CCM "YARUKA KIMANGA" KUHUSU ISHU YA OIC

CCM haihusiki na OIC-Msekwa

27 Oct 2008

By Waandishi Wetu, Dar na Zanzibar

Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) kimeukana mpango wa Tanzania kujiunga na Jumuiya ya Kimataifa ya Kiislamu (OIC) na kusema kwa hilo vyombo vya habari na maaskofu wanakionea. 

Akizungumza na Nipashe jijini Dar es Salaam jana, Makamu Mwenyekiti wa CCM (Bara), Pius Msekwa, alisema suala la kujiunga na OIC limo mikononi mwa Serikali na CCM haihusiki. 

``Mbona mnanionea jamani, kwa kweli kuniuliza juu ya jambo hili mnatuonea. Suala la kujiunga na OIC sio la CCM na wala aliyesema maneno hayo sio mimi wala kiongozi wa Chama,`` alisema. 

Pamoja na Msekwa kuukana mpango huo, lakini maamuzi makubwa yanayohusu nchi hayawezi kuamuliwa na serikali bila chama tawala kutoa baraka zake. 

Hata hivyo, Msekwa alisema hawezi kuingia kwa undani kujibu kauli iliyotolewa na maaskofu 58 wa Jumuiya ya Kikristo Tanzania (CCT) kwamba watauangalia upya uhusiano wao na Serikali pamoja na Chama tawala, iwapo mipango wa kuiingiza nchi katika jumuiya hiyo pamoja na kuruhusu kuundwa kwa Mahakama ya Kadhi itaendelea. 

Alisema hawezi kuamini kwamba ni kweli maaskofu walitoa kauli hiyo, kwa vile katika mkutano huo yeye hakualikwa na wala hakuhudhuria. 

Alipoulizwa kwamba Serikali inaweza kuchukua uamuzi mkubwa kama huo (wa kujiunga na OIC) bila kupata baraka ya Chama tawala, Msekwa alizungumza kwa hasira huku akilalamika kwamba maswali hayo yana lengo la kumuonea. 

Hivi aliyetoa kauli ya OIC ni mtendaji wa Serikali au mtendaji wa CCM? alihoji na kuongeza: Unataka ufafanuzi juu ya uhalali au ubaya wa hicho unachouliza, tafadhali muoneni huyo huyo aliyesema, Chama hakihusiki, mbona mnaendelea kunisakama kwa jambo nisilolijua. 

Msekwa alisema anaamini Serikali ina majibu mazuri na yenye uhakika kwa vile haiwezi kufanya jambo ambalo halina maslahi. 

Wiki iliyopita Waziri wa Mambo ya Nje na Ushirikiano wa Kimataifa, Benard Kamillius Membe, aliwaambia waandishi wa habari kuwa suala la kujiunga na OIC halina madhara kwa taifa. 

Kauli hiyo iliamsha wasikwasi wa maaskofu ambao licha ya kukemea kauli ya Membe na kumtaka ajiuzulu, pia walisema kitendo hicho ni uvunjaji wa Katiba ya nchi na kubomoa misingi ya umoja wa kitaifa. 

Hata hivyo, Baraza Kuu la Waislamu Tanzania (BAKWATA) lilipinga kauli ya maaskofu kwa kupitia kwa Kaimu Mufti, Sheikh Suleiman Gorogosi, kuwa inalengo la kupotosha. 

Wakati huo huo, Serikali ya Mapinduzi ya Zanzibar (SMZ) imeunga mkono mpango wa Serikali ya Muungano wa Tanzania wa kutaka kujiunga na OIC kwa kuwa itasaidia juhudi za kukuza uchumi na ustawi wa wananchi wake. 

Tamko hilo lilitolewa jana na Waziri wa Nchi Ofisi ya Waziri Kiongozi, Hamza Hassan Juma, alipokuwa akizungumza mjini Zanzibar baada ya kujitokeza kwa tofauti kati ya taasisi za kidini dhidi ya uamuzi wa Serikali ya Muungano. 

``Zanzibar tunaunga mkono uamuzi wa Serikali ya Muungano wa kufikiria Tanzania kujiunga na OIC kwa vile suala hilo halihusiani na mambo ya dini na litanufaisha jamii katika ustawi wa maendeleo, alisema Hamza. 

Alisema ndio maana Zanzibar imekuwa ikitetea kila mara Tanzania ijiunge na Jumuiya hiyo kwa vile misaada na mikopo inayotolewa na OIC ikiwemo miradi ya elimu na huduma za kijamii itanufaisha Watanzania wote bila ya kujali itikadi zao za imani ya dini. 

Alisema kuna mataifa mengi yaliyojiunga na Jumuiya hiyo licha ya nchi hizo kuwa na waumini wachache wa dini ya kiislamu na kuzitolea mfano nchi hizo kuwa ni Uganda na Msumbiji ambazo tayari zimeshanufaika na mfuko wa maendeleo wa OIC katika sekta za elimu, afya na viwanda. 

