Economic meltdown in Zimbabwe

Apparently, the Zimbabwean government has now released new currency: instead of bank notes issued in increments of $10,000,000, they have decided to cut off all the zeroes. So, in this warped form of mathematics, that figure has now become $1. Hyperinflation, eat your heart out.

Robert Mugabe, who won unopposed in the last Presidential 'election,' has now begun reaching out to the opposition, as per the mediation of South Africa's President, although the talks are reportedly in a deadlock. Not surprising, once again.

The BBC's correspondent in the country, albeit by secret camera, has released this report, which I recommend readers watch. Food shopping will take on a whole new meaning after this.

Everything, however, in international affairs, has its origins. I would be interested in tracing the origins of this Mugabe phenomenon in greater depth. Perhaps a project for the future? We shall see.

Will the real Serbian revolution please start now!

A general rule of thumb surrounding events in Serbia, or involving Serbian populations in neighbouring countries of the region, is that the unsavoury reality of radicalism in the country oozes out, completely contrary to what is happening at a given moment.

I alluded to this factor in previous posts on Kosovo's independence, as well as Radovan Karadzic's capture and, now, likely extradition, as his appeal deadline has passed with nothing happening. The Serbian Radical Party, whose nominal head is also in The Hague facing war crimes charges, is coming out with threats against President Boris Tadic and others that are behind the drive to send Karadzic to face trial.

One Party official is quoted: "We warn Tadic that treason has never gone unpunished in Serbia. This is not a threat, but warning of the fate that followed traitors throughout Serbian history... I would remind the current rulers that they might not be as lucky as Zoran Djindjic. God punishes generations to come, and they should keep this in mind." I especially like the mention of history: get one of the Radicals talking, and you will be hearing about the battle of 1389 before long, and how Serbia, despite saving Europe and Christianity from Ottoman barbarism, was always on the side to be politically short-changed since time immemorial.

Veiled threats, if there ever were any; this is mild stuff coming from the ranks of these anti-establishment and hate-mongering political lunatics. Remember still that their leader, Vojislav Seselj, once publicly advocated a policy of infecting all Kosovo Albanians with HIV, so as to "solve" the Kosovo issue once and for all.

Indeed, the real revolutions will not begin in this part of the world until the recent past, as well as Belgrade's culpability, is fully explained and disclosed without qualifications based on ethnic nationalism and hostilities. More than anything, and here I echo one of my great teachers on the subject, the revolution will only be complete when one-third of the Serbian electorate, which they just did in the last election early this summer, stop voting for the Radical Party.

An addendum on Karadzic

Marcus Tanner, who covered the Yugoslav wars for the London Independent, and who wrote, among other things, an amazing history of Croatia, gave his two-bits on the media hyperbole surrounding Radovan Karadzic's capture.

"You’d almost have thought they come across Hitler, as the presenters struggled to outdo one another in their choice of superlatives. Everything was the 'worst,' the 'biggest' and the 'gravest,'" he reflects.

Meanwhile, other reports point out that, on Friday, Karadzic will appeal his extradition to The Hague; why some people bother with such formalities is anyone's best guess. While anything is possible in the Balkans, I highly doubt that Serbia will relinquish the process they have set into motion. Let's just hope they repeat it as necessary with those fugitives that remain.

And, as Tanner points out, "I just hope they don’t overdo it now, and so fall back into second gear if and when Ratko Mladic is handed over. Because if I were a Bosnian, that’s the event that would have me in the streets, for I still have a hunch that he, and not Karadzic was the really enthusiastic killer, the real psychopath."

One down, with two more to go

Every major media outlet is now discussing the news that Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb wartime leader of the country's breakaway Serbian "republic" was apprehended on Monday night in Belgrade, after spending more than a decade living a life on the run.

There is plenty of sensationalism at work in much of the coverage; headlines identifying him as "the world's most wanted man" is rather pushing it, since no one spoke about him, or the Balkan region, for that matter, following the long and painful shadow that was 11 September 2001. Suddenly, Southeastern Europe stopped being so important, except for brief interludes in the form of elections, the formation of new states and the dissolution of old ones. Truth be told, however, is that this region is as significant for the EU as Iraq and the Middle East is for Washington. Regional and continental integration is incomplete without the Balkans.

