Magic Statistics

Other Zimbabwe stores that fail to lower prices in accordance with the price rollback ordered last month have been harassed and threatened by price police.  Thousands of shop owners have been arrested.  Yet the store right under Mugabe’s nose ignores the price controls and it’s just business as usual.  Go figure.

Robert Mugabe's local supermarket is unlike any other shop in Zimbabwe. Elsewhere there are gaping empty shelves where bread, butter, sugar, meat and the staple maize meal should be.

But at the Spar in the Borrowdale Brooke suburb of the capital Harare, close to the president's palatial hillside residence, almost anything is available, including focaccia bread, sun-dried tomatoes and cigars.

Elsewhere in the country, would-be customers line up for hours in hopes of buying bread at the official price of less than 25 cents.  At Mugabe's neighbourhood Spar, however, bread sits on the shelf waiting to be bought for about 75 cents.

There is no sign that Zimbabwe's feared price inspectors, who have arrested or charged nearly 5,000 managers and firms across the country for not heeding the official price capping, have come to call, or any concern they might visit.

Asked how the shop was able to stock bread when so few other merchants can obtain supplies - which they would have to sell at a crippling loss - an assistant laughed and said: "I don't know."

Sure he doesn’t.

Previous related posts:

• Zimbabwe street scene
• Displaced Zimbabweans shafted again
• Zimbabwe now officially a socialist kleptocracy
• Price controls twisting Zimbabwe’s economy into knots

According to a new survey by the Eagle Research Group, the great majority of Zune buyers are not happy with their Microsoft-made media player.  Most intend to switch to either iPod or iPhone ASAP.

[M]ost Zune owners rue the day they ever dipped into their pocket to pick one up, with 70 per cent of Zune owners planning to ditch the device in favour of an iPod or iPhone just as soon as they can.

The 30% who profess to like their Zunes enough to keep ‘em were asked why.  22% of the 30% (i.e., 6.6% of all Zune owners) said it’s because they hate Apple.  What a bunch of fanatics!

There is no mention of the survey at Eagle Research Group’s website, so I can’t comment on its methodological soundness or analytical reliability.  I’d be interested in knowing how they got a sample frame of Zune owners.  They’re not easy to find.

Previous related posts:

• Bill Gates: “Just rip it”
• Microsoft executive: “I would buy a Mac”
• Microsoft’s iPod competitor is a joke

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture says the UN should implement higher standards in recruiting peacekeeping forces.  Ya think?

A UN official has said soldiers from countries whose armies are suspected of torture and abuse should not be considered for peacekeeping operations.
. . .
In the interview with Profil, Mr [Manfred] Nowak said concerns about the quality, training and ethics of peacekeepers were growing as developing nations with questionable human rights records were being asked to contribute troops.

Mr Nowak said that peacekeepers from such nations might commit the same kind of crimes that they would at home.

"The criteria are not very high," he said.

He proposes a “solution” that some would consider almost worse than the disease.

Mr Nowak said one solution was finally to give the UN its own professional standing army.

An army?  Of professional soldiers?  But then they’d be expected to defend innocent civilians under attack instead of taking cover when fired upon and providing occasional cover for unscrupulous belligerents.

Previous related posts:

• More UN peacekeepers sexually exploit local girls
• UN “peacekeepers” exploit teenage prostitutes in East Timor
• Lewis MacKenzie: Hezbollah used UN post for cover

The Rt Rev James A.J. Cowan, Bishop of British Columbia, has written a pastoral letter to his diocese regarding General Synod, dealing mostly with the controversy over same-sex blessings (SSBs).

He also presents his take on press reports about The Rev Antonio Osorio, parish priest of St Saviour's, Victoria West.  Fr Osorio was quoted issuing an invitation to same-sex couples to come to his church to be blessed.  After speaking with the priest, Bp Cowan wrote this:

Many of you will have seen reports in the media that the blessings of same-sex unions have taken place at St. Saviour, Victoria West, and read headlines that Fr. Antonio Osorio is a "renegade priest" prepared to marry same-sex couples. Please do not believe everything that you read or hear in the media. Fr. Antonio has been misquoted and his comments have been taken out of context and sensationalised. After inquiry, I have found that what took place at St. Saviour's on July 1st was fully within the guidelines of the House of Bishops. So that there is no occasion for misunderstanding by those who have not had the benefit of training in sacramental theology, I have given further instruction to Fr. Antonio to refrain from doing anything that might look like or be construed as a blessing. Because Fr. Antonio has affirmed his intention to comply with the guidelines and to do nothing that will challenge my direction, I consider this particular matter closed.

I appreciate Bp Cowan’s advice not to believe whatever the media happen to report.  (I know I should be more skeptical of press reports on church matters.)  If Rev Osorio was misquoted or his remarks sensationalised, I would assume he’d contact the reporter or write a letter to the editor issuing a clarification.  To the best of my knowledge, however, that has not been done in this case.

Since the alleged misrepresentations were circulated publicly, it would be good for corrections to be similarly disseminated, especially since the quotations portrayed Fr Osorio as intent on defying General Synod decisions.  (See this blog post.)

Is Fr Osorio or someone in the BC Diocese office going to contact CanWest News Service and the Victoria Times-Colonist to set them straight?

h/t: felix hominum

Previous related posts:

• Anglican priest to flout General Synod decision on SSBs
• Michael Ingham hits a new low