Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Beggars Mentality (3)

I love Bongoland leaders. That, of course, is a sarcastic statement from me. Honestly, I am still looking for anything to love my fellow Tanzanians who are given the responsibility to take us to the Promised Land. It is not my intention to depress you, but I don’t think the qualities I am looking for will emerge anytime soon.

See, there are fundamental things that a responsible human being will do. For instance, you are in a squeeze for money. A neighbor comes to you with a proposal. He or she proposes that they will contribute to your bank account, but the only simple condition for you to do that is bath your children. See, the reason why you needed the money was to fund the remodeling of your house. The problem, however, was that your children kept on getting sick, and the doctors advised you to bath your children quite often to save yourself of hospital trips.

So the neighbor, knowing that a fundamental change that you need to make is to bath your children, laid out a beneficial condition for you. Bath your children and I will give you money, as simple as that. So what would you think of a person who fails to accomplish that simple contractual obligation and end up missing the neighbor’s contribution? Stupid isn’t it?

I believe for allowing the contractual time with the Danish government to elapse before tabling the anti-corruption bill, the Tanzanian government has just acted the same - stupidly.

See, corruption hurts. It sends our economy and social progress ailing all the time. So wouldn’t it be the priority of a Tanzanian government to table the corruption bill as agreed upon with the Danish government? Phillip Marmo, the Minister of State in the President’s Office responsible for Good Governance contends the government could not rush to table the Bill in Parliament before seeking people’s views as provided for in the country’s legislative program.

That is crap, given you had a contractual agreement. I know of plenty of Bills that went against the people's will. So don't pull that on us.

One would quickly think that Marmo’s arguments make a strong case, but they are not. This is my question: when the Tanzanian government was signing the aid package, didn’t they know it would take much longer to fulfill the requirements set forth by the Danish government? Why didn’t the Tanzanian government bring that up during negotiations? This is not a surprise all of a sudden, isn’t it?

Tired politicians will always come up with tired arguments.

The bottom line is this: the Tanzanian government agreed to table the Bill not in February 2007, but earlier than that. So shut up and accept the fact that Tanzanian government is irresponsible.

So I just felt like slapping Mr. John Momose Cheyo for his comments regarding the Danish government’s move. Here is what he said: “These people! How can they do a thing like that? Is it that they want the people to go against their own government? Whey they slash aid, it is the people who are going to suffer, not the government. Their priority should be the people, the government in power”.

Either way Mr. Cheyo, wananchi cha moto wanakiona. Just look around you.

Can you believe that this is a guy who actually wanted to be the President of the United Republic of Tanzania? It is very sad that the word responsibility and accountability is not part of the Tanzanian culture. Because of that, we have a twisted mind. I mean, whose responsibility is it for the Tanzanian people, the Danish government or the Tanzanian government? Seems to me like Mr. John Cheyo thinks the Danish government should be more responsible to the Tanzanian people that the Tanzanians’ own government. How stupid is that?

What ticks me off is the fact that we are beggars, but we act like we are on top of the world. I have not done research on this, but I am convinced that holding on to the beggars’ mentality for too long has brought us to the point where we take everything for granted.

I agree with Mr. Idd Simba. Slash the stupid aid. We have plenty of gold. Let’s be responsible for our own actions and decisions. We kicked the British out so we can do that. So let’s do it then. Besides, financial aid has not done much. The last time I checked, if traveling by bus from Arusha to Dodoma, it is a sure thing that your eyelashes will be full of dust when you get there. Wasn’t that the case before the British left the country 45 years ago?

You know what sucks the most? Having clueless leaders. Kwa mwendo huu, Vision 2025 is just a dream. Si mtaona?

5 comments:

Sam GM said...

Metty,

These leaders, from Simba, Marmo and Cheyo have no clue that the country's future rely more on what is happening now. And to make it worse, they want to treat the aid issue as a trump card or a tiebreaker. One thing for sure is, they have no idea on how to deploy resources, human and intellectual capitals to the best interest of the country. You definetely not gonna lead people to a better TZ 2015, if accountability and responsibility are not part of your leadership virtues. "That which you can not give away, you do not possess, it possesses you".

sam

Anonymous said...

I don`t see any sucess by blaming poor leaders of CCM. Where is the other party? Who is ready to campaign against the dynasty Chama Cha Mapinduzi?

