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TOPIC 4: RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP
The Meaning
of Citizen and Citizenship
Citizen a person
who is accepted as a member and who belongs to a certain country.
Citizenship is the
state of being a citizen of a particular country. In Tanzania a person cannot
be a citizen of more than one country.
A responsible citizen
is one who fulfills the duties and responsibilities of a citizen in his
country.
TYPES OF CITIZENSHIP
There are three main types of citizenship - by birth, naturalization
registration or by descent.
1. Citizenship by Birth
This is the type of citizenship that most citizens have in
a given country. It means, a person has citizenship status simply by being born
to parents who are citizens of that country. It is sometimes known as natural
citizenship.
2. Citizenship by Naturalization/Registration
This involves applying to the ministry responsible for
granting citizenship status. This is given to those who have been positively
accepted by the concerned ministry. For instance, if a non-citizen wishes to
become a Tanzanian citizen he or she can apply to the Ministry of Home Affairs for citizenship.
The Registration and Naturalization, Application
Process
Citizenship by registration is granted directly in
Tanzania to any female applicant who is married to a Tanzanian, no matter
whether she is from a Common wealth or non-Common wealth country. Any citizen
of a Commonwealth country may also apply for citizenship by registration.
People from non-Commonwealth countries may also apply for citizenship. In order
for citizenship to be granted, applicants must meet the following conditions:
1. Has legally lived in the country for no less than five
years continuously.
2. Able to speak Kiswahili and/or English fluently.
3. Well behavedi.e.not found engaging in criminal
behaviour.
4. Make an oath denouncing his or her previous
citizenship.
5. Promise to be a good citizen and to be loyal to the
constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania.
3. Citizenship by Descent
A person who was born outside the country, but whose parents
are citizens of Tanzania by birth or naturalization, can also apply for
citizenship to the minister of Home Affairs.
Loss of Citizenship in Tanzania
In Tanzania one can lose citizenship status on three
grounds;
1. If a Tanzanian citizen holds dual nationality; that
is, if is a Tanzanian citizen at the same time a member of another country or
other countries.
2. If one denounces his/her Tanzanian citizenship.
3. If one obtained his/her citizenship by fraud.
Note: There are some cases where a person can be a
citizen of two countries (dual citizenship). In Tanzania, this is not applied
to date, but there is a move to dual citizenship in Tanzania.
Importance
of Citizenship
Citizenship is important as a citizens receive legal
rights for being a member to a certain country, and is protected as a citizen
of that country. It is also the legal way of being recognized as a person
belonging to a particular country, and the country receives loyalty from its
citizens.
Additionally a person gains legitimacy to involve in
decisions in the country; for instance, citizens vote for leaders or can be
voted for as leaders. A country can also impose its authority upon its citizens
to carry out its policies for the development of the nation. Finally, a country
gets revenue from its citizens through taxes paid by them.
CITIZENSHIP RESPONSIBILITIES
To many people, duty and responsibility are two words
which are used interchangeably most of the time. Duty simply means a legal or moral
obligation of a person to perform certain legal tasks. On the other hand,
responsibility is the situation of having a duty and be blamed if one does
wrong. Therefore, all citizens have duties and responsibilities to perform in
their country
The
Responsibilities of a Citizen
These responsibilities are also called civic
responsibilities. They can be put into four categories - personal, political,
social and economic.
1. Personal Responsibility - A person can be
considered a good citizen if one: behaves in a respectful manner, takes care of
oneself, makes worth-fully decisions; considers the rights, freedom and
interests of others and supports the family.
2. Political Responsibilities - A good citizen
should participate fully in the political affairs of his/her nation like being
well informed on local, national and international issues. Also should watch
and give opinions on the process of government and its activities. The one who
is registered, contests for leadership and vote in every local or national election;
participating in political meetings like public rallies and local meetings to discuss
local issues and being ready to defend one’s nation, even to the extent of shedding
blood.
