Monday, December 30, 2013

JULIUS. K. NYERERE - THE UNSUNG HERO OF AFRICA WHO MADE NELSON MANDELA‏

I FOUND IT ON NETWORKS AS WRITTEN BY "Emmanuel Tayari" AND THOUGHT IT GOOD SHARING....COPIED AND PASTED HERE....HERE WE GO....
Today the world knows a lot about President Nelson Mandela but seemingly conveniently always forgetting that Mwalimu Julius KambarageNyerere, the late Tanzanian President, was the person behind Mandela Success.
Without Nyerere effort's we probably would have had the Mandela's success story as we have it today, as presented to the world. Let me walk you down the history lane to refresh our recollection.
In 1959 MwalimuNyerere together with Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, founded the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain. In 1980s during the campaign for South Africa Nuclear Disarmament, the movement had individual membership of 6,000 people, and attracted 700 organizations, including the Labour, Liberal and Social Democratic parties affiliated. These together represented more than 18 million people.

This implies that whatever success Mandela is afforded it was because of MwalimuNyerere's high involvement which made it happen. In sum Tanzania could have had a better economy today if it did not accept sacrifices in building the future and freedom fighting for the region of southern Africa. MwalimuNyerere was true to his principles and his vision. He empowered ANC and Mandela. At the end, his vision of a liberated Africa was achieved.

MwalimuNyerere's story is one of the best untold stories as far as African politics are concerned. We need to promote his legacy further. Africa needs Nyerere's kind of thinking in Leadership more than Aid for now.
 Africa needs high quality leadership, and more of a best leadership story like the one of MwalimuNyerere. This could be inspirational for young people to offer alternative leadership to Africa. This is crucially important in saving the continent from poverty.
In conclusion, we as Tanzanian Edinburgh Community Association (TzECA) believe that people need to hear more about Mwalimu's legacy. One film recently shown in Edinburgh at Film House - which sold out, do attest to this belief of ours. Think of it, can Nelson Mandela speak more about Nyerere?
We think so! In remembering Mwalimu Julius KambarageNyerere's legacy, the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with Tanzania High Commission in London along with the Tanzania Edinburgh Community Association(TzECA) have joined forces in organizing an International High Level Conference which will be held from the 9th - 11th November 2009 in Edinburgh, UK.

 We as Tanzanians and peace lovers, would be greatly honoured if you will join us by covering these memorable events as we mark and remember the life of this great son of Africa. Your coverage can reflect on his legacy as one of the best African statesman of our time. Spread the word, let his story be heard all over the world

If you would like more information about this topic or would like to schedule an interview, please get in touch with contact under noted:

  












SPEECH BY PRESIDENT NELSON MANDELA AT A BANQUET IN HONOUR OF JULIUS NYERERE,

Johannesburg,
17 October 1997
Master of Ceremonies;
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere;
Mr Nicky Oppenheimer;
Honoured guests;

It is a great pleasure to share in this occasion honouring one of Africa's great patriots.
It is a humbling experience to recall the contribution that MwalimuNyerere has made to the liberation of our continent, and to freedom in South Africa.

This is the freedom fighter who heard Chief Luthuli's appeal and joined Trevor Huddleston in launching the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain in 1959; a leader whose decisive intervention at the Commonwealth Conference after the Sharpeville Massacre led to the exclusion of apartheid South Africa.

I had the personal privilege of meeting him many years ago, in 1962, when I visited Tanzania seeking help as we embarked on the armed struggle. Then, as now, I was struck by his lucid thoughts; his burning desire for justice everywhere; and his commitment to Africa's interests.
After the independence of Tanzania, Mwalimu, as its head of state, continued to play an important role in the struggle for justice and democracy not only in Africa, but throughout the world.
The people of Tanzania gave unstinting support to the liberation of South Africa. They gave recognition of the most practical kind to the principle that our freedom and theirs were interdependent.
 Today, as free nations we have joined hands in recognition of the interdependence of our countries, our region and our continent in the achievement of peace and prosperity.
 It is in this spirit that we affirm our support for Julius and the people of Tanzania in the goals they have set for themselves.

