2019 Jan 27 - Mugabe & Macedonia
With Brexit and President Trump hogging the headlines, sometimes it's easy to forget that there's a whole world of news out there and I don't mean the sports section of the newspaper, or that advertising section selling either made-to-measure chinos or perhaps premium rate phone numbers, depending on your newspaper of choice. I thought this week we'd look elsewhere and talk about 2 other things that happened in the world this week.
First of all to Zimbabwe and here's a joke for you: How does Robert Mugabe like his eggs in the morning? Answer: with the whites separated and beaten. But what has he been up to since he stepped down as president? Well this week it turned out that he'd been the ironic victim of theft. A briefcase was stolen from him containing $1m in cash. They even turned out to be US dollars, not Zimbabwean ones, so all in all pretty serious! Certainly if he was planning on using the money to get his driveway tarmac'd cash in hand then you'd expect it to be long enough to show on on Google Maps. The thieves apparently spent the money on a Toyota Camry, a Honda, livestock and a house, so all in all a mixed and dare I say astute portfolio of assets. Between their investment save and propensity for crime, I imagine that if they don't go to jail, they'll do very well in government.
Next to Macedonia or should I say the "Republic of North Macedonia" after the country changed its name this week, following decades of disputes over the name with neighbouring country Greece which will presumably now be able to throw everything at its dispute with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. Greece has long claimed ownership of the name, it has a northern region which it calls Macedonia and the country to the north, for the past 20 or so years, has formally been titled the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" which I imagine is an era in history that either means nothing if you're young or is tarred with bad memories if you're old and actually lived through the communist era, very much like most of Jeremy Corbyn's policy handbook really. And very much like Jeremy Corbyn, Greece can now get back to running its economy on the profoundly misinterpreted premise/joke that "debt pays off in the long run"
First of all to Zimbabwe and here's a joke for you: How does Robert Mugabe like his eggs in the morning? Answer: with the whites separated and beaten. But what has he been up to since he stepped down as president? Well this week it turned out that he'd been the ironic victim of theft. A briefcase was stolen from him containing $1m in cash. They even turned out to be US dollars, not Zimbabwean ones, so all in all pretty serious! Certainly if he was planning on using the money to get his driveway tarmac'd cash in hand then you'd expect it to be long enough to show on on Google Maps. The thieves apparently spent the money on a Toyota Camry, a Honda, livestock and a house, so all in all a mixed and dare I say astute portfolio of assets. Between their investment save and propensity for crime, I imagine that if they don't go to jail, they'll do very well in government.
Next to Macedonia or should I say the "Republic of North Macedonia" after the country changed its name this week, following decades of disputes over the name with neighbouring country Greece which will presumably now be able to throw everything at its dispute with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. Greece has long claimed ownership of the name, it has a northern region which it calls Macedonia and the country to the north, for the past 20 or so years, has formally been titled the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" which I imagine is an era in history that either means nothing if you're young or is tarred with bad memories if you're old and actually lived through the communist era, very much like most of Jeremy Corbyn's policy handbook really. And very much like Jeremy Corbyn, Greece can now get back to running its economy on the profoundly misinterpreted premise/joke that "debt pays off in the long run"
With Brexit and President Trump hogging the headlines, sometimes it's easy to forget that there's a whole world of news out there and I don't mean the sports section of the newspaper, or that advertising section selling either made-to-measure chinos or perhaps premium rate phone numbers, depending on your newspaper of choice. I thought this week we'd look elsewhere and talk about 2 other things that happened in the world this week.
First of all to Zimbabwe and here's a joke for you: How does Ro ......
First of all to Zimbabwe and here's a joke for you: How does Ro ......