Somalia: is Museveni a collaborator of Neo-Colonialism?

AFRICAN BETRAYAL

The continued presence of Ugandan troops in Somalia is one that requires some evaluation and scrutiny. No one would argue that regional security is of utmost importance and prerequisite for economic growth. Our experiences with various bombs have threatened peace in East Africa and the authorities have pointed towards Al-qaeda and their vestiges – the al-shabaab as the main culprits.

We definitely recall the tragic August 7^th,  1998 twin bombs that targeted American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Those bombs killed more than 258 people and left another staggering 5,000 injured. We have also not forgotten the tragic and senseless twin bombing that targetted revellers during FIFA’s World Cup finals event in Kampala on July 12, 2010 that left 74 people dead and another score of injuries.

That Uganda and East Africa became a target of al-qaeda inspired group – al-shabaab - has a lot to tell. The Al-shabaab have wanted Uganda and Burundi out of Somalia where they continue to protect a weak UN backed regime to stay in power. The strange part of this whole mission is that it has colorfully painted President Museveni as a merchant of war of our generation. He chooses to keep Ugandan troops in fighting expeditions even when some of the wars are contradictory to the values of Pan Africanism that h eat times professes.

For instance, the global war against terrorism is a war deeply rooted in history of global inequalities and the struggle over the control of territories and resources, mainly oil. While Uganda’s domestic demand for oil is on the rise, its participation in Somalia is a betrayal of Pan African spirits that seeks to liberate Africa for Africans. Uganda therefore has become a key agent of neo-colonialism, fighting to improve and re-establish a client states for the so-called world super powers.

One would truly wonder why President Barack Obama sent 100 highly specialized troops to Uganda, disguised in a mission to hunt down an elusive, depleted and decomposed Joseph Kony. We all know that currently, the real threats to the East African region is not Joseph Kony or LRA, but the lingering persistence and presence of radicalized groups such as al-shabaab. We also know that Sudan’s continued attack on the Republic of Southern Sudan over territorial disputes in Abyei and other oil rich regions will soon destabilize the region.

So, why must Uganda spend its resources fighting an equally elusive group of radicals that have no interest in Uganda instead of focusing on Kony and helping the new and fragile South Sudan stave off Khartoum? Of course, it would be suicidal for al-qaeda to build a base in the horn of Africa where they can further the destabilization of the region. But why should Uganda and Burundi have interests in Somalia and not Somalia’s immediate neighbors – Kenya, Somaliland, Eritrea, Ethiopia or in that case, Djibouti? Burundi is a poor country that has been recipient of handout from Uganda, why  must they focus on Somalia and not their fragile home economy and security?

The continued presence of Uganda in Somalia to fight a proxy war for the West is reminiscent of the historical collaborators of long distance trade and slavery in Africa. Slavery and subsequent colonization of black Africa was made possible purely on the good will of some African Chiefs and traditional leaders who conspired with Arabs and later Europeans to sanction these heinous crime against humanity. We are reliving the horrors of our predecesor generation that were sold into slavery. Our leaders are conspiring with our sworn oppressors to promote neo-colonialism and invite for more exploitation of the continent in exchange for their stay in power.

In return, the west finds no remorse in transplanting dictatorship in their client states. It is true that persistence of dictatorship in and around the world is a design of the West. As long as they have collaborators in power that satisfies their plunder of that country, these people are rewarded with sufficient means to repress the civilians.The war in Somalia has provided us with an opportunity to witness re-emergence of neo-colonialism in the most destructive form ever.  The recent surge in military support and activities by American Army justifies Uganda’s efforts of appeasing them in Somalia and interlinked with the brutality being meted on opposition. Unless we redefine our destiny, I fear that the NRM regime will trade Ugandans for cheap and give away their lands and resources to the advancing neo-colonialists. We must stand up and resist!

END.

Part I: How corruption sipped into our social fabric:

 CORRUPTION

Corruption in Uganda has reached a crisis level and it is now threatening the very moral fabric of our society. Every unit of our society has succumbed to this vice which has been normalized and socialized in a monumental manner. The question we must ask our generation over and over again is why we have let this monster permeate our society and our conscience such that it alone, dictates our common future.

In my previous dispositions, I posited that corruption is a function of neo-liberalism. The central premise for such assertion is that neoliberal ideologies that were imposed on the developing countries by the Brenton Woods institutions significantly destroyed social and political infrastructure of these countries. Most of the political infrastructure was a colonial construct that had gotten distorted by the advent of independence and rising socialist consciousness.

For instance, in Uganda, the sustenance of Co-operative Union ensured a sustained Agro-economy that provided soft landing for most small scale farmers from the vagaries of the global market. Through cooperatives, our farmers escaped market price fluctuations.

Now, through the open market systems, cooperatives were abolished on the ground that they offered unnecessary protection to a growing market such as Uganda. They also advanced other complimentary arguments that foreign investment in agriculture and other ventures would provide the silver bullet required for development and national debt repayments.

Neo-liberal proponents therefore introduced this monstrous principle in Africa and the rest of the developing world in haste, causing shocks. This is because its implementation did not avail significant time to prepare and mobilise human resources adequately in these countries to permit fair competition in the new economic model. Thousands of public servants were retrenched as governments were compelled to relinquish key responsibilities to its citizens. These would be given away to private and foreign firms.

 Notwithstanding the fact that international conglomerates and medium size investors would require time to study market dynamics and consumer patterns before gaining sufficient confidence to inject their capitals in these countries, most of the governments obliged to these harsh conditions upon its mere proposal. The education system was not revisited to prepare the locals to become competent global competitors. The health care sector was surrendered to speculations that private agencies would emerge to fill the gap left by the government. Most government institutions were purged of highly skilled human resources through retrenchment with the hope that new ideas and technology would perform their duties. Simply put, the expectations were way too high!

These gaps left by this rather awkward "liberalization" of the economy, only temporarily posted growth. In Uganda, people like AKEF, the Egyptian circus groups came in and left with millions worth of profits. Sudhir Ruperalia and his Indian compatriots found fertile grounds to exploit Ugandans through series of gambling (lottery & Casinos) and banking systems. South African bankers came in to purchase properties in Uganda and make millions in profit. The real Ugandan and their businesses started playing second fiddle to the bigger co-operate powers as their established industries, such as NYTIL and Coffee Marketing Board were being dismantled. Not before we could realize anything, our airwaves were filled with FM transmissions and then cell phone companies squeezed in. Uganda because a hub for "foreign investment". The death of industries in Jinja symbolized the harshness of this economic disease called Liberalization.

Why so much business, poverty, social and moral degradation and infrastructural collapse?

The purpose of every investment is for accumulation of profit. Most of the investors in Uganda are second class investors and most of them expropriate their capitals back to their homeland. We continue to witness painstaking levels of exploitation and abuse of local Ugandan worker in the hands of these so-called investors. Given the buzz of liberal economy, I argue in here that corruption has materialized in this equation as a result of striving for "rent allocation". When indigenous people try to enter the chaotic open marketplace, they have to compete against well organized and experienced foreign investors. With all the disadvantages against them, they opt to procure space compete.

