Of accidents, recklessness and history repeating itself

When history continues repeating itself then in most cases circumstances that would have led to it will be the same. The recent MV Spice Islander 1 accident is a copycat of the MV Bukoba accident. The only difference is the place the two accidents occurred.

For a long time now, we have been battling road accidents and over and over again, we have many people perishing on our roads because of careless driving. The recent accident involving a Deluxe Luxury Coaches bus claimed 12 lives when it exploded into a ball of fire after it had overturned. But hardily a week after that incident had occurred, I witnessed an incident where the driver of a Dar es Salaam bound bus was driving recklessly. Besides speeding he was overtaking in places that were not safe.

As part of journalists coming from an assignment, we filed a complaint with one of the traffic police officers who stopped the bus and consulted the passengers over the driver’s performance. Surprisingly the passengers sided with the driver, who was later given a ticket for reckless driving. But while he was still being given the ticket, a group of passengers alighted and started shouting obscenities, defending the driver. They then attacked the journalists, who were trying to save their lives.

This then convinced me that we have a big problem in this country. We have a problem of forgetting too quickly. We have what we call short memory. I hadn't realised that we, as a nation, suffer from that problem until I came across that incident because people had been burnt beyond recognition a few days earlier but the passengers were defending a reckless driver who had not only admitted his fault but also apologised. And this quickly reminded me of a daladala plying the Mwembeyanga- Yombo-Kilakala route inscribed on its back window, “Tatizo mnajisahau.”

And, for those with eyes, our transport sector is rich when it comes to depicting our cultural values norms and beliefs. Different messages are written strategically on these vehicles so that other road users and the general public can see them. Though some of these messages act as a form of identity or trade mark, they carry important messages that usually provoke readers into thinking about a certain subject matter.

The only problem is that many people are allergic to reading; they simply don't want to read. These messages can bring change in people's lives. I remember coming across another interesting message, not on a daladala but on a guta, that read, “ Mimba utatoa, Ukimwi je?” The message was reminding people that they may have unprotected sex knowing that if they get pregnant they will abort but it posed a question as to what they will do when it comes to AIDS. Interesting isn't it? Let's all try to open our eyes, we deliberately closed, so that we can benefit from such messages. Just give yourself a day to check on these messages as you commute to and from your work place or home.

So, after coming across the message (the first one), I discovered that it rightly applies to us in this country who in most cases, because of our forgetfulness, we let history repeat itself. The major culprit when it comes to this forgetting game is the media. When an event occurs, they make a lot of noise but readers are shortchanged when no follow ups are made to that story. Most stories are not followed to their conclusions.

We have so many cases that have been left hanging because of one reason or the other. We have so many stories that took us by storm only to die natural deaths. The likes of the trawlers' case, the DECI saga and the EPA just but to mention these. The stories are now thinly covered or not covered at all. I know journalists will be quick to defend themselves in the name of news values but these are important stories people would like to know their progress or conclusions.

I believe that the failure to remind the army and the government about the Mbagala blasts issue might have caused some people to sit on their laurels thinking that the problem had gone for good, only to be shocked when Gongo La Mboto blasts occurred. I feel that we tend to relax and forget too soon about some problems that will be in need of solutions.

The problem of electricity we are facing today is a spillover not only from last year, but other (many) previous years. The issue is that whenever Tanesco comes up with temporary measures and power rationing becomes a thing of the past, we think that the problem is solved and no one bothers raising the need to invest in more permanent solutions, simply because we forget too soon.

When 10 infants were discovered in a shallow grave in Mwananyamala early this year, everybody went crazy, demanding to know why such an abomination had happened in our land. The media were awash with pictures and stories of the incident.

Various sectors of the society condemned the incident branding the hospital as unethical and all sort of names. But, all wananchi's concerns fell on deaf ears as nothing tangible came out of it. Now, life is back to normal and everyone seems to have forgotten all about it.

The media did a good job by covering the incident; even columnists had a field day, blasting the powers that be left, right and centre. But, they were also found wanting, just as expected, they failed to follow the story to its logical conclusion. Up to now, the public don't know the outcome of the investigations. The last time I ever saw a story covering that event was when the bogus committee formed to investigate the issue, issued their findings and recommendations.

It is pretty obvious that we have forgotten about the Mwananyamala madness and we are waiting for a similar incident to occur again so that we can complain again. That is the problem we are facing and as long as we continue to have such an attitude, then history will always repeat itself.

Not even one journalist bothered to make a follow up on the progress of investigations. It won't be surprised if the culprits have not been brought to book up to now. No one has bothered to tell us what steps the hospital took to address the problem. Tuna kwenda wapi with such an attitude?

As long as we continue adopting an I don't care attitude, deliberately having short memories and failing to get to the bottom of the problems affecting us, then problems such as the road accidents, Mwananyamala madness, the Mbagala bomb blasts, Gongo la Mboto blasts and DECI thievery will continue haunting us. History will always repeat itself and in most cases, wananchi are the most affected. God bless us.

bongoblast@thisday.co.tz/ symeniah.blogspot.com/0657651300