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Europe and the United States as  reported by various Western sources.
The October/November issue of the Philadelphia Trumpet says, “America is in the midst of its worst-ever post-recession job recovery. At the current pace of job growth, America is still two and half to three years away from getting the jobs back that it lost in the 2007 recession.” What all this amounts to is that the nation still must find more jobs for all the people who entered the workforce over the ensuing eight years.

The Philadelphia Trumpet further points out that “As huge as America’s deficit is, the bigger threat is America’s practically unfathomable debt. America’s official federal debt is over US$16 trillion, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. America has promised its citizens tens of trillions more in social security, medicare and medic-aid benefits.”

Laurence Kotlikoff, professor of economics at Boston University, puts America’s total liabilities at a mind-boggling and astounding US$222 trillion. It is indeed Utopian that America can pay this bill.

America’s next president will have to cut much if not most of the promises that have been made to retirees and even if he cuts them all, his government will still owe that official US$16 trillion.

On December 4, 2012 Nick Beams writing for the World Socialist Web Site notes that: “the significant reduction in the economic forecast of the 34-member Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is the latest in a series of warnings by major international economic organisations of a global slump. The OECD slashed 0,8 percentage points from its growth forecast of six months ago — from 2,2 percent to 1,4 percent in 2013 — and warned of the possibility of “deep recession and deflation, with large additional rises in unemployment.”

Beams further noted that the OECD forecast that the euro zone would contract by 0,1 percent in 2013, following a fall of 0,4 percent this year. Growth in the US was predicted to be just 2 percent — below the level required to expand employment—down from the previous forecast of 2,6 percent. Growth in Japan was revised downward from 1,5 percent to 0,7 percent.

But this figure may come down even further, given that the Japanese economy is expected to experience negative growth for the last two quarters of this year. He also explains that unemployment across the euro zone has risen to 11,7 percent, up from 10,4 percent a year ago. It is indeed traumatising to note that Spain and Greece are already experiencing depression levels of unemployment of 25 percent or more.

Steinberg writing on November 1, 2012 points out that the latest figures released by Europe’s official statistics agency confirm that the trend towards recession is deepening. The clearest indicator of this process is the steady increase in unemployment across the continent. Unemployment in the 17-country euro zone rose to a record level of 11,6 percent in September.

With 146 000 workers losing their jobs that month, the total number of jobless in the euro zone rose to 18,49 million. The latest figures for the 27 nations in the larger European Union (EU) reveal that no fewer than 20 EU states have recorded increases in unemployment compared to a year ago.

From the above facts and figures, it is now up to our readers to make their own judgment on whether the Juice which is heavily biased towards Western funding is worth pursuing or it should be thrown into the neo-colonial dust bin. The insincerity of it all is that most of these Western countries have already begun “looking east” for their own economic salvation.

It boggles the mind that the MDC-T leadership wants people to believe that Zimbabwe’s economic problems can only be solved by looking up to the West: What sickening myopism! Frantz Fanon in “The Wretched of the Earth” warns Africa not to be a caricature of Europe. Africa must not aim to be another Europe but should come up with its own development plans.

The MDC-T has not created even five thousand jobs for the people ever since it became a part of the inclusive Government. Zanu-PF has done more than that through its empowerment programmes.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his party are now telling Zimbabweans that they intend to create more than a million jobs for the people.

South Africa which is heavily industrialised and has thousands of foreign investors, a stable economy, a high GDP and also boasts of having one of the best economies in Africa is actually struggling to create jobs for its people. The United States is retrenching thousands of workers each month and so is Europe, for the MDC-T to tell us that the Western regime change funders will help them create a million jobs for Zimbabweans while failing to do the same for millions of unemployed whites in their own countries is indeed wishful thinking.

In politics, ambitions are necessary and acceptable, but they should also be at least practical. Juice is premised on the assumption that the United States and Europe (which are also struggling economically) will through philanthropy for their “second class” black brothers in Zimbabwe channel billions of dollars to revive Zimbabwe, the Marshal Plan way. Such benevolence will thereby come through the creation of a million jobs for the majority of unemployed youths in Zimbabwe ignoring the creation of jobs for the millions of retrenched and unemployed people in the Western world.

The MDC-T wants us to ignore the issue of a State’s national interest which is the major driving force in the way states relate with each other in the international system. Does the Prime Minister truly believe in the idealist notion of collective interest? Why in the first place do we find so many industries in the Western world yet the raw materials actually come from Africa and other developing countries.

Why do Western countries not just set up industries in Africa were the raw materials are found? This will help create employment for millions of Africans as well as improve the standard of living of the continent’s poor masses. However, the truth which is centred on realist thinking is that each country is more concerned about its national interest rather than the interests of other states.

There wouldn’t be a 21st century scramble for Africa’s abundant resources if the profits realised from such exploits were minimal.

Most miners in Southern Africa are living in squalid conditions as compared to those in the West. Rock drillers in Australia are earning far much higher salaries than their black counterparts in South Africa. The Prime Minister seems not to care much about such wage disparities so long as jobs are created. He has become a very wealthy man overnight and hallucinates in broad day light.

He even has the audacity of smiling at his own political inferiority devoid of the fact that Zimbabweans are aware of how he acquired his wealth. This is why we strongly contend that that the Juice MDC-launch is in fact a leap into obscurity. However, the stubborn fact is that he never got that wealth while working at Shamva. Juice can never be a solution to the economic challenges affecting Zimbabwe. It is only through indigenisation and empowerment that the Marikana type of exploitation can be avoided in Africa. This also paves way for most Africans to economically develop themselves.

Regardless of what the Prime Minister does or says he would do, the jobs lost in Zimbabwe over the years through dirty politics are not coming back. Juice is an over-ambitious utopian economic plan propagated by desperate politicians to make the electorate believe in the impossible by trying to create non-existent jobs in order to get votes.

Bowden Mbanje and Darlington Mahuku are lecturers in International relations, and peace and governance with Bindura University of Science Education.