Dear Sir,
Thank you for connecting with us this first quarter of the year, we are glad to have set our loan plan this year 2020/2021 towards Europe and Africa.
I would like to discuss doing business with you in relation to any project finance you may have, and your capital growth. We are hands-on investors sourcing for innovative entrepreneurs and consultants with investment opportunities in commercial-real estate industrial projects, hotel development , tourism-hospitality projects, renewable energy, waste-recycling, mineral-mining, heavy construction, environmental-tech projects,etc, that have the right mix of flair, growth potentials and market vision.
Whether it’s a start-up project looking to launch a pilot project, a company with proven technology that needs capital input to reaching commercial scale. We are open to structure a loan package and agreement based on your financial needs and projections. Our financial solutions have many advantages over a traditional commercial loans from other banks.
For information on our low interest-rate loans and application and if your interested for a follow-up, kindly let me know so I can give you more details.
Thank you.
Kind Regards,
Christopher Mount
Email: christophermountffl@gmail.com
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Please i need your reply very fast
Good Day,
I found your contact particulars in an E-mail address guide that was provided to us here, as I desperately needed an urgent help to do this deal. I am seeking your kind assistance to move the sum of $12m {Twelve Million U.S Dollars only} to you; as far as I can be assured that my share will be safe in your care until I complete my service here.
SOURCE OF FUND: A lot of money in various currencies were discovered in barrels at a farmhouse near one of saddams old palaces in Tikrit in Iraq during an operation Conquest in Fallujah north of Baghdad, and it was agreed by Staff Sgt. Kenneth Buff and I that some part of this money be shared among both of us before informing anybody about it since both of us saw the money first. This is quite an illegal thing to do, but well tell you what? no compensation can make up for the risk we have taken with our lives in this hell hole, of which my brother in-law was killed by a road side bomb last time.
The above figure was given to me as my share, and to conceal this kind of money became a problem for me, so with the help of a British Contact working here, at Southern Basra British fortified green zone, whose office enjoys some immunity, I was able to get the package out to a safe location entirely out of trouble spot.
He does not know the real contents of the package, and believes that itbelongs to a British/American medical doctor who died in a raid here in Baghdad, and before giving up, trusted me to hand over the package to his family in United States. I have now found a much secured way of getting the package out of Iraq to you, for you to pick it up, and I will discuss this with you when I am sure that you are willing to assist me, and I believe that my money will be well secured in your hand because you have fear of God.I want you to tell me how much you will take from this money for the assistance you will give me.
One passionate appeal I will make to you is not to discuss this matter with anybody, should you have reasons to reject this offer, please and please destroy this message as any leakage of this information will be too bad and catastrophe for soldiers here in Iraq. I do not know how long we will remain here, but I hope to have a shift very soon for me to return back to the States.
I have been shot and wounded twice and I have survived two terrible suicides bomb attacks just by special grace of God, this and other reasons I will mention later has prompted me to reach out for help, I will honestly want this matter be resolved immediately. See link below for more information about the origin of the http://www.voanews.com/ burmese/archive/2003-04/a- 2003-04-20-1-1.cfm
I thank you so much for everything and anticipate that you will be trustworthy and handle this transaction to the best of your ability to benefit both of us.
God Bless you and your family.
Please kindle reply me with this email address, susanjones4good7@gmail.com
Miranda Jones
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Person to contact: Dr.Jim Ovia
United Nations Compensation Unit, In Affiliation with World Bank Our Ref: U.N/WBO/042UK/2012.
Congratulations Beneficiary,
How are you today? Hope all is well with you and family? You may not understand why this mail came to you. We have been having a meeting for the past 7 months which just ended few days ago with the secretary to the UNITED NATIONS. This email is to all the people that have been scammed in any part of the world, the UNITED NATIONS in Affiliation with WORLD BANK have agreed to compensate them with the sum of USD $500,000.00 Dollars.
This includes every foreign contractors that may have not received their contract sum, and people that have had an unfinished transaction or international businesses that failed due to Government problems etc. We found your name in the list of those who are to benefit from these compensation exercise and that is why we are contacting you, this have been agreed upon and have been signed. You are advised to contact Dr .Jim Ovia of our paying center in Africa, as he is our representative in Nigeria, contact him immediately for your Cheque/ International Bank Draft of USD$500,000.00 Dollars.
This fund is in form of a Bank Draft for security purpose ok? So he will send it to you and you can clear it in any bank of your choice. Therefore, you should send him your full Name and telephone number your correct mailing address where you want him to send the Draft to you. Contact Dr. Jim Ovia of ZENITH PAYMENT CENTER with your payment code: 82509 immediately for your Cheque at the given address below:
Person to contact: Dr.Jim Ovia
E-MAIL: jimovia733@gmail.com
Phone: +2348023042241
I apologize on behalf of my organization for any delay you might have encountered in receiving your fund in the past. Thanks and God bless you and your family. Hoping to hear from you as soon as you cash your Bank Draft. Making the world a better place.
You are required to contact the above person and furnish him with the following of your information that will be required to avoid any mistakes:-
1. Your Full name:
2. Your Country:
3. Contact Address:
4. Telephone Number:
5. Fax Number:
6. Marital Status:
7. Occupation:
8. Sex:
9. Age:
Congratulations, and I look forward to hear from you as soon as you confirm your payment making the world a better place.
Regards,
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
http://www.un.org/sg/
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Person to contact: Dr.Jim Ovia
United Nations Compensation Unit, In Affiliation with World Bank Our Ref: U.N/WBO/042UK/2012.
Congratulations Beneficiary,
How are you today? Hope all is well with you and family? You may not understand why this mail came to you. We have been having a meeting for the past 7 months which just ended few days ago with the secretary to the UNITED NATIONS. This email is to all the people that have been scammed in any part of the world, the UNITED NATIONS in Affiliation with WORLD BANK have agreed to compensate them with the sum of USD $500,000.00 Dollars.
This includes every foreign contractors that may have not received their contract sum, and people that have had an unfinished transaction or international businesses that failed due to Government problems etc. We found your name in the list of those who are to benefit from these compensation exercise and that is why we are contacting you, this have been agreed upon and have been signed. You are advised to contact Dr .Jim Ovia of our paying center in Africa, as he is our representative in Nigeria, contact him immediately for your Cheque/ International Bank Draft of USD$500,000.00 Dollars.
This fund is in form of a Bank Draft for security purpose ok? So he will send it to you and you can clear it in any bank of your choice. Therefore, you should send him your full Name and telephone number your correct mailing address where you want him to send the Draft to you. Contact Dr. Jim Ovia of ZENITH PAYMENT CENTER with your payment code: 82509 immediately for your Cheque at the given address below:
Person to contact: Dr.Jim Ovia
E-MAIL: jimovia733@gmail.com
Phone: +2348023042241
I apologize on behalf of my organization for any delay you might have encountered in receiving your fund in the past. Thanks and God bless you and your family. Hoping to hear from you as soon as you cash your Bank Draft. Making the world a better place.
You are required to contact the above person and furnish him with the following of your information that will be required to avoid any mistakes:-
1. Your Full name:
2. Your Country:
3. Contact Address:
4. Telephone Number:
5. Fax Number:
6. Marital Status:
7. Occupation:
8. Sex:
9. Age:
Congratulations, and I look forward to hear from you as soon as you confirm your payment making the world a better place.
Regards,
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
http://www.un.org/sg/
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
HOPE TO HEAR FROM U
From: Mrs. Susan Jones of Kuwait
Use the Funds for the less privilege
I am the above named person from Kuwait . I am married to Dr. Harry Jones who worked with Kuwait Embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year 2000.We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days. Before his death we were both born again Christians. Since his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my matrimonial home. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $8.6Million (Eight Million six hundred thousand U.S. Dollars) with a finance/security company in Europe .
Presently, this money is still with the Security Company and the management has written me as the beneficiary to come forward to receive the trunk box of money. Presently, I am in a hospital where I have been undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer. I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I might not be able to survive this illness from all indications. It is my last wish to see this money distributed to victims of HIV/aids, charities donations, Orphans and other needy persons in your country. Because relatives and friends have plundered so much of my wealth since my illness, I cannot live with the agony of entrusting this huge responsibility to any of them anymore.
I want a person that is God fearing that will use this money to assist and utilize for orphanages and widows propagating the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained. The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that grivet. I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not believers and I don't want my husband's hard earned money to be misused by unbelievers. I don't want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly manner. Hence the reason for taking this bold decision. I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace. I will not be able to use the telephone communication in this regard because of my soundless voice and the presence of my husband's relatives around me always.
I don't want them to know about this development. With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Finance/ Security Company. I will also issue you a letter of authority that will prove you as the new beneficiary of this fund. I want you and your fellow believers to always pray for me because the lord is my shepherd. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian. However that wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life. Any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing for another person for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein.
Hoping to hearing from you soon.
Mrs. Susan Jones.
Please you can reply me on this email address susanjones4good9@yahoo.cn
Monday, December 3, 2012
HOPE TO HEAR FROM U
From: Mrs. Susan Jones of Kuwait
Use the Funds for the less privilege
I am the above named person from Kuwait . I am married to Dr. Harry Jones who worked with Kuwait Embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year 2000.We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days. Before his death we were both born again Christians. Since his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my matrimonial home. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $8.6Million (Eight Million six hundred thousand U.S. Dollars) with a finance/security company in Europe .
Presently, this money is still with the Security Company and the management has written me as the beneficiary to come forward to receive the trunk box of money. Presently, I am in a hospital where I have been undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer. I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I might not be able to survive this illness from all indications. It is my last wish to see this money distributed to victims of HIV/aids, charities donations, Orphans and other needy persons in your country. Because relatives and friends have plundered so much of my wealth since my illness, I cannot live with the agony of entrusting this huge responsibility to any of them anymore.
I want a person that is God fearing that will use this money to assist and utilize for orphanages and widows propagating the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained. The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that grivet. I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not believers and I don't want my husband's hard earned money to be misused by unbelievers. I don't want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly manner. Hence the reason for taking this bold decision. I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace. I will not be able to use the telephone communication in this regard because of my soundless voice and the presence of my husband's relatives around me always.
I don't want them to know about this development. With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Finance/ Security Company. I will also issue you a letter of authority that will prove you as the new beneficiary of this fund. I want you and your fellow believers to always pray for me because the lord is my shepherd. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian. However that wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life. Any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing for another person for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein.
Hoping to hearing from you soon.
Mrs. Susan Jones.
Please you can reply me on this email address susanjones4good9@yahoo.cn
Monday, September 10, 2012
HOPE TO HEAR FROM U
From: Mrs. Susan Jones of Kuwait
Use the Funds for the less privilege
I am the above named person from Kuwait . I am married to Dr. Harry Jones who worked with Kuwait Embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year 2000.We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days. Before his death we were both born again Christians. Since his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my matrimonial home. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $8.6Million (Eight Million six hundred thousand U.S. Dollars) with a finance/security company in Europe .
Presently, this money is still with the Security Company and the management has written me as the beneficiary to come forward to receive the trunk box of money. Presently, I am in a hospital where I have been undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer. I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I might not be able to survive this illness from all indications. It is my last wish to see this money distributed to victims of HIV/aids, charities donations, Orphans and other needy persons in your country. Because relatives and friends have plundered so much of my wealth since my illness, I cannot live with the agony of entrusting this huge responsibility to any of them anymore.
I want a person that is God fearing that will use this money to assist and utilize for orphanages and widows propagating the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained. The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that grivet. I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not believers and I don't want my husband's hard earned money to be misused by unbelievers. I don't want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly manner. Hence the reason for taking this bold decision. I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace. I will not be able to use the telephone communication in this regard because of my soundless voice and the presence of my husband's relatives around me always.
I don't want them to know about this development. With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Finance/ Security Company. I will also issue you a letter of authority that will prove you as the new beneficiary of this fund. I want you and your fellow believers to always pray for me because the lord is my shepherd. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian. However that wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life. Any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing for another person for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein.
Hoping to hearing from you soon.
Mrs. Susan Jones.
Please you can reply me on this email address susanjones4good8@yahoo.cn
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Call Winner
Call Winner
The eurolotto Netherland has awarded your email a cash of Two Million Dollar in a random email world progamme, attached to qualification number NL: 2-6-15-24-37-45 The objectives is to make a notable changes in the standard of living world wide.To claim your award call and email contact address to the department below. Officer in charge: MR.JAN VANSLOT Tele: 0031-685-142-180 Email to: paydept25@live.nl Necessary information: Name, Age, Country,Tel
Regards Ms.Rata Como,
The eurolotto Netherland has awarded your email a cash of Two Million Dollar in a random email world progamme, attached to qualification number NL: 2-6-15-24-37-45 The objectives is to make a notable changes in the standard of living world wide.To claim your award call and email contact address to the department below. Officer in charge: MR.JAN VANSLOT Tele: 0031-685-142-180 Email to: paydept25@live.nl Necessary information: Name, Age, Country,Tel
Regards Ms.Rata Como,
Monday, August 6, 2012
Confirm Winne!!!!!!
Confirm Winne!!!!!!
The eurolotto Netherland has awarded your email a cash of Two Million Dollar in a random email world progamme, attached to qualification number NL: 2-6-15-24-37-45 The objectives is to make a notable changes in the standard of living world wide.To claim your award call and email contact address to the department below. Officer in charge: MR. JAN VANSLOT Tele: 0031-685-142-180 Email to: paydept23@live.nl Necessary information: Name, Age, Country,Tel Regards Ms.Rata Como,
The eurolotto Netherland has awarded your email a cash of Two Million Dollar in a random email world progamme, attached to qualification number NL: 2-6-15-24-37-45 The objectives is to make a notable changes in the standard of living world wide.To claim your award call and email contact address to the department below. Officer in charge: MR. JAN VANSLOT Tele: 0031-685-142-180 Email to: paydept23@live.nl Necessary information: Name, Age, Country,Tel Regards Ms.Rata Como,
Monday, July 23, 2012
your email award!
your email award!
The eurolotto Netherland has awarded your email a cash of Two Million Dollar in a random email world progamme, attached to qualification number NL: 3-6-15-24-37-47 The objectives is to make a notable changes in the standard of living world wide.To claim your award call and email contact address to the department below. Officer in charge: MR. JAN VANSLOT Tele: 0031-685-142-180 Email to: newleafs@netscape.net Necessary information: Name, Age, Country,Tel
The eurolotto Netherland has awarded your email a cash of Two Million Dollar in a random email world progamme, attached to qualification number NL: 3-6-15-24-37-47 The objectives is to make a notable changes in the standard of living world wide.To claim your award call and email contact address to the department below. Officer in charge: MR. JAN VANSLOT Tele: 0031-685-142-180 Email to: newleafs@netscape.net Necessary information: Name, Age, Country,Tel
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Bonjour
Bonjour
Excusez moi pour ce message si inattendu. Je suis mademoiselle Dominique Mallet, chargée de gestion administrative du patrimoine et des archives dans une banque nationale. Peu de temps avant la fermeture des institutions financières en RCI à cause de la crise postélectorale, tous les hauts cadres du pays ont sécurisé ou expatrié leurs fonds. C'est ainsi que j'ai pu en isolé des fonds qui m'ont été offert en remerciement par un ancien dirigeant sur un compte inactifs depuis longtemps maintenant. il s'agit d'une importante somme. Avec la discrétion la plus absolue je souhaite faire transférer ces fonds à l'étranger. Aidez moi en recevant et en sécurisant les fonds sur votre compte ou le compte de votre société et je vous rejoindrez pour investir. Nous partagerons les fonds a part égale.
Dans l'esperance d'une réponse favorable.
Dominique Mallet
Monday, January 23, 2012
A PORTION OF THE ARMY DISCIPLINE CAN CONTROL ROAD CARNAGE
In African culture, the deceased is always right; no matter what! And talking bravely about what the dead person might have ommited to do before his/her death is blasphemy.
We divert the reality to the expense of another multitude of deaths. As a result, we never learn from the deceased mistakes.
