5 more years

On Sunday afternoon, President Robert Mugabe was inaugrated once again as President of Zimbabwe. He is the only President of Zimbabwe in my lifetime..

When I was born, Ronald Reagan was the US President. After him- George H.W Bush had one term, Clinton served two terms and George W Bush has also served 2 terms. All that time- Mugabe has been in power. And that is not even the start of Mugabe's reign- he had already been in power 8 years by the time I was born!! Hard to compare? I think so...

On Friday of last week, as Zimbabweans "went to the polls", inflation was reported to have reached 9 000 000%. I really dont know how to put this in comparison- maybe by comparing it to US inflation which is currently 4%. Nothing that we can compare it to will put it into perspective.

The USD is trading at around $1.99 to the pound at the start of this week. Compare this to the Zimbabwe figure of 85 Billion Zimbabwe dollars to one British Pound.. It is pretty accurate to say that the USD and pound will trade at around $2 this week- normally I just double any pound figure to get the USD figure. However, the Zimbabwe exchange rate will fluctuate greatly by the day- possibly by the hour.....

What is next for Zimbabwe????

Zimbabwe inflation now over 1 million percent

Mutare, 1993. My parents bought the house they live in today for Z$180 000.

Today, a small pack of locally produced coffee beans cost just short of 1 billion Zimbabwe dollars. Zimbabwe's inflation has soared to 1,063,572% according to independent financial analysts in Zimbabwe. A loaf of bread costs today, what 12 new cars cost a decade ago. The last official figure given by the government was 165,000% back in February. They have claimed that it is too expensive for them to calculate the inflation figures anymore. Companies have been complaining of high absenteeism rates due to the high costs of transport that employees must pay to get to work. In the March 29 election, many voters said that the economy was a top issue for them. It will be interesting to see how the results will turn out in the second round of voting which is set for June 27

Jeanette Batiste in Malawi for ASAP

We are real excited here at ASAP because Jeanette Batiste will be in Southern Malawi during the month of October to do the groundwork for ASAP’s new Malawi program. Jeanette was a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi and speaks Chichewa, the local language. She has recently acquired her MSc Environment and Development at the London School of Economics and is now employed at EDGEWOOD HOLDINGS LLC based in Vermont.

Jeanette will be gathering the statistics and local information we will use prepare and conduct a more successful Poverty Alleviation pilot project in Malawi. The Shire Valley, south of Blantyre in Southern Malawi will be the initial target area. This is one of the poorest areas in Malawi. ASAP has been invited by the government to establish a program in Malawi and we expect the it to be underway by early to mid 2008.