Zimbabwe: Stock market gains, a peaceful prayer meeting, and economic opportunism

As the poor get poorer, the rich are only going to get richer in Zimbabwe. In this post, Mugabe Makaipa describes how Zimbabwe's stock market has grown 12,000% over last year as it has become chief among the few safe places that people can hedge against inflation. With inflation skyrocketing, unemployment reaching 80%, the local bourse has simultaneously become a boon to the capitalist intentions of the few that are willing to make the risky investment in Zimbabwean stock too. Sadly, the economically elite are the only beneficiaries of the reeling economy that is in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, they are very few and far between.

Therefore, all of the rich people, government officials, and banks are putting their money into stocks so that it doesn't lose value. Demand is high, so the price is too.

The everyday people of Zimbabwe don't see any benefit to this, though. Their masters may not see it for much longer either. Stock prices on the index are obviously inflated and unsustainable. It's only a matter of time before it comes crashing down, taking down many in its spiral.

Still on the subject of the select few in Zimbabwe, Zimpundit is conflicted about whether Zimbabweans in the diaspora should support calls for the deportation of the children of government officials who are living affluent lives on college campuses and in cities in the west. It goes without saying that most if not all of these children are direct or indirect beneficiaries of the torrid situation faced by struggling tax paying Zimbabweans. The fact that the Zimbabwean government has been openly public with their anti-west rhetoric doesn't help the situation much. Zimpundit wants to know:

Should this be thing that we as Zimbabweans be working at? Or do we have better things invest our energies into?

Just weeks after one of the bloodiest weekends in the history of Zimbabwe, the Save Zimbabwe coalition shifted their attention to Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, this last weekend. Save Zimbabwe, the umbrella body of civic organizations in Zimbabwe, is the same group that was behind the fateful Highfield prayer meeting which was brutally quashed by the Zimbabwe Republic Police. This is Zimbabwe has been following developments surrounding the prayer meeting. Ever the skeptic, The Bearded Man comments thus on relative tranquility surrounding the Bulawayo prayer meeting,

Wonders will never cease!

It makes such a difference to hear that a prayer meeting was allowed to proceed and that the situation did not deteriorate into violence, beating, arrests and a repeat of the orgy of oppression we saw last month.

This does not mean that the ruling party have done with the beatings etc, but that for some reason they saw reason and long may that continue

Finally, Dennis Nyandoro at Kubatana Blogs chronicles how some opportunists are exploiting the hyper inflationary environment to gauge people who are suspected to have money

Yesterday I went to the shops together with my wife, and when we were checking in different shops and comparing prices I met my young brother with his wife also doing the same thing. Most people think we are twins but we are not, the only difference is that I wear spectacles and my young brother doesn’t.

Anyway the four of us holding our plastic bags walked around the shop buildings rubbing shoulders with vendors displaying their wares of tomatoes, onions, potatoes etc.

My young brother had bought a packet of Chimombe fresh milk for Z$5,000 from a vendor who had packs under his little table – one that is easy to carry when being chased by the police. As I approached the vendor he greeted me with a loud voice: “Aah murungu auya” meaning someone with money. All because of the spectacles.

Then I asked how much a packet of Chimombe was, and guess what? “Only Z$6,000!” he said smiling. But before I handed over the money my young brother quickly asked the vendor why he was charging me more than what he had sold it to him for. The vendor looked at my young brother with bloodshot eyes trying to stop him from telling me the right price.

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