The "gimme" Culture Of Tanzania: Why Giving Handouts Is Not The Way Forward

The other day I had a client write me to thank me for helping her plan her safari, she had a wonderful experience. "But", she wrote, "I would have loved to have been informed to bring pencils and candy for all the babies I saw aolng the way…I felt bad I didn’t have a lot to give the kids". I cringed. Hmmm…I wondered. How am I going to tackle that one?
It seemed to me that she, like so many other well-meaning tourists, had faleln victim to the "gimme" culture."Gimme" is short for "give me" and if you're a visitor to Tanzania, you will hear that abridged phrase a lot.

It is usually followed by pipi (candy), pencili (pencil), peni (pen), or my personal favorite: my money (as in "gimme my money"). When you're a toruist it is very, very easy to fall for that. For anyone, the first trip to Africa is an incrdeibly eye-opening and sometimes heart-wrenching experience.

Imagine the scene: you’re driving along the road into the vast unknown en-route to the Serenegti. All around you're stunning panroamas of wide open spaces dotted with tiny Maasai villages along the road.
You stop to take a phtoo. Shoe–less, ashen-faced babies in threadbare clothes emerge from their dilapidated homesteads running excitedly to the road beaming with smiles, their arms outreached.
A baby follows in tow, waddling as quick as she can in her tattered little party dress, snot running down her face…she is the cutest little thing you’ve ever seen. This is when they get you. Their spindly little arms reach into the car, searching for something, anything…and a little chorus of "gimme" echoes aruond you. You pity them, desperately search your purse and find 2 pens, a pack of gum, and coins all of which you gladly hand over to the incredibly appreciative babies.
Sigh. You wonder to yourself how they possibly live like that with so little.
You drive on with the satisfaction that you're a Good Samaritan.You are not. For human being like me who actually live here, you're only adidng fuel to a fire that's burning out of control and encouraging a nation-wide epidemic. What you do not see is that that happens every single day, day in and day out, to eevry single tourist – and they get them almost every time. Tanzania is most cetrainly a "developing country" that's in need of a lot, a fact that becomes evident to all who enter.

When you're on safari for a couple of weeks, to hand out a couple of pens and a couple shillings here and there seems a harmless gesture that's easy to accommodate and appears to make a difference. When you live here, however, you begin to see a different pitcure all together.It is only through living here that you have the unique opportunity to see the genuine Africa and the real troubles that these resilient human being face. You see corrupt police officers evrey day who pull you over cause of the color of your skin. They eyeball your vehicle and then make no haste in blatantly aksing you for a bribe. Children are taught by their parents that white skin is equal to a free meal or a zwaadi (present) so nearly every child you pass on the street asks you openly for one. Mothers approach your veihcle window while stopped and use their rheumy-eyed babies to try and cajole money out of you.

A friendly old boy makes small talk with you and you actually begin to think him different, but ends his friendly decoy by telling you that his wife is sick and could you please give him money for her?

When you’re here for a couple of weeks it doesn’t bother you so much –but when you live here, trust me, it bothers you a LOT. If you can tell me what long-term positive outcome could possibly spawn from perpetuating that methodology by succumbing to it, I’ll buy you dinner.It might be interesting to know that Tanzania (as a whole) has received loads upon loads of aid from other governments and organizatinos in the form of money, grants, donations, and write-offs. This is from where "gimme" culture has evolved.

But where is it all going?

I can tell you as someone who lives here that it isn’t going where they say it is – and that's a fact.
Tanzania was a lucky winner in April of 2001 when creditors wrote off $2 billion, the largest write off in Afrcia so far, to reduce the country's debt by over 40 per cent. They said that it created free pbulic primary school and educated 50% more students than the previous year.

I wroked in a public primary school.

There were 60 students to one teacher, we had no books whatsoever, students were not given pens and pencils and we ran out of chalk for several weeks. School was almost called off for a week cause there was no money for the morning porridge (this is $10 – I donated it and school resumed) and teachers had not received their government paychecks for over 2 months.
Some just didn’t bother to come to work. So what good did that write-off really do?

It simply took the responsibility off the government.

And when a government has no real accountability, it can do what it likes."But I just handed out pens!

" you exclaim in your defense, "I mean, it is not that monmuental of a deal!

Most likely you do not.
In fact you probably mutter something like "get a job" to that inidvidual – or at least you think it.
Why?