Zimbabwe Elections

The last time I visited Zimbabwe, 15 years ago, it was the breadbasket of southern Africa. It didn’t look economically dynamic and the sense of “watch what you say” oppression was palpable, but the main roads were being fixed, crops were growing, and the cities seemed to function. It was obviously a far better-run country than Kenneth Kaunda’s Zambia in that day.

Today, Zimbabwe has 90% unemployment and people are literally starving–in a nation that used to export its crops and is blessed with superb land that can be farmed year-round. Robert Mugabe is generally to blame for this state of affairs, by creating the perfect laboratory for the failure of wealth redistribution. He’s also destroyed several institutions for which Zimbabwe was once a model to its neighbors, including its free press and its uncorrupted and independent judiciary.

If you’re interested, here is some photoblogging from yesterday’s election. Here is a disturbing-yet-inspiring report from an opposition poll-watcher, and here’s a report from Nicholas Kristof that’s so courageous and honest that it nearly makes up for an awful commentary he recently wrote about North Korea.

Note to Nick Kristof–you’re a much better reporter than commentator. Keep your day job.