"Of Whales and Sharks"
"When you see that business is done, not by consent, but by compulsion -- when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed." Ayn rand.
Well, that sums it up nicely, doesn't it? Few patriotic men and women, both within the CCM and outside, have been speaking loudly on the issues of having the national interest at heart. Well, they are all being ignored. So they send the big one out, "the whale" and when the whale speaks, people listen. I do have a feeling this is just a beggining, there is more to come. In the meantime, the President is doing his best to stay out of the country every moment he gets. Well, there is too much heat in the kitchen, and he never claimed to be the best cook. Between him and Ban Ki Moon, the UN secretary general, am Sure JK has most air milleage.
In the final note, the blog
"The Tanzania Monitor" has written on these and many other issues. Though, I have to note there is nothing pragmatic about this administration. What you get now as opposed from when they came in, is entirely different tone, the defensive tone, not listening and acting on the issue as they used to do. What this indicates is, a convergence of personal interest and money, they know the time is running out so it is time to line their pockets. I knew it wouldn't take that long before "the long arm of the sharks" get to them, and who is to blame them.
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"Tanzania is Limping" so says ; The Economist
Well, it is a fact and a statement that would not suprised many Tanzanians. That is unless you are one of CCM top brass, where patronage run supreme and competency is a four letter word. The moral of the story is, in comparison with the other EAC members, we are falling behind badly, then again, I am sure you already knew that.
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"Tanzanian born" best world architecture.
David Adjaye is to build the $500m
National Museum of African-American History and Culture. Born in Tanzania, the son of a Ghanaian diplomat, Adjaye has often used African artefacts for inspiration, though they are always translated until they remain only as ghosts haunting his hybrid architecture.
Perhaps, we could ask him to design our Dar, as it currently just a shadow of it former self.
"The Washington Predicament" -FT
The world has changed, but from the look of it, most people remain attached to their old world. The fear of change while understandable, is still true that the world of yesterday is not coming back. The US is broke financially, if it was any other country, the IMF would be doing massive resuscitation. What keep US going is the currency (USD), but countries have started to walk away from it. Like all empires that existed before, this one is slowly but decaying into obscurity, better get used to it. See the "Financial Times" article.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/16e9f3e8-5944-11de-80b3-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
Washington is unable to call all the shots By Michael Hudson Published: June 15 2009 03:00 Last updated: June 15 2009 03:00
Challenging the American empire will be the focus of meetings in Yekaterinburg, Russia, today and tomorrow for Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other leaders of the six-nation Shanghai Co-operation Organisation. The alliance comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajiki-stan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, with observer status for Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia.
The attendees (who will be joined on Tuesday by Brazil for trade discussions) have assured American diplomats that dismantling the US financial and military hegemony is not their aim. They simply want to discuss mutual aid - but in a way that has no role for the US or for the dollar as a vehicle for trade among these countries.
The meeting is an opportunity for China, Russia and India to "build an increasingly multipolar world order", as Mr Medvedev put it in a St Petersburg speech this month. What he meant was this: we have reached our limit in subsidising the US military encirclement of Eurasia while also allowing the US to appropriate our exports, companies and real estate in exchange for paper money of questionable worth.
An "artificially maintained unipolar system", Mr Medvedev said, was based on "one big centre of consumption, financed by a growing deficit, and thus growing debts, one formerly strong reserve currency, and one dominant system of assessing assets and risks". Keen observers of America, if not effective managers of their own economies, these countries argue that the root of the global financial crisis is that the US makes too little and spends too much. Especially upsetting is US military expenditure - such as military aid to Georgia or the presence in the oil-rich Middle East and central Asia - using money that foreign central banks recycle.
Overconsumption by US citizens, US buy-outs of foreign companies and dollars the Pentagon spends abroad all end up in foreign central banks. These governments face a hard choice: either recycle the dollars back to America by buying US Treasury bonds or let the "free market" force up their currencies relative to the dollar - thereby pricing their exports out of world markets, creating domestic unemployment and business failures. US-style free markets hook them into a system that forces them to accept unlimited dollars. Now they want out.
This means creating an alternative. Rather than making merely "cosmetic changes as some countries and perhaps the international financial organisations themselves might want", Mr Medvedev concluded his St Petersburg speech: "What we need are financial institutions of a completely new type, where particular political issues and motives, and particular countries, will not dominate."
For starters, the six countries intend to trade in their own currencies so as to get the benefit of mutual credit, rather than give it to the US. In recent months China has struck bilateral deals with Brazil and Malaysia to trade in renminbi rather than the dollar, sterling or euros. Many foreigners see the US as a lawless nation. How else to characterise a country that holds out a set of laws for others - on war, debt repayment and the treatment of prisoners - but ignores them itself?
The US is the world's largest debtor, yet has avoided the pain of "structural adjustments" imposed on other debtor nations. US interest rate and tax reductions in the face of exploding trade and budget deficits are seen as the height of hypocrisy in view of the austerity programmes that the "Washington consensus" has forced on other countries via the International Monetary Fund and other vehicles. The US tells debtor economies to sell off their public utilities and natural resources, raise their interest rates and increase taxes while gutting their social safety nets to squeeze out money to pay creditors. It is no mystery to other countries how the US remains above the law. Foreigners see a financial system backed by American aircraft carriers and military bases encircling the globe. The IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organisation and other Washington surrogates are seen as vestiges of a lost American empire no longer able to rule by economic strength, left only with military domination.
The countries that are gathering today are convinced that this hegemony cannot continue without adequate revenues and are attempting to hasten the bankruptcy of the US financial-military world order. If China, Russia and their allies have their way, the US will no longer live off the savings of others, nor have the money for unlimited military spending. US officials wanted to attend Yekaterinburg as observers. They were told no. It is a word that Americans will hear much more in the future.
