Mambo Vipi Kweli, Tanzania?

President Bush has spent the last five days visiting
Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia. I'm a little bitter it takes being a lame duck and plummeting approval rankings to get the President to make his second (somewhat promotional) trip to African in eight years, but it's something...

(The title from the entry comes from the fact I'm actually kind of impressed Bush greeted Tanzanians with the hip "mambo vipi?" Most Americans say "Jambo," which is acceptable in Kenya but considered a little rude in Tanzania, where people prefer the more formal "Hujambo?" The "kweli" means really or truly, but I might have put it in the wrong place. Eleuthera?)

I think it's interesting Bush is entirely bypassing Kenya. If the trip took place three months ago, I wonder if he would have visited Kenya instead of Tanzania. For the most part, conflict in Kenya is bad for Tanzania, but on the other hand, it may mean Tanzania can seize more of Kenya's tourism, marketshare, and headpatting for being a beacon of democracy in East Africa.

The tour is primarily promoting the Millenium Challenge goals and counter AIDS/malaria relief rather than confronting the political turmoil. I think there's space to criticize the Millenium Challenge goals-- the program reminds me a little of No Child Left Behind in that it incentivizes "good results" without providing the tools to get there-- but I think it's done more good than ill and is one possible way to combat corruption. Based on my time in Tanzania, it was hard to see how this translated into any poverty reduction, but I didn't have an comparison point.

There's a lot to criticize about PETFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In addition to funding delays and dependence on expensive antiretroviral drugs rather cheaper South African generic drugs, PETFAR shifted funding away from AIDS programs that promoted condom use to programs that emphasized monogamy and abstinence. I wrote a column last year
that criticizes PETFAR. It was my first column, so it's a bit too dry, but it explains some of the reasons the plan isn't as good as it sounds.

Of course, no one in Tanzania is going to say that because money is better than no money and a president visiting is better than no president visiting. There's this hope, that maybe if they are very welcoming and maybe if he sees just how hard things are, maybe the United States will help a little bit more. (How can it not?) And if not, then they can tell their children they saw the American president. The American president can get coverage more friendly than he's gotten in months. And for the most part, everything will stay the same.

I don't mean to be cynical, I'm just sad.