"They beheld with impotent fury the disruption of their authority and the collapse of their institutions."
- The Dawn Breakers
The power situation here only seems to be getting worse. TANESCO (the state monopoly on power generation) announced a new rationing schedule: no power for residential areas from 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM every day of the week, no power to industries from 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM three days a week, and the rationing schedule now includes Unguja (Zanzibar) and Pemba. Before, industries were unaffected and residential areas were without power only during the week, not the weekend.
Unfortunately, a turbine just broke at the main natural gas plant here in Dar es Salaam, which seems to be the reason for the new rationing schedule. Also, the two major dams generating electricity for the country are only centimeters away from being depleted to the point that power generation has to stop. And if the dams go down, we just won't have power at all.
We're lucky enough to have a generator here at the house and at the Baha'i Centre, but generators aren't a sustainable solution. Now that the cuts have been extended to industry, Tanzania is more than likely going to lose the economic gains it's made in the past decade, if not more than that. Not everyone can afford a generator and the fuel to operate it, especially not the small businesses that encourage the rise of a critical middle-class. With the middle-class wiped out it'll be back to business as usual for Africa: masses of poor and a fistful of elite.
A group of businessmen in Arusha asked the government to declare a state of emergency "before it's too late," but I think it's probably already too late. Mitra is saying that in two years they may leave because things "are going to get bad." That sounds pretty ominous in a country where people don't like to fight, but no electricity, no food, no water (there are already water shortages in Dar es Salaam with more on the way) and a rapidly declining economy can lead people to anything.
And yet, I saw hope in one of the young people in a study circle I'm tutoring. In a country where no one criticizes the government and everyone has a picture of the president in their home and business, she boldly proclaimed, "Why should I keep a picture of the presidents in my house? They don't care about us. We have no power, we have no food, we have no water, we have no economy. Why idolize someone that leaves your country poor and helpless while they're getting rich?"
Why, indeed.
3 comments:
Dude!! That's MAJOR! I wonder what the deal is in Iringa? Maybe that's why no one has been e-mailing me.....Strange, I was sitting in a freshman Economics class (what a joke and the poor prof won't answer our interesting questions because they're not 'relevabt' i.e. contained in course material, he'd like to but can't) and thinking about economies in general and visualizing how Tanzania's economy might look like in a few years. Ya know, maybe finally they'll have instilled some motivation in their young people (or more likely the young people will have found the motivation themselves) to pull it together and build up their smaller industries and give rise to that middle-class you were talking about. But the way it's going now it seems as though all those engineers and accountants they're training in their universities will either be stuck in TZ with nothing to do and become incredibly lethargic or leave the country never to look back! And civil war or coup would not be a pretty sight.....
Laura
Oh and I say dis the government all you want, they pull some ridiculous stunts? And how is it called a democratic country when it's illegal to say anything bad about the president?????
Laura
hey bryan!! so
great to hear from ya.. hannah here (shygirluv fr. xanga).
hope you're well. thanks for the comments. wow what're you working on in tanzania?? where abouts in tanzania are you?
i'm still in the middle of organizing some issues before i can go forward with my decision to go to tanzania. it's still indefinite.. but i'll keep ya posted and if i do get there maybe i'll see you and you can show me around =)
-HannaH
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