Akizungumiza suala laMahakama ya kadhi,, Waziri Hamza alisema wananchi waondoe hofu kwa vile mahakama hiyo si jambo geni kutokana na mfumo huo kuwepo visiwani Zanzibar bila ya kuathiri madhehebu mengine ya dini. 

Mhadhiri wa Sheria katika Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam, Dk. Sengodo Mvungi, amesema kunahitajika meza ya mazungumzo itakayokutanisha makundi yote ya Watanzania kujadili masuala mazito yanayowakabili kama kuanzishwa kwa Mahakama ya Kadhi na la kujiunga na OIC. 

Akizunguza na waandishi wa habari jijini Dar es Salaam jana, Dk. Mvungi alisema malumbano yaliyozuka hivi karibuni, na ambayo bado yanaendelea yanaonyesha dalili mbaya kwa mustakabali wa kitaifa. 

Alisema matatizo yaliyopo nchini, yanasababishwa na mambo mengine, lakini lililokubwa zaidi ni ile tabia ambayo imejengeka nchini kwamba hakuna anayetaka kumsikiliza mwenzake. 

``Hoja kama OIC au Mahakama ya Kadhi zinatakiwa zijadiliwe kwa lugha ya utaifa, pande zote zinazohusika zikutane, zikae pamoja na zijadiliane kwa maslahi ya kitaifa, tuache pembeni dini zetu, kabila zetu na koo zetu,`` alisema na kuongeza ``Katika mambo mazito kama yanayoendelea nchini lazima utaifa utangulizwe mbele, vinginevyo tutaishia kulumbana na kugombana lakini hatutapata jawabu la matatizo yetu, alisema. 

SOURCE:Nipashe

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TUSIPOKUWA MAKINI SUALA LA OIC NA KADHI LITATUFIKISHA PABAYA

Moja ya matokeo (findings) katika utafiti wangu wa shahada ya uzamifu (ambao unahusu harakati za Waislamu nchini Tanzania) ni mtizamo wa asilimia kubwa ya Waislamu kwamba hawatendewi haki.Wapo wanaoona kuwa chanzo cha tatizo hilo ni sera za mkoloni (hawa si wengi),wengine wanaliona Kanisa Katoliki kama chanzo,huko wengine wakiilaumu serikali.Makundi hayo yako more complicated than nilivyoeleza.Kuna wanaohusisha ukoloni na ukristo,hivyo upinzani dhidi ya uislamu.Kuna wanaouona ukoloni kama mfumo wa kibaguzi (hapo ni siasa zaidi kuliko dini).Na kwa wanaolilaumu kanisa katoliki (au tuseme Wakristo),baadhi wanamwona Mwalimu Nyerere kama kibaraka wa Kanisa,wengine wanawatuhumu viongozi watengeneza sera hasa waliosomeshwa na kanisa (seminari) kuwa wanalitumikia kanisa indirectly.As to lawama kwa serikali,wengi wanaoiona kama inatumiwa na kanisa (hao ni wengi),na wanatuhumu baadhi ya viongozi wa serikali ambao ni waislamu kuwa wanatumika aidha kwa tamaa zao za kidunia au kwa vile hawana jinsi (mtumikie kafiri upate mtaji wako).Kwa kifupi,manung'uniko ya waislamu yalikuwepo wakati wa ukoloni (hasa kutokana na sera za kikoloni),yalikuwepo mara baada ya uhuru (japo hayakuonekana kutokana na siasa zilizozuia uhuru wa kujieleza) na yamejidhihirisha zaidi baada ya mageuzi ya miaka ya 80.Moja ya matatizo ya msingi ni ukimya wa policy makers katika at least ku-acknowledge existence ya manung'uniko hayo na dhamira thabiti ya kuyafanyia kazi.Kutambua kuwapo kwa tatizo ni hatua muhimu katika kulitafutia ufumbuzi.

Si nia yangu kutoa summary ya matokeo hayo hapa (nataraji kuchapisha kitabu baada ya kumaliza ngwe iliyobaki) bali lengo langu ni kuonyesha wasiwasi katika masuala mawili,kuanzishwa kwa mahakama za kadhi na Tanzania kujiunga na OIC,kwamba pasipo umakini nchi yetu itaelekea kubaya (I hope hapa sintaitwa mchochezi).Tayari viongozi wa kidini upande wa Wakristo wameeleza bayana upinzani juu ya masuala hayo.Viongozi wa Waislam nao wameeleza bayana kuchukizwa kwao na upinzani wa wenzao viongozi hao wa Wakristo,huku wakitarajia kuwa kinachosubiriwa ni utekelezaji tu.

