Power to the people

Dear all, we now finally have a house and it is not the one owned by the arrogant man. It took us a while to get through the process of signing the contract, because as the search for the house itself, also this is a complicated multi-stage process.

What we learned on the way is to feel sympathy with the people of Tanzania. Why? Because it turned out that the tenants have no rights and the landlords have all. We have been warned by our friends that we will have to pay the rent in cash for one year in advance. We also knew that we won't get it refunded if we terminate the contract before time. But we only realized on the way that the contract is really just a piece of paper that offers no security at all and that we are, in all matters, left completely to the goodwill of the landlord.

In a country where rights exist on paper, but where there is no functioning juidiciary system to implement them, people are left powerless and rightless. In Tanzania corruption is a big problem, and it happens on a daily basis that a thief caught and brought to the police will bribe the police and be set free two hours later. So what do the people do? They go for an eye-for-an-eye policy and kill the thief on the spot if they catch him. Violence on tanzanian streets can errupt at any given moment for any given issue... 

But no worries, we didn't get violent, we simply signed our contract and moved in... And since our new landlord is a decent person, we are very optimistic everything will be fine. But as for me, I have never felt so happy to be a citizen of a state where all, not only the rich and the powerful, have rights, and where all can claim and exercise them. In fact, I never realized before just how privileged we are! Really, the experience of a couple of small injustices was enough to make me an activist. Power to the people!