Last two weeks the road carnage on Tanzanian roads claimed the life of another Member of parliament,Hon Regina Mtema(Special seats) prompting angry reactions from his colleagues in Parliament and Chadema Party ( the main opposition party) with North Kigoma legislator Zitto Kabwe saying her untimely death was a blow to the younger generation in politics.
According to the regional police chief, the accident occured at Ruvu area in the coast Region. He said that the one legged ( disabled) MP with no right foot lost control of her car, when trying to overtake another speeding car. As a result her car overturned, killing her on the spot.
The death of the CHADEMA special seats brings to two the number of MPs who have so far died in road accidents in recent years.
In July 2008, CHADEMA MP Chacha Wangwe died on road accident. His driver had no valid driving licence.
Both deaths were caused by gross negligence on the part of the deceased that we dont want to say publicly. Regina was amputated with no right foot. Drivers know that a right foot controls the pedals,i.e cruch, breaks, then how on earth was she controlling the vehicle with the left foot?
Again another lawmaker on the wrong side of the law was Chacha Wangwe. In a perfect world we're not expecting a lawmaker to be driven a long distance safari with unlicenced driver. But this is Africa, and we do our stuff in an african way.
Among the imported culture that we copied so competitely was an army discipline.Originating from colonial Kings African Rifles, our soldiers are still doing their things in an extremely ordely manner, i.e booty cleannes, observing smart areas, saluting the seniors without fail, and following all rules dutifully.
If only our road users, especially drivers could borrow a fraction of the army discipline, unnecessarily deaths caused by irresponsible behaviours in our roads could not be happening.
Oh AFRICA, THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
IN TANZANIA, THIS MONTH OF THE YEAR, SMARTER PARENTS SEND KIDS TO THE BEST SCHOOLS
My favourite fm Radio presenter, Ephraim Kibonde once said, 'Mjini tunaishi kibiashara zaidi'. That quote sums life of urbanites in my lovely country, Tanzania.
Economists say it simply, The price is determined by the demand'.
We are in the month of January, when all parents are squeezing their pockets ready to pay children school fees. In some private schools the price is astronomical, and it keep rising haphazadly. Alas, some are even charging in hard currency.
Guess what? A parent has to be smart if he/she cares for his/her childrens future. The lousy thinkers will always send their kids to ward govermental schools with nothing to offer. My sister calls these schools, 'Msondo ngoma', ( this is the old music group, not much favoured by newly dot com generation).
January is not the time to solicit wedding or kitchen party contributions, as every parent eye is on school books and uniforms. At this season of the year banks are characterised by long queues of eager parents holding heavy bundles of 10000/= notes( A.K.A mwekundu wa msimbazi)
Come February when our kids are in classrooms, wedding contributions, kitchen parties and send off resumes. This is the prime time for the smarter local enterprenuers to gain enormous amount of cash from the proletariats. Vikao after vikao are colorfully organised in bars such as Dar es Salaam famous joints going by the name of Riverside, Kijiji cha makumbusho, Rose Garden etc etc. Local enterprenuers are gaining by using their petty ventures such Master of ceremony, catering, wedding card designs, digital animation, hosting wedding halls and a number of other businesses.
It is the interesting that after the above mentioned primitive accumulation of capital ranging from february to December, the same so called 'wajasiamali' affords to spend a good part of their fortunes to the 'not realistic' pricely private schools.
In Dar Es Salaam the top of the range primary private schools charges fee to the tune of $5000 per annum. In camparison, Indian Universities charges $5200 per annum. The difference is that one gets three years Indian University degree and he graduates while the other only accomplish just one year of primary school education!!!
So, A million dollar question is, why Indian education is cheaper than Tanzanian? My primitive answer is that our fee structure is not real only inflated by ourselves.
Who has the duty to end this circle? Tanzanians.
Economists say it simply, The price is determined by the demand'.
We are in the month of January, when all parents are squeezing their pockets ready to pay children school fees. In some private schools the price is astronomical, and it keep rising haphazadly. Alas, some are even charging in hard currency.
Guess what? A parent has to be smart if he/she cares for his/her childrens future. The lousy thinkers will always send their kids to ward govermental schools with nothing to offer. My sister calls these schools, 'Msondo ngoma', ( this is the old music group, not much favoured by newly dot com generation).
January is not the time to solicit wedding or kitchen party contributions, as every parent eye is on school books and uniforms. At this season of the year banks are characterised by long queues of eager parents holding heavy bundles of 10000/= notes( A.K.A mwekundu wa msimbazi)
Come February when our kids are in classrooms, wedding contributions, kitchen parties and send off resumes. This is the prime time for the smarter local enterprenuers to gain enormous amount of cash from the proletariats. Vikao after vikao are colorfully organised in bars such as Dar es Salaam famous joints going by the name of Riverside, Kijiji cha makumbusho, Rose Garden etc etc. Local enterprenuers are gaining by using their petty ventures such Master of ceremony, catering, wedding card designs, digital animation, hosting wedding halls and a number of other businesses.
It is the interesting that after the above mentioned primitive accumulation of capital ranging from february to December, the same so called 'wajasiamali' affords to spend a good part of their fortunes to the 'not realistic' pricely private schools.
In Dar Es Salaam the top of the range primary private schools charges fee to the tune of $5000 per annum. In camparison, Indian Universities charges $5200 per annum. The difference is that one gets three years Indian University degree and he graduates while the other only accomplish just one year of primary school education!!!
So, A million dollar question is, why Indian education is cheaper than Tanzanian? My primitive answer is that our fee structure is not real only inflated by ourselves.
Who has the duty to end this circle? Tanzanians.
Monday, December 12, 2011
MARKING 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE
Tanzania last week marked 50 years of Independence. Next year, it is Uganda’s turn to mark the golden jubilee and the year after, it will be Kenya’s.
When a people have been in charge of their own destiny for half a century, after inheriting an efficient administration and decent infrastructure, it is time to take stock of what they have attained and project where their nation will be 50 years later.
I don’t know what the balance sheet will look like for Tanzania this week, Uganda in ten months’ time and Kenya shortly after. But we can look at a few other countries that turned 50 in recent years.
The state of Israel turned 50 just over a decade ago. They started off with nothing but a patch of desert, no oil but with hostile neighbours. Most of their budget still goes to defence but by the time Israel made 50, they had created the world’s most efficient agriculture sector and an impressive construction industry.
India also got its Independence around the same time, starting off as an oppressed people fighting for basic freedoms. For five decades, they worked on their productive capacity. Actually, older male Indians are said to have very tough cheeks because for decades, they used rough, India-made razor blades to shave. Fifty years later, India’s industry had matured. Today India makes the best electric cars and many European scientists now prefer to take their inventions to Tata.
Africans are good with excuses, and can list a hundred reasons why they cant do what India and Israel did in 50 years. But African children won’t eat our excuses, however clever and convincing they sound.
And anyway, Ghana did their 50 years recently amid relief from all over the world for they have managed to break out of the general lack of seriousness often associated with Africa. Ghana now has a working democracy and there is no fear that the revenue from their newfound oil will go to the dogs.
The DR Congo, described as the biggest prize on earth, turned 50 last year, and has everything needed to create a paradise for its citizens. I hope they are thinking about it. But my favourite country is Nigeria. At 50, they are already making it, in their own way. They taught us about Ibo culture through Chinua Achebe’s pen and now in the digital age, they have created Africa’s movie industry. Their films are lousy and lovely at the same time, but they are available for everyone on the continent. They have had corrupt rulers and chaotic systems but the private sector is unstoppable.
Next year, the Republic of South Sudan will be celebrating its first birthday! South Sudan is worse off even than East African countries were at Independence.
The Juba government has not found in place any infrastructure or proper public service like Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya had 50 years ago. I doubt if there are even 10 female South Sudanese medical doctors in the whole world.
Most South Sudanese still live a “natural” existence and the development indicator statistics are simply shocking. The interesting challenge for East African countries will be to remain better off than South Sudan when it turns five as we turn 55 in five years’ time.
Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International fellow for development journalism. E-mail: buwembo@gmail.com
When a people have been in charge of their own destiny for half a century, after inheriting an efficient administration and decent infrastructure, it is time to take stock of what they have attained and project where their nation will be 50 years later.
I don’t know what the balance sheet will look like for Tanzania this week, Uganda in ten months’ time and Kenya shortly after. But we can look at a few other countries that turned 50 in recent years.
The state of Israel turned 50 just over a decade ago. They started off with nothing but a patch of desert, no oil but with hostile neighbours. Most of their budget still goes to defence but by the time Israel made 50, they had created the world’s most efficient agriculture sector and an impressive construction industry.
India also got its Independence around the same time, starting off as an oppressed people fighting for basic freedoms. For five decades, they worked on their productive capacity. Actually, older male Indians are said to have very tough cheeks because for decades, they used rough, India-made razor blades to shave. Fifty years later, India’s industry had matured. Today India makes the best electric cars and many European scientists now prefer to take their inventions to Tata.
Africans are good with excuses, and can list a hundred reasons why they cant do what India and Israel did in 50 years. But African children won’t eat our excuses, however clever and convincing they sound.
And anyway, Ghana did their 50 years recently amid relief from all over the world for they have managed to break out of the general lack of seriousness often associated with Africa. Ghana now has a working democracy and there is no fear that the revenue from their newfound oil will go to the dogs.
The DR Congo, described as the biggest prize on earth, turned 50 last year, and has everything needed to create a paradise for its citizens. I hope they are thinking about it. But my favourite country is Nigeria. At 50, they are already making it, in their own way. They taught us about Ibo culture through Chinua Achebe’s pen and now in the digital age, they have created Africa’s movie industry. Their films are lousy and lovely at the same time, but they are available for everyone on the continent. They have had corrupt rulers and chaotic systems but the private sector is unstoppable.
Next year, the Republic of South Sudan will be celebrating its first birthday! South Sudan is worse off even than East African countries were at Independence.
The Juba government has not found in place any infrastructure or proper public service like Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya had 50 years ago. I doubt if there are even 10 female South Sudanese medical doctors in the whole world.
Most South Sudanese still live a “natural” existence and the development indicator statistics are simply shocking. The interesting challenge for East African countries will be to remain better off than South Sudan when it turns five as we turn 55 in five years’ time.
Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International fellow for development journalism. E-mail: buwembo@gmail.com
Monday, December 5, 2011
Time for a Technocrat President in Tanzania?
We have tried a middle of the road type of a socialism that never truly worked.
Behind it was an exemplary idealist and once in a generation leader in Mwalimu.
Four years into his retirement, Berlin Wall fell; with it, 31 years of socio-economic experiment came to an end—with mixed results. Tanzania is a unified republic with a clear national identity; albeit with unperfected union.
At 50 years old, Tanzania’s potential for human development is yet to be realized, the increasing income inequality (the fallacy of 7% growth) is squandering away the social capital that Mwalimu and Mzee Mwinyi had accrued. It has yet been clear to our governments that embracing untamed and imported neoliberal economic policies will not only wreck havoc to our fortunes, but also threatening our social fabric.
The 2008 financial crisis was largely caused by income inequality*. Nevertheless, previous Tanzania’s government embraced the market economy wholeheartedly, though in some cases it was imposed upon us. If 17% of your budget is beyond your means, there goes your sovereignty—on everything. But I will argue that our embracing of bad economic policies is mainly caused by a misinformed leadership at helm more than anything.
For starters, our government is a massive, slow bureaucracy that is also inefficient. As it is, our government incentivizes her inefficiency—which sustains the crisis. The longer it takes for your passport to be issued, increases your likeliness to bribe. Why should the passport manager hurry up to issue you a passport? This is the model of our government from bottom-up. Its pretty shitty. No private company would be able to survive under this model. Too bad citizens are not allowed to shop for governments of their residence. That would be the perfect market solution to punish our lousy governments. Surprisingly, national dialogue on development continues to bypass the fundamental flaw of our country, an ancient governing model. As I pointed earlier, this too is the leadership problem.
Tanzanians have always elected career politicians for the presidency. Mzee Mwinyi, Mzee Mkapa, and currently Jakaya Kikwete were all career politicians prior to the presidency. Even opposition parties also nominated career politicians. Dr. Slaa is the embodiment of a career politician, so as Prof Lipumba (by virtue of running more than twice). Folks who after decades of running sections of the inefficient bureaucracy have convinced themselves that, only they have the wisdom to take us to the promise land. But they almost always underperform.
To me, this is a manifestation of their lack of policy knowledge, and lack of understanding of intricate ways of the barbarous globalized economy. I am not saying wonkish president will save us, few politicians are wonkier than Bill Clinton and yet he repealed Glass-Steagall Act . I am saying that, the next election might be the appropriate time to elect wonkish president, because for our government to work for the people, it needs a leader who has intimate knowledge of how to reform a demented institution with 6 billion dollars budget. Career politicians do not possess such knowledge. More than anything, he will increase the size of it all to accommodate all his political allies he accumulated over the years. In Italy and Greece, career politicians have all retired leaving the position for more technocratic Prime Ministers. The ground is shifting beneath us.
The next presidential election in Tanzania, might be of the most important for this generation. We still have our social fabric intact, which is vastly needed for any growth; but we do not know how long this fabric will remain intact—with the increasing income inequality**. We will need the president who can best articulate the policy prescription to our government so that she can live within her means, while also protecting the society from the externalities generated by our investors.
We ought to look for the leader who can dare to create an income inequality that would benefit the poorest, bridging the technological gap, and reform our rather messed up education system. To get that kind of a leader will require political parties to nominate for more technocrat candidates and shy away from the good ole names that we have been used to hear for decades.
*****
* Stagnant incomes of Americans, made subprime mortgage a trillion dollar industry. Basically, a trillion dollar of garbage loans that did not qualify for government backed security.
**Arab awakening is the results of income inequality that is threatening social fabrics of these countries. Tanzania can be next.
This article was copied and pasted from January Makamba ( MB) presentation.
Behind it was an exemplary idealist and once in a generation leader in Mwalimu.
Four years into his retirement, Berlin Wall fell; with it, 31 years of socio-economic experiment came to an end—with mixed results. Tanzania is a unified republic with a clear national identity; albeit with unperfected union.
At 50 years old, Tanzania’s potential for human development is yet to be realized, the increasing income inequality (the fallacy of 7% growth) is squandering away the social capital that Mwalimu and Mzee Mwinyi had accrued. It has yet been clear to our governments that embracing untamed and imported neoliberal economic policies will not only wreck havoc to our fortunes, but also threatening our social fabric.
The 2008 financial crisis was largely caused by income inequality*. Nevertheless, previous Tanzania’s government embraced the market economy wholeheartedly, though in some cases it was imposed upon us. If 17% of your budget is beyond your means, there goes your sovereignty—on everything. But I will argue that our embracing of bad economic policies is mainly caused by a misinformed leadership at helm more than anything.
For starters, our government is a massive, slow bureaucracy that is also inefficient. As it is, our government incentivizes her inefficiency—which sustains the crisis. The longer it takes for your passport to be issued, increases your likeliness to bribe. Why should the passport manager hurry up to issue you a passport? This is the model of our government from bottom-up. Its pretty shitty. No private company would be able to survive under this model. Too bad citizens are not allowed to shop for governments of their residence. That would be the perfect market solution to punish our lousy governments. Surprisingly, national dialogue on development continues to bypass the fundamental flaw of our country, an ancient governing model. As I pointed earlier, this too is the leadership problem.
Tanzanians have always elected career politicians for the presidency. Mzee Mwinyi, Mzee Mkapa, and currently Jakaya Kikwete were all career politicians prior to the presidency. Even opposition parties also nominated career politicians. Dr. Slaa is the embodiment of a career politician, so as Prof Lipumba (by virtue of running more than twice). Folks who after decades of running sections of the inefficient bureaucracy have convinced themselves that, only they have the wisdom to take us to the promise land. But they almost always underperform.