The incentives the Ugandan government has in place for foreign investors have never been matched with that for local innovation. For instance, tax waivers or tax free grace periods tend to favour foreigners than the locals. The investment policies are equally skewed towards the foreigner. The ordinary Ugandan therefore has to endure the briber's dilemma if they are to remain afloat in the market and by extension in every aspect of the sickened society; else they quickly sink.

Corruption therefore is the means by which space in the so-called liberal market gets procured such that at every bureaucracy standpoint, one has to dispense millions of shillings to get an assurance of prospects and possibilities of upward mobility. And corruption takes many shapes and forms; it could come in terms of money, land, promises for shares in business venture, tuition refund for relatives or children of the person in authority and in some instances, sexual pleasures.

END

Rampant global wars are resurgence of neo-imperialism

 Neo-IMPERIALISM

Last week, the New York Times Newspaper published in its Global Business section an interesting report on the visit of Portuguese President, Mr António Cunha Vaz to Angola. In that article titled "Portugal turns to former colony for growth", it was reported that the Portuguese leader was bold enough to shop for foreign investors from Angola to invest in its receding economy. This story is of great essence to many of us who have had to empathize with Europe through this economic meltdown. The world is indeed facing serious economic crisis, but above all, Portugal's bold move to reach out to its former colony, as a trading partner, has challenged the destructive patterns of capitalism we are witnessing with the world's so-called major democracies – US, Britain and France.

The persistence of colonialism and imperialism seems to have returned to haunt mankind. The wars being fought in the world have had specific traits; targeting resources from these countries. First, it was Iraq, then Libya and we have witnessed destructive bombings of infrastructure in these countries in the pretext of freeing the people.

This article will argue that, most of the wars and upheavals that have pre-occupied most of the Arab world are not about freeing the people. It is neo-imperialism and neo-colonialism being executed with the greatest impunity for the sole purposes of galvanizing, reclaiming and exploiting resources in these countries under the guise of creating a false free world.

Iraq has gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and all his murderous sons, but Iraq is not a free country. Iraq has some of the world's largest number of destitutes and orphaned children, nearly five million head counted orphans, live in that country. Most of them become child households heads or have been reduced to street dwellers - Something unheard of in Iraq before.

Today, there are 1.5million widows living in Iraq and nearly 2 million people living with various forms of disabilities as direct consequences of the instability there. The story is not any further from the fragile Afghanistan. If the wars being launched by the big democracies were to expunged dictatorship and bad governance, how come these tragedies are a constant storyline in most of the so-called liberated countries?

The wars being fought anywhere, let it be in Asia or in Africa, are intended to promote neo-colonial interests. In Sub-Sahara Africa, they tried and succeeded, mostly through the forced liberalization policies imposed by IMF/WB financial institutions. Through the liberalization of the fragile economies, most of the countries that blindly bought into that mantra have actually regressed in its economic growth index. Most of them have resorted to high level corruption because the mechanisms for equitable resource distribution were destroyed. Private foreign investors took over government functions and rendered regimes and indigenous businesses useless.

The new lexicon of neo-imperialism is Peacebuilding. Through the wars and bombings, they demolish the economic, social and political structures of the targeted resource country. Once the war is over, they hand pick and impose a puppet or stooge into power. They then rapidly introduce neo-liberal ideologies of fast tracking democracy (elections), forcing that fragile market to open up for integration into the global market and taking full control of the country's resources through the deception of employing peacekeeping forces  and humanitarian aid in these countries. In resource limited countries, they never intervene until countries melt down into absolute chaos like in Somalia or Darfur.

No matter how much Libya has to pay for the numerous NATO bombs, the message that the big democracies have taught us is that without Africa and Asia, there is no natural wealth. They also know that they cannot live with a fully developed Africa because the struggle against raw materials will heighten. The spiralling oil price in the global market is an example because many more people in the so-called underdeveloped worlds are using more automobiles since China made access easier.

So, while President Cunha decided to humble himself and seek the support of its resource rich former colony as partner in trade, the so-called democracies have opted to sell bombs and promote destructive capitalism. This is the world's tragic moment that threatens the future of the free world.

END

Renationalization of UMEME is inevitable

Power Outages in Uganda 

I was impressed by Gen Salim Saleh’s observation that Umeme should be renationalized  Umeme – the power generation company in Uganda (See DM Nov 9, 2011: Gen. Saleh wants Umeme renationalized). I do not understand Uganda’s economists but I know that the NRM ideology of transforming society has stalled. This dearth of ideas has manifested in failed infrastructure; perennial potholes, almost daily power outages and a gamut of other degenerative conditions in health and education sectors. The challenge of power outage is overwhelming, though. What Ugandans painfully do relate with and know quite well is power outage (Romaticisized, socialized and normalized as “load-shedding”). 

Uganda has a lot of potential to industrialize and to claim international reputation as great tourist destination. Lack of steady flow of electricity has locked these enormous potentials. Industrialization cannot be achieved with charcoal stove and firewood. Electricity supply must be adequate, constant and reliable for us to realize this dream. Uganda is a backward country because of persisted poor service delivery. The potential of consumers are limited due to lack of electricity. Foods cannot be preserved, industries have to be confined within Kampala and Jinja; operation rooms have to rely on generators…on and on!! 

The whole essence of privatization was to enhance service delivery. Private investors were expected to compete in the open market so as to improve service delivery. The electricity and power industry has not been vibrant enough and as a consequence, it has reneged on all these expectations. Renationalization of Umeme therefore is inevitable. 

General Saleh was right. Privatization in Uganda was done in haste to satisfy the conditionalities imposed on us by WB and IMF in the 90s. Neo-liberal policies have let down many countries and in fact research has consistently shown that most of the countries that adopted Neo-Liberal policies of deregulations have not developed at all. Most of them have stagnated and others have regressed. Most Sub-Sahara African countries have not performed any better either with democracy and deregulated economies. 

Given the gloomy state of affairs surrounding Umeme; the perennial losses, constant and increasingly prolonged outages and internal corruption, the company has failed Ugandans. This is twenty first century and we still have Ugandans who have never seen electricity. There are so many children who have to rely on kerosene lamps for studies and others simply resort to local fires because Umeme is a no show in their villages, schools and homes. 

Steady supply of electricity is key determinant of health and that of economic growth. Imagine how many hours Ugandans could be working, if they had electricity 24hrs. Imagine how many small businesses could have cropped up to absorb the large number of unemployed youths if there was easy access to electricity. Imagine how much food and animal products have to go to waste everyday because we lack electricity to operate refrigeration or cooling plants in the countryside. 

The implications of Umeme’s failures grind so deep into our skins and psyche. I believe that, one of the solutions of reversing congestion in urban centers is to transmit electricity to the countryside. Further, I believe that with the invigoration of the youths that led to the development of Kira EV many youth and women groups could emerge out of poverty when given access to reliable power source. They could find variety of avenues to invest their micro –finance investments if government decides to re-nationalize Umeme and its sister companies. 

