A New World Order: Occupy Yourself First.

Lots of high profile people have kicked the bucket this year, haven't they? It's like the globes social polarities are in flux. Ghaddafi's death, thinking about Libya and governance and the challenges facing African countries in the coming decade or so has got me all twisted up in political theory again. Don't laugh, but I have been wandering around Wikipedia's political portal in a kind of shopping spree. Picking an ideology has been even harder than choosing a political party* : libertarian socialism, or anarcho-communism? Does egalitarianism make my behind look fat? Does Civil Rights come in summer colors? How does one combine the absolute freedom of choice of the individual with social justice and the welfare and functioning of the collective? Quandary.

There is only one thing I am sure of, and that is that African citizens need to go active and keep claiming their rogue governments. Coming to an East African near you:

"There is no Peer Review Mechanism, Treaty or African Leadership Prize that can address this level of social organization, let alone influence it. Those schemes, perhaps they are effective but from the bottom looking up they reek of technocratic impersonality, removed from the sugar and salt of daily life. Tanzania, for example, is hardly new to the idea of peaceful presidential transitions: we're on our fourth administration and counting down towards the fifth when we may or may not flirt with changing parties. But even in this relatively stable environment it, is clear that there is deep crisis of faith brewing. We are looking for someone or something to believe in, and clearly the Big Man model is severely compromized in an age of increasing transparency, affluence and access."

One good read I have enjoyed on the Ghaddafi story is this sideways glance from Charles Onyango-Obbo talking about how the revolution will be Tweeted. Watching journalism cope with new media has been absolutely riveting. Heh.

And then, there is the Occupy movement. We have a local activist trying to get it off the ground in Dar es Salaam- as of last Friday I believe. The resounding silence has been... instructive. I threw a comment up on there, let's see if the blogsite is dead or alive. To readers who have been saying the revolution is necessary and just around the corner etc... what do you make of this? After all, Occupy is a global movement now. Can it work in Bongo? I'd say we need to Occupy ourselves long before it makes sense to Occupy anything else, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Three Opinions From Outside of This Box

There's a nice little culture of informed dissent fomenting in the online TZ intellectual life these days. Here are three recent independent pieces that provided some solid critiques and alternative perspectives:

Jason Lakin of the International Budget Partnership takes exception to the "political will" explanation for what really creates political change: at least as applied to politicians. While I don't think all politicians are devoid of the capacity to serve the greater good, I think he's right to call out civil society on our willful blindness to the mechanics of political change in favor of fuzzy ideals and easy catch-phrases:

Consider recent events in India: Anna Hazare, public crusader, ended his hunger strike a couple of weeks ago after persuading parliamentarians to strengthen an anti-corruption Bill. For 12 days, Hazare did not eat. Large numbers of Indian citizens took to the streets to support his cause. And then, parliament capitulated. Did parliamentarians suddenly discover their missing “political will”? They did not. They discovered instead the will of Indian voters.

Omar Ilyas takes exception to Chadema's recent political activities and the unholy mess they are trying to create in our political culture. It has to be said, I concur with him and have been waiting for exactly this kind of focused critique of Chadema's strategy. I want to like this party (although they are Conservative) and I am trying to respect the handful of keen minds that they have put in parliament. My MP is in league with this band of agitators. I think many of us are having to pull away because their actions are long past indefensible and heading towards threatening. If this party wants to reclaim its quality support, Omar's first paragraph pretty much says it all. This is about defending a political culture that has taken us decades to perfect: (apologies: its too pretty to translate into English and I am too lazy this morning. Please for to ask the Google Translate):

"Matukio ya hivi karibuni ambayo yamefanikiwa kupata nafasi ya juu katika vyombo vya habari kuhusiana na Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) yamenijengea mtazamo kuwa ili CHADEMA kushinda katika safari ndefu iliyonayo kama mtawala mbadala kinapaswa kushindwa sasa."

Hafiz Juma of the TEDxDar team- and Chairman of the Dar es Salaam Beard Afficionado Club- responds to M.G. Vassanji's recent article on what's going on with Tanzania. Just to give you a little taster, because there's a lot more where this comes from and you might need the dictionary in your Dashboard:

"There is a glossing over of historical context to the point of obtuse condescension as well as a misleading representation of everyday realities and governance processes demonstrated through confounding contradictions that periodically appear in the prose. This is not intended to be an admonition but rather a critical examination (albeit a meek one) of what I feel to be a skewed perspective."