To me, this is a manifestation of their lack of policy knowledge, and lack of understanding of intricate ways of the barbarous globalized economy. I am not saying wonkish president will save us, few politicians are wonkier than Bill Clinton and yet he repealed Glass-Steagall Act . I am saying that, the next election might be the appropriate time to elect wonkish president, because for our government to work for the people, it needs a leader who has intimate knowledge of how to reform a demented institution with 6 billion dollars budget. Career politicians do not possess such knowledge. More than anything, he will increase the size of it all to accommodate all his political allies he accumulated over the years. In Italy and Greece, career politicians have all retired leaving the position for more technocratic Prime Ministers. The ground is shifting beneath us.
The next presidential election in Tanzania, might be of the most important for this generation. We still have our social fabric intact, which is vastly needed for any growth; but we do not know how long this fabric will remain intact—with the increasing income inequality**. We will need the president who can best articulate the policy prescription to our government so that she can live within her means, while also protecting the society from the externalities generated by our investors.
We ought to look for the leader who can dare to create an income inequality that would benefit the poorest, bridging the technological gap, and reform our rather messed up education system. To get that kind of a leader will require political parties to nominate for more technocrat candidates and shy away from the good ole names that we have been used to hear for decades.
*****
* Stagnant incomes of Americans, made subprime mortgage a trillion dollar industry. Basically, a trillion dollar of garbage loans that did not qualify for government backed security.
**Arab awakening is the results of income inequality that is threatening social fabrics of these countries. Tanzania can be next.
This article was copied and pasted from January Makamba ( MB) presentation.
Friday, December 2, 2011
While the rest of the world chatts, Chinese sales man is making a Kill.
Statistics coming from an influential site dealing with facebook, Sociabakers give an insight on what is going around the world. That we like to chat a lot, and behind the scene some countries are only good in making money while the rest are engaged in gossping. Americans call it freedom of expression, but I may as well say not all the music is good for our ears.
Americans top the list on the number of people arleady signed on facebook. 50% of the population chat to each other and to the rest of the world. Interestingly China, the next economic superpower second to USA comes on the number 92nd with only 0.04% of her population chatting on the facebook.
On percentage;Tanzanians chatts more than chinese, at 0.90%. This means while we chat they produce and sell us a number of gadgets, toys, and all merchandise to beef up their coffers.
In December 2005, at the second Conference of Chinese and African Enterpreneurs, China's Premier, Wen Jibao, pledged that China trade with Africa would rise to US$100billion a year within five years. Forget the capital market, forget FDI, forget the US$40 billion a year aid programme, and forget trade with any other country in the world-this is just trade with China. Assuming that nothing else changed, that could be US$100 billion in 2010, US$100 billion in 2011, and the year after, and the year after, and the year after that.
Africa has a lot to offer for Chinese making the above investement bang a logical thing. Democratic Republic Of Congo (DRC) has a lot of minerals including coltan which is essential in manufacturing electronic capacitors used in consumer electronic products such as mobile phones, DVD players, video games and computers. So, China extracts that potential minerals, manufacture computers and smart phones to sale back to the same souls who sits on the same minerals. The receipients of the mobile phones and computers keep on chatting while chinese salesman is making a killing.
On the list of facebookers, 1.18% of congolese are signed up, again this is a bigger number than chinese.
So next time you sign on facebook, understand that those shorty creatures fill their bank accounts with your hard earned $$$$$$$$$$.
Get up, do something.
Americans top the list on the number of people arleady signed on facebook. 50% of the population chat to each other and to the rest of the world. Interestingly China, the next economic superpower second to USA comes on the number 92nd with only 0.04% of her population chatting on the facebook.
On percentage;Tanzanians chatts more than chinese, at 0.90%. This means while we chat they produce and sell us a number of gadgets, toys, and all merchandise to beef up their coffers.
In December 2005, at the second Conference of Chinese and African Enterpreneurs, China's Premier, Wen Jibao, pledged that China trade with Africa would rise to US$100billion a year within five years. Forget the capital market, forget FDI, forget the US$40 billion a year aid programme, and forget trade with any other country in the world-this is just trade with China. Assuming that nothing else changed, that could be US$100 billion in 2010, US$100 billion in 2011, and the year after, and the year after, and the year after that.
Africa has a lot to offer for Chinese making the above investement bang a logical thing. Democratic Republic Of Congo (DRC) has a lot of minerals including coltan which is essential in manufacturing electronic capacitors used in consumer electronic products such as mobile phones, DVD players, video games and computers. So, China extracts that potential minerals, manufacture computers and smart phones to sale back to the same souls who sits on the same minerals. The receipients of the mobile phones and computers keep on chatting while chinese salesman is making a killing.
On the list of facebookers, 1.18% of congolese are signed up, again this is a bigger number than chinese.
So next time you sign on facebook, understand that those shorty creatures fill their bank accounts with your hard earned $$$$$$$$$$.
Get up, do something.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
'Mwalimu Nyerere' 353,320 teachers are writing on their own walls,Vs your Own 'Fikra'
As Of this week data from the influential social media statistics collector, Socialbakers.com, Tanzania has reached a number of 353320 facebookers each writing on his/her wall.This is 0.84% of the Tanzanians; which means less than one person in hundread of Tanzanians access this phenomenomal social network.
To put it in another boring statistical data, Tanzania is in number 99th among 215 facebook users listed . USA is in top of the list with 155,981,460 users that equals to 50% of her population. Our next door neighbour Kenya is at number 71 with 1,232,800.
Founded in 2004 With Harvard graduates, Facebook is at infant stages of replacing word of mouth as a tool of human communication. Increasingly global traditional mainstream media is being replaced by this important social media network.
I bet Julius Nyerere, a first Tanzanian President is gazing with awe; how his defunct 'Daily News' & Radio Tanzania are increasingly being degraded and regarded as out fashion by generation X, who are now signing in each morning to facebook Vs waiting eargearly for a messenger to distribute a morning paper.
Tanzanian citizens aged 50-60 can vividly remember old days of Daily News and Uhuru when the duo were the only official print-medium of communication. Information was mainly sensored through one body known in swahili, ( Shirika la Habari Tanzania, SHIHATA). This was a replica of REUTERS. The former ruler Mwalimu( meaning 'The Teacher) was the only one allowed to write on the wall through the medium of the state controlled media.
Now with technology; information travels like wild fire. At the touch of the button, virtually anybody with a computer, a modem, or smart phone can access the net and utilize social media network to write any idea he/she wants to pass on.
Hang on, i am also thinking of the poor recepients/ readers of the info on the wall. Some of the ideas can intentionally or unintentionally misled the society with massive consequence. It is with this anxiousness of poor editorial status in mind tha our readers can be bombarded with gabbages and thus creating a stupid society.
History will judge who is right or wrong, Nyerere with his heavy hand censorship or those dudes from Harvard.
To put it in another boring statistical data, Tanzania is in number 99th among 215 facebook users listed . USA is in top of the list with 155,981,460 users that equals to 50% of her population. Our next door neighbour Kenya is at number 71 with 1,232,800.
Founded in 2004 With Harvard graduates, Facebook is at infant stages of replacing word of mouth as a tool of human communication. Increasingly global traditional mainstream media is being replaced by this important social media network.
I bet Julius Nyerere, a first Tanzanian President is gazing with awe; how his defunct 'Daily News' & Radio Tanzania are increasingly being degraded and regarded as out fashion by generation X, who are now signing in each morning to facebook Vs waiting eargearly for a messenger to distribute a morning paper.
Tanzanian citizens aged 50-60 can vividly remember old days of Daily News and Uhuru when the duo were the only official print-medium of communication. Information was mainly sensored through one body known in swahili, ( Shirika la Habari Tanzania, SHIHATA). This was a replica of REUTERS. The former ruler Mwalimu( meaning 'The Teacher) was the only one allowed to write on the wall through the medium of the state controlled media.
Now with technology; information travels like wild fire. At the touch of the button, virtually anybody with a computer, a modem, or smart phone can access the net and utilize social media network to write any idea he/she wants to pass on.
Hang on, i am also thinking of the poor recepients/ readers of the info on the wall. Some of the ideas can intentionally or unintentionally misled the society with massive consequence. It is with this anxiousness of poor editorial status in mind tha our readers can be bombarded with gabbages and thus creating a stupid society.
History will judge who is right or wrong, Nyerere with his heavy hand censorship or those dudes from Harvard.
Friday, November 25, 2011
CONSTITUTION REFORMS!!! SEXY IT UP TO ACCOMODATE ILLITERATES & GENERATION X
Tanzanians are fond of seasonal stories; and the current one on our mind is constitution reform. Political gurus from CCM and opposition are tightining up their muscles on who wins what!!. At the end of the day, Tanzanians are not good on technical terms so to say on what constitution is all about.
In my 41 years of existing in this country, i have not seen the constitution,and most of my folks share the same sentiment. The biggest and most influential book of all the laws on the land remains engulfed within the pysche of top leaders and tiny class elite.
Now we hear that the Parliament, mainly consisting of rulling party members have approved the bill sent earlier by the goverment on the way of organising public opinion about what should be inserted/removed in the constitution.
I may add some sexy tips on what should consist in our noble constitution; not in the content by on the design and format.
According to TWAWEZA, an NGO based in our Country, One in five primary school graduates; that is 20% can can not read a swahili story of class two. Again there was a revelation some time ago of a form three student failing to read and write. These're the citizens whose constitution is bound to serve.
A the other end of the tunnel, there's a generation X.This is the smart sect of our population whose mentality reflects a shift from agricultural economy to a service one with computer technology wooven into their lives. The 'X' factor is comfortable with using mobile phones, e-mail, laptops, Blackberrys,and IPAD at workplace and homes. In this respect, to be meaningful, The constitution should be sexed up, or spiced up to accomodate lifestyle of this high tech geeks as well as illeterates.
This begs a question. How will the goverment serve this army of active citizenry.
I am of the opinion that a well intentioned constitution should be in various sexy formats, soft copies Vs defunct hard copy version, with a possibility of a soundbites of a 'bongo flava' singer such as diva Lady Jay Dee, narrating the power vested to the President to the 'dont care' citizens.
As of now, the world is shifting from the authoritative rule of the left brained inhabitants to the right brained ones. Left brained souls depend on logic and analysis when executing or appreciating facts at hand, while right brained ones are more visual and can do too many things at a time. Right brained gigs can work on the desk while chatting on the facebook, listening to music and sipping a cup of coffee. Generation X are mostly right brained dudes/ladies. Gone are the days of left brained bookworms, marxists and very serious class of elite who were spending considerable time perussing volumes of encyclopedias.
Generation X is not the the future of our nation, ( Taifa la kesho) as the out of fashion left brained will want us to believe, but the present citizenry that need to be wooed at any cost. The ealier the better. Not accomodating youth can adversely attract soft-revolution engineered by facebook enthuasists who chats 24/7.
For the reference point or evidence one should look at the recent arabic revolution and Baraka Obama triumph to the Presidency engineered by facebookers.
Together, generation X and a mob of illiterates will determine the future State.
Old dudes beware, facebookers, and illeterates are changing the show.
In my 41 years of existing in this country, i have not seen the constitution,and most of my folks share the same sentiment. The biggest and most influential book of all the laws on the land remains engulfed within the pysche of top leaders and tiny class elite.
Now we hear that the Parliament, mainly consisting of rulling party members have approved the bill sent earlier by the goverment on the way of organising public opinion about what should be inserted/removed in the constitution.
I may add some sexy tips on what should consist in our noble constitution; not in the content by on the design and format.
According to TWAWEZA, an NGO based in our Country, One in five primary school graduates; that is 20% can can not read a swahili story of class two. Again there was a revelation some time ago of a form three student failing to read and write. These're the citizens whose constitution is bound to serve.
A the other end of the tunnel, there's a generation X.This is the smart sect of our population whose mentality reflects a shift from agricultural economy to a service one with computer technology wooven into their lives. The 'X' factor is comfortable with using mobile phones, e-mail, laptops, Blackberrys,and IPAD at workplace and homes. In this respect, to be meaningful, The constitution should be sexed up, or spiced up to accomodate lifestyle of this high tech geeks as well as illeterates.
This begs a question. How will the goverment serve this army of active citizenry.
I am of the opinion that a well intentioned constitution should be in various sexy formats, soft copies Vs defunct hard copy version, with a possibility of a soundbites of a 'bongo flava' singer such as diva Lady Jay Dee, narrating the power vested to the President to the 'dont care' citizens.
As of now, the world is shifting from the authoritative rule of the left brained inhabitants to the right brained ones. Left brained souls depend on logic and analysis when executing or appreciating facts at hand, while right brained ones are more visual and can do too many things at a time. Right brained gigs can work on the desk while chatting on the facebook, listening to music and sipping a cup of coffee. Generation X are mostly right brained dudes/ladies. Gone are the days of left brained bookworms, marxists and very serious class of elite who were spending considerable time perussing volumes of encyclopedias.
Generation X is not the the future of our nation, ( Taifa la kesho) as the out of fashion left brained will want us to believe, but the present citizenry that need to be wooed at any cost. The ealier the better. Not accomodating youth can adversely attract soft-revolution engineered by facebook enthuasists who chats 24/7.
For the reference point or evidence one should look at the recent arabic revolution and Baraka Obama triumph to the Presidency engineered by facebookers.
Together, generation X and a mob of illiterates will determine the future State.
Old dudes beware, facebookers, and illeterates are changing the show.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
THE BRIEF HISTORY OF CATHOLICISM IN KAGERA
The Catholic diocese of Bukoba was first evangelised in 1892 by the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) led by bishop Joseph Hirth who was running from turbulent Buganda (in Uganda). In December 1892 they founded their first mission at Kashozi some 16 kilometers from Bukoba. From 1994 when South Nyanza vicariate was cut from Uganda, Kashozi became its Episcopal see including all the lake zone and Rwanda.
The first ten years were difficult as they were opposed by the tribal chiefs, traditions priests (embandwa) and even by the German officials who did not like the Christian message that was preached to the people. The second mission was founded at Katoke in Biharamulo presently Rulenge - Ngara Diocese but it remained dormant until 1902.
It was the coming of Von Steumer as the German head of the station at Bukoba that changed the fortunes of the missionaries. He supported their efforts especially in the field of education. From then on education became the main tool of evangelisation.
They slowly opened other missions, Buyango (1902) which later moved to Mugana (1905), Kagondo (1904), Rubya (1905) and Bukoba (Bunena 1910). From then it grew and developed institutions. The vicariate under bishop Hirth opened its seminary at Kyegoromora (Kagondo) in 1903 and later moved it to Rubya in 1904 which had the first priests in 1917, a great achievement. The first priests were from Bukoba, Mwanza and Rwanda, the two from Bukoba were Fr. Willibald Mupapi and Fr. Oscar Kyakalaba. In 1964 Ntungamo major seminary was opened and from 1967 it serves as a philosophical regional seminary.
In 1912 Rwanda was cut off from Nyanza vicariate taking bishop Hirth with it and Nyanza came under bishop Joseph Sweens who resided in Rubya.
In 1929, Kagera was separated from the rest of the late zone and was made into a vicariate of Bukoba that comprised the present dioceses of Bukoba, Rulenge-Ngara and Kayanga. In 1933 a congregation of African sisters of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus was formed and has developed and to-day has almost 500 members well prepared and doing wonderful work. It replaced the pious women association of Bashomesa forunded by bishop Sweens in 1924. The Theresian sisters are now working in three countries, Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi with ** convents in *** dioceses.
In 1952 from Bukoba was created a small vicariate of Lower Kagera later named Rutabo diocese for a local bishop, Laurean Rugambwa. In 1960 Rugambwa was created cardinal by Pope John XXIII and was given the whole of the then Bukoba district as Bukoba diocese and the rest were formed into Rulenge diocese. This was a great honour for Bukoba and Tanzania as he was the first African cardinal ever, a prince of the Catholic Church. In 1969 he was transferred to be archbishop of Dar es Salaam and his former auxiliary bishop Gervase Nkalanga who was then Apostolic Administrator in Kabale, Uganda was appointed bishop of Bukoba (1960 – 1974)
Today the diocese of Bukoba under bishop Nestor Timanywa since 1974, in 2006 with 30 parishes had 521,256 Catholics in a population of 870,048 inhabitants which is 60%. There were 113 diocesan priests working in the diocese with a good number outside the diocese especially in national and international institutions. There are 512 religious women from 7 congregations the majority being the Theresian sisters. The diocese has another diocesan sisters’ congregation, the “Daughters of Mother Mary of Perpetual Help” which has about 46 members.
