Whisperings...

Shhhhhh...I really shouldn't do this because at this point, it is all just rumor and hearsay masquerading as journalism... but Mwananchi wrote an article today suggesting that James Mbatia, Chairman of NCCR-Mageuzi, might be gunning for the Hon. Rita Mlaki's constituency...It might be a good year to live in Kawe, after all :)

Lighter Fare.

I'm taking break from that political stuff today. Exhaling, if you will. So instead I offer a discussion on burgers. I have been reading a lot of American food blogs (don't ask, its a long story) and the burger has been undergoing a major Renaissance for the past couple of years. It is one of my favorite junk foods, and the best thing about it is that it tastes better made at home than it ever can from a shop. Trust me on this.

If you are going to buy a half-way decent burger in Bongo, where is the place to go? The truth is, there are not that many places. What the South African chains do to burgers should be criminalized. Steers in South Africa= bliss. Steers in Dar es Salaam= torture. And I don't buy that crap about inferior Tanzanian beef being the problem- if you don't know how to source good ingredients you have no business being a restaurateur.

There is a home-grown solution that some folks swear by: Hot Box, at the Morocco junction opposite the new Zain Starship. The origin story, as I heard it, is exactly the kind of origin story that makes for good fast food: Mama Hotbox had a great recipe for burgers that she served her family. As a result, when they moved out of home the Hotbox Kids couldn't find anything decent under the moniker 'burger' that they wanted to put in their mouths. And a business idea was born: how about a food-truck style operation that served Mama Hotbox-style burgers?

I have no idea how accurate this story is, but it is cute. And the burgers: not too shabby. The secret of a Hot Box burger is that crazy relish/coleslaw/ketchup mess of a topping that they put on it. It is sloppy and delicious... and it means that if you let your hotbox burger grow cold, it becomes revolting. Still, a far better burger than you can get at any of the chain restaurants in town, and cheaper too. Price matters: a burger, like beer, is democratic food- plebeian food. You can fancy it up all you want, and that can be fun, but in essence it remains stubbornly unpretentious.

Which brings me to the other two burgers that have given Hot Box a run for their money according to my taste-buds. I once had a fat, juice take-away from Captain Ali's at Slipway which came with really good fries and- the real prize- a pickle spear. The bun was toasted but still moist. The cheese was real cheddar. The tomato and onion were on the side so they didn't wilt into a disgusting mess by the time I got home. I could have married the cook that night from sheer enchantment. Been trying to recreate the experience ever since, with no luck. I think that, like all chefs in Tanzania, my faceless burger angel moved on to greener pastures. Wherefore art thou, o grill chef? I pine.

The other, more recent experience, was another take-away. It came from D.B.s in Mlimani city: the beef was decent (i.e. it didn't taste defrosted), the toppings included pickle slices (there is a theme here) and they slathered the thing with ketchup...and mustard! Next time you are up there with a craving for something satisfyingly unhealthy, do yourself a favor: by-pass Marry Brown. Your mouth will thank you.

Oh. Yeah. I suppose I could attach some pictures. I'll put that on my blogging to-do list.

A Fine Romance, Part One: Lusting after His Hotness

If I had a thousand shillings for every man I have come across who has expressed a desire to run for elective office, I could afford a music system for my car by now. Come to think of it, maybe I should charge a thousand shillings to listen to guys tell me about their political aspirations. No charge at all for the women who confess to a desire for office: hell, I'll pay to hear about it!

Okay, now that I have gotten my feminist dig in, lets get to the crux: what motivates people to enter into formal politics? With each individual, how much of that political drive is based in vanity, a need to please, the craving for adulation, a true belief in public service, ambition, a desire for power, a quest for riches, idealism, a realistic understanding of individual agency? In brief: why the hell are they getting into the snake-oil business?

One thing that disappoints me about political commentary and discourse in my fair land is the fact that we ignore the complexities of the individuals playing the political game. It is limiting, since politicians, like regular humans, have been known to respond to more stimuli than bribes/and or a fixation with Nyerere-ist philosophy.

