Everyone should commute by bicycle. (at least sometimes)

There I have gone and said it.

Everyone should decrease the frequency of their commutes by personal vehicles. Statistics in the USA show that 40% of car trips are under 3.2km. That is walkable and ride able. I am sure it is the same in my home town of Arusha. Lots of people in my area, Sakina, work in town and it is 3-5km into town. It is ride able.

Kent Petersen ( kentsbike ) says it maybe better, but I want to give a personal touch to anyone who might read this from Arusha.

Is it realistic?

Bikes are okay to use.
First we have to change our mindset in Arusha and think of bicycles differently. They are not only for lower income people. They are just the same as a car, a means of getting from here to there. We shouldn't feel embarrassed to ride bicycles to work, errands, and school. Everything is relative. Everyone can just change the way they look at bikes. It is okay for rich and middle class people to commute by bicycle.

Maybe that is my role. Slowly try to make it okay to use a bike to get around some of the time.


Safety.
It is not as dangerous as you think. How do you know it is dangerous when you have not tried it.
It is dangerous when bicyclists do stupid actions and don't ride defensively. I have ridden to work over ten years probably 1-200 times per year to work and had one accident and I was not being attentive and some pedestrians passed in front and I locked up the brakes and slid and crashed bruising my ego. Wear a helmet. Be aware. Don't trust anyone. Assume they are trying to knock you down. Don't assume anyone sees you. Pedestrians are actually worse. Look for paths and lightly traveled roads. Have fun. Ring your bell alot. Use lights day and night.

Smile

Smile when you commute. Have personal interactions with people and arrive at work happy. Well I can't smile but at least i can smirk.


Start slow
Be realistic and start slow. Two days a week. Ride slow to work and make it exercise on the way home.

What to do when you get to work.
Shower at home before you leave. Don't use a backpack or pads in the helmet. change clothes at work. Maybe a wash cloth bath. Cool down the last 5 minutes before getting to work.



I still use a car.

See ya, Just now I am going to see my friend Pete's a bit past Usa River, by bike. I could drive but I will go by bike. It would probably take me 60 minutes to drive and it will take me like 90 by bike. Just trying to do my part.

Another time I will tell you how biking to work cured my bad back.

Arusha's first traffic light

Arusha installed and turned on its first traffic light this week, just one mind you, at the top of EAC road. Arusha is town of unknown population but it must be over 500,000 people with serious traffic congestion (bordering on complete mayhem) during "rush" hour. There are certain areas that traffic crawls all day long. We even have grid lock at times.

(picture)

A crew were working for the past week, diggin under the road and putting some foundations in the ground. Then on Wednesday after work as I approached the intersection there the colored lights were, waiting for me, suspended over the road, on poles on the left, on poles to the right, all over the place, pedestrian walk lights, and left turn, right turn, and straight ahead lights.

I have to admit I was a bit concerned I would know what to do as I approached in the left hand lane . I also had no idea that the 200 pedestrians standing around were feeling the same way about drivers.

I was turning left (we drive on the left) so I move into the left lane with a RED left arrow and pulled to a stop, the first car in the left turn lane. I was the one who will decide when to go, a big responsibility. They had painted a white line 10 meters back. That made me a bit nervous to stop that far back as in Arusha you keep inching into traffic until you force oncoming traffic coming from your right to stop. That is the only way to get anywhere. So I worry that drivers behind me will start honking and yelling, as they won't know there is a white line painted on the road signalling where cars should stop and wait for a light. Man!!! I know I am doing the right thing by TRAFFIC RULES in the book, but in reality I am breaking the norm for Arusha.

So there I am worrying, and I notice there are more pedestrians then usual on every side of the road. I think they must be stranded or confused about what procedures.

Next the pedestrian light to my left went to green. I expect a rush of people to cross. But not one of the 30 people on both sides of the road cross. Hmm. I thought about that for a bit until I realize they were just plain watching the novelty of traffic lights.

the green walk light flashes red, and soon after my left turn arrow turns green. I move ahead but have to almost stop for a traffic policeman who has started to cross the road to tell the driver on the other side of the road ahead of me to get going!

