Here Today Gone Tomorrow

I'd like to dedicate this post to my relatives, friends and loved ones who've passed away this year.  In no particular order I will seek to briefly describe each individual and what they meant to me, also I will provide pictures where possible.

Bibi (Grandma) - My grandma lived to ripe age Mashallah, what i would always remember about her is that whenever I'd go and see her she would, after asking who exactly I was, commence on a prayer marathon whilst holding my hand.  She would make a duah for my sleeping, my waking up, my daily commute, my family my offspring, you name it she would recite it.  She loved me dearly and she showed it (she had so many grandchildren that openly showing her love was somewhat restricted). She was a very strong woman right up until the end.

Baba Mkubwa - My father's  brother (sorry no pics available) was a constant source of advice.  I remember when we were kids he would not let me eat with the other kids, he would always invite me to eat on his plate (perhaps because he realised I couldn't keep up with the pace of the other kids...) and make sure I'd have my fill of rice and chicken ( he knew chicken was my favourite and made sure it was cooked whenever we paid him a visit.  He loved me as his own

Dar es Salaam - Places of interest

So I figured that, rather than write on and on about my beautiful country Tanzania, and Dar es Salaam where I was born, I will endeavor to post a series of videos instead. I'll start of with what is a valiant effort by Ali, who took it upon himself to highlight the numerous tourist attractions available in Dar es Salaam. Check out the videos below.

A New City in the Making - Kigamboni.

All I can say is that the development has already started, I've seen some of the residential area  constructed and it looks amazing. All the property was already bought!! even though more than half of the people don't even know it exists yet!!  If by some divine miracle the island is developed as depicted in the above film, Dar -es-Salaam will be the place to be, I'm just gonna pack my bags and leave... to be honest I'll probably be collecting my pension by then, Inshallah.

Nature's Unrivaled Beauty

Let's take a minute out of our busy schedule's and appreciate the marvelous spectacle that is Nature.  The video was taken in Kenya and Tanzania.

International Pink Hijab Day - October 27

A beautiful and touching video from Ryerson University's Muslim Student Association. I hope my sisters reading this will try to wear a hijab, at least for this one day if you don't already do so in your daily lives. I personally love the hijab and think it looks amazing if worn properly.  I'll wear pink on the day in support of the International Pink Hijab Day on October 27, 2010...and no it won't be a hijab! more like a T-shirt!  Fellas feel free to join in and support if you can.

The Most Amazing Person in My World

You always hear parents say children are a blessing, and it's such a cliche, I mean, what do you expect them to say?  I've finally realised what they mean, the arrival of my daughter has totally changed who I am, a phenomenon I did not foresee one bit.  She has changed it for the better in more ways than words can express.

Let me give you an example of why I think she is just amazing.  On a typical day, her mother would wake her up in the morning to get ready for daycare, at this point I'm usually just out of the shower.  First thing she would say majority of the time is..."Baba" (Swahili for Dad) and she will continue to say that until her mom would bring her to me and commence with a hug-fest filled with kisses.  This would continue at the breakfast table where she would insist on feeding me whatever she is having on the day.  When I drop her and her mom at daycare, she would be calling me form the pavement, blowing me kisses and saying byeeeeeeee (at this point I'm usually by the traffic lights waving frantically , everyone who notices this always beams up with a huge smile (Cue the smile on daddy that says...yup, that's my daughter alright).

To cut a long story short, its more or less the same when I get home from work, I'm always greeted with a smile, loving hug and it just melts my heart, she would even make sure she removes my socks after I've removed my shoes!  I thank my lovely wife for such a blessing, she is my everything.  I'm an emotional wreck now, I mean I can hardly ever say no to her, I can't watch any bad news on the telly that involves kids without almost tearing up or tuning to another channel immediately.  She's made me realise what i put my parents through as a baby and I love them to bits for that, to say it's a challenge is an understatement.

I love you Inaya and thank you to my dear wife for bearing me such a bundle of joy.  You carried her for nine months and for that there is no way i can ever repay you.  Inaya may you grow to be successful both here and the hereafter.  God knows I will do my best as your father to provide for you and protect you and guide you through this journey called life.  May Allah keep you till your old and gray and increase the compassion that you have as personified by your name.