More Ugandans in villages and in the countryside are using cell phones and they require repair, servicing and charging. Ugandans have gone tech savvy. Technology is supported by electricity without which, we shall remain a poor and backward society. 

I challenge the government and President Museveni in particular to seriously heed to Gen Saleh’s advice. This is ideological issue and is the right thing to do. If we are to transform Ugandan society as Museveni envisioned, then the infrastructure to support such a transformation must be in place. Societal transformation from backwardness to modernity, world over has been powered by rich sources of energy to run industries, process agro-products, enable education, repair equipments and implements. Energy spurs creative learning and entrepreneurship. Umeme generates too much darkness!!

 END.

Walk-to-Work protest has been justified by Occupy Wall Street

PEOPLE'S POWER

The current Occupy Wall Street (OWS) demonstrations in US cities and the demonstrations in Greece are two incidences that have justified and legitimized the Walk-to-Wok protest by members in the opposition to Uganda’s tyranny.

The W2W demonstrators have long pointed out the disparities in wealth distribution in Uganda between the regime’s cronies and the many wretched Ugandans who are living marginal and precarious lives.

Ugandans are enduring sky high food prices, a degraded environment characterized by catastrophe, a diminishing forest cover, lowered water levels, poor health care system, chronic power outages, high tariffs, chronically corrupt government and failed institution, sporadic incidences of insecurity to the person and to property, rampant land grabs by the powerful, nepotism and sectarianism in all branches of government. Further, the unease is made worse by increasing brutality exacted on the population by the largely sectarian and high handed military police.

All these trappings have pointed to the state’s abuse of its power, a sign that the current democracy in Uganda is a fragile arrangement that can no longer predicate equity in the utilization of public space for just distribution of public goods. In Uganda, the so-called rich are intricately connected to the power base that forms the Center/Core upon which they choreograph and execute the plundering of our country.

The emerging pattern is that the incumbent regime has found difficulties establishing its authority without brutality. Through repression, it has managed to establish legitimacy as the formal authority over the largely impoverished Ugandans. The fact of the matter is that those who are at the center have diminished in influence due to many years of abuse of power. They have cultivated a state that is opportunistic and agents who are rogued. In that essence, the power brokers are viewed as predators that form the bulk of the “Greedy” that OWS/W2W now targets.

To the contrary, because of the greed exhibited by the corrupted regime’s elite and the pseudo middle class borne out of political patronage, those at the periphery have increased in volume. There are more disparate and helpless Ugandans today than a decade ago. The number of people that have suffered from reversal of faith in the future under the NRM that the prospects of the 90s had ushered has almost tripled in the last decade alone. There are more poor Ugandans on the streets, some made homeless through the systematic policies of land grab. Many, so ill and burned out from treacheries of life that they prefer to perish in agony instead of confronting the dilapidated health care system. Noam Chomsky, a renowned American scholar described many of these hapless souls as precariats - those persisting precariously at the peripheries of society.

This is where W2W became a legitimate voice for, and a political response to the plight of those living precariously at the periphery of our society today. I hypothesize that the richest 2% adults owns and controls more than half the wealth in this country, and that, the so-called wealthy people are linked directly to the center through militaristic modes of patronage. This factor alone deprives the so-called middle class that feeds off the corrupt center, of any legitimacy.

Strange things happen in Uganda which reaffirms the pitiful level of our consciousness. The understanding of demonstration has been spewed out of tangent. When Taxi/Bus drivers; teachers or doctors and merchants/entrepreneurs demonstrate, they are treated with the same measure of awe that is exacted on the political agencies. Surprisingly, when the politicians demonstrate, the other groups abscond and vice versa and yet they are all seeking for same objective – fair conditions upon which national resources, including wealth and burdens of the state should be distributed.

The dilemma is, unlike in America, Uganda’s precariats are uninformed elites who are subdued by post-colonial forms of loyalties to the state.  This is the mindset that buttress patronage, rights violations and corruption. Corruption then becomes the means paired alongside brutality for ascertaining legitimacy of authority over those at the periphery.

I contend that all Ugandans should join W2W protest through which the greed of the center can be challenged peacefully by the precariats. These actions are legitimate and constitutional rights enumerated in Ch. 3(29)(1)(a)-(e) and others, in the Uganda 1998 amended Constitution.

END.

Opposition exists to contend for State Power

Our democracy seems to be sliding down under and if we don’t change our attitude towards politics, it will remain a game of death for many. It is apparent that unless the NRM regime changes its confrontational and none negotiation methods of doing things, the country will most likely slip back into state of anarchy and chaos.

When Police Chief, Kale Kayihura accuses the opposition of using “demonstrations” to cause regime change, he must be thinking strange outright. Freedom of association and other forms of liberties are well enumerated in Uganda’s Constitution. Everyone – except Kayihura -  knows that opposition political parties are there to compete for state power. FDC is not a trade union or bunch of merchants. FDC like DP and UPC are contenders for state management and they intend to cause regime change by means that are constitutional.

I just don’t seem to understand why the fuss about Dr. Besigye or other members of the Opposition who are barred from walking to work or going wherever they should be going. Over the years, the regime has overly harassed Dr. Besigye and members of the Opposition, including torturing them and confining them illegally in safehouses, prisons and in Police vehicles. These are barbaric behaviours that must not be condoned in 21 century.

The makers of the 1995 constitution must be wondering what is going on because they know that times have changed. The provisions for human liberty and freedoms that were proscribed in the Constitution are now being violated with impunity by the same people who wrote these down. How are we supposed to enjoy our rights and freedoms if we are barred from walking to work or charged with treason, for sensitizing the masses on fundamental issues that affect them?

Let’s give and take on the current political developments in Uganda. Museveni and NRM do not own Uganda or Ugandans but have succeeded in keeping us under bondage by brutal means. Uganda is a home to every one of us and we must be constructively engaged in shaping the future of that country. Further, now that Museveni has felt the need to change the law and bring in draconian legislation to ban demonstrations, one can only conclude that his time is up and he must consider retiring.

One of the problems with African leaders is that they never know when to quit or change policies once they become intoxicated with power. When you begin to see all sorts of roughness and cruelty being visited on the ordinary citizen, then you know that the leaders are now vegetating in power. Everything becomes a weapon to hold on to power, including old age!

Such a patronizing attitude is what truly buttresses the mindset that these dictators own the means of coercion and also own the state and anything must be controlled by use of brutal and sheer force. The vision and ideology of managing modern state is cast aside, cronyism and mafiaism becomes the new preferred tool.

What is even funny is that no matter how they harass Besigye, none of the cases have been sustained. One really wonders what kinds of lawyers are employed by Government or what kind of conscience they do have. What kind of a professional would accept to be used to perform unethical duties such as concocting charges against a fellow citizen and unleashing such amount of terror on a tax payer? We must take stock here, especially on those lawyers who are representing this shameful face of the regime. With a possible regime change, these lawyers should be made accountable for abuse of power.

.

I think the game needs changing by introducing mutual respect in politics. This would allow ample time for contending ideas to get examined by the masses thoroughly. When we continue to adapt to the tradition of using guns and anti-riot police against opponents, then we suppress vital ideas that could add value in our politics.