I drove on home and forgot about the traffic lights until I got an SMS from
AnnaJoyce saying "Have you seen the lights? It is hysterical. Hundreds of people directing,watching, yelling instructions to drivers when the lights change." I figure she is exaggerating.

The next evening I again "fossil fueled" and drove home 30 minutes after dark and found she had made an understatement. There are literally 1000's of people lined up ten deep watching and yelling directions to drivers. There were traffic policeman running around trying to tell people what to do. It was the biggest crowd draw at this corner since they reinstated safari rally races in Arusha in the late 1980's.

If you are really bored keep reading.

Now remember Arusha is a boom town, with unknown population, I think it is officially 350,000 but probably greater Arusha is half a million. We have traffic jams and gridlock every day during 8am, lunch and 5-7pm and some sections all day.

Add to this the fact that some drivers will overtake in your lane on either side, so when it backs up on a two lane road you can see one lane become three, until the one direction blocks the other direction.

If it were up to me I would of put in a round about. However yesterday I was heading in the east bound direction to the traffic light and it did indeed make it go faster. At peak travel time when my group went through that intersection we were going at 30kmph. that never happens.

Babu Eriki

Babu is grandfather in Kiswahili. On the 26th Amber and Seth had a boy, Gavin David Simonson! Nashesha is an auntie at 8 years old and loving it.

Something changed about 4 months ago and I have NO depressions and moodiness. Wonder what is different?

ZITTO KABWE'S SUSPENSION AN EPISODE OR AN EPITAH?

ZITTO KABWES SUSPENSION

AN EPISODE OR AN EPITAPH?

Issa Shivji

The suspension of Honourable Zitto Kabwe from parliament is not simply an episode. It is a beginning of an epitaph on the last twenty years of reckless privatisation and exploitation of national wealth and resources. The suspension was an occasion for the people to give vent to their accumulated grievances, problems, and frustrations.

Two decades of neo-liberal reforms has produced a deeply divided society and an utterly fractured politics. At one pole, there is a small group of filthy rich (walalaheri), who have used all means, fair and foul, to accumulate wealth. At the other pole, are the large majority of the wretched poor (walalahoi), who are desperately trying to keep body and soul together. Under Mwalimu, the ratio between the highest and the lowest wage/salary income earners was something like 1 to 8. The current one is 1 to 50, and that is an underestimate because it does not take into account unofficial, informal, and unaccounted incomes.

Every year over 800, 000 young persons are released on the labour market; hardly one-tenth of whom find formal jobs. Meanwhile, privatisation and capital-intensive investments continue throwing out more and more as redundant. Adding salt to the wound, politicians justify dubious foreign investment deals as creating jobs, as did Minister Karamagi in this episode. By his own account, he chased $800 million investment all the way to London because it would create 600 jobs. At that rate, Hon. Karamagi would have to make over 100 trips every month to London to sign $800 million worth projects to absorb the new entrants on the job market.

It is the elite who make such calculations to justify or condemn but the people know instinctively through real life experience that we are only rationalising the loot of our nation al resources. That is what neo-liberalism is all about. Looting of natural resources and making of profits by converting public goods education, health, water, electricity, land, bioresources - into private commodities is the driving force of globalisation. The Thatchers and the Reagan's of this world were the forefathers and foremothers of the neo-liberal phase of imperialism. The Foxes ( Mexico ) and the Mkapas ( Tanzania ) became the fathers of undisguised compradorialism on the continents of the wretched of the earth.

Use of public office for private accumulation, a sin during Mwalimus time, has been cleansed and legitimised. Businessmen enter politics to protect their ill-gotten wealth while politicians use public offices to acquire illegitimate wealth. Accumulate, accumulate has become the name of the game. Politics has become business as business has captured politics. The third phase president symbolised and rationalised this process. He is one of the few politicians who practised what he preached, as recent revelations in THISDAY have shown.

We have witnessed scandalous privatisation and other contracts IPTL, TTCL, TANESCO, CITY WATER, RICHMOND , KIWIRA COAL and BULANYHULU GOLD. When Zitto proposed a private motion to investigate the signing of Buzwagi deal, he deeply touched the feelings and aroused the discontent of the people. He was giving public expression to private doubts and suspicions. When he was unceremoniously suspended, fuel was added to the fire. Private anguish became public anger.

