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"id": 177851,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/177851/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Mwiria",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology",
"speaker": {
"id": 190,
"legal_name": "Valerian Kilemi Mwiria",
"slug": "kilemi-mwiria"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, of course, I would never imply that. I am implying that some of those who are opposing the Bill and not everybody. Some people are opposing the Bill genuinely and they have very good grounds for doing so. However, there are others who are just noisemakers. Those are few. I am just saying that we should also caution ourselves against the influence of those kinds of people. As you realise, in this country, it is often the very noisy few who can derail programmes and good initiatives. I am just saying we should be watchful but there are others who give constructive criticism. We welcome that because this can only help us enact a Bill that would satisfy many of the concerns raised. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, of course, there is politics in all this. We also need to November 27, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3729 look at the divide between the developed countries, which are self-sufficient and developing countries like those in Africa that have to continually be dependent on some countries. One way of fighting that dependence on food from other countries is to ensure that we also embrace technology that will make it possible for us to be independent in terms of being able to carter for our own population, just as we are trying to be independent with regard to other technologies. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we should also be worried about suspicions. There are some of us who are against this Bill just because they are suspicious. Often, we tend to be paranoid. If we are asked to justify the reasons for that paranoia, it is not easy to quantify or for people to come up with evidence to prove that they are indeed making a genuine case. Some of this paranoia has its basis in a number of areas. There are those who complain that this is a business; that the companies that are promoting this idea have business interests to promote. If they are products we are going to embrace, then we are going to buy them. In fact, they argue that once you buy those products, then you are in a catch-22 kind of a situation. They are such that you cannot multiply. That, up to a certain point, it will be of no use. In this way, countries that would be the first ones - with companies like Monsanto and others - to introduce the product will, therefore, be in a position to ensure that they control how we develop that technology and how even self sufficient we become in the long run. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are also those who are afraid that, that is a way of reducing Africa's population; that when you use that product, there is something about birth control that is laced in them and that they have serious dangers! Actually, I do not have a problem with that. If it is one of the ways that we can reduce our population because our numbers have become a problem, that is okay! But the only problem I have is that, that is not true! That is not the case! But it is one of the myths that are being used to discourage people from wanting to embrace that technology. That is why, for example, when we were facing famine in 1984, yellow maize from the USA was not acceptable because of the stories that people were told. They did not have the courage to eat yellow maize. They thought there was something sinister about those kind of products. So, that is played a lot in the ears of many people who do not know any better and who can easily be confused by people who are against a good idea. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the same connection, there are also those who say that those products are detrimental to our health; that if we are not very careful, many of those products will come with all sorts of ailments that will be a burden to our health sector and a burden to the capability of families to support their offsprings. That, essentially, they will weaken our populations not to be able to be independent and productive members of society. Once again, there is no evidence to those claims. Those countries that have embraced that technology and have those products being consumed in those populations, there is no real evidence that you can try to prove that, in fact, people are more susceptible to ill health than those who are attracted to other kinds of foods! Again, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to be careful. What is it that you will eat? I mean, how many of us---"
}