Tyranny is defined as a government in which power is vested in a single ruler.
It sounds like M7's 23 year rule and counting, if he is given another five years in 2011.
Come on Ugandans! M7 can't be the only Ugandan with a vision and intelligence to lead a country for more than 23 years!
Vote for change for once in 2011 and stop the tyranny of one man rule in its tracks! You want regret it!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tyranny!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
UPC's Olara Otunnu returns
"Focusing on the theme of fear, Otunnu said “there is one important thing that we need to get rid of if our social movement is to succeed, and that is intimidation, which breeds fear, and fear breeds incapacity--Fear will make us hide, and fear will make us shirk our responsibilities.”
“We must defeat fear” the former UN official said, “and in order to do so, we need to unite, and get organized and nothing can be impossible.”
He added, to the huge gathering, "do not be afraid, this is your country. This is your land, and you cannot walk with your head down. You must walk with your head up. Those who cast away fear have historically defeated Goliath. We will defeat the Goliath in our country.”
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Shining a light on Africa's kleptocracies
"Repression can take many forms, and too many nations, even those that have elections, are plagued by problems that condemn their people to poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves ... or if police can be bought off by drug traffickers. No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top ... or the head of the port authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there. And now is the time for that style of governance to end." - president Obama
Sphere: Related ContentSaturday, October 17, 2009
Colonialism Ended, so Should, One Man Rule!
... "Internal colonialism" President Museveni's over extended stay in power exemplifies the kind of contemptuous arrogance this select hegemony, resolved to remain in perpetual power, while dismissing the value and contribution diversity in leadership can bring in to our nation.
Colonialism was the control by one power over a dependent area or people. One man rule ideology is a new form of colonialism and should End! The subjugation of a people by one man that changed the constitution to extend his stay in power is undemocratic!
There is no excuse for over extended one man rule in a democracy!
The struggle to end over extended one man rule is as noble as the struggle that ended colonialism!
Uganda's capacity for leadership talent & ability is far greater than M7 would have his cajoled majority peasants believe; and its foolhardy, not to capitalize on that potential!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Uganda's Political Risk!
"The recent riots in Kampala show that Uganda's political risk outlook has worsened. Power remains concentrated in the presidency at the expense of strong, meritocratic institutions, and entrenched corruption combined with a lack of succession options generate more and more frustration in the population. Oil production will increase the stakes in the political contest that many feel is neither free nor fair." - Ratio Magazine October 9, 2009
M7 said the following at the UN general assembly:
"Uganda’s economy has grown at the rate of 6.5 per cent per annum for the last 23 years."
Where are the jobs this 6.5% growth rate is generating?
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Ugandan Protesters on VOA's In Focus
VOA's Ndimyake Mwakalyelye reports on the Ugandan protesters venting their anger outside of the White House on Thursday against their President Yoweri Museveni for his government atrocities.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
The unappreciated Value of Ugandans in the Diaspora!
Ugandans demonstrate against M7 at the UN headquarters in NY September 23, 2009!
President Museveni's press spokesman, Tamale Mirundi, recently characterized Ugandans that demonstrated against M7 at the UN headquarters in New York as agitators and "economic refugees enjoying other peoples freedom instead of fighting for their own at home."
Mr. Mirundi should read some recent history of despot regimes now relegated to the garbege heap of history. The harbinger to their demise often starts with demonstrations like this that rally their countrymen to action. Despots often try to suppress such demonstrations exactly as M7's security forces did in Uganda. The chairman of the East African Editors Forum & Director, The Media Institute expressed similar sentiments in an open letter to M7.
The demonstrators Mr. Mirundi characterizes as economic refugees in fact fund Uganda's economy through remittances to their families and relatives. Without these remittances some Ugandans would be going without basic necessities. In a recent article in The Boston Globe, about a thriving Ugandan community here: one Ugandan expressed the following: “There is a much bigger influx of Ugandans now than ever before leaving the country,’’ he said. “Unfortunately, Uganda has not really seen meaningful progress. There are no employment opportunities. People are forced to leave.’’
