The unfortunate part, though, is that there is no way to avoid physics in life.  We live with it and die with it; and that is why I am compelled to discuss today, a very serious matter bordering on the realms of physics.

 

 If you are reading this line, it means you have managed to jump the first big hurdle. You won't go to sleep!  And I welcome you.  I am sure you will make it; I am not going to talk about nuclear physics, anyway, or rocket science; or hydro-mechanics, pulleys, photons, nuclear decay, or about quarks and gluons. So just sit back and relax.

 

But  I must say something before I go too far:  that while I may have set out to discuss a  matter bordering  on the realms of physics,  I am not a physicist;   I am just a writer-- a writer  who collects good stuff  from reliable sources to share with you.

 

Now you might be a physics buff and can't wait to hear what I have in mind.  Well, I intend to suggest at the bottom of this article, that corruption in Tanzania will probably only be ended by constructive destruction—not persuasion.   Physics illustrates the point.

There is no way to dislodge a jigger from your foot without bleeding the veins.

 

I am inclined to believe that corruption in Tanzania has become a form of jigger, or incurable addiction which can only be ended through constructive destruction. I believe this is a military concept, but easily understandable. The Chinese and Moslem nations have been using this method for quite some time, I understand, and quite successfully.  They get rid of proven corrupt officials by execution.  I like that! 

You want to know why I like that?  I support constructive destruction because that is how nature intended for it to be when dealing with a serious offender of the law -- implying that this is how God intended for it to work.  

 

If you touch fire, it burns you on the spot; it doesn’t dialogue with you or wait for a verdict from some dilly dallying high court. And this is the principle that seems to work in all of nature.  I do not really see a plausible reason to support modifications of natural law, if there is proof modifications result in the creation of a corrupt state such as Tanzania. 

 

The European genius Isaac Newton discovered the force of gravity in 1668.  The falling of an apple from a tree in an orchard correctly led him to believe there was a push or pull force that acted on the apple. Newton then proved, mathematically, the existence of the force of gravity, founding in the process what has become known as "the grand unifying idea of gravitation"; the idea which has since explained the movement of objects in outer space, the movement of the planets, and the tides of the sea.

 

Objects that conform to this force stay in their orbits peacefully. Those which disobey the force,   for whatever reason, dislodge from their orbits, disintegrate and sometimes burning up as they fall off; and we see flares in a clear night sky as God is getting rid of the disobedient.  I like that!  

 

Natural law and justice: you touch the fire, it burns you on the spot.  You disobey the law that governs the force of gravity, you fall off and burn up. You steal the people's money, and there is proof, you go to the gallows.

 

 I really don't understand why corrupt people are left to roam the streets.  And I do not have to name these people because they are known.  If you close your eyes, you will probably see one, by name.  I strongly believe that it is the lenience and endless politicking with criminals in corruption which has bred more and more criminals lodged in the civil service, when politicking implies dilly dallying with corruption cases in the courts. 

 

The viable explanation I see for prolonged politicking with criminals in the area of corruption is that those who are supposed to take stern action against these criminals are in fact accomplices in the crime and therefore can not act against their compatriots.  Why dilly dally with cases whose evidence is conclusive? And I am sure you know which cases those are.

 

The bigger trouble I foresee to result from this politicking with criminals is that someday this politicking will open a door to permit constructive destruction to be implemented by the masses, instead of the courts or some other government agency; and this will carry with it negative connotations for political stability as turmoil is ignited. Flash back to the Philippines. I said the Philippines, not Philippians.

Now…do we really want to start a civil war here because of a handful of greedy people in the civil service?  Or are we still leaving with the delusion Tanzanians will always accept the politicization of obvious crime?  That Tanzanians will always accept fictitious peace, make believe peace?  Or do we live with the delusion Tanzanians do not care how much  government money is lost through corruption, or how many people are getting richer through corruption while others remain poor?, or  how many places services are obtained through kick backs.   

Corruption is going to take this country where we don’t want to go if we finally decide to take matters into our own hands.  Take my word!  There is a limit to delusions as history will testify from various nations of the world.  You might want to remember what poverty did to the barons in France.

 

Out here in civilian life, we do know there are civil servants whose salaries do not exceed three million shillings per year, the equivalent of slightly above 2,700 dollars but they are able to build houses valued at over 25 million dollars in five years or less of tenure in office.  I want to see the riches obtained though corruption returned back to Government and therefore back to the people and offenders punished severely.  Make-believe punishment will not do.

 

Between 1954 and 1964, Mainland Tanzania was called Tanganyika. I grew up in this land, where all of us children of Tanganyika were taught to love our land with all our hearts, with all our minds and with all our souls.  In 1967, a few years after Tanganyika had united with Zanzibar to form present-day Tanzania, the ruling party of the time on the mainland, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) issued this statement:

 

 "We are at war:  TANU is involved in a war against poverty and oppression in our country; this struggle is aimed at moving the people of Tanzania…from a state of poverty to a state of prosperity." By the way TANU is not the same thing as Chama Cha Mapinduzi. These are two different political parties, as far as I am concerned.  So anyway, TANU identified four tools to use in this war: The land, the people, good policies, and good leadership. 

 

In the declaration, popularly known as the Arusha declaration, TANU said:   "We have been oppressed a great deal, we have been exploited a great deal and we have been disregarded a great deal. It is our weakness that has led to our being oppressed, exploited and disregarded."   These lines undoubtedly pointed to a foreign enemy, a foreign oppressor, a foreign exploiter—the colonialist.

 

Slightly over 40 years after this declaration, it appears we still have an oppressor. Only that this time the enemy is not a foreigner, but our very own children in civil service.  TANU had declared war against the perceived enemy of the time using four weapons: the land, the people, good policies and good leadership.  I do not see a major problem with the chosen weapon, except a weakened potency the outcome of an apparent lack of either good policies, or good leadership, or both.

 

I want to suggest that we are still at war because corruption is perpetuating poverty. It is so unfortunate, however, that  the war this time must be directed at our own children;  especially with odds suggesting  of  the four weapons we set out to use at the outset, only two seem to still remain potent: the land, and the people. People who go to war have several options in the battle field. In the science of war, as I understand it, the destruction of an enemy is an option.

 

 Please don't ask for bribes from us. Don't take bribes from anybody!