 There is no way that NRM can continue to govern Uganda like a kraal. There must be a better and more civilized way to settle political disagreements. I feel that the more Besigye is harassed, the more he cements his image as a political Messiah, a Martyr and Hero to the locals.

END

Occupy Wall Street: Neo-Liberalism has failed us

GLOBAL ECONOMICS

I am not a scholar of economics. I am, however, a recurrent recipient of bad global economic policies and one staunch opponent of neo-liberal ideologies which I think of as the greatest contradiction and blatant lies being sold to the poor peoples.

Until the insurrection of the masses in New York on September 17^th, 2011 with the now famed “Occupy Wall Street” led by Canadian activists, Adbusters, America, which has been economically robust, (so they made us to believe) has been portrayed as one of the victims of neo-liberal ideals.

America has been mortgaged to China, with Chinese debts ranging in multiple zero figures. According to the United States Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Public Debt (September 2011), the US foreign debt is $14.94 trillion with the bulk of it coming from China and Oil producing countries.

When the liberalization of the economy became a buzz word in the 90s, the US shamelessly benefitted from the stay of market protectionism and high tariffs for non-western products, most annoyingly, is the protection over Agricultural products that were restricted from accessing American domestic markets.

Because other countries opened up their markets, the allure of cheap labor exploits and good government incentives (lower taxes, state protection and other benefits) attracted a lot of American companies, most of which had benefitted enormously from the Bush era tax cuts, to developing countries. Most of these jobs left US for India, China, Vietnam and Latin America where the investors could procure cheap labour for maximization of their profits.

The problem is that, the countries where these jobs relocated were not benefitting either because the investors appropriated their profits and stashed the money away in foreign banks, in Switzerland or returned to real estate businesses back home. Americans at home lost their industrial job opportunities as jobs were being outsourced overseas or new and challenging opportunities were emmerging.

In essence, neo-liberalism has greatly altered global and regional wealth distribution. It was able to take away jobs from America, and this led to numerous foreclosures due to joblessness for home owners. Now, in America, you are either poor or not and this is because the middle class is shrinking and the super rich are making some frivolous annual profits unimaginable that they do not want to share through taxation.

The current Occupy Wall Street is a struggle I associate with as a form of social justice. Although the idea was wishy-washy initially, their message has now taken shape and proper form, in that it now represents the people’s resolution to demand for fair wealth sharing at a global scale.

The real enemy of the people are the Republicans in the US and ultra Conservative demagogues world-over. The American Republicans despise the poor and believe that the rich should not be taxed and that poor people should not be entitled to universal healthcare or education and should be taxed at any point of contact with government. They prefer to levy heavy taxes on the middle class and low income earners, and wish the destitute, homeless and vulnerable to vanish quick from the surface of the earth altogether.

Republicans believe that the rich should be given tax breaks so they can create jobs for the working class. The problem is, the profits made out of exploiting the working class is protected against any significant taxation. So when President Obama demanded that the rich be taxed more, the Republicans Paul Ryan, the chairman of budget committee and Sen. Mitch McConell, the Senate Republican leader, accused President Obama of initiating a class-war.

Diversionary as that is, Warren Buffet, a Billionaire businessman did attest to the fact that he pays peanuts and his fellow billionaires have paid peanuts in taxes in comparison to what the middle class guys pay. He even boldly asked that the taxe system be revised upward on the rich in the United States. This testimony is the bedrock of the current Occupy Wall Street that I am proudly associating myself with.

I believe that the global inequities in wealth distribution are a threat to the world’s population health. In 2012, the earth will host 7 billion people, majority live in developing countries where poverty is very prevalent. Unless the global wealth, which is accumulated in the Western Hemisphere, gets redistributed, the ecosystems will barely sustain this population. The poor will turn to exploiting the environment to eke for a living and the rich will continue to exploit the poor. The endgame is obvious - the conditions that have sustained depravity and vulnerability will thrive unabated.

Typical Republican argument would support the myth that the Earth’s ability to support a population is contingent upon those factors in society which facilitates “survival for the fittest”. This means that those who fail to adapt to the competitive world should quickly phase out to leave space for those who are better adapted.

END.

Uganda: The fight against Corruption is fight against NRM and Museveni Inc.

Corruption 

I contend that a genuine fight against corruption in Uganda is a fight against the NRM and President Museveni. This fight is complicated and is comparable to the global fight against international drug and human traffickers. Quite a complex feat interlaced, driven and sustained by high level political corruption within the party because the NRM Party has become synonymous with and prime agent of corruption.

Underneath the lucrative global trafficking are networks of cartels and war-loads; a network of pimps, johns and numerous trans-border traffickers, mafias, gangsters, politicians and conglomerates that operate through porous borders and corrupt migration policy enforcement to ship out and trade humans, drugs and weapons.

We can agree that most successful underground organizations involved in these illicit trades, have God-fathers. The God-father is the superimposing character – well protected and a nexus upon which the conditions and environment of their businesses are mediated. The Godfathers are usually obsolete figures that are at an arm’s length away from the scenes of transactions. They pull cords to control political power through bribery, coercion and indulges in procurement of allegiance from contending politicians and business people. The trading families who control large markets and many trafficking routes become the most powerful, fierce and equally respected. The family business becomes the costa nostra “our thing” and cousins marry fellow cousins to keep the wealth and power within the house.

The La Costa Nostra attitude that was prevalent among the Italian mafias and others in Latin America is what now subsumes the NRM regime under President Museveni. The structure that President Museveni has built in 25 years is strong but is not any different from those operated by rogue elements in illicit trades.

There is no need to explicate this situation any further, but Museveni has consolidated his stronghold on the means of coercion. His iron fisted rule is branded by militarized police brutality. His relatives have consolidated their positions and privileges at the helm of the regime structure and have control of vast amount of land and other economic advantages, including ownership of lands that have minerals, fresh waters and oil reserves.

In the words of Kevin Bales, the renowned anti-human trafficking author and researcher, Ugandans who are not obedient to the networks of first family, are “disposable people”. This is what became very apparent of former VP Gilbert Bukenya. Bukenya’s recent ordeal in jail over his part in CHOGM scandal spoke volumes to those who have the ears to listen and the eyes, not yet bloated by the proceeds of corruption.

Prof Bukenya is a typical example of an uncritical NRM outsider and a conduit. Despite his illustrated administrative competence, he was reduced to a disposable Catholic – Muganda. The moment Bukenya tried to form political shape; he was quickly disposed and presented as the prime agent of corruption. In reality, Bukenya is only (in)subordinate agent.

And let’s put aside the two-faces that we carry. I truly felt for Bukenya as he froze in the coolers. I could not fathom man in Bukenya so determined to remain in the kitchen sink – humiliated and humiliated again. I thought Prof Bukenya would have listened to the messages of the mafia when his son perished in car accident under mysterious circumstances that is only comparable to that of former speaker, Ayume. Bukenya should have known that he is treading a rough path.

But let’s contend that the real problem of corruption in Uganda is neatly weaved and inextricable with the circumstances of President Museveni’s continued tenure of office that has been translated as “our power” by the people close to him.

