A POLITICAL LESSON FOR AFRICA BY TANZANIA.

The scene is set. Two warriors! One a former Prime Minister, Lowassa. The other, Magufuli, fondly referred to as "The Bulldozer" for his insatiable appetite to tarmac roads across the vast land that is Tanzania. The ruling CCM's favoured son. Both, true believers in their cause, but does not every politician believe that they are the Messenger? The Chosen One? "The people have asked me to run". Very funny in deed if it was not deadly serious. What can the rest of Africa learn from Tanzania? Quite a lot! They hold their general elections with a remarkable level of peace. There may be discord but that is politics for you! They are a calm people. What is it that makes Tanzanians more capable of propagating the cause of democracy by peaceful purvey?. The answer is simple. They are the progenitors of non-tribal politics. They will bicker and blubber about anything and everything . Dire electricity supply, poor roads in Dar es Salaam, the capital etc. The one thing they will not do is slaughter each other. Examined critically, there's a realisation that this is rooted in history. The founding President Dr. Julius Kabarage Nyerere sowed the seeds of unity through Socialism. I am not necessarily advocating for Socialism, it's in the past. What is evident is that in the advent of the political push for independence, Tanzanians under his stewardship did not take up division as a means to an end.(Neither do I mean that other countries took it as a choice). The country has more than 120 tribes compared to a paltry 43 in Kenya and 56 in Uganda. Yet to all intents and purposes, peace has been hard-wired into their system. Most of Sub-Saharan Africa, The North, West and South should endeavour to emulate this wonderful blueprint.(Some notable exclusions are Botswana, Ghana and Mauritius, just to name but a few).Tribalism creates dire consequences. It creates failed or failing societal systems and thereby whole governments. Tribalism propagates distrust, appropriation with intent to deny, poor allocation and mismanagement of resources as well as proffering dockets to incompetent persons. Africa as a continent has been quite lackadaisical when it comes to development. Challenged, definitely not. The challenges fester from within. There's a lack of the necessary goodwill. The people are divided. Part of it might be rooted in the past, but and this is a big but, How come Tanzania does not froth in that sea of depravity? I can understand that colonialism might form part of the basis for the argument. That would only bring the case of divide and rule, which of course I cannot deny. T In a rebuttal of the above, I will state with conviction that, time would and should have been the essence of the healing process from the ills of the past. Africa has had enough time to rise from the burning embers of a past, poor. This cannot form the basis of a tangible reason,it is merely an excuse.The discrepancy which in a way forms a contradiction of sorts, is that the other democracies mentioned above underwent same or similar colonial leadership. Having liberated a people from chains, the continent should have emulated the masters at the genesis of freedom. It's sad and rather unfortunate that tribalism alone forms the basis of poor leadership. It creates cronyism (apart from tribalism there are other factors that can form cronyism and it foments sycophancy). Africa could do well to emulate Tanzania! I would like to take this opportunity to commiserate with Hon. Lowassa but ultimately ululate with the President Hon. Magufuli. May you continue to be that speck that East Africa and the rest of the continent can look upon. May you always be that oasis of peace as a progenitor, in this, a desert of TRIBALISM. As an update to this article, the president fired the head of Muimbili Hospital which is state run and was facing poor management, he cancelled luxury first class travel for government officials and generally hit the ground running. He epitomises what a good leader should be. The writer has decided to make this brief as it's rather painful to continue. WE WAIL FOR AFRICA. THERE IS STILL HOPE. ALL IS NOT LOST. GO MAGUFULI GO, GO TANZANIA GO! GOD BLESS TANZANIA, GOD BLESS AFRICA!

