August 2

In Bulawayo again. It looks like it will be challenging to get to Botswana from here. Only a few mini-vans travel the route and they don't go unless they have a full load of passengers. We'll see what happens tomorrow a.m.
I feel like some kind of summary of Zimbabwe is warranted but my head is full of details now and I'm not sure what merits comment.
It is a very troubled country, for sure. A leading general announced this week that he would not tolerate the opposition (MDC. led by Tsangvarai) taking power even if there were fair elections. And fair elections are doubtful given that Mugabe's party controls the voter rolls. Right now there is a very tenuous truce between the two parties with Mugabe as President and Tsangvarai as Prime Minister. But Mugabe is growing impatient. He sent thugs into the Parliament building last week to beat up an MDC legislator and some reporters.
Harare is a typical big city with lots of glass and steel skyscrapers dating from colonial times. There is little prosperity evident anywhere in the country as evidenced by the gradual erosion of infrastructure. There are trains but they don't run much, much less 'on time'. The sidewalks are crumbling, air and water pollution is rampant, and people are discouraged. A movement to separate the southern part of the nation (including Bulawayo) has just been created.
More then anything you notice the lack of variety in daily life. The entire city of Harare consists of clothing stores, places selling cellphones, restaurants all serving the same food, banks (Mugabe's part wants them to sell 52% of their assets to locals--meaning Mugabe cronies), and, strangely, copy places. There is plenty of education--colleges abound--but no jobs for the graduates. There is no public transit (which I, as a libertarian, applaud).
Bulawayo is a more habitable place than the capital. It suffers from the same lack of variety but seems to have a spirit about it that the bigger city lacks. I spoke with an artist at the big gallery in town and he epitomized the nation; he can make art but no one will buy it since no one has disposable income. The national politics depresses him, as it does just about everyone I've spoken to. It will be interesting to see if Mugabe (who is 87) decides to go out in a blaze of glory by finally wrecking all the remaining democratic institutions before he dies. There are rumors in the Harare press that Tsvangarai and another MDC leader are about to be arrested for 'corruption'. If that happens, and the banks are taken over, Zimbabwe may overtake Haiti as the worlds' leading failed state.