Naomba kuweka wazi kuwa uchambuzi huu mfupi unafanyika kitaaluma,na hauhusiani na imani yangu kama Mkristo.Ni wazi kwamba hoja za kadhi na OIC zimekuwa zikitumiwa vibaya na wanasiasa,na wao ndio waliotufikisha hapa.Ilani ya Uchaguzi ya CCM ya mwaka 2005 katika Sura ya Nane,Kipengere 108 (b) inaeleza dhamira ya chama hicho kulipatia ufumbuzi suala la kuanzishwa kwa mahakama ya kadhi Tanzania Bara.Kwa kutotoa ufumbuzi huo hadi zaidi ya nusu ya muhula wake madarakani,yayumkinika kuhitimisha kuwa suala hilo liliingizwa kwenye Ilani aidha pasipo kufanyika utafiti wa kutosha au kwa madhumuni ya kupata kura za Waislamu.Kama ambavyo baadhi ya findings za utafiti wangu zinavyoonyesha,ukimya katika masuala yanahohitaji ufafanuzi au maamuzi unachangia sana kuelta mkorogani kwa wadau wa mambo hayo.Wanaodhani kwamba kwa suala hili litapotea kwa kukaa kimya,sio tu wanajidanganya bali pia wanaiweka nchi yetu mahala pabaya.

Kuhusu suala la OIC,again, kauli za wanasiasa ambazo hazilengi kutoa ufumbuzi wa matatizo bali kuyaahirisha kwa kuahidi "mchakato" (Man,I really hate this word) ndio zimetufikisha hapa tulipo.Kama hoja ilikuwa ni mchakato,then why not kufanya huo mchakato kabla ya kukurupuka kuongea as if maamuzi yameshafanyika?Kuna mfano unaotolewa mara kwa mara kuhusu uanachama wa Uganda kwenye OIC.Does it mean kila wanachofanya Waganda lazima nasi tufanye?Binafsi nisingependa kusema hapa kwamba naunga mkono au napinga Tanzania kujiunga na OIC (nina sababu zangu za msingi kitaaluma) lakini busara nyepesi tu ingeweza kutumika katika the so-called mchakato:kuwa honest kwa Watanzania pasipo kujali imani zao.Honesty nayozungumzia hapa ni pointi kama je Watanzania wanahitaji uanachama wa OIC?Nasema Watanzania na sio Waislamu au Wakristo kwa vile katiba inasema nchi yetu haina dini,ila wananchi wana dini.Tatizo la OIC ni la kikatiba zaidi kuliko kisiasa,na ilipaswa wanaolizungumzia walioanishe na vifungu husika vya katiba.Unfortunately,katiba yetu nayo ni sehemu ya matatizo yanayotukabili.

Kwa kuhitimisha,naomba akili na busara itumike katika kuyashughulikia masuala haya mawili.Let's put common sense infront of emotions.Kwa bahati mbaya,masuala ya imani yana tabia ya kuwafanya wahusika kuwa emotional.Ni muhimu pia kwa wanasiasa wetu kuweka mbele maslahi ya taifa na sio ya kufurahisha nafsi zao au kuwafurahisha watu wachache.It can be done,tukiweka mbele maslahi ya umoja,mshikamano,upendo na utaifa wetu. 

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IS AMERICA READY FOR A BLACK PRESIDENT? (SORRY,THIS POST IS SOOO LONG BUT WORTH READING IF TIME ALLOWS)

The latest polls say Barack Obama is set to win next month's U.S. election, becoming the country's first black President. But given its chequered racial history, has America finally shed enough of its prejudice to endorse Obama over his white Republican opponent John McCain?

Mail on Sunday columnist Suzanne Moore and David Matthews travelled from Louisville, Kentucky - birthplace of Muhammad Ali - through West Virginia and Virginia on their way to Washington DC. Their mission: to find out - from both black and white perspectives - how much the issue of race will dictate who becomes the most powerful man in the world...

The latest polls say Barack Obama is the clear favourite to win the U.S. Presidential election next month

Saturday afternoon and I am in a sea of people whooping and chanting 'USA, USA, USA'. It's cold but the excitement appears to be keeping most people warm.

We are waiting for John McCain to finally appear at this rally in Woodbridge, Virginia. I had seen a cardboard cut-out of him on the way in. I didn't realise it was life-size.

When he finally makes it on stage, to the theme tune from Rocky, McCain is indeed as small and stiff as the cardboard model.

Never mind, I have the merchandise and I'm wearing a badge that says 'Read My Lipstick. Drill Now' (a slogan for McCain's running-mate Sarah Palin) and holding a 'handmade' sign given to me by the rally organisers.

Country First banners are all around me. Allegiance is sworn to the flag.

Odyssey: David and Suzanne arrive in front of the Capitol at the end of their quest

A 12-year-old boy next to me asks why I am not wearing red. I explain that David Matthews and I are not really from around these parts. Can you be a 12-year-old Republican, I wonder? 'Sure, ma'am. My daddy trained me good.'

After all, we are in the VIP arena, with seats right by the edge of the stage. Walking in, a tall, blond man asked if we wanted 'to meet the governor'.

We found ourselves waved through the sweat-panted masses into a hand-picked, ethnically diverse crowd. There are Vietnam veterans, some very pretty girls and many 'people of colour'.

Actually, many colours. When the TV camera swoops down on us, McCain will have all his bases covered.

