26th of November 2008

Last night I went to the American style mall, full of western style shops. This complex looks so out of place in comparison to the surrounding streets and residential areas, it look like someone cut out a slice of America and plonked it smack bang in the middle of Africa.

Being one of the poorest third world countries, you would think that prices in Tanzania would be quite low, but unfortunately this is not the case, Tanzania is dependent on foreign imports and investment, prices of food and other goods reflects this. The supermarket that I went to was full of foreign brands, there wasn't a single local brand to be seen. Foreign companies have a strangle hold on the Tanzanian economy, providing all the necessaries that any Government or business should. These foreign companies that hold the power are not interested in putting back into the community, they suck out the market share easily as there is no competition. For example, Tanzania is a country rich in water resources, they are surrounded by fresh lakes and rivers, yet no-one has developed the infrastructure to harness this and so the country continues to buy bottled water at quite a cost and guess who owns the main wbottled water company....Coca Cola. No surprises there. The Chinese especially are investing alot in Africa, people say due to lack of local produce that Africa is just a market, so investors like the Chinese have predicted the saturation of western and developing markets and are beginning to focus on product and investment expansion. So all the pricing of food etc is almost as high as it is in New Zealand and on a limited budget this is expensive. There are real problems here that I'm sure anyone could read about, but they hit you on a different level experiencing them first hand. Corruption here is a massive problem, as I write there are major multi million dollar corruption trials taking place and it is a trend that seems to have pervaded alot of Africa. there is no money here for education, earlier this month the university here temporarily closed due to student strikes as costs were too high and the government will not contribute much in the form of loans. Unemployment here is at 60 odd% some of those who are lucky to gain an education and a powerful job abuse their positions laundering money and following selfish policies. There is a real lack of nationalism here, some of it I think can be put down to tribalism and colonialism, the students know this and they want change. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, the rich and the powerful seem uninterested in putting back into the country happy to just build large mansions and watch the story unfold. The general uneducated populace seem unmotivated. For change to come it will be hard and I think it will take a long time.

Stayed up last night getting an interesting insight on religion from a Pakistani student, Atiff and one of my flat mates Kate, she is polish. Atiff is Muslim and has studied the Koran in depth he has very strong opinions about religion, it is refreshing to get new perspectives.