Swahili Mom: Are Tanzanians Giving Up On Tanzania?

There was a story about Klout yesterday on our local evening news. I have seen Klout so many times before yesterday but I had yet to sit down and read more about it because I thought it was just another social network. From the way they were explaining about it, I decided to log on it to find more about it.

Klout is a company that provides social media analytic to measure users influence across their social network. The Klout score measures influence based on your ability to drive action. On the news they stated that even some employers in the US now are starting to use these Klout scores as one of their hiring decisions. Thanks Klout::- ( Now one more score to worry about after SAT, GPA, Credit score and now Klout score. How much can one keep up with?

Anyway, I logged on Klout and I was impressed to find out my score was 36. I guess this is pretty good for someone who doesn't tweet that much. Justin Bieber right now is a king of the Kings. His score is a perfect 100. They said if you connect more social network your scores might go up but this depends on how involvement/connect you are on those other sites. Well, I decided to leave it just like that because I don't have Linkedin account, I am still crawling on G+ and my FB is so intimate..Just for family matters nothing is so social about it...

As I was looking around my attention caught at my influential topics. What made me wonder about it was whether Tanzanians have given up on Tanzania? I found out my number one influential topic on Twitter is Kenya. Yes, you read it right KENYA. Among the 11 most trendy topics Kenya is the number one and Tanzania is on the very bottom..

I was shocked because there are very few Kenyans that I know of who follow me on Twitter. I post many things about Tanzania than the way I post things about Kenya. Does this mean there are so many Kenyans on Twitter or just as normal as Tanzanians but are just more interesting on Kenya issues? Why not many Tanzanians read tweets about Tanzania? With the CHANGE we want in Tanzania on twitter do we really mean it or this is just another trendy?

NO good change will come if we don't know what is going on in Tanzania in any sector. If we think corruption is the only hurdle or change needed in Tanzania right now we are serious deadly wrong. If we think poor leadership is the root of all the problems in Tanzania we need to think again. We first need to learn how to love our country for good or worse. We need to show the enthusiasm about it and get involved. It seems Kenyans read and follow up with any news that concern Kenya than the way we "Tanzanians" do. Any topic/story/news about Tanzania should be number one priority to all Tanzanians. You need to know what is going on around you, in your community, your region and the whole nation before you look for the news about your neighbor or your distant neighbors (The western countries)..

Just because I live here so I need to know what is going on in my community/state and nation in general but the second country news/story/topic that I care about to check everyday is about Tanzania. Why I am doing this? Because it is my mother land, because I love Tanzania and because I HAVEN'T GIVE UP ON IT. I still believe in Tanzania. I still believe that one day good things will come out of it. I still believe that one day people will be able to buy goods and services without the need to pay bribe to anyone. I still believe that one day people will be able to get jobs just from their qualifications and not because they have to pay hongo, know someone or because of their last names (class). I still believe that one day all kids will get the education they truly deserve. I still believe that one day basic necessity will be just that "basic necessity" and not luxury as to many right now. I still believe that one day elected leaders will come into their sense and fully work/serve and represent the people who elect them, instead of waiting to be served. I still believe that one day UFISADI will be a thing of the past...

What happened to that song we used to sing when we were little?
"Tanzania X2 Nakupenda kwa moyo wote"

YES #TUNAWEZA