Case in point: those of us in the chattering probably know more about Barack Obama's daddy issues than we do about what makes Jay Kay twitch. We have a blind spot with our President. Where are the competing biographies on the 'Father of the Nation'- and I don't mean the polite official drivel about how great a dude he was. Where is the personality-mining on Mkapa, on Mwinyi? This is our contemporary history. If we don't respect it, we don't respect ourselves.

I love to observe incumbents struggle with the gap between their belief in how much power they have to change society, and the reality that social change is a hairy and fiendishly difficult beast to grapple- even for a head of state. Change for bad is easy. Change for good? Ha! Watching a leader struggle with complex problems (like genuine poverty alleviation) has got to be one of the best ways to judge a leader.

In 2005, Jay Kay blew in on an 80% victory magic carpet propelled by his charisma. Never mind that there was no viable alternative offered by the opposition: Kikwete literally seduced the Tanzanian electorate. For the first year or so of his presidency, the press- utterly infatuated- wrote about him with the devotion of a star-struck teenager in the throes of her first love. Critical faculties country-wide were shut down as we found that we could not adore him enough.

In spite of this ridiculous fervor, it was a pragmatic decision. Here was a guy who has spent his whole life working for The Establishment- and I don't mean in the shallow, self-serving way that currently passes for 'nationalism.' He radiates that tough-love, old-school, Tanzania-first kind of populism that we've been thirsting for after Mwinyi (too accommodating) and Mkapa (too aloof). He smartly manipulated us by appealing to our nostalgic hankering for a Nyerere-style Big Papa. So we flocked into his loving arms. Who else was gonna give us the man-of-the-people, hip, good times vibe that this 'young' candidate was promising? Charisma will get you everywhere.

But, this is politics. It was irresponsible of us to try and cannonize* him, hoping that he might have the god-like powers to banish the monsters in the closet: poverty, social differences, crime, corruption, the pain of daily human life. Just as it is irresponsible of us now to lash out at him for not being God: no chickens in every hand-basket, no total overhaul of a deeply corrupt system (which is only reflecting a social ill), no miraculous railroads all over the countryside... And so, the disenchantment that is borne out of unrealistic expectations- particularly visible in the fickle press- is as fierce and retributive as the anger of a jilted lover. I believe we can do better.

*Some folks are trying to get Nyerere sainted in the Catholic church. Really? I may be lapsed, but even I don't have the balls to cynically mingle the sacred and the profane in this manner.

Sports Doping, African Style, and Another Bad Question from the BBC

I was sitting around being mildly hypnotized by the variety of Kiswahili accents on BBC Idhaa ya Kiswahili when I tuned back in for this story: a FIFA anti-doping official type was in South Africa attending a conference on traditional practices (read: witchcraft and herbal medicines) that are used to enhance footballers performance.

The challenge? Some of the substances consumed by African footballers might actually give them an unfair advantage on the pitch. But how does FIFA test for this variety of unknown substances. Heh. I wish them the best of luck.

Then the Beeb brought down my intellectual high with this stupid-ass question: "Can coups in AFrica be a good thing? Are they bad, or can they achieve something good?"

Hold up, now, Beeb. How patronizing can you get? A coup must, by its very nature, use illegal means to change the balance of power, thereby suspending democratic processes and placing everyone in that polity at the mercy of the perpetrators of the coup. Whether or not outright violence is used, who in their right mind can support coups as a viable regime-change mechanism?

Does the Beeb think that the British might enjoy a coup or two, perhaps? No? Then why the hell should Africans do so? Institutional racism sucks.

Chauvinism? What's that?

This article hardly needs an introduction. Click the image to enjoy a larger scan. Do not drink coffee while reading, it will scald your nose on its way out.

Know Your Em Pee Continued: Polis could be better!

So. I have heard from a couple of people who were of the opinion that the piece of research put out by Uwazi/Twaweza/Whatever incarnation of a Hivos-supported initiative it is about MP performance in Bunge is at best a partial measure of performance, at worst a vapid piece of crap. I am of the former opinion because I like the fact that Uwazi made some use of Polis data to begin the examination of MP performance. Anyone can have an opinion about politics, but opinions are far more interesting when backed by empirical data.