It doesn't matter that we don't have a vote. Yet this crowd, like everyone we meet, despises 'the liberal media', while passively accepting that this entire event is organised for TV.

'Have you always been a Republican?' I ask the man who pushed us through the lumpen crowd. 'Sure, I can read and write,' he says, winking.

Had he not been hustling us into the good seats, it seemed to me he would have been smoking his pipe and letting rip about why a 'goddam black terrorist Muslim' can never be let into the White House. He was GOP - the Grand Old Party - personified, and he made me uneasy.

Of course, not all McCain supporters are like that and we met many on our journey from Kentucky through West Virginia and into Virginia.

This election is not all about race. But it's always there - the subtext of every conversation, the prism through which much debate is conducted, the fault-line of American society. It is both ever-present and somehow invisible. This election is about real change. Race is but a factor - but one that is impossible to ignore.

A badge bearing Sarah Palin's slogan

George Bush has been ' disappeared', Vice-President Dick Cheney's heart has had to be restarted. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is nowhere to be seen.

Why isn't McCain running as an independent? Perhaps because, as Obama's adverts forever remind us, this 'maverick' voted with Bush 90 per cent of the time.

At the Woodbridge rally, Joe the Plumber - a worker recently captured on TV confronting Obama - is the symbol of the little guy who will be destroyed by the tax-and-spend madness of Obama.

It would later emerge that Joe was not called Joe and wasn't even a licensed plumber, but at the rally it seems he has become a kind of Spartacus figure.

I chat to Marilyn the Plumber and Phil the Bricklayer. When McCain starts talking about the disgusting idea of 'spreading the wealth', a woman behind me starts yelling: 'No to socialism!'

The mention of Palin brings forth the chants, 'Drill, Baby, Drill'. Where is Dr Freud when you need him? I am feeling more than a little foreign.

Driving here through epic scenery of mountains and forest, David and I heard the Right-wing DJs ranting: 'Do we want to be America or France?' France is the bastion of socialism, apparently. Someone should tell President Sarkozy.

Socialism has replaced communism as the bete noire for decent, hardworking folk, even though they are feeling the pinch and hit hardest by lack of medical insurance. Desperate tactics? Maybe, but they work.

Time and again people tell me there is just something about Obama they don't trust.

They are not all redneck racists. Many McCain supporters are thoughtful and polite. We met only one man, an old black guy whose number plate read 'I liveth', who didn't want to reveal his voting intentions.

On the campaign trail: John McCain speaks to supporters in New Mexico

Most people want to chat, though it has to be said that being on the road does involve meeting lots of lonely men in motels. But that's the American dream for you.

Driving from one place to another to flog their wares are the Phils, Jims and Stevens. The ones who are keen to tell David some of their best friends are black; who tell us all Southerners are pretty low down the food chain; the scary taxi driver straight out of the film Deliverance, who says McCain is way too liberal. He is a Christian Conservative, obese in his shorts, his arm in a splint.

Mind you, we then meet a woman, steering her filthy car with tattooed arms, who tells us she won't vote and 'doesn't give a s***'. She doesn't pay tax or expect social security. She has never heard of Sarah Palin. It's easy to forget some of the poorest people in this country are not black but white.

Nothing is clear-cut. At the starting point of our trip, Louisville, Kentucky, we find ourselves in a hip hotel where people just aren't that interested in the election. It's been going on way too long already. Or they have made their minds up long ago.

Louisville is the birthplace of Muhammad Ali and, as I wander around the huge museum built in his honour, I am struck by his words: 'I am America. The part you won't recognise.'

When Ali was growing up in Louisville, black people were banned from many places. This was, as he said, despite the fact that 'negroes had been working for 310 years for America, working 16 hours a day without a pay day, fighting all the wars for America'.

Ali's refusal to fight in Vietnam and his conversion to Islam cost him dearly, though he has since been reincarnated as an unthreatening and ill old man. Who now of his stature would say this about Iraq?

All mapped out: The route Suzanne and David followed

Many times, in many ways, I'm told Iraq and Afghanistan are winnable wars and McCain will protect America in a way Obama won't.

It is often black people who seem to have a different view. Tony, a black driver, tells us American history is black history - and this is in Richmond, Virginia, the centre of the Confederacy.

I read there are now a lot of interracial relationships, but the way people stare at me and David, it doesn't feel like it. Some black women clearly don't like the idea and kiss their teeth - and nor do some white men.

It feels more like suspicion rather than hostility, but still comes as a surprise in this ethnic melting pot.

When we venture into an El Salvadorean bar, the customers can barely contain themselves. All are from El Salvador and no one speaks English.

In their eyes, the fact that I am with a black man clearly makes me fair game, as it sometimes does on the street when we are explicitly looked up and down.

In bars I register the initial shock, often a flicker behind the eyes, but usually the unfailing ethic of 'Have a nice day' service kicks in.

It is still difficult for many British people to understand just how segregated America remains.

Cities such as Chicago, Washington and Los Angeles are physically divided. One crosses from a 'nice' - i.e. white - area into a ghetto or just a different kind of neighbourhood. If you're in a car, the driver locks the door.

