EDITORIAL: Nyerere: The ultimate man of the people

>We have said it here before. We shall say it again today. Dar es Salaam is increasingly becoming a city in which residents don’t mind dirt. It might as well be referred to as a city of dirty people.

With poverty rising by the day, more people are looking for shortcuts to get rich. This social phenomenon is manifested in more and more people turning to witchcraft and other dubious practices. There are adverts all over the country promising to make you rich or successful without working hard. All you have to do is try out these shortcuts and all the riches you want will be yours.

>Members of the Constituent Assembly (MCAs) want to maintain the clause in the Constitution that forbids a petition against the winner of the presidential vote. This is truly shocking. What the MCAs are proposing is that once the winner of the presidential votes is announced, no one has the constitutional right to appeal.

>Police frequently disrupt demonstrations by opposition parties, even when they are peaceful. Journalists on duty also get the same hostile treatment. This is unacceptable.

>Is politics a dirty game by its very nature? Our answer is a categorical “No.” In a truly civilised society, politics is a good thing, for it is through it that a state can be properly governed.

>A report released by a global organisation The Pew Research Centre April 15, 2010 named Tanzanians as the most superstitious in Africa.

>The latest developments in the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) cast doubt on the credibility of the regional organisation and the quality of those elected to serve the people.

>Water is life, the saying goes. Yet many Tanzanians die not for lack of the precious liquid but for drinking it when it is  contaminated and unsafe for human consumption. That is why we consider most valid the concern expressed by the medical officer in-charge at Mwanshimba Dispensary in Tabora, Dr George Kavella, who noted that the health of 17,000 people in the ward is at risk because they drink dirty water from a dam.

>Dar es Salaam’s woefully inadequate drainage system was exposed yesterday when scattered morning rains lasting less than an hour flooded many areas, including parts of the central business district.