According to the World Bank reports, "International migration has enormous implications for growth and welfare in both origin and destination countries." The money migrants contribute to their countries is twice as much as world governments contribute every year in the form of foreign aid!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Ugandan President Museveni on the U.N.
Watch M7's Bumbling speech style idiosyncrasy!
Saving Children from Scourge of War
Compare Dr. Otunnu's Charismatic speech style to M7's Bumbling style
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Ripple effects from Kampala's riots 9/11/09
The seeds of over extended stay in power are bearing fruits for M7!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Museveni visits parts of Kampala hit by several days of rioting
Security forces job is to serve and protect citizens, Not to administer vigilante justice!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Value of Respecting Cultural Diversity
Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II
36th King of Buganda
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognizes Cultural Diversity for its intrinsic value in development as well as social cohesion and peace.
In fact May 21st is the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development!
President Museveni must have unwittingly realized this UNESCO recognized intrinsic value in restoring the traditional institutions in Uganda. The recent crisis with the Buganda Kingdom should therefore be an opportunity for dialogue rather than retribution and recrimination.
Major General Kahinda Otafiire was therefore, wrong for warning the president against the restoration of traditional institutions.
What the president characterizes as chauvinism is in essence cultural pride. But what tribe in Uganda is not proud of its culture? If thats the standard, then chauvinism is an equal opportunity tribal trait.
The two institutions: the central government and the traditional institutions need each other for the sake of peace, development and economic prosperity in Uganda!
"Aboluganda bita, olumu bikonagana," is an old Luganda proverb meaning: "Relatives are like calabashes, sometimes they clash!"
Traditional institutions should be a source of pride not consternation!
We are all Ugandans, with a rich diversity of cultures which should be a source of strength rather than a threat.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Subserviency is not a Virtue!
There is another way you can work against the best interests of your country!
Its called rational ignorance and the acquiescence to the ideology of one man rule!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Social Intelligence Vs Political eruptions in Uganda!
"If social Intelligence is the ability to get along well with others and get them to cooperate with you, then power and influence have to be part of the equation."
Violance is not the answer!
On the rector scale of Buganda's political upheavals, the 9/11/09 eruptions have been minor! The last such upheaval saw the dissolution of the Buganda kingdom and eventual unfortunate death in exile of King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi's father.
This eruption is unlikely to end the same way. The times are different and there is some level of tolerance and room for reconciliations for such eruptions in Africa, as the examples of Kenya and Zimbabwe have recently shown.
The political amalgam in Buganda might lay dormant again and everyone will go about their business; but unless the underlying lingering problems like poverty, unemployment among the the large numbers of disaffected urban youths are addressed, such eruptions are more likely than not to reoccur.
In the preface to his book Social Intelligence ( SI ), the author Karl Albrecht describes SI as: " ... the ability to get along with others and to get them to cooperate with you."
In today's world, the ability to connect with people is a crucial success skill. According to Dr. Karl Albrecht,
"More people have lost jobs, friends, marriages and mates as a result of poor interpersonal skills than for all other reasons combined. The simple fact is that people who have a highly developed sense of social intelligence have more friends, better relationships, more successful careers and happier lives than those who lack those skills."
If you carefully analyze the core root of these recent riots, the ability for the antagonists to connect with each other was missing!
Dr. Albercht goes on to describe: two extremes of SI as "very low and very high - in metaphoric terms as either "toxic" or "nourishing"
Toxic behaviors by his definition "are those that cause others to feel devalued, inadequate, intimidated, angry, frustrated, or guilty."
Nourishing behaviors cause others to feel valued, capable, loved, respected, and appreciated."
The extremes of SI combined to set the stage for the the unfortunate riots in Kampala!