The diocese runs three hospitals of which two are designated district hospitals namely Mugana and Rubya while Kagondo is a VA hospital, two health centers and many dispensaries. The diocese runs nursery schools (kindergartens) in every parish and big outstation, primary schools, secondary schools, one Teacher Training school and a Nurse Training School.
Since January 2010, bishop Timanywa is assisted by his auxiliary bishop, Method Kilaini, the former Secretary General of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (1991-2000) and auxiliary bishop of Dar es Salaam (2000 – Dec, 2009). Now the diocese of Bukoba is trying its best to be on the frontline not only in spiritual matters but also in development.
This article was extracted from Bukoba Diocese Website.
The first ten years were difficult as they were opposed by the tribal chiefs, traditions priests (embandwa) and even by the German officials who did not like the Christian message that was preached to the people. The second mission was founded at Katoke in Biharamulo presently Rulenge - Ngara Diocese but it remained dormant until 1902.
It was the coming of Von Steumer as the German head of the station at Bukoba that changed the fortunes of the missionaries. He supported their efforts especially in the field of education. From then on education became the main tool of evangelisation.
They slowly opened other missions, Buyango (1902) which later moved to Mugana (1905), Kagondo (1904), Rubya (1905) and Bukoba (Bunena 1910). From then it grew and developed institutions. The vicariate under bishop Hirth opened its seminary at Kyegoromora (Kagondo) in 1903 and later moved it to Rubya in 1904 which had the first priests in 1917, a great achievement. The first priests were from Bukoba, Mwanza and Rwanda, the two from Bukoba were Fr. Willibald Mupapi and Fr. Oscar Kyakalaba. In 1964 Ntungamo major seminary was opened and from 1967 it serves as a philosophical regional seminary.
In 1912 Rwanda was cut off from Nyanza vicariate taking bishop Hirth with it and Nyanza came under bishop Joseph Sweens who resided in Rubya.
In 1929, Kagera was separated from the rest of the late zone and was made into a vicariate of Bukoba that comprised the present dioceses of Bukoba, Rulenge-Ngara and Kayanga. In 1933 a congregation of African sisters of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus was formed and has developed and to-day has almost 500 members well prepared and doing wonderful work. It replaced the pious women association of Bashomesa forunded by bishop Sweens in 1924. The Theresian sisters are now working in three countries, Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi with ** convents in *** dioceses.
In 1952 from Bukoba was created a small vicariate of Lower Kagera later named Rutabo diocese for a local bishop, Laurean Rugambwa. In 1960 Rugambwa was created cardinal by Pope John XXIII and was given the whole of the then Bukoba district as Bukoba diocese and the rest were formed into Rulenge diocese. This was a great honour for Bukoba and Tanzania as he was the first African cardinal ever, a prince of the Catholic Church. In 1969 he was transferred to be archbishop of Dar es Salaam and his former auxiliary bishop Gervase Nkalanga who was then Apostolic Administrator in Kabale, Uganda was appointed bishop of Bukoba (1960 – 1974)
Today the diocese of Bukoba under bishop Nestor Timanywa since 1974, in 2006 with 30 parishes had 521,256 Catholics in a population of 870,048 inhabitants which is 60%. There were 113 diocesan priests working in the diocese with a good number outside the diocese especially in national and international institutions. There are 512 religious women from 7 congregations the majority being the Theresian sisters. The diocese has another diocesan sisters’ congregation, the “Daughters of Mother Mary of Perpetual Help” which has about 46 members.
The diocese runs three hospitals of which two are designated district hospitals namely Mugana and Rubya while Kagondo is a VA hospital, two health centers and many dispensaries. The diocese runs nursery schools (kindergartens) in every parish and big outstation, primary schools, secondary schools, one Teacher Training school and a Nurse Training School.
Since January 2010, bishop Timanywa is assisted by his auxiliary bishop, Method Kilaini, the former Secretary General of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (1991-2000) and auxiliary bishop of Dar es Salaam (2000 – Dec, 2009). Now the diocese of Bukoba is trying its best to be on the frontline not only in spiritual matters but also in development.
This article was extracted from Bukoba Diocese Website.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Why Africa Still Poor?
Originally Published On: October 24, 2005
A slogan painted on trucks and taxicabs all over Africa, much beloved by metaphor-hunting authors, reads: NO CONDITION IS PERMANENT. This is true, but some are recurring. Tyranny in Zimbabwe, famine in Niger, a constitutional coup in Togo, rampant corruption in Kenya, protesters shot in Ethiopia, an epidemic in Angola, civil war in Sudan–those are this year’s headlines, but if you think you’ve heard it all before, you have. Martin Meredith, in his new book The Fate of Africa, writes that “what is so striking about the fifty-year period since independence is the extent to which African states have suffered so many of the same misfortunes.” Some countries, like Nigeria and Zambia, have gone through cycles of reform and decay. But Meredith’s subtitle–From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair–sums up the overall trend. It’s hard to imagine now, but in the heady days of the 1960s, much of the continent was no less prosperous than South Korea or Malaysia. While those Asian nations have transformed themselves into economic “tigers,” however, gross domestic products across Africa shrank during the last two decades of the twentieth century. Africans are getting poorer, not richer. They are living shorter, hungrier lives.
The decline of an entire continent confounds our preconceptions about human advancement. The economist Jeffrey Sachs points out in his recent book The End of Poverty that our Hegelian notion of linear progress is relatively new. For most of history, humans lived miserable existences and couldn’t expect better before the afterlife. But since the Industrial Revolution the situation has improved, and not only in the rich countries of Europe and North America. Between 1981 and 2001, Sachs says, hundreds of millions of people, many of them in Asian nations like China and India, emerged from extreme poverty. But a billion have been left behind, most of them in Africa. “The greatest tragedy of our time,” Sachs writes, is that one-sixth of all humans still live a dollar-a-day existence, scraping by on the margins of starvation.
How can one continent be so out of step with humankind’s march of progress? Everyone agrees that Africans are desperately poor and typically endure governments that are, to varying degrees, corrupt and capricious. The dispute is about causes and consequences. One group–call it the poverty-first camp–believes African governments are so lousy precisely because their countries are so poor. The other group–the governance-first camp–holds that Africans are impoverished because their rulers keep them that way. The argument may seem pedantic, but there are billions of dollars at stake, and millions of lives. The fundamental question is whether those who are well-off can salve a continent’s suffering, or if, for all our good intentions, Africans are really on their own.
Recently, the poverty-first crowd has been making a lot of noise. The weekend before the July G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, millions of people watched as pop stars in cities around the world played concerts organized by Africa crusader Bob Geldof. The event’s platform–forgive Africa’s debts, increase its development aid, end trade policies that undermine its exports–echoed the recommendations of Sachs, the antipoverty movement’s house economist. A Columbia University professor and an adviser to Kofi Annan, Sachs has lately become a favorite brain of the US Weekly set: Bono wrote his book’s introduction, and he recently starred alongside Angelina Jolie in an MTV special about their travels in Kenya. The celebrity endorsements amplify Sachs’s serious argument that for too long, rich countries have done too little to help the poor. At the end of the Gleneagles summit, world leaders announced that they would increase global aid by about $50 billion by 2010. Sachs says the poor need much more, right away: about $75 billion a year, half of it for Africa. “I reject the plaintive cries of the doomsayers who say that ending poverty is impossible,” he writes.
The doomsayers, sadly, include many of those who know the continent best. Two other recent books–Meredith’s sweeping history of the post-independence era, and Robert Guest’s more tightly focusedThe Shackled Continent–have joined the immense corpus of literature arguing that, for all the continent’s geographical and historical handicaps, Africa’s main problems are political. Guest, an optimist, believes that with better leadership African countries could catch up. But Meredith reaches a dismal conclusion. Even “given greater Western efforts,” he writes, “the sum of Africa’s misfortunes–its wars, its despotisms, its corruption, its droughts, its everyday violence–presents a crisis of such magnitude that it goes beyond the reach of foreseeable solutions. At the core of the crisis is the failure of African leaders to provide effective government.”
Meredith, a British journalist and historian, is the author of biographies of Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe. Here, he offers an ambitious survey of fifty years, fifty-three countries and countless wars and coups. The story begins in the early 1950s, with the first stirrings of nationalism among the colonized peoples of Africa. Seventy years of rule from afar had left the continent spectacularly ill-equipped for self-rule–a collection of states that were nations in name only, drawn up according to the realpolitical whims of the likes of Gladstone, Bismarck and Belgium’s King Leopold, who presided over the deaths of millions of Congolese. Some European powers were spiteful about leaving: French President Charles de Gaulle, piqued by the lack of deference shown him by Guinea’s Ahmed Sékou Touré, had colonial officials cart away their office furniture, while the Portuguese fought a series of bloody wars to hold on to Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. Other colonial powers were more benevolent. Britain, for instance, built some good schools and decent roads in East Africa. What none of the Europeans left behind, however, were societies equipped to approach the immense challenge of mending the tribal, regional and religious rifts created and exacerbated–often deliberately–in the interest of dividing and ruling.
Yet in those early years, all these challenges seemed manageable. “Expectations were high,” Meredith writes, with charismatic leaders like Léopold Senghor, Senegal’s philosopher-president, and the regal Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, seemingly poised to lead the continent to democracy and self-sufficiency. The rains were good, the harvests bountiful and the infrastructure, left behind by the Europeans, adequate. The “sense of euphoria,” Meredith writes, “had been raised to ever greater heights by the lavish promises of nationalist politicians campaigning for power, pledging to provide education, medical care, employment and land for all. ‘Seek ye first the political kingdom,’ Nkrumah had told his followers, ‘and all else shall be added unto you.’”
Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president and the first man to lead an African colony to independence, is of especial interest to Meredith, perhaps because his career established the pattern of disappointment. A former political prisoner of deep nationalist conviction, he took over when the British exited Ghana in 1957. Nkrumah was hailed worldwide as a prophet of liberation, and he acted the part, wrapping himself in kente cloth and talking of a United States of Africa. He spent hundreds of millions of dollars in a five-year spree, constructing lavish public buildings, creating nationalized industries from scratch and establishing a Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute to codify his thinking. He encouraged a personality cult and took grandiose titles, such as Osagyefo, which means “redeemer.”
When his popularity waned, Nkrumah turned to other methods of rule. He doled out patronage, as his cabinet ministers demanded 10 percent cuts of every public contract. (When one Nkrumah crony was questioned about his exorbitant lifestyle, he replied, “Socialism doesn’t mean that if you’ve made a lot of money, you can’t keep it.”) As Ghana went bankrupt, Nkrumah became increasingly remote, surrounded by sycophants inside Christianborg Castle, a former slaving fort. He crushed labor unions and imprisoned political opponents. After more than one attempt on his life, he created a praetorian guard within the army, made up mostly of his own tribesmen. In February 1966, while Nkrumah was on a state visit to China, the military overthrew him. Ghanaians celebrated in the streets.
With eerie uniformity, this same drama played out in country after country, as colonial exploitation gave way to the rule of homegrown tyrants. In Meredith’s account, these so-called Big Men begin to blur together. Even their flourishes seem interchangeable. Meredith, who has a gift for the mordant aside, tells us that Nkrumah built himself a large zoo that featured a boa constrictor sent by Fidel Castro. The Ivory Coast’s Félix Houphouët-Boigny allowed a sacred elephant to roam the grounds of his palace. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie kept caged lions and leopards. Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, another cat person, used to feed his lions dissidents.
Ghana was lucky by comparison. Its dictators were gentler than the likes of Bokassa, a reputed cannibal, or Idi Amin, who had one of his wives killed, dismembered and dumped in a car trunk. Coup leader Jerry Rawlings, an Air Force lieutenant, led Ghana well enough to be hailed in the 1990s as one of a “new breed” of enlightened autocrats. Rawlings presided over World Bank-mandated economic reforms. Pleased donors flooded the country with billions in foreign aid. Rawlings eventually handed over power to an elected civilian. Nonetheless, Meredith writes that in 1998 “Ghana’s gross national product was still 16 percent lower than in 1970.” This, mind you, is one of the continent’s success stories.
Meredith’s book is full of tales like this, and worse. The author seems to be emulating Thomas Pakenham’s The Scramble for Africa, an epic history of the early colonial period. But Meredith is a victim of his own scope; when he leaves southern Africa, his area of expertise, he leans heavily on earlier writers. As his narrative flits from crisis to crisis, his attempts at a wider analysis disappear into the repetitive gloom. What’s missing is a unifying idea, an explanation. For that, one must turn to Robert Guest and Jeffrey Sachs.
Guest spent years traveling the continent as an editor and writer for The Economist, and his fine book is filled with the kind of vivid details that come from spending too many nights in dingy, sweltering hotel rooms. (I should mention that he is a professional acquaintance; he edited several stories I wrote for his publication between 2002 and 2004.) Before being assigned to Africa he was stationed in booming East Asia, an experience that shapes his view of the continent’s predicament. “Any country inhabited by human beings has the potential to grow rich. We know this because many countries have already done so,” he writes. “If Africa is to succeed too, it is crucial to understand what has gone wrong in the past. Just why is Africa so poor?”
The answer, Guest believes, is misrule. In his view, corruption isn’t just a symptom of Africa’s deeper problems. It is the deeper problem. When government ministers loot social programs, it exacerbates poverty, disease and illiteracy. When customs agents demand bribes for allowing trucks to cross borders, it increases shipping costs, and hence the prices poor consumers pay. When rulers distribute jobs and contracts to their own tribal kin, it deepens ethnic divisions.
It’s no accident, Guest writes, that “the poorest one sixth of humanity endures four fifths of the world’s civil wars.” In Africa, where so many have so little, it’s easy to foment rebellion against Mercedes-driving kleptocrats. Because those who lose power are usually stripped of their ill-gotten wealth, rulers have an incentive to be paranoid and cruel. Perversely, Guest notes, countries that are blessed by nature tend to suffer the most. Nigeria has pumped $280 billion worth of oil since the 1970s, and has seen much of it siphoned off by a series of dictators. Angola endured a long, bloody conflict over its oil and diamonds. Congo is endowed with vast quantities of almost every precious mineral, and today it lies devastated by an interminable war of plunder.
Guest’s book is at its best, however, when it abandons these big stories and focuses on the everyday, showing how corrupt governments plague the lives of normal Africans. In one chapter, he recounts his experiences riding along with a truck driver and his cargo of Guinness Stout on a ridiculously arduous four-day journey across Cameroon. The route is in terrible shape; Guest notes that since 1980 the government has allowed about two-thirds of Cameroon’s roads to be reclaimed by the rainforest. But the worst holdups come at countless police roadblocks, where officers fabricate phantom offenses to generate bribes. “Do you have a gun?” a police officer asks when someone raises an objection. “No. I have a gun, so I know the rules.”
Too often in Africa, Guest says, men with guns twist the rules to enrich themselves, further impoverishing their countrymen in the process. Still, he thinks countries can work their way out of the mess, particularly if they adopt the sort of free-market policies The Economist champions. Some of Guest’s ideas are compelling, such as when he cites the work of Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto to suggest that African governments could unlock nearly $1 trillion in capital by recognizing the land rights of squatters, who might then be able to borrow money against the value of their property. Elsewhere, he is less convincing. Guest believes that a simple fear of bad publicity will prevent multinational corporations from mistreating African workers, a contention that is quite at odds with historical precedent.
When it comes to development aid, Guest believes that donor nations “should be both more generous and more selective,” rewarding countries that are “trying to implement sensible policies” and cutting off those that aren’t. Aid isn’t the answer, he says. Rather, only Africans can save Africa, by building competitive economies. Right now, he writes, Africa possesses 10 percent of the world’s population and accounts for only 2 percent of global trade; it “hardly produces anything that the rest of the world wants to buy.” Until it does, Guest believes, the continent’s shackles will stay locked.