Of course, there is a large black middle class, but there are many areas of this vast country where the racial divide is rarely crossed, where people live in separate communities and where any infringement of the boundaries is regarded by both sides as deeply undesirable.

In a bar, I meet Sadie, a black woman in her 50s from Philadelphia. I am still slightly reeling from a visit to the Civil War Centre.

This was a war about slavery - I don't think we were taught that in school. The South depended on slavery for its economy. Though Abraham Lincoln said 'if slavery is not wrong then nothing is not wrong', he would have continued it if expedient.

A few days earlier we had been in Hodgenville, Kentucky, where a replica of the log cabin Lincoln was born in is kept in a mausoleum. Very bizarre.

The car number plate of one of the Americans Suzanne and David met along the way

In the Civil War Centre, a nice old man explained how Obama could win - because all the minorities ( including women) may come together and overtake 'ordinary Americans'. Anyway, he asks us: 'Why did you get rid of Churchill?'

Sadie has a different take. 'It's just modern-day slavery here. There ain't no unions.' There are places she feels unwelcome. 'Martin Luther King forgot Richmond, put it that way,' she says. She likes Obama because he's a spiritual man.

What she sees as spiritual, others see as too cool. His composure during the third presidential debate was read by some as more ' smirking' elitism, though at the bar where we caught it on TV, we could barely hear his words as most people were watching sport on another channel.

Palin is the opposite, down with normal folk, 'pushing it up' on TV's Saturday Night Live. Days of discussion followed her appearance on the comedy show. Was she showing a sense of humour or should she be displaying more gravitas?

This was hammered home by Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama. It is quite something when it takes a Republican general to make the case for taxation and remind the country of how far it has moved to the Right.

On the road, many had been keen to emphasise that their dislike of Obama was not racially based and told us they would have voted for Powell had he chosen to stand. Still, the Right wing dismissed Powell's endorsement of Obama as being a 'tribal thing', which is out-and-out racism.

In reality though, much talk about race is in code. The 'trust' issues around Obama are sometimes a way of discussing race. But not always. Sometimes people are just afraid of change.

The Bradley effect is another threat to Obama. Named after Tom Bradley, a black politician who lost the 1982 California governor's race despite being ahead in the polls, it refers to an alleged tendency for voters to claim they are going to vote for a black candidate but then opt for his white opponent when they are in the polling booth.

The suspicion around Obama now, weirdly, is that he has raised too much money, and that he is trying to appeal to the 'regular white guys' and break down the all-pervasive small town mythology Americans hold dear.

This is odd because most actually live in huge and segregated cities, and the rural areas have suffered most from the economic downturn.

Stopping off in Lewisburg, West Virginia, I try to buy a newspaper, but there are no normal shops left. There are art galleries and chi-chi restaurants where you can eat chocolate torte sprinkled with gold dust, but the local shops have been destroyed by a huge out-of-town Wal-Mart superstore.

The economy remains a huge electoral issue but many seem genuinely perplexed by it. After all, they are continually being told - and telling us - they are the best and richest country in the world. Their patriotism is unnerving but binds this diverse nation together.

While David went to church, I sat in a McDonald's restaurant. I was served by Mexicans and had a Peruvian family on one side of me, Ethiopians on the other. I assumed many of these people cannot vote, as they are illegal citizens, though a young professional couple at the McCain rally disagreed.

'The Democrats will bus them in,' they insist. 'You have to understand that Democrats are very angry people.'

They are keen for me to know that being Republican is not PC in their workplaces. Ann Marie says she doesn't really care why people don't like Obama as long as they don't vote for him.

Along the way, the only straightforward conversations about race have been with black people. 'Look at McCain's body language,' they say. 'He don't want to get beaten by a black guy. He won't call him by name but always "the senator".'

Finally we get to Washington, this imperial city that Obama has sewn up. Michaela, a half-Mexican student, tells me how the Hispanic vote has swung behind Obama.

Still, I feel less certain after this trip that Obama has it in the bag. It will be a close call, I think. His victory would give final credence to the American dream, but it's not over yet.

We started our journey in the birthplace of the great Hunter S. Thompson, and I remember at the edge of the mountain, when the caffeine took hold, feeling very anxious.

I really want to be wrong, and the polls tell me I am, but I left America with a sick feeling that Obama could still lose. In which case, we all do.

They talk of 'trust' but they really mean 'black'

By DAVID MATTHEWS

We are inside a concrete mausoleum in Hodgenville, Kentucky, when the reality of modern America starts to take hold.

'It's a bit tacky, isn't it?' says Suzanne. I nod. Can they really use a replica wooden shack as a shrine to the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln?

'We are due a good President,' says the shrine's attendant, Stephen Brown. He is among the white Americans backing Obama.

'The problem is people around here go to church every Sunday,' Stephen whispers. 'When their preacher says Obama supports gay rights or abortion, and that's sinful, they believe it. These are good people but they listen to what these preachers say.'

