Tuesday, August 7, 2012

We are encouraged to use resources in a deregulated

António Alberto da Silva Francisco is Research Director, Institute for Social and Economic Studies (IESE), Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics, University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), Master and PhD in Demography from the Australian National University (ANU) and BA in Economics UEM (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane). Over the past 10 years has not visited his birthplace city. Was there for days. This served as the motto for this interview.
CM: In the past few months Professor Anthony Francisco has called attention to an old issue but few researchers are interested in him, in the case of Mozambican society. He did so in relation to the City of Maputo, then Quelimane last June, and still in Nampula. A topic that relates affect the whole country, with a sounding name, but few seem to know its real meaning. That is, calls it a "tragedy of the commons". What do you mean by "tragedy of the commons" and what it means in Mozambique?
AF - Tragedy of the commons is undoubtedly a controversial concept, as indeed any concept that deals with the moves and behaviors, social relationships, prejudice, and individual habits. Simply put, the tragedy of the commons is a kind of trap social, cultural and especially economic, in which people derive the maximum benefit of a common good, without worrying about how to contribute to its production and conservation. A social trap arising from the conflict between individual interests concentrate on the use of finite resources considered joint property of all public goods in general and nobody in particular.Numa society where people are encouraged to use resources in a free and unregulated end to use these resources in an abusive manner and exaggerated. A common and known the time when the income property were nationalized and banned, we had a APIE (Administration of Property of the State Park), the service elevators, water and lights in public spaces have been completely degraded. Who cared about the taps? How long did a light input, what happened to the elevators? Lights always on. Nobody wanted to know. Why save if the State took over as sole owner and responsible for the common good? Why be spared and be careful with things if the neighbor did not care to use things without any control?
CM: But this happens only in the cities or affect the whole country? Why has recently highlighted the City of Maputo, when the controversy arose between the city council of the municipality and the informal Maputo City, earlier this year? More recently was the Quelimane and made a very provocative speech: "How do I free Quelimane the tragedy of the commons?" This is a problem mainly urban, or is it a problem that also affects the rural areas, for example, natural resources as has been said both?
AF - Let's clarify this subject well. The contents of the tragedy of the commons is not defined in terms of urban-rural classification. I got up and wrote about it last February, because of the conflict between the city council and the informal in Maputo City, for the case I have awakened attention to the phenomenon. First of all, the tragedy of the commons is a social relationship, a social trap created by institutions or rules of play in society, where people are encouraged to derive the greatest benefit of the resource with the lowest possible cost.The term is very old. Dates back to ancient Greece, Aristotle, but it was the biologist Garrett Hardin popularized the idea that "the tragedy of the commons" in a small but seminal article published in 1968 in the journal Science. It has been the most cited articles and used in scientific research, either for or against the idea. Hardin pointed out, in that article, there are certain problems in society that can not be solved by technical means, but changing social relations, human values, ideas of morality and perceptions of personal responsibility. Exemplifying a kind of purely technical problem without solution, Hardin said the relationship between human population growth and capacity utilization of resources on a finite planet.
CM: What did you think of Quelimane, after being more than ten years without going back there?
AF - Quelimane receded dramatically receded in proportion to the economic setback Zambezian. It is a dying city that refuses to languish and die. A good picture of Quelimane can be read in the book entitled, "The Underground City" by Elio Mudender. He called it romance, but for me it's more a documentary of the tragedy quelimanense. While the author describes the city plunged into a morass of misery and poverty, corruption, envy, persecution and revenge, I worry about understanding the social fabric of such a trap.
CM: As a university professor for nearly thirty years, what did you think of the university community, knowing that Quelimane, in a few years got five or six universities?
AF - Yeah. Five universities and could not find a single open and available to host one of the debates that were held in the Main Hall of the city of Quelimane. Apparently, they had stopped classes for tests and exams. It is a system like high school. But the most curious and strange was there a group or student association, committed to promoting discussions of current interest. Who walks to do so is the Mayor who has culture and sensitivity académica.Ainda was a teacher at the Polytechnic University (??) Sent one or two classes for the second lecture I did. At that time I shared with them the feeling I had. In Maputo, the popular voice says that the National Assembly is the "kindergarten of the noise." In Quelimane, I got the feeling that universities are true small schools of silence, for the student and academic debate is non-existent. This is a pity. When I was in high school in 1973 and 1974, even before the fall of the Caetano regime in Portugal, April 25, a core of high school students, high school and technical school, college students had contact with Lourenco Marques and exchanged with each other books. It was so at the time read my first banned book "The Origin of the Family, Property and the State", Friedrich Engels. And now, when there is no literary censorship, we have the problem of students and young people read very little about classical literature and política.De anyway, on the positive side, it is interesting now to go have a Quelimane and the Mayor to boost the public debate and reflection. This is what is making the Mayor Manuel de Araujo ... On August 21 Quelimane will celebrate 70 years as a city. Coincidentally, the day we did the first lecture, missing 70 days to the anniversary. Manuel de Araujo publicly announced that day that that speech was the first of a series of other lectures under the theme "Rethinking Quelimane, Zambezia Rethinking." That was when I presented the theme: "Getting rid of Quelimane Tragedy of the Commons." Then I did another one on the opportunities and constraints of the formal economy in Zambezia. However, Manuel de Araujo wants to continue with the debate, he has been inviting zambezianos, and not only, also others who are interested in supporting the process of change that is happening in Quelimane ...
Cm: In Quelimane or Country?
 AF - Yes, in Quelimane. That city is a unique experience in its history. As is known, from December 7 last came a change of political leadership never before seen in Quelimane. Despite being one of the few or the only municipality in the province of Zambezia with an alternation of political leadership, in the recent municipal elections, was the first time that there was a change really partisan. Quelimane began to redefine themselves and rethink their place and role as part of a major Mozambican provinces in terms of population and beyond.
Cm: The Beira should also do this?
AF - Yes, the border should do. Only in Beira political leadership alternative to the ruling party in the rest of the country, Frelimo, shows no substance and intellectual vigor. The benefit and difference that emerged in Quelimane is a President who has an intellectual and academic career, which allowed him to purchase an additional sensitivity.
Cm - This will allow Manuel de Araújo can manage the municipality? Will he lose himself in this kind of cultural and intellectual? Knowing he only has a mandate, too short for now - think he'll be able to remain after 2013?
AF - Manuel de Araújo has a short term, yes. He can not do major works, why not have time, but can make a difference with this type of initiative, and many others, practical and immediate impact on people's lives. Some of these initiatives does not cost money; only costs judgment and political vision. It can resolve the litigation facing the markets of sellers, which I'm convinced it will solve. It is a ridiculous problem inherited from the previous city council. From what I understand the previous mayor, Pio Matos, dealers concentrated in the old show, "FAE", a place quite remote and out of hand in terms of central market and customer proximity. Of course, because of this, these vendors have become supporters of the change to Manuel de Araujo, because they saw in him the hope of understanding their concerns. After the victory of Ali as some vendors have left the room and took to the streets. But then people start to get annoyed with this sale disorderly in the street, which is also de Araujo legítimo.Manuel have here an opportunity to manage one of the many little traps of social tragedy of the commons. The lack of clear rules on how far they can go and where to end the rights of informal traders, where they begin and end formal rights of vendors, as well as respect the rights of consumers. All this requires clear rules of operation and relationship between people, putting sellers in a space more accessible to customers, resolving the matter by way of economic rather than administrative or police. That is a problem of economy of Retailers, which sells clothes, but a problem that will increase because people in the city and increase the chances of producing something that manages it increases at the same pace.

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