Steeped in the orgy of accumulation, our rulers failed to gauge the mood of the public. The reaction was unexpected. It was unprecedented. In a desperate attempt to rescue the situation, the Bunge, under the signature of the Clerk to the Assembly, issued a Statement on the legality of the suspension. It ended by issuing more threats: Beware you, the so-called activists, lest the heavy hammer of law befall you! That was provocative. The so-called activists are threatening to flood the streets with demonstrations.

Two days after the Bunge Statement, the Deputy Speaker Mama Makinda, flanked by two vice-chairmen of parliamentary committees, both CCM and both legally trained, gave a press conference. She argued that the suspension had nothing to do with the private motion but everything to do with the words used by Hon. Zitto. She deployed the standard, albeit tired, rationalization. People reacted the way they did because they were ignorant of parliamentary procedures. The parliament therefore was intending to educate the people on its workings. Let us see who needs to be educated.

What was the ignorance about? It was about the interpretation and application of the Kanuni za Bunge. Both the Statement and the Deputy Speaker argued that Zitto was penalised under rule 59(3). Under rule 59(3), an MP, who is alleged to have told a lie on the floor of the House in terms of rule 50(1), can be punished on a motion proposed by any other member of parliament and carried. Moreover, the penalty is not specified; so, the Statement seemed to imply, any punishment could be applied; the sky is the limit.

It is true that different lawyers can have different interpretations of the same provision. Only the courts have the last word. However, it is also true that some interpretations are credible; others are not. No reasonable lawyer worth his or her salt would advance an interpretation, which is obviously unreasonable or does not make sense. I will briefly clarify what the rules say.

Rule 50(1) forbids any member from telling a lie in the House. The speaker or any other member of parliament may require an MP to prove his or her statement in which case the member concerned is required to provide the proof within the time given by the Speaker for this purpose.

Under rule 59(3), an MP who has been given time to prove h/er statement fails or neglects to do so within time, then the Speaker shall impose a penalty on him or her provided in rule 59(2). The maximum penalty provided in rule 59(2) that may be imposed by the Speaker is to exclude the concerned MP from the House until the end of the meeting for that day.

Rule 59(3) also provides that any other MP, who thinks that the lie told by the concerned MP is so serious that it undermines the honour of the House, may propose a motion to suspend the concerned MP from performing his or her parliamentary duties for the duration stated in h is or her motion. Such motion is then deliberated upon and a decision made in the same way as other motions.

The Statement and the press conference argue that the punishment imposed on Mr. Zitto was a result of the motion proposed by Hon. Mudhihir Mudhihir under rule 59(3).

In my view, the application of 59(3) is dependent upon the happenings in 50(1). Three things must have happened before rule 59(3) comes into play. First, the MP concerned must have told a lie. Second, the Speaker must have given him time to prove the statement, which is alleged to have been a lie. Three, the MP must have failed or neglected to prove it and the Speaker did not use his powers to exclude him or her for the day.

Were these three conditions satisfied before Hon Mudhihir Mudhihir was allowed to propose his motion? First, what was the lie? The lie has to be identified before its truthfulness can be proved. The Statement seems to say that when contributing to the debate on the budget speech of the minister, Zitto had given an oral notice that he intended to bring a private motion for the appointment of a parliamentary committee to investigate the signing of the Buzwagi contract. Among other things, Zitto said that the Ministers answer on the issue was incorrect and that he had deceived the parliament. This was the lie identified in the Statement, after the fact, not by the Speaker at the time it was uttered. This was considered a lie because after Zitto had moved the motion and the minister had replied it was clear that the minister had not deceived (words of the Statement). Therefore, Zitto had failed to prove his statement, therefore Hon. Mudhihir Mudhihir was within rule 59(3) to propose the motion, and therefore it was correct for the parliament to impose the penalty it did.

It does not require a great legal mind to discover that this argument does not satisfy the conditions of rule 50(1) and 59(3). There was no ruling by the Speaker when Zitto gave his oral notice that he had told a lie in the course of his speech. There was no statement by the Speaker identifying the lie. There was no Order by the Speaker giving Zitto time to prove his statement. Because no time was given, there could not be any point in time when the time expired. And, because the re was no time given and no expiry of time, in law, Hon. Mudhihir Mudhihir had no basis for moving the motion.

