Habari, bwana! habari, bibi (Greetings Sir! Greetings Mam!) That was Swahili, the native language of Kenya and Tanzania and it is in honour of the visit of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete who arrived Monday accompanied by his wife Salma. It is always good to connect with our African brothers and sisters. This is especially significant since it is on the 90th anniversary of the inaugural voyage of the first ship of Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line.
Yes! It was in 1919, November 23 that the Yarmouth, re-named the SS Frederick Douglass, set out to sea with much fanfare. Interesting it is to note that the vessel, full of hope of millions of Black people, was making a short trip down the Hudson River. Though not the driver, Garvey was the ‘pilot’ and great dreamer, who then said to his wife, “Close your eyes, Amy. Africa is on the other side of that line of fire in the sky.” How amazing it is that one can get a more lucid vision of where one is leading a people to simply by closing one’s eyes. Bet you that nobody in Jamaica remembered the historic occasion because the visit of Kikwete is more symbolic and diversionary than anything. As the president touched down I asked, “Habari yako, bwana?" (What’s your news Sir?)
Tanzanian Link
Our connection with Tanzania is not really based on a common history; none of our ancestors was taken from there via the transatlantic slave trade. Perhaps one might want to count the May 17, 1975 world 1,500 metres record set by Tanzanian Filbert Bayi at the Jamaican National Stadium or the visit of “Mwalimu” President Julius Nyerere on September 14 1974 and his second in 1998. Nah!
Kikwete will unveil the plan to overcome the present crises… Actually no! Not that president, we still have to wait a bit longer for that, he is simply inaugurating the masterpiece sculpture of Jamaican athletic legend, Herb McKenley at the said stadium. Why him? Then we understand that he is having a meeting with Tourism Minister Ed “American Airlines” Bartlett over “investment opportunities.” What investments? Possibly Bwana has a chair factory and he knows that we are in the market for J$77,000 chairs.
Island Hop
Just let us be honest! He is island hopping and decided to stop over in the Land of Black Green and Bolt, but just paused briefly on the ‘green.’ There is a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad that he is en route to. So he just stopped by to full his eye.
So it’s about camaraderie, hosted by the Prime Minister (PM), he is visiting Opposition Leader Portia Simpson-Miller, collecting a national honour, addressing Parliament and dining with the Adventist Governor General, while on his three day Sabbatical from active duty.
Personally, I would have preferred it have been Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade, since his countryman, IAAF President Lamine Diack, stood up in defence of Usain Bolt when he was attacked by IOC boss Jacques Rogge in Beijing.
Jamaica Better Off
But don’t get excited, Kikwete doesn’t have any money to give or lend us because Tanzania is far worse off than us.
True, it is a much larger land of 947,300 sq km compared to our just under 11,000. Its Mount Kilimanjaro at 5,895 metres makes our 2,256 metres Blue Mountain look like Carlos or Aubyn Hill. Its population is 41 million is more than 15 times ours. But size doesn’t necessarily mean better.
Languishing in the bottom ten percent of the world’s economies, its US$1,400 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is a crumb of Jamaica’s US$8,600. It is heavily agrarian, with more than 40 percent of its GDP coming from agriculture, which earns more than 80 percent of its foreign exchange and employs 80 percent of its labour force. Jamaica’s economy is more ‘modern’ with 60 percent of our workers engaged in the services sector.
Never mind the difficulties that Health Minister Ruddy Spencer has been having in meeting the demands of health in Jamaica that have caused him to shave off his prosperity rim around his head. Tanzanians live an average 52 years. We are healthier and live an expected 74 years
Around 36 percent of Tanzanians live below the poverty line, almost thrice Jamaica’s. More than half of them are under the age of 18 as opposed to Jamaica’s median age of 24. Only 69 percent of them are literate and it is not necessarily in English.
Growth Despite Challenges
Yet, with all of these challenges, one of Africa’s poorest still managed to have a growth rate of 7.1 percent contrasted to Jamaica's -0.6 in 2008, the year when our Informed Minister of Finance (IMF) said there was no imminent threat from the global financial crisis. Maybe Tanzania can teach us something.
Actually yes! Only 23 percent of its GDP is owed as national debt. Check Jamaica, 116percent and still going strong. As Prime Minister Bruce Golding stated on Sunday in a lukecold address to his party’s annual conference, “We are not doing enough to earn enough. The little money that we have is not being spent as wisely as it should.”
This is what you get when you have a country that has 2.7 million cell phones; one per person. Even the Great Land of Farrin the USA has only 270 million. One out of every ten Americans has no phone. Poor Tanzania has only 15 million cell phones; almost two out every three have no cell phones. Our problem is that we chat too much and can’t pay for it.
See! the distraction intended by the PM did work because it made me leave the critique until this column was out of space. Truth is, there was not much to comment on and we await the sliding signing of the agreement with the IMF before I retire. No! Not that aforementioned MF, the International Monetary Fund, I mean.
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