By this point, you may think you know why Africa languishes. But you’re wrong, says Jeffrey Sachs. In making his passionate call for more foreign aid, he challenges the conventional wisdom that Africa isn’t ready for help. African governments are dictatorial? Sachs says that the thieving-tyrants-with-fly-swatters stereotype of African leaders is “passé,” and that “by the early 1990s…a little-heralded democratic revolution was sweeping the continent.” Corruption is the source of all misery? That contention, he writes, “does not withstand practical experience or serious scrutiny.” Sachs believes Africa’s problem is not politics but simple misfortune. Its soil produces less food than, for instance, East Asia’s. The continent suffers disproportionately from debilitating diseases like AIDS and malaria. Much of its population is concentrated away from its coastline, and this, combined with its lack of good roads and navigable rivers, hampers trade and economic growth. “Africa’s governance is poor,” Sachs writes, “because Africa is poor.”
The idea that Africa is a victim of geography is not new, but Sachs’s book dares to offer a big, bold solution. And an author of Sachs’s pedigree can’t be taken lightly. The globe-trotting Columbia professor is a kind of macroeconomic Winston Wolf. Like Harvey Keitel’s character in Pulp Fiction, he shows up at scenes of carnage with a snappy plan to clean things up. Sometimes he succeeds, as in Bolivia in the hyperinflationary 1980s. Sometimes he fails, as in post-Communist Russia–but never for lack of self-assurance. He says economists should think like scientists when diagnosing Africa’s ills. “In some ways,” he writes, “today’s development economics is like eighteenth-century medicine, when doctors used leeches to draw blood from their patients, often killing them in the process.”
Sachs first approached Africa in the late 1990s, at a time when foreign aid was plummeting from cold war highs. He concluded that many Africans are stuck in a “poverty trap.” They don’t make enough to save, so they can’t amass the capital necessary to build a future. (For an illustration, read Robert Guest’s account of a Malawian farmer who dreams of becoming a merchant but can’t because he finds a bicycle hopelessly expensive.) The End of Poverty contains many common-sensical ideas: Use irrigation and fertilizers to increase crop yields; distribute mosquito nets to combat malaria and pharmaceuticals to lessen the symptoms of AIDS; give rural villages cell phones to ease communication and trade. What’s grabbed the world’s attention, though, is not such incremental prescriptions but Sachs’s claim of a cure.
“The end of extreme poverty is at hand–within our generation,” he declares, if only rich nations, especially the United States, open their coffers. This, Sachs writes, “is the great opportunity of our time, a commitment that would not only relieve massive suffering and spread economic well-being, but would also promote other Enlightenment objectives of democracy, global security, and the advancement of science.” Sachs attacks those who don’t share his utopian vision, lamenting the “anti-African and antipoor attitudes” of skeptics. “Africa gets a bad rap as the ‘corrupt continent,’” he writes. “Even when such sentiments are not racist in intent, they survive in our societies as conventional wisdom because of existing widespread racism.”
Invoking the R-word in this context seems overheated, especially since those who complain loudest about corruption in Africa tend to be Africans themselves. (Bob Geldof, to his credit, recognizes this.) One might forgive Sachs’s rhetorical overkill if it weren’t emblematic of his book’s deeper failure to engage with the most serious argument against him: history. Ending African poverty is a worthy aspiration. It is also an old ideal, a shoal on which many buoyant ideologies–liberalism, communism, pan-Africanism–have run aground. Sachs talks of the need for an effort akin to the Marshall Plan for postwar Europe. Guest points out that since independence Africa has “received aid equivalent to six Marshall Plans”–with little to show for it.
Much of this assistance has been consumed by graft. Corrupt leaders have proved to be highly adaptable to changing times. When statism was in vogue, they nationalized industries, which they proceeded to operate as patronage mills. When the World Bank demanded privatization, they sold off the state companies to their cousins and cronies. Nowadays, the watchword is “transparency,” but the situation remains much the same. According to a 2002 study conducted by the African Union, corruption consumes more than a quarter of the continent’s gross domestic product every year, about $148 billion.
Faced with such facts, Sachs tries to recalculate reality. He publishes a chart of corruption figures that have been “controlled statistically for income levels” and concludes that Africa is not “distinctly poorly governed by the standards of very poor countries.” This is a little like saying if you control for height, the Ivy League is the best conference in college basketball. The generals who looted Nigeria–a government of “average” honesty by Sachs’s measure–were not stealing relative dollars: Check their Swiss bank statements. Some, like Guest, contend that in Africa corruption matters more than anywhere else, because the margin of survival is so thin. Rapacious rulers are literally stealing bread from the mouths of those they serve.
Sachs’s solution sounds simple enough: Lavish billions on good countries like Ghana and punish bad ones like Zimbabwe by stopping the checks. The hitch is that the list of countries considered “good” and “bad” keeps changing. Sachs’s favorites include Ethiopia, Uganda and Mozambique. But fifteen years ago these countries were basket cases; Zimbabwe was the success story, under the wise rule of its benevolent autocrat Robert Mugabe. Fifteen years before that, the paragons were Nigeria and Ivory Coast. Whenever a darling disintegrates, much of what development aid finances–paved roads, schools, hospitals, advanced farms–is destroyed, and the process must begin anew.
The closer you look at some of Sachs’s chosen countries, the more you wonder about his judgment. Take Kenya, for instance. Sachs minimizes the problem of corruption there, attacking leery donors for their “useless and false moralizing,” but no Kenyan I’ve ever met would share his lack of concern. (Nor, it’s likely, would the country’s former anticorruption czar, who resigned earlier this year in frustration.) One leader Sachs frequently consults, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, has lately been acting like an old-school dictator, imprisoning political opponents after an allegedly fraudulent election. In Uganda, where more than half the country’s budget comes from foreign aid, a recent confidential report written for the World Bank concludes that donor aid is becoming a “mechanism for regime maintenance,” allowing the ruling party to set up “slush funds” to pay for patronage and a military buildup. Meanwhile, the percentage of Ugandans living in poverty has risen. Sachs says this is nothing an extra $1.8 billion a year won’t fix.
The point is that playing favorites requires vigilance and a willingness to recognize when success is turning sour. Africa is not the unremitting disaster Martin Meredith portrays. Countries like Botswana and Senegal stand out as models of stability, and Sachs is right to say that more Africans enjoy more democracy today than ever before. Everyone who knows the continent well believes it could benefit from a boost in generosity and–especially–closer attention from the American government. But an endeavor as ambitious as ending African poverty demands a little humility in the face of the task. We must recognize history, and understand the continent as it is, not as we wish it to be. To worry about corruption and misrule is to amplify the concerns of Africans I’ve met all over the continent, whose greatest anger is inevitably reserved for those leaders who have misspent so much in their names. Their voices should be heard, too, over the din of the rock concerts.
COURTESY OF: Andrew Rice, THE Nation
A slogan painted on trucks and taxicabs all over Africa, much beloved by metaphor-hunting authors, reads: NO CONDITION IS PERMANENT. This is true, but some are recurring. Tyranny in Zimbabwe, famine in Niger, a constitutional coup in Togo, rampant corruption in Kenya, protesters shot in Ethiopia, an epidemic in Angola, civil war in Sudan–those are this year’s headlines, but if you think you’ve heard it all before, you have. Martin Meredith, in his new book The Fate of Africa, writes that “what is so striking about the fifty-year period since independence is the extent to which African states have suffered so many of the same misfortunes.” Some countries, like Nigeria and Zambia, have gone through cycles of reform and decay. But Meredith’s subtitle–From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair–sums up the overall trend. It’s hard to imagine now, but in the heady days of the 1960s, much of the continent was no less prosperous than South Korea or Malaysia. While those Asian nations have transformed themselves into economic “tigers,” however, gross domestic products across Africa shrank during the last two decades of the twentieth century. Africans are getting poorer, not richer. They are living shorter, hungrier lives.
The decline of an entire continent confounds our preconceptions about human advancement. The economist Jeffrey Sachs points out in his recent book The End of Poverty that our Hegelian notion of linear progress is relatively new. For most of history, humans lived miserable existences and couldn’t expect better before the afterlife. But since the Industrial Revolution the situation has improved, and not only in the rich countries of Europe and North America. Between 1981 and 2001, Sachs says, hundreds of millions of people, many of them in Asian nations like China and India, emerged from extreme poverty. But a billion have been left behind, most of them in Africa. “The greatest tragedy of our time,” Sachs writes, is that one-sixth of all humans still live a dollar-a-day existence, scraping by on the margins of starvation.
How can one continent be so out of step with humankind’s march of progress? Everyone agrees that Africans are desperately poor and typically endure governments that are, to varying degrees, corrupt and capricious. The dispute is about causes and consequences. One group–call it the poverty-first camp–believes African governments are so lousy precisely because their countries are so poor. The other group–the governance-first camp–holds that Africans are impoverished because their rulers keep them that way. The argument may seem pedantic, but there are billions of dollars at stake, and millions of lives. The fundamental question is whether those who are well-off can salve a continent’s suffering, or if, for all our good intentions, Africans are really on their own.
Recently, the poverty-first crowd has been making a lot of noise. The weekend before the July G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, millions of people watched as pop stars in cities around the world played concerts organized by Africa crusader Bob Geldof. The event’s platform–forgive Africa’s debts, increase its development aid, end trade policies that undermine its exports–echoed the recommendations of Sachs, the antipoverty movement’s house economist. A Columbia University professor and an adviser to Kofi Annan, Sachs has lately become a favorite brain of the US Weekly set: Bono wrote his book’s introduction, and he recently starred alongside Angelina Jolie in an MTV special about their travels in Kenya. The celebrity endorsements amplify Sachs’s serious argument that for too long, rich countries have done too little to help the poor. At the end of the Gleneagles summit, world leaders announced that they would increase global aid by about $50 billion by 2010. Sachs says the poor need much more, right away: about $75 billion a year, half of it for Africa. “I reject the plaintive cries of the doomsayers who say that ending poverty is impossible,” he writes.
The doomsayers, sadly, include many of those who know the continent best. Two other recent books–Meredith’s sweeping history of the post-independence era, and Robert Guest’s more tightly focusedThe Shackled Continent–have joined the immense corpus of literature arguing that, for all the continent’s geographical and historical handicaps, Africa’s main problems are political. Guest, an optimist, believes that with better leadership African countries could catch up. But Meredith reaches a dismal conclusion. Even “given greater Western efforts,” he writes, “the sum of Africa’s misfortunes–its wars, its despotisms, its corruption, its droughts, its everyday violence–presents a crisis of such magnitude that it goes beyond the reach of foreseeable solutions. At the core of the crisis is the failure of African leaders to provide effective government.”
Meredith, a British journalist and historian, is the author of biographies of Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe. Here, he offers an ambitious survey of fifty years, fifty-three countries and countless wars and coups. The story begins in the early 1950s, with the first stirrings of nationalism among the colonized peoples of Africa. Seventy years of rule from afar had left the continent spectacularly ill-equipped for self-rule–a collection of states that were nations in name only, drawn up according to the realpolitical whims of the likes of Gladstone, Bismarck and Belgium’s King Leopold, who presided over the deaths of millions of Congolese. Some European powers were spiteful about leaving: French President Charles de Gaulle, piqued by the lack of deference shown him by Guinea’s Ahmed Sékou Touré, had colonial officials cart away their office furniture, while the Portuguese fought a series of bloody wars to hold on to Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. Other colonial powers were more benevolent. Britain, for instance, built some good schools and decent roads in East Africa. What none of the Europeans left behind, however, were societies equipped to approach the immense challenge of mending the tribal, regional and religious rifts created and exacerbated–often deliberately–in the interest of dividing and ruling.
Yet in those early years, all these challenges seemed manageable. “Expectations were high,” Meredith writes, with charismatic leaders like Léopold Senghor, Senegal’s philosopher-president, and the regal Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, seemingly poised to lead the continent to democracy and self-sufficiency. The rains were good, the harvests bountiful and the infrastructure, left behind by the Europeans, adequate. The “sense of euphoria,” Meredith writes, “had been raised to ever greater heights by the lavish promises of nationalist politicians campaigning for power, pledging to provide education, medical care, employment and land for all. ‘Seek ye first the political kingdom,’ Nkrumah had told his followers, ‘and all else shall be added unto you.’”
Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president and the first man to lead an African colony to independence, is of especial interest to Meredith, perhaps because his career established the pattern of disappointment. A former political prisoner of deep nationalist conviction, he took over when the British exited Ghana in 1957. Nkrumah was hailed worldwide as a prophet of liberation, and he acted the part, wrapping himself in kente cloth and talking of a United States of Africa. He spent hundreds of millions of dollars in a five-year spree, constructing lavish public buildings, creating nationalized industries from scratch and establishing a Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute to codify his thinking. He encouraged a personality cult and took grandiose titles, such as Osagyefo, which means “redeemer.”
When his popularity waned, Nkrumah turned to other methods of rule. He doled out patronage, as his cabinet ministers demanded 10 percent cuts of every public contract. (When one Nkrumah crony was questioned about his exorbitant lifestyle, he replied, “Socialism doesn’t mean that if you’ve made a lot of money, you can’t keep it.”) As Ghana went bankrupt, Nkrumah became increasingly remote, surrounded by sycophants inside Christianborg Castle, a former slaving fort. He crushed labor unions and imprisoned political opponents. After more than one attempt on his life, he created a praetorian guard within the army, made up mostly of his own tribesmen. In February 1966, while Nkrumah was on a state visit to China, the military overthrew him. Ghanaians celebrated in the streets.
With eerie uniformity, this same drama played out in country after country, as colonial exploitation gave way to the rule of homegrown tyrants. In Meredith’s account, these so-called Big Men begin to blur together. Even their flourishes seem interchangeable. Meredith, who has a gift for the mordant aside, tells us that Nkrumah built himself a large zoo that featured a boa constrictor sent by Fidel Castro. The Ivory Coast’s Félix Houphouët-Boigny allowed a sacred elephant to roam the grounds of his palace. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie kept caged lions and leopards. Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, another cat person, used to feed his lions dissidents.
Ghana was lucky by comparison. Its dictators were gentler than the likes of Bokassa, a reputed cannibal, or Idi Amin, who had one of his wives killed, dismembered and dumped in a car trunk. Coup leader Jerry Rawlings, an Air Force lieutenant, led Ghana well enough to be hailed in the 1990s as one of a “new breed” of enlightened autocrats. Rawlings presided over World Bank-mandated economic reforms. Pleased donors flooded the country with billions in foreign aid. Rawlings eventually handed over power to an elected civilian. Nonetheless, Meredith writes that in 1998 “Ghana’s gross national product was still 16 percent lower than in 1970.” This, mind you, is one of the continent’s success stories.
Meredith’s book is full of tales like this, and worse. The author seems to be emulating Thomas Pakenham’s The Scramble for Africa, an epic history of the early colonial period. But Meredith is a victim of his own scope; when he leaves southern Africa, his area of expertise, he leans heavily on earlier writers. As his narrative flits from crisis to crisis, his attempts at a wider analysis disappear into the repetitive gloom. What’s missing is a unifying idea, an explanation. For that, one must turn to Robert Guest and Jeffrey Sachs.
Guest spent years traveling the continent as an editor and writer for The Economist, and his fine book is filled with the kind of vivid details that come from spending too many nights in dingy, sweltering hotel rooms. (I should mention that he is a professional acquaintance; he edited several stories I wrote for his publication between 2002 and 2004.) Before being assigned to Africa he was stationed in booming East Asia, an experience that shapes his view of the continent’s predicament. “Any country inhabited by human beings has the potential to grow rich. We know this because many countries have already done so,” he writes. “If Africa is to succeed too, it is crucial to understand what has gone wrong in the past. Just why is Africa so poor?”
