Monday, September 10, 2012

The One With The Constitution Meeting (9/10/2012)


After school I got to go to a community meeting.  In 2005 Tanzania revised their constitution for the first time, however there was no input from the citizens.  Apparently this has caused a lot of frustrations so for 6 months government officials are traveling around the country and hosting these meetings where they allow people to state what they life and would like to see changed about the constitution.  It was absolutely fascinating! It was such a great was to get more insight into the Tanzanian mindset.  Some of the big issues that came up were care for the elderly, AIDS education, higher teacher and doctor salaries, are more checks to the presidential power.  There were a lot of mixed feelings about whether or not Tanzania and Zanzibar should remain one country and if they do remain together how much representation Zanzibar should be given.  The government will take and compile all of this information and in 2014 they plan to release a draft of a new constitution that will then be voted on by the public.  People seem very passionate about the opportunity to be a part of the change and it seems like and effective and sincere way to bring it about.  

No comments:

Post a Comment