We Are Winning the War Against Child Mortality

Hans Rosling, a Global Health expert from Sweden is absolutely amazing, he has such enthusiasm and eagerness in what he does best and it's so contagious just watching him present his findings.  His current work focuses on dispelling common myths about the so called "developing" countries.  On the clip above, he shows how the "developing" countries are meeting their Child mortality rate goals as part of their Millennium Development Goals (MDG).  In this case, he successfully refutes the claim that Africa has no statistics!  Watch the clip, I wish I had a statistics prof like him, you have never seen statistical data presented like this before, ever.

Thought of the Day

Have you ever wondered, if you were to die today, how would death itself feel like and what legacy would you have left behind.  I've often thought of death, you see I'm scared to death of death, no pun intended.  It's not that I'm worried of dying, I know it's inevitable and so there's no point in worrying about it really, but it's just the fear of the unknown, or rather the fear of the known in my case.

You see through Hadith and the Holy Quran, one gets a very vivid picture of what happens upon death. There are accounts of death right form the beginning, when your soul leaves your body (there is pain involved when the soul leaves the body by the way...  peaceful death is nothing but a myth) to when your soul is shown it's final resting place, to the questions that you will be asked in your grave, to the torture a person would receive in their grave, to the day of judgement and to the final resting place, be it heaven or hell. All this is detailed quite clearly and knowing all this scares the hell out of me.

Then there's the other side to death, leaving your loved ones behind.  Not knowing how your children will grow up,  and seeing how they would eventually have their own life, not being there to guide them through troubled times, impart the little wisdom accumulated through the constant trials and tribulations of your life.  Sharing your stories with them, holding their tiny hands as they cross the road, hugging them first thing in the morning and again before bedtime, seeing them get married, have their own family Inshallah.  There seems to be so much you would miss out on, and you want to be there but alas, the choice is not yours.  With each breath we take we are closer to death, is anyone really ever ready for death?  I sometimes ask myself,all the prayers I have prayed, are they really enough, what about the ones I have missed? the Zakah I have payed for me and my family, the fasting I've done in the holy month of Ramadan are they really enough?  Each time I arrive at the same conclusion, it's not enough.  Allah is the most merciful, all we have to do is repent sincerely and ask for forgiveness for our sins and Inshallah our prayers would be heard.

After your death life goes on, you will be remembered...occasionally buy your loved ones but for the most part that's it.  Even with your loved ones you will be lucky if they visit your grave on the anniversary of your death, if you thought otherwise think again, that's just how life is.  May we all die as believers and on the right path.  I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and Mohammad is the messenger of Allah.

Jose Chameleon in Toronto

Just when I thought it was gonna be another one of them weekends, a friend of mine called me to inform me that the celebrated Ugandan artist Jose Chameleon was performing. So we went to check him, peep the pics below.

My T-dot Connects

Runs Tee,  A nigerian act based herein Toronto.  Awesome performance.

The guys were totally cool when it came to taking pics

The main act on Stage

Kibera Slam Stand UP!!

It's official, this tune is hoooooooooot!!! oh my days.  K Force - a group from Kibera slam in Nairobi has just made me fall in love with them at first sight.  The hook is catchy and sweet, plus just listen to the girl killing it with her weird but niiiiice voice ...hold on i'm just chatting too much...watch this tune....Amazing!

Aris - Without You

Loved this song and video from Aris, who is a Nigerian artist.

Nikikupata

To start of..Ben Pol with his track nikikupata.  I saw this recently and was impressed with his soulful singing and rhymes.  He has a sort of laid back approch to his singing and he raises and lowers his tone superbly, plus the video is half decent.  Well done Ben.

