Uganda: The decline of common sense under neoliberal economic arrangement

NEOLIBERALISM

Global capitalism has indeed reached a new hiatus with its corollary - neoliberalism. Neoliberalism has become inescapable as it is quickly fusing physical and mental boundaries, globally.

To understand this neoliberalism phenomenon well, one needs to look at it as a package of capitalist prescriptions – kind of a tool box to dismantle economic and cultural boundaries for purpose of exploiting and under developing emerging economies and peripheral cultures. The phenomenon lurks as structured and purposively driven by Multinational corporations from global North in cahoots with corrupted ruling class in the global south.

This neoliberalism package includes commands for structural adjustment, deregulation, privatization, cost-sharing, individualism and strict market rules. The prices that global south societies have to pay since neoliberalism set foot amidst them, has been dire. Many of these countries have remained poor and under developed. The public is quickly replaced by the private, the common by individual, and what used to be free are slapped with costs, leading to social inequality. In the process, neoliberalism subverts social order and produces individuals that are antagonistic to traditions, self-serving, vicious and unconscionable.

In that sense, in Uganda today, we see a terrible decline in common sense among the population – young and old. The decline in common sense is a sign that neoliberalism has not only taken a firm foothold, it has also obliterated, and in some sense, transformed our society from the communitarian society it was to something alien - individualistic and opportunistic society. Like it is in America where neighbors no longer recognize each other, leave alone socialise meaningfully, social capital in Uganda has also declined.

Our attitude to society is most pathetic. We no longer value our cultures, we attack it viciously. At a small provocation, we quickly race to the mountain top to denounce a cultural practice in lieu of alien western traditions. We no longer value our elders, to seek counsel and wisdom; we race to google to find cultural studies of western society as a basis for our arguments, to sound elitist. We are diminished in character.

Individualism is a recipe for social distrust on a large scale. In America, the clamour for private property is reflected in its charter of rights, and the adherence to the gun culture for protection of the self and property embodies this distrust. In our customary community systems, property were protected and shared by the community based on need. Small incremental use ensured equitable distribution. In capitalist society many people die from social inequalities resulting from individual greed than from diseases itself. The quality of life for the majority who are deprived of resources for health also declines. Stratification and Commodification favors the top 5% of so, who controls nearly 85% of society's wealth.

This corporate agenda is a monster that needs taming. Corporations are replicating a unique form of colonialism, let's call corporate colonialism. Corporations now control every aspect of our social life – they control the air we breathe, through their industrial wastes and manufacturing, they control the foods that we eat, through their ultra-processed salty, sugary or oil-drenched foods, and they control our seeds too.

In our traditional societies, seed autonomy was the cornerstone of food security. The Ugandan Parliament recently passed a Bill to deprive farmers of this seed autonomy, but allowing genetically modified seeds corporation to take control of our farmers' seed autonomy. I am sure, for the most, they passed this law out of ignorance. Given their innately corrupted nature, perhaps the hands of corporations might have rested heavily in their pockets. You can tell that common sense has declined terribly in that Parliament. It is that we are now trapped in the money nexus. You don't give away seed autonomy to corporations that develop seeds with terminator genes – seeds whose harvest cannot become seeds again.

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The role of America in the making of global Shitholes

 IMPERIALISM

 The US President, Donald Trump  made some very uncharitable remarks about places that offload refugees to the USA. In Trump’s own words, these places, like Africa, Haiti and others, are "Shitholes". He wondered why people from Shithole places come to America in the very first place.

I like the innate nature of Donald Trump's blazing honesty, or call it ignorance and more so, racism. Yes, these places are indeed shitholes. However, this utterance, which was not denied by the Whitehouse spokespersons, reveals what Donald Trump is – narcissistic bigot.

Mr. Trump has never been politically correct. Not that political correctness is a savvy thing for politicians and public trust holders of these days. It is that the lack of it also reveals a lack of sophistication. Political correctness masks a lot of prejudices and xenophobia. It compels people to speak in the opposites – saying things contradictory to their first instincts.

Trump is a natural that way. He is really naturally bigoted and says things refined politicians would rather swallow their tongues for, even if they hold similar positions privately. Mr. Trump's no-holds-barred approach on politics has allowed some sensible Americans to reflect on their own values – racism. Trump even lacks depth as a racist - even with his prejudice against non-whites. Yes, prejudice, and maybe bigotry is the American value that Trump represents. Trump is definitely ignorant about the history of America’s violent capitalism that makes shitholes of other countries.

I have always had my misgivings for an American Presidential candidate promising to make America great again. America cannot be great without suppressing others for its greatness. Making America great again means making more of a shithole out of the peripheral economies. And, America has used its foreign policies to bully, exploit, and stages dictators in Africa and Latin America. Donald Trump, in his lack of sophistication, is unaware of these glaring historical hegemony of USA.

