The ignorance, arrogance and irresponsibility of the international media in Tanzania elections 2010

As a journalist who has worked abroad and here, I was shocked to read unprofessional articles from prestigious media including The Economist, BBC, etc who just regurgitate  the usual “CCM will win with landslide” without any consideration that Tanzania was having a transformational and phenomenon election. This historic election was unfolding every day in front of us and on the campaign trail where opposition candidates were drawing huge crowds, yet these international journalist were comfortable to get information from their State house sources, Dar es Salaam handlers (who stayed in Nairobi or South Africa or best case scenario in Dar Es Salaam) and sometimes has telephone interviews with journalists travelling with the incumbent president .

I am proud that Tanzanians have humiliated the international media and shown them that they have no idea what journalism is about and how they have been misleading the world about Tanzania. If the international media believes that Tanzania is not important enough to have professional staff based here then they should just refrain from reporting all together instead of misleading their audiences IMHO

Policymakers, politics and the Web 2.0

Once in every 5 years, people’s attention turns to politics during the political campaigns. Suddenly issues that used to be ‘part of life’ become the most important issue of the year. The road that we always grumble about becomes a broken promise, the failing grades of students becomes a statement about our education system and so on. This is true not only of Tanzania but rest of the world, IMHO

But also it is the time that politicians pay closer attention to us and try to understand what we want  and better still what will it take to get us to elect them. This is the game of politics and policymaking.  And it is in the midst of this, that in the 21^st century we are looking at the internet and Web 2.0 (including social media and applications like Facebook and Twitter) and look at how the game is changing. And this is true not only in the US but also in a least developed country like Tanzania, IMHO

One of the most frequent argument, I hear from people is that the internet in Tanzania does not matter. Tanzanians are not interested in the internet; they are too busy making ends meet; they do not follow events and chats on internet;  that having a Facebook or twitter account is just a niche thing. But for any politician, policymaker and stakeholder in this area, they can only afford to ignore Web 2.0 at their own peril. Every month the internet population is increasing but at first glance, the statistics look discouraging with only 676,000 internet users (1.6% of population) as of June 2010 and 141,580 Facebook users (0.3% of population) as of August 31^st 2010 in Tanzania. (From Internet World Statistics)  

But I believe that these figures greatly underestimate the reach of internet especially when mobile phones are becoming mini internet modems and computers rolled into one, IMHO. Today even a simple phone has internet connectivity and internet usage fees are becoming cheaper by the day.  The TCRA (Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority) puts mobile phone users in Tanzania at about 17 million by the end of last year (December 2009), so if we assume that about 10 % of the mobile phone users access the internet that is 1.7 million (read Citizen) . But as I probably have a mild form of dyscalculia, I would rather not get into the statistics but instead point out how useful and wide reaching it is. When presidential candidates have on average 10,000 followers on Facebook and a wall post by one candidate generated 90 comments in 3 hours, it really makes one think hard about the power of Web 2.0. When blogs and forums generate hundreds of response and people post photos, news and gossip from all around the country,  that is when connectivity works. Censorship no longer works on the internet as news travels fast – at the speed of light. There are no more secrets and everybody has an opinion and they are less and less worried to express themselves. That is how the internet is changing how we communicate, that is why it is important to be part of it and not shun it.

Today the elder generation is not comfortable with technology and the Twitter and Facebook accounts of some politicians and policymakers are maintained by professionals or their younger family members. But when the candidates and policymakers start experiencing and eventually mastering personally the social media, a whole new world opens in front of them.

This is also a great tool. Because it is also mostly the younger generation that make up a huge percentage of the voting population and that is closely linked to the internet and social media usage. Just like Obama discovered the power of the vote of the young, so must also politicians and policymakers all around the world come to terms with the power that the young have. Addressing issues important to the youth and talking or communicating with them in their ‘language’ is key in getting their support as well. And when they are ‘with’ you, their ability to mobilize and energy is a powerful force that can help propel any campaign to victory, IMHO

So if you are an internet user without Social media account, maybe it is time to get at least one and start exploring the world. But if you are interested in making a career in policymaking, it is imperative IMHO.

IMHO: 8.4 Million people skip meals in Tanzania!

                                                   

What IMHO stands for

I thought that it is appropriate to start by posting the first IMHO piece that I wrote last year in my Facebook notes.
My vision for such notes or blog posts is to get the discussion going and to open up my thoughts to many people who may only know me from my work as filmmaker, pageant organizer or TV show producer and presenter.

I also believe that we, Tanzanians tend to keep our opinions to ourselves and thus rarely get the opportunity to openly air our views.
For those who are not entirely aware IMHO is the acronym of In My Humble Opinion
And that is what this blog about. I am not here to convince anyone about anything. I am just here to say my opinion. You are all welcome to share your opinion, but please remain respectful of others.
Hope you will enjoy my posts and become a frequent visitor to my blog

I had become part of a discussion on somebody's page/status on Facebook regarding beauty pageants , whereby the individual has been complaining about companies sponsoring beauty pageants while there are so many social problems in the country.
However this individual has avidly pointed out that football sponsorship is different because it is has more advantages to the nation.
This is male chauvinism IMHO!! Both football and beauty pageants from a pragmatic point of view is waste of time because they test people's body abilities and have weird rules. In football you have 22 grown men on a field chasing one ball in shorts. In beauty pageants you have women teetering on high heels with make up to compete in brains and beauty. They are both leisure activities that have been honed and specialized to become international events. They both have fans or fanatics and pull crowds. 
Using this explanation it is therefore understandable why companies that want to market their goods and to gain visibility will rush to sponsor such events. Therefore there is no sponsorship that is better than the other.
But then comes another argument, football brings good salaries or pay to men who take part... of course not yet in Tanzania but Brazil is a good example... but those who argue this are ignorant of the fact that the same applies to beauty queens that best can be seen in countries like Venezuela, Brazil and Puerto Rico where governments pay beauty pageant organizers and winners. Why? For the same reason they pay coaches and football players ... because they bring pride to the nation and they publicize the name of the country. 
Flaviana Matata put Tanzania on the map doing more than 3 months worth of marketing by Tanzanian government, because when she won 1 billion people from all over the world watched her. And she was not called Flaviana Matata, but TANZANIA. Same goes to Miriam Odemba at Miss Earth last year. Where was the appreciation from the government and the society? Yet the parliamentarians and the government were eager to line up to donate and to welcome Taifa Stars after they won one international match. This is male chauvinism IMHO.

Today if you go to USA and say you are from the same country as Flaviana Matata they will know that you are from Tanzania. Try saying Taifa stars in the US and see their confused reaction!
So let us put aside male chauvinism and acknowledge that if sponsorship for beauty pageants are undesirable so is sponsorship of football, otherwise let us treat male pastime and female pastime equally.
IMHO