THE STATE OF MENTAL HEALTH IN ENGLAND. It’s unfortunate, rather sad and absurd, that the mental health department is in disarray, depleted. In intensive care. Starved of resources, this once able and available service lies on shredded black sheets of despair. From the loss of beds, consolidation of services with the inevitability of proximity negation to patients: the service is tattered, uncouth, uncaring and uncoordinated. The little that is left of the system is in dire need of restructuring, funding and general directional change from the Department of Health. The inequities and vagaries that abound leave a lot to be desired. Even emergency care never emerges. The prevalence of poor medical care, an uncompromising, physically usurping and draining system, decrepit and assumptive medical diagnosis, oh the afflictions of the system are numerous! From the ill-conceived cuts, too late and poor intervention the complaints are endless! The severity of the secession is creating a system where other ills of society that can at times be associated with mental health are thriving. One noteworthy instance is shoplifting or other petty crime in order to buy drugs and /or food which is generally shunned when recreational substances are brought afore. This sometimes occurs as people afflicted with mental health could at times face a dual diagnosis of alcoholism or drug misuse. These problems are generally compounded by a most lax system that is unaware of what has put it in intensive care in the first place and even if it does, shows little sign of a willingness to ameliorate. The situation, to a professional, is dire beyond comprehension. The professional can understand what afflicts the system but for mere service users it impossible to fathom why it would be so difficult to get a service for which the general populace pay taxes. The worst fallacy which has been perpetuated and constantly watered to mature propagation is the myth that people with mental health issues are violent. It’s unfortunate that in this day and age in a rich first world country mental health is so misunderstood. The stigma is so severe that there is no serenity for one is shunned by family at the onset of any outbreak or a recurrence of a condition if such is organic. The fear by an ignorant society of one committing violent acts creates an atmosphere that is not conducive to the public good of communities in general. People walk around pointing fingers, raising eyebrows, talking in hushed tones and more often than not making indirect and mostly snide remarks. “That is the madman” “He is calm”, “He is drunk”. It is rather obvious imbibing alcoholic drinks or smoking stimulants can trigger a certain level of psychotic states but this is so relative in nature and is dependent upon each individual. It is exceptionally lonely for anyone with mental health issues. First and foremost you are shunned by a system that has little comprehension of mental health and then family and friends. The writer can understand if the reader can’t fathom how real this could be. And ye; it is as real as life and death. What makes it more miserable is the historic nature of the racial connotations involved. The perception that black people as more difficult to handle is a case in point. This has and continues discourage most to shun the services in the knowledge that history will repeat itself and they will be treated disdainfully. The past treatment typically involved unnecessary sectioning which only resulted in a community which felt greater antagonism from the system rather than care and compassion and understanding which were initially sought. With the advent of successive governments things have continued to wallow into the depraved state we have today. The labour government was not as hell-bent on committing the same mistakes. The current government guided by an ideology of cuts to all departments has led to the stream skinning rather than lining of services with the mediocrity and alacrity deserving of wanton abandonment and abolition only in comparison to slavery. Services have been redacted, increasing travelling journey times due to the proximity. This has created a permutation where those who find it more difficult to travel for whatever reason including inaccessible welfare benefits still have to. Insulted and injured, most services are so phased that without charities playing a leading role this dented desolate situation would only have become worse. The NHS Mental health section needs a complete and utter realignment if the own goals are to be picked from the nets. For the net has been woven too tight and thrown too deep and the fishes can no longer swim. A system that is keen to antagonise seekers of service. A system that endeavours not to protect but to detect. Without having a clear and definite end goal in the treatment of those afflicted. Community treatment has been mooted but that seems like a way of secluding the patients with all the freedom to roam and do nothing. Society can’t take care of its own by throwing them in places where there are no services except skeletal or caricature like services. The community is then tasked with policing the “mad”. What stigmatisation! What antagonism of the ill. Some so grossly abject that it is utterly ridiculous. The system shows an alacrity and intent to entrap service users and ensure they are arrested so as to receive service by force even if the same is disproportionate. Beds- lack thereof. No admissions except to those thought to be dangerous to society. The psychos. That is how society calls them. There is still hope that this most unfortunate of situations shall be reversed so it can revert to the caring and coordinated one that it is well capable of. The Writer is a 2nd Year Psychology Student at University of East London @ Stratford.