Our ZiG should not and cannot fail

When Britain’s former Prime Minister Harold Wilson remarked that “a week is a long time in politics”, he might as well have been talking about recent developments in American politics.

In the period since Joe Biden put up a wretched and calamitous display in the presidential debate with Donald Trump on June 27 — through which his halting performance betrayed both his senility and infirmity — America has hurtled through a whirlwind of events that could have a consequential impact on its future.

We have since seen the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, the withdrawal of Biden from the race for the White House on July 21 and the subsequent elevation of Kamala Harris to the top of the ticket of the Democratic Party.

We have also seen the resignation of Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle on July 23 after she was hauled over coals at Capitol Hill for the tragi-comic display by security agents that almost resulted in the assassination of a former president.

The embarrassing sight of those seemingly greenhorn Secret Service agents fiddling with guns, and even failing to properly holster their weapons, all the while looking dazed like a deer caught in headlights, was the complete opposite of the images of those G.I. Joe-type security agents that we are used to seeing in Hollywood movies.

Those sorry excuses of close protection operatives really soiled the memory of the heroics of previous Secret Service agents such as Tim McCarthy, who literally took a bullet for Ronald Reagan during an assassination attempt on March 30, 1981, or Clint Hill, who famously, like the Hollywood character Spiderman, leapt onto the back of a moving presidential limousine in the midst of an assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

The “colossal security failure” at the Pennsylvania rally, as the Americans themselves now call it, somehow inexplicably gave the would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks, a clear shot at his target, only for him to miss, or, more aptly, for Trump to unwittingly turn his head at the material time the bullet was supposed to hit his skull.

Trump himself now says “divine providence” saved him from being killed.

Be that as it may, the American political landscape has fundamentally changed.

Until November, when Americans make their choice of whom will lead them into a clearly uncertain future, Trump will now have to slug it out with Harris for the most powerful job on earth.

Harris has a lot of hoops to jump through to land the coveted job, as she will have to battle apparent misogyny and the inherent prejudice that is likely to afflict a person of colour in a country where racism is still rife.

Well, Bishop Lazi could not care less of who ultimately wins the White House.

He will, of course, support whichever candidate is disposed to lifting those damn immoral and illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe and putting out the small fires in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia that have the potential to become a raging inferno in the form of World War III.

Biden did a pretty good job in driving the world to the precipice by egging on Ukraine and leading it into a devastating war with Russia.

Kiev’s army, particularly its elite units, has been all but decimated by the Russian war machine in a war of attrition that has dragged on since February 24, 2022.

In the Middle East, the Biden administration continues to provide lethal aid to Israel, which has thus far slaughtered more than 39 000 Palestinians and injured close to 100 000 in an onslaught that continues to this day.

In Asia, the Americans continue to arm and embolden the Taiwanese to stand up against China, in a development that is putting the region — and the world — on edge.

A new administration in Washington after the November elections will have to stop the sabre-rattling, dial back the rhetoric of war and assiduously work to achieve world peace.

America in decline

For Bishop Lazarus, all this tumult in America — from a seemingly infirm president, a nearly successful attempt on the life of a former president, failure to dent its adversary Russia using Ukraine as a proxy, as well as losing ground against a formidable and rapidly growing China — shows that the United States is in slow but steady decline.

The lesson we have learnt from history is that all empires, such as the Roman empire, eventually come to an end.

The Bishop cannot help but reflect on Revelations 18:10-13, which says: “‘Woe! Woe to you, great city, you mighty city of Babylon!

In one hour, your doom has come!’ The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore — cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves.”

What will likely hasten the decline of America as the world’s pre-empt global power is the collapse of a unipolar world and the emergence of a multipolar world, which we are seeing today.

The gradual shift of global transactions from the US dollar to gold-backed currencies will have a deleterious impact on Washington.

But it is the decision by Saudi Arabia to join BRICS and its gradual shift to sell its oil in other currencies other than the US dollar, effectively repudiating a 1974 accord with Washington that mandates Riyadh to sell its oil exclusively in greenbacks, that could be ominous for the US.

According to the Atlantic Council, a think tank, this seismic shift could undermine the value of the US dollar, itself an instrument that has undergirded America’s economy and was increasingly being weaponised to fight adversaries.

The BRICS is, therefore, now providing an institutional bulwark of and for a new world order.

As a victim of US sanctions, Zimbabwe knows all too well the impact of being cut from the world financial markets and system.

But the wise leadership in Harare, ably led by President ED, has managed to navigate this treacherous system by pivoting the new currency on gold, which, all things being equal, will provide a platform for enduring price and exchange rate stability, critical to driving investment and savings.

Gold has been used as a currency and store of value for millennia.

After blazing the trail, other countries, such as Nigeria, Uganda, Madagascar and South Sudan, are following suit.

In fact, South Sudan recently announced that its central bank will begin building its gold reserves with the ultimate goal of anchoring its currency.

Uganda also began a gold-buying programme.

It is the same in Tanzania and Nigeria.

Even in Ghana, which is Africa’s biggest gold producer, politicians are already talking about backing the currency with gold.

Zimbabwe has already taken the leap.

This is why Bishop Lazi also says wisdom is better than silver and gold.

Eyes on the ball

On Thursday last week, Treasury expectedly unveiled new measures to buttress Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) by creating conditions that promote its uptake and use, by making it the preferred currency for selected Government services.

Even as reserves backing ZiG continue to swell, we need not rest on our laurels but continue aggressively defending the unit through clamping down on indiscipline in financial markets.

Currency manipulators need to be brought to book, while illegal foreign currency traders should not find rest.

They need to be smoked out and dealt with.

Our future depends on it.

We should remember that what we now know as the Secret Service in America was principally formed by Abraham Lincoln in 1865 to safeguard the value of the US dollar.

Put simply, our ZiG should not, must not and cannot fail.

Bishop out!