Call me a cynic, but I don't exactly understand how this "historic agreement" between Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe and members of the opposition party (including Morgan Tsvangirai, who stepped down from the presidential race after Mugabe's political party went on a rampage of murder, torture and rape) is going to make much of a difference.
Hyperinflation is currently at more than 2 million percent (after Mugabe's government "paid" its own outstanding bills by simply printing more money), food has disappeared from grocery store shelves and Zimbabweans are fleeing into other countries. About a month ago, a couple at my church shared about a phone conversation they had with a friend in Zimbabwe who runs an orphanage. She was telling them how it costs more than $30 U.S. dollars to buy basics like a pint of milk or a loaf of bread. And that was a month ago. I can't even imagine how much worse the situation is now, because the cost was rising day by day when she told us about that.
Obviously we cannot lay all of the blame at Mugabe, although he bears the lion's share for piloting Zimbabwe into a land of extreme poverty and financial crisis. The political climate is clearly ripe with corruption, and Mugabe simply leaving office wouldn't change everything.
I suppose this agreement to work with members of the opposition party to turn things around is a step in the right direction. But as the BBC story I linked to above makes clear, recovery is going to be a very long, very hard journey--if indeed it comes.
Thank you for this update on Zimbabwe's times of turmoil.