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Christian Living

africamatters 02/19/09

Zimbabwe in the Balance

There's big news out of Zimbabwe...

The country's stock market opened today after being closed for three months.  Now, Zimbabwe's market deals in U.S. dollars instead of the greatly devalued local currency.   Bloomberg Press reports that Zimbabwe had one of the worst-performing markets in sub-Saharan Africa last year.  Something had to be done to give it a jump start and economists hope using dollars might help.

(Click here to read more about Zimbabwe's stock market reopening.)

Also interesting, the government will be paying the country's soldiers, civil servants, teachers and government employees in dollars.  This means more merchants will be able to do business in dollars and South African rand.  This will help stimulate the economy.  The Associate Press has a bit of good news...

"The $100 monthly salary will be a raise for most government employees, who had seen their buying power drop to the equivalent of $30 a month because of inflation."

And speaking of inflation, the country also has the world's highest inflation rate.  It hit 231 million percent last July!  Yes.  That's right...231,000,000% INFLATION!  Any time you get tempted to complain about how the global financial crisis is affecting you, think of all those zeros and the impact they have on every day people living in Zimbabwe. 

Many are starving.  A severe cholera outbreak over the past seven months has killed nearly 4,000 men, women and children.  Things are so bad in the country that one aid agency says there is a new case of cholera every minute in the country. 

(Click here to read and hear a report from Voice of America about the cholera crisis.)

In a new report, the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission also details the recent history of persecution and intimidation of Christians in Zimbabwe.  I highly recommend reading this article to get a report on what's going on in the church.  It gives good information. 

But before you get completely overwhelmed by the dire situation in Zimbabwe, make sure to read the bottom of the WEARLC report.  Instead of leaving the reader powerless, the report gives specific prayer requests for the country...many of the requests come from Zimbabweans themselves. 

(Click here to read the full WEARLC report.)

Are you from Zimbabwe?  Or just want to weigh in on the crisis? E-mail me your thoughts.

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