Young People

Can corrupt patronage politics birth leaders with integrity?

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While it is a shared desire of ours as a people to have leaders with integrity it is a fact that people do not mysteriously attain integrity after becoming leaders. Leaders with integrity are first persons with integrity. In the absence of a person with integrity, government office has no power to imbue such a quality in the person.

There is no country with a smoothly functioning governing system built on pillars of systemic corruption. What corruption does is it creates a vicious cycle which taken into the loop more and more people, and forcibly, to make ends meet, make them partisans of the corrupt system in more and more diversified varieties of corruption.

Teaching students how to learn will transform our education for generations

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For most learners being educated at school is remembering or memorizing. Why? Because that is how the system orients them to look at education. Most learners consider schooling like a reward system, and themselves as heroes depending on how high up the reward ladder they are ranked.
One is considered not smart, creative, or intelligent unless the grading system says so! As such all creativity and innovativeness has to be shrunk to fit into the demands of the spoon- feeding system; which unfortunately, kills many dreams and talents.

Are we attentive to the emotional rollercoaster in social media use?

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The chances of ten consecutive reels or posts to communicate a similar feeling are extremely minimal. This means ten differently themed posts can take us across ten different ranges of emotional response, such as joy, surprise, fear, worry, anger, agitation, anticipation, disappointment, disgust, assurance, doubts, confusion, etc. the list is endless and unpredictable too, just as human emotional reactions are.

Are the perils of illiteracy more imminent than we thought?

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It is easy to exclude, mislead and exploit people who are illiterate, or incapable of reading and writing. This is because of the limited nature of their access to information and knowledge which is a basis for civic participation, democratic engagement and informed decision-making. This is where illiteracy becomes an enemy to be fought will all our possible means.

How should the ‘dialogue’ between education and problems be structured for expertise to transform society?

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We cannot deny the fact that the available education in itself has already equipped us as a nation with enough knowledge and skills to be far ahead of where we are. But growth of a state is a game of chess which takes skills, wisdom, commitment and discipline to win. It is a manifestation of us being learned people when our educators add value by being concerned with educating our own systems and are respected and listened to as experts.

Why political apathy is a damaging downward spiral for Tanzania

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This article was published in The Citizen Newspaper, Tanzania on August 13, 2025 Shimbo Pastory Scholars around the world explain political apathy differently. Among the most agreed upon descriptions of political apathy is “the lack of interest in the political process among citizens, which is critical in a democracy for ensuring accountability and protecting individual … Read more

Do local politicians’ speeches hint systemic functional glitches?

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Political rhetoric is like a game, and often times it is leaned towards appeasing the masses, even when logic defies the possibilities of what the rhetoric contains. Words have power, and that’s where the bait is.

When analysing the political speeches by our local politicians, there would arise mixed feelings from the reality they convey, especially when these speeches are extemporaneous.

Where is the indirect assent to systemic devaluation of education leading?

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This article was published in The Citizen Newspaper – Tanzania on August 19, 2025. Shimbo Pastory In any organization, be it social, political, religious, etc. inasmuch as there is a form of shared consciousness and vision, there are always policies. A policy in simple words is a ‘principle of action,’ yet it is an important … Read more

Artificial Intelligence and Society: A Global Opportunity and Challenge

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Researchers express concern particularly on the negative impacts of the modern technologies – especially now with the capacities of AI being only partially known – on behavioural and psychological health, and on cognitive capacities, such as decision making and critical thinking.
Among experts there are agitations regarding limitations of effective human control and unpredictability of the AI systems.
It is baffling and scary even to scientists themselves that AI tools can solve problems beyond what they were trained for by the human programmers, and even further applying problem solving models that humans do not recognize and cannot understand.

Need for peer support among young people to prevent suicides

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Most people live with serious mental health problems without their knowledge, and as such with time their situations become severe, leading to extremes such as self-harm and suicide. While globally the African continent has among the least numbers of cases, it does not make it a less serious issue. This is because human life is involved.

We must agree that people are built and groomed differently and as such have varying capacities inasmuch as handling of pressure and stressful situations is concerned. What can be a non-issue to one can be a big problem to another, leading them to anxiety, losing a sense of value of their own lives or even feeling hopeless about themselves.