JOHN MASHAKA: WHY TZ REMAINS POOR DESPITE ITS RICHNESS IN NATURAL WEATH?

Tanzania is one of the poorest in terms of income per capita despite the fact that, it is one of the world’s richest when it come to natural resources. It is in fact the third richest in the entire continent behind South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Despite Tanzania’s massive potential and endless opportunities, the country remains arguably donor dependant, with its people living on the edge of poverty. Many theories and myths have been out there for quite some-time why Tanzanians are so poor. The fact of the matter is that, we Tanzanians are poor because we are lazy. We like easy ways out of our hardships. Our culture and educational systems, cultivates our minds to seek shortcuts out of our difficulties. We do not engage in realistic sense of determining cause and effect of issues affecting our lives and society.
We are economically poor as a country because of our long dependence on foreign handouts, which have in turn have enslaved our minds through a sense of entitlement. Despite their wealth, many African countries have made it a routine for Washington and London to subsidize their budgets.  We are remaining economically disadvantaged because of an enemy called corruption; a product of greed and selfishness. Tanzania lacks people with patriotic-sense
One would think that, with its strategic geographic location and access to the Indian Ocean, Tanzania would be an economic power. Others think that with its vast arable land and water sources, Tanzania would never experience food shortage. With its national parks, and other historical treasure, Tanzania would be a Mecca of world tourism and Africa’s economic power. We are dead wrong. Tanzania poverty paradox is potential to become an economic power is slowly slipping away and the poverty paradox
Majority of Tanzanians do not have access to quality education required to open up their minds into knowledge base, and equip them with opportunities to explore, and discover other endless possibilities necessary to create jobs and put people to work. Inaccessibility to quality education is creating a cyclic-generational poverty among millions of Tanzanians, which further complicates the untangling of the poverty paradox  
Foreigners have realized that our leaders and intellectuals are mis-educated, and are therefore handing us candy-bars at will in exchange for our resources. They are exploiting the cracks within our poor education, culture of laziness and greed, and lack of patriotism within our leadership structure to strip us of our natural wealth.
Foreigners have discovered that the mis-educated Tanzania’s colonialists are more interested in nourishing their Swiss-bank accounts, than dealing with the plight of poverty that has engulfed the country. This is the reason Tanzania is poor and will continue to be poor
Tanzania is getting poorer because we are not receptive of new revolutionary- minds that would foster economic progress. The system wide kleptocrats are not welcoming of new revolutionary brain-power. Their ineptness makes them feel vulnerable and threatened, because they are products of a culture that lacks work discipline. Dr. Ferdinand Masau of Tanzania Heart Institute (THI), is the sad and tragic case of how far Tanzania has to go to accept a wave of new minds that will change the country and its resources into a trillion dollar economy   
Notwithstanding, we must realize that corruption has created a sense of entitlement to the rulers across Africa, as opposed to a set of leaders that needs to prioritize their country’s needs. These rulers are in high gear pursuing their financial security.  Tanzania must welcome and nurture alternative and creative ideas –human capital- of its own people scattered around the globe to fully utilize its resources for the better good of her people. Her cultural perspective and educational system must be overhauled to align with the evolving global economic fundamentals

Mungu Ibariki Tanzania
By John Mashaka
mashaka.john@yahoo.com