Countries do not go bust, they sag at the knees
The country Manager for Zimbabwe at the World Bank is a good friend and colleague. He knows Zimbabwe well having lived and worked here off and on for over 30 years during his long career with the Bank. He retires in May and we will miss him as a country, behind the scenes he has done more for us than most in the past decade.
I was in near despair last week over the state of the economy and could see no way out. I expressed the view to him that I could not see how we could carry on like this for much longer. He laughed at me and said, "Countries do not go bust; they just sag at the knees". Well, let me tell you, we are sagging, big time, again.
During the liberation war when it really looked as if a compromise was impossible and the struggle would end with our cities burned and our economy destroyed, I went to my Chairman at the time; a remarkable man called Bill Margolis, and asked him for advice, "What can I do to help resolve the situation?"
He thought for a while, then he said to me, "Eddie, the best you can do for your country is to come to work in the morning and do your job to the best of your ability." I was a bit disappointed, I had expected something a bit more activist and dramatic, but I went back to my office and followed his advice. I became Chief Economist of the AMA, then the largest business organisation in the country and was later on appointed the CEO of one of our major subsidiaries. When I got there the war was at its height and the sense of crisis, all pervasive. Our staff were pensive, what future was there for them and their families?
At my first management conference I spoke to the entire management team (we employed about 3 500 people) and said that if we were to help our country through the political and economic crisis we were in then, we had to get out there and do our jobs to the best of our ability. At the time we delivered fresh milk to every home in the country, provided a small sachet of milk to every child in school. I said "we are going to rattle the milk bottles outside every home, every day and let people know that life goes on even in the toughest times".