Anonymous said...

Young bloods with a lot of vision and determination, it is about time to put your imaginations into actions. That poor country can get out of poverty if we have the proper economic policies and administrators who collaborate with Wananchi. First, we have to come up with a business model that would make poor people rich, by improving the indivuduals situations we can empower others to participate in making decisions for solving problems of their countrymen. When many people are poor, they fear to get together and talk about good ways of running the government,so it is the intention of CCM to have its citizen poor and to make them poor so that they can continue to drive them crazy and get away with that?
Tanzania can do better than that?
Government officials are the ones ruining the nation, many of them are corrupt and nothing happens to them they get away with whatever they do easily because even the legal system is not adequately developed or useful.

So, it is about time to change the political system, the economic system, the legal system, and the business model. There will be no sustainability of growth in the economy if we don`t change the way our country and our people do business with other people and other countries. In today`s world it is the country which knows how to do business with others that will prosper, in order to do good business we have to have a stable environment, socially, politically, and educationally. How is Tanzania capable to keep up with modern science, techology, and entreprenuership. How can Tanzania take advantage of the East Africa Community, European union, and globalization in general. Do we have good negotiators when we trade with other nations, Yes we need to attract foreign investments but what are the terms of trade and how will that benefit us? Sio tu kuwaita foreign investors kuja kutia watu vidole. Hatutaki tena upuuzi wa kuuza uza nchi kimagendo na kulaliwa eti kwa kuwa tunaukubali unyonge, nani anataka kuendelea kuwa mnyonge mbele ya siasa za kiubeberu na uchumi wa kibepari unayotawala dunia ya leo. Kila unayetaka kufanya naye biashara ni bepari na ana ubeberu wake sasa wee unaingia kichwakichwa na muonyesha udhaifu au unyonge wako unategemea atakufanya nini? Kama Mcanada anakuja kuchimba madini it has to be a win win situation, kama Msouth africa anakuja kuinvest mabenki na viwanda vya bia na sigara ni sawa lakini iwe win win situation. Kama Vodacom wanaleta simu zao za video ni sawa lakini iwe ni win win situation. Nyie mlio mamtoni angalieni vijana wa Voda wanafanya nini nendeni na kampuni zenu mshindane na Vodacom, maendeleo hayatakuja kama hatutajenga utamuduni wa kushindana kimaendeleo na hasa katika uchumi wa kibepari. Ubepari si mfumo wa siasa ni mfumo wa uchumi, viongozi waliopita walitupumbaza kuwa ubepari ni mfumo mbaya wa kisiasa, ukweli ni kwamba ubepari si mfumo wa siasa ni mfumo wa uchumi.

Anonymous said...

Nini kifanyike nani afanye au nani atafanya kuuangamiza utumwa,uzembe, na umaskini?
hatutaki vita vya silaha tunataka vita za akili na matendo kuleta success sio kwa wachache wala rushwa. Wachapa kazi wote wanastahili kuwa na wanachotaka kuwa nacho maishani mwao bila kuwabughudhi eti wanahujumu uchumi, muhujumu uchumi ni wewe kiongozi usiye na dira ya nchi yako na kizazi kijacho.

Jaduong Metty said...

@Sam,
I can give Idd Simba credit for being honest on this - but the question is: what did he do when he was part of the system?

If the question was being afraid of being "Kolimbwad" then he doesn't have guts. Wimpy leaders are no leaders at all.

@Anony 2:06
It is true that words alone can't change anything. Nonetheless, there is always power in information. I try to educate. Let someone else, whose calling is into running for office, learn a few a thing or two from this blog.

But you are right - talk is cheap.

@Anony 2:53
I feel you. The problem with just making a decision to come home and invest heavily depend on how fast the system is willing to accomodate new thinking. Naweza nikaja, but end up packing my bags.

As you pointed out, the core issue is changing the system. And the system can only change if we change our mentality and thinking. And that ain't and easy task.

@Anony 3:13
Ni kweli hatutaki vita vya kisilaha. What we need is a mental fight. What I am doing right here is to shed some light. Hopefully, kuna mtu atanielewa na kubadilika.

My desire though, if the youth of Tanzania to understand that the old guards will not change unless we grab our country from them.