World

loans”. Private exporters, responsible for about 60% ofthe country’s exports, said this week many growers andintermediaries had failed to deliver coffee since theearthquake, potentially complicating export obligations.(The Financial Times 5.2.99)The relationship of coffee to cocaine is not explored.Many farmers planted coffee instead of cocaine in a bidto stamp out the drug trade, yet there is no discussion ofwhat will happen if the coffee crop has been destroyed.The focus of television on pictures and extra-ordinaryvisual moments which illustrate the crisis, has led to aneglect of context and explanation. But if Colombia is tobe seen and understood as anything more than a disasterarea, then it is important that its people be shown ashaving a history, politics, economy and everyday lifewhich both pre and post-date the visual images of anearthquake.C.2.5. Education in TanzaniaThere was one item in the sample which concentratedspecifically on the role of the International MonetaryFund in relation to debt cancellation. A special report oneducation and debt was broadcast on BBC’s Newsnight on22 March, 1999. This report from Tanzania incorporatedinterviews with governmental and IMF representativeswithin Tanzania, discussions with local people andteaching staff and an explanatory narrative from theNewsnight reporter. One of the strengths of this reportwas the use of visual images of local people in a variety ofsettings, rather than stereotypical imagery ofmalnourished children.The headlines on this news feature included astatement about the difficulties faced by a countryburdened with debt repayment, and the need to redirectfinances into education as a necessity for development:HEADLINE: Also tonight from Africa – it’s a choice –debt repayment or education. In Tanzania, millions ofchildren are losing out, consigned to a life withoutlearning, in poverty.The point that ‘developing countries’ cannot‘develop’ without education was repeated at variousstages. The report began with a repetition of the sametheme, quoting a new report by the charity Oxfam:Newscaster: More than a quarter of the world’s childrenface the prospect of a life of poverty because they never goto school, or they leave before they learn to read andwrite. One reason according to an Oxfam reportpublished today is a simple matter of mathematics. Manypoor countries are being forced to spend far more on debtrepayment than on education.One of the unusual features of this report was that ithighlighted achievements previously attained byTanzania: that here was an African country where theformer president Nyerere had made significant advancesin moving towards universal primary education. It alsoincluded impressive images of a graduation ceremony ina relatively poor African country:It’s an important day for Tanzanian education. 37 yearson from independence, the East African state now has itsown Open University, and this is the first graduationceremony. Sitting alongside President Mkapa is the guestof honour, Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s first president. Hespent his political life supporting the liberation strugglesin Southern Africa and stressing that true liberation athome could only come through education. As president hedeclared the goal of free primary education for all, andalmost achieved it back in the late seventies. Now thecountry’s in debt and that goal has been abandoned.The report then moved on to a film of a village schoolin Tanzania’s farming heartland. The pupils all stoodoutside the school building, dressed smartly in theiruniforms. The headteacher called out a number of namesof children, who came forward. He then dismissed themfrom the school, while the narrator explained:The new school year started in January when pupils whohaven’t paid their fees are summoned by the headmaster.The sums they owe may seem negligible translated intosterling, but these are the children of often desperatelypoor subsistence farmers, who find it hard to find £3 ayear for school fees, and further contributions for desks oruniforms. It can come to nearly £12 per child.Film of the conditions inside the school highlightedthe lack of funding in education in recent years. With nodesks and chairs, the children had to sit on the dirt floor.The headteacher also explained that he had only fourteachers for over 200 pupils. The camera followed one ofthe dismissed pupils, Kasim Djuma, to his home. Thenarrator explained that his father’s crops had failed dueto drought one year, then El Niño and severe floodinglast year, and drought again this year. The father, DaudiDjuma explained (subtitled):As you can see, this is a very small farm and I only growmaize. I don’t have any cattle. The soil is poor, there’s adrought and I’m unable to get together the money for mychildren’s school fees.Focusing on an individual family within one smallfarming community in Tanzania, Newsnight illustratedhow farmers have struggled to sustain their businesses inthe face of severe climate changes. The feature showedhow children from such families are being locked out of60 DFID – July 2000