Opinion / Columnist
The other side of Zimbabwe's high inflation
28 Aug 2013 at 06:11hrs | Views
On September 30 2010, I was part of thousands of people who attended the 20th First Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Sanders Theatre at Harvard University in USA.
The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded for achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think.
The Ig Nobel Prizes are intended to spur public curiosity and interest and other fields of endeavor. The prizes are awarded each year but winners are expected to travel to the ceremony at their own expenses.
The Ig Nobel Prize winners are, despite possible appearances to the contrary, real. Their achievements are well documented.
But as I was perusing through past winners something caught my eye. Our own Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono was awarded the mathematics prize in 2009 and the citation read: Mathematics Prize: Gideon Gono, governor of the Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, for giving a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers- from very small to very big-by having his bank print bank notes with denominations ranging from one cent ($0,01) to one hundred trillion dollars ($100 000 000 000 000). And our fears is that the printing press may start to run again as the Zanu PF has hinted returning the Zimbabwean dollar.
As I was still wondering whether Gono deserved the prize the Igs master of ceremonies, Marc Abrahams, editor, Annals of Improbable Research's voice boomed through the public address system: "This year's winners will each get $10 trillion dollars- yes $10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars". Abrahams said this while waiving out of circulation Zimbabwe dollars.
But the Ig Nobel Prizes made me think. Was there anything good which came out of Zimbabwe's hyper inflationary period? Yes, so it seems. Many Zimbabweans were now able to count up sextillion without even paying a single cent to an arithmetic tutor, what with Gono printing out a new denomination of Zimbabwean dollar each day. My grandmother who before the runway inflation could not count to ten was by end of 2008 able to count to 100 trillion- thanks to Gono and his "printing press". So at first when I saw Gono's name among the winners I laughed but later I had to think as I realized that unintentionally Gono was making Zimbabweans more able to count than before. And who knows this could have contributed to the rise in Zimbabwe's literacy and numeracy rate!
And some the winners with Gono were: Veterinary Medicine Prize: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless. Peace Price: Stephna Bollinger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michale Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland for determining-by experiment- whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty.
Economics Prize: the directors, executives and auditors of four Icelandic banks, Kauthing Bank, Landsbanki, Glitnir Bank and Central Bank of Iceland for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks and vice versa and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy. Chemistry Prize: Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor M. Castano of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico for creating diamonds form liquid, specifically from tequila.
Medicine Prize: Donald L. Unger of Thousand Oaks, California, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand - but never cracking the knuckles of right hand - every day for more than 60 years. Physics Prize: Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, USA, Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University, USA, and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, USA, for analytically determining why pregnant women don't tip over.
Literature Prize: Ireland's police service (An Garda Siochana) for writing and presenting more than fifty traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country-Prawo Jazdy- whose name in Polish means "Driving Licence". Public Health Prize: Elena N. Brodnar, Raphael C. Lee and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, Illinois. USA, for inventing a brassiere that in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of protective face masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy by stander. Biology Prize: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90 percent in mass by using bacteria extracted from the feces of giant pandas.
Well we hope to see more winners from Africa and by the way guess who could win the prize for been a President of a country after losing a presidential election. No money for guessing! But for now kudos to Gono for make us able to improve our arithmetic!
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Andrew Mambondiyani can be contacetd at amambondiyani@gmail.com
The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded for achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think.
The Ig Nobel Prizes are intended to spur public curiosity and interest and other fields of endeavor. The prizes are awarded each year but winners are expected to travel to the ceremony at their own expenses.
The Ig Nobel Prize winners are, despite possible appearances to the contrary, real. Their achievements are well documented.
But as I was perusing through past winners something caught my eye. Our own Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono was awarded the mathematics prize in 2009 and the citation read: Mathematics Prize: Gideon Gono, governor of the Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, for giving a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers- from very small to very big-by having his bank print bank notes with denominations ranging from one cent ($0,01) to one hundred trillion dollars ($100 000 000 000 000). And our fears is that the printing press may start to run again as the Zanu PF has hinted returning the Zimbabwean dollar.
As I was still wondering whether Gono deserved the prize the Igs master of ceremonies, Marc Abrahams, editor, Annals of Improbable Research's voice boomed through the public address system: "This year's winners will each get $10 trillion dollars- yes $10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars". Abrahams said this while waiving out of circulation Zimbabwe dollars.
But the Ig Nobel Prizes made me think. Was there anything good which came out of Zimbabwe's hyper inflationary period? Yes, so it seems. Many Zimbabweans were now able to count up sextillion without even paying a single cent to an arithmetic tutor, what with Gono printing out a new denomination of Zimbabwean dollar each day. My grandmother who before the runway inflation could not count to ten was by end of 2008 able to count to 100 trillion- thanks to Gono and his "printing press". So at first when I saw Gono's name among the winners I laughed but later I had to think as I realized that unintentionally Gono was making Zimbabweans more able to count than before. And who knows this could have contributed to the rise in Zimbabwe's literacy and numeracy rate!
And some the winners with Gono were: Veterinary Medicine Prize: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless. Peace Price: Stephna Bollinger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michale Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland for determining-by experiment- whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty.
Economics Prize: the directors, executives and auditors of four Icelandic banks, Kauthing Bank, Landsbanki, Glitnir Bank and Central Bank of Iceland for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks and vice versa and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy. Chemistry Prize: Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor M. Castano of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico for creating diamonds form liquid, specifically from tequila.
Medicine Prize: Donald L. Unger of Thousand Oaks, California, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand - but never cracking the knuckles of right hand - every day for more than 60 years. Physics Prize: Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, USA, Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University, USA, and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, USA, for analytically determining why pregnant women don't tip over.
Literature Prize: Ireland's police service (An Garda Siochana) for writing and presenting more than fifty traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country-Prawo Jazdy- whose name in Polish means "Driving Licence". Public Health Prize: Elena N. Brodnar, Raphael C. Lee and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, Illinois. USA, for inventing a brassiere that in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of protective face masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy by stander. Biology Prize: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90 percent in mass by using bacteria extracted from the feces of giant pandas.
Well we hope to see more winners from Africa and by the way guess who could win the prize for been a President of a country after losing a presidential election. No money for guessing! But for now kudos to Gono for make us able to improve our arithmetic!
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Andrew Mambondiyani can be contacetd at amambondiyani@gmail.com
Source - Andrew Mambondiyani
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