“The devil shits Dutchmen,” complained Sir William Batten in 1667 as he watched the English fleet burning in the Thames estuary. The famous British naval administrator was exasperated by Dutch challenges to English rule in the Read More
In addition to the rising cost of production, unclear property rights and limited access to capital, the tobacco grower I visited this morning had to deal with another challenge recently—witchcraft. After several of his Read More
After visiting a commercial tobacco farm and several leaf merchants, the story that emerges is as follows: Zimbabwe tobacco production used to be dominated by a small number of large-scale tobacco farmers. The majority of Read More
I had dinner with three fellow guests at York Lodge—a Belgian diamond trader, a Brazilian AIDS consultant and a member of the Danish embassy in Zambia. The diamond trader was in Zimbabwe to help Read More
I met John Robertson today, a local economist whom I have always admired for his common sense and willingness to speak truth to power. He said the game changer in Zimbabwe has been the “dollarization” Read More
Pleasant dinner with my good friend Murray Prince, whom I hadn’t seen for at least eight years. Murray gave me the skinny on tobacco and politics in Zimbabwe—none of it attributable, of course, Read More
One of the local leaf companies kindly let me borrow a car for the week, which should facilitate logistics considerably. I spent the day with my friend Makiwa, getting my bearings in Harare. I have Read More
After traveling for nearly 24 hours, watching four movies and almost finishing a badly written book on the Hells Angels motorcycle club, I am enjoying a Zambezi beer in front of my room at York Lodge Read More