Airstrip One

Zimwatch: The Grind - 1st July 2003, 23.21

Zimbabwe is a mirror to Orwell's allegory, Animal Farm. Whilst those, in whose name, Mugabe set up his anti-colonial regime starve, the elite profit from the shortages created.

According the UN World Food Programme, nearly half of all Zimbabweans will need food aid this year to avoid mass starvation. About 80 percent of the population live in poverty. A fraction of the rest - perhaps 3 percent, mostly President Robert Mugabe's ruling party elite and their business associates - control the hugely profitable black market in goods and hard currency. They are enjoying boom times. Agencies selling limousines and even luxury cosmetics have reported record sales. "The shortages are profitable. The people who could fix the situation are the ones who are making a fortune out of it," Robertson said.

And today has presented more evidence of their sloganising, derived from the politics of identity, which depends upon the right attitude amongst the comrades.

The attacks followed an essay by Mr Powell in The New York Times last week, that described President Robert Mugabe's rule as a tyranny and urged neighbouring countries to force him to compromise with his political opponents. In response, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo accused Mr Powell of distorting the truth and called him "an ordinary liar". An article in the state-run Herald newspaper, and an accompanying editorial, referred to Mr Powell as "an Uncle Tom despised by people of colour throughout the world" and called Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai "a terrorist who should be shot on sight".

Now, it is just a matter of the grind, the gradual wearing down of the economy until even the elites realise that the there is nothing left to fund their theft.