If the polls are right, Kentucky is solid McCain territory. But on the ground, things seem less clear.

Over breakfast at the Springs Inn in Lexington, I meet Phil. 'I'm a redneck from Georgia,' says Phil, 'but I don't like McCain. Just because he's a Republican doesn't mean I'm gonna automatically vote for him.'

Phil, a fiftysomething pipe organ maker enraged by the economic meltdown, reveals his admiration for Sarah Palin - She's something else' - and says he would have voted for Colin Powell had he been the Republican candidate.

'He's a war hero, an experienced politician and he has respect at home and abroad. But he don't want the aggravation. Besides, most black people think he's an Uncle Tom, so he wouldn't get their vote.'

Phil is one of the few white Americans prepared to talk to us about race-politics, though, like many others, he claims 'race has nothing to do with it'.

Obama, meanwhile, still provokes fear and distrust.

Party time: David meets a McCain fan in Woodbridge, Virginia

'We don't know who he is or where he's come from,' claims Mary, a portly, middle-aged IT consultant, at a Lexington bar. 'He hasn't got the experience.'

While it's true that Obama is no political heavyweight, what experience did George W. Bush have, other than being the son of a former President?

And what about Palin? 'She's a mother of five children,' says Mary, 'and that takes some doing.'

The issues of 'trust' and 'inexperience' come up repeatedly as reasons to be fearful of Obama. Aside from their literal meaning, these words also strike me as extended code for 'black', tapping into a latent fear of 'the other'.

Americans live in constant fear, whether of ethnic differences, foreign attack, illness or financial ruin. No wonder US politics is fuelled by conspiracy theories.

'Obama's definitely gonna win but they'll try to take him out,' predicts George, a black security guard at the Keeneland race track, outside Lexington. 'But Obama's got more security than any candidate in history, so he'll be OK.'

Watching racegoers sip mint juleps, the demarcation lines between blacks, whites and Hispanics is clear. I notice only one other mixed-race 'couple'. In fact, during the entire week with Suzanne, I see just two obvious black-white relationships.

At first, many Americans assume Suzanne and I are an 'item'. We receive the odd stare, though it feels like the result of genuine smalltown curiosity than anything more sinister.

On the face of it, America seems to have moved on from Jim Crow.

Far more crude, though, is the gratuitous attention Suzanne garners from men, simply for being female.

During the Democratic nomination race, I had argued with many female friends that America was more ready for a white female President than a black male one. Judging by Hillary Clinton's doomed campaign and the salacious looks Suzanne receives on our trip, I'm about to eat humble pie.

'Americans are too stupid to care about the election,' warns Jim, a 52-year-old New Yorker on business in Huntington, West Virginia.

'If you're as low down the food chain as most people are around here, you don't give a damn who the President is. That's why they'll vote for idiots like McCain and Palin.'

The following day Suzanne and I stop at Lewisburg, the oldest settlement in West Virginia.

Black Americans are so thin on the ground that for the first time I get 'you're not from these parts' looks. Nevertheless, the open hostility I had anticipated is absent. 'Southerners smile in your face then stab you in the back,' one man explains.

Outside the Civil War Centre in Richmond, black Americans such as driver Tony are more explicit about the deep-seated racial divisions.

'Listen, if you're drowning and a man's holding a life-jacket, do you really care what colour he is? Throw the damn ring! Right now, America is drowning and Obama's the man that can pull us out the water. But a lot of Americans don't see it that way.'

As we reach northern Virginia, the political temperature is at boiling point.

Despite the McCain camp portraying Obama as a 'danger' to US security, the Illinois Senator is still riding high in the polls and drawing crowds of 100,000. In contrast, 5,000 are at a McCain gathering in wealthy Woodbridge.

Within seconds of clearing security at the event, Suzanne and I are ushered through the crowd by a McCain campaigner to our front-row seats by the Presidential candidate's platform - to appear as a publicity-friendly inter-racial couple for the TV cameras.

The following day, perhaps in need of some redemption after my role as a Republican mannequin, I go to the First Baptist Church of Chesterbrook in McLean, another prosperous suburb.

In August, a vandal had daubed the word 'n*****' on the front door of the 19th Century chapel - a reminder that racism is still alive and well in America.

The modest congregation is entirely black and led by a charismatic young preacher, the Reverend Todd Brown. He says that while he would not endorse any particular candidate, 'Senator Obama has shown calm and decorum in the face of personal attacks from the McCain campaign'.

Afterwards, I ask him why so few black Americans support the Republicans. 'When it comes to policy and other matters, Democrats consider the middle class more [where most black American families sit economically] than the Republican Party, which often makes decisions only to the advantage of the upper class in our society.'

By the time I reach the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, where Martin Luther King delivered his famous I Have A Dream speech, the outcome of the election is still unclear.

Many Republicans are still voicing disquiet with McCain; many white Democrats are still smarting over Hillary Clinton's nomination defeat; and many black Americans are still circumspect or too bruised by history to make predictions.

