Why TZ remains poor despite vast resources
By John Mashaka (email the author)
Posted Sunday, May 26 2013 at 10:50
Source The Citizen
Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in terms of income per capita despite being one of the worlds richest when it comes to natural resources. It is the third richest in the entire continent behind South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Tanzanias massive potential and endless opportunities notwithstanding, the country remains donor dependent, with its people living on the edge of poverty. Many theories and myths have been out there for quite some time as to why Tanzanians are so poor. In fact, we Tanzanians are poor because we are lazy.
We like easy ways out of our hardships. Our culture and educational system, cultivate our minds to seek shortcuts out of our difficulties. We do not engage in a realistic sense of determining cause and effect of issues affecting our lives and society.
We are economically poor as a country because of our long dependence on foreign hand-outs, which have in turn enslaved our minds through a sense of entitlement. Despite abundant wealth, many African countries have made it routine for Washington and London to subsidize their budgets. We are remaining economically disadvantaged because of an
enemy called corruption, a product of greed and selfishness. Tanzania lacks people with clear patriotic-sense
One would think that, with its strategic geographical location and access to the Indian Ocean, Tanzania would be an economic power. Others think that with its vast arable land and water sources, Tanzania would never experience food shortage. With its national parks, and other historical treasures, Tanzania would be a Mecca of world tourism and Africas economic power. We are dead wrong. Tanzania poverty paradox and potential to become an economic power is slowly slipping away.
Majority of Tanzanians do not have access to quality education required to open up their minds into knowledge base, and equip them with opportunities to explore, and discover other endless possibilities necessary to create jobs and put people to work. Inaccessibility to quality education is creating cyclic-generational poverty among millions of Tanzanians, which further complicates the untangling of the poverty paradox.
Foreigners have realized that our leaders and intellectuals are mis-educated, and are therefore handing us candy-bars at will in exchange for our resources. They are exploiting the cracks within our poor education, culture of laziness and greed, and lack of patriotism within our leadership structure to strip us of our natural wealth.
Foreigners have discovered that the mis-educated Tanzanias political elites are more interested in nourishing their Swiss-bank accounts, than dealing with the plight of poverty that has engulfed the country. This is the reason why Tanzania is poor and will continue to be poor
Tanzania is getting poorer because we are not receptive of new revolutionary- minds that would foster economic progress. The system wide kleptocrats are not welcoming of new revolutionary brain-power. Their ineptness makes them feel vulnerable and threatened, because they are products of a culture that lacks work discipline.
The late
Dr Ferdinand Masau, founder of the Tanzania Heart Institute (THI), is the sad and tragic case of how far Tanzania has to go to accept a wave of new minds that will change the country and its resources into a trillion dollar economy .