by the current economic melt down. Yes this is Zimbabwe! The one reason for this is that we are very close to the Botswana border where we get our groceries cheap using our parents’ hard earned forex they send monthly to support their kids in college. Although life is okay, the area is so secluded and the only news about the outside world is through over exaggerated satellite and internet news coupled with the toned down stuff our parents told us via email or telephone. Frankly, none of this prepared me enough for the shock of a life time when I set foot in Harare.

When Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono introduced the forex shops we were all relieved at least inflation was going to be past, our prices would be realistic and a lot of goods were going to be readily available on the shelves a slight return to the pre-land redistribution era. Every Zimbabwean was ready to sacrifice the little forex their Diaspora relatives had sent them. But alas, this was just another distant Zimbabwean dream.

It seems like Zimbabweans do not know the real value of a dollar or the SA Rand for that matter. How many Zimbabweans have stepped foot on the land of the free let alone study the economics of the superpower? Tell me, how can a loaf of bread, a packet of maputi, two tomatoes and a taxi into town have the same fare? That’s so ridiculously insane because for a dollar I can get three loaves of bread at most in almost every country in the world?

It is very sad to note that even our giant corporations have caught on the bug and are over charging every service they provide. Frankly you would expect the Econet bosses to know that no where in the world do you get such ridiculously high tariffs for cellular talk time. Whether prepaid air time cards worth $50 dollars are available anywhere in the world, does one really expect the majority of the country’s cell phone subscribers to have such money? Even if they had who would want to spend that much on the luxurious device and air time instead of basic food the whole family can enjoy? OK and Spar are taking stuff from just across the Limpopo and coming here to make sometimes even more than 200 percent profits. Take this example that I found in Kuwadzana spar just yesterday; a packet of instant noodles that I know costs R2 each was placed at a whooping R10, a ridiculous eight rand profit! It seems that our heads are so used to big monies that making a decent profit is so out of the question.

If these people had stuck to one price we might have forgiven them for their high prices considering the high cost of transportation but because they are raising their prices as if they were still charging in Zim dollars. My friend saw a shoe that he liked in one of the clothing shops in the CBD and went to hustle from his boys and family only to come back next day to find the shoe up by a whooping ten dollars. The ladies who sale in house shops which have become a common feature after murambatsvina can be forgiven But can that be said for the UZ accounting graduate managing those flea markets disguised as shops? No!

You see, as much as we would like to blame Gono for the current economic meltdown, we are responsible for the situation we are in. That dude has issues to deal with-his weight and staying in good books with his dictator boss. The only thing we can blame for is letting Mugabe push him to implement policies that only benefit Zanu-PF chefs instead of the rest of the population which has ultimately destroyed the value of our economy. Blame should also be put on Gono for opening people’s minds to corruption. As much as he says he wants to do away with inflation, his policies are the ones wreaking havoc to the ordinary Zimbabwean’s head. In 1995 the only people who knew about inflation were those in the educated lines but now inflation has become a word children use during play. Having been with us for the past twelve years this monster has inevitably become a part of our lives and it will be long and after a powerful fiscal policy is applied that our minds can let go of the idea that everything has to go up every minute.

Maybe it’s high time Gono presents one of those big jokes he calls fiscal policies specifically meant to attack our minds. You never know, he maybe successful after years of unforgivable trial and error. With him by the side will be Donald Trump to teach us on the value of a dollar and Robert Kiyosaki teaching us on basic business ethics both hired by the reserve bank on a hope to ease the crunch that is on us. It might not be a fiscal policy that we need but something else; but whatever is, we can only pray that it does come quickly and that it does work.

For more, feedback and comments please go to: http://imakandomusho.blogspot.com or email: imakandomusho@yahoo.com.

Tell the world: