I heard the news first by the grapevine, but a few days recieved a letter from the Agency that they were pulling out of Tanzania. For that matter they were also pulling out of all of their partner countries in Africa and Asia. The focus we are told is that the focus will be on the Pacific.
This is essentially a political decision and I was aware of the murmurings, I had heard them before and a past government had intended for the same thing to happen - I, among others, wrote to that government and they remained with the status quo. This time I again wrote to the minister responsible with a failure result. While it is my democratic right to have my say, I have no illusions and I am like a small pebble in front of the minister's shoe and he kicks me without realizing that the pebble was even there. But I take heart because I know his backside will one day fester and not burst, so will need lanced by some huge needle!
Loti always said to me that politics is a dirty game, and I think myself as being not very political at all, but then, I am not adverse to write to governments and take my personal stance on various things and that makes me political too. Mind you Loti is now in politics too, so there we are!
You never know what the Agency agenda was in all this too, and it is much more expensive operating in distant countries compared to the Pacific. I probably could write a very good proposal had I been debating on that point. And as a nation we are cash-strapped just now.
But it fascinates me how the stroke of a pen can effect the lives of so many. The minister putting a line through the name of Tanzania impacts on the lives of many and that is without the developmental aid that would potentially go the people of Tanzania. I guess in the bigger scheme other agencies will step in - I do not know.
We see it all the time, the pencil goes through some organization effecting the lives of those involved and the pencil-wielder (we think) has a smug look.
We can't really denigrate these folk but we can just imagine the guy with the needle - and that puts a smug look on our faces.
This is essentially a political decision and I was aware of the murmurings, I had heard them before and a past government had intended for the same thing to happen - I, among others, wrote to that government and they remained with the status quo. This time I again wrote to the minister responsible with a failure result. While it is my democratic right to have my say, I have no illusions and I am like a small pebble in front of the minister's shoe and he kicks me without realizing that the pebble was even there. But I take heart because I know his backside will one day fester and not burst, so will need lanced by some huge needle!
Loti always said to me that politics is a dirty game, and I think myself as being not very political at all, but then, I am not adverse to write to governments and take my personal stance on various things and that makes me political too. Mind you Loti is now in politics too, so there we are!
You never know what the Agency agenda was in all this too, and it is much more expensive operating in distant countries compared to the Pacific. I probably could write a very good proposal had I been debating on that point. And as a nation we are cash-strapped just now.
But it fascinates me how the stroke of a pen can effect the lives of so many. The minister putting a line through the name of Tanzania impacts on the lives of many and that is without the developmental aid that would potentially go the people of Tanzania. I guess in the bigger scheme other agencies will step in - I do not know.
We see it all the time, the pencil goes through some organization effecting the lives of those involved and the pencil-wielder (we think) has a smug look.
We can't really denigrate these folk but we can just imagine the guy with the needle - and that puts a smug look on our faces.
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