But ...Is Tanzania Poor?...What does Poor mean?
But these replies pose a problem right here...This is a problem..when we have leaders battling poverty and they dont know what is causing it
President Jakaya Kikwete told the world he didn't know why Tanzania is poor. His Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda, told Tanzanians he didn't know why Tanzania's poor!
This isn't only surprising. It's disconcerting and consternating that our topmost leaders are unaware that Tanzania as a country isn't poor... It's richly endowed with a vast array of natural resources, including minerals, water bodies, arable land, livestock, natural gas, forestry and marine resources as well as malleable, humble people.
Therefore, it isn't the country that's poor; it's the people, most of whom are abjectly poor, living on less than $2 a day. We're beaten in that by a European Union cow which is assured of fodder, water and loving care at all times of its life this side of the Animal Kingdom!
Tanzanians are poor, not because their mother country is utterly destitute of highly-potential wealth in the form of natural resources of commercial importance... Unlike, say, Japan, whose natural resources are 'negligible.' (CIA World Factbook).
The founder of Tanzanian nationalism, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere (1922-99) identified three public enemies: ignorance, poverty and disease.Mwalimu also identified four prerequisites for meaningful, sustainable socio-economic development: 'Watu, Ardhi, Siasa Safi, Uongozi Bora. (People, Land, Good Policies and Efficacious Leadership).
Tanzania has a lot of land and good people. What must have been missing are good policies and competent, dedicated leaderships down the years. That's partly why Tanzanians are still riddled with poverty and disease fifty years after independence.
And, ignorance is creeping back across the country, with literacy rates having fallen from 89 per cent of the population to 67 per cent – and falling!
Tanzania has a lot of land and good people. What must have been missing are good policies and competent, dedicated leaderships down the years. That's partly why Tanzanians are still riddled with poverty and disease fifty years after independence.
And, ignorance is creeping back across the country, with literacy rates having fallen from 89 per cent of the population to 67 per cent – and falling!
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