"Since January 24, when South African power utility Eskom shut down South Africa's mining sector, little time has been available to calculate the potential direct and indirect damages... AngloGold Ashanti, a Tier I global gold digger, said it anticipated losing about 400,000 ounces of gold from its South African operations in 2008. Even that assumes that a perfect and sustainable 90% power supply is achieved for the remainder of the year." -- MoneyWeb, South Africa

Ayn Rand's classic "Atlas Shrugged" describes the pattern: A society dominated by socialist political hacks and incompetent freeloaders collapses rather quickly once the "men of the mind" decide -- for whatever reason -- to stop maintaining it, and the productive machinery grinds to a halt. No nation is immune to this disease, but some are more susceptible than others. Take Zimbabwe, for example...