Let’s be realistic and honest to ourselves before we claim patriotism here. We are chasing our shadows in pretext of tackling corruption. The organism called NRM has mutated to have many corrupt heads. We must identify all the heads and tentacles for it to get capitulated.

I believe that a genuine process of removing corruption from Uganda can only start with regime change. As long as Museveni is still President of Uganda, corruption will move with him for, corruption is the NRM itself!

END 

Uganda is still Primitive State 25 Years under NRM

 POLITICS

This article is an attempt at auditing the NRM on its agenda of modernization Uganda through industrialization. Museveni once diagnosed Uganda as a backward state that needed to industrialize so that the primitive modes of production are replaced subsequently with advanced means of production. Museveni did not articulate how the consumerism pattern would transform to sustain the industrialization.

Museveni’s infatuation with foreign investment is rooted in neo-liberal ideology that was part of the neo- imperial package imposed on developing countries through liberalization of their economies. These economic ideologies advanced the interests of capitalists, to enable them compete, overtake and dominate the poor who form the bulk of consumers.

In 1986 when the NRM took over power, Jinja was a buzzing industrial hub of Uganda. Today it is a ghost town. Then, Museveni sold off all the industries to his regime cronies and all the industries collapsed. That was a lesson that Ugandan entrepreneurs where not competent in shaping the private sector through industrialization. Today, the private sector is customer service oriented – merchandise vending, not manufacturing.

By adapting neo-liberal ideas, Museveni opened up Uganda as a “free market” to foreign investments and not indigenous investors. Museveni prematurely infatuated with the idea that government should withdraw from providing essential services to its population. It was hoped that the private sector innovations could provide these services as demands arose in the open market. But Uganda is not a middle class society, so issues of affordability led to consumer isolation. Majority of Ugandans consume cheap goods or second hand stuff. That’s what they can afford.

Given the time of liberalization of the economy, Ugandans did not have sufficient skills and capacity to operate the private sector. This means that while the government discourteously reduced the size of public servants, it did not enact reciprocal policies that would permit a transition from government employment to sustainable public sector players. The education system was equally not adjusted to prepare Ugandans for this new challenge. In short, the state estranged Ugandans from the economy and reduced the base of income earners.

The recent strikes by Uganda’s teachers and then by small traders in central Kampala revealed a rather bitter reality for Museveni’s bubble economic growth. The inequity in income distribution among public servants has compromised service delivery. Further, that there are no prospects of robust industrialization or modernization as such. The same group of workers that government dealt with in 1986 is the same ones who still dominate the economy – civil servants and petty traders.

I have seen workers Unions in UK and Canada call for strikes. These are industrialized countries from where we emulate all our policies. For instance, the protagonists of the no-term limit in Uganda fervently argued that after all Britain has no term limits, not even a constitution, so why should Uganda have one?

When workers in countries with vibrant public sector go behind the picket, you begin to hear groups such as coal workers, truck drivers, bricklayers, mortuary attendants, Graveyard attendants; car importers, Public Health or Hospital workers, public transportation workers etc conjure up under their Unions to go picketing.

In Uganda, the only people who went on strike were teachers. Even the other public service groups, such as nurses, physicians, researchers, police and prisons did not join the strike. The fact of the matter is that no player from the private sector joined the strike to demand for fair wages or better working conditions.

Now, one can assume that the private sector is a better employer, such that the employees do not feel exploited; that there are so few disgruntled employees in government because government job is so well paying; or that Ugandans generally do not mind the pillages of taxpayers’ money by government through corruption. We could also assume that Ugandans do not mind about the wealth inequities that exist between the various branches of government and the frontline workers.

But the strikes revealed that Uganda is still uncritical and a primitive state, and the production mode remains traditional and primitive twenty-five years after Museveni’s diagnosis, economically speaking!

END.

I contend that NRM has outlived its purpose

 POLITICS

There seems to be a general and yet not-so subtle consensus that the NRM regime has completely outlived its usefulness. At least events in the last week illustrate so.

The arrest and subsequent extra-judicial detention of a little known author, Vincent Nzaramba over his publication “People Power: Battle the Mighty General” was one event that put the NRM regime on the global slide over its human rights record. This arrest became a historical landmark and signature of the NRM on its record of repressing intellectual rights. This is not the first time they have harassed an author who is critical of the tyranny. In October of 2010, Dr Kobusingye’s Book, “The Correct Line”, was also impounded and copies confiscated. Other notable authors and intellectuals like Editor Andrew Mwenda and others have been occasionally detained and harassed by state agencies for being openly critical of the excesses of the regime.

President Museveni was also on the spotlight, albeit, with his trademark mockery of Ugandans. The DM reported three interesting stories; two on September 21 (See: Museveni, Mbabazi join Entebbe by-elections and, Oil becoming diversionary - Museveni) and the other on 22 (see: Museveni says NRM firm to supply sugar).

While at Entebbe for the campaign in a by-election pitting DP’s Muhammed Kawuma against NRM flag bearer, Patience Tusimire Mubangizi, Museveni was quoted to have blamed the opposition groups for the chronic power outages that have plagued the nation. In the second article, Museveni was in Hoima commissioning a school laboratory at Canon Njagali High School. It was reported that Museveni persuaded the Banyoro to desist from the allure of investing in the oil industry. He advised them to continue investing in their traditional subsistence forms of agriculture.

In the third article,  Museveni issued statement to the press prior to his departure to India, in which he seemed to have switched position on the sugar deficiency in Uganda by blaming “greedy traders” for the short supply of sugar and threatened that only NRM firms would be contracted to supply sugar to Uganda.

These three stories illustrate the perils of political dishonesty of this NRM regime. It is obvious that Museveni has long pursued objectives outside NRM ideology. If Mueveni remorselessly blames the opposition for the power outages and persuades indigenous Ugandans not to invest in oil industry, then we are inclined to conclude that his agenda is mutually exclusive and suspect. The opposition groups are so small and have been largely ineffective in shaping policies and its implementation at every level of government in Uganda in the last three decades.

Further, electricity crisis in Uganda is historically situated in privatization policies of NRM and their IMF/WB mentors. When Museveni doled out Uganda Electricity Board to his croonies, his assumptions were that a private sector player would provide better services to Ugandans. What is also obvious is that mostly NRM leaning investors and agencies are the ones who have been central in brokering most raw deals that Ugandans have ended up with. In the case of Umeme, there are no competitors.

In Museveni’s Uganda of today, most business transaction are conducted by NRM insiders and they influence quite a bit of decisions as to who takes what. Any opposition leaning or independent minded individuals are practically excluded or detained. In that case, NRM agents and firms are the sole producers and perpetuators of corruption. They brood, reproduce and sustain corruption in the pretext of pursuing NRM agenda.

Given the above, one would wonders how the opposition have interfered with power generation and whether there would be any difference in who imports sugar or not because Museveni or NRM have no control over its corrupt machinations. What this translates to me is that, the so-called NRM leaning firms are those that will be fronted by Museveni’s children, relatives and obviously, the regular notables who are already webbed in the corruption chains.

