Harare — Ever wondered why Zimbabwe has lost the battle to bring back professionals and skilled personnel in the Diaspora? Or why Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was booed when he suggested during a visit to the United Kingdom soon after joining government under an inter-party inclusive government that Zimbabweans abroad should return home and help rebuild the country?

Well, America's Gallup gave a clue in its recent poll of 148 countries around the world released on Friday. The bulk of Zimbabweans are flag-wavers against their will, and just because someone has a flag lapel or a flag pin on their jacket doesn't mean they wouldn't get the next flight away if they got a chance to live elsewhere.

That's the suggestion coming from the poll, which indicates that the population of Zimbabwe would fall by nearly half if its people were allowed to leave the country at will. At a population of 12 million, it means the country would be left with just about six million people, with the rest joining a group of exiled Zimbabweans estimated at some three or so million.

But, worse still, the six million remaining would likely be children, but assuming they are dependent on the other six million leaving, then Zimbabwe would only be left to its politicians. Not a pleasing assumption to our audience-seeking political masters, obviously.

Nevertheless, it should now be clear that having an enviable climate, and treasured resorts that are counted among the world's best tourist attractions, is not enough for a country to attract, and keep, its own citizens.

The political environment, which for too long has been characterised by an unhealthy stand-off between President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party, on one hand, and Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change party, on the other hand, has been so poisoned it led to unnecessary bloodletting, forcing many Zimbabweans into exile abroad.

And the industries equally bled, resulting in the closure of many companies and the relocation of multinationals to stable neighbours. Inevitably, skilled people and professionals also left, as did even non skilled people, as the economy haemorrhaged, triggering the worst meltdown in the history of the country.

Healthcare still remains expensive and the roads are a death trap. The Gallup poll therefore shows that the environment has not yet improved. Unemployment is still at an estimated 80 percent, and industries that survived the crisis are still operating at an average 40 percent capacity utilisation.

There are no jobs! Civil servants, and the majority of the country's private sector workforce, are earning salaries way below the poverty datum line, and struggling to pay hefty utility bills and unrealistic rates from local authorities that have become havens for top employees living like thugs who have robbed a bank.

Consequently, many Zimbabweans are still looking outward. And as the Gallup poll indicates most Zimbabweans and citizens of other war and crisis-torn countries around the globe might prefer the patriotic chant - God bless America - more than they do their own national anthems.

The United States is the preferred destination of most would-be migrants, and if all who wanted to live in the US were allowed to, and all those who wished to leave did, American population would rise by around 60 percent, resulting in the coutry's population galloping to 480 million inhabitants, from the current figure of 300 million people, according to Gallup.

For Zimbabwe, the embarrassment is obvious: neighbours, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa would add more to their populations. Botswana would see its population increasing by 39 percent, while South Africa, Zambia and Namibia would see their populations increasing by 13 percent, five percent and two percent, respectively.

The comfort is that the rest of other African countries would register a net outflow of their populations, but still the fact that Zimbabwe is lumped at the bottom with people losers like Haiti and Sierra Leon is a big kick on the country's administrators. America competes with Singa-pore, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia who, according to the poll, would see their populations triple if everyone who wants to move there and those that wanted to leave were allowed to.

In figure terms, though, the US would attract the largest number of migrants. Singapore's population of 4,8 million would soar by 219 percent and that of New Zealand would rise by 184 percent 11,36 million while Saudi Arabia's population of 26 million would climb to 71,76 million.

Gallup researchers interviewed about 350 000 adults in 148 countries between 2007 and 2010 for the poll, the second since the first one in 2009. Gallup poll researchers note that while their findings reflect people's wishes rather than their intentions, the findings were nonetheless instructive to political administrators.