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X-mas: Clerics caution govt
2007-12-26 09:57:23
By Hannah Mwandoloma and Judica Tarimo
The world marked Christmas yesterday with a Christian cleric describing corruption and HIV/AIDS as serious problems whose impact on Tanzania`s social, economic and political development was devastating.
Roman Catholic bishop Damian Dalu also lashed out at people in the public service fond of misappropriating national resources at the expense of the poor majority.
In a sermon at Christmas celebrations held at national level in Geita, the cleric said such people ``always think of themselves while forgetting that they are the main source of this endless grinding poverty among our Tanzanians``.
``Their corrupt behaviour is deep-rooted, some having gone to the extent of seeking for bribes for every service they offer needy members of the public,`` he noted in the sermon, broadcast live by the State-owned Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam.
Turning to HIV/AIDS, which he said was a serious threat to the country’s development, the bishop made an impassioned appeal to Tanzanians to change their behaviour “so as to reverse the devastating impact of this scourge”.
``Behaviour change at workplaces and all other areas is of fundamental importance if we are to protect ourselves against the risk of HIV/AIDS infections,`` he pointed out.
He dismissed as rash, defeatist and groundless suggestions that people cannot lead normal lives without sex and urged Christians to keep the scourge at bay by praying hard, respecting themselves and having regard for their lives.
Bishop Dalu also challenged Christians to use Christmas time “to plant good seeds of peace and true love for one another and, most importantly, love for children whose parents had succumbed to HIV/AIDS”.
The head of the Full Gospel Bible Fellowship Church, Bishop Zakary Kakobe, meanwhile used a Christmas mass in Dar es Salaam to ask Tanzanians “to respect and value the foundation of love and solidarity built by the founding fathers of the nation”.
“If you compare Tanzania and Western countries, we are much better off when it comes to the loving one another.
In our societies, one could safely knock the door to somebody else’s house and ask for food or any other kind of assistance. But that is impossible in Europe,” he observed.
“That is proof that there is no true love in Europe. If you knock somebody’s door without an appointment, your host may call the police to come and arrest you,” he added.
The widely travelled bishop said many people in Europe and other places in the West had died because of loneliness, simply because there was nobody to show them love.
“The simple explanation for those needless deaths is that everybody is too busy to bail out any other person.
There is just no time for people to show love to one another,” he said, appealing to Tanzanians to respect and use all they could to maintain the spirit of love and togetherness initiated by the country’s founding fathers.
Meanwhile, Nsuduki Limbe of PST reports that Bishop Valentino Mokiwa of the Dar es Salaam Diocese of the Anglican Church in Tanzania yesterday recommended the revocation and rewriting of all mineral pacts entered into by the government and foreign companies under dubious circumstances.
In a Christmas Eve sermon at St. Alban’s Cathedral in the city on Tuesday night, he said he saw a bleak future for Tanzania “on account of the on-going plunder of the country’s minerals perpetuated by unscrupulous investors”.
``Planes hauling away minerals and other natural resources from our country have become a common sight,`` he said, adding that far too many suspicious foreigners are now heavily entrenched in business activities in Tanzania at the expense of Tanzanian citizens.
The bishop said 25 to 30-year mineral extraction contracts between the government and foreign investors were too long for comfort and the best they promised Tanzania was a disastrous future.
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