One amazing section from this book needs to be quoted here: pages 224-225
"How the Worst Bastards on the Planet Get and Keep Power"
"Totalitarian leaders like Genghis Khan, Attila, Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao Tze-Tung, Pol pot, Idi Amin, and Saddam Hussein certainly could not kill thousands or millions of human beings single-handedly. They had to find ways to leverage the violence of others by acquiring power and projecting that power through various levels of their dynastic structures.
Typically, power accumulators - even those who have little or no evil intent - operate in approximately the same way. They generally follow a stage-wise process of building their power and influence over time. Studying some of the worst despots in history, we can readily observe four key phases:"
1. Networking
2. Coalition Building
3. Taking Over
4, Unrelenting Consolidaion
"Many people forget - or never knew - that Adolph Hitler came to power as a result of free and open elections. But once he got to the center of the ruling coalition, the National Socialist party, he moved quickly and ruthlessly to consolidate his power. The take-over phase usually involves a significant risk and requires that the would-be ruler act aggressively in order to acquire position power in the minds of the other members of the coalition. Many aspiring despots fail at this phase, either because their rivals manage to dilute their influence, because the followers see an evil side of them that they don't like, or because the timing and circumstances don't offer the right set of imperatives to get behind an aggressive leader. The aspiring despot who succeeds in the take-over phase reaches a tipping point of influence. after which he has a more or less official entitlement in the eyes of others to decide, direct, control, reward, and punish."
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Uganda's Ambivalence to Dr. Otunnu's Homecoming!
Quite a few astute Ugandan commentators have expressed their opinions about Dr. Otunnu's recent homecoming! The most convincing were those of Mr. Austin Ejiet's: "Olara Otunnu's "second coming"; the illusions and realities", dated: August 23, 09; and Mr. Kalori Ssemogerere's: "Otunnu’s return good for the govt, better for the opposition", dated: September 3, 09.
Dr.Otunnu displaying his passport! | source: The Independent
Contrary to the aforementioned opinions, Mr. Daniel K. Kalinaki characterized Otunnu's return as "a flash in the pan".
Even though Dr. Otunnu has not declared himself a candidate for office, Mr. Kalinaki sees Dr. Otunnu's celibacy at age 57 as a real stumbling block for political office in Africa's orthodox cultural framework.
In the rough and tumble of politics, Dr. Otunnu's celibate status has already resulted in headline news in Uganda. A smear campaign tactic intended to hurt this able and distinguished Ugandan where he is most vulnerable.
According to Mr. Kalinaki, Africans would rather settle for an incompetent polygamist for a leader than an adept celibate.
Human societies have borrowed and influenced each other all throughout history, and are going to continue to do so. Otherwise, someone like Mr. Kalinali's first name would not be, Daniel; nor would we be communicating in English here! So, Africa can and should, overcome this bias about celibate leaders just like other developed societies have!
This is the price Dr. Otunnu is paying for trying to add his eloquent voice to the struggle for a peaceful political change in Uganda.
Dr. Otunnu did not have to put up with this scrutiny. His distinguished qualifications, experience and charisma can get him a job anywhere in the world in a heartbeat! Why this seeming disconnect about Dr. Otunnu's potential benefit to Uganda, is mind boggling!
Brute force, intimidation and cajoling have demonstrated limits in solving Africa's woes. Its time we harness our boundless diversity in intellectual potential and charisma exemplified by Dr. Otunnu.
In a continually egalitarian world, where all of us share common goals and responsibilities to have a fair and just world; its sad to see able and charismatic individuals denied leadership roles simply because they are celibate.
