German company exposed in the Zimbabwe crisis

Another Company Exposed

Are you doing business with a dictator? For some time now it has been known that many previously reputable international companies have been providing support for Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe. Similar to the exposure of WPP - which was running Mugabe’s ill-fated re-election campaign before he called in the militia - these companies have tried desperately to hide their involvement. Many of these businesses that are household names around the world have used shell companies, proxies and other means to keep the world from knowing that their activities are propping up one of the world’s most vile and violent dictators. Most of these corporate leaders sit in their company headquarters in London, New York, Los Angeles and Munich, watching the share-price while preaching the doctrine of “Corporate Social Responsibility�. In truth, they are complicit with Robert Mugabe in raping Zimbabwe.

One of the worst perpetrators of aiding and abetting this evil regime is the German firm of Giesecke & Devrient. Giesecke & Devrient is one of the world’s leading providers of bank notes, and has been assisting Mugabe in pumping billions of worthless Zimbabwean dollars into an economy that is now suffering from an inflation rate that looks more like a telephone number. FriendsofZim.com hope that by bringing this issue to the attention of our readers, they will join us in condemning Giesecke & Devrient in their complicity in the utter disaster that is Zimbabwe. We have attached the contact address for Giesecke & Devrient for any of our readers that wish to contact the company directly.

press@gi-de.com

extracted from: http://friendsofzim.com/

Yeah, heard about that on the Beeb yesterday, though not the company name. I should think it would need to appear on German TV for it to have much effect adverse-publicity-wise and not only have I not heard tjat yet, but I don't really expect to.

That's actually pretty interesting. Could G&D bring down the government by refusing to supply bank notes?

Of course would they want to? They are in the business of making money, and if they caused regime change albeit a despicable regime, by cutting off the supply of printed paper, some of their other customers might think twice about using their services.

Its hard to bring pressure to bear on them. Their customers are governments for paper money, and a big part of their business now is smart cards, which are bought by the millions by mobile phone operators like T-Mobile, or Vodafone, or O2. So pressurising those companies to pressurise G&D would be more effective.

I really don't think G&D care how many angry Email they get to press@gi-de.com

How do you know these guys are working FOR Mugabi? By printing gazillions of notes they could be working for the CIA or MI6 to bring the government down by economic means (hyper-inflation).

They could be. Nice conspiracy theory. And why would the CIA or MI6 be trying to bring the government down?

I think other than UN sanctions or a massive swing of German public opinion against them (assuming it would ever be reported here), G&D are unlikely to change their actions. They probably have a contract, in fact.

If the worst you could come up with, is a german company selling printed paper to Mugabe, germany deserves a price for good behaviour.

Well, the UK and US are not exactly close friends with Mugabi any more. Maybe they have some plans to replace him with someone who looks more kindly towards us.

Oh come on that is bullshit! Just like the old saying Pussy is Pussy- business is business. If they don’t do it then someone else will. The real problem is the US mint. Without the foreign currency Mugabe would fall in a matter of weeks.

Surely they're missing a chance here. Printing money must be the only boom business in Zimbabwe , along with possibly collecting branches long and strong enough to inflict damage on anybody you disagree with. Surely they should be doing this themselves?

Nice try MC: but that's exactly the argument people used after WW2. Ah well...

So Mugabe would be history if G&D should stop selling him that sort of equipment? And what would be the effect of him not being able to print money himself? Wouldn't his friendly neighbors to the South come to his aid? Here's a few Rand, Bob...

So G&D sells money-printing machines to dictatorships like in Zim or Burma. And they are a German company. As if we had not always known that the Germans like dictatorship.

Just like their counterpart (ah for those devious Frogs) Thomas De La Rue! On their own website they proudly announce that they produce banknotes for "more than 150 currencies". All in 100% squeaky clean democracies?
Too bad: just another British company...

It's a little like saying I'd better mug that person and steal all his money because if I don't somebody else will.

Shocker...a British company beats the Germans in the 'responsible world citizenship and morality test" game, hands down.

1.00 EUR = 14,024,488,604.60 ZWD

so, how do people from Zimbabwe purchase flight ticket to Germany??? i.e. they should carry their check-in luggage full of currency just to pay for the ticket??? or, the bags would be too small???

source: www.xe.com

Don't forget, they've already chopped 3 zeros from the value, the so the current value of the ZDW is still much worse than it looks! . So, 1.00 EUR = 14,024,488,604,000.60 ZWD (old) .

So, the old 1ZWD note I have left over from my holiday there in 1997, worth at the time about €0,05 is now worth €0.00000000000007126.

ok.. so, how much would an average person earn there? the cost of pertol, bread, milk? I am not able to understand this.. will then be paying in trillions just to get bread and milk?

Bread and milk are scarce ... but there´s no shortage of caviar and champagne afaik

Money-fuelled problems in Zimbabwe

Looks like the government has released a new 50million dollar bill recently... so, how long untill the world declares the Zim$ unvalid??? monopoly money seems to have more worth.

You'll notice that dollar bill is only valid until 30/June/2008 ... spend it while it's still fresh!

According to this wikipedia page, the highest bank note in Zim at the moment is a ZWD 500 000 000 bearer cheque, but there are special "agro" cheques intended for use by farmers for making big purchases (but now used as general currency) of ZWD 5, 25 & 50 billion. When issued in May these went quite a long way, but now, they are not really of much use either!

Ouzaaaa! Unbelievable... Googled to see how the 5-Billion dollar bill looks like... here it is...

Guess there's more billionaires in Zimbabwe than the rest of the world put together.

But Bob has always been a dictator, oh and the Brits gave him a knighthood for it and now want it back or took it back cause he took their land.

According to The Telegrpah they are no longer going to supply paper to Zimbabwe.

Todays exchange rate is 1.00 EUR = 21,195,290,859.47 ZWD which makes a 50% depreciation in just over a week. Actually I think the dollar is not sliding as quickly as it was in May and June, but i do wonder how far this will go on...

well, according to Wikipedia the non-bank market rate is now around 456,921,446,064 ZWD : $1.

They are chopping off 10 zeros on 1st August, so that's reduce it to 45,6 to the Euro then!

I wonder who is prining the new notes, given that G&D are no longer involved.

Edit, that was yesterday's rate, today it is 669,809,343,407 ZWD : $1! (so thats around ZWD 1,045,000,000,000 to the Euro!) (source)