The responsibility used to rest with the Government

Going by the above old adage, we are now left with no choice but to change this fallacious thought and move to something more manageable.  Before I start explaining myself, I must recommend this blog to you https://cliverich.com/blog/7-reasons-to-be-good-at-negotiation-part-7b-resource-shortages-a-mixture-of-oil-and-water/ and from which I have borrowed the title image, as it is truly representative of what we are now doing to the planet today.

Citizens are supposed to pay tax so that governments can pool individual resources and provide services to its people.  Traditionally, what we see is one half of the globe has countries that do this, and the other half that openly says it can't.  With the passage of time, and with the exponential rise in populations, the needs of these populations and the ensuing chaos in organizing a rising number of people, both halves are now unable to do much or at least more more for their people.

Now it would be a long debate if we went into the reasons of the failure of governments to provide services at a higher level of population because at the same time taxes are going up from all ends.  Is inflation, in part, not resultant of the dramatic changes that happen in fiscal strategy at macro level? Economists would be in a better position to enlighten us on this topic.  But since the responsibility used to rest with the government is a past tense sentence, we might as well move on and think of doing somethings ourselves.

I live in Tanzania, which not so many years ago, used only to be known as a neighbour to Kenya, or sometimes even a state in the vast lands of Nigeria, where people sit under the tree and play the local version of chess (bao).  Now of course it is a hotspot for FDIs pouring into the country in the new Race for Africa.  We have been blessed with many natural resources, and this includes the human resources.  Unfortunately, human resource not in the management sense of the word.  Let me correct - we have the nicest people in terms of their hospitable and polite nature.

That is perhaps as far as it goes.  Our general disposition is of no hurry (defied by owners of public service vehicles who drive as though hungry lions were on the loose and chasing them from point to point).  Our work attitude could do with some prayers.  This naturally opens up room for foreign workers to lay claim onto prized jobs.  Once the government sees this, it raises the profile and cost of hiring foreigners in a well intended protectionist act, but that simply aggregates into the cost of doing business.  While on this point, does Government see its citizens as the main and sometimes the only source of budget finance source? A good question but then does it lead to services? An even better counter question.

To a lay man, economic figures like GDP, etc never ever seem to make much sense anyway as they are never reflected in one's living.  Readers of this post can perhaps share their own experiences about the conduct of their governments but here are a few quality examples form the local government and the lifestyle in general on a busy day in Dar es Salaam (the Haven of Peace) - city council workers sweep the roads, pile the collected sand on the sideways and move to another spot, then come again another day to repeat the same exercise; garbage collection companies collect only when they want to and their manner of collection is to first open up garbage bags and spill on the streets to separate plastic from glass and so on.  Scavengers arrive on the scene and take their valued pick, then they all go leaving foul and stenchy smells and objects around.  The Roads departments builds roads or re carpets them as residents cheer, then a few weeks later, the water department comes and breaks a section of the road to connect a new housing project across the road.  Once done, the pit is simply filled and allowed to initiate a new wave of potholes.  The famous two-wheeler bodabodas (motorbike taxis) provide an excellent service of maneuvering through a round the clock packed city, but have been pronounced above the law.  This means they can jump lights, overtake from all sides, and come from virtually anywhere, while the labouring traffic police ignore it as if it never happened.  Everywhere you park, there is the National Parking service collecting rent for space but never actually manages to rehabilitate the parking space to make it suitable for car parking purposes, and lastly the City Engineer issues building permits left, right and centre.  I presume the ambition to house more people supersedes the responsibility of looking at existing infrastructure before allowing such high rise buildings to go up.

Ordinary citizens have to literally fight to survive in an environment where the strongest leads the way, with each day filled with anonymous dangers of not having basic safety and legal procedures in place.  Residents of Dar are perennially unwell because of the unclean environment in which they eat, sleep and work.  This sanitation hazard leads to the infestation of malaria and other diseases.  The promotions you see on TV by the tourist board and the rich investing hoteliers are not the havens exposed to ordinary Tanzanians.

My parting question - is it bad culture, or bad education or is it pure apathy? If I can observe all these, can the educated class occupying leadership positions see it too? Or perhaps there is good reason for inaction and so social groupings will have to do something for themselves, as now the responsibility clearly lies with the people.