The answer, Guest believes, is misrule. In his view, corruption isn’t just a symptom of Africa’s deeper problems. It is the deeper problem. When government ministers loot social programs, it exacerbates poverty, disease and illiteracy. When customs agents demand bribes for allowing trucks to cross borders, it increases shipping costs, and hence the prices poor consumers pay. When rulers distribute jobs and contracts to their own tribal kin, it deepens ethnic divisions.
It’s no accident, Guest writes, that “the poorest one sixth of humanity endures four fifths of the world’s civil wars.” In Africa, where so many have so little, it’s easy to foment rebellion against Mercedes-driving kleptocrats. Because those who lose power are usually stripped of their ill-gotten wealth, rulers have an incentive to be paranoid and cruel. Perversely, Guest notes, countries that are blessed by nature tend to suffer the most. Nigeria has pumped $280 billion worth of oil since the 1970s, and has seen much of it siphoned off by a series of dictators. Angola endured a long, bloody conflict over its oil and diamonds. Congo is endowed with vast quantities of almost every precious mineral, and today it lies devastated by an interminable war of plunder.
Guest’s book is at its best, however, when it abandons these big stories and focuses on the everyday, showing how corrupt governments plague the lives of normal Africans. In one chapter, he recounts his experiences riding along with a truck driver and his cargo of Guinness Stout on a ridiculously arduous four-day journey across Cameroon. The route is in terrible shape; Guest notes that since 1980 the government has allowed about two-thirds of Cameroon’s roads to be reclaimed by the rainforest. But the worst holdups come at countless police roadblocks, where officers fabricate phantom offenses to generate bribes. “Do you have a gun?” a police officer asks when someone raises an objection. “No. I have a gun, so I know the rules.”
Too often in Africa, Guest says, men with guns twist the rules to enrich themselves, further impoverishing their countrymen in the process. Still, he thinks countries can work their way out of the mess, particularly if they adopt the sort of free-market policies The Economist champions. Some of Guest’s ideas are compelling, such as when he cites the work of Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto to suggest that African governments could unlock nearly $1 trillion in capital by recognizing the land rights of squatters, who might then be able to borrow money against the value of their property. Elsewhere, he is less convincing. Guest believes that a simple fear of bad publicity will prevent multinational corporations from mistreating African workers, a contention that is quite at odds with historical precedent.
When it comes to development aid, Guest believes that donor nations “should be both more generous and more selective,” rewarding countries that are “trying to implement sensible policies” and cutting off those that aren’t. Aid isn’t the answer, he says. Rather, only Africans can save Africa, by building competitive economies. Right now, he writes, Africa possesses 10 percent of the world’s population and accounts for only 2 percent of global trade; it “hardly produces anything that the rest of the world wants to buy.” Until it does, Guest believes, the continent’s shackles will stay locked.
By this point, you may think you know why Africa languishes. But you’re wrong, says Jeffrey Sachs. In making his passionate call for more foreign aid, he challenges the conventional wisdom that Africa isn’t ready for help. African governments are dictatorial? Sachs says that the thieving-tyrants-with-fly-swatters stereotype of African leaders is “passé,” and that “by the early 1990s…a little-heralded democratic revolution was sweeping the continent.” Corruption is the source of all misery? That contention, he writes, “does not withstand practical experience or serious scrutiny.” Sachs believes Africa’s problem is not politics but simple misfortune. Its soil produces less food than, for instance, East Asia’s. The continent suffers disproportionately from debilitating diseases like AIDS and malaria. Much of its population is concentrated away from its coastline, and this, combined with its lack of good roads and navigable rivers, hampers trade and economic growth. “Africa’s governance is poor,” Sachs writes, “because Africa is poor.”
The idea that Africa is a victim of geography is not new, but Sachs’s book dares to offer a big, bold solution. And an author of Sachs’s pedigree can’t be taken lightly. The globe-trotting Columbia professor is a kind of macroeconomic Winston Wolf. Like Harvey Keitel’s character in Pulp Fiction, he shows up at scenes of carnage with a snappy plan to clean things up. Sometimes he succeeds, as in Bolivia in the hyperinflationary 1980s. Sometimes he fails, as in post-Communist Russia–but never for lack of self-assurance. He says economists should think like scientists when diagnosing Africa’s ills. “In some ways,” he writes, “today’s development economics is like eighteenth-century medicine, when doctors used leeches to draw blood from their patients, often killing them in the process.”
Sachs first approached Africa in the late 1990s, at a time when foreign aid was plummeting from cold war highs. He concluded that many Africans are stuck in a “poverty trap.” They don’t make enough to save, so they can’t amass the capital necessary to build a future. (For an illustration, read Robert Guest’s account of a Malawian farmer who dreams of becoming a merchant but can’t because he finds a bicycle hopelessly expensive.) The End of Poverty contains many common-sensical ideas: Use irrigation and fertilizers to increase crop yields; distribute mosquito nets to combat malaria and pharmaceuticals to lessen the symptoms of AIDS; give rural villages cell phones to ease communication and trade. What’s grabbed the world’s attention, though, is not such incremental prescriptions but Sachs’s claim of a cure.
“The end of extreme poverty is at hand–within our generation,” he declares, if only rich nations, especially the United States, open their coffers. This, Sachs writes, “is the great opportunity of our time, a commitment that would not only relieve massive suffering and spread economic well-being, but would also promote other Enlightenment objectives of democracy, global security, and the advancement of science.” Sachs attacks those who don’t share his utopian vision, lamenting the “anti-African and antipoor attitudes” of skeptics. “Africa gets a bad rap as the ‘corrupt continent,’” he writes. “Even when such sentiments are not racist in intent, they survive in our societies as conventional wisdom because of existing widespread racism.”
Invoking the R-word in this context seems overheated, especially since those who complain loudest about corruption in Africa tend to be Africans themselves. (Bob Geldof, to his credit, recognizes this.) One might forgive Sachs’s rhetorical overkill if it weren’t emblematic of his book’s deeper failure to engage with the most serious argument against him: history. Ending African poverty is a worthy aspiration. It is also an old ideal, a shoal on which many buoyant ideologies–liberalism, communism, pan-Africanism–have run aground. Sachs talks of the need for an effort akin to the Marshall Plan for postwar Europe. Guest points out that since independence Africa has “received aid equivalent to six Marshall Plans”–with little to show for it.
Much of this assistance has been consumed by graft. Corrupt leaders have proved to be highly adaptable to changing times. When statism was in vogue, they nationalized industries, which they proceeded to operate as patronage mills. When the World Bank demanded privatization, they sold off the state companies to their cousins and cronies. Nowadays, the watchword is “transparency,” but the situation remains much the same. According to a 2002 study conducted by the African Union, corruption consumes more than a quarter of the continent’s gross domestic product every year, about $148 billion.
Faced with such facts, Sachs tries to recalculate reality. He publishes a chart of corruption figures that have been “controlled statistically for income levels” and concludes that Africa is not “distinctly poorly governed by the standards of very poor countries.” This is a little like saying if you control for height, the Ivy League is the best conference in college basketball. The generals who looted Nigeria–a government of “average” honesty by Sachs’s measure–were not stealing relative dollars: Check their Swiss bank statements. Some, like Guest, contend that in Africa corruption matters more than anywhere else, because the margin of survival is so thin. Rapacious rulers are literally stealing bread from the mouths of those they serve.
Sachs’s solution sounds simple enough: Lavish billions on good countries like Ghana and punish bad ones like Zimbabwe by stopping the checks. The hitch is that the list of countries considered “good” and “bad” keeps changing. Sachs’s favorites include Ethiopia, Uganda and Mozambique. But fifteen years ago these countries were basket cases; Zimbabwe was the success story, under the wise rule of its benevolent autocrat Robert Mugabe. Fifteen years before that, the paragons were Nigeria and Ivory Coast. Whenever a darling disintegrates, much of what development aid finances–paved roads, schools, hospitals, advanced farms–is destroyed, and the process must begin anew.
The closer you look at some of Sachs’s chosen countries, the more you wonder about his judgment. Take Kenya, for instance. Sachs minimizes the problem of corruption there, attacking leery donors for their “useless and false moralizing,” but no Kenyan I’ve ever met would share his lack of concern. (Nor, it’s likely, would the country’s former anticorruption czar, who resigned earlier this year in frustration.) One leader Sachs frequently consults, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, has lately been acting like an old-school dictator, imprisoning political opponents after an allegedly fraudulent election. In Uganda, where more than half the country’s budget comes from foreign aid, a recent confidential report written for the World Bank concludes that donor aid is becoming a “mechanism for regime maintenance,” allowing the ruling party to set up “slush funds” to pay for patronage and a military buildup. Meanwhile, the percentage of Ugandans living in poverty has risen. Sachs says this is nothing an extra $1.8 billion a year won’t fix.
The point is that playing favorites requires vigilance and a willingness to recognize when success is turning sour. Africa is not the unremitting disaster Martin Meredith portrays. Countries like Botswana and Senegal stand out as models of stability, and Sachs is right to say that more Africans enjoy more democracy today than ever before. Everyone who knows the continent well believes it could benefit from a boost in generosity and–especially–closer attention from the American government. But an endeavor as ambitious as ending African poverty demands a little humility in the face of the task. We must recognize history, and understand the continent as it is, not as we wish it to be. To worry about corruption and misrule is to amplify the concerns of Africans I’ve met all over the continent, whose greatest anger is inevitably reserved for those leaders who have misspent so much in their names. Their voices should be heard, too, over the din of the rock concerts.
COURTESY OF: Andrew Rice, THE Nation
Saturday, November 19, 2011
UCHUMI WA KAGERA WAWEZA KUFUFULIWA
MKOA wa Kagera ulikuwa ukiitwa mkoa wa Ziwa Magharibi (West Lake). Ulipata jina la sasa mwaka 1979, baada ya vita kati ya Tanzania na Uganda.
Hivi vilikuwa vita vya kumfukuza na hatimaye kumwondoa dikteta Iddi Amin wa Uganda aliyekuwa amevamia Tanzania.
Amin alivamia na kukalia eneo la Kagera akidai kuwa mpaka halali kati ya nchi hizi mbili ulikuwa Mto Kagera; pale Kyaka.
Kwa wenyeji wa mkoa huu, neno Kagera linatokana na “Akagera,” yaani kijito kinachotiririsha maji yake katika mto mkubwa au ziwa. Mto Kagera hutiririsha maji yake katika Ziwa Viktoria.
Maji haya ya Kagera huonekana wazi kuwa hayakai ziwani bali hukatisha ziwa na kuwa chanzo cha Mto Nile ambao ni mto mrefu kuliko yote duniani.
Mkoa wa Kagera ni miongoni mwa mikoa michache iliyobahatika kupata maendeleo makubwa kiuchumi na kijamii kabla na baada ya uhuru.
Wamisionari wa madhehebu ya Kilutheri na Wakatoliki (Missionaries of Africa/White Fathers), waliingia Bukoba mwishoni mwa miaka ya 1880 na kuanzisha shule za msingi, sekondari na vyuo vya ualimu.
Moja ya vyuo hivyo ni Chuo cha Ualimu cha Kajunguti, katika wilaya ya Muleba. Chuo hicho kilikwishafungwa. Miongoni mwa shule za sekondari zilizoanzishwa na wamisionari ni St. Thomas More College (Ihungo) na Nyakato.
Wamisionari pia walifungua hospitali mbalimbali na vituo vya afya. Miongoni mwa hospitali hizo ni Rubya, Kagondo na Ndolage, zote za wilaya ya Muleba; Mugana (Misenyi), Biharamulo, Nyakahanga na Isingiro, wilayani Karagwe na Murugwanza, wilayani Ngara.
Kwa takriban miaka 500 sasa, wakazi wa mkoa wa Kagera wamekuwa wakistawisha migomba kwa ajili ya chakula (ndizi) na mibuni – kwa ajili ya biashara (kahawa).
Wakulima wa kahawa walianzisha ushirika wao chini ya Chama Kikuu cha Ushirika cha Bukoba Cooperative Union (BCU), ambacho kilianzishwa mwaka 1948.
Miongoni mwa waanzilsihi wa BCU ni mzee George Clement Kahama, ambaye alishika nyadhifa mbalimbali serikalini.
Kupitia ushirika wao, wakulima wa Kagera waliweza kusomesha watoto wao ndani na nje ya nchi. BCU iligharamia masomo ya wanafunzi hao.
Wakulima pia walianzisha umoja wa aina ya sasa ya Kuweka na Kukopa, maarufu kama “Ihanika.” Hadi miaka ya 1955, mfuko huo ulikuwa na zaidi ya Sh. 400 milioni.
Lakini uchumi wa mkoa na wananchi ulianza kuonyesha mdororo baada ya uhuru. Inaonekana kuwa nguzo kuu zake zilianza kulegea na hatimaye kung’oka.
Utawala wa asili wa kichifu ulitupiliwa mbali. Pamoja na mfumo huo kuwa wa upendeleo kwa watawala na hata kuhalalisha unyonyaji kwa njia ya miliki ya ardhi, ulikuwa na taratibu shinikizi zilizowezesha uwajibikaji kimila na hasa katika uzalishaji mashambani.
Hili lilifuatiwa na mpango wa serikali wa kuweka ushirika chini yake badala ya kuwa mikononi mwa wananchi.
Katika mazingira haya, hata mfuko wa wananchi, Ihanika, ukatoweka na serikali haikufanya juhudi kuwafidia. Hapa uchumi uliokuwa umeshamiri ukaingia misukosuko.
Kwa miaka mingi, wananchi wa Kagera walikuwa wakifanya biashara na wenzao wa Uganda. Utawala wa Amin uliondoa ushirikiano na kupunguza mwingiliano.
Kuvunjika kwa Jumuiya ya Afrika Mashariki mwaka 1977 kulikofuatia, kuliziba vifereji vya mahusiano ya kiuchumi yasiyorasmi vilivyokuwa vimesalia.
Vita vya Kagera (1978/79), vilipiganiwa katika ardhi ya mkoa wa Kagera. Biashara ndogo na kubwa ziliharibika. Mtindo wa maisha ulivuruguka. Wananchi wakawa wakimbizi ndani ya nchi yao. Uchumi ukaanguka zaidi na umasikini ukashamiri.
Watu wengi walifariki katika vita. Mali zao ziliharibiwa pamoja na miundombuinu – barabara, shule, hospitali na mabenki.
Rais Julius Nyerere alitoa miezi 18 kumaliza matatizo hayo na kurejesha maisha katika hali ya kawaida; lakini miezi hiyo haijaisha hadi leo.
Ndipo ikaja “Operation Uhujumu Uchumi” mwaka 1983. Zoezi hilo liliendeshwa chini ya aliyekuwa mkuu wa mkoa wa Kagera, Kanali Nsa Kaisi.
Katika sakasaka na kamatakamata, watu wengi waliswekwa ndani; mali zilikamatwa, baadhi walifilisiwa kwa halali au haramu na, katika hali isiyo na maelezo, baadhi ya mali, zikiwa zimeharibika, zilirejeshwa kwa wenyewe bila hata “pole.”
Kukamatwa kwa magari (malori), kwa mfano, kulisababisha maisha magumu vijijini kwa kuwa wananchi hawakupata mahitaji.
Wakati huo, vyama vya ushirika ambavyo sasa vilikuwa vimerejeshwa chini ya mfumo wa kiserikali, vikawa vimeingiliwa na kile wanaita “mchwa.”
Watu wasiokuwa waaminifu wakajipenyeza na kuwaibia wakulima wa kahawa. Imani ya wananchi ikapungua. Ari ya kilimo ikaanza kupotea.
Hapa ushirika wa BCU/KCU uliokuwa na nguvu, ukameguka. Wananchi wa wilaya ya Karagwe wakajitenga na kuanzisha Karagwe District Cooperative Union (KDCU). Biharamulo nao wakajitenga wakaanzisha Biharamulo Cooperative Union (BCU).
Yote haya yalikuwa na athari mbaya kwa uchumi na maisha ya wananchi mkoani Kagera.
Kana kwamba hayo yalikuwa hayatoshi, ukaingia ugonjwa wa ukimwi. Mgonjwa wa kwanza wa ukimwi aligundulika mkoani Kagera mwaka 1983.
