Tuesday 4 October 2016

How important is the internet if people are still dying?

I woke up today feeling the need to go back to bed but I had to just wake up and get my groove on for work. On my way to the bus stand, almost suddenly it started drizzling, so I cut short my walk and ran back home to grab my umbrella. As I came out the small drizzle tuned to a full blown out rain and I had to walk in mud and dirt to get to the bus stand.

On arrival, I got straight in the bus with no hustle. For some reason, today I parted ways with my earphones and settled to listen to the bus’ radio. I did not catch the exact radio I was letting pump information in my head but it was interesting to a certain point.

You, know there is a reason as to why there is a limit for everything.

And after a few minutes, my limit of patience was achieved for I had just heard on the radio that the government was about to build places where we the citizens could be getting free Wi-Fi. On any normal occasion, I repeat on any other day I would have been grinning like a fool but it was not like that today.

Instead of a smile curving my lips, a frown leveled up on my pretty face. (Is it narcissistic that I had to point out how pretty I am or just petty?) Instead of my heart leaping for joy because of the notion of getting free internet, my stomach turned upside down with sadness. And instead of my brain realizing all the things I could do with that option in my hand, it jumpstarted into alert.

The internet is a brilliant thing. Ingenious really…and for all its problems, it is one of the things that will revolutionize the country. Its pros alone can make you beam all day but in a country that has so many other issues to fix, so many problems to solve and even new emerging troubles erupting everyday to get rid of, is free internet what we really need?

Is it such priority?

Should we not regard it as a luxury we cannot afford at the moment?

We have hospitals in the country that are understaffed and with few medical equipments. I will not even go to the education industry where their troubles seem to grow with every rise of the sun. So many of our industries here, our crucial industries need money to develop but instead of giving them money, we are investing in giving people free internet.

This almost reminds me of a homeless and starving man who gets the chance to choose between food and a brand new Mercedes, and then he chooses the latter.

The sewage system is a big old fashioned mess. Remember when I told you it rained today, well, that also meant that I had to walk in puddles, small ones and huge ones, I had to step on mud everywhere and after getting into my office, my legs looked like they had passed through the rocky hills of hell. Matter of fact my feet felt like they had been though a terror attack.

Not only that, but so many other issues that need to be given priority are present but ignored. Tanzania, my beautiful country where are we going?

In the end, free internet is a luxury that we cannot afford. The money being pushed into this, should have gone into adding more equipments needed at hospitals or maybe even fixing up our roads so there can be less traffic and good pavements. So many other things, I can think of that this money can be useful in but anyway, what do I know?



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