Theodore Roosevelt once said the following:
It's not the critic that counts
Press On - No matter what they say to you
It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worth cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat. Theodore Roosevelt
IMPORTANT FACTORS OF LEADERSHIP
No follower wishes to be lead by a leader who lacks self confidence and courage
Self Control
A keen sense of Justice
Definiteness of Decision
Definiteness of Plans
The habit of doing more than paid for
A pleasing personality
Sympathy and Understanding
Mastery of detail
Willingness to assume full responsibility
Cooperation
Remember: A QUITTER NEVER WINS AND A WINNER NEVER QUITS!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The Curse of paternalistic leadership
Africa's biggest stumbling blocks to young leadership talent in the mold of Obama is the paternalistic adherence to over extended stay in power by "big men!"
Sphere: Related ContentMonday, July 27, 2009
"A world where Truth & the norms of love and Justice coincide"
"Alexis de Tocqueville, the nineteenth century French scholar famous for Democracy in America, wrote a less well-known book titled The Old Regime and the Revolution, arguing that the French Revolution happened long before it happened. The eruption that shattered French society at the end of the eighteenth century was the result of small seismic shifts that had been accumulating for decades deep underground. If people had paid attention to the tectonic instabilities caused by greed and injustice, and had responded wisely to the nervous needles on their inner seismographs, the "Reign of Terror" might have been avoided."
"The problem is not that we don't possess a capacity to know these things. If we didn't, we wouldn't have all the colloquialisms I just used! The problem is that the knowledge we need, like the seismic shifts that create eruptions, originates underground. It comes from a place within us deeper than our intellects, a place that poet William Stafford calls "a remote, important region in all who speak," a place sometimes called the inner teacher or the soul.
But rarely do we allow ourselves to go to that place. Instead, we fill our lives with noisy distractions, blocking our access to insights that might scare us but could also save us."
"A story about Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk and writer, provides a case in point. In 1944, Merton entered the Abbey of Gethsemani, a walled monastery in the Kentucky woods, to live a life of silence and solitude. He had fled from the madness of a war-torn world just as American triumphalism was about to emerge - another form of national madness that may now, in the fall of 2008, have run its course for a while. For the next few years Merton pursued a "spirituality of flight," and in 1949 published a rather pious book called Seeds of Contemplation.
But as Merton went deeper within himself and touched the collective consciousness, he began to "read" the rumblings of injustice under the surface of a fat, happy and deluded white America. He listened, really listened, to African American music, especially jazz and the blues. He corresponded with discerning friends who served as "listening posts" in the larger world. He read poetry and literary classics as well as social criticism. He examined his own conscience as a privileged white American male. And, through contemplation and prayer, he went to a place where language and sound cannot take us, a place within ourselves and our world where truth has a chance to come clear and the norms of love and justice coincide.
Fifteen years later, in 1964, Merton published Seeds of Destruction in which he prophesied "the fire next time," a conflagration of the races rooted in white ignorance, indifference and injustice. The book lost him a lot of readers who had loved his earlier piousness. And he was taken to task, in print, by a well-known writer and urban activist who said, in effect, "How dare a cloistered monk, writing from behind gated walls in the Kentucky woods, pretend to know more about race in America than we who are out on the front lines extinguishing 'the fire next time'?"
Three years later, in 1967, Merton's critic wrote an open letter to Merton in The National Catholic Reporter, apologizing "for having put down Seeds of Destruction. With most of the summer of 1967 past, he said, we can now 'see that you were correct.' ...At the time[I published my criticism] you seemed to be trying to be a white James Baldwin. Now it seems to me that you were 'telling it as it is' and maybe 'as it will be.'" (The Hidden Ground of Love, p. 55.)
Neither Merton nor his critic would want us to withdraw from the action. But both would agree that activism ungrounded in contemplation can lead to ego-induced blindness, shutting down those soul-deep sources of knowing that open us to larger truth.
Merton thanked his critic in writing, then took his case one step further. White liberals, he wrote, would not be up to the task of healing a racially divided nation. We would need "a new politics in this country" in order to come anywhere near that goal. Maybe, just maybe, we are seeing the seeds of that new politics today — fifty years after Merton got it right, once again, from his "still point" out in the woods."
