Indeed! How can Tsvangiri taste expensive caviar and drink champagne when Zimbos are not even having two meals a day?

How can Tsvangirai justify appeals for foreign aid when Mugabe is splashing his illegally acquired wealth in a celebration that Zimbos are only able to dream about?

Appeals for the public to donate did not meet any success. Thus Mugabe has had to dip into his bottomless pocket to finance the extravaganza in order to save the situation.

Who says Mugabe can feel the sufferings of his people?

u would think that some form of social services for the poor would be started - when i say i know someone who knows children starving - iti s not a lie

Difficult as it is, that is the correct decision. Only sick minds can dine and wine when the country under their charge is perishing like this, and they are asking other nations to sacrifice their hard earned resources to fix their hospital system. school system, etc. And Mugabe believes the environment is fine for elderly "British"!

Good for Tsvangirai b/c that would have truly hurt the way the world would see him as well the the Zim people who still suffer while Mugabe is throwing this massive party that should show you he could care less about anyone but himself!

CHINHOYI, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was celebrating his 85th birthday with a lavish all-day party Saturday despite the fact that the country is gripped by an economic and health crisis. Zimbabwe's prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai was visiting cholera patients at a hospital in Harare.

Zimbabwe's prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai was visiting cholera patients at a hospital in Harare.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF party said it raised at least $250,000 to hold the party in Mugabe's hometown of Chinhoyi, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) outside of the capital, Harare.

Critics of the president say the country is desperate for that amount of money to be spent instead on its citizens, who are suffering from a cholera outbreak, food shortages, and spiraling hyperinflation. On Friday, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai visited a hospital's closed intensive care unit that he said needed $30,000 to resume operating.

During the celebrations, Mugabe announced that his controversial land reform would not be reversed. The program is designed to have white-owned farms given to blacks, and there have been violent seizures of such farms since the program began in 2000.

He emphasized that the country's "indigenization program" -- which forces all major foreign companies operating in Zimbabwe to have at least 51 percent black ownership -- will be carried out. It began last year and hasn't been implemented yet.

Mugabe's birthday falls on February 21 but his party loyalists postponed the celebrations as they were raising money for the event.

"I think it is going to be a great day for the legend and icon whose birthday we are celebrating today here," said Mugabe's nephew Patrick Zhuwawo, one of the fund-raisers for the birthday. "The country might be having problems, but we need to have a day to honor the sacrifices the president has made for this country." What do you think about the celebrations?

Zhuwawo said about 100 beasts would be slaughtered for the birthday bash. iReport.com: What do you think about Mugabe's lavish party?

Mugabe also invited schoolchildren from around the country to attend the party, being held at Chinhoyi University.

The farming town of Chinhoyi is usually quiet, but Saturday's event has changed everything. Cars with Mugabe's supporters could be seen hooting and some ZANU-PF supporters sang Mugabe's praises.

A banner in Chinhoyi read, "Age ain't nothing but a number."

prem , Did you know that if a man earned just US 50 000 a year for 28years and invested it he would be very wealthy ? Even if you are the President/Prime Minister of tiny Tuvalu or Fiji the job does come with free house, transport ect so they probably do not have to even touch their wages. These people also get the best advice about investing their wages and that's what makes them WEALTHY not you stupid theory of Mugabe sealing the peoples money! Try and do the maths and THINK next time.