The tragicomedy of the Mugabe family and Zimbabwe

Everyone knows that Zimbabwe is a failed state with a worthless currency and endemic social collapse. Most or all of the blame can be placed squarely in the lap of Robert Mugabe. Today the Times Online offers a peek at the life of Mugabe's wife Grace:

Grace Mugabe, 43, known as the First Shopper of Zimbabwe, flew into a rage when she was spotted last week leaving the exclusive Shangri-La hotel in Hong Kong. She has been staying there with her entourage at a cost of £2,000 a day while her country endures poverty, hunger and disease.

Holding a Jimmy Choo-style bag estimated to be worth at least £2,000, and hiding behind Cavalli rhinestone-framed glasses with a red cashmere shawl over her head, she ordered her bodyguard to attack the photographer, Richard Jones [who] suffered nine cuts, abrasions and bruises to the face and head caused by the heavy, diamond-encrusted rings Mugabe was wearing...

Before she embarked on her Far East holiday at the beginning of January, Mugabe withdrew US$92,000 from the central bank in Harare...While the president stayed on in Singapore, his wife flew to Hong Kong and installed herself in the £600-a-night Harbour suite of the Shangri-La. There she played hostess to the couple’s daughter and to a stream of relatives and friends [who] were ferried around in black limousines costing £60 an hour...

Since becoming first lady, she has spent a fortune on foreign shopping trips, built a mansion in Harare, dubbed Gracelands, and acquired several formerly white-owned farms. Once, when asked why she spent thousands on expensive Ferragamo shoes while her people starved, she replied: “I have very narrow feet, so I wear only Ferragamo.”

She used to indulge her passion for shopping in the boutiques of Paris, New York and London. But when America and the European Union imposed sanctions on the Mugabes and their cronies they turned to the Far East.

Hours after the fracas on Thursday she left Hong Kong for home, where many call her “Dis Grace” behind her back.

Just to be clear on one matter: TYWKIWDBI deplores the behavior of paparazzi and considers them to be for the most part the scum of the earth.