No Oil....No Aid???

Zimbabwe's dictator, Robert Mugabe is visiting China with hat in hand...

Sources said Mugabe wants to take advantage of his close ties with the Chinese, which date back to the liberation struggle during the 1970s when Beijing trained and armed Zanu PF's military wing, Zanla, to secure a financial package that would allow him to buy fuel and other critical imports.

The sources said Mugabe would want new lines of credit after traditional facilities were either closed or dried up as the country plunged into crisis.

It will be interesting to see how China responds. Mugabe is losing his grip on his nation and the economy is collapsing. Does China help this despot? There does not seem to be an advantage for doing so despite the history of helping the freedom fighters there.

I visited Zimbabwe a few years ago for a conference. It was impossible to catch a taxi since there was no gas for taxi's to buy. On my day off, a friend of my buddy, an assistant police chief in Harare, took me out to see the sights in the countryside. The police still have fuel but the rest of the population does not. Zimbabwe is also incapable of feeding itself now and is reliant on foreign humanitarian aid.