3. Social Responsibilities -These rights are not
limited to the following: respect for other people’s rights, good conduct on
crimes prevention and reporting. Respect the laws of the country, be honest,
civility and allegiance to the lawful authority, protect the environment,
safeguard public property, promote education, health services and help disabled
people.
4. Economic Responsibilities -These
responsibilities include: payment of taxes and duties, doing lawful productive
work; provide to dependents basic material and social services and be active
participant in community development activities
CIVIC RESPONSIBILITIES
Importance
of Individuals Fulfilling their Civic Responsibilities
1. There is a great need for individuals to fulfill their
civic responsibilities because individuals have a duty to ask for the provision
of quality education, good roads, electricity, or water if they have already
paid their taxes. This is because duties and rights go together.
2. When a person fulfills ones civic responsibilities,
he/she becomes a respected person in the family, society, nation, and even at
the international level. This may make people be fully involved in social,
political and economic activities for the development of a nation. For example,
the late Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere was highly respected everywhere because he
fulfilled his responsibilities as a citizen of Tanzania.
3. Crimes and wrong doing will also be reduced to a great
extent if everyone fulfill his/her own civic responsibilities. Finally, peace and
security may prevail in the country.
Dangers
of Not Fulfilling One’s Civic Responsibilities
There is a great danger if citizens do not fulfill
their responsibility because:
1. A person cannot claim for ones rights if at all
one does not fulfill civic responsibilities, like paying tax and duties.
2. Sometimes
in responsible citizens can be sued in a court of law. For example, tax evaders,
and lack of respect for the family and the nation may prevail.
3. Furthermore, families of people who do not fulfill their
responsibilities lead a miserable life of poverty, and witness an increase in
social evil and ethnics, e.g. killing, stealing and banditry.
4. Finally, fulfillment
of one’s civic responsibility contributes to the underdevelopment of the
nation.
SPECIAL GROUPS
Special Groups are people
with special needs. These are people who are disadvantaged/disabled. They are
unable to fulfill their civil responsibilities therefore, they need
special attention from able-bodied people. Special groups are people with unusual
problems that need special care and treatment in the society. The following are
some of the special groups:
Special
Needs for Each Special Group
1. Victims of HIV/AIDS: these are people who are
infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This
virus attacks the white blood cells, which protect the human body from
infections and diseases, like acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
These people have special problems because the disease has no vaccination and cure.
They live in fear and are stigmatized by some members of the society. Some of them
are too sick to work and cannot aord to
meet their basic needs.
2. Women: they too have special problems because
they are underprivileged, oppressed, exploited and treated differently from men, simply because “they are women”. They
at times suffer from rape, female genital mutilation and forced
marriages, and they are not allowed to inherit or own property. In addition,
girls’ enrolment in schools is very low compared to boys. All these practices
are socially constructed.
3. Disabled People/Handicapped: these are people
with reduced function of particular body organ(s) and, therefore, they are
limited in what they can do, although, they can do some tasks that are within
their abilities. They are sometimes stigmatised by the society. In most cases,
they are unable to meet their basic needs.
4. Refugees: these are people who are forced to
leave their homeland and live in other places. This forced migration can be due
to various social or political problems like war, drought or famine. Tanzania
has received refugees from Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC). Refugees lack houses, nutritious food, social services like education
and health, and they suffer from loneliness due to family
disintegration.
5. Orphans: these are children who have no
parents. They lack parental care and love. They can neither afford to meet their basic needs nor have access to social
services, like education and health.
6. The Youths: these are young people who are not
yet adults. They suffer from problems related to their physiological and
mental growth. Girls, sometimes, suffer from early marriages
and pregnancies while some boys abuse drugs, smoke bhang/cigarettes or join bad
groups.
7. Children: these are human beings who are below
eighteen years of age. They are unable to support themselves in terms of all
their basic and social needs. So they need special attention from parents and
the entire community in order for them to survive.
