Friday 22 July 2011

Kitabu Kipya: "Sub-State Governance through Territorial Autonomy"

This study focuses on territorial autonomy, which is often used in different conflict-resolution and minority situations. Four typical elements are identified on the basis of the historical example of the Memel Territory and the so-called Memel case of the PCIJ; distribution of powers, participation through elections and referendums, executive power of territorial autonomy, and international relations.

These elements are used for a comparative analysis of the constitutional law that regulates the position of six currently existing special jurisdictions, the Åland Islands in Finalnd, Scotland in the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico in the United States of America, Hong Kong in China, Aceh in Indonesia and Zanzibar in Tanzania.

The current sub-state entities examined can be arranged in relation to Memel in a manner that indicates that Hong Kong and the Åland conform to the typical territorial autonomy, while Puerto Rico and Aceh should probably not be understood as territorial autonomies proper. At the same time, the territorial autonomies can be distinguished from federally organized sub-state entities.

Price:169,95 €

More info: Springer

Monday 18 July 2011

Isles May Welcome Alcohol Sponsorship in Sports


Zanzibar — ALCOHOL manufacturing and distributing companies may be allowed to sponsor sports in Zanzibar, if they accept to abide to conditions of advertising non-alcoholic products, the Deputy Minister for sports Bihindi Hamad Khamis said in the Zanzibar House.

The deputy minister was responding to questions from Nassor Salim Ali (CCM-Rahaleo) and Hija Hassan Hija (CUF- Kiwani) who wondered why the government should not woo the companies to sponsor sports in Zanzibar like it is done in the mainland.

However, the deputy minister said alcohol advertisements were still prohibited in Zanzibar sports grounds. Meanwhile the legislators have also shown concern over bar businesses at the Gymkhana netball ground premises. They want the government to restrict bar business at all sports grounds.

Bihindi promised to look into the matter. In another development, as the dust from the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) settles down, fans keen on experiencing cultural diversity were from yesterday enjoying this year's Oman Cultural Festival taking place at the Zanzibar stone town.

"The event is held to strengthen the cultural ties," the Oman consular in Zanzibar Sheikh Majid bin Abdallah Al-bad said at the press to announce the festival on Tuesday. The five days festivities expected to come to an end next Sunday include fashion show, food preparation (mainly sweets), dancing, body painting, exhibition, and screening of films made in Oman.

According to the consular 45 Oman citizen are already in Zanzibar to perform in the festival to be officially opened by the Deputy Minister of Culture and Heritage Sheikh Hamid bin Hilali Al Maamar.

Flanked by the Director of Information Omar Yussuf Chunda, and the Commissioner of Culture and Sports Bakar Hamad Mshindo, the Oman official said Zanzibar was picked for the festival because of the cultural relationships, and bilateral relation agreement signed last year.

"The festival to be held at House of wonders and Old-fort at Forodhani Street will demonstrate the message of peace and friendship with Oman commitment to support Zanzibar's development," he said.

Wednesday 13 July 2011

We tend to go up slowly, but down fast..




by Suppiluliuma

No Explosive Change, Please, This is Tanzania, Bwana

Nairobi — After Tanesco subjected large swathes of Dar es Salaam to power cuts lasting anywhere from 48 to 72 hours a couple of weeks ago, rumours emerged of a protest march. Because there wasn't any real organisation behind the march, the day it was planned for came and went. Things fizzled out quietly.

These days, the most intense dialogue about the power crisis is found on Twitter feeds where people can get quite creative about insulting Tanesco and the government for ruining their day. In other words, business as usual in Dar-es-Salaam.

Every so often I stumble onto a massive debate about governance and whether Tanzania can consider itself a true democracy, or even a multiparty democracy for that matter. Sceptics tend to say that Tanzania doesn't qualify as a multiparty democracy, or even as a democracy for that matter, because we are still being ruled by the same party that came into power after independence. I hear time and time again that in order for Tanzania to really become democratic we have to witness a change in the political party in power.


More and more lately, the idea seems to be that this change should come about explosively. On the one side are the opposition parties that are pushing harder and harder for a chance to govern. On the other side are the masses of us who are frustrated and can't imagine change coming from within the system we are saddled with, so we call for radical change.

In these circumstances, arguing against the idea of explosive change seems like a fool's errand at best. At worst, you come across as an apologist for the state and for the party in power. But this is Tanzania, bwana. We march to the beat of a drummer only we seem to hear. For the past five or so years, the calls for "change" have been accelerating as we are continually impressed with how dismal our situation is by the opposition parties and other concerned friends of development. To be sure, they are right -- there are real and terrible consequences to our surprisingly ineffectual government. The difficult admission is that we have chosen this system mostly because it "works" for us.

It seems we are ambivalent patriots. In the build-up to the last election, I was surprised by how much voter apathy emerged in general, but particularly in the Blackberry class. Being Tanzanian, we are experts and very eloquent about what is wrong with the country, not to mention all of the things that we would do exactly right if we were actually in charge. However, actually voting is still seen as a futile exercise and a waste of time. Instead the ideal solution centres around putting an opposition party in power, or finding a benevolent despot who will guide us with a firm and steady hand into the bright and shining future.

This is a measure of how good we have it -- we think that we can afford our complacency. Tanzanians know that we don't have to take to the streets in order to effect change. We can and regularly do talk ourselves into it, however incremental it is.Multiparty politics have done us a world of good in the past decade: The political competition in Bunge is starting to weed out the weak, Zanzibar is coming along quietly as an experiment in power-sharing. We need not fear that Jay Kay will do anything ridiculous to try to stay in power indefinitely, like pretending not to know how old he really is. We can afford to anticipate a change in administration, and we can afford to let complaint be our main method of political action. But we shouldn't end there.

Since we are so full of latent opportunities and we can afford to do things the easy way, why don't we? It doesn't take that much effort to go from disparaging Tanesco on social media, to checking up on your MP's performance. We can afford to ignore those political parties that are trying to play a game of brinkmanship with the government since all they will do is drag us backwards into low-grade civil strife. We can afford to skip merrily past the potential benevolent despots who are waving at us from the sidelines, hoping we'll succumb to their reasoned arguments and their charm.

We can even get away with ignoring those who want a party change in the next three years because let's just admit it: This isn't a simple matter of picking between republicans and democrats the way that more mature democracies tweak policies around the edges while leaving their systems stable. If we're not even capable of getting ourselves organised around a national interest -- like unacceptable power rationing policies -- then perhaps we should simply embrace what we can do well. Such as talk and think and vote our way, mostly through parliament, into a better government. We're all informed dissenters, we can get somewhere on the strength of that.


East African