Rumour even had it, or so I am told, that Richard Holbrooke, the former US diplomat that was involved in both the Dayton peace accords (which ended the war in Bosnia, thus shaping the nature of the country today) and the run-up to the Kosovo war in 1998-1999, had cut Karadzic some kind of a deal that stopped short at prosecution.

It comes at both a sad and optimistic time, as the thirteenth anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica, in which Karadzic was allegedly complicit, is coming up. The Hague tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is nearing the end of its mandate, and its work is now all the closer to completion. There remain two more war criminals on the run, of whom General Ratko Mladic remains the 'big fish.' Is he next? I sure hope so.

Finally, the new Europeanist government in Belgrade is obviously trying to etch up its EU credentials, though it remains both bizarre and revealing that Karadzic was able to get into the country in the first place. Minus his longer hair and bushy beard, how did this happen, and why? The real revolution in Serbia shall not begin until this, and other questions, are satisfactorily answered.

"Lost in a world of lights"

Or so says Richard Z. Kruspe, known to most music followers as the lead guitarist of the German heavy metal band Rammstein. Some time in 2001, right around the time that his day job band released their third studio album, Kruspe emigrated to New York; years later or, to be more specific, last summer, he released a solo album entitled Emigrate, the same name as his solo project. It only came out in North America a few months ago, so the world can only now fully appreciate this intriguing and delightful debut.

Most of the eleven (or, if you are lucky enough, like myself, to own the limited edition, thirteen) tracks relate, in some way or another, to self-discovery, the theme of emigrating, and personal experience. It is a largely upbeat and positive album, grounded in the realities of failure sometimes being paired with success, but hardly a return to the dark, eerie and in-your-face themes that Rammstein has churned out since 1994.

The aforementioned lyric to the song "New York City" continues, permeating not only the song, but the whole album: "I'm lost in a world of lights / mesmerize my nights / the sky scrapes on building sites / I'm feeling so alive." Or, slightly later, "I'm gonna win / I'm gonna lose / I'm gonna chase it till the end / and if you're walking in my shoes / you're gonna make it or pretend."

The music is a mix: some songs are hard-rock, harking back to Kruspe's Rammstein roots, but others are more melodic, slightly slower and quite catchy. Lyrically, Kruspe's words are simple, but the simplicity of his messages have the effect of striking just where and when they are most potent. This is the type of album one could listen en route to travelling in a foreign land, and then replaying it once there, on a moonlight night amid surf-breaking waters, mountains and the chatter of friends and company.

It is an album that epitomizes independence, breaking roots while simultaneously establishing new ones. Unlike Rammstein, Emigrate is also of a different language, for the lyrics are entirely performed in English, where Kruspe (sometimes not so successfully, one can amusingly notice) tries to use an American accent, but his German background betrays him! This is an exceptional album, well worth the length that it took to be recorded and released. One can only hope that Kruspe, while not ignoring his commitments to Rammstein, will churn out more such albums in the future.

"Hooliganism" in Belarus?

An understatement, given the scope of the events in the country where, today, a bomb blast, as well as the discovery of a second unexploded device in Minsk, took place. Observers, and the Belarusian opposition (anachronism-sounding, as they are not much of an opposition, nor have they ever been), are predicting more crackdowns as President Lukashenka begins pitting the blame on someone, emboldening his own claims that the outside world and internal fifth columns are out to destroy the country.

But Lukashenka is himself unnerved, it seems, and not solely because the concert he was attending was disrupted by these events. This BBC report cites "rumours," if nothing else, of discontent within secret police echelons, Lukashenka's political circle and other state elements that are brewing beneath the surface. Without a hint of irony, the report states: "Moreover, it happened on the very anniversary of the capital's liberation from Nazi occupation, near the impressive monument to WWII heroes. It could have hardly been more symbolic."

What is indisputable is that this is significant: Belarus long had the reputation, for better or worse, of being something of a sideshow to the Soviet Union and, later, a bastion of old-world and antiquated politics -- and this, of course, not solely coming from me. That bomb blasts have come to this country is telling and a signal that, in the end, everyone is a cohabitant of this insane planet, irrespective of ideology, dispositions or levels of democratic development.