Where will it all end?

From the Zimbabwe News:

Zimbabwe's annual rate of inflation, the highest in the world, soared to new levels, reaching 526 percent in October, according to figures issued on Tuesday by the state Central Statistical Office (CSO). Compared with prices a year ago, the cost of living went up 525,8 percent, against September's annual rate of 456 percent. Calculated on a monthly comparison of prices, inflation in the month to the end of October was 25,3 percent, the highest ever in a single month. The CSO said that the biggest contributors towards the sharp rise were increases of 1 179 percent for telephone charges, 983 percent for vehicle running costs, 952 percent for school textbooks and 913 percent for shoes.

And even if you can afford to buy what you need:

More than 100 leading trade unionists and civic leaders in Zimbabwe were arrested yesterday when riot police broke up groups countrywide who were peacefully demonstrating against Robert Mugabe's increasingly autocratic rule .... The "peaceful demonstration" was broken up by police with batons and dogs, she said. "They were forcing us to run by beating us so they could set the dogs on us," she asserted via cellphone from Bulawayo. "Many of us are badly wounded by baton sticks," she added.... "These arrests are proof of the charges by Zimbabwean civil society and others in the Commonwealth that there is no rule of law in Zimbabwe," said Tawanda Hondora, a lawyer, who was working to get the arrested unionists released yesterday. "There are gross human rights violations here. We are under a state of siege."

I lived in Zimbabwe for 12 years. I know the country, I know the people. And my heart bleeds for them. There is so little one can do - cash transfers are siezed, food parcels confiscated en route. I feel so helpless, there's nothing I can do for even one person.

My godparents are in Harare - I worry every day that they're not going to make it through this period of the country's history. They made it through the war, they saw friends killed, they saw friends leave. They're serving the church as missionaries, but I don't know how they're surviving.

Something has to happen, and soon. 11 million starving people depend on it.