Things That Make You Go Hmmmm...

The country is poor. We can barely educate our children or provide them with adequate healthcare. Consistent electricity service is still a luxury and, for 80% of the people, an unattainable dream. 40% of our budget is foreign subsidized. So what does our government choose to focus on? A national dress code:

Tanzanians will soon be officially introduced to a national dress, a move that would help put in place a dressing code to preserve African tradition norms and culture, the Parliament was told yesterday.

Responding to a question by Hafidhi Ali Tahir (Dimani, CCM), who had wanted to know if Tanzania has a national dress, Deputy Minister for Information, Sports and Culture, Joel Bendera said the process of introducing a national dress was progressing well.

Bendera admitted that the style of dressing by most young Tanzanians was not satisfactory despite efforts made by the government and its stakeholders in sensitizing the community on decent dressing.

“If this habit is left unchecked, it might lead to moral decay among young Tanzanians,” he said, adding that dressing in provocative outfit presents a negative picture of the nation. “The whole nation, I believe, is not impressed by this,” he said.

Venansio Ahabwe reacts:

The Comrade pledges his prayers for Tahir and Bendera to surmount the gigantic wall that they have offered to scale. 

Yes, let the dressing policy come into force; whereupon we can separate aliens from residents. Two things can then happen, however. 

Some Tanzanians will forge documents to present themselves as visitors who know little or nothing about the official dress code and thus cannot abide by  the rules. 

Others could resort to hide and seek games: carry spare outfits all the time, pull on the official attire when authorities are in sight and revert to the illegal code anon.

Mh. Bendera must be prepared to erect roadblocks and plan for a special police unit to supervise the implementation of and adherence to the national garb [...] The Comrade knows that such a policy was successfully executed in Uganda by Idi Amin Dada. 

Well, good then. As long as we are following the path laid out by such upstanding role models.