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ZIMBABWEAN PRESIDENT ROBERT Mugabe has said he gets by on a modest salary of $4,000 a month because of the “hard times” facing the country, state media reported today.
Zimbabwe is still recovering from years of economic collapse attributed mainly to government policies under Mugabe, who has run the country since independence in 1980.
“I am earning $4,000 (€2,900) just now, because of the hard times. This is what we decided on, that we should recognise the hard times at the moment,” Mugabe said in a BBC interview at the weekend, according to excerpts published in state media.
The average wage in Zimbabwe is $300 a month, but unemployment runs at 80 percent and most of the population of 13 million live in poverty.
Outside interests
The report did not say how much the 90-year-old president, who favours designer suits and Rolex watches, might receive in allowances or what he earns outside government.
Mugabe has interests in farming among known business entities under his name.
The president built a plush private mansion on the outskirts of the capital Harare, reportedly worth more than $10 million.
Last month the veteran leader gave a $100,000 gift to his daughter and son-in-law at their wedding, which he hosted at his mansion with more than 4,000 guests.
Salary cap
Last month Zimbabwe announced a $6,000 salary cap for executives working for state-owned companies following reports that some of them were grossly overpaid.
The head of the public health insurance fund was a top earner, with a gross monthly salary of $535,499, while the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation boss took home $37,050 a month.
The country in 2009 ditched the worthless Zimbabwe dollar currency in favour of the US dollar and a raft other regional currencies.
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It’s a demanding job? Oh yeah a month off for Christmas and unmandatory attendance, sounds real real tough.
All the more reason to keep the cameras rolling
A missed opportunity ?? Literally wtf. .. A year to work on how to handle that incident and that’s what comes out….. and then to try follow it up with a put down based on gender quotas …..
Have a live CCTV link for the Dail Bar.
Just picture , no sound….
And let everyone see how long our TDs spend in it…
Oooo I’ve a demanding job too, does that mean it’s ok for me to get pissed and grope women too.
I have listened to that a couple of times & I have to say I do not really know what her point is but using an incident that happened between her and her party member — and seemed to go unpunished — as a means to attack Shane Ross: Enda would be proud.
What a cop out. She’s excusing and burying the fact that what happened to her was totally obnoxious, demeaning in the extreme to all women not just her and typical of the historically arrogant male dominated rump of Fine Gael. Fine Gael will never change as long as the women within it allow themselves to be dictated to by men and the mc nulty affair, this and cabinet reshuffle proved this fact!!
Wouldn’t let this creature on my knee ! No way!
What a charming comment. Do tell us more. Is it somehow ok then that she was pulled onto a man’s lap against her will? Was he doing her a favour? Have you anything to say on the sexual attractiveness of the lech who groped her?
In a case like this what’s sauce for the goose isn’t sauce for the gander. Her physical appearance is entirely irrelevant to her job and to this incident. How about commenting on the male TD involved or some of the issues raised by this incident, like an intelligent human being.
Jane you clearly remember this different to me. A drunken TD pulls another drunken TD on to his lap. I didn’t see her squirm or fight off the attention of the man which suggests to me that it was a bit of drunken craic. Nothing else. So tone down the deafening Feminism Jane it’s not like he groped her against her wishes.
It just was done in the wrong place where legislation was being discussed.
Spidey, did you actually read the comment I was replying to? Do you think that commenting negatively on the woman’s appearance in this incident, ignoring the man’s, was ok?
And yes, I did watch the video and I saw a woman with body language that showed that she was extremely uncomfortable.
I’m not denying she’s a muppet, by the way, but i’ll judge her on her words and actions rather than her appearance, exactly as i would Barry or any male TD.
Sorry men are all perverts and all women are angels is that your message?
That is what I am taking from what you are saying. No offence but it sounds a tad sexist. Feminism is a great thing don’t get me wrong but when it is used to beat men with then it is every bit as wrong as male chavanism.
How could you take that from what I said? I asked you to judge all people, men and women, by their actions and not by their appearance. How is unfair or partisan, by contrast with your comments on her appearance?
Nearly sure I saw this old trout on one of Vincent Browne’s public meetings last year.
She sat there in all her Brown Thomas clobber like Marie-Antoinette, looking at the audience like they were shite on her shoe.
A strange case of ‘excusitius’……from the victim. Anything to keep the money coming in to their accounts.
Lads would you ever go back to providing transcripts of the videos in articles? Watching these fools spout on drives me scats. Slightly less offensive reading what they have to say
Shane Ross Mick. Wallace. Maurice Fitzpatrick. Did not ask her to sit on their knee
I look forward to not voting for this idiot.
Aine who?
Ah yes she is the woman in the dail that sits on people’s laps….she looks like something out of an auld Irish marriage in the 1960′S….
