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Published: August 8th 2008
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Being here in Dar has been a really interesting learning experience...in experiences and in the lectures themselves. It is really cool to be on a college campus during the day and attending lectures. The campus has 17,000 students (sorry if this is a repeat...I cannot remember what I typed last time!). We have had really good lectures so far too. My favorite was on environmental policy and law in Tanzania. They have some crazy problems here that they are dealing with. It is also interesting to look at these problems in context with the history (another really cool lecture). I will try to give you a bit of a synopsis.
After WWI, The East German Africa (modern day Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda) were divided up between Britain (Tanzania, which they named Tanganyika) and Belgium (the other two countries). These colonies were created to help the countries work their way into independence, which Tanganyika received in 1964 (dates may be a little off, I do not have my notes here). Three years later, they formed a union with Zanzibar, historically a Sultan lead independent country, to form modern day Tanzania. Today, it is one country with two constitutions and different rules
as to how law is enforced and followed. Kinda complicated. In around 1967 the government of Tanzania went socialist to help bring rural people services by forming required villages. This lasted until the 1986 when the country was so broke and in financial trouble that they had to start receiving aid from the World Bank. In order for them to receive this money, they were required to democratize, reduce the value of their currency, privatize business, and form a multi-party system. During the early 1990s, Tanzania was recovering financially due to the strong world economy, but when the economy crashed, so did the economic and living status of the entire country. It is still in that state today, where many of the people here are living far below the poverty line, have no access to services, and are dependent on international aid. This has caused some major problems with urban planning, regulation, and what we are studying, environmental issues.
So, now you are hopefully not bored out of your mind, or totally confused, but I will go into two really fascinating examples of the conflict between people and the environment here in Tanzania that we looked at on our
field trip yesterday. Forst we went to a fossilized coral mine (they are all over the place, basically quarries where they get building material and raw ingredients to make cement). It had been closed down by the government about 7 years ago, and had no planning as to it's future after mining. The pit has basically been abandoned to recover, and this has become an attractive place for squatters to move into. Poor rural people are trying to move closer to the city, and so they are coming into the mine and building cement/coral one room shacks essentially, and are creating a sprawling unplanned, non service development. There is no water or sewage, and no plans at all to have it installed. In fact, the government plans to evict all these families to combat the unplanned development. HOWEVER, this will not get done in any short term time period, so by the time the government comes in to act, the mine will be full beyond capacity, and some official will realize that they are all voting constituents that he can receive votes from if he lets them stay. So, in the end, this place that desperately needed some planning and
environmental clean up (possibly return to natural state, build a hotel etc) will be an unplanned, sprawling, impoverished area with NO services at all. Not the best way to have growth. Not the most pleasant sight either.
Feeling good about Tanzania yet!?
Here is example #2: government "regulation" on building codes.
So, there was a building that the government approved to be built, one building, 4 stories high. When it was finished, this very nice complex was two building and each was 8 stories tall. The developer was to the point of filling the building with furniture and signing rental contracts (not clear if this was apartments/hotel/condo or what) when the government realized that the building did not match the code that they approved. So, what did they do? The government hired Chinese vandals to go during the night and destroy the uncoded section of the buildings! They took hammers and who-knows-what and totally smashed windows, concrete balconies, threw new furniture out the windows, and utterly brutalized the top 4 floors of the buildings. The legal bottom of the building was left untouched. This happened about a year ago, and the building is still in the state
yucky beach
no life anywhere and lots of erosion that the vandals left it. It is a half destroyed site overlooking the Dar waterfront. A huge waste of a beautiful building. It was really fascinating to actually drive by it. I have a picture that I will bring home in Dec if anyone is interested. It is really really mind-blowing that this is the acceptable way to deal with issues pertaining to law enforcement.
On the field trip we also drove through a middle class neighborhood. Very nice homes (about $150,000-$250,000 USD each) surrounded by massive stone/cement/wrought iron fences. Beautiful properties actually, a few blocks from the ocean. This was actually the neighborhood of our tour guide, the vice-chancellor of the University of Dar, equivalent to the President of it, because the president of the country is pres of the University. Anyway, if you look at the homes, you would assume that this was a pretty decent place to live, but then you realize that you are in a bus that cannot drive in a straight line because the roads were never finished. There is no completed sewage system, no drainage, and no sidewalks, paved roads (although there are speed bumps....interspersed with car sized potholes), some water is
X marks the spot
yes...these walls will be plowed down to make a road piped in publicly. This is the middle class area right outside the city limits of Dar, a city of 3+ million people. It was eye opening for sure.
So what is the country doing to help move forward and make life better for the people who live here? Well, they are doing a lot actually. How effective it is, well, that is debatable. Education is very important. It is required for all elementary students, starting at age 7, and in the next few years, secondary school will also be mandatory. They have expanded to build another university, and are encouraging students to attend. Currently, 1.25% of the students go on to higher education. School is taught in English, which is both a good and bad thing. Many students can copy down and recite answers in English perfectly, but some people could not have a 10 minute conversation with you in English even though they take chemistry in English. The quality of the learning is debatable, but the classes offered are very diverse and would prepare a student very well for further education anywhere in the world. Some people are starting to turn back to some of the socialist ideas
of the previous era in Tanzania. The government is encouraging people to stop growing cash crops, and focusing on local markets and subsistence for the local community. They are trying to get the people stable before going into a global industrial scale.
Overall, I have learned ALOT from the past few days in Dar. Today was our free day, and we went to explore some markets with very little success. Communicating was difficult (Swahili on the mainland is very different from Swahili in Zanzibar) even for our advisor who was doing the direction translating. We ended up spending alot of time on a very hot crowded bus.
The other night we went out for Ethiopian food! It was amazing! I highly recommend it if you have never tried it. Plus, you get to eat it with your hands, which is even more fun. We are getting so used to eating with our hands here, as it is the customary way to do it in Tanzania and Zanzibar. Most locals on Zanzibar do not even know how to use a fork.
I hope you are all well, and have a great start to your month of October! I
uh oh!
this is what happens if you break building codes in Tanzania will send this email and attempt to upload a picture to send along next...but no promises!!!
Hugs to all,
Layla
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