See you in New York

President Robert Mugabe, who begged UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to visit Zimbabwe so he could explain why he knocked down nearly a million people's homes, has withdrawn the invitation.

Which of course was fake from the start. He doesn’t like anyone to look too closely into his affairs or mugabe-made disasters in Zimbabwe:

The UN was also prevented from carrying out crop assessments last year and its World Food Programme was forced to stop feeding Zimbabweans after Mugabe falsely claimed a record maize crop.

The hole left in the economy by the payment of part of Zimbabwe’s arrears to the IMF will never be filled:

Officials hinted at “generosity” from businesses in the raising of the IMF dues, and there are suggestions that companies have liquidated some of their precious foreign-currency holdings in the national interest. Given the shortages, this would seem to be a crazy notion. But word in Harare is that the government offered takers a rate of Z$50 000 to $1 to make the exchange, against the official rate of Z$24 520.

The money has to come from somewhere and Mugabe, always a good one for encouraging foreign investment and confidence in the country, has had another brilliant idea: steal it!

A cabinet minister in Zimbabwe has warned the government may take over white-owned firms in an exercise similar to actions under Harare's five-year old land reform programme
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"Most of these companies do not want to give us equity. We might decide to take over these companies just like we did during the land reform exercise,"
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Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa told the CZI conference that the amendments to the constitution were not a threat to commerce and industry.

Zimbabwe, Mugabe