Andrew
Editor’s Brief
Victoria Ruzvidzo
“Heal the world and make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race.
There are people dying if you care enough for the living, make a better place for you and for me.”
These are the profound lyrics in the late American singer Michael Jackson’s ‘Heal The World Song ‘released in his 1992 Album Dangerous.
The world can be a cruel and unfair place but the obligation upon humanity is to make it a better place. There is no need to complicate the situation any further. Wars, sanctions, civil strife and a whole list of issues have complicated life and created more chaos than peace.
Presently the world is paying heavily for the action and inactions of its citizenry. In this instance, the current disruptions to the food and other commodities supply chain are a result of the sanctions imposed the European Union on Russian following the launch of a special military operation in Ukraine.
These have had debilitating effects that have left the world stranded. Stories of inadequate supplies of milk formula in Europe and USA are telling of the current mayhem.
Reports last week that some parents are now stealing baby formula from shops to feed their children are quite unfortunate and demonstrate a severe level of desperation. parent’s fiduciary function is to take care of family and disruptions brought by war or sanctions elicit all kinds of reactions.
The announcement a few days ago that the EU will now ease some aspects of the export and import restrictions to allow smoother movement of agricultural and food products is a positive move.
While this is so, where have sanctions ever worked?
They condemn people to dire situations, the very same ones they are supposed to serve, this is the greatest irony.
Zimbabwe and other countries on the continent have not been spared from the developments regarding the Russia-Ukraine tiff. In fact, the entire globe is almost on its knees.
Most economies are experiencing recession while economic figures have been revised downwards. All this has largely been triggered by the sanctions imposed on Russia.
It is against this background that we find our economy facing serious challenges, most of which are not peculiar to us.
However, as we have stated before, self-defeating tendencies are compounding the situation through currency manipulation and other behind-the-scenes machinations of mischief whose bitter fruits are evident and well-pronounced in the economy.
Confidence in our currency
If one takes any two economists and poses the same question, it is likely one will get contradictory responses. lt is not entirely a bad phenomenon, useful insights come from different views.
There is much to be gleaned from different perspectives. Where the divergent economic views coalesce is on the need for Zimbabwe to raise its confidence bar to buttress the largely volatile currency. The value of any currency is significantly derived from the confidence people have in it.
It is postulated that by at least 60 percent and schools of thought are unanimous on this. how a person sees anything is their reality.
lt can be put differently, perception is reality! And that perception needs management.it equally requires nurturing, consolidation and justification. There are other economic fundamentals which bear on value
The Malawi kwacha, for instance, is consistently around 800 to the USD but there are hardly any foreign currency movements in that country. Zimbabwe has a much more diversified economy.
Zambia’s kwacha is now almost at par with the South African rand, notwithstanding its precipitous fall in yester years.
Both countries have an immutable affinity for their currency and the Zambia example demonstrates how a currency can appreciate.
Here we have a resounding cry over what are clearly exponential price increases and these, to a large extent, are based on the fluctuations on foreign currency movements on the parallel market.
Families are bearing the brunt of this and the blame, in a number of instances is erroneously placed on the Government. We collectively determine our fate. There is a need to look within.
Historical factors have been cited as the reason for the lack of confidence in our in our own currency.
That is surely a legitimate concern we cannot run away from but we also cannot fixate on the past. We have learnt from our mistakes and we are in better stead courtesy of the new dispensation.
We are a country recalibrating. Many issues need fixing. Unbeknown to some. It’s a journey we have to traverse
The fact that the populace is seized with preservation of value and other investment opportunities is laudable and the gold coins come in handy in this instance.
We need to continue on the path of implementing confidence-building measures. It is sad that only a few on the black market determine the rate of the day, doing more and more damage to the local currency. The traumatising effects of such behavior are enough to elicit a change of heart by the individuals and institutions that are fueling this.
We had won the inflation war since 2020 but the volatile currency and its effects are reversing this and other gains.
This has to stop voluntarily or otherwise. We are, in essence, masters of our destiny.
ln the final analysis, we are what we think-we become precisely what we view ourselves as.
A lot of it emanates from our perception and confidence levels, do we need a whole re-orientation thrust? Who should tell us to believe in ourselves and our currency?
Where does confidence emanate from? Where does the ordinary man get it from? She/he gets it from a level of stability and predictability as so often obtains the world over.
We need though, to appreciate where we are coming from.
Our economic matrix has been out of sorts for prolonged periods. for anything that is broken, it takes longer to fix. Yet for all the challenges, we are very much on course, even by world bank standards.
In building confidence, the most significant factor is a mindset shift.
We should disabuse ourselves of the notion that we can go mono-currency, premised on the USD-it’s simply not sustainable.
In God I Trust!
Online Reporter