Museveni should accept his failures and permit the proliferation of new ideas and mindsets that will salvage Uganda from its current predicament. Museveni and NRM have proven that their time is up!

END. 

Biomedical Models of Healthcare has let Uganda down

 Health,

The subject of maternal mortality and rising fistula cases in Uganda truly underpins the failures of biomedical healthcare model. Although there is an elaborate healthcare structure in Uganda, most of the priorities of government when it comes to funding and policy enforcement are not focused on ensuring a robust healthcare system. In this article, I will argue that Uganda needs to adopt a paradigmatic shift in its practices from biomedical model of healthcare delivery to a psychosocial model that caters to people’s real lived health experiences.

The overarching assumptions here are that a healthy population is a formidable engine to a robust economic growth and that underneath the pervasive failures of Uganda’s healthcare system resides a deliberate effort that ignores the centrality of social determinants of health. The key objective of this discourse therefore is to explicate the myth embedded prevailing biomedical model as overly authoritative, rigid, assumptuous, inefficient, expensive and wasteful of taxpayer’s money.

There is a contradiction between modern healthcare delivery systems and the old approaches in delivering healthcare. Truly, our contemporary society has become more diverse, sophisticated and complex. These attributes reflect that our needs for a healthy society have also become diverse, sophisticated and complex.

To contain these emerging needs, the healthcare system must respond congruently. The Ugandan system has clearly not been able to expand in that direction to accommodate the new realities of our health needs. The healthcare system is entrenched in its biomedical model where health and illnesses are defined by signs and symptoms of diseases or absence thereof.

The problem with biomedical model is that it is so linear and rigid. It does not strive to address underlying causes of ill-health in order to eliminate them. Healthcare professionals will prescribe and dispense anti-malarial drugs without providing a hint as to the means of preventing malaria; orthopedics will cater to broken bones without tackling causes of trauma and assault. This paradigm of care is clearly outdated, costly, ineffective and frustrating to modern society.

In contrast, a more robust and contemporary healthcare system is the psychosocial model, which views individuals as composites of their bigger communities. This model locates the individual within a holistic environmental and recognizes a multiplicity of environmental factors as being primal in determining the health of that individual or the community.

The psychosocial model pursues upstream thinking that permits healthcare providers to work collaboratively with other stakeholders in the community to identify environmental factors that potentiates health including community capacity to maintain their own health.

Road safety, architecture and legislation are some of the areas that the inputs of healthcare professionals become very crucial. Many people have lost lives and limbs in road accidents; many buildings lack safety measures and access to persons with physical challenges and; some legislations are insensitive to social determinants of health. Inter-sectoral collaboration therefore would enable the enactment of healthy public policies effective enough to minimize or eliminate some of these negative impacts on community’s health.

Psychosocial model of care support communities to stay on their feet - it wouldn’t wait until someone is immobilized with symptoms of disease.

One of the failures of our healthcare system is in procurement of tones of drugs and yet most of that money could be diverted to funding community outreach through inter-sectoral collaboration to address causes of ill-health from the onset. This approach would provide evidence based health information to the locals; provide the rural folks with life-skills to avoid illness so they can remain healthy, strong and productive.

In establishing a causal triumph of primary healthcare and community based healthcare, I recommend that Uganda’s education system must embrace a paradigmatic change through curricular overhaul to enhance healthcare professionals’ transition from the overly rigid biomedical model to psychosocial practices of healthcare. Unless we get our priorities and realities harmonized, we shall continue to provide health services that are mutually exclusive and diabolically opposed to the health needs of our society.

The site of dilapidating healthcare facilities; rotten mattresses, congested wards, dehumanized patients and demoralized healthcare workers in the hospitals epitomizes biomedical practices.

END.

It is time for President Museveni to retire!

Most theatrical performers and artists know the value of charming their audiences with quality. They also know when their audiences are no longer captivated by their performances. Usually, the signs such as disengagement become so apparent.

Genuine and talented performers would not accept to depreciate on stage to the point of being heckled out. They know well when to exit from that stage gracefully to leave a legacy and urge for more. Shakespeare once advised performers to know when the curtain should fall. Most importantly, how these performers respond to agitation of their audiences reveals much about their professionalism.

African leaders do not care about the audience or critiques. They continue to perform shamelessly even when their performances hypnotize their audiences. They even flog their audiences to cheer, to endure the agony of their contemptible performances.

I only wish President Yoweri Museveni could know that it’s past his time to leave the stage. His performance from the last twenty six years peaked a decade ago and now is declining at a horrifying speed and it hypnotizes Ugandans. The evidences are all over the walls.

Museveni has developed chronic insensitivity to the common aspirations of Ugandans. Like Alexander the Great, our people will say what they want, and Museveni will do what he wants. Museveni listens only to himself and has mutated, as Nagenda observed, into unbearable autocrat. Museveni now prefers opportunistic economic programs over policies and repression over consensus. The Museveni regime is one that has run out of ideas but has truly become predatory on the state itself for its own survival.

Museveni does not realize that the current economic crisis has been exacerbated by his extremely huge administration and irresponsible spending. The amount of tax payers’ money required to sustain the huge executive and the countless Presidential assistants and advisors, bleeds the economy mercilessly depriving other sectors of resources.

He no longer realizes that investors are increasingly becoming tense due to uncertain political future of Uganda and the shaky economic environment characterized by depreciating currency and corruption.

Certainly, donors have long lost trust in the regime’s veracity with public funds. What remains is a caricature of efforts assembled by donors to maintain a flimsy working relationship with the hope that the money channelled through the regime will reach the common man.

Museveni by all means, is not one who cherishes democracy. If anyone expects him to reform the current electoral commission, then they are wasting time. The real problem is that members in the opposition have failed to trust each other and to unite against this regime.

A lot of people may think that NRM is very strong politically. The grassroots strength of the NRM is questionable as it pries on uncritical masses. Its dependency on the personalization of the army lies on tenure of President Museveni. I contend that if the army where to be purged from participating in coercive politics; and the Police or any other armed groups where to be restrained within reasonable boundaries, the NRM regime would not win election despite their bribery.

The revelation of both NRM insiders, John Nagenda, a long time NRM spin doctor and Hon Capt Mike Mukula, the NRM V/C from Eastern Uganda, are a telling tales of the discontent that lurches beneath the ethnic hegemony that the NRM is. A lot of people feel that they have been excluded from the state processes. Majority of Ugandans have been deprived of their citizenship rights.

What is also true is that only the Musevenis feel that they are the bona fide citizens of Uganda and their personal, lavish lifestyle in the face of a crumbling economy is justified. These are disillusioned lot who have used the military to personalize Uganda, its natural resources and economic structures. You can tell how real Ugandans are humiliated from their market places and chased down the streets where they eke a living or those who feed on animal skins.

 I contend that it is time for President Museveni to leave now!

END! 

NRM regime makes us look hateful!

