Imagine a country where all residents are millionaires.

Impossible? Not really. Recently, Zimbabwe's central bank issued the ten million dollar bill - currently the world's highest denomination of currency due to rapid inflation. Unfortunately, it's only worth about $3 USD - a figure that will probably be outdated by the time you read this. The inflation rate is now over 15,000 percent and rising. That is, the prices rise so quickly that most restaurants don't even bother to put them in their menus. Zimbabweans face extreme shortages of food and water, while many commodities, such as fuel, are available only on the black market.

Perhaps you're a bit irked when you step up to the register to purchase something substantial, reach into your pocket and find only small bills, fumbling out each dollar awkwardly in an attempt to count them as people stack up behind you in line while the cashier stares impassively at your efforts. In Zimbabwe, if ten million dollars is roughly equivalent to three US Dollars... imagine what one would have to count to buy a simple everyday item.

The situation is so bad now that many establishments don't even accept Zimbabwean currency. I came across one photograph of a beer that a man had bought, and next to it the money he used to pay for it. There were two thick stacks, as tall as the beer itself. What cash register could possibly fit all that worthless money?

The economic crisis is only one of the many problems that Zimbabwe faces today. Just a brief look at the current state of the country arouses many questions. How long has this destruction been going on and what sort of leader could allow their country to crumble into ruins, right before their very eyes?

While watching celebrities on television, enjoying a nice heated house with electricity and comfortable furnishings, we complain about how inept our government is and laugh at clips on talk shows of the president stammering. Everyone knows who George Bush is - but who's Robert Mugabe?

Robert Mugabe was elected as prime minister of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1980, and president in 1987 after the position of prime minister was abolished. He was re-elected in 1990, 1996, and 2002, his elections won by intimidation and alleged vote-rigging. He has been known throughout his career to suppress his opposition.

In February 2000 a new constitution was proposed that would have allowed the government to redistribute white-owned land to black farmers without compensation, but it failed with 55% opposition. However, a few days later a group of Mugabe supporters marched onto the white-owned farmlands and seized them despite the turnout of the votes, putting the farmland into the hands of less experienced farmers, which in turn caused a devastating drop in total farm output. Zimbabwe, once rich in agricultural produce, is now fighting a 45% malnourishment rate, and struggling to feed its own people.

In 2005 Mugabe initiated the "Operation Murambatsvina; Drive Out the Rubbish" forcibly evicting 10,000 poor from their shanty homes - people whom he himself had moved there in 1992, instructing them not to build permanent homes as their new homes were only temporary.

Mugabe, who has a degree in economics, has helped send the economy into a free-fall, lowered the Zimbabwean life expectancy, manipulated the polls, oppressed the people, massacred tens of thousands, and there's a good chance he'll win the upcoming elections for another 5-year term proceeding his 84th birthday.

"This Hitler has only one objective," Mugabe said of himself. "Justice for his people, sovereignty of his people, recognition of the independence of his people and their rights over their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold."

While his people are struggling to live, he's having palaces built for himself and driving around in shiny cars.

The following are a few excerpts of letters from a friend living in Zimbabwe.

"Greetings to you my brother.How are you doing?We are fine in the Lord even if the situation here is not good at all.We still do not have water and its almost a month now using unclean and water which is not safe and is making us sick and is so little that we have to ask the children and even us to bath say today and the next do not to make sure there is water at home.This is the bad situation we are in right now my brother.Its almost a month now without water.Bye for now my brother.l wish we had the money to have a borehole drilled for us as that would help so much but we do not have the money to do that.Bye for now my brother.

"Time is going so fast my brother.Yes with the situation here we wish if the world would end anytime now my brother.Nothing is worth living for now here.Prices are going up all the time and the food shortages are still there.May God hear our prayers concerning our country my brother.Power is still also a problem for us that we are using firewood most of the time to cook.Bye for now my brother."

"l planted some maize (corn) and some pumpkin which are doing well.Soon we will be using the pumpkin leaves as relish at home.l boil them and add tomatoes,peanut butter and salt and serve with sadza which our staple food here which is like thick porridge but we do not add sugar and salt to it."

"l really wish to be writing you and talking about other good things not this all the time.From now onwards l want to be confessing good even if the situation is not good at all my brother.May the Lord take over in our situation here in Zimbabwe and set us free."

Now imagine a country where all residents are millionaires - but these millions can hardly buy a loaf of bread, and a degree in economics can scarcely keep the economy from collapsing entirely. This is Zimbabwe.