Zimbabwe Government to Motorists: Walk
Whatever you think about the evils of apartheid, the transition from Rhodesia to Robert Mugabeland has seen one of Africa's wealthiest, best-organized free market economies slide into corruption, shortages and misery. To wit: allAfrica.com's report on the Minister of Energy and Power Development's remarks at the opening of a National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) service station in Matshobana. "The country is facing critical fuel shortages," Mike Nyambuya admitted "As [the] government, we encourage all Zimbabweans to reduce the number of cars on the country's roads and walk to save the scarce fuel we have." No surprise there; the shortages have been ongoing since 1999. As Mugabe has frozen gas prices and awarded Noczim exclusive rights to import fuel into the country, nothing much is about to change. But just in case you thought Nyambuya was expressing solidarity with Zim's long-suffering motorists, he played the class warfare card. "In most developed countries, especially in Western countries company executives wearing expensive suits use public transport or walk to work but here in Zimbabwe one person wants to have 10 cars on the road each day." Fat chance.
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taxman100, even if the US government limits your vehicle purchasing choices to merely moderately fuel efficient models, you will have dozens of models to choose from. Sooner or later either legislation, the weakening US dollar or peak oil will naturally remove many of the grossly inefficient vehicles populating the roads. The Zimbabwean encouragement to walk more and drive less will be heard all across the industrialised world within a decade.
Zimbabwe is easily one of the worst places on earth right now. With inflation at 15,000% who has any money left to buy a car or drive one?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure the crackpot architect of the most disastrous economic implosion since the Weimar republic is a global leader on how to save the environment.
Zimbabwi is what will happen to the West when the global warming tyrants have their way.