Expensive beer
There are days when you work really really hard and long for a cold beer at the end of it.
Then there are other days, when you work really really hard, and then have to work even harder just so you can have that cold beer at the end of the day. By that I mean the effort that goes into lugging lots of cash with you to pay for it!
This picture is doing the rounds on email. Someone queued for ages to receive cash (remember, we reported cash was short in Zimbabwe) and was eventually paid out in Z$500 bills.
The beer cost (at this bar) cost $Z1million, so the patron produced four piles of Z$500 bills, each amounting to Z$250,000.
The email helpfully reminds us that Gideon Gono lopped zeros off our currency last year in August, so in ‘old money’ terms, this beer actually costs Z$1 billion.
November 30th, 2007 00:20
There is an old “American” English phrase that goes: “Belly up to the bar” - I suppose for the average Zimbabwean it now must read “wheelbarrow up to the bar” - sad commentary of the state of the economy and the uncontrolled inflation brought on by horrible policies and practices. But, hey, maybe the carrying of all that extra cash will help to burn some of those beer calories - might as well laugh - crying appears to not be accomplishing much. Unfortunately, buying a beer is the least of the problems faced by many in Zim these days - medical care, buying food for family, etc.. seems to be a bigger issue, but we all need something to make us smile and chuckle now and then - even in the face of personal, social and national disaster
November 30th, 2007 07:52
This is a very unfortunate moment for all of us Zimbabweans. I will tell you something, which will show you that we have not yet started. Mugabe has won 2008 elections?
December 4th, 2007 17:27
I’m thinking that some folks in Zimbabwe should contact American advertising companies to do commercials. Just a few hundred USD would make a big difference in the business, and what an opportunity for the American advertisers.
Can’t you see the commercials:
“Zimbabwe Beer : One Billion Dollars. Satisfaction: Priceless. MasterCard.”
“… They take a huge pile of cash, but they don’t take American Express. Visa - it’s where you want to be.”
“(insert beer brand here) - Worth a Billion!”
Note that I’m not making fun of the situation - ok, well, I am trying to lighten things up because sometimes if you don’t laugh you go mad - but I really think that if the Zim situation were used in American TV ads, there’d be a lot more exposure and maybe some kind of _useful_ reaction from the US Govt
December 6th, 2007 18:47
I just wish all this crap would end and things could be restored to how they used to be (like about 10 years ago)! I want to go home. I hate living abroad.
December 9th, 2007 19:15
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