And here I am on Polis trying to figure out how the heck to get more information on my MP because I agree that counting the number of Bunge session interventions during an MP's term in office doesn't tell us very much about said MP's actual utility. Case in point: lots of CCM MPs capitalized on the anti-corruption drive initiated by the opposition to spew copious amounts of hot air into the House and gain instant popularity via the media, Anna Kilango style, but there is little evidence of genuine belief in the cause. And just last week, I listened to Mzee Malecela (aka Mister Anna Kilango) justify the rejection of a bill reducing the President's executive powers on the basis that after God Almighty, he should be the ultimate authority in Tanzanians' lives. Fun couple.

This raises a question though- how to come up with a relatively solid measure of MP performance that incorporates indicators of quality, effectiveness, accessibility, etc (i.e. those hard-to-measure things). I found a project in this vein by the Canadians supported by the World Bank. Because I privilege particularism over universality in the pursuit of deep knowledge of a polity, I am more interested in a Tanzanian list of indicators of MP performance. I am neutral, it can include items like direct patronage to capture MPs like Rostam Aziz who support their constituency's development partly through the use of their very deep pockets. Ideas?

And on that note- special seats. I do believe we have a minimum of 75 seats in Parliament set aside for women, appointed at the discretion of their party. Affirmative action, Bongo style. Sadly for us Tanzanians, these "representatives" don't seem to be vigorous in the pursuit of anything other than their per diems. As a feminist, it drives me crazy to see so much wasted opportunity: 75 women in the august house and we're still not having a conversation about issues like our squirelly inheritance laws, high rates of schoolgirl pregnancy accompanied by low rates of impregnator convictions (there is a strong child abuse element to this phenomenon), prostitution and pornography (fine if you're an adult, not if you are a minor), entrenched sexual harrassment...

Imagine, if you will, that these appointed MPs are free to choose any issue to make their own on a national scale- the environment, education, taxation, constitutional law, etymology, corporate governance, whatever, without the weight of a constituency to drag them down. And still, they suck. I hope that there is a special place in hell for them.

Jay Kay has said several times that he intends to find a way to make the parliament more 'gender-balanced' than it is*. I support the sentiment Jay Kay, but before you start raping the constitution to do so, maybe you should focus the party's energies on appointing better women politicians to parliament. Lets start there.

*tokenism is not a solution, no matter how many tokens you appoint. And Polis: more difficult to work than it needs to be. I am still stuck somewhere in the antechamber.

A bit more about M. G. Vassanji

I mentioned that award-winning author M. G. Vassanji was around last month, and he took the time to encourage our fledgeling writing scene by meeting with would-be writers. The Serengeti Advisers Ltd. blog has put up a recent interview that they conducted with him. Of particular interest to me was his take on race and identity:

"I am an African Asian, [but] Canada is where I live [and] where my children [were] born and brought up, so it’s very much a part of me. But I cannot dissociate that from, you know, my heritage or […] the place where I was born, where I grew up where I was formed, you know, sounds and sights [that] I carry with me. Part of […] growing up in Africa, was growing up as an Asian African or as an Indian African, because everyone has a tribe and my tribe was Indian tribe. [There were] certain cultural practices, certain spiritual attitudes, certain foods we ate, and languages. Besides, the sort of language of the land, Kiswahili, everyone had their tribal languages, our tribal language was Kachhi, Gujarati or both. That’s how I saw it. Having grown up here and having gone away, I sort of ask myself, what it is, I cannot say that I am this and no longer that. For me that’s baloney."

Check out the rest of the interview on The Exchange.

Break Time!

So I didn't get my act together in time for Sauti Za Busara 2010 and I don't have an excuse. Pernilla did, and you can get great pictures of Zenj and Busara on her site without having to buy the coffee table book ;) As for me, I offer you some paltry snippets of live music gleaned from last weekend's concert. Clip one is Maia trying to get upper-middle class Tanzanians and expats to show some enthusiasm. Poor woman:

I was going to put up a clip of Thandiswa as well but do you have any idea what it takes to upload video with this internet connection of mine?! Suffice to say, Thandiswa was very very awesome and accompanied by fantastic musicians. Thank goodness for the Busara spillover (and at the door price of a ticket its a damn good thing they offered three performers). The quality of original video clips will hopefully become better over time...