Re: Zimboobean junk food bongo stampede

[Ted]

On Sep 2, 11:01 am, "Call Me Bwana" <o...@booga.net> wrote:
> *Earlier this month, two people died in a stampede in a sugar line in the
> city of Bulawayo. In southern Zimbabwe, another woman died of strangulation
> when her neck scarf caught in a gas-fueled generator during the nation's
> daily power outages.* At this rate they won't have to worry about being
> harped on about zero-population growth
>
> 2 Die in Stampedes at Zimbabwe Exhibit
>
> By ANGUS SHAW
> September 02, 2007
>
> HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - A woman and a child were killed in stampedes at a
> Zimbabwe agriculture show packed with people lured by scarce snack foods and
> cheap Chinese toys and exhibitors hoping to skirt a government price freeze
> and sell their animals, police said Sunday.
>
> The two died Saturday in two separate surges against the exit gates as the
> show at the Harare Exhibition Park was closing, police spokesman James Sabau
> told state radio. People were hurrying to get into lines for public
> transportation outside, witnesses said.
>
> Acute gasoline shortages have crippled transportation services and commuters
> routinely wait more than three hours to board buses for a 30-minute trip to
> the capital Harare's impoverished satellite townships.
>
> The child killed was one of scores of lost children separated from family
> members in large crowds.
>
> Attendance at the six-day annual event was the highest in years, with many
> people hoping to find produce that has disappeared from stores along with
> meat, corn meal, bread, milk, eggs and other staples amid soaring inflation.
> Officials said about 100,000 people came on Friday alone.
>
> Zimbabwe is in the midst of a dire economic crisis blamed largely on
> President Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned commercial farms for
> redistribution to blacks, which began in 2000 and disrupted the
> agriculture-based economy.
>
> A government order in June to slash prices of all goods and services by
> about half in a bid to tame the world's highest inflation. Official
> inflation is 7,634 percent annually, though independent estimates put actual
> inflation closer to 25,000 percent. The International Monetary Fund has
> forecast it could reach 100,000 percent by the end of the year.
>
> The agriculture show was packed with people lured by scarce snack foods and
> soft drinks and stalls selling cheap Chinese toys and other goods. The show
> was the biggest in years and many exhibitors said they came in hopes of
> being allowed to sell their animals without being subjected to a government
> price freeze.
>
> A cattle auction was banned Thursday at the show ground by price control
> authorities after it became clear bidders from butcheries, hotels and groups
> of private buyers were willing to pay up to 10 times the government's fixed
> price for livestock in the meat-starved nation.
>
> Earlier this month, two people died in a stampede in a sugar line in the
> city of Bulawayo. In southern Zimbabwe, another woman died of strangulation
> when her neck scarf caught in a gas-fueled generator during the nation's
> daily power outages.
>
> Attorneys this week reported clients facing acute food shortages in prisons.
> Relatives asked to bring food often could not find enough in the shops or
> get rides to prisons.
>
> A panel of lawmakers has reported acute shortages of basic foods in
> government youth training centers, which are used to train the ruling-party
> militants blamed for much of country's political violence and intimidation.
>
> The state Sunday Mail newspaper, meanwhile, reported 36,000 tons of wheat
> destined for Zimbabwe was being held at the Mozambique port of Beira
> awaiting payment.
>
> With shortages of bread and bakery products worsening, Didymus Mutasa, the
> powerful security and lands minister, said the nation's wheat was down to a
> week's supply.
>
> "We do not have wheat stocks at the moment. We are feeding from hand to
> mouth. As soon as we pay, a little amount is brought in ... this is usually
> a week's supply," he was quoted as saying by the paper.

Leave the jigs alone and let them die a peaceful, if possible, natural
death.

ted