A few things have stimulated me enough to write another blog. On Tuesday this week I bought a copy of the Daily News. I don’t do it every day, but the headline attracted my attention. ’President Jakaya Kitwete re-appoints former Prime minister Lowassa’. My heart sank – What are these guys up to, I thought? The Richmond scandal reported in my first blog I hoped marked a turning point in tackling governmental incompetence and corruption, and here we are 10 weeks later re-appointing the head of this scandal. The article in the top left of the front page, where major items are displayed, went on to give details and referred the reader to the second page for more details. This I did to be told it was the 1st of April, and no re-instatement had occurred - nice one!!
In the same position in the Thursday edition the headline read, “ZANU – PF loses parliament”. The total coverage for this election on that day was less then 100 words. This was surprising to me because I thought there would be a lot more interest shown here, but there isn’t. Perhaps its because Zimbabwe is a warn out piece of news in the same way Somalia, Darfur, Congo and other countries are to the UK press. Perhaps its because from our euro-centric viewpoint we focus on ex-colonies who seem to be/ are making a bit of a hash of governing themselves, and thereby contributing to the myth that in some way our colonialism was a good thing. Perhaps even to the point where we feel we should still be in charge by some means. Perhaps its just because newspapers in Tanzania are not much different to those in the UK and focus on what readers want to see, - sport, stars, scandals, and other things starting with s! You will be interested to know there was a huge picture of the Eagles performing in Rotterdam as part of their ‘Long Road Out of Eden World Tour’, and a huge volume of words and pictures given over to Manchester United. I’m afraid I just can’t concur with the reporter who writes an article about how the thinking is Christiano Ronaldo is a better player than Best or Law!!
My placement draws to a close. Although we have identified some good income generating activities for MSA, and have focused on getting a Computer Tuition Centre going, I will leave Moshye with some difficult decisions to make. The room for the Tuition Classes has been painted, desks made, chairs made, electrical work done, and it even has a newly painted sign on the outside of the building. However past lack of funding has caught up with us. The volunteer programme does include a sum of money (about £300) to be used to help provide something really needed to get a project going and be sustainable. Although this does not seem a lot this sort of money goes a long way here. In fact doing all the above has been around that figure. Pretty nearly from the beginning Moshye has collared me to give towards this and that. We did give about £100 towards food for the orphans, and then worries concerning having the water and electricity being cut off made us give him a bit more to keep them at bay. He still has not paid anything to the landlord this year, and the night security guards have been cancelled because they couldn’t be paid. Teachers and cooks only get paid if there is anything in the kitty; otherwise seem to have been content in getting a meal at lunchtime. Hence the importance of buying food which doesn’t just go to the orphans, So the tough one is do we stump up another few hundred pounds in addition to the agreed ‘Community Trust’ money built in to volunteer programme, or do we say “I’m sorry, but we can’t help here”?
We had hoped Vodacom who have donated the computers we intend to use were going to help with some of the installation costs, but they said this week they couldn’t at the moment. So we have cracked on to complete the work, and I have indicated we will leave a sum to contribute to the teacher prior to money coming in from paying students. Now its over to Moshye to see if he can battle through to get MSA into a position where he can at least pay his running costs, and then get regular income from the education and computer classes.
So it seems we return to the theme of micro and macro comparisons. Is it effective on a national scale to offer aid donations to achieve long-term growth and sustainability? Is this no different to the situation we find ourselves with MSA? If we sort out the immediate situation with a few hundred pounds will MSA be any different in the future? I somehow doubt it. Therefore I think the nation-states or NGOs are faced with the same problem, and have with similar solutions. Determined and incorruptible leadership dedicated to help its population without relying on handouts from others is the key to development.
Tanzania has a lot going for it – yes it is desperately poor in many ways, and there are huge problems to overcome. However it can be guaranteed a huge amount of good-will, it has many natural resources, it has population at peace with itself, land ownership is not the divisive issue it is many places around the world, and there are many talented people here.
Kwa heri
Donald
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