Another look at Zimbabwe - the two faces

A sad story from The Daily Mail:

Two faces of Zimbabwe: In Rome, Mugabe's aides buy in bulk. In Harare, they can't afford bananas
When a bunch of bananas costs 100million dollars, who could imagine having carrier bags stuffed full of food?

Plainly not these Zimbabweans, who stood around a market stall in the capital Harare, looking helplessly at its laughable pricetags.

But as their president moved to use their hunger as a political weapon, it seemed his aides were stockpiling an armoury.

In Rome for a UN food crisis conference, they shopped near Robert Mugabe's five-star hotel, filling bags to breaking point with food, especially pasta, to take home.

And who could blame them? In a country where inflation is nearly 165,000 per cent and the government simply adds to the problems by printing more money, it appears to pay to stay close to the president.

Indeed, food is likely to become Mugabe's tool to bolster his support before the election run-off with Morgan Tsvangirai, a fortnight away.

For even as he reminded his audience in Italy of the food shortages in his country, yesterday his administration banned the distribution of food aid.

A third of the population relies on this aid, after years of poor harvests. Charity workers fear this ban means that food will become a political weapon in Mugabe's arsenal.

By allowing only government personnel to distribute food, only those who support Mugabe and his Zanu PF party might receive enough to quell their hunger.

The article has these two photos that serve to drive home the disparity:

And to think that twenty years ago, Zimbabwe was the jewel of Africa -- its breadbasket. It used to export food, had a very stable economy and the people were happy. Chalk up another one for Marxism...