Zimbabwe: Warm Heart Ugly Face

Zimbabwe - Warm heart, ugly face is the story of a traumatic decade of hyperinflation and its debilitating consequences for the people of Zimbabwe. It starts with the author's arrival, in the late 1990's, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city and once the industrial heartland of the country-before the violent takeover of the white-owned farms. The author takes the reader through a ten-year period, from 2000-2009, characterized by centralized control of all facets of life and of an economy in free-fall, as well as the desperate measures adopted by ordinary people and by the business community to survive. In a down-to-earth way the title paints the day-to-day struggle with lengthy electricity and water cuts, empty supermarket shelves and dangerous black-market trading by honest, law-abiding and resilient citizens-just to survive. Arrests, tragedy, death, fear and intimidation were part of daily life in Zimbabwe during these momentous years!