As a follow-up to my post a few days ago regarding the business relationship between the Munich-based firm Giesecke & Devrient and Zimbabwe, an article in Der Spiegel today reports (English/German) that the company has ceased deliveries of banknotes to Zimbabwe's central bank.
The German-language article suggests that growing public outrage -- as well as requests by at least two cabinet ministers from the SPD -- was decisive in leading the company to suspend its activities with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that a company spokesperson stated: 'There was a certain amount of political pressure.' ('Es hat einen gewissen politischen Druck gegeben.')
Indeed.
A small victory. But even these, I think, should be celebrated.
2 comments:
Well done. And I say it's not so small a victory in the end.
It's certainly a victory for This is Zimbabwe, which has been doing excellent work in drawing attention to things like this.
And also for the politicians whose pressure (somewhat tardy, yes, but effective) seems to have paid off, even though this is an issue that is hardly setting the more general public opinion on fire.
As to the effectiveness, we'll have to see.
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