The expansion of economic ties of trade and investment between Tanzania and South Africa, and indeed between all the countries of the region, is an objective to which South Africa is firmly committed.
When we promote foreign business interest and investment in South Africa it is not in any spirit of beggar thy neighbour. Indeed South African firms have seized the opportunities that abound in a liberated Southern Africa and we encourage them in this.

We do so on the understanding that such investment will be conducted as we expected foreign investors to do in our own country: to promote the transfer of skills and technology; to make a permanent and sustainable expansion in the productive capacity of the host country; and wherever possible in the form of joint ventures to promote the development of local business, especially amongst those previously excluded from such opportunities.

Such a development is in the interest of our entire region. In particular we would like to see an expansion of South African business involvement in Tanzania along such lines. Some of the companies represented here tonight have already shown their interest by taking part earlier this year in a delegation to Tanzania led by our Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry.
That delegation reflected the spirit of co-operation between government and business, within a broader partnership of all social sectors which is the hallmark of reconstruction and development in South Africa, in Tanzania and throughout our region.

Non-governmental organizations form an essential component of that broader partnership. The Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation whose establishment we are marking tonight is, I am confident, destined to make a significant contribution in that regard.

There would be reason enough to welcome its formation as a commemoration of a great person. But it is more than that. It is also a contribution to the future. It gives substance to the goal of creating African capacity to resolve African problems.

The ideals of peace, unity and people-centred development for which it stands are essential for our continent's economic and political revival. We can only applaud its intention to promote these goals by drawing on Africa's collective intellectual resources.
It is through the upliftment and empowerment of the people of Southern Africa, and indeed the entire continent, that we will achieve the African Renaissance we so strongly desire.

I thank you. (CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY)


SOURCE: SOCIAL NETWORKS

Saturday, December 28, 2013

The Enemy Within.

A lot has already been said about the tragic story of Samson in Judges 13-16. However, I would like to draw your attention to an aspect of his life: his failure to conquer the enemy within.
Samson was special. He was blessed with amazing physical strength which gave him great advantage over his enemies. But he had a problem. His strength couldn’t help him deal with the enemy within his own soul. He could fight and defeat the enemy without but was quite clueless when it came to fighting the enemy within.
Fighting external battles was important but fighting and winning the battle within was crucial to his long term survival as a leader in Israel. The invisible battle within his soul was more important than the physical battles he fought and won daily.

Samson never lost a single battle he fought against the enemies of Israel, but he lost many battles within his own soul. When Samson fell, he wasn’t captured by his enemies during a battle; he was captured by the enemy which lived within his soul. Samson lived with that enemy daily. He nurtured it, bred it and fed it until that enemy became a monster that controlled and eventually destroyed him.
He failed to master the enemy when it was little, but in his arrogance he watched it grow until it became a monster in his life.
It is easier to pray against the enemy we can see and totally overlook the destroyer that lurks in our hearts. What we see is easier to deal with than things we don’t see.
From the story of Samson we discover that little things, little weaknesses, never remain little for very long. They grow. They become big and begin to dominate and take control of our lives in unbelievable ways.
Delilah didn’t destroy Samson.
She couldn’t have. She didn’t have the ability to.
What destroyed Samson was the sin within. The real enemies were in his soul.
Pride.
Lust.
Foolishness.
Recklessness.
These were the instruments of his destruction, not Delilah.
It makes a good story to blame Delilah for Samson’s fall, but she didn’t make it happen. Although she was complicit in Samson’s downfall, she wasn’t responsible for it. Samson’s enemy wasn’t Delilah or any of her kind. His real enemy was the sin within: the enemy, who lived, dined and reigned in the inner sanctuaries of his soul.
Pride.Lust.Foolishness.Recklessness. These were his enemies not Delilah or any other woman.
When believers or ministers of the gospel fall into sin, it isn’t because they were seduced by their accomplices to commit that sin. The truth is that they were already fallen in their hearts before they met whoever they fell into sin with. That sin was already a reality in their soul before it manifested itself in their lives. Instead of blaming someone else for your sin, you should take responsibility for it and ask The Lord for forgiveness. Ask Him to deliver you from the sin lurking within your soul.
The Bible says in James 1:14-15 that we are ensnared by unrestrained desires within which gives birth to sin and when sin is fully mature, it brings forth death. It is the lusts that war in our soul that keeps us bound, not the temptations without.
Have you ever heard a man say, ‘she seduced me and I couldn’t resist her’? He is lying through his teeth. He wanted to do it more than he didn’t want to, that was why he did it. Dear woman, please don’t flatter yourself; you cannot tempt or seduce a man to fall into sin with you unless that sin is already in his soul. And you cannot be seduced to fall into sin with a man unless that sin is already in your soul.
If the desire is not in your soul, you will never be drawn to commit that sin.
It is the covetousness in your soul that makes you want to keep accumulating more and more even when you already have a lot.
If you don’t deal with pride in your soul, you will always want to prove something to people around you no matter how successful you become.
If there is no lust within your soul you won’t be tempted by it.
If there is no desire to steal, you won’t be tempted to steal.
In Revelations 3:1, The Lord speaking to the Church in Sardis said, “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive,but you are dead.” Speaking to the Church of the Laodiceans in Revelations 3:17-18, he said, “because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’- and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich; and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eye with eye salve that you may see.”
The Lord Jesus looked into their soul, but they looked at themselves on the outside and couldn’t see their deplorable state. They were rebuked for what was a reality in their soul, not what they looked like on the outside.
What matters is the state of your soul.
When we deal with the sin in our soul, it will never find expression in our lives.
Hebrews 12:1, says we should lay aside every besetting sin.
The real battle is within your soul.
When we win within, it is sure that we will win without.
Blessings.


