The decade to come…

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Matthew 24: 6-8 

In no way do I consider myself a pessimist about the future. I am a pragmatic optimist, for I know in whom my hope lies. However as I look at the current local, national and international events today, I am going to take the liberty to make certain prediction about the decade the come.

Now I don’t consider myself a wannabe Nostradamus, nor do I claim to have any special ability to the see into the future, nor are these predictions based on any interpretations of biblical prophesies. I believe that anyone with a high school knowledge of world history and isn’t blind to recurring trends in history (which always repeats itself), who follows current events and employs a little common sense (which isn’t as common as the term implies), could make similar predictions. Nevertheless, here goes:

1. The U.S. will broker an agreement with certain elements of the Taliban whom they will declare as “moderates”, claim victory and get the hell out of Afghanistan… after losing hundreds, even thousands of troops with nothing to show for their sacrifice.    

 

2. There will be an ever new scramble for Africa, as the U.S. will manufacture reasons to increase military incursions within the continent via AFRICOM, in an effort to secure valuable minerals and oil reserves as well as blunt China’s growing influence. England and France, via the European Union will also attempt to re-establish their influence in some of their former colonies.

                                                                                                                               3. Black males, Muslim or not, will more and more be portrayed as a threat to national and international security. They will be accused of being religious, political, social and economic terrorists. This will lead to more frequent, stringent and intrusive profiling and harassment, which will result in an increase in detention, incarceration and extermination of Black males for “security” reasons.

                                                                                                  

4. The Obama administration will lobby for and get from the Democratic Congress another stimulus package worth billions for the financial and business community and claim it’s required for job creation. This will secure his second term as president. After 2016, he will be voted in as the Secretary General of the United Nations.

                                                                                                                             5. Sarah “Rouge” Palin will become the first woman and 45th President of the United States of America.

 

                                                                                                                                6. Iran will prepare to test a nuclear weapon with the assistance of Russia. Israel will then counter with a pre-emptive strike. The shit will then hit the fan!

7. After the death of Fidel Castro, the U.S. will attempt to regain control of Cuba and start a domino effect to turn back the tide of left wing populist regimes in Latin America, such as in Venezuela and Bolivia.

 

8. The Chinese economy will collapse under the crushing weight of the U.S. debt which it holds and will be exposed as the “paper tiger” which it truly is.

9. Speaking of tiger, Tiger Woods will break all of Jack Nicklaus’s records, regain all and even more sponsors, and become an even bigger merchandising phenom! He will also be arrested for having a loaded gun in his golf bag at the U.S. Open, release a rap albumn called “A Tiger’s Nightmare: Nigga$ in the Woods”, and will date one Black woman (kinda).

10. Al Davis will finally die and the Oakland Raiders will immediately win back to back Super Bowls!

“Charade Bailout Tanzania Style!” by Nkwazi N. Mhango

When the US government discovered big holes in its ailing economy thanks to underworld business by greed corporate, it invented bailout. Economists still fiercely differ on this. On the one hand there are those that take it as a smart move aimed at keeping the people in the main street afloat. On the other hand, there are those that look at bailout as sinking tax payer’s money to the hole. When one looks at the reasons they offer, they all seem to be right.

But again, logically, one thing makes sense. First of all, the US and other affluent countries have enough financial muscles to take on this. Secondly, the manner in which the bailout is conducted in some areas convinces, there can be romp in soon thanks to the signs the US economy is currently showing. Thirdly US caused this calamity to the rest of the world. Thus it deserves to do something about it even at the world level. Fourthly, greed and selfishness being the engines of capitalism as well as the bombs (as of now), there was no way the US would sit idly by and evidence its children dying of the disease it cultivated. It had to reap the benefits of its system as well as stand by when things go wrong. 

So the first thing to do was to take on greed CEOs who offered credit generously knowingly this irresponsibility would backfire. Their gargantuan emoluments like golden parachutes, salaries and the likes were practically abolished or slashed. To make sure that these crooks do nary get away with it, the government purchases some shares in affected firms so as to ultimately, for some, own them. Currently AIG and General Motors or Government Motors as it is joked, are under government watch as it becomes the holder of majority shareholder of the restructured company, with 60% of the stock. To make sure the crime is not repeated, White House receives briefings on economy almost everyday, among which is the state of the bill of health of bailed out firms. This way, the government is doing it’s business to see to it that taxpayer’s money is not swindled. 

Recently, Tanzania ’s unstoppable juggernaut-like government blatantly proposed bailout measures to her all-time-sick economy. This move sounds smart. Nonetheless, it’s already been seen as charade aimed at stealing taxpayer’s money. With rampancy of stinking corruption in the upper echelons of power, one can comfortably predict its end… it’ll end up a cropper as it morosely digs more menacing holes on the already moth-holed economy! 

One thing to remember, this is the same government that stupidly nationalized almost everything, especially profit-making gung-hos Nyerere found, after felling them and proving to be shoddy as far as business is concerned. Sadly by relegating back to business, this means privatization is a hoax or much bigger mess should be expected.

Let me prove my point. Tanzania secured a loan of over 1/-tn to bail out her economy. Amazingly, this amount is a debt whose interest rate is 11%. The good government in Dar es Salaam is planning to loan the same to some unspecified companies at the interest of 2%!  Reasoning and reality have been given a heave-ho of a sort! Who will pay generously forgiven 9%? Monkey business of course! If  this megalomania is not stopped, Tanzania’s economy will be ruined even more under the pretext of bailing it out. How should it stop crumbling if loans are sought to be abused as the case in point? 

Renowned economist Professor Ibrahim Lipumba and opposition MPs queried this and termed it as “flapdoodle” that needs a courage and heart of the mad to commit. He said, “I am getting some feelings that this plan is going to be like a crash programme. Normally crash programmes are implemented without adequate preparations.” Lipumba also added: “I listened to President Kikwete’s address …. and also read the speech budget. I could not find anywhere where an ordinary farmer is mentioned as far as the stimulus package is concerned.” Despite warnings from experts, as usual, like a wise monkey that sees, hears and does nothing, Dar is still hell bent to go on with this buffoonery!