WHAT HAPPENED TO TANZANIA?!

Well, Well, I am back...

I posted a note in my Facebook that I am taking a two-day self-imposed solitude. In fact it wasn't, or I should say it isn't a solitude. I am talking with someone, actually many...They call them authors. I am working on my final Echoing Green thing which is posing more excruciating challenges than I anticipated. Thanks to God my last name is "Baitani" which means "perseverance", otherwise I was about to give up.

Talking about authors, the only reason I came here against the promise I made to myself that I wont go any website other the http://www.echoinggreen.org/ are the disturbing data I have been reading about Tanzania since I started tackling Echoing Greens tough questions. Not that I wasn't aware of the situation being dire in most rural communities in Tanzania, but because I did what I call "comparative political economy" among African countries and I got so mad just about every Tanzanian who can do a dent to make things a little better, including ME! I mean all of us---Tanzanians with access or with opportunity to do something, however small. So I have a question for all of you my brothers and sisters who have ACCESS and POWER (Tanzanians, mostly, and yes including politicians):

How do you feel, what do you think when you read this prominent World Bank Statement:

"After four decades of Independence Tanzania remains one of the 10 poorest countries in the world"! (The Wold Bank)

Tanzania? With all its tangible wealth? With all its impressive cultural vitality and creative human capital?

That means some countries that have been bogged down by wars from, well, inceptions are far better than Tanzania(the average per capita GDP of Sub Saharan Africa is $500; Tanzania is $267....And you don't want me to post some household data here....! You would think I am making up the numbers!)

My good friend Albert Einstein said "The Value of a man resides in what he gives and not what he is capable of receiving"

Talk me down, Anyone?

I happen to believe that it is not just by our actions alone that we will be judged against, but by our SILENCE as well.

Ok, no more macro economics, they tend to be more political than micro. (very few care about micro-stuff!!). I promise, after I get an answer I will stick to the micro....strictly to the community stuff.

Happy Weekend!
.../smart