The man in the picture was pictured begging on a highway on a sunny day. The man probably will sit there for more then eight hours with his hands raised up as you can see him in the picture.
A year ago one man of the same frailties was found dead in the middle of the streets. After a careful investigation by the police, it was mentioned that ‘hunger’ was the cause of death. Reportedly, when he was taking his last breaths, he stayed without eating continuously for three days, but he never stopped raising his fading hands to ask for a help hoping someone would stop by and give him a loaf of bread or even a glass of water. No words could come out of his mouth as doing so would weaken him further. The man was languished on the road, terribly with terrible thirst for water and extreme hunger. Those who passed by never ‘noticed’ how weak the man was nor did the light flash their minds to make them at least turn their faces on him. They
were all used to him, a man sitting along the corridors of Indian shops, raising his hands, hands that were like traffic sign on the side of the road.
As his hands were always seen raised, people assumed he was okay. Unsurprisingly, it took them almost a month to notice that the man’s hands were no longer there and his shadow could not even be traced anymore. Probably, this was because his death was too sudden and fast. Now that he was out of the streets, people felt like something was missing; you could hear them in corridors of streets and tea cafes talking about how the dead man used to talk, raise his hands,
where he used to sleep and the dresses he used to put on!
Dear readers, this is just part of a hundreds of stories you might hear or read from all over the world of people languished in poverty, in the streets. This country has heard of many stories about a very famous, blind and street beggar by the name of Matonya whose origin is within the capital city, Dodoma. Hispopularity spread all over the country for, he has continuously been returning to the City of Dares Salaam after several efforts of the City Council to drive him off the streets back to his home village. Everytime he lands back in the city, he lands back with ten more friends of him doing the same ‘business.’ One confusing and rather interesting fact about this man’s life is that, it is believed that he is one of the richest men in his home village owning a number of cattle, and a huge portion of fertile land for agricultural activities but because the begging business appeared to pay him much, he has since then opted to make it his career! It is obvious for people to think that for how long the man would keep on begging where he would take his last breathing moments.
Almost 49 years after the independence in 1961, what you still see in Tanzania is a vast difference between the poor and the rich and the widening gap between rural and urban populations. A vast majority of Tanzanians live in villages, often in dilapidating living conditions; under leaking roofs and insufficient or poorly organized sanitation facilities. Some people believe that it is a shame, naturally, that this country takes with it day after day under regional and international sphere that, after all the natural wealth (lakes, ocean, minerals, national parks, fertile land and historical tourists adventures) , years of peace and political stability, the country still is poor and its people cannot afford to build standard toilets.
Today, the government is advocating of its intention to have better housing and better living standards for its people; better health and educational services-but it is not clear how and when that is going to happen. Like the Matonya genres, despite of the wealth and resources that this country holds with it, the government has been asking for aid from donors; over 50% of its annual budget comes from contributions made by international donor countries and other international organizations like the IMF. People certainly have welcomed the government for coming up with new strategies aiming at reducing poverty rate in the country and strengthening country’s economy (locally know as MKUKUTA, National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty [NSGRP]). The strategy works almost within every social and economic sector, educational sector, health sector, agricultural sector, and many more. Each sector therefore, implements the strategy for sustainable achievements of the crucial needs and requirements in the respective sector Indeed, from the strategy, people to participate in different health and educational projects as a result, more schools have been built, increase in the number of health centres has been possible; clean water services have been expanded to reach those areas which previously had no such services. The strategy has also enabled the least disadvantaged groups of women to get loans for development purposes and build up their income capacities, the fruits of which are apparent to those who have been lucky to receive the same loans, mostly, those in towns.
But with the establishment of the kilimo kwanza Policy in 2009(agriculture first), the mkukuta strategy seems to have been geared up as farmers in the villages can now be reached and are encouraged to put more efforts into agricultural production. The government, through the responsible ministry, provides free agricultural infrastructures (inputs) to needy small farmers through vouchers distributed by registered agents to help farmers expand their farms, use better
seedlings and apply advanced insecticide to protect their farm products and produce health and excess yielding for commercial and consumption purposes. The government has gone far beyond by establishing new market places, restricting uncontrolled sale of cash and food crops outside the country, and controlling market prices to avoid the possibility of farmers selling their crops below the market price. The government has also opened up more bonded warehousing where it buys cash and food crops and keep them for emergency purposes (e.g. hunger and draught). Indeed, these are incredible achievements and the government has to be supported for such efforts. How far these achievements by the government have helped its citizen get away with poverty or strengthen the country’s economy to get rid of Matonya’s shame under regional and international level? This is obviously a difficult question to answer.
At times when the country and ordinary Tanzanians appear to be waiting for a miracle, a strong wind of poor provisions of health services and worse living conditions is massively blowing. Nevertheless, there is still a big number of primary pupils who keep sitting on the floor under leaking roofs and cracking walls; secondary schools do not have enough teachers, one book at a university level is being shared by more than 15 students; country roads are not accessible at all during rainy seasons; excessive power cut has now become the national song while subjecting the government into billion dollars debts backed up by a battle of corrupt transactions.
Eventually, the country has now been divided into two major groups; the haves, minority government top officials, who protect the interests of the so called investors by 10% commission and the haves not (majority citizens) who are now regarding themselves as refugees in their own country-the invisible men, women and children raising their hands for a help just like how the dead man mentioned in the beginning of this article used to do. Surprisingly, the government has introduced a highly ambitious plan to kick out poverty by 2015, one of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at a time when ighty percent of its major local industries are all privatized while mining centers, banking institutions and mobile companies are in the hands of foreign investors.
(Moses is Global South Development Magazine’s country correspondent for Tanzania and can be reached at cyrilmos@hotmail.com)
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