I'm still here

I'm looking to find some more interesting stuff to put on here rather than what's been posted recently.  perhaps something a little easier on the eyes, maybe some music videos and some pictures of  things that interest me.  Stay tuned.  Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Lesson's from our Neighbour's to the North

I often ask myself, how it is that two neighbouring countries can be so far apart in terms of development.  Take Tanzania and kenya for example, both countries achieved independence at more or less the same time, with Kenya gaining it on 12 December 1963 and Tanzania 9 December 1961.  They both have a similar population number, Kenya 32M & Tanzania 36M,  both have ample natural resources and tourist attractions with Tanzania arguably slightly ahead in terms of natural beauty (of course I'm not biased at the slightest) and yet Kenya is on average ranked 3 (Kenya placed 80 and Tanzania 83 when averaged over the IMF, World Bank and CIA fact book rankings) places above Tanzania in the "Rich list".  The GDP is one of the primary indicators used to gauge the health of a countries economy, to make it simple to understand, just think of it as the size of the countries economy.

In my opinion, to get the true extent of a countries wealth, more indicators would have to be considered, but the gist of the issue is that Kenya is miles ahead of Tanzania in terms of Education, Health Care and Standard of living in general to name but a few.

For instance, on the news recently there was an article on how, a confidential helpline launched in the past two years has unearthed the real extent of sex abuse by teachers on students in their care.  More than 1,000 teachers in Kenya have been sacked in the last two years for sexually abusing girls, with most of the cases occurring in rural primary schools.  In one primary school there were more than 20 girls pregnant, with majority of them being impregnated by their teachers!  What's really sad is that even after the culprits were identified, not all of them faced prosecution, while some managed to escape imprisonment by paying off their victims parents.  I wonder what price these so called parents placed on their daughters chastity!  I mean thats ridiculous, I would make sure the idiot faced the full consequences of his actions from the authorities, that is if I don't catch him myself first.

My question is, why can't we learn from our neighbours and implement something like this in Tanzania. We can't wait on the government to implement everything, why aren't there NGO's who focus on such matters?  There's numerous cases of abuse that go unchecked and having something as simple as a confidential helpline (preferable free of charge or at a substantially reduced rate) could do wonders.  I've also read extensively on the abuse suffered by domestic workers, there have been numerous calls to have them unionised, but nothing seems to have developed on that front.  Is it merely because these things are so common place that it is considered part and parcel of the job?  Does no one care or are there more important issues that need the peoples more immediate attention?  Someone please help me to understand.   Kudos to kenya in the fight against child abuse.

Africa's Brain Drain

I listened to an interesting interview today, in which professor Yaw Nyarko, an economist from New York University was being interviewed.  Professor Nyarko together with William Easterly have written a paper in which they argue that the Brain Drain phenomenon is actually a good thing for the African continent.

Brain drain basically means that the educated people in African countries (doctors, lawyers, nurses etc) are leaving Africa for the northern hemisphere where opportunities for work and a better standard of living are plenty in comparison. There is concern that all the talented energy could be sucked out of Africa.   Professor Yaw mentions that, on the surface this might look like a bad thing but if you dig deeper it is actually a good thing for Africa.  I'm not so sure I agree, granted I have not read the whole article, it's nevertheless interesting to see how he defends his perspective.

He says there is a "Brain Circulation" in Africa i.e people leave and they come back and sometimes leave again.  It is this circulation that is good for Africa as most of the people who come back are usually educated to a higher level then when they left.  Upon their return, he argues that they contribute more than the outlay the government contributed through the subsidised education.  He also mentions remittances, saying many of the people in the diaspora actually have an invested interest in their home nations and do sent back money to their relatives and loved ones to invest or just meet their daily needs.

Granted these are valid points, his research merely looks at educated persons in the context of people with tertiary education, I'm curious to know what percentage of  these 'educated people actually return to their motherland and make a difference.  How old are they on average when they leave and how old are they when they return?  Because if they return as pensioners than can they really contribute?

In my personal experiences, only a small percentage of the few that have returned to Tanzania have actually ended up in a position to contribute positively to the people of Tanzania.  We all know of an instance whereby the son or daughter of an influential government official has returned and made a name of themselves in Tanzania, whether this is a result of their continued education abroad, or the influence of their parents, it is debatable.  It's also debatable what can be considered 'contributing' to a nation, I mean if I leave at 21 years of age, and return at 50 and then open up a fast food restaurant (or mama ntilie), I'm a contributing?  lets be sceptical and say yes I am contributing, then there's the question could I not have opened up a mama ntilie or perhaps something better had I remained in the country?