The only reason I have gone into details is to show that the attempt to lean on law was a frantic attempt to justify the unjustifiable. Even if the official interpretation made sense and could hold, and even if it could be shown that the suspension was legal, it would make no difference to the perceptions of the people. For the people, Zitto was demanding accountability on their behalf. The Executive not only arrogantly refused to account, but used its party muscle in parliament to punish him unjustly. At the end of the day, the mining issue is a political issue, not a legal one. An action can be legal but not legitimate in the eyes of the people. In this case, it was neither legal nor legitimate.

We are beginning to witness the rise of a demand for resource democracy. People are demanding not only that their resources be in the hands of the nationals but also that the people should control them. People are fed up with the looting of their resources whether the looters are nationals or foreigners, white, black, pink, or blue.

© Issa Shivji</span>

Issa Shivji was a professor of law at the University of Dar es Salaam until his formal retirement in 2006.

Wolfowitz's Girlfriend Resigns as Wolfowitz's Girlfriend

The good part is the continuing news story is at the bottom however some of you might need some background to the latest news.

There is this an "organization" called The World Bank. As an uninformed, unofficial observer in Tanzania I am not sure if it is a bank, government institution, aid agency, loan shark, or a scam. You can visit their website and find their version. I am giving an opinion based on seeing who they give loans to in Tanzania.
Despite the fact that America is the main source of funds I doubt 20% of Americans know of this organization. If you live in the developing world you would of heard of it.

In my humble opinion , in short, it is an organization to divert various government funds back into rich peoples pockets. PERIOD.

Here is a recent article in the New York Times about the World Bank President Wolfowitz, which gives you an idea of some of the issues:

• Does The World Bank really help developing countries?
• Why does America get to "appoint the President?
• The article doesn't come out and say it but the woman in the article is Wolfowitz's girlfriend.
  
• Why does any governments hope to accomplish by giving low interest loans to huge projects in the developing world?
  
• In Developing countries, why do the loans go to foreign owned entities at all?
  
• Anyone who is Dick Cheney's buddy is suspect in competence, morality, etc
• Shouldn't the president of the world bank be a socialist?
  
• How successful are their projects?
• Wofowitz was born with a silver spoon up his ass. He was never in Peace Corps, never hitchhiked, never worked for minimum wage, never had someone beg for a dollar to live for the next day, never was a backpack traveler, never slept in a one room mud house, never took public transport. How can he run an organization with the word "world" in it, as the alleged beneficiaries do all the above?
  

I don't know who to give credit for this latest news article, but it came from a reliable source (email).


Wolfowitz's Girlfriend Resigns as Wolfowitz's Girlfriend

Relinquishes Girlfriend Post `Effective Immediately'

In yet another setback for the embattled World Bank
president, Paul Wolfowitz's girlfriend Shaha Riza
announced today that she was resigning as Mr.
Wolfowitz's girlfriend, "effective immediately."

While Ms. Riza's role in the conflict of interest
scandal involving Mr. Wolfowitz and the World Bank had
placed her in the eye of the media storm, few had
expected her to relinquish her girlfriend post without
a fight.

But according to a source close to Ms. Riza, the
increasing pressure on the high-profile couple in
recent days had convinced her that she "could no
longer function effectively as Paul Wolfowitz's
girlfriend."

A joint communiqué released by the couple indicated
that the decision to leave her girlfriend post was
entirely Ms. Riza's, but sources close to Mr.
Wolfowitz suggest that the idea had originated not
with her, but with the World Bank president himself.

According to one source, "Paul had dinner with Shaha
last night and told her they should start seeing other
banks."

News of Ms. Riza's departure sparked speculation that
Mr. Wolfowitz's might have difficulty acquiring a new
girlfriend, but according to Vice President Dick
Cheney, who has served as Mr. Wolfowitz's unofficial
"wingman" for years, nothing could be farther from the

"The fact that the World Bank found Paul guilty of
wrongdoing gives him an air of danger," Mr. Cheney
said. "The ladies dig that."

Close call

Evelyn my niece (who happens to work with me) came back from West Africa on Friday. The same flight crashed on Saturday killing everyone.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/05/05/kenya.plane/index.html

Na Mifuko yangu je?