The polls, the pundits, and even the mythology of the American Dream itself favours an Obama victory on November 4. But as one young black voter says: 'If McCain doesn't win, maybe they'll just fix the result like they did in the last two elections. In America, anything can happen.'

SOURCE: Daily Mail

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UMEKUMBUKA KUBADILI MUDA KWENYE SAA YAKO? (MAALUM KWA UK)

British Summer Time imemalizika alfajiri hii (saa 7.59),na hivyo saa 1 inarudi nyuma.Just in case umesahau!

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"WHY A STAUNCH CONSERVATIVE LIKE ME ENDORSED OBAMA"-KEN ADELMAN

Remember this post?Well,here is a follow up:

Who cares?

That's what I wondered when George Packer (ace of the New Yorker) asked whether he could post my intention to vote for Obama on his blog.

So I duly ignored him. Only when he bugged me two days later did I say okay, and responded in quick, instinctive emails back.

Little did I know the splash this would make. Not until a day later, when my wife and I were up in Philadelphia to teach leadership via scenes from Shakespeare's Henry V for the Wharton Business School. When friends joined us for dinner at UPenn, they said their taxi driver had talked about my "endorsement of Obama," having read it online during a break.

What's most fun about unexpectedly "breaking through" on an issue is not feeling powerful, that you're molding minds out there. People make up their own minds, based on lots more information than my personal inclinations.

Okay, this type announcement can give (maybe a few) conservatives some cover -- not publicly to use with others, but privately to assure themselves that it's actually okay to break away. To break with the most conservative, or Republican, candidate and vote (in my case, the first time ever) for "the other guy."

And it's not most fun dealing with longtime friends, fellow conservatives. Most are polite and say they understand, and they'll get over it. Yet a few do get heated, show their disappointment, and say they can't understand my taking a public stance (even if I privately stray).

I don't enjoy those discussions, since I've long prided myself in being a staunch conservative.

Not a neo-con, since I was never liberal along the way (having campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964, when at that hotbed of lefty politics, Grinnell College). I'm really a con-con.

And not a staunch Republican, as I've never been to a Republican rally or convention (I came closest in 1980, after writing Don Rumsfeld's speech and after we drove there; but I left Detroit before the convention opened).

So I've considered myself less of a partisan than an ideologue. I cared about conservative principles, and still do, instead of caring about the GOP.

Granted, McCain's views are closer to mine than Obama's. But I've learned over this Bush era to value competence along with ideology. Otherwise, our ideology gets discredited, as it has so disastrously over the past eight years.

McCain's temperament -- leading him to bizarre behavior during the week the economic crisis broke -- and his judgment -- leading him to Wasilla -- depressed me into thinking that "our guy" would be a(nother) lousy conservative president. Been there, done that.

I'd rather a competent moderate president. Even at a risk, since Obama lacks lots of executive experience displaying competence (though his presidential campaign has been spot-on). And since his Senate voting record is not moderate, but depressingly liberal. Looming in the background, Pelosi and Reid really scare me.

Nonetheless, I concluded that McCain would not -- could not -- be a good president. Obama just might be.

That's become good enough for me -- however much of a triumph (as Dr. Johnson said about second marriages) of hope over experience.

Now what's most fun about the media breakthrough is hearing from gobs of people from previous lives. Many long forgotten, reminding me of long forgotten times together. People emerging suddenly, from the dark matter of time, into the recesses of the brain.

These folks were important at various stages of my life -- grammar school playmates, Grinnell classmates, Indianapolis cousins, Dan Quayle, Dick Allen, colleagues from the Reagan arms control agency (chuckling over my quip to Packer that I wouldn't have hired Sarah Palin to a mid-level job there).

A veritable stroll down memory lane, to see a line of people who have touched my life at various times, in its varied stages, reconnecting in a most unexpected (even bizarre) manner.

Now that's fun.

SOURCE: Huffington Post

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MCCAIN DECLARES BUSH PERSONA NON GRATA,LITERALLY

Read it HERE

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UZALENDO NI SAWA NA UHAINI?

Pamoja na umasikini,madudu ya kisiasa,ufisadi na mengineyo yanayochukiza kuhusu nchi yetu ya Tanzania,mimi (na pengine wewe mwenzangu) bado tunaipenda nchi yetu.Nina sababu lukuki za kuipenda (au hata kuichukia) Tanzania,lakini ya msingi zaidi ni ukweli kwamba mimi ni Mtanzania,Tanzania ni nchi yangu na kwa vyovyote itakavyokuwa huko mbeleni bado nitabaki kuwa Mtanzania.

Hata hivyo,haitoshi kuwa Mtanzania tu.Haitoshi kuipenda Tanzania pasipo kutafsiri mapenzi hayo kwa vitendo.Kwanini?Kwa sababu pasipo kuhakikisha kuwa Tanzania inakuwa bora,inakuwa mahala salama pa kuishi,na inadumu kama nchi,Utanzania na mapenzi yetu kwa nchi yetu yanaweza yasiwe na faida au kuna mahala tunaweza kufika tunapenda kitu kisichokuwepo.Au kibaya zaidi,tunaweza kufika mahala ambapo ukisema "naipenda Tanzania" unaonekana taahira kama hutoishia kupigwa mawe.

