Tanzania Is A “Fine” Country
Some letters to the editor in Albuquerque reflect concerns over the cost/benefit analysis of living in New Mexico. Be comforted. Here in Tanzania the government seems to regard the tourist as a giant ATM machine. For every dollar paid to private companies who take you around, a great chunk goes to government fees. For example:
- Each 24 hours presence in Serengeti - $60 per person
- Entry for a foreign vehicle in Serengeti - $150
- Per bed-night per person at any tourist accommodation - $40
- Visa for three months per person - $100
- If the travel agent is not a Tanzania citizen he/she pays $2,500 every two years for “work permit.”
This money, though collected by tour companies, goes into government coffers.
On the positive side, cash corruption in tourism has been largely eliminated by digital technology. You cannot pay in cash for tourism fees. “Credit card only” really works. Even speeding fines on the highway are payable by “Credit card only.” This is quite amazing to behold in a Third World country.
There is regretfully a down-side to this. With digital technology government sleuths can find unpaid bills. Often the bills arise from a helter-skelter flood of new laws of which the victim was unaware. And draconian penalty clauses magnify the bill/fine.
As the bumper sticker puts it “Tanzania is a FINE country.”
I am sleeping and eating well. Enjoying lots of reading under the “acacia cathedral.”
Highway Ticketing in Tanzania
Sophisticated digital technology is thriving on the highways of Tanzania. Thriving to the extent that it is affecting hand-to-hand bribery of traffic police. The secret is a national electronic network weaving together instantaneously and constantly the following elements:
Your vehicle license plate (numbers)
Your driver’s license
Traffic policeman's hand-held computer
Robot vehicle speed recording “traps” on the highway
Your electronic record of interactions with the law such as fines paid
A centralized computer which “knows” (up to the second) ALL about you.
The information is all there, displayed on-screen, almost obviating any verbal communication. The only subjective element is the traffic policeman's own human visualization of your “overtaking” wrongly or exceeding a speed limit. There of course he or she is always “right.”
As soon as you are charged the system is updated. You can pay the fine electronically then and there. Otherwise you can further down the road be stopped for an “unpaid fine.” Of course there is still some verbal dickering over the visual-only charges. But the electronic system cannot be dickered with once you are digitalized.
We were stopped numerous times in the 190 mile trip from Arusha to Pangani. It was interesting to observe the variety of interactions between driver and policeman. There are slower-speed signs at very frequent intervals (every hamlet). So the driver has to allocate a lot of attention watching for them. In addition there are, of equal frequency, speed-bumps of varying sharpness.
So, compared to Tanzania, US highways are rather boring.