Friday, January 15, 2016

New President Has Slang Attached To Him That Has Grown Across Borders: “Magufulification” Or “to Magufulify”

Since the election, President Magufuli has made some very interesting changes to government and the way things work in Tanzania.  Today is Independence Day, December 9th, and usually Tanzanians celebrate at the National Stadium but that has been cancelled and people were encouraged to clean up the streets on their day off. Magufuli himself even joined people in the streets in doing so.  One reason he declared there would be no celebrations is that a Cholera outbreak has already left 150 people dead and infected 10,000 and to spend money on other things would be “shameful”.

He also banned the practice of sending out Christmas and New Years cards.

Among his austerity cuts he says that public officials will not fly to other countries to conduct meetings, he is suggesting using Skype or have business done by ambassadors and high commissioners already abroad. Yet, he is encouraging officials to go to the rural areas to understand better the issues they face there.

He wants workshops to be held in empty Ministry boardrooms instead of expensive hotels and paired down his own inauguration party from $100,000 to just $7,000 and sent the extra money to the hospital.

Since he has been in office, a mere month or so, officials have been jailed for lateness and the head of the tax authority has been suspended.

So far, I would say he has impressed many people, even people who did not vote for him, and he is currently “walking the talk”.  We will see how it goes when free education up to secondary school in January 2016 begins.

Someone has already coined a new verb “to magufulify” described on a website below as “to render or declare action faster and cheaper; to deprive (public officials) of their capacity to enjoy life on taxpayers’ money; to terrorize lazy and corrupt individuals in the society.”

References





The Mzungu Syndrome

The Mzungu Syndrome is something that you notice right away but takes a while to really understand all of the ways it manifests itself in your daily life. There are privileges but also some downsides. The mzungu syndrome was told to me by a friend who was surprised at my response to his question of "how do you like Africa?"  I said, "Well, I don't know about Africa but Tanzania is pretty awesome."  He said, "ohh, you know the difference between Africa and Tanzania, you are smart." And I was a little offended by this.  I said you are surprised I know the difference between Africa and Tanzania even though I am interning at a human rights organization in Tanzania and I have a degree in political science? He responded by explaining that when he went to Europe people said that he was from Africa, not Tanzania.  He went on to say that he doesn't like the Mzungu Syndrome and when I asked what that was he said it is the belief that all Mzungus are rich and educated. I understand now that I shouldn't be offended and that he just didn't want to play into the misconception that all mzungus are rich and educated. Mzungu is the Swahili word for foreigner and can include anyone not from Tanzania and even some Tanzanians have told me they are questioned or suspected of being a mzungu.

It is hard to put your finger on sometimes but some African friends have pointed it out when my plate will have bigger portions or people will stop me on the street asking to be my friend who later talk to me about sponsoring businesses in Canada.  I myself am a recently graduated student burdened by student loans and lack of experience in my quest for a fulfilling career. I'm not as educated as I'd like to be and on a net scale I am not in the black as far as finances goes but the privilege/attention I receive here is at once hard to dismiss but also hard to understand the depth of.  I wonder how many locals are greeted as often as my roommate and I are or given the same type of service. Not by the way we dress or who we know but simply because people know we are wazungu.  This differential treatment is not without its downsides though. Blending in is extremely difficult and the anonymity that I had in Canada is non-existent here.  Attention, especially by boys and men, is hard to ignore and I did get assaulted in Kariakoo market.

Men had been grabbing my arm around the bicep all morning and I had had to peel their fingers off of me at least 4 times that day and I also had a very sweaty man come up and put his arm around me and, understandably, I was starting to get annoyed. By the last time (number 4 or 5 I can't remember) I was getting used to peeling fingers off my bicep and as I was doing so, the last man said, "no stay here" and re-gripped my arm. I said, "no thank you", pointed to my friend up ahead and peeled his fingers off again and turned to leave when he made the motion of a volleyball spike and hit me on the ass hard as I was walking away.  I turned around and yelled “Fuck you!” and pointed in his face when a man who had seen the whole thing got in between us and said something-something Tanzania and lead me away from him.  I doubt if the perpetator treats local Tanzanian women that way, at least in public. 