Fresh Catch From the Webtrawler

I need to close some tabs on the browser again, so let me get this post done. And if you sent in a link, thank you. You know who you are. Anyways, here's the most recent catch of interest from the Intertubes:

From the world of development: I love that sometimes when you have a tiny idea and you can't quite articulate it... someone out there is more likely than not to have done a bit of thinking and writing on it that elucidates. Anyways, I have long ribbed economists for hogging more than their fair share of the development discourse and made the argument that we need more social scientists. Here is an excellent example of social science work with real ramifications. And here is a very nice piece about politics and development. This here is a more general discussion of interdisciplinary and culturally appropriate approaches to development.

In other news, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had this to say about Nigerian politics and the lead up to their upcoming elections. I like her writing and I wish the article had been a bit longer.

From the wild and whacky world of social media: how has Twitter changed our political behavior? I would say that this article overstates things a bit, but it's got nice graphs. Speaking of pretty pictures: here is an effort from the Uwezo/Twaweza complex that certainly gives food for thought. It's a great site for playing around with info, but remember to keep an eye out as they do herd you towards some very obvious conclusions...

Another group of people seeking to influence your mind are... you guessed it! The US military is on a Facebook page near you! Lol. I love the way the science fiction of my youth and the realities of my adult life seem to be coming together nicely. Truth? Fiction? Can you tell anymore? Am I even alive? Maybe I'm a web-app. But do I dream of electric sheep?... I could do this all day :) And so the week starts...

Liberty, really.

I've been getting a variety of verbal reactions to some of my written musings on Jay Kay, challenging me to 'declare my politics'. The terminally suspicious jingoists are certain that I must be a puppet speaking on behalf of The Kenyan Invasion to undermine This Great Nation Of Ours. The professional malcontents accuse me of, how to put this, applying my reverently puckered lips to the collective backsides of the President and the Establishment. Truth is, I am doing this for reasons far more selfish than anti-patriotism or sycophancy.

Power interests me. This is part of an ongoing project to learn through experience and reading and conversations what our relationship is to formal authority and how that affects how we govern ourselves and who we choose to lead our public institutions. Natch, these 'governance' or 'political' issues affect how I live my day-to-day life: whom I am "allowed" to love, how much I pay for electricity, who has the right to disconnect my water, what I can wear in public, whether or not I can stand for public office, what I can afford to eat, how long I have to wait in line for a passport, so on so forth.

Since I do all that living in Tanzania, evidently I must study Tanzanian power structures. And since, generally speaking, Tanzania suffers from fantastically crap institutions, all roads lead to the President*. And since we choose to defer so much power to the President, it is in my interest to know what kinda guy or gal the incumbent is.

It suits me just fine, for example, that Jay Kay's technophilia and evident love of all things young, shiny and new makes him more of a friend to eMedia than an enemy (for the most part). As a liberal-slash-blogger-slash-aspiring-writer-slash-feminist-etc, I need a Head of State who is friendly towards freedom of expression and I prefer one who is not paternalistic in his approach to power. Jay Kay kinda-sorta fulfills these requirements (hey, everyone is a work-in-progress).

Just because I like him- and you do too, you know that smile is irresistible- doesn't mean that I agree with everything he does, or think that he is The Second Coming with a slice of foie gras on top. Charm can only get you so far. I suspect he's messing up very badly in certain ways, but I can't exactly walk into his office and have this chat over a cup of coffee. That is just not how the system works. However, I am at liberty to communicate in other ways. A liberty I evidently exploit and am ready to defend along with every other form of liberty I currently enjoy and any future liberties I might acquire.

The non-selfish part? No woman is an island, and these things must be negotiated with the rest of the folks out there. As long as people are willing to defend liberty, we all benefit. Kinda like a social JKT. So, I hope that helps clear up any questions you might have had, dear Tanzanian reader-who-is-likely-to-ambush-me-at-a-bar-or-workshop, about why I write about Jay Kay the way I do. It's imperfect- like him I'm learning on the job and I have certainly committed my share of mistakes. But at heart we both love this country and serve it to the best of our abilities. Thanks for asking. Let's talk. Please use the comments section- its there for you!

*Yeah, I know there's other "important" branches of government. But, like, not really. That's the problem.

The stories.