You have to know Swahili for this one, and have lived in Tanzania, and remember the time when plastic bags were scarce and a possession, not something you throw on the side of the road after the first use.

Up until about 5 years ago there used to be this old colonial lady in Arusha, called Mama Saska. She had a doctorate in something (I believe) and came from East Europe during colonial times. Any way she had to make a living after her husband died ages ago and did so by making floral arrangements for important meetings and weddings ( before Tanzanian women caught on). She drove this famous old car around, having bought it 50 years ago new.

She had this exotic garden with about every kind of flower and tree. I had fresh flowers to sell and she was one of my stops a couple of times per week. She always wanted my tuberose.

One day she told me this story.

She had two huge macadamia nut trees. As you might know Macadamia nuts are expensive. It was good money for her. It came a period when she was getting less nuts from the trees. She asked her assistant and the night watchman Paulo (name changed to protect the innocent) whether animals were eating them or something. Neither had any idea what was happening to them.

Then she noticed that in the evening there were a more on the ground than in the morning. So Mama Saska laid a trap. She decided to be outside when the night watchman Paulo left early in the morning, something she rarely witnessed.

The next morning she spied Paulo leaving with two big plastic bags with handles. (This was before the time of free plastic bags lying all over the place, given out free when you buy something in a shop.) She confronted Paulo as he reached the gate and demanded " what is in that bag?" Paulo had no option but to show her the contents, as she is a mzee, memsahib, and his boss.

Low and behold he had shelled the nuts, and sealed them in smaller clear plastic bags. Ready for sale. He probably had about 20,000shs worth of nuts bagged up. His salary at the time was 100shs per night.

Mama Saska was furious. Furious. As only a white memsahib can do, she berated Paulo, threatening to fire him, take him to the police , etc.

Poor Paulo had no recourse but to hand over the bags of nuts in the two big plastic bags. His lucrative side business was over.

But he had the balls in the end to say "Na mifuko wangu je?" (= what about my plastic bags, you got to give those back.)

(nb: I was going to correct that to "mifuko yangu" but I think he probably did say it the way I wrote it, certainly mama Saska said it wrongly, as I do most of the time.)

Moods

I am on the tail end of one of my moods. I have had them my whole life, but only the last 10 years or so did I realize moods/depression doesn't start because of external issues. It is just "mood swings". Chemical imbalances, whatever. I used to silently blame "the world", IE others during those periods for everything. A couple years ago they got really bad and frequent.

When these moods come I should simply get on my bike with a sleeping bag and ride for two days and turn around and come back home. As opposed to trying to keep going. I tend to just spin in circles during those times.

Politics as usual

It ain't enough just to campaign. Some people have to have anti-campaigns.

Here is a link to a site that is trying to "Rescuing America from the Radical Ideas of Hillary Clinton"
Go figure.

Picture of my brother's baptism in 1952

I found this picture last year while rummaging at my parents house after my mother's death. This story has two parts.

• I have been meaning to contact the second man from left, Dr. Hosea Macha. I picked up the picture because of him. (6 may 2007: there is now a whole story to tell about Hosea and his son Freddie.)
  
• After I had this picture in my hand I learned about the two other white people in the picture.

This picture was not in the two picture albums of their time in Tanganyika. It was loose in a box with pictures from all parts of the 20th century. I think it is a copy.

I know well the story of the man next to Dad (far right) , Dr Hosea Macha, being my brother Don's baptismal sponsor. He was then a medical student at Bumbuli Medical Assistant School, ten years before Tanganyika's independence. Don met Dr. Macha in 1970 on his first visit after HS graduation. This reunion was a good story as Don is 6ft 6 inches and Dr Macha announced to waiting patients that he held this kid at his baptism. The waiting patients had a good laugh. I have always been intrigued by this student that my father chose to be baptismal sponsor for his son, and have always asked other doctors where he is. So I put the picture aside (okay I stole it without permission).

A few days passed and I picked up the picture one morning and noticed the fine handwriting on the bottom and top of the picture. Mom could write very very small, she did this out of frugality. She didn't want to waste space or ink. I didn't even see the handwriting when I first stumbled on the picture.

If you have good eyes you can read the writing. If not click on the picture, or take my word for it.