The Mzungu Syndrome also manifests itself in other ways as well.  Since my arrival, I've had at least four men tell me that they want a mzungu wife.  I consistently ask them why and some say they don't know why and others say something about how Tanzanian women change after marriage.  I hear the same thing about Canadian women from Canadian men. There is a perception here that mzungu women somehow do not turn into wives and stay girlfriends. Husbands in Canada can attest this is not the reality, people change all the time especially when their living conditions change like when they have a family to look after, etc. Still, being a mzungu and being a woman I've had certain privileges and disadvantages living in Tanzania. Generally people are very kind, like on the bus people will give me their seat when they leave but also not in some cases I feel it is pretty even in that regard. Some will  come out of their way and ask if I'm lost if they speak English well like the other day when I was waiting for a bus. Living in Tanzania is very interesting because unlike Canada there is not as much diversity and people immediately know that you are a 'foreigner' while in Canada it is very hard to tell. I will continue to try to understand and identify all the ways in which the Mzungu Syndrome reveals itself to me in an ongoing effort to understand my privilege and intersectionality with my identities such as being a woman, able-bodied, white and middle class.




Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Why SDGs Need Only To Be Utilized For Their Success, Not Achieved

        The much-anticipated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been adopted this September and will be applicable January 2016 to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  After extensive consultation processes with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), the general public and everyone else one could think of 17 crucial goals were set to move humanity and the environment towards sustainability and having basic needs met.  So what, right?  For most people in the world the announcement means very little even though the SDGs are about most people in the world and would mean everything to them if completed.  Those who are well off or well enough off brush it off as not necessary to their life, just lofty idealism, and for those that would benefit the most from these goals, many don't have access to decision-making influence to make them come true.  As I write this from Tanzania, interning at a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization, I can tell you that concerted efforts by governments towards these goals would make a substantial difference in the lives of the children this organization concerns itself with, even if those goals are not met.  The organization I’ve been privileged to intern at is called the Children’s Dignity Forum  (CDF), which is a leader on children’s rights in Tanzania on issues such as child marriage, Female Gential Mutilation (FGM), the voices, participation and rights of children with a program of male inclusion and support called MenEngage.
            The first proposed SDG reads as follows, “End poverty in all its forms everywhere”.  That is a tall order to start off with but moving hundreds of millions of people above (hopefully, substantially) $1.25/day could drastically improve the issues that CDF is working towards.  For example, one reason oft cited as a driver of child marriage is the receiving of a dowry for marrying off a girl child given from the groom’s family to the bride’s family in the form of livestock, money or other valuables as part of the marriage contract.  Some families marry off the girl children in order to gain a dowry to pay for their son's wife. Parents/survey respondents say that child marriage can lift the bride’s family out of abject poverty.  What CDF is trying to show through research and advocacy is that child marriage actually causes abject poverty on top of other expensive health complications. Child marriage leads to early, and difficult first pregnancies, the extraction of the girl from school because of pregnancy (which is the number one reason for girls dropping out), and then a cycle of poverty continues because the girl now has expenses but has few skills to run businesses, work for them or work in the government. Another issue from child marriage is child widows and child/young divorcees who have children of their own.
             The SDGs, though lofty, are a framework and a tool to guide governments and organizations toward the betterment of all-and even partial, meager successes can mean the world of difference to the beneficiaries. The SDGs may not be achieved, not because there isn’t a need, or even the ability, but because there is a lack of faith. If one is in a country and a class of people where most of these goals are taken care of (think water, electricity, nutritious food, etc.) it may be easy to disregard the ambitious goals but here is where I hope you’ll reconsider.  In my preparations as an intern I was to read the annual reports of the organization I will hopefully be able to contribute something to.  One of the meetings they had in 2008 was a round table discussion panel on how to complete the 2nd Millenium Development Goal “achieving universal primary education”.  With that MDG as the centerpiece they broke down the obstacles for children in achieving that.  They sat down with local law enforcement, teachers, education officers, parents, activists and organization representatives.  These are how MDGs and now their replacement SDGs are changing people’s lives and giving a central goal around development where publics can emerge to help. The SDGs gain their power and relevancy by populations knowing about them, talking about them and holding governments and influential people accountable to them.  Success doesn’t necessarily mean that goals are achieved; success is guiding development efforts efficiently helping at least one more person than would be helped without the goals. It would be a mistake to call not reaching a goal a failure, when because of them and people’s commitment to them, literally, millions have benefitted. 
        Let us be better to each other by supporting and making these goals more relevant to our governance, to bring solutions to the problems that vex us all, wealthy or not.