The excerpts above are from: Trusting our Deeper Knowing: On Cataclysms. Contemplation, and Circles of Trust by Parker J.Palmer
The moral of the above excerpt is that there is still time for Change to a new politics in Uganda!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
"Good African Coffee"
President M7 and Mr. Andrew Rugasira , the founder and chairman of Uganda's ambitious premier Good African Coffee company, are basking in the limelight of having just inaugurated the first African coffee processing company to export finished packaged coffee to Europe and South Africa.
The company was founded in 2003 under the trade name of Rwenzori coffee; which if you oblige, is a less presumptuous company name than the current "Good African Coffee". Earnestly, what are the other African coffee producing countries going to name their products, should they opt to join the competition?
The original Rwenzori coffee company started after striking a deal with South Africa's largest supermarket chain, Shoprite, in 2004.
If Good African coffee company can break even with this venture, all the power to it. The trouble is, this is a quasi government of Uganda undertaking in which the government has invested so far, $ 995,500 of tax payer money!
President Museveni called this new processing company, a liberation of Africa from economic slavery; which, with all due respect to the president, is a euphemism for Africa's post independence leadership failures, incompetence, corruption and economic policies that discouraged entrepreneurship and foreign investment.
Good African coffee company may also find that upstart costs, marketing and advertising expenses, notwithstanding the actual competition from veteran coffee companies, prohibitive for a start up.
The fact that government is heavily invested in this company should be troubling, since governments are not for profit entities and are notoriously fraught with waste, overspending, fraud and corruption.
The biggest challenge is that successful coffee production is highly labor, capital equipment and infrastructure intensive. High scientific labor skill sets are also necessary to sustain not only a quality end product but also to maintain a competitive edge.
The video link here of Costa Rica's CooperPalmares can exemplify this challenge. Costa Rica's commitment to good quality coffee production began in 1962; an effort that has taken a half a century, vs Good African Coffee company's meager five years in business!
Competition in Western commercial goods markets is also ferocious. Its like the olympics. If your product doesn't meet customer satisfaction, its not going to make it. Uganda's "Good African Coffee company", is going to need a lot of time and luck! And knowing Africa's competitive track record at the olympics, this is going to be a long shot!
Separate ventures that Uganda entered with Denmark, Egypt and China to sell its coffee more than five years ago are collapsed.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Rational ignorance
The following excerpt is from wikipedia: but it is a quintessential illustration of the palpable political apathy of most Ugandans:
"Rational ignorance occurs when the cost of educating oneself on an issue exceeds the potential benefit that the knowledge would provide.
Ignorance about an issue is said to be "rational" when the cost of educating oneself about the issue sufficiently to make an informed decision can outweigh any potential benefit one could reasonably expect to gain from that decision, and so it would be irrational to waste time doing so. This has consequences for the quality of decisions made by large numbers of people, such as general elections, where the probability of any one vote changing the outcome is very small." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_ignorance
The continuing nagging question in Uganda should be: In a country that has an abundant diversity of individuals with talent, ingenuity and ability (many of whom it continues to lose through brain drain!); more than enough to revitalize our country if Big man rule were to give way to diversity in leadership! Is it rational to continue with only one leader for more than 23 years? A leader who orchestrated a change in the constitution to favor his overextended stay in power. A leader who had the audacity to appoint his own wife to a cabinet post! A wife who is also a member of parliament! A choice that can only be described as political inbreeding and therefore, likely to multiply the flaws of this kind of leadership! See the cost of brain drain in Africa!
Every eligible citizen in a democracy should be well informed and more than willing to vote with a clear conscious without any fear or bias.
Governments affect everyone and therefore everyone owes it to themselves to be informed. Not necessarily on political parties or candidates, but because everyone pays taxes. Its your hard earned money that pays for government, its officials and the services they provide.
If you paid someone for a service and you did not care what kind of service they provided, there is a problem!