The first name is Mrs Friberg. Huh! At first I think it is Dr. Steve Friberg's mother, then I realize it has to be his grandmother! Steve and his family are undoubtedly the family we are closest to as a whole family after Bernice's immediate family. So it took a generation to get back together it seems. I thought that was very cool and now the picture was definitely a keeper. I had no idea that my parents knew Steve's grandmother.
Below in the middle are Mrs Fribergs great grandchildren with their good friends and our neighbor.

A few days later and Don's sister in law Lori (and my friend since High School, and girlfriend in High School) comes around to check out the oak kitchen table. I show her the picture and explain how cool it is that 35 years later Steve and I meet without knowing of any previous family ties and become friends. I show her the small handwriting and Lori says "who is Pastor Cunningham?" I put on my reading glasses and sure enough the old white guy in the middle is another friend's grandfather! So I have a picture that ties two of my friends to another generation.

This is Pastor Cunningham's great granddaughter and her Dad.
And another great granddaughter Nasha.

A year later I noticed that Mom didn't put in one of the two student's names. I ponder the implications of that and came up with they were Dad's students and how could she remember the name. My siblings all know the name Hosea Macha. I know the name Hosea my whole life but not the Europeans in the picture. Sijui.

For fun here is a picture of my family 3 years or so before I was born, taken somewhere in the Usambara Mountains above the village of Bumbuli where Don was born.


And here is the letter mom wrote in 1953 after his birth.


Typical of my parents that my dad have mom administer her own anesthetic.

Book of the month

Once in awhile I read a book and call it a "keeper". That means that I want a hardcover copy and want to reread it every few years. This is not a loaner book, it is a "keeper".

"Into the Wild" by JON KRAKAUER, he is better known for Into Thin Air.

Steve Friberg loaned me the book on Monday saying it was not as good as Into Thin Air. I started it in bed that night and took it to work with me on Tuesday, I never take a book to work unless it is technical.

After I finished this book I woke up Erik Mdogo who was sick in bed and said "This is a keeper". He gave the book back to me the next day.

the American Academy of Arts and Letters says of this book "while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."

I thought what the young man did was entirely normal. I just think he wasn't 100% prepared and took a big task. But then maybe I am not normal and that "lure" is still there.

I also started to remember how much I regretted settling down as early as I did, which wasn't all that early. Settling down was getting that first job that tied me down and set a precedent. An interesting and challenging and rewarding job.

Driving to work on Wednesday I vowed that I need to get out more regularly into wild places to renew my soul.

The Last of the Socialists

Am I the last of the socialists in Tanzania? Seems everyone else regrets that period. Those years were good ones for me.

I have issues with my salary as managing Director and shareholder.

People I admire

Periodically I am going to blog about people I know and admire, however I am going to start with two people I admire but don't know personally.

Nelson Mandella
I mean like the guy was in prison for 20+ years. And he comes out and talks about reconciliation with the regime that put him away! Secondly he stepped down from being President of SA. That rarely happens in Africa.
When George Bush traveled to South Africa a few years ago, Mandela decided to leave the country (in protest is how I interpreted it), even after Mr Bush made it clear he was coming and wanted to see Mandela. Mandela said something like, I have nothing to say to you until you stop this invasion of other countries, like Iraq.
And when Brenda Fassie was singing at the Kora Music Awards about 3 years ago, he is in the audience, and Brenda sings and skips down to him. He was so cool.



Jimmy Carter
I mean the guy is simply a plain decent guy. What was he thinking going to Washington as President? For his inauguration parade he walks. He walks with his family. Think about it. Then in the white house he decides that they should put in some solar energy, so he converts 30% to using solar. Cool. (Of course Regan removed it.) Now this guy is my kind of guy.

He is involved in Habitat for Humanity and is always trying to bring world peace. He has the guts to say what Palestine Refugee camps are concentration camps.

New Blog

As if anyone reads these blogs.

Basi, this is a blog for non bikers but will include all my blogs from mzungueriki blog, which is about bicycling around home, and another one that is not public.

Koko means fake. I have been accused of being a "fake" Mzungu (European). Which is a compliment, nafikiri (I think). Those from bongo land get the picture. For the rest of you......... well forget it, it takes too long to explain.