Lifespan of Dollars is longer in Zimbabwe

That's because they launder dirty money - literally:



Zimbabweans wash dirty US dollars with soap, water

HARARE, Zimbabwe – The washing machine cycle takes about 45 minutes — and George Washington comes out much cleaner in the Zimbabwe-style laundering of dirty money.

Low-denomination U.S bank notes change hands until they fall apart here in Africa, and the bills are routinely carried in underwear and shoes through crime-ridden slums.

Some have become almost too smelly to handle, so Zimbabweans have taken to putting their $1 bills through the spin cycle and hanging them up to dry with clothes pins alongside sheets and items of clothing.

It's the best solution — apart from rubber gloves or disinfectant wipes — in a continent where the U.S. dollar has long been the currency of choice and where the lifespan of a dollar far exceeds what the U.S. Federal Reserve intends.

Zimbabwe's coalition government officially declared the U.S. dollar legal tender last year to eradicate world record inflation of billions of percent in the local Zimbabwe dollar as the economy collapsed.

The U.S. Federal Reserve destroys about 7,000 tons of worn-out money every year. It says the average $1 bill circulates in the United States for about 20 months — nowhere near its African life span of many years. [...]

Unlike here, they can't take worn notes to the bank and exchange them. Chemical cleaning fades the color, so they gently launder the bills.

     

Is Mexico going to be our Zimbabwe?

Police state: How Mexico treats illegal aliens

I won't quote from the above article, but it deals with the hypocrisy of Mexico criticizing Arizona, as that state tries to protect itself from violence spilling over into it from it's border with Mexico.

The article speaks the facts. What concerns me is, that as the corruption and violence in Mexico worsens, it will continue to affect us adversely.

I'm reminded of South Africa and Zimbabwe. South Africa had plenty of problems of it's own to struggle with, when across their Northern boarder in Zimbabwe, the corrupt government of Robert Mugabe ran that country into the ground, forcing millions of people to flee across the Southern border into South Africa, looking for food, shelter and work.

South Africa already had high unemployment. Zimbabwe refugees have only made that situation much worse, as we have seen in South Africa's own immigration riots. I often wonder why the South African government doesn't work to topple Mugabe's regime, so that the millions of Zimbabwean's in South Africa could then return home and rebuild their country. Zimbabwe as it is today, is a terrible drag on South Africa.

My point in the comparison is, that we don't only have and interest and a need to protect our own borders; we have an interest and a need to see the deterioration in Mexico halted, and ideally, reversed. They are too close to us, and too integrated with us, for us to remain unaffected by whatever happens there.

We don't need a corrupt basket case festering on our Southern border, dragging us down with it. Mexico needs to change. For the better, not the worse, as it's doing now. IMO, Molly-coddling the current Mexican government is not going to make things better.
     

Immigration Riots... in South Africa

The backlash is occurring against both legal and illegal immigrants:

Anti-Immigrant Violence Continues in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG — Violence against immigrants, like some windswept fire, spread across one neighborhood after another here in one of South Africa’s main cities at the weekend, and the police said the mayhem left at least 12 people dead — beaten by mobs, shot, stabbed or burned alive.

The violence continued to rage on Monday, as police fired rubber bullets and made arrests to try to quell the violence in and around Johannesburg, and said the death toll had reached 22, The Associated Press reported.

Thousands of panicked foreigners — many of them Zimbabweans who have fled their own country’s economic collapse — have now deserted their ramshackle dwellings and tin-walled squatter hovels to take refuge in churches and police stations.

On Monday, men wielding clubs and sticks patrolled along the road near one camp — apparently South Africans trying to prevent foreigners from returning, The A.P. said.

This latest outbreak of xenophobia began a week ago in the historic township of Alexandra and has since spread to other areas in and around Johannesburg, including Cleveland, Diepsloot, Hilbrow, Tembisa, Primrose, Ivory Park and Thokoza.


Amid so much violence, the police were spread thin, sending in squads of officers in armored vehicles. “We are using all available resources and will call in reinforcements if the need arises,” a police spokesman, Govindswamy Mariemuthoo, told reporters. [...]

The NY Times article goes on to blame rising food prices as one of the contributing factors. I don't doubt it. South Africa and Zimbabwe both used to export food to the rest of Africa. But then Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe forcibly took the farms away from white Zimbabwean farmers, and turned that country into a starving basket case, with 1000 percent inflation.

Since coming under majority rule, many in South Africa also want farms taken away from whites. Years ago I read that a white farmer is murdered every 3 days in South Africa. As a result many have immigrated out of the country. South Africa now has to import food just to feed itself. It's real cause for concern. A country that loses the ability to feed itself is in trouble.

The anti-immigration riots aren't new, but they have been increasing. When the majority government took over, they opened the borders to neighboring countries. Many MILLIONS of illegals poured into South Africa, straining an economy that already had high unemployment. As the situation in neighboring Zimbabwe worsened, many more people from there fled to South Africa.

The sooner Mugabe is removed from power in Zimbabwe, the better. Then Zimbabweans can return to their country and hopefully make it livable again, and take pressure off an already over-burdened South Africa.

Update 05-22-08:
Hostels raided in South Africa clampdown
'Necklace' lynching returns to South Africa