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Obama’s speech at Mandela memorial (transcript): ‘Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas’



Video: At a soccer stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, President Obama memorialized former South African president, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela.
Published: December 10
President Obama addressed the memorial for former South African president Nelson Mandela; this is a transcript of his remarks as delivered.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. To GraçaMachel and the Mandela family; to President Zuma and members of the government; to heads of states and government, past and present; distinguished guests -- it is a singular honor to be with you today, to celebrate a life like no other. To the people of South Africa -- people of every race and walk of life -- the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us. His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. Your dignity and your hope found expression in his life. And your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy. 

It is hard to eulogize any man -- to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person -- their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities that illuminate someone’s soul. How much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, and in the process moved billions around the world.
Born during World War I, far from the corridors of power, a boy raised herding cattle and tutored by the elders of his Thembu tribe, Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century. Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement -- a movement that at its start had little prospect for success. Like Dr. King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed and the moral necessity of racial justice. He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War. Emerging from prison, without the force of arms, he would -- like Abraham Lincoln -- hold his country together when it threatened to break apart. And like America’s Founding Fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations -- a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power after only one term.

Given the sweep of his life, the scope of his accomplishments, the adoration that he so rightly earned, it’s tempting I think to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men. But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait. Instead, Madiba insisted on sharing with us his doubts and his fears; his miscalculations along with his victories. “I am not a saint,” he said, “unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”

It was precisely because he could admit to imperfection -- because he could be so full of good humor, even mischief, despite the heavy burdens he carried -- that we loved him so. He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood -- a son and a husband, a father and a friend. And that’s why we learned so much from him, and that’s why we can learn from him still. For nothing he achieved was inevitable. In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness, and persistence and faith. He tells us what is possible not just in the pages of history books, but in our own lives as well.

Mandela showed us the power of action; of taking risks on behalf of our ideals. Perhaps Madiba was right that he inherited, “a proud rebelliousness, a stubborn sense of fairness” from his father. And we know he shared with millions of black and colored South Africans the anger born of, “a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments…a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people,” he said.
But like other early giants of the ANC -- the Sisulus and Tambos -- Madiba disciplined his anger and channeled his desire to fight into organization, and platforms, and strategies for action, so men and women could stand up for their God-given dignity. Moreover, he accepted the consequences of his actions, knowing that standing up to powerful interests and injustice carries a price. “I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I’ve cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and [with] equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

Mandela taught us the power of action, but he also taught us the power of ideas; the importance of reason and arguments; the need to study not only those who you agree with, but also those who you don’t agree with. He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls, or extinguished by a sniper’s bullet. He turned his trial into an indictment of apartheid because of his eloquence and his passion, but also because of his training as an advocate. He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement. And he learned the language and the customs of his oppressor so that one day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depends upon his.
Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough. No matter how right, they must be chiseled into law and institutions. He was practical, testing his beliefs against the hard surface of circumstance and history. On core principles he was unyielding, which is why he could rebuff offers of unconditional release, reminding the Apartheid regime that “prisoners cannot enter into contracts.”