This posting is in response to former Ethics and Integrity Minister in the NRM regime. He lost his re-election bid at the Party's primary election level and has since become a director of some elusive institution. Recently, he wrote an article in the Daily Monitor ridiculing Ugandans that we seem to hate ourselves and our country. The article link can be found here: 
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/-/689364/1227976/-/12s0twyz/-/index.html

Dear,

Dr. Nsaba Buturo, you nag my mind and you incessantly surprise me when you ridicule and mock Ugandans for hating ourselves. I wonder where you draw your moral authority to judge us from. But given your high moral aptitude, I would say that it is people like you who make us appear as though we hate ourselves. Look at how you have simply lost touch with everyday daunting realities of Ugandans in their pursuit of fundamentals of life.

Dr. Nsaba, Ugandans do not hate themselves. Ugandans are absolved in self-reflection. They are looking back at the deceit and false promises given to them by NRM in 1986. They cannot find a balance sheet and they feel deep sense of loss of 25 years. They now recognize that their country has been usurped and transformed in an imperial manner to serve some alien interests.

How can you judge us because our society has suffered underdevelopment and claim that we hate ourselves for it without taking blame? When I look at each and every eye of a young Ugandan today, I see traces of frustration, hopelessness, anger and deeply seated regret for a future squandered.  And the older Ugandans feel alike!

We have the poorest education delivered in heist for political purposes. Our graduates are literally not ready for job market and yet they continue to face discrimination from government, in private sector and alienation from society. Our youths, facing one of the largest unemployment rates in the region, at 60% are stared in the face with stark reality of corruption, favouritism and nepotism. They are told that they do not qualify for tax holidays like your regime’s so-called investors; they are deprived Start-up loans because they lack political patronage and they are harassed out of business with ridiculous taxes, making them broke and worthless. It is such feelings that generate the apathy. You think we hate ourselves!

Dr. Nsaba, a country where corruption is state inspired is nothing to be proud of. None of the institutions in Uganda functions well. There is public outcry each and every day on things gone berserk, from hospitals to social welfare.

You were a Minister of Ethic and Integrity for two decades. You conspired with the imperialists to sideline and malign well intentioned Ugandans from the state process. CHOGM money was stolen from under your nose; GAVI money and Global Fund money, intended for our friends, relatives and fellow citizens who endure the scathing humiliation of HIV/AIDS were stolen and abused. What was the ministry of integrity and ethics doing to make us proud? A country where it’s President announces that it is full of thieves, how can I be proud of it?

Dr. Nsaba, how can I be content with a country where elections are regularly stolen with impunity; where opposition leaders and members of civil society are disrespected and assaulted in most heinous of manners and; where civil liberties are trampled upon without shame!

Every institution and arm of government is corrupt: the Police, judiciary, Parliament and worse still a predatory executive. I just want to find one thing which should make me love Uganda and I will tell you in a minute.

I would do us so much injustice if I failed to note that in Uganda of the twenty second century, we still dole out natural vegetation for sugar investment; that our electricity companies generate more darkness than light; that our roads produce more mental unease than stress and that the child and maternal death rates continue to threaten our very sense of humanity.

In Uganda, the President buys himself luxurious jets and military hardware and donates US $300000 to neighbouring country which is richer and more organized and yet it cannot feed victims of landslide or those children who are feeding on cattle skin with tap roots of any wild trees out there.

But I have hopes. I see it in the eyes of the children who have shown resiliency to survive through the hardships and mockery of your impervious regime. I see in them, a bright prospect and abundant strength upon which a new future shall be founded. I see in those eyes, a message that they deserve to belong, respect, equity, social justice and above all a free and fair society where each one of them shall thrive without prejudice. A place that loves them with that motherly love so they can love her back!

END.

“Big Men” are getting away with rape easily

The word “rape” is one that never gets thrown about that easily as we have learned recently. For African women in some societies, being raped carries long lasting negative implications on the reputation of the raped woman. No matter how humiliated and undignified rape victims are always unfairly ostracized by society for their daunting fate. It is so sad how big men are getting away with rape offences so easily in our society today.

Women basically carry the burden of moderating morality in our society. Our social scrutiny on morality has been defined by the conduct of women and girls, generally. Being raped therefore implies moral deficit on the part of the victims and bad reputation for the woman and her family. The perpetuators of this horrendous crime usually are accorded hero status and lauded for s job well done.

Sadly, in most societies, women do not report rape not that they do not want to, but mostly because they have no voice and fear further reprimand that may lead to social isolation. Often, after they have been raped, their abysmal social position becomes a barrier that discourages them from reporting rape to the authorities.

The sad fate of the woman’s powerlessness is even made worse when men in position of power are the ones implicated in the rape. Two comparative cases involving high profile “rape” allegation this year will help to explain this and space wouldn’t let me add in a rejoinder, that of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski.

When the 32 years old Guinean Nafissatou Diallo first reported to the authorities that former IMF Executive Director and French Presidential hopeful, Dominque Strauss-Kahn had raped her on May 14, 2011, the New York City authority responded swiftly and humiliatingly arrested and detained Dominque. With all the brouhaha that followed the high profile case, it eventually collapsed entirely on the “questionable” character and reputation of the accuser.

 Just as DSK’s case was winding down, in Uganda, Vice Chancellor of Makerere University, Prof Venansius Baryamureeba was in the news for rape, impregnation and abundonement. This follows a Uganda Human Rights Commission’s investigation into the case of unnamed 26 years old female student who claimed that the Professor intoxicated her and then raped her. She was therefore carrying an illegitimate fetus resulting from rape. Like Ms Diallo’s case, the allegation against the VC also collapsed under very eccentric circumstance.

The two set pieces cited above compares quite well because of their similar characteristic, plot and ending. Both DSK and Prof Barya are distinguished member of the society and in very influential positions. The two victims are simple women in no position of power and influence. Both women were subsumed by the very tide of their absurd experiences – rape.

The manner in which these cases dissolved only reveals the consistency in the pattern of how rape as a criminal act is very difficult to prove or prosecuted when big men are involved. Most men in position of power have been able to emerge unscathed from allegations of rape and that leaves the woman/victim in worse off position.

The woman is ripped off credibility and decency and she appears like a shameless liar and scoundrel. Often, everyone begins to think or speculate that such women resort to rape allegation to blackmail for money. The perpetuators walk away with swagger of a hero and brags to you that “you see, didn’t I tell you she was tripping?”

Our lesson could as well be well laid down for us, that rape is a crime for the poor committed against poor women and not the powerful. Accusing a powerful person of rape can only embarrass them momentarily. It can temporarily erode their reputation as we saw with DSK, but at the end of it all, the fact that the woman was sexually assaulted remains largely ignored or downgraded. In unprincipled and unprofessional environment like Uganda, they whole story lingers a bit in the corridors of power and dies a natural death in few days.

I pity the woman in our villages and peri-urban slum dwellings that are exposed to the current economic hardships. Lots of reports are indicating that some parents do actually pray for their daughters to get raped by a rich person so they can initiate negotiation for settlement “out of court”.

