THE HOUSE THAT FORGOT HOW TO LAUGH

 There was no love missing in our house, because there was no love left to miss.That was our secret. We were not sad. Sad would have been easier.In House 24, 2nd Street, Germiston - the Molefes were perfect.6:00 AM - Alarm. 6:15 AM - Mom in the kitchen. The sound of the spoon against the pot. Same pot. Same porridge. Every day for 7 years. 6:30 AM - Dad at the table. Phone brightness on his face. He nods at Mom. Mom nods back. That's their good morning. 6:45 AM - Me and Junior. We eat with the TV on mute. Mom says TV at breakfast rots your brain, so we watch the pictures move with no sound.No one shouts. No one throws plates. Our neighbors who scream at each other at night - they have more life than us.We just... live. We pay. We eat. We sleep. We repeat.Then Mrs. Khumalo gave us the project."Grade 4s, for Life Skills this week: Record 10 moments your family laughed together."I took my pink notebook home like it was gold.DAY 1 - Monday I wrote the date and waited. Dinner....

What can you buy with Zimbabwe's new 50 dollar banknote?

 

50 dollar banknote?

What can you buy with Zimbabwe's new 50 dollar banknote?
FILE - A man counts a wad of the new Zimbabwean ten-dollar notes received from an ATM outside a bank in Harare on May 20, 2020.  -  
Copyright © africanews
JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP or licensors

ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe's central bank on Tuesday announced the introduction of a new 50-dollar note, the country's highest denomination, worth only around US$0.60.

Insufficient to pay even for a loaf of bread, the bill's entry into circulation has revived memories of the hyperinflation the southern African nation experienced over a decade ago.

As price growth spiralled out of control, denominations at the time mounted as high as a 100-trillion-dollar note.

Award-winning journalist and government critic Hopewell Chin'ono scoffed at the new banknote, which at the unofficial black market exchange rate will be worth just $0.35 in US dollars.

"It tells you something about inflation in your country if you need 3 notes of your highest currency denomination to buy a premium beer in a supermarket," tweeted Chin'ono.

The new note is the latest and most valuable in a series introduced from February 2019 as Zimbabwe moved back to using local currency.

US dollars had been used since 2009, when the country trashed its own worthless units after hyperinflation reached 500 billion percent.

Now the new denomination is stoking fears of a return of the kind of hyperinflation that wiped out savings and collapsed the economy, with head-spinning daily leaps in the prices of goods and services.

Last year Zimbabwe's inflation rate soared to more than 800 percent, but it has begun easing with the June year-on-year rate officially at 106.64 percent, according to the National Statistical Agency.

The central bank had forecast inflation to slow to 55 percent in July.

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