Kubatana.net ~ an online community of Zimbabwean activists

Dollars, dollars and dollar!

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I wonder how easily dreams come out to be true in this world?

It had been my childhood dream that one day I would like to go to the American state and upgrade my and our family status in society. My mother in having known what my aspirations were thought in her lifetime she could live to be an honoured person, having a son abroad and everyone admiring the beautiful house she had thought of in her mind. Those were the days, and gone are they no more to return. My mother and father have since passed away with their son’s dream not yet realised, not because the son chose not to have it true, but because it seems the USA is already in Zimbabwe and therefore there is no need to go there physically.

The issue behind this is pretty obvious of course. There is now no need for one to go outside since the little money that one gets from outside is worth nothing when you come back home. I laughed at one of my friends who is an economist and works for the Zimbabwe treasury when he kind of gave a prophecy last year that with the way things are going in Zimbabwe it will soon have a dual currency. I could not figure out what exactly he meant at the time but I am coming to realize what he was trying to express.

Can you imagine how it is when you become an alien with your country’s money? Segregation is now dominant in the economy because if one does not have the Greenback or the Rand, you are an outcast.

Just imagine that long back it used to be a fearsome thing to be in possession of foreign currency but now even a toddler knows and has handled certain amounts. The US$ is no longer sacred as every little commodity is now ranging from a dollar upwards.

Can you imagine buying 10 tomatoes for US$1?

In as much as we might like the dollarisation of the economy the way it is occurring is harming us. Consider that public hospitals are now demanding that you pay US$70 for a night of admission without any medication being provided to you. It leaves me to wonder whether it is for service delivery that we are being charged in forex or it is just greed and speculation?

The truth is that there are only a few people who are benefiting with using the US dollar while the majority are languishing in abject poverty.

It therefore sums it up that going outside the country to work is now for prestige purposes only as the money that one acquires out there has little value when you come back to enjoy the fruit of your labour. I am already in the USA though not physically waiting until Obama changes his currency or something.

One comment to “Dollars, dollars and dollar!”

  1. Comment by Eddie:

    For some of us with young families in the US, we are no longer considering coming back to Zimbabwe to live.

    I am sure I speak for millions and don’t care what most say, unless you have been to Zim in the last 2 months you haven’t seen nothing yet.

    You think the country is dead, wait 12 more months and see.