Weka pembeni umasikini,weka pembeni maradhi,ufisadi,na matatizo mengine ya kijamii,kiuchumi au kisiasa.Tatizo kubwa na la hatari zaidi kwa Tanzania ni UZALENDO.Ni tatizo kwa sababu uzalendo unapotea kwa kasi.Ni tatizo kwa sababu nchi iko ilipo sasa kutokana na wachache wasio na uzalendo kwa nchi yetu.Ni tatizo pia kwa vile imefika mahala ambapo baadhi ya wenzetu wameanza kutafsiri uzalendo ni sawa na uhaini.Hawa ni wale ambao kwa vile wana uhakika wa kuamka wakiwa salama,kupata matibabu ya daraja la kwanza,kupata mishahara na posho nono sambamba na usafiri wa bure,pamoja privileges nyingine.Wenzetu hawa wanasahau kwamba wana babu,bibi,baba,mama,kaka,dada,wadogo,ndugu,jamaa na marafiki mtaani ambao wanateseka kutokana na matendo ya wasio wazalendo (mafisadi,nk).

Kwa kulinda maslahi yao binafsi na ya wale waliowaweka kwenye ulaji,wenzetu hawa hawataki kusikia neno lolote linalowahusu watu wa kawaida.Kuzungumzia lolote kuhusu kundi hili la walio wengi inatafsiriwa kuwa ni utovu wa nidhamu,kwenda kinyume na taratibu na pengine uhaini.Wanachosahau ni kwamba Tanzania ikichafuka,hizo raha zinazowalewesha nazo zitapotea.Badala ya kuwanyanyasa wale wanaohangaika kuifanya nchi yetu iwe katika hali nzuri,wanapaswa kuwaenzi na kuwasapoti.

Tanzania ni yetu sote,sio ya kikundi kidogo cha watu wanaotaka kusikia yale wanayopenda wao tu japo nao wanaona kabisa madudu yanayofannywa na majambazi,mafisadi,wazembe,mafuska wa itikadi,nk.Hizi tabia za kupiga makofi ya shangwe hata chifu anaposahau kufunga zipu yake zitatupeleka pabaya.Amani ina tabia tatu kuu: inachukua muda kuipata/kuijenga,inachukua muda mfupi sana kuiharibu/kuipoteza,na inachukua muda mrefu zaidi kuirejesha pindi ikitoweka (na pengine ikishapotea hairejei tena).Tuna kila aina ya mifano inayotuzunguka:Somalia,DRC (Zaire),Sudan,nk.

Tusipofanya sasa tunachopaswa kufanya kuilinda Tanzania kwa nguvu zote na kuwasapoti wazalendo wote wanaotusaidia kufanya hivyo tutaishia kujilaumu huko mbeleni.Na hakuna sehemu mbaya ya tatizo kama inapofikia hatua ya kusema "laiti tunge..."

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JARIDA LA RAIA MWEMA WIKI HII: TAIFA LIKO HATARINI

WANASIASA, viongozi wa dini na wananchi wameelezea kushitushwa kwao na hali ya kisiasa na kiuchumi inavyoendelea nchini, wakisema kwa sasa nchi iko hatarini kutokana na kuibuka kwa matabaka ya wazi ya kijamii miongoni mwa wananchi, watawala na watu waliowazunguka...kwa habari hii na nyinginezo,pamoja na makala zilizokwenda shule,usikose kusoma toleo la wiki hii la jarida la RAIA MWEMA.

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EX REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR WELD,MCCAIN ADVISOR FRIED SUPPORT OBAMA

Click HERE and HERE to read the stories.

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MCCAIN CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER MADE UP ATTACK STORY

Police: Campaign Volunteer Lied, Injured Self

Ashley Todd, 20, is now facing charges for filing a false report to police

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Police say a campaign volunteer confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter B in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker. 

At a news conference this afternoon, offiicals said they believe that Ashley Todd's injuries were self-inflicted. 

Todd, 20, of Texas, is now facing charges for filing a false report to police.

Todd initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.

Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began to notice some inconsistencies in her story and administered a polygraph test.

Authorities, however, declined to release the results of that test. 

Investigators did say that they received photos from the ATM machine and "the photographs were verified as not being the victim making the transaction." 

This afternoon, a Pittsburgh police commander told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that Todd confessed to making up the story. 

Todd told investigators that she didn't remember what happened.

Police say they do not believe any other people were involved; and her friends believed the story about the attack.

According to police, investigators working on the interview process detected several inconsistencies in Todd's story that differed from statements made in the original police report.

Pittsburgh Police Public Information Officer Diane Richard released a statement earlier today, saying: "Because of the inconsistencies in her statements, Ms. Todd was asked to submit to a polygraph examination which she agreed to do."

No photos of Todd are being released by Pittsburgh Police at this time.

SOURCE: KDKA

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