mink

On the 25th of October, around 8am, for the first time in my life, I voted for my government. It felt envigorating, after all this time doing research and making conclusions about Tanzania's public sector. Results have yet to be announced as of today, and Zanzibar has nullified her votes due to an unauthorized victory announcement from the opposition, but this is Tanzania's most fiercly contested elections in history. Whatever the result may be, I cannot help feeling that the next 5 years will be very prosperous for Dar-es-Salaam (not sure about the rest of our country). Whether this prosperity is works to the benefit of our people or not will probably be decided by what kind of administration is voted in over the next day or two. Mungu ibariki Tanzania.

I have generally considered any non-profit organization I come across as being part of the public sector. However, if I register a non-profit, and use my own capital to run things, regardless of the work that I am doing, is the organization still part of the public sector? What if we did consider the work I was doing; would my organization be classified differently if I was running a neighborhood charity to fix neighborhood walls? Should the public-private classification be based on start-up funds, or content, or both, or something else?

Just came across this page on The Economist and am left wondering how I never saw it before. My favorite excerpt: "Do not be hectoring or arrogant. Those who disagree with you are not necessarily stupid or insane. Nobody needs to be described as silly: let your analysis show that he is. When you express opinions, do not simply make assertions. The aim is not just to tell readers what you think, but to persuade them; if you use arguments, reasoning and evidence, you may succeed. Go easy on the oughts and shoulds." I was also happy to be reminded that I need to get a copy of Orwell's "Politics and the English Language".

"In any self-organising system there is a need to escape from a local optimum in order to move towards a more global optimum. The techniques of lateral thinking, such as provocation, are designed to help that change." -- Edward de Bono on Lateral Thinking

It seems unrealistic for any society to have pleasantly smooth beginnings. Disruption seems inevitable in the first few decades of a society that is being built. TZ gets complimented on how "stable" it is. But does this stability come at the risk of complacency and lack of significant progress?