How can this be?

According to this AP article the economy in Zimbabwe is in shambles and looking down the barrel at 800% inflation.

Shortages of new bulbs means many traffic signals have only one working light. "You take your life in your hands when you think the lights are down but there's an oncoming green on the other side and people are speeding through thinking you are on red," said Harare driver Jonas Mashu.

It took Mashu a week to find imported brake and clutch fluid for his van. He said he used a viscous mixture of soap and water as a temporary measure, something he learned from a mining prospector in the bush.

This report has me confused, confused on how people can still think that socialism works. It don’t and it’s not a matter of “just doing it right”. Sometimes it’s not that you didn’t follow the recipe correctly, sometime it’s the recipe.

Mugabe and Chavez all buddy buddy last year. Chavez has a bunch of oil, maybe Mugabe should give him a call.

One thing to take note of, years ago I read an article in National Geographic about Cubans keeping ancient pre-Castro American cars on the roads. In the article it was mentioned that the Cubans sometimes used a soap-water mixture in lieu of proper hydraulic fluid. So, what is it with Socialist paradises and hydraulic fluid?