Now Zimbabweans have to queue to queue
By: Mary Revesai
A study conducted in the United States more than a decade ago estimated the cost to the American economy of alcohol abuse and alcoholism at US$246 billion. With queuing having become an almost enforced addictive activity in Zimbabwe, where ordinary people spend hundreds of hours in queues to do things that are routine in other countries such as shopping, depositing or withdrawing money from the bank etc, it would be interesting to quantify its impact on productive pursuits.
This is because as the shortages of almost everything, but particularly cash, worsen, there is a new twist to the art of queuing. In the past, people have resorted to leaving their cars in petrol queues or paying touts to keep their places in queues for various services so that they could do other things in the meantime. They may need to revise their strategies because queuing has become more complex and time consuming of late.
Now Zimbabweans have to queue to queue! How so, the un-initiated may wonder. This is because the shortages, especially of cash at banks, have become so dire that crowd control techniques are called for. Security guards now issue pieces of paper with numbers to forestall queue-jumping and other frustrated behaviour with a potential to ruffle feathers among people with frayed nerves and short tempers caused by the indignity that now accompanies the business of living from day to day.
What this means is that upon arrival at a bank, a foreign currency outlet or a supermarket, one has to join a queue to be issued with a number before joining the actual line in which to be served. In other words, people now have to queue in order to join a queue! This is an extremely stressful way of life and a scientific study would definitely establish how this is affecting people's health and how much productive time is wasted and other repercussions.
Read the full article here.
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