I refrain from ranting at the government in a manner rather akin to a paradoxical pursuit of philosophical puritanism.Spare me the sheer futility of the entire exercise.A quarter of a bread, while less than half one, is still better than none.
As some esteemed members eloquently pointed out, the enterprise of assigning a monetary value to human life is but an elaborate and futile self inflicted bag of frustrations, any sane person in control of vital capacities would be expected to hastily refrain from such a doomed endeavor.
However, this does not spare the governments -central and local- of the responsibilities to protect and provide a general oversight on safety matters.
I often wonder how do we make it without major catastrphes in big cities like Dar and Arusha without the barest minimum in terms of firefighting utilities and infrastructure. Our high density planning -to be precise lack of planning- is a recipe for a major carnage, only providence averts the irreedimably unescapable!
So if I will lash at the government, it will not be because of the paltry sum -which, philosophical conundrums aside, in a nation with a GDP per capita hovering around $ 500 may not be so paltry after all- but I will fault the government for not being ahead of the game in disaster prevention.
We are taught about "humanity" being central to "our" political philosophy and that "money is just the end result".The government can get away with saying that the money is just a gesture, and however much was it going to give the sum would be negligibly inconsiderable.
If we want to use a monetary system, then suing the government for negligence and cause of death would be appropriate, along with the million of malaria victims.The vicious cycle in this is if successful - what a stretch for a thought experiment- the suits have the potential to bankrupt the government, produce a Zimbabwe like inflation and even more disco fires and an exponential rise in malaria cases.
Of course, free society advocates would beg to differ in that private citizens may be able to provide social services and run the economy much better in Tanzania.
But that is a PhD thesis I am not ready to tackle.