I haven’t got one yet, though recently I had a nasty experience as a consequence of getting carried away.
Think of politicians, for example. They would be given one hour to deliver a speech and they would spend the first ten minutes or so talking about things that are quite irrelevant to the occasion.
They would spend one and half hours explaining things which they could say in only half an hour and they would still be well understood by their audience. And fifteen minutes after two hours they would say, “I would not like to take a long time to explain…………”
At some point they lose track of time and imagine that people are really interested in what they are saying, and this drives them to speak on and on.
The same applies to priests and pastors. Some of them would deliver sermons for hours on end without even stopping to think if the congregation is listening and showing any interest in what they are saying. Some of those who give long sermons argue that they are guided by the Holy Spirit to so.
“I stop when the Holy Spirit tells me to, otherwise I can go on preaching the whole day if that is what God wants me to do,” one would say.Funny thing is that the same God does not keep most of the congregation awake to listen to and understand what His servant is telling them.
This reminds me of an incident in one of the towns in the Southern Highlands region when mourners grabbed the casket containing the body of their beloved one from inside the church and took it to the cemetery for burial, leaving the pastor and some people dumb-founded.
The point is, some people got impatient with the pastor as he got carried away and delivered an unnecessarily long sermon.Drivers also get carried away when they are on the road. Very often it is because the road is good and runs straight for a couple kilometres and there are almost no other vehicles within sight for a hundred metres in front and behind them.
The driver would step on the gas and relax, letting his mind wander off to the destination or to the origin of the journey. Sometimes he would recall events of the previous evening, if he had had a good time and at such times there would be no coordinationbetween his mind, body and the vehicle he would be driving. This may result in an accident or in breaking some traffic rules.
That is what happened to me a couple of days ago when I was driving from Morogoro to Dar es Salaam, and finding that the road was excellent I got carried away, stepped hard on the gas and overtook a lorry that was huffing and puffing on a small hill. The markings on the road indicated clearly that it was prohibited to overtake in that area.
In the back of my mind I realized that I had done something wrong and two traffic police officers stopped me about 100 metres down the road to confirm that I had indeed committed an offence.
“Jambo. I have stopped you because you have committed an offence,” the senior of the two told me. “So you will have to pay a fine of 30,000/-,” he added, calling his junior to come and write a receipt for me.“No, I don’t think I have done anything wrong. You don’t have to slap that fine on me,” I said.
The policeman then went on to explain how I had overtaken a lorry where I shouldn’t have done it and he said he even had photos of my car overtaking the lorry. I doubted about the photograph, but it was true that I had committed an office.
“Oooh yes, I remember now. The lorry was going rather slowly and I found that it was safe to overtake,” I told him.“That is better; you are now making my job easy. So you have to pay that fine,” he said. I tried to argue with him that a warning would do since I was not involved in dangerous driving and there were no vehicles going the opposite direction, but he wouldn’t hear any of that.
I was disappointed to pay the fine because that was almost all the money I had. I prayed that nothing happened on the way that would require me to spend money because I had none.
That evening in Dar es Salaam I met Sixbert Mwanga, Country Coordinator of Climate Action Network (CAN Tanzania). He told me he had organised a study tour to Bangladesh for about six Tanzanians involving parliamentarians, government officials, civil society organisations and the media and the team would be leaving the following day.
“What are they going to study in Bangladesh? I think they are a poor country like us. They don’t have much to offer, do they?” I asked him. My questions were prompted by a discussion I had with a retired medical officer several months ago about communicable tropical diseases.
“Think of a country like Bangladesh. In the 1970s, the name was synonymous to cholera, typhoid, measles and all such diseases you can think of. So, trainee medical doctors had to go to Bangladesh to study about these diseases; but I think the situation has changed now,” he had said.
And sure enough the situation has changed. “It is about the use of renewable energy in poverty reduction. Bangladesh is on course to using 100 per cent renewable energy within the next decade and Tanzanians have quite a lot to learn in that area,” explained Mwanga.
The country uses solar power, Solar Home Systems, in a bid to eliminate the use of kerosene and reduce environmental pollution. They also train women in the use of clean technology in order to better the livelihood of their families.
Farmers also use solar pumps for irrigation and this helps to raise production of food crops. The country also uses biogas for various domestic purposes.
“By October, last year, the county’s power generation from energy sources had reached 176 Megawats, with about 168 of these coming from solar power, six Megawats from biogas and two Megamats from wind. Their vision is to increase power generation through renewable sources so that they completely phase out non-renewable sources,” explained Mwanga, adding that Tanzanians could borrow a leaf from Bangladesh in transitioning from non-renewable to renewable sources of energy.
“So, why do you have people from various fields in this delegation? I would think a group of experts in various sources of energy would be appropriate,” I asked him.
He explained that everyone has a role to play when it comes to ensuring access to clean energy by all Tanzanians.
“Sometimes we leave the government to do everything, and when it doesn’t we shower it with blames and accusations. But the civil society, for example, has the role of raising awareness among communities of the need to access clean energy.
“They also train communities in the use of clean technology and act as a link between these communities and the government. It is also a pressure group that has to keep the heat on the government so that it works to improve the lives of its people,” he said.
While CAN Tanzania are the main organisers of the study tour, funding has been provided by World Future Council. Support has also been provided by Bright Green Energy Foundation and Bread of the World.
“We hope the study tour will enable Tanzania to learn from Bangladesh how to transition to 100 per cent renewable energy from fossil fuels and other non-renewable sources of energy,” Mwanga said.
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