Word: mobutu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...troubles began five years ago when Mobutu, an autocrat who always carries a traditional tribal chieftain's stick decorated with carved figures of birds and snakes, decreed an ambitious industrialization program. Instead of investing in agriculture-which would have increased food supplies and given many more Zaïrians jobs-Mobutu put $1 billion, much of it borrowed, into projects aimed at a vast expansion of copper exports. He gambled that increasing demand would keep copper prices rising-and he lost. During the world recession, copper prices plunged by 62%, and Zaïre's copper revenues shrank...
...Although Mobutu should have realized that he was making Zaïre more vulnerable than ever to world market fluctuations by concentrating so heavily on copper, he was partly a victim of plain bad luck. He could hardly have foreseen the soaring oil prices that helped depress the economies of his copper-buying customers and multiplied Zaïre's import bills. But there is more to the Zaïre story than that. Mobutu, who styles himself le Guide (the guide), also sank borrowed money-to be repaid out of copper revenues he did not get-into showy...
...Sele. There visitors find not only a gaudy cluster of conference halls and air-conditioned bungalows but also a palace for visiting heads of state in which the baths reportedly have gold-plated fixtures. A 27-story, $50 million world trade center is rising in Kinshasa; Mobutu hopes to make the city the trading crossroads of Africa-although the telephone system is so poor that some government officials use walkie-talkies. Air Zaïre has two DC-10s but only one Zaïrian pilot who can fly them...
...million in 1975. Zaïre last year suffered a balance of payments deficit estimated at more than $500 million, and its inflation rate is now around 40% annually. The nation this year devalued its currency by 42%, doubling prices for imported items like South African canned foods. Mobutu in 1973 forced out many foreign businessmen and farmers in an attempt at "Zaïrianization"; now he has asked many to return. Le Guide may also face political trouble. During a parade last month, students carried placards demanding an end to mismanagement-an astonishing development in a country that...
Western bankers agree that Mobutu is not entirely to blame for the country's troubles. Some fault themselves for being too eager to lend to the unsophisticated nation in the expectation of high returns. Says one Western banker: "What was needed here earlier in the '70s was a guy in a green eyeshade saying 'Wait a minute.' Mobutu didn't know he was in trouble. Western institutions weren't telling him he was getting into trouble. Mobutu has learned a lesson, but the West has too-not to come into a country like...