Trump is a typical product of Capitalism with all its contradictions. Liberal economic environment tends to mould rational humans into practical idiots. Such individuals suffer social isolation for their lust for materialism, and are insulated from the rest of the world outside their narrow spheres of money making. As a billionaire, Trump is all about money and that pomp that money brings - corporate success and wealth. Irrespective of how these corporations succeed, the capitalist in Trump projects a typically unconscionable persona whose respect for materialism supersedes realities of those who make people like him rich. These bunches are greedy, ignorant, insensitive and unattached to consequences of their exploitation. Little wonder then that Trump denies the facts of global warming!

Trump is the liberal version of kim Jong-Un. Someone smarter than a dotard needs to step up to coach him the ABCs of centuries’ long effects of America’s foreign policies and its effects on peripheral economies. Even a simple history of Haiti – France imbroglio could suffice.

 The dominance and devastating imposition of the US currency – the dollar on those shithole economies, and the plethora of inequitable trade agreements that allows America to exploit and transform these places into “shitholes” conveniently eludes Trump. It is on purpose and by design.

Nonetheless, the critical role of Donald Trump’s America in staging dictators that ravage peripheral countries into a shithole so as to make America great again must be highlighted. As long as every African and Haitian Presidents tow the Whitehouse, or WB/IMF economic policies, they can suppress their people, violate human rights, and plunder these economies into a Shithole. America as a superpower is nothing but full of double standards and contradictions.

Incidentally, for his love of Norway, DT needs be reminded that Norwegians are too rich that they consider America a Shithole!

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Uganda's Menace: There is no place for a Third Force in polarised society

Third Force Menace

The idea of the "third force" in Uganda's body politics is improbable. Such ideas compound the debate ideological confusion in our politics. The third force idea appeals as an excuse for laggards or an easy escape route for those who are afraid of dramatic change to the politics upon which they have derived privileges.

This group is problematic as it galvanises the lackadaisical elite attitude of hanging-on the fence when a call for change beckons.

The social and political history of Uganda is fraught with sensational and yet tragic episodes of polarising politics. These historical experiences generate and sustain social and political inequalities that are compounded by a protracted dominance by one group over the others. The central premise of this argument is that organised and peaceful transition in leadership of the country offers the most considerable chance to lessen the burden of social and political inequalities exacted on us by our tragic history. In the first instance, these dominant groups rose to power by escalating the polarisation in this society. Polarisation, and not national unity, became the mobilising tool or ideology of the ruling class.  

The culture of mutual exclusivity in the nation’s polity further ferment a permanent state of instability that gives relevance to the use of colonial era laws and repressive instruments. The polarising forces become too compelling to accommodate any new middle position such as a third force - considered treacherous and essentially subversive.

A case for FDC and NRM reveals such a lack of clarity of nationalist mobilizing ideology.

The actual difference between these Parties arises from the mainstream NRM parting ways with their original socialist- cum - Marxist ideals that once made the group coherent and formidable. As adherents of neo-imperialists/neoliberal economic policies of the Brenton Woods Institution, the NRM is now self serving and imperial in all its facets.

In making sense of that development, the FDC party strives to rediscover their original ideological standpoint, maybe even adopting a neo-Marxist or centre left politics.  

The ruling NRM has increasingly become right wing (similar in policies to the US Republicans or Conservatives) - embracing radical neo-liberalism with a confusing mix of Pan-Africanism or whatever hogwash they call “liberation ideology” that uses colonial modes of oppression and social control.  Ironically, with total disregard to Uganda’s communitarian ideals. This ideological confusion persists across the extremes, and prominent in the ruling Party through contradictions in what they say (the rhetoric) and what they do (the practical).

The free market works best where liberal rights, democracy and individualism thrives. Neoliberalism is not just an economic policy. It comes as a package including liberal rights, deregulation, privatization, cost-sharing and strong anti-statist sentiments. Many western countries have tried this economic theory and realized after the WWI that liberal markets do not after all eliminate poverty. They then proceeded to establish welfare state systems and where welfare states are weak, like in the US, strong direct state intervention in critical section of the economy through subsidies to farmers and tax relieve to big business take place. Critical social service such as public education, libraries, transportation, healthcare, social security is made universal.

Unfortunately, Uganda’s market economy is infantile, atypical and blindly implemented for purposes of political survival of the ruling class. The NRM became an imperial agent striving to under-develop Uganda by staking and destroying the resources of Africa for their own survival.  

The third force formed out of fear of a mere transition, without fully comprehending the ongoing frontline of social, economic and political contestation, cannot gain relevance.

The FDC seems to demand for increased role of the state in mediating essential social services delivery such as education, health, social security, energy on the basis of good governance. It offers a far better option than the so-called third force.

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