Opinion
Analysis
Heart
operations: Contributions needed for those unable to pay
The Association of Female Doctors, MEWATA, certainly
deserves a pat on the back for having raised the awareness of many Tanzanians
about medical issues.
MEWATA has succeeded in persuading many people to voluntarily donate money, for
the clinical investigation of women likely to develop breast cancer.
We understand that the initiatives the doctors have taken are a clear
demonstration of their commitment to helping thousands of women, who might be
suffering from the life- threatening condition.
In its campaign channelled through a local television station, MEWATA has
succeeded in raising funds to save marginalised women, thanks to a great turnout
for the support of the campaign.
MEWATA will now have to contemplate how to extend the medical service, making it
accessible to the majority of women in the villages, who would struggle vainly
to pay for such expensive clinical investigations.
Even the good Samaritans themselves have seen the need to expand the campaign,
so that most women will benefit from the services, notwithstanding the fact that
the country is facing an acute shortage of medical doctors.
What MEWATA is doing is good. But more initiatives are needed bearing in mind
the severity of health problems that average Tanzanians face, especially in
areas where one doctors attend over 10,000 patients.
There are many heart patients who continue to suffer, because the treatment is
far beyond the ability of many people to afford. Heart operations are extremely
complicated, and expensive to perform. According to the Tanzania Heart Institute
(THI), heart treatment costs between Tsh. three and five million. Obviously very
few patients can afford such costs.
The THI recently organized a march to fundraise for Tanzanian patients,
including young children who find it difficult, financially, to have the
operations. There are about 100 operations which are scheduled to be performed
by the institute’s specialists in collaboration with specialists from abroad.
The solution for problems which heart patients are experiencing is the giving of
generous contributions. We would urge fellow Tanzanians, who have expressed a
deep sympathy for women suffering from breast cancer, to also extend their
generosity by contributing to their brothers and sisters suffering from
heart-related disorders.
Sponsoring
education is the way forward
The East African Breweries Limited (EABL) has launched a programme that will
offer scholarships to disadvantaged bright students from Tanzania, for
undergraduate studies in Kenya.
This is a good example that needs to be emulated by all institutions in the
country. It is almost a shame for a foreign company to show sympathy and
compassion to local students, while the local institutions concentrate support
on other issues.
The majority of institutions in Tanzania put emphasis on sponsoring sports
tournaments, beauty contests and motor rallies. It is very rare for these
institutions to offer scholarships.
It is an indisputable truth that Tanzanians have given educational sponsorship
only secondary priority. Many are prepared at household level to pay for
weddings, children’s church confirmations and initiations (unyago, kitchen
parties, send offs etc) but not education.
In contrast to this, EABL have initially set aside US$ 250,000 (Tsh. 250
million) for the programme.
EABL officials say that the scholarship will cover tuition fees, accommodation
and a modest living allowance, to students who are academically gifted, but face
financial problems.
This is a challenge to Tanzanian institutions that sponsor areas other than
education. People will laugh at us if we do not show patriotism, and allow
strangers coming into our country to demonstrate more sympathy than local firms.
The time has come for the government to introduce incentives for institutions
that show an interest in supporting education. We should not be left behind by
our neighbours (Kenya and Uganda) who seem to value education more than other
aspects of life.
Do you understand your MP?
By Evarist Kagaruki
The African Union (AU) summit of the African Heads of State and Government,
which took place in Sierte, Libya, last week, was not different from the
previous summits. Nothing new came out of the conference. There was some talk
here about Africa’s perennial crises, and some resolutions there on what the
rich countries of the world (the G8) should do to help Africa combat its poverty
and debt, which caught the gaze of the media. Otherwise the conference was the
usual “talking shop”.
Ceremonially speaking, however, there was something to write home about.
President Benjamin Mkapa took the occasion to bid his peers farewell, as this
was his last summit as President of Tanzania. He is retiring next November at
the end of his second five-year term.
The summiteers thanked and praised him for having served the continent well,
especially considering his participation in the International Commission on
Globalisation (which he co-chaired) and the Blair Commission for Africa, whose
work was the engine behind the push for debt relief for the 14 poorest African
countries, including Tanzania.
The AU leaders linked Mkapa’s service in the two commissions nostalgically to
Tanzania’s historic role in the liberation of the continent. Certainly he
deserves the praise. He has been a dedicated and faithful servant of not only
his people here at home, where his integrity and good governance credentials are
exemplary, but also of Africa which he has served through his tireless efforts,
his resourcefulness and wisdom in mediating in the continent’s conflicts,
especially in the Great Lakes region.
But what perhaps was remarkably more important about president Mkapa’s farewell
at Sierte was the way he chose to deliver his good bye speech. He did it in
Kiswahili! The importance about this is that Mkapa, unlike most of our leaders,
is very keen about promoting Kiswahili in the international forum.
It was during last year’s AU conference that Kiswahili was spoken (through
Tanzanian translators) for the first time in the history of the organisation,
and effectively made one of the languages of communication among AU
member-states, besides English, French, Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish.
President Mkapa has proven to his colleagues in the AU that Tanzania was
committed to playing the central role of promoting Kiswahili as a medium of
communication among the African people. But how can our country play this
important role effectively and respectably when Tanzanians themselves (in
particular the educated class) are doing little to promote and develop Kiswahili
here at home?
As the principal speakers of Kiswahili in the world, we are not showing
seriously that this language is a heritage we treasure. This lack of seriousness
manifests itself when we are communicating among ourselves at the local
conferences, seminars, workshops and meetings, and even in official
correspondence between government offices! You will be surprised to find that
organisers of a seminar with 99 per cent attendance being “Waswahili” decide to
neglect Kiswahili and conduct their deliberations in English (the colonial
language), to the chagrin of foreigners.
Sometimes it is nauseating when the kind of English spoken at such a forum is
not English at all, but a “Kiswa-English” (English blended with a very rich
Kiswahili vocabulary) – which when spoken, is neither English nor Kiswahili. The
same problem afflicts some of our Members of Parliament. Listen to them when
debating on various issues which directly concern the people they represent. A
sentence uttered will contain several English and Kiswahili words, making the
speaker “languageless” and incomprehensible to most Tanzanians.
It baffles me when I see that these people cannot express themselves fluently in
their own language! My understanding is that when MPs speak in Parliament they
would wish to be heard by their constituents. But then, when they speak in
mythical tongues (in a language that does not exist), they can be heard but not
understood by those who can only understand what is spoken in Kiswahili or in
their vernacular.
Aren’t such legislators addressing themselves and a few English-Kiswahili
speaking listeners out there? And if they make themselves so difficult to
understand for their constituents and the public in general, what kind of
representation is that?