A democracy is defined as "rule by the people and for the people." If some of the people fail to participate by not voting and having their voices heard, then they are failing democracy and having leaders get away with anything to stay in power!
President Museveni's victory over tyranny in the 80's is commendable; but after 23 lamentable years in power, Uganda deserves a change!
Some relevant Luganda proverbs:
"Akwatulira, akira akugeya: One who speaks to you openly, is better than one who talks behind your back.
Abasajja ssubi, erimu lisiba linnalyo: L: Men are like grass, some is used to tie the rest. M: Some men can be used to silence, intimidate or subdue their fellow men.
Source: The Wisdom of the Baganda: Amagezi g'Omuganda Amakusike, by The late Joseph Lule
Monday, July 20, 2009
Museveni's Expensive Bird - Gulf Stream GIV-SP
Museveni has been a fan of these expensive birds used by the rich. He is always going for the lattest version progressing through the years from GII, GIII, GIV to GV.
Contrast M7's means of transportation, with the country's destitute future generation!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Partners in African Politics!
Corruption, mediocrity & over extended stay in power have often accompanied each other in African politics!
Sphere: Related ContentSaturday, July 18, 2009
Diversity and Leadership' 2011
February 2011, is going to be a watershed presidential election period in Uganda!
One of the greatest challenges for the country is whether Uganda is going to continue with M7's ubiquitous big man rule or will the fractured opposition garner enough votes to usher in a new era of diversity in leadership for the first time in twenty three years since M7 came to power?
The opposition has some house cleaning of its own between now and election day, 2011. If they cannot put together a strong enough coalition, in effect not using diversity to their advantage, they are more likely to loose to the entrenched M7's NRM government.
From Obama's admonition in his speech to the Ghana parliament, to all the empirical evidence, its clear diversity in leadership is the way to go forward.
We could take a page from the American ever resilient self renewal and vote for change or settle for the comfort zone of M7's over extended and redundant big man rule, for another five years.
If the white majority in the USA had not realized the synergy of diversity in leadership, Obama's election would not have been possible. Synergy: is a familiar word and yet not so easy to define. It's more than two or more people getting along and benefiting one another. It's when the combination of energies, resources, talents and efforts equals more than the sum of the parts- when 1+1=2 (or even more).
Diversity in leadership as in organizations is about empowering people and promoting the best in their differences. Diversity enables a nation to capitalize on the strength of all its leadership talents and ability; and not just one ubiquitous big man.
The 2011 presidential elections are going to be a defining battle between those that adhere to the relative comfort zone of just one big man rule and those that reject its premise and the harm it is doing to our fledgling democracy
Friday, July 17, 2009
21st Century African Political Coup D'etats!
The 21st century, African ubiquitous Big man rule ideologues, are almost universally using constitutional reforms to overextend their stay in power, which in effect shrewdly uses democratic tools to undermine democracy!
Sphere: Related Content23 Years is Enough!
The night before he was assassinated , the late American civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, made the following remarks: "... Whenever men and women straightened their backs, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent. .."
Until Ugandans straighten their backs, M7 will continue to ride on their backs!
Ugandans can't be so risk averse, that they are unwilling to change leadership for more than 23 three years!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
"The Future of Africa Belongs to Strong Institutions rather than Strong Men!"
In his historic first speech to parliament in Ghana, president Obama referred to the reality that our future belongs to strong institutions, to those with talent, ingenuity, and entrepreneurial ability rather than the pedantic, redundant and outdated strong men that "change constitutions to stay in power!" "Leadership from the bottom ( the people! ) up!"
"If a star gets really big -- say, several times the mass of the sun -- the gravity of its sheer size will eventually cause it to implode, leaving nothing but a gaping hole in space-time -- a black hole, a one-way street to oblivion."- K.C. Cole
Friday, July 10, 2009
Obama's Kenya snub?
Great choice Mr. Obama! A resounding massage to the rest of