Once again, what does her appearance have to do with her job? What about the male TD’s appearance?
Spidey …. I too find your comments as wrong as the incident itself
If she appears as though she is willing to have her arse pulled down onto some drunken clowns lap in the national parliament and laugh rather than complain about it, it would appear that she is not fit to do the job for which she was elected, Jane.
“If she appears as though she is willing to have her arse pulled down onto some drunken clowns lap in the national parliament and laugh rather than complain about it, it would appear that she is not fit to do the job for which she was elected”
Paul
Once again, what does the fact that she was groped at work have to do with her ability to do the job for which she was elected?
Have you any comment of the ability of the grouper to do the job for which HE was elected? I have far more misgivings about his competence than about hers.
Groper! Not grouper. Autocorrect seems to have gone bananas on the Journal app since the last update.
Jane right when I sat down and thought of it I see your point. Her appearance has nothing to do with it and I take it back.
However she is not a victim in this. She had a choice in this and went along with it. So it’s not really the man that is fully at fault. It is split down the middle with her and him.
Seriously … willing?
Or can men and women not partake in public displays of affection these days without a man being labelled a pervert?
Abeit this is in the worng place and shouldn’t happen in the Dail chamber.
Spidey stop typing your making a complete creep out of yourself …..
Me. Jesus mate. Are you serious?
Where did that come from???
Do you understand that a man and a woman can actually flirt with each other every now and again and keep it all friendly?
My point was it was wrong place wrong time. I do not see what is pervy about that but you should think about how sick of a mind you have Jon.
Spidey, kudos for rethinking your position. That takes guts.
However, as a woman I’ve been groped in public, at work, on the street, places you wouldnt believe.* I have never reacted as i would have liked to; with the snappy comeback or perfect put-down that pops into mind about an hour later. I’d say it’s the same for most women. An assault like that comes so out of the blue, it takes us by surprise and we often freeze and don’t know how to handle it.
It doesn’t help that we’ve been told all our lives that it’s “only a bit of fun” and that we should “be flattered” or “learn to take a joke”. I’m in my forties and only learning to fight back now, at an age when such unpleasant attentions are thankfully getting rarer. I’m not going to judge any woman for how she did or didn’t react to being groped; I’ll save my judgement for the creep who groped her.
*cue predictable and negative comments on my own appearance by cretins who think i have no right to speak out as I do.
Yeah … your correct and I must apologise. .. After reading all of your comments on this subject including your peachy line ”all men are perverts and all wemon are angels” it’s clear I’m the one who is mislead…. to help me further would you define flirting for me ?
You didn’t laugh about it. She did.
Nervous laughter ? What could she do in fairness with all her peers watching ?
I tell ya what enough of this bs spidey and Paul Roche would you do what he did ?
She did not complain. To anyone at the time.
I mean, it’s nice you’re being such an understanding gentleman about it, Jonathan, but she’s not worth it. 18 months is a long time to realise you should have done something sooner.
That’s a beautiful defence there Paul … sure she didn’t complain !! You failed to answer if you would have done the same?
Paul
Read my answer above about complaining.
Jon get a life. The only perve here is you picking at people’s words. Thanks.
Jane I agree with you on occasions when a women or a man because let’s face it the world is equal gets groped out of the blue and its totally vile. No person should ever have to go to work and put up with that. With that you make an excellent point.
However in the case where both parties are drunk and know each other quite well and can be seen as harmless craic then that is all it is. The Dáil was the wrong place for this and if there were any bad feelings or misplaced affection then 1. Drink is not something that should have been consumed and 2. Work is no place for schenagians.
And no I don’t drink. Maybe a pint or two a year so I don’t engage with this carry on especially not at work. Do you Jon?
Indeed how preverted of me to judge a man by his words ….
She should be flattered.
Not sure what she has achieved since becoming a TD other than have a drunk colleague unwittingly entice her onto his lap.
Has she anythink to say perhaps about hospital waiting lists or the fact tha Fine Gael think its ok to pay childrens allowance to CEO’s and millionaires…..
Why did she have to bring Mick. Shane. Maurice into this she should have defended herself
While she has a very low national profile I think she comes across as quite genuine overall. There’s a sort of steady determination about her.
How can any workplace have a bar to it even in this day of health and safety, you think that the Health and Safety Authority would step in and close it or has no one reported the Dail Bar to them yet?
I see their email address is wcu@hsa.ie
Head Office:
The Metropolitan Building
James Joyce Street
Dublin 1 – See more at: http://www.hsa.ie/eng/Contact_Us/#sthash.aiCzK5zs.dpuf
Being a TD in Dáil Éireann is a real “hands on” job.
a missed opportunity, sorry I still don’t understand her point? a missed opportunity to to deflect to the opposition.
have your say