But as he showed in painstaking negotiations to transfer power and draft new laws, he was not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larger goal. And because he was not only a leader of a movement but a skillful politician, the Constitution that emerged was worthy of this multiracial democracy, true to his vision of laws that protect minority as well as majority rights, and the precious freedoms of every South African.

And finally, Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit. There is a word in South Africa -- Ubuntu -- a word that captures Mandela’s greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.
We can never know how much of this sense was innate in him, or how much was shaped in a dark and solitary cell. But we remember the gestures, large and small -- introducing his jailers as honored guests at his inauguration; taking a pitch in a Springbok uniform; turning his family’s heartbreak into a call to confront HIV/AIDS -- that revealed the depth of his empathy and his understanding. He not only embodied Ubuntu, he taught millions to find that truth within themselves.

It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailer as well to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth. He changed laws, but he also changed hearts.

For the people of South Africa, for those he inspired around the globe, Madiba’s passing is rightly a time of mourning, and a time to celebrate a heroic life. But I believe it should also prompt in each of us a time for self-reflection. With honesty, regardless of our station or our circumstance, we must ask: How well have I applied his lessons in my own life? It’s a question I ask myself, as a man and as a President. 

We know that, like South Africa, the United States had to overcome centuries of racial subjugation. As was true here, it took sacrifice -- the sacrifice of countless people, known and unknown, to see the dawn of a new day. Michelle and I are beneficiaries of that struggle. But in America, and in South Africa, and in countries all around the globe, we cannot allow our progress to cloud the fact that our work is not yet done.

The struggles that follow the victory of formal equality or universal franchise may not be as filled with drama and moral clarity as those that came before, but they are no less important. For around the world today, we still see children suffering from hunger and disease. We still see run-down schools. We still see young people without prospects for the future. Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs, and are still persecuted for what they look like, and how they worship, and who they love. That is happening today.

And so we, too, must act on behalf of justice. We, too, must act on behalf of peace. There are too many people who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality. There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people. And there are too many of us on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard.

The questions we face today -- how to promote equality and justice; how to uphold freedom and human rights; how to end conflict and sectarian war -- these things do not have easy answers. But there were no easy answers in front of that child born in World War I. Nelson Mandela reminds us that it always seems impossible until it is done. South Africa shows that is true. South Africa shows we can change, that we can choose a world defined not by our differences, but by our common hopes. We can choose a world defined not by conflict, but by peace and justice and opportunity.

We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. But let me say to the young people of Africa and the young people around the world -- you, too, can make his life’s work your own. Over 30 years ago, while still a student, I learned of Nelson Mandela and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land, and it stirred something in me. It woke me up to my responsibilities to others and to myself, and it set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today. And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example, he makes me want to be a better man. He speaks to what’s best inside us.

After this great liberator is laid to rest, and when we have returned to our cities and villages and rejoined our daily routines, let us search for his strength. Let us search for his largeness of spirit somewhere inside of ourselves. And when the night grows dark, when injustice weighs heavy on our hearts, when our best-laid plans seem beyond our reach, let us think of Madiba and the words that brought him comfort within the four walls of his cell: “It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”
What a magnificent soul it was. We will miss him deeply. May God bless the memory of Nelson Mandela. May God bless the people of South Africa.

SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST

JENGO LA KANISA TAG CITY HARVEST LAWEKWA WAKFU RASMI

HATIMAYE jengo Kanisa la TAG City Harvest limezinduliwa na kuwekwa wakfu na Askofu Mkuu wa Tanzania Assemblies of God, Rev. Dk. Barnabas Mt...