CcM giveth, and CcM taketh away

nngu007 · 2011-04-08T15:06:49+00:00

Friday, 08 April 2011 GOLD was not discovered in Tanzania in 1998, when the Government of President Benjamin Mkapa (1995-2005) enacted a Mining Legislation which was so grossly lopsided in favour of foreign mining conglomerates that it just as soon proved to be more of a bane than a boon for the country and its people. Nor was the yellow metallic peril ('peril' for ordinary Tanzanians, anyway) discovered the year before, when the Mining Policy that led to the legislation was formulated, with considerable abetment (for lack of a better term) from the World Bank! Bad policies invariably beget bad laws which inevitably lead to injustice and inhumanity. The gold was there long before alien 'invaders,' starting with the Arabs of Oman and Portuguese explorers during the Renaissance, as well as German and British colonial regimes in the 19th-20th Centuries looked to this country as Martha's Vineyard in which they could roam at large and harvest where they hadn't sowed. But, one thing that can be said in favour of those earlier invaders is that they never ripped into the bowels of the Earth to extract gold and other precious metals... They seemed satisfied with scratching the surface and pocketing what little they found unlike the grossly indecent extent to which Latter-Day (invasive) Saints' in the name of 'investors' have been doing post-the-1997 Mining Policy and 1998 Legislation! Today, it cannot be said with a straight face that (ordinary) Tanzanians are benefiting in full from the ongoing rampant exploitation of their natural mineral wealth by foreign 'investors.' At the best of times, (ordinary) Tanzanians scrabble for the crumbs that are 'allowed' to fall off the High Tables of the investors and their collaborators in high public positions of power and privilege. In other words, what the Lord and Mother Nature gave to (ordinary) Tanzanians, successor-Governments of the ruling party CcM have taken away from them by a stroke of the policy-making and legislative pen! If I may wax Biblical, what (potential) wealth the Lord gave to ordinary Tanzanians via Mother Nature and Father Time has been taken away NOT by the Lord, but by Tanzanians very own ruling political party and its Governments. Sheesh! There are, of course, a zillion examples of other goody-goodies which were given to the people of Tanzania over the years, but which were sooner or later whisked away from them in like fashion. Needless to say, not all of them are material wealth on the lines of minerals and other natural resources Take, for instance, Literacy There was a time when the literacy rate in Tanzania reached the upper 80s in percentage terms of the population. This was compliments of the ruling party and its Governments in the early post-Independence years, which seriously embarked upon literacy programmes involving not only the school-age segment of Society, but also adults. Today, the rates have fallen to 66-67 per cent of the population also compliments of the party in power and its Governments! This was basically because successor Governments stopped effectively implementing the literacy programmes, let alone improving upon them. This is, of course, in the tried and tested style of the authorities giving (with one Budget as it were) and just as promptly taking away from the people in the next Budget! Perhaps the most recent example and also the bitterest to swallow for ordinary Tanzanians today was the pledge made in the campaign for the 2005 presidential elections by CcM Candidate Jakaya Kikwete. This was to the general effect that, if he was elected president, his Administration would bring about a better life for Tanzanians, doing so with renewed spirit, vigour and pace. Five years down the presidential road, that never happened. Not only that More than 90 new pledges were made by President Kikwete in his reelection campaign last year, ostensibly to be fulfilled with redoubled spirit, vigour and pace. More than five months down the repatched presidential road It seems that, for the umpteenth time in as many years, CcM and its Governments routinely giveth water-mouthing pledges to its people and just as routinely proceed to cruelly take their hopes away. As Biblical Job said at the end of it all, Jehovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah! So, CcM giveth, and CcM taketh away like the little god it is...

Thread starter nngu007
Start date Apr 8, 2011

nngu007

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CcM giveth, and CcM taketh away

nngu007

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