8. Street Children: these are disadvantaged
children who are forced to live a miserable life in the streets due to various
problems such as poverty, family disintegration, and the influence of bad youth groups, like those involved in drug
abuse. Sometimes these children engage in unlawful acts, such as, prostitution,
stealing, child labour, begging and petty. Business so as to earn a living.
9. Elderly People (the
aged): because of their age, they are physically unfit to work effectively and earn a
living. Therefore, they need assistance from the able-bodied people.
RESPONSIBILITIES TO SPECIAL GROUPS
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| Helping the Handicapped People |
RESPONSIBILITIES TO SPECIAL GROUPS
As discussed above, each special group has a wide range
of problems.
1. They need special assistance to provide for their
physical, biological, social and moral needs.
2. They need special attention because of their
disabilities, like when crossing roads, bicycles for the disabled, holding
their hands, etc.
However, these needs differ from one special group
to another. It is, therefore, the responsibility of citizens to help each special
group.
Responsibilities
of Citizens to the Disabled
The responsibilities of citizens to the disabled are
that:
1. Citizens should encourage and help the disabled to
consider themselves as normal citizens and thus participate in different social and economic activities in the society. Such
activities may be running a petty business, farming or looking after domestic
animals, depending on the nature of their disability.
2. They should also never discriminate disabled people in
schools, workplaces and in the society in general.
3. The disabled should be assisted to get basic needs
like food, clothing and housing.
4. Citizens living near or with such people should assist
them in that way.
5. Citizens should also help the disabled to establish
special centers where they can meet and share ideas and undertake joint
economic activities. This will reduce their loneliness while at the same time
making them productive as a group.
Moreover, citizens should help the disabled to form their
own associations that will fight for their rights. They should ensure that the
disabled have access to social services like education, health services, water,
housing and electricity.
Responsibilities of Citizens to Refugees
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| Helping the Old People |
Responsibilities of Citizens to Refugees
1. Citizens are responsible to refugees by providing humanitarian
assistance. Basically this involves giving them food, clothing and shelter.
2. They must also provide them with basic social
services, like water, medical care and education for their children.
3. They are supposed to ask refugees to refrain from any
unlawful acts (offences) like banditry, smuggling, keeping weapons and ammunition,
rape and even unlawful correspondence with their home countries.
4. Citizens need also to prevent refugees from destroying
the environment. This involves preventing them from clearing forests for firewood or practice sing poor farming methods.
5. Finally, citizens are responsible to co-operate with
the government and nongovernmental organisations, including the United Nations
High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), in taking care of refugees until when
they are ready to go back
to their home-country.
Responsibilities
of of citizens to HIV/IDS Victims
1. Citizens are responsible to advise and help the
HIV/AIDS victims to receive counselling and guidance from professional
counselors.
2. Also, citizens are responsible to advise and assist
them to attend clinics in various medical centers.
3. They are not supposed to isolate or stigmatize them,
rather show them love, concern and encourage them to have hope. This is because
to be infected with HIV does not mean that one will die soon.
4. They should also take trouble to support the victims financially so that they can get the required diet.
5. Finally, citizens are responsible to visit their homes
and give them company and other things to reduce their boredom and sense of
loneliness.
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| Helping the Sick People |
Responsibilities of Citizens to Women
1. Citizens are responsible to protect women through
abolishing bad traditions and
customs that oppress and exploit women in the society,
such as
- Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
- Beating of Women
- Early marriages
- Forced Marriages
- Polygamy
- Inheritance of widows
- Laws forbidding women from inheriting property
- Denial of equal educational opportunities for girls.
2. They are also responsible for helping women to form
co-operative groups which can seek funds from the government or NGOs to engage
in meaningful and productive activities.
3. Citizens need to ask the government to provide women
with better transport and communication systems, clean and safe water and
health services.
4. Women should be educated so that they can realize
their rights in the society, hence, promote equality between men and women in
education, politics, employment, division of labor in the family, and even in
religious institutions.