The Guardian Newspaper recently reported that in Uganda, trend of rape reporting have been changing with more women attempting to report rape or sexual violence incidences. For instance, according to the Guardian, in 2007, there were 599 rape cases reported to Uganda Police and 1,536 cases of sexual violence related cases were registered. In 2010 the Police in Eastern Uganda recorded 5, 515 cases of sexual violence of which 2,564 were under investigation. Another 1,745 culprits had appeared in court, and 1,721 suspects have been charged with at least 388 convictions secured. These are encouraging figures, but considering the constraints experienced by the Ugandan authorities, women have continued to experience delayed justice.

Rest assured, those who face the wrath of the justice system are peasants, the poor and the desolate petty criminals. The real rapists in suits and shinny shoes never seem to commit rape.

END

There is a difference between white privilege, racism and prejudice

Events unravelling in the Mormon Church and its splitter groups in the US and Canada in the last couple of years, can provide us with great opportunity to appraise the dominance of cultures, traditions and values in our societies. I will use these events to explicate the differences between the so-called “white privilege”, “racism” and “prejudice”.

In the US a prominent polygamist, Tom Green from the state of Utah, was sentenced to five years in prison recently for fathering 25 kids with 5 different women.

Last week, another controversial figure, Warren Jeff (55), the leader of Texas based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was sentenced to life imprisonment for defilement and fathering children with underage girls that his church claimed, he was lawfully married to.

In Canada, Winston Blackmore and James Oler of Bountiful, British Columbia were arrested in 2009 and charged with marrying 20 and 2 women, respectively. The Crime of polygamy in Canada carries up to five years in jail once convicted. Cases against both Winston and James were dismissed on technical grounds by a Judge on the premise of gross professional misconduct on the part of the prosecutor involved with the matter. Tom, Warren, Winston and James are all members a break away Mormon Church.

Both US and Canada have outlawed polygamy. This has deep roots in the evolution of these societies from pre-industrial stage to its contemporary capitalist tendencies and relentless struggle by women. Here, most relations are purely economic relations. People only relate to the other in as far as there are foreseeable opportunities for benefit or advantage. Money and only money tie families and friends together or separates them, bitterly - thus defining social relations.

Such tradition definitely contrasts with our own African setting, where our societies are more intimate, socially and quite egalitarian in many realms. People relate and support each other purely on principles of reciprocity and respect for posterity. Polygamy was socially sanctioned and valued in many ways; it was the measure of success; multiple marriages served the purpose of linking discrete groups. Marriages served the purpose of reconciliation or social construction between societies that have had long standing enmity. In that essence, multiple marriages by a man served security interests in many ways; the more sons one has, the more guarantee he has for his family and property; the more girls, the more wealth accruing from dowry. Many wives, children and grandchildren also implied ready labour source, wealth and satisfaction.

Given the above, US and Canadian polygamists could flee to Africa to claim for protection from persecution, in the same way same sex (gay) individuals and political refugees have fled Africa and are accepted in these places. Our problem is that we have been dispossessed by dominant discourses to condemn polygamy in the same manner as we see here in US and in Canada.

The imperative of this story is to understand what has been presented in Critical Social Perspective as the “white privilege” but at times misconstrued to mean racism or prejudice. I think as a scholar, it is very important to discern these terms so as to delineate our social discourses from stereotypical perspectives.

The constant denouncing of our cultures and social values for me fits with the purview of the “White Privilege”.  Theories of white privilege, posits that the dominant white culture view their social, cultural, and economic experiences as a norm that everyone should experience. This is different from racism and/or prejudice which advances that the advantaged position of the dominant group must be maintained at the expense of others. This explains to the most, why most of our cultural, social and even political experiences have always been condemned and downgraded for many years at our own complaisance.

In my view, understanding the white privilege as that which belies all forms of bigotry and global inequities, including the calibration of “acceptable” international standards of export, justice, mannerism, education, religion and so forth, would help us enormously in rebranding our cultural, social and religious values without relinquishing them.

END.

Sugar is a very crucial working class fetish!

 I don’t know what happened in the 80s that at some point, the Dr Obote’s regime was blamed for widespread scarcity of basic commodities like sugar and salt. In fact, I recall Museveni lambasting Dr Obote for not having had prudent economic policies to enable Ugandans access sugar, salt, soap and other basic household supplies. To him, neo-liberal economic policy of open market could have answered all the challenges of basic human needs. What I saw in Museveni’s denigrating speeches against Obote have returned to haunt him. In Acholi, we mock the monkey that laughs at the other for having a tail, forgetting that it also has one!

Sugar is very important commodity and it forms primal part of everyday life of typical working class Ugandan irrespective of the job or social status. Sugar has become a fetish of some form. Ugandans are avid consumers of tea and coffee and no matter what daily temperature they may endure, they must have tea or coffee in the morning and in the evening.. Majority of sugar users have some form of addiction to it. Sugar defines the taste of the day for them and gives them hope and inspiration. Sugar even defines breakfast and sets a man’s day.

In Uganda, you got to understand how sugar is very crucial in a man’s daily life before you just hike the taxes or the price on it. In fact, Ugandans cherish two things; sugar and their beers. The reason is that despite the adversities that they endure on their daily endeavors, the prospect of having tea or breakfast with sugar in it, and few bottles of beers at the end of the day, really consoles them. I mean, sugar occupies a special role in our society in a way that salt does not. No one can imagine not having salt for a day, but to not have sugar is the litmus test of one’s absolute poverty level. And when they say some Ugandans live below poverty line, try to understand it that they already forgot about sugar, but they still always have salt.

Having sugar or being able to provide sugar for the family is also a measure of class. One would rather not have lunch, but spare money to buy a few kilograms of sugar for breakfast and evening tea. And a lot of men know for a fact that for those who cannot buy sugar, their marriages and relationships can seriously get threatened. When an ordinary Ugandan wakes up, they will not think of different and creative ways of eating breakfast, but tea. That poor woman, who stays home and does all the unpaid chores; she strives to make breakfast for her family, if she has no sugar, she feels powerless and a persistent sense of failure.

So, here comes President Museveni with his so-called “robust” economic success story but the one who cannot provide sugar to Ugandans. Even when he should, he does so at an astronomical price. I was personally amazed that while at Kakira sugar works, Museveni blamed Acholi elders for having caused the sugar scarcity by refusing to give Madhvani land to farm for more sugar.

Museveni can be comical at times, but the pity is on those who take his jokes a little too far. The Madhvani land grab attempts were in a period not exceeding three years ago. Sugar canes take more than three years to mature. This implies that even if Madhvani or Mehta were to acquire that land and had they planted their sugar canes, most probably, they would not have started harvesting it or producing sugar from it by now.

But the twist of the matter is here; how come in the last twenty five years of NRM rule, Sugar has not been this expensive? I contend that the scarcity of sugar and its high market price signifies the beginning of the collapse of the Museveni era bubble economy. First, it was the inflation and then high gas prices and these things have capacity to spiral and reverberate to impact on all commodity costs. Petrol and Diesel (gas) are the key determinants of availability of goods and services on the market to the masses. If a nation has poor policy on management of gas, every service becomes unstable since for a landlocked country like Uganda, we have to move commodities from far.

Must I remind you, Mr. President, that the boda boda man and the students cannot have Butunda lager which has no sugar? Wala!!!

END