How do you solve a problem like Mugabe?

Robert Mugabe turns 83 today ... and despite recent rumours of ill-health he's promised to party like a 28-year old at his birthday party on saturday ... and even worse to stay on as leader until at least 2010 .... celebrating this news with a lavish extravaganza despite the fact that today the shops in Harare have run out of bread (again), people are out bartering their last possesions for something to eat and the whole nation is seething with discontent at the fact that a bag of maize costs about 4 months worth of average salary ....

Its horrific and flabbergasting that the leader who took over the country from the Brits in 1980 in a wave of hope and goodwill (he's even been decorated by the Queen) has driven the breadbasket of africa and possibly one of the most beautiful countries in the world into complete and utter devastation ...

Inflation rates are 1600% (the highest in the world) and unemployment rests at about 80% .... fuel food and foreign currency are as rare as hen's teeth ... and violent land expropriation to the "war veterans" has left ravaged farmlands incapable of harvest ...

Case in point: a zimbabwean friend of mine took a loan out when he left 10 years ago to study at Harvard medical school and do his PhD there ... essentially 10 years of probably the most expensive education that money can buy ... and he returned this summer to pay off the entire loan with a $100 bill .... and he still got change back ...

The average life expectancy in Zim has fallen to 34 years (some estimates are less than 30 years) - the lowest in the world (the only countries comparable are Lesotho and Botswana due to heinous HIV rates of around 40%) .... hospitals are closing for lack of materials and medical schools closing because students can't afford fees ... doctors are in their 8th week of strike as are teachers with other workers close behind ....

Some estimates put over 3 million people facing starvation in Zimbabwe .... its democracy is in tatters and some of the most draconian press laws and worst civil liberties records in africa (which to be frank is not setting the bar very high ...)

As many of you know - the main opposition party (the Movement for Democratic Change) has been persecuted, hampered and its leaders imprisoned ... the brave bishop of Bulawayo - Pius Ncube - remains one of the few unbowed voices in the country despite horrific harrassment ...

Many are praying that this could be the turning year for them ... as the Zim economy crashes further .... there is no way of avoiding the fact that Mugabe is slowly driving the country deeper into catastrophe with no intention of ever stepping down ... and maybe just maybe - a winter of enough discontent could start the beginning of the end ...

Its unclear if anything anyone does in the west can divert Mugabe from his course ... sanctions, censure and alienation seemed to have had little effect ... and sadly the one african nation that may have had any influence - namely the south african government - remains doggedly silent and by default supportive to this grand-master of african politics (he staunchly helped the ANC through their stuggle against apartheid) .... perhaps all we can hope for is for those 83 years to catch up with him ....