Responsibilities
of Society to the Aged
As the number of old people increases in Tanzania, our
society ought to help them.
1. This can be through buying them foodstuffs or showing them how they can grow some of the food
crops near their homes.
2. The citizens are supposed to provide them with
comfortable clothing and bedding so as to keep their bodies warm, especially at
night.
3. They need to involve the aged in organisations where
they can share views with other people. This helps them to reduce loneliness,
hence, stay mentally active.
4. They are also responsible to assist them in getting
medical care and train them to refrain from unhealthy habits like smoking.
5. They are responsible to help the aged remain
physically fit by educating them on the importance of undertaking
physical exercise like walking, gardening, cycling and swimming.
6. Citizens are supposed to love them and give them
encouragement so that, despite their problems, they may still have hope for a
better life. We should show them that they are still valued despite their old
age.
7. Finally, if possible for old homes, new homes should
be built for the aged, especially those who have no family members to take care
of them.
Responsibilities of the Society to Street Children
 |
| Helping the Refugees |
Responsibilities of the Society to Street Children
1. Citizens ought to help street children through showing
them love and hospitality by giving them parental care and trying to adopt some
of them so as to assist them closely.
2. They are also needed to provide them with the basic
necessities, like food, clothing and shelter.
3. Charities and religious organisations should assist
street children by giving them good moral guidance and even supporting them
materially.
4. Joining or forming organisations aimed at supporting
street children morally and materially.
Responsibilities
of Citizens to the Youth
1. Some of the responsibilities of citizens to the youth
are to ask the government to change the traditional trend of our educational
system so that it teaches the youth how to employ themselves instead of
educating them for white-collar jobs only.
2. Citizens are also supposed to ask the government to
increase the opportunities for secondary, technical and tertiary education.
3. To expand and strengthen the informal sector through
co-operation with the government so that it provides more employment.
4. Furthermore, citizens are supposed to help the youth
to initiate cooperative economic activities like carpentry or gardening.
5. Lastly, they need to assist the youth to take part in
sports and games so as to promote co-operation, love, friendliness and good
health among them.
Responsibilities
of Citizens to Orphans
As stated earlier, orphans get frustrated as they lack
parental care and love.
1. To orphans, citizens ought to provide them with basic
assistance that will help them to go to school.
2. This may involve paying for their school materials
like books, uniforms, bus fare or even meals at school.
3. Also, citizens need to provide the orphans with
health-care services including paying for their treatment when they are sick
and giving them medical advice, and providing them with basic social services
like food, clothing and shelter.
4. In addition, citizens are responsible for showing them
love and care, since these are the things orphans lack most.
5. They need to be adopted and be given material and moral
support.
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| Helping the Children |
Responsibilities of Citizens to Children
Like other special groups, children have many problems.
1. They are unable to provide themselves with basic needs
like food, clothing and shelter.
2. Also, they cannot afford social services, like
education, health, water, housing and transport.
3. They need love and care from either parents or
guardians.
4. Citizens have the responsibility to ensure that children
get education, especially primary education which is provided free in Tanzania.
Parents, in particular, should send their children to school and make sure that
their attendance at school is good.
5. They need clean and safe water, health care, and be
taught good manners so that they can grow up to be good citizens in the future.
6. Children should not be subjected to child labour or
any child abuse. For example, using of children to fight in wars, for commercial sex work, to work in quarries
and mines or to do lumbering.
7. They should get time to enjoy playing games and doing sports
both at school and in other places demarcated for such activities.
8. Children are supposed to be educated on how to avoid
dangerous behaviour like unsafe sex, abusing drugs and smoking cigarettes and
marijuana. Unsafe sex can lead them to getting infected with HIV/AIDS.
9. They need also to be taught the importance of
hard-work both at school and at home, where they should assist their parents in
some manual work.
five responsibilities of a responsible citizen are?
返信削除1-personal rensponsinle
削除2-political rensponsible
3-social rensponsible
4-ecconomic rensponsible