Monday, November 05, 2007

I Ain’t Bragging…

Seriously, I am not. However, when you point out something and then folks in the system pretends like they have an epiphany, one is bound to feel very good. Man, I feel like that right now.

What’s the story that got me all giddy? Well, according to IPPMedia, the Director General of Board of External Trade (BET) Director General, Ramadhan Khalfan, pointed out that education could generate the much-needed foreign currency in Tanzania if improved.

Hello someone, didn’t I say that on November 29, 2006? As I pointed out earlier, this something that I shoud not be bragging about. That is because the potential of education in generating a whole lot of money is not a "revelation". It is as wide and in the open as the Indian Ocean is. It is a matter of principle and reality. Education is a product or service, if you will, just like clothes, cars and food. It could be sold and bought. Honestly, people put concepts and ideas in the bound form (called books) and make tons of money. As intangible as ideas are, people who are endowed with the talent and the ability to put books together, well, make money. The same goes with education.

As far as the potential of education as a money-generating machine, you don’t have to be a genius to recognize that Kenya and Uganda have been exporting education to Tanzania for ions. “Intelligent” and able Tanzania parents figured it out long ago that Kenya and Uganda could provide a better education than Tanzania and hence decided to take their kids there. Whether education in Kenya and Uganda is of high quality than that of Tanzania could be debatable. Nonetheless, this much I know, there are very few (if not none) Kenyan and Ugandan parents sending their kids to pursue primary education in Tanzania.

I think these talks about Tanzania’s potential in this and that is getting old. Don’t you think so? Don’t you get annoyed with some big shot gets up on the podium to share his or her “revelation” on potential things in Tanzania that are actually being implemented in the neighboring country?
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Photo Credit: Mjengwa

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