Teachers, eh. How awesome can they be? I was lucky enough to meet a wonderful old professor of African politics during my undergrad, who had come to Tanganyika in the 1960s as a fresh young political scientist. He came to observe the first elections of a newly independent African state. Met Julius Nyerere and everything. Told me a couple of stories during office hours as I was struggling to understand enough to be able to pass his class. About the sixties, about Nyerere, about the sheer hope that floated this continent of ours in the halcyon days before it all went to shit. Oh, those stories. I was hooked.

I have a "friend" who came by today. Our discussion was a typical one for Bongolanders- what started as a rant about the weather, the floods and the state of our infrastructure evolved into a discussion about politics, leadership and the elections. Nothing new there, but she did share this exceedingly interesting anecdote:

Her local councillor had dropped by the neighborhood sometime before Easter to encourage voters to sign up for a rather novel program. Basically, anyone who wrote down their name and voter registration number on his sign-up sheet would get a t-shirt and other freebies 'when the time comes.' And to hear her tell it, the other folks in the gathering were only too happy to hand over their names and voters' cards in anticipation of said t-shirts and future freebies. They like their councillor, he comes by to hang out from time to time. Prince of a guy. When my "friend" politely declined to take part in this, uh, 'program', she got called a few names.

Ah. So that's how it's done.

Firstly, can I just express my admiration for beautiful simplicity of the scheme. A low-cost, effective and non-coercive method of gathering, uh, 'support' long before the big day itself. Gorgeous piece of work, that. Still, there is a part of me that wonders what my old professor would say about this if he were to come by and observe our 2010 general elections. Nothing like the sixties, I imagine. I Imagine that we'd sit down for a cup of coffee as he breaks things down for me and helps me look underneath the hood, so to speak. I imagine that this time around I might have a couple of stories to tell him too about the lived realities of Tanzanian politics. Like the one about how a "friend" of mine unwittingly taught me a sweet method for purchasing votes several months ahead of the elections...

So, that's what Em Pees get up to.

When I was studying how to exorcise the demon Underdevelopment, I had a veteran of a classmate who (over a pint) told me that two of the most useful assets in the field of development work were a sturdy liver and some conversational skill. I suspect this applies to politics too, at least the way we practice them here. Recently some friends and I found ourselves at a local bar in the company of a real live Em Pee. So we politely allowed Mheshimiwa to buy the refreshments and we got to chatting about stuff, like what his salary breakdown is, his plans for re-election, taxation, the cost of building roads, the work ethic of civil servants, voter registration. You know, a little light conversation.

I have to confess, I really like politicians. Not as much as sociologists, or artists, but I do like them quite well. Living in Dar, the center of the known universe, it always surprises and delights me how easily accessed they are, especially if you know how and where to drink. The only other places with such high concentrations of politicos are Dodoma- our mythical capital city in the middle of the Tanganyikan wilderness- and the National Stadium on Independence Day.

I got to ask our captive Em Pee about the activities that absorb the bulk of a garden-variety parliamentarian's time. Apparently there's a lot of time spent legislatin': roughly seven months out of the year if you attend every bunge session from start to finish including the pre-bunge sessions in Dar. Which, we all know, they don't. Then, there is the 'real work': procuring development for their constituencies. He told me that an MP's job is to compete with other MPs for the scarce resources allocated by the government through determination, networking and lobbying. With some creativity, opportunism and savoir-faire an MP can also access resources that are hidden in the musty financial plans of expiring bi-lateral projects, in the pockets of companies and wealthy individuals, in NGO bank accounts and... well, you get the drift. Somewhere in there they also have to stick in their duties to their party, hang out in their constituency so that voters remember them come voting day, and make time to argue politics with new friends over a whiskey or three.

So, going back to the Uwazi report on MP performance, and the urge to find out how political sausage is made: MP contributions in Bunge does not seem to be a robust measure of their effectiveness. It would be more instructive to follow these guys around for a couple of months- there's only 300 of them. Creating a record of their activities would shed light on what they actually get up to, how they apportion their time, what they prioritize and why, etc. And then, we can have that argument with them about why the hell they are snoozing on the job when it comes to the legislatin' part of business. But at least we'd know a hell of a lot more about what flavor of politics we have going on in Tanzania.

One last thing that I got: the constituency splitting issue is a mess. Between the government's "commitment" to increase the number of women legislators, the concern that MPs shouldn't have to serve constituencies of over 300,000 people and the Parliament that the Chinese built for us which can only accommodate a couple more snoozing bodies, there are 40+ applications for constituency split and six slots available. May the best lobbyists win. Bottoms up!