A huge number of the my fellow country men and women who go abroad to study actually end up in dead end jobs, the number of hours they are legally allowed to work as a student leaves them unsatisfied with the money they make, you find that even thought they themselves are students, some of them are still expected to send something home to help out, the end result is working long hours illegally, their educational performance is reduced and coupled with a new way of life, it is very easy for them to get caught up and lose their way.  They wake up once they've realised that they've been away for over ten years, are still working in a factory and trying to make ends meet, granted they do have the latest music on their ipods and those vintage pairs of Air Jordans!  Where did it all go wrong?

Whether the same outcome would have taken place had they remained at home is anybody's guess, unfortunately the scenario described above is more prevalent then one where the educated African returns home as a success.

Dr. Yaw Nyarko also spoke of a double standard when speaking about African nations and western nations.  He say's the needs of the individual should be considered --as it is in the western world --rather than the needs of the community as it is in most if not all African Nations.  He mentions how the individual has a right to be able to decide what's best for themselves and immigrate to greener pastures should they wish to do so.  I am in partial agreement with his reasoning, mainly because the way of life of the western world and the developing world are totally different.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for people to be denied their rights to travel, I'm saying that African values are aimed at the community rather than the individual.  The community is structured in such a way that, what is best for  the group is more important than what is best for the individual.  Individual wants and needs are sacrificed to a certain extent for the benefit of the community as a whole.  In my opinion individuals are identified through the group dynamics, an individual cannot have rights if the group they belong to doesn't have that right...so if it is better for the community for you to stay and be a doctor in your own country then let it be so, but only if the conditions are in place for you to be able to stay and serve your community.

The government should make it easier for the brains of Africa to want to remain behind.  It's sad that to this day, no matter how highly educated you are if you don't know anybody, chances are you don't get the job.  Managers, CEO and people in influential positions would rather hire their relatives than the person most qualified for the position.  In such circumstances, how does the government hope to keep Africa's educated population within it's borders?  Is the brain drain good for Africa, partially yes in my opinion but the negatives far outweigh the positives when taking my beloved country of Tanzania into consideration.

Tanzanians in Canada

So a lot has happened since my last post, too numerous to chronicle on this blog so i'll just fill you in on a few. As it turns out, there actually is a Tanzanian community in Toronto!! In fact a relatively large and active community that has it's members on a listserv by which they communicate all the various events organised by the community.

I've been fortunate to meet with a few members and i've it's been a pleasant surprise to be honest with you. In fact the owner of the Tanzania Canada Association website happens to be a friend and colleague from Block 41 in Dar-Es-salaam. He just recognised me because i look so much like my brother (if you ask me I don't know how anyone could come to that conclusion!!), we exchanged numbers and the rest is history. I'm gonna generalise here when I say this but, based on my judgement there is a significant difference from the Tanzanian's I've come across here and the ones i've had the privilege to meet and experience in my previous home in the UK. The majority here are well educated and are professionals in their own right. I'm talking about Doctors, Teachers, Project Managers and Engineers, people working in the provincial Government, major financial institutions, Universities and so on and so forth, it's amazing, and i'll be honest I'm pleasantly surprised and quite happy about this. Maybe I was mixing in the wrong circles before and like i said I'm grossly generalising but this difference is palpable to someone who has experienced both cities and communities.

So far i've been to a coouple of events organised by my fellow Tanzanians and in both, i've been pleasantly surprised. I mean there is the usual, i.e guys sticking by the edge of the club or whatever too cool to dance, but you can tell people are there to have fun and enjoy themselves. I haven't yet seen any over the top gestures form anybody.

On a different note, as is common amongst the Tanzanian community when they see something good, there's been a huge number of people who have taken to blogging, the more the merrier if you ask me, but what has also happened is thta you see more or less the same information regurgitated from one blog to another. A few have managed to distinguish themselves and keep ahead of the competition by focusing on various niches in the market, for example Bongo Celebrity which gives it's readers a wonderful insight into the minds of various celebrities and dignitaries from Tanzania amongst other issues. If there is one thing in common in all blogs and this seems to be the crucial in the success of the blog is the language used. All these blogs communicate in swahili, and this is something i've been contemplating on doing as well, but then again, lets see how it goes.