Uzito wa janga hilo unashuhudiwa kwa makaburi “mabichi” yaliyojaa mashambani. Vijana waliokuwa wakichakarika kwa kufanya biashara, wamekufa kwa kasi isiyomithilika.
Wakati mwingine waweza kutembelea nyumba moja na kukuta pikipiki tatu au nne zimeegeshwa. Ni za vijana waliokufa “kwa ukimwi” ambao walikuwa watafutaji wa neema kwa familia.
Hivyo wazalishaji wakubwa wakaangamia kwa ukimwi. Wakabaki wazee. Familia nyingi zikawa na mzigo wa kutunza yatima. Muda mwingi wa kuzalisha mali ukapotea kuuguza wagonjwa, kutunza yatima na kuhudhuria mazishi na matanga.
Ndipo likaja janga la kuzama kwa meli – mv BUKOBA, tarehe 21 Mei 1996. Inakadiriwa wengi wa abiria waliokufa katika ajali hiyo walikuwa wa mkoa wa Kagera; wengi wao wakiwa vijana watafutaji waliokuza uchumi wa mkoa.
Sasa kumezuka ugonjwa wa kunyausha migomba (Banana Xanthomonas Wilt-BXW) na ugonjwa wa kahawa (Coffee Fusarium Wilt-CFW).
Kama hakuna kahawa na hakuna migomba (ndizi), siyo tu uchumi bali maisha ya wananchi yako hatarini. Hakujawa na mbadala wa maana.
Nani ataisemea Kagera? Kuna matatizo mengi lakini mengine yaweza kuwekwa kwenye ngazi ya changamoto.
Je, tukianza na kongamano kubwa la wanaoitakia mema Kagera, hatuwezi kutotoa njia za kuinua uchumi na maisha ya wananchi mkoani?
Mkoa una hali ya joto la wastani la sentigredi 26.02. Mvua zinanyesha kwa wastani wa milimita 800 hadi 1,200 kwa mwaka – kati ya Septemba na Januari na kati ya Machi na Mei.
Inawezekana.
Makala hii ilitokea kwenye gazeti la MwanaHalisi la tarehe 25/MAY 2011
Hivi vilikuwa vita vya kumfukuza na hatimaye kumwondoa dikteta Iddi Amin wa Uganda aliyekuwa amevamia Tanzania.
Amin alivamia na kukalia eneo la Kagera akidai kuwa mpaka halali kati ya nchi hizi mbili ulikuwa Mto Kagera; pale Kyaka.
Kwa wenyeji wa mkoa huu, neno Kagera linatokana na “Akagera,” yaani kijito kinachotiririsha maji yake katika mto mkubwa au ziwa. Mto Kagera hutiririsha maji yake katika Ziwa Viktoria.
Maji haya ya Kagera huonekana wazi kuwa hayakai ziwani bali hukatisha ziwa na kuwa chanzo cha Mto Nile ambao ni mto mrefu kuliko yote duniani.
Mkoa wa Kagera ni miongoni mwa mikoa michache iliyobahatika kupata maendeleo makubwa kiuchumi na kijamii kabla na baada ya uhuru.
Wamisionari wa madhehebu ya Kilutheri na Wakatoliki (Missionaries of Africa/White Fathers), waliingia Bukoba mwishoni mwa miaka ya 1880 na kuanzisha shule za msingi, sekondari na vyuo vya ualimu.
Moja ya vyuo hivyo ni Chuo cha Ualimu cha Kajunguti, katika wilaya ya Muleba. Chuo hicho kilikwishafungwa. Miongoni mwa shule za sekondari zilizoanzishwa na wamisionari ni St. Thomas More College (Ihungo) na Nyakato.
Wamisionari pia walifungua hospitali mbalimbali na vituo vya afya. Miongoni mwa hospitali hizo ni Rubya, Kagondo na Ndolage, zote za wilaya ya Muleba; Mugana (Misenyi), Biharamulo, Nyakahanga na Isingiro, wilayani Karagwe na Murugwanza, wilayani Ngara.
Kwa takriban miaka 500 sasa, wakazi wa mkoa wa Kagera wamekuwa wakistawisha migomba kwa ajili ya chakula (ndizi) na mibuni – kwa ajili ya biashara (kahawa).
Wakulima wa kahawa walianzisha ushirika wao chini ya Chama Kikuu cha Ushirika cha Bukoba Cooperative Union (BCU), ambacho kilianzishwa mwaka 1948.
Miongoni mwa waanzilsihi wa BCU ni mzee George Clement Kahama, ambaye alishika nyadhifa mbalimbali serikalini.
Kupitia ushirika wao, wakulima wa Kagera waliweza kusomesha watoto wao ndani na nje ya nchi. BCU iligharamia masomo ya wanafunzi hao.
Wakulima pia walianzisha umoja wa aina ya sasa ya Kuweka na Kukopa, maarufu kama “Ihanika.” Hadi miaka ya 1955, mfuko huo ulikuwa na zaidi ya Sh. 400 milioni.
Lakini uchumi wa mkoa na wananchi ulianza kuonyesha mdororo baada ya uhuru. Inaonekana kuwa nguzo kuu zake zilianza kulegea na hatimaye kung’oka.
Utawala wa asili wa kichifu ulitupiliwa mbali. Pamoja na mfumo huo kuwa wa upendeleo kwa watawala na hata kuhalalisha unyonyaji kwa njia ya miliki ya ardhi, ulikuwa na taratibu shinikizi zilizowezesha uwajibikaji kimila na hasa katika uzalishaji mashambani.
Hili lilifuatiwa na mpango wa serikali wa kuweka ushirika chini yake badala ya kuwa mikononi mwa wananchi.
Katika mazingira haya, hata mfuko wa wananchi, Ihanika, ukatoweka na serikali haikufanya juhudi kuwafidia. Hapa uchumi uliokuwa umeshamiri ukaingia misukosuko.
Kwa miaka mingi, wananchi wa Kagera walikuwa wakifanya biashara na wenzao wa Uganda. Utawala wa Amin uliondoa ushirikiano na kupunguza mwingiliano.
Kuvunjika kwa Jumuiya ya Afrika Mashariki mwaka 1977 kulikofuatia, kuliziba vifereji vya mahusiano ya kiuchumi yasiyorasmi vilivyokuwa vimesalia.
Vita vya Kagera (1978/79), vilipiganiwa katika ardhi ya mkoa wa Kagera. Biashara ndogo na kubwa ziliharibika. Mtindo wa maisha ulivuruguka. Wananchi wakawa wakimbizi ndani ya nchi yao. Uchumi ukaanguka zaidi na umasikini ukashamiri.
Watu wengi walifariki katika vita. Mali zao ziliharibiwa pamoja na miundombuinu – barabara, shule, hospitali na mabenki.
Rais Julius Nyerere alitoa miezi 18 kumaliza matatizo hayo na kurejesha maisha katika hali ya kawaida; lakini miezi hiyo haijaisha hadi leo.
Ndipo ikaja “Operation Uhujumu Uchumi” mwaka 1983. Zoezi hilo liliendeshwa chini ya aliyekuwa mkuu wa mkoa wa Kagera, Kanali Nsa Kaisi.
Katika sakasaka na kamatakamata, watu wengi waliswekwa ndani; mali zilikamatwa, baadhi walifilisiwa kwa halali au haramu na, katika hali isiyo na maelezo, baadhi ya mali, zikiwa zimeharibika, zilirejeshwa kwa wenyewe bila hata “pole.”
Kukamatwa kwa magari (malori), kwa mfano, kulisababisha maisha magumu vijijini kwa kuwa wananchi hawakupata mahitaji.
Wakati huo, vyama vya ushirika ambavyo sasa vilikuwa vimerejeshwa chini ya mfumo wa kiserikali, vikawa vimeingiliwa na kile wanaita “mchwa.”
Watu wasiokuwa waaminifu wakajipenyeza na kuwaibia wakulima wa kahawa. Imani ya wananchi ikapungua. Ari ya kilimo ikaanza kupotea.
Hapa ushirika wa BCU/KCU uliokuwa na nguvu, ukameguka. Wananchi wa wilaya ya Karagwe wakajitenga na kuanzisha Karagwe District Cooperative Union (KDCU). Biharamulo nao wakajitenga wakaanzisha Biharamulo Cooperative Union (BCU).
Yote haya yalikuwa na athari mbaya kwa uchumi na maisha ya wananchi mkoani Kagera.
Kana kwamba hayo yalikuwa hayatoshi, ukaingia ugonjwa wa ukimwi. Mgonjwa wa kwanza wa ukimwi aligundulika mkoani Kagera mwaka 1983.
Uzito wa janga hilo unashuhudiwa kwa makaburi “mabichi” yaliyojaa mashambani. Vijana waliokuwa wakichakarika kwa kufanya biashara, wamekufa kwa kasi isiyomithilika.
Wakati mwingine waweza kutembelea nyumba moja na kukuta pikipiki tatu au nne zimeegeshwa. Ni za vijana waliokufa “kwa ukimwi” ambao walikuwa watafutaji wa neema kwa familia.
Hivyo wazalishaji wakubwa wakaangamia kwa ukimwi. Wakabaki wazee. Familia nyingi zikawa na mzigo wa kutunza yatima. Muda mwingi wa kuzalisha mali ukapotea kuuguza wagonjwa, kutunza yatima na kuhudhuria mazishi na matanga.
Ndipo likaja janga la kuzama kwa meli – mv BUKOBA, tarehe 21 Mei 1996. Inakadiriwa wengi wa abiria waliokufa katika ajali hiyo walikuwa wa mkoa wa Kagera; wengi wao wakiwa vijana watafutaji waliokuza uchumi wa mkoa.
Sasa kumezuka ugonjwa wa kunyausha migomba (Banana Xanthomonas Wilt-BXW) na ugonjwa wa kahawa (Coffee Fusarium Wilt-CFW).
Kama hakuna kahawa na hakuna migomba (ndizi), siyo tu uchumi bali maisha ya wananchi yako hatarini. Hakujawa na mbadala wa maana.
Nani ataisemea Kagera? Kuna matatizo mengi lakini mengine yaweza kuwekwa kwenye ngazi ya changamoto.
Je, tukianza na kongamano kubwa la wanaoitakia mema Kagera, hatuwezi kutotoa njia za kuinua uchumi na maisha ya wananchi mkoani?
Mkoa una hali ya joto la wastani la sentigredi 26.02. Mvua zinanyesha kwa wastani wa milimita 800 hadi 1,200 kwa mwaka – kati ya Septemba na Januari na kati ya Machi na Mei.
Inawezekana.
Makala hii ilitokea kwenye gazeti la MwanaHalisi la tarehe 25/MAY 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
In Africa memories are uncherished
The other day while gazing through the latest model of plasma flat TV, a scene catched my nerves and sent a flashback to 1980's. Yes, I like flashbacks, those good golden days when I was a football fan. Gentleman going by the name of Renatus Njohole was presenting his foundation named Njohole foundation.
That was a noble cause coming from our own lad playing in Switzeland. That the foundation is aiming at supporting our old uncherished heroes need to be supported by all sensible football fans. The fact that old players are miserable is not to be envied. Looking at the poses of Juma Pondamali and others at that bash on the tele, i was ashamed. Those were the guys who entartained me in those teenager years but now I see them languished.
In Africa we have a very short memory span changing daily as cameleon living nothing for the present generation to emulate. Some highlights should bring sense to the present generation.
Football is massive thing, at least in Tanzania; men loathes football, we talk football all the time to the point of not being sensible, but our tit-chat misses one important point; MEMORY. Ask a twenty something youngman to mention a Tanzanian footballer of 1980's and he wont have an answer.Few remembers a 1980 National team that lifted our flag in African cup of Nations that played along with big boys from Nigeria,Egypt,and Ivory Coast.We hadly hear these old guards being mentioned in the media let alone in the street; unsang heroes die miserably while surviving ones are languished in the streets, the likes of Juma Pondamali,Ahmed Amasha,Adolf Rishard, Omary Hussein, Peter Tino, Mtemi Ramadhani,and Jella Mtagwa.( Luckly Leodgar Tenga is a reknown personality in footy leadership, but he seems to be the only one. To me forgetting these heroes have a big impact to success of today's competittive game. Lads are not getting skills from the old guards but again even the game itself lacks enthusiasm as today's would be players feel that they will be ignored in later years, hence non-committment.
Perhaps one should also zoom in the world of technology as we see the flood of gadgets in our midst. In 1960 through to 1980 the format of our offices were furnished with typewritters, land line telephones, ceilling fans, fax machines etc. Enter a reasonable office in this 21st century, and typewritter is obsolete, ceilling fans are replaced by air conditioners, and fax machines are replaced by desktop facilitating e-mail transfer; its a paper less office enviroment. But again, a big question roams around; why pulling down ceiling fans, i think we dont need air conditioners all the times, there're chilly days that ceiling fan would save a purpose.
In infrastructure the story remains the same. Germany colonizers constructed a central railway line from Dar-Tabora-Dodoma-Mwanza. From Tabora the line escapes to Kigoma. Today this railway line is non-functioning for silly reasons and not a single reasonable answer can be forthcoming. The railway line is left for the weeds to surround those iron-bars. Ask a lad born in 1990 and he will look into your eyes with awe as he has never boarded a train in his life. In Germany, grandsons and daughters of our colonisers commute in trains daily to and from work,Africans cannot move cargo from one region to the other as roads are patchy with potholes. Reports are rife that Tanzania is having food surplus to the tune of 1.3 million tones and yet prices are skyrocketting due to failure of transporting cargo from abundant regions to the hunger stricken parts of the country.
It was a reknown critic Prof Ali Mazrui who commented that jews treasure memories of 1000 years ago, but africans can not fathom stuff that existed some thirty years ago.
My positive guess is that just as we forgot fine and heroic work of Chief Mkwawa of Iringa, Nyerere we are trumpeting now will be out of our brains thirty years from now.
I think our levels of thinking need a serious make over.
That was a noble cause coming from our own lad playing in Switzeland. That the foundation is aiming at supporting our old uncherished heroes need to be supported by all sensible football fans. The fact that old players are miserable is not to be envied. Looking at the poses of Juma Pondamali and others at that bash on the tele, i was ashamed. Those were the guys who entartained me in those teenager years but now I see them languished.
In Africa we have a very short memory span changing daily as cameleon living nothing for the present generation to emulate. Some highlights should bring sense to the present generation.
Football is massive thing, at least in Tanzania; men loathes football, we talk football all the time to the point of not being sensible, but our tit-chat misses one important point; MEMORY. Ask a twenty something youngman to mention a Tanzanian footballer of 1980's and he wont have an answer.Few remembers a 1980 National team that lifted our flag in African cup of Nations that played along with big boys from Nigeria,Egypt,and Ivory Coast.We hadly hear these old guards being mentioned in the media let alone in the street; unsang heroes die miserably while surviving ones are languished in the streets, the likes of Juma Pondamali,Ahmed Amasha,Adolf Rishard, Omary Hussein, Peter Tino, Mtemi Ramadhani,and Jella Mtagwa.( Luckly Leodgar Tenga is a reknown personality in footy leadership, but he seems to be the only one. To me forgetting these heroes have a big impact to success of today's competittive game. Lads are not getting skills from the old guards but again even the game itself lacks enthusiasm as today's would be players feel that they will be ignored in later years, hence non-committment.
Perhaps one should also zoom in the world of technology as we see the flood of gadgets in our midst. In 1960 through to 1980 the format of our offices were furnished with typewritters, land line telephones, ceilling fans, fax machines etc. Enter a reasonable office in this 21st century, and typewritter is obsolete, ceilling fans are replaced by air conditioners, and fax machines are replaced by desktop facilitating e-mail transfer; its a paper less office enviroment. But again, a big question roams around; why pulling down ceiling fans, i think we dont need air conditioners all the times, there're chilly days that ceiling fan would save a purpose.
In infrastructure the story remains the same. Germany colonizers constructed a central railway line from Dar-Tabora-Dodoma-Mwanza. From Tabora the line escapes to Kigoma. Today this railway line is non-functioning for silly reasons and not a single reasonable answer can be forthcoming. The railway line is left for the weeds to surround those iron-bars. Ask a lad born in 1990 and he will look into your eyes with awe as he has never boarded a train in his life. In Germany, grandsons and daughters of our colonisers commute in trains daily to and from work,Africans cannot move cargo from one region to the other as roads are patchy with potholes. Reports are rife that Tanzania is having food surplus to the tune of 1.3 million tones and yet prices are skyrocketting due to failure of transporting cargo from abundant regions to the hunger stricken parts of the country.
It was a reknown critic Prof Ali Mazrui who commented that jews treasure memories of 1000 years ago, but africans can not fathom stuff that existed some thirty years ago.
My positive guess is that just as we forgot fine and heroic work of Chief Mkwawa of Iringa, Nyerere we are trumpeting now will be out of our brains thirty years from now.
I think our levels of thinking need a serious make over.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
ASIANS ARE STILL SMARTER
At first they came in east africa about 200 years ago as rail workers constructing uganda railway line, then they occupied clerical jobs in east africa colonial goverments. Even after they were alienated and moved from the comfortable colonial posts by new breed of east african elites, asians moved into businesses, owning shops in suburbans and even in remote areas.
Now in 21 century asians again are taking the upper hand, and this is the Real estate. Massive construction in east african city centres are owned by asians. We can see how this race is changing from one place to another. Ironically i dont see much change within black race!! why,
Now in 21 century asians again are taking the upper hand, and this is the Real estate. Massive construction in east african city centres are owned by asians. We can see how this race is changing from one place to another. Ironically i dont see much change within black race!! why,
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
A GUIDE FOR LIVING IN 2011
HEALTH
Drink plenty of water
Eat breakfast like a King,lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar
Eat more food that grows ON trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured IN plants.
Live with the 3 E's-- Energy, Enthuasiasm and Empathy.
Make time to pray
Play more games & Read more books than you did in 2010
Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
Sleep at least 7 hours
Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.
PERSONALITY
Dont campare your life to others. You have no idea what their journery is all about
Dont have negative thoughts on things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
Dont over do. Keep your limits.
Dont take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
Dont waste your precious energy on gossip.
Dream more while you are awake
Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
Forget issues of the past. Dont remind your partner of his/her mistakes in the past,that will ruin your present happiness.
Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Dont hate others.
Make peace with your past so it wont spoil the present.
No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
Smile and laugh more.
You dont have to win every argument. Agree to disagree...
SOCIETY
Call your family often
Each day give something good to others
Forgive everyone for everything.
Spend time with people over the age of 70, and under the age of 6.
Try to make at least three people smile each day
What others people think of you is none of your business
Your job wont take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
LIFE
Do the right things!
Ged rid of anything that is isnt useful, beautiful, or joyful.
GOD heals everything.
However good or bad a situation is,it will change
No matter how you feel,get up, dress up,and show up
The best is yet to come...
When you awake alive in the morning, Thank GOD for it.
Your inner most is always happy. So, be happy.
Drink plenty of water
Eat breakfast like a King,lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar
Eat more food that grows ON trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured IN plants.
Live with the 3 E's-- Energy, Enthuasiasm and Empathy.
Make time to pray
Play more games & Read more books than you did in 2010
Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
Sleep at least 7 hours
Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.
PERSONALITY
Dont campare your life to others. You have no idea what their journery is all about
Dont have negative thoughts on things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
Dont over do. Keep your limits.
Dont take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
Dont waste your precious energy on gossip.
Dream more while you are awake
Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
Forget issues of the past. Dont remind your partner of his/her mistakes in the past,that will ruin your present happiness.
Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Dont hate others.
Make peace with your past so it wont spoil the present.
No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
Smile and laugh more.
You dont have to win every argument. Agree to disagree...
SOCIETY
Call your family often
Each day give something good to others
Forgive everyone for everything.
Spend time with people over the age of 70, and under the age of 6.
Try to make at least three people smile each day
What others people think of you is none of your business
Your job wont take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
LIFE
Do the right things!
Ged rid of anything that is isnt useful, beautiful, or joyful.
GOD heals everything.
However good or bad a situation is,it will change
No matter how you feel,get up, dress up,and show up
The best is yet to come...
When you awake alive in the morning, Thank GOD for it.
Your inner most is always happy. So, be happy.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Commitment to giving
Oprah wanted to bring Christmas to the children of South Africa. She planned one month's worth of celebrations for 50,000 kids. This was a life altering trip for her.
She said she's paying back for a kind act to her when she was young. On christmas, as she was crying because she had no dolls, two women knocked on her door and gave her two dolls.
One small act of kindness stayed with her all through these years.Her good work has played an important part in the success of her talk show. While she was there she got to share 29 meals with her strongest, living,mentor, Nelson Mandela made her feel strengthened, deepened,broadened and more loving and forgiving.
Creating an experience and giving power to the staff is what surged Starbucks.
Starbucks from a single location coffee shop in 1971 has now more than 11,500 non-franchised locations worldwide, annual sales of more than $600 million and has been rated as one of the best Fortune 100 companies to work. Since 1992, its stock has grown 5000 per cent its success is based on its progressive corporate culture and passing its values to all employees or 'partners' as they are known in the company.
The average cost of coffee at Starbucks is $3! A concept that was unthinkable some time back. The lions share comes from its core business of coffee- retail sales,music,gift packs. Their success criteria- belief in their product and creation of experience for the customer. Yes with the current crisis they have been hit just like everyone else. However their growth compared to where they started is still huge.
Microsoft opted for gift of health by paying for healthy living seminars for its employees as well as gym fees. By so doing it saves $2 on sick leave savings for every $1 spent.
The gift of sight is what Lens Crafters did in donating 5 milliong glasses since 1988 to the less priveleged- a 'gift of sight' The company is regarded as one of the best
companies to work in.
The Gucci slogan is 'Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten'.
The more you give to your staff( guidance,motivation,encouragement and respect); the better they perfom. By retaining good people you save a lot of time and resources looking for new people and training them.
Leader servant approach is the new leadership paradigm, which makes employees feel valued. This in turn improves their productivity. By creating and enabling enviroment for young people, you increase their productivity and your profitabiliy.
By giving your customers good service and respect, you win their loyalty. The lifetime value of their loyalty is enormous. Exceeding customer expectations require completely satisfied customers and not just satisfied customers. Completely satisfied customers create extraordinaly results for the business not only in terms of their contribution but also in the from of what they tell others. When you keep your committment and trust with your financier, the better terms you get. The more time you spend on introspection, reflection and balance the better you perform.
The more you give, the more you create!
All the above examples create a win-win for both the giver and the receiver. Therein lies the power of Giving! The power to Give is inside all of you. Giving comes from within. We are born with a gift, which is within each one of us .This gift has been given to us to make a positive difference. The burning desire lies within all of us.
There is still a big need for giving! According to a UN study, every human being could be given food, shelter, sanitation, education, and comfortable life for no more money than an annual golf membership would cost or one third of money spent on cigarettes.
Mohammed Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh says, ' Poverty is not created by poor people. It has been produced by our failure to create institutions to support human capabilities.' Within a decade of his work,half the people have risen above poverty line.
Richness is not defined by how much you have,but rathen how much you give.
The Afghan families I met had nothing yet they would offer dry fruits to a guest-a mehman as they would call them. In this act of kindness they felt like a 'maharaja'a King.
The more you give, the more you tap your creativity, innovation, passion, ingenuity and potential. YOU CAN DO IT! I BELIEVE IN YOU! I know you have an inherent desire to give and make a positive difference.
As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, I will come back to serve- Dalai Lama.
This article is reproduced from The Citizen, Tanzanian Daily;8th of June,2011
She said she's paying back for a kind act to her when she was young. On christmas, as she was crying because she had no dolls, two women knocked on her door and gave her two dolls.
One small act of kindness stayed with her all through these years.Her good work has played an important part in the success of her talk show. While she was there she got to share 29 meals with her strongest, living,mentor, Nelson Mandela made her feel strengthened, deepened,broadened and more loving and forgiving.
Creating an experience and giving power to the staff is what surged Starbucks.
Starbucks from a single location coffee shop in 1971 has now more than 11,500 non-franchised locations worldwide, annual sales of more than $600 million and has been rated as one of the best Fortune 100 companies to work. Since 1992, its stock has grown 5000 per cent its success is based on its progressive corporate culture and passing its values to all employees or 'partners' as they are known in the company.
The average cost of coffee at Starbucks is $3! A concept that was unthinkable some time back. The lions share comes from its core business of coffee- retail sales,music,gift packs. Their success criteria- belief in their product and creation of experience for the customer. Yes with the current crisis they have been hit just like everyone else. However their growth compared to where they started is still huge.
Microsoft opted for gift of health by paying for healthy living seminars for its employees as well as gym fees. By so doing it saves $2 on sick leave savings for every $1 spent.
The gift of sight is what Lens Crafters did in donating 5 milliong glasses since 1988 to the less priveleged- a 'gift of sight' The company is regarded as one of the best
companies to work in.
The Gucci slogan is 'Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten'.
The more you give to your staff( guidance,motivation,encouragement and respect); the better they perfom. By retaining good people you save a lot of time and resources looking for new people and training them.
Leader servant approach is the new leadership paradigm, which makes employees feel valued. This in turn improves their productivity. By creating and enabling enviroment for young people, you increase their productivity and your profitabiliy.
By giving your customers good service and respect, you win their loyalty. The lifetime value of their loyalty is enormous. Exceeding customer expectations require completely satisfied customers and not just satisfied customers. Completely satisfied customers create extraordinaly results for the business not only in terms of their contribution but also in the from of what they tell others. When you keep your committment and trust with your financier, the better terms you get. The more time you spend on introspection, reflection and balance the better you perform.
The more you give, the more you create!
All the above examples create a win-win for both the giver and the receiver. Therein lies the power of Giving! The power to Give is inside all of you. Giving comes from within. We are born with a gift, which is within each one of us .This gift has been given to us to make a positive difference. The burning desire lies within all of us.
There is still a big need for giving! According to a UN study, every human being could be given food, shelter, sanitation, education, and comfortable life for no more money than an annual golf membership would cost or one third of money spent on cigarettes.
Mohammed Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh says, ' Poverty is not created by poor people. It has been produced by our failure to create institutions to support human capabilities.' Within a decade of his work,half the people have risen above poverty line.
Richness is not defined by how much you have,but rathen how much you give.
The Afghan families I met had nothing yet they would offer dry fruits to a guest-a mehman as they would call them. In this act of kindness they felt like a 'maharaja'a King.
The more you give, the more you tap your creativity, innovation, passion, ingenuity and potential. YOU CAN DO IT! I BELIEVE IN YOU! I know you have an inherent desire to give and make a positive difference.
As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, I will come back to serve- Dalai Lama.
This article is reproduced from The Citizen, Tanzanian Daily;8th of June,2011
WAKENYA WATUFUNIKA!! SIYO MBAYA!
Eti jamaa yangu mmoja alinishangaa kwa kunywa maziwa ya Brookside dairy, yatokayo Kenya. Eti nipendelee viwanda vya nyumbani, hivyo ninywe Tanga Fresh. Nyumbani wapi? Nani kasema utakapo ni Tanzania? Ni ushamba huo.
ebu fikiria mimi muhaya ningekuwa nakula matoke tu, hapa Dar Es Salaam, je, mlima mpunga angepata wapi soko? ebu fikiria ningeamua kula samaki wa ziwa victoria tu,maharage ya Mbeya angenunua nani?
Na nani aliyetudanganya na hii dhana ya mipaka ya nchi? Miaka 200 iliyopita hatukuwa na Kenya, Uganda, wala Tanzania kama tunavyoziona hizi nchi sasa. Leo hii naambiwa ninywe maziwa ya Tanga fresh, kwanini?
Ni mtu huyo huyo ananiyeshangaa mimi kunywa maziwa ya Brookside, anaye shabikia Machester United na kushindwa kutaja 'line up' ya Simba, vijana wa Msimbazi.
Hii ni Dunia ya utandawazi, ambayo mwandishi Thomas Friedman, anaiita 'Flat World'.Mimi kama mteja natakiwa ninunue kitu roho yangu inapenda bila kipingamizi chochote. Hiyo ndiyo faida ya utandawazi.
Na nchi zilizokumbatia utandawazi zimefanikiwa sana. Angalia Marekani, ambapo vipaji kutoka India ( software), africa ( sanaa),China ( bidhaa zote) nk vinaiweka Marekani hapo ilipo sasa.
Hii ni dunia ya wingi, ( abundance) na hatutaweza kuishi hapa Duniani kama tutakuwa ni viumbe tunaotaka kujifungia na raslimali zetu tulizonazo. Kama kuna ardhi tugawe tu, kama kuna ajira tugawe tu, kama kuna walaji tuwaruhusu wananunue bidhaa za nje bila kipingamizi.
Serikali inachoweza kufanya ni ubunifu, na umakini wa kunufaika kutokana na bidhaa, ujuzi( skills) na mitaji kutoka nje. Serikali iliyo makini itatoza kodi na kutoendekeza misamaha ya kodi kwa wageni wanaokuja nchini kwetu.Serikali iliyo makini itaendelea kutoa motisha kwa viwanda vya maziwa vya hapa nchini ili vishindane na Brookside kutoka Kenya. Je kuna ubaya gani kwa kabaila kutoka Kenya akichukua ardhi na kulima halafu akapewa masharti kuwa mazao asilimia kubwa auze Tanzania? Si bora kuliko kukaa na mapori yasiyolimwa?
Tafakari, Chukua hatua.
ebu fikiria mimi muhaya ningekuwa nakula matoke tu, hapa Dar Es Salaam, je, mlima mpunga angepata wapi soko? ebu fikiria ningeamua kula samaki wa ziwa victoria tu,maharage ya Mbeya angenunua nani?
Na nani aliyetudanganya na hii dhana ya mipaka ya nchi? Miaka 200 iliyopita hatukuwa na Kenya, Uganda, wala Tanzania kama tunavyoziona hizi nchi sasa. Leo hii naambiwa ninywe maziwa ya Tanga fresh, kwanini?
Ni mtu huyo huyo ananiyeshangaa mimi kunywa maziwa ya Brookside, anaye shabikia Machester United na kushindwa kutaja 'line up' ya Simba, vijana wa Msimbazi.
Hii ni Dunia ya utandawazi, ambayo mwandishi Thomas Friedman, anaiita 'Flat World'.Mimi kama mteja natakiwa ninunue kitu roho yangu inapenda bila kipingamizi chochote. Hiyo ndiyo faida ya utandawazi.
Na nchi zilizokumbatia utandawazi zimefanikiwa sana. Angalia Marekani, ambapo vipaji kutoka India ( software), africa ( sanaa),China ( bidhaa zote) nk vinaiweka Marekani hapo ilipo sasa.
Hii ni dunia ya wingi, ( abundance) na hatutaweza kuishi hapa Duniani kama tutakuwa ni viumbe tunaotaka kujifungia na raslimali zetu tulizonazo. Kama kuna ardhi tugawe tu, kama kuna ajira tugawe tu, kama kuna walaji tuwaruhusu wananunue bidhaa za nje bila kipingamizi.
Serikali inachoweza kufanya ni ubunifu, na umakini wa kunufaika kutokana na bidhaa, ujuzi( skills) na mitaji kutoka nje. Serikali iliyo makini itatoza kodi na kutoendekeza misamaha ya kodi kwa wageni wanaokuja nchini kwetu.Serikali iliyo makini itaendelea kutoa motisha kwa viwanda vya maziwa vya hapa nchini ili vishindane na Brookside kutoka Kenya. Je kuna ubaya gani kwa kabaila kutoka Kenya akichukua ardhi na kulima halafu akapewa masharti kuwa mazao asilimia kubwa auze Tanzania? Si bora kuliko kukaa na mapori yasiyolimwa?
Tafakari, Chukua hatua.
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