Let's move out of the U.S. today. Most of us have heard about the hyper-inflationary crisis that ravaged Zimbabwe's economy in 2008. The crisis led to the decision to abandon Zimbabwean currency for the United States dollar in 2009. Recently, the Zimbabwean economy has been suffering from a serious currency shortage that has seen its citizens waiting in bank ques for hours trying to get their hands on some cash, sometimes to no avail.
Just this month, parliament introduced legislation allowing borrowers to back their bank loans using livestock such as sheep, goats and cattle. Following this decision, the Education Minister Lazarus Dokora announced that parents struggling to pay school fees could now pay their children's tuition with livestock (primarily goats). The decision has been met with outrage, despair, frustration ...and quite a bit of humor.
We have been discussing how far the world has come in terms of economic and technological development. Following this decision, however, most Zimbabweans, myself included, feel like their country has taken several steps backwards. Thoughts?
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-39639204
My first reaction when I heard the news i.e. when I saw the memes was to laugh. I found the thought completely ridiculous. But after a while the reality of what it meant actually set in. It's really come to my country using a barter system?! It honestly feels like we've taken so many steps backward. There is no reason why a country with such an abundance of mineral resources, and resourceful, talented people should live this way. But unfortunately it also just goes to show that grave inequalities exist everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Shanice, except I'm not even sure how funny the memes are.
ReplyDeleteThe use of livestock as currency is a poor excuse of a solution for the economic crisis that Zimbabwe is suffering from. Something needs to be done to ensure that currency is available, and stays available. As long as the citizens of Zimbabwe cannot trust in their banks or government to provide this (nearly basic human right), I cannot imagine that things will get better.
Commodity money?
ReplyDeleteBut what comes next?
It's hard to believe this as a long term plan for Zimbabwe. This use of commodity money brings us much closer to a barter system, where items are traded according to their value, not defined monetary value, so is this a slippery slope to Zimbabwe turning to a barter heavy economy?
ReplyDeleteMy only question is, if parents are paying for tuition with goats...what are the schools doing with them? Also, what about people who do not have livestock to use as "money"? I don't see how this is a solution to the problem.
ReplyDeleteI also am wondering about the goat's livelihood and what the schools are exactly going to do with them. I hope this is short-lived as it shouldn't be coming to this.
ReplyDeleteI think Kriti is asking a really good question! This is really sad, it sucks it's come to this point...
ReplyDeleteThere has been a lot of negative feedback to this article. Yes, it does seem a bit out of the times to pay school fees with livestock. But at the same time, if this is a system that is allowing children to go to school who otherwise would be unable to afford it, should we be so critical?
ReplyDeleteI feel this is a social recession. We used to have like gold, silver as a currency, we've gone thru so many changes in terms of currency and eventually adopted paper money and credit cards. If we use livestock as really money, why just sell them in exchange of really money?
ReplyDeleteThis is comical at first but is definitely a serious issue. Like Dr. Apps asked, what really comes next? This exchange of commodity is no where near sustainable and there needs to be serious intervention.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read about this, I died of laughter. But then I realized that there are countries out there that are very impoverished and don't have a reliable currency. I think that using livestock has enabled Zimbabwe to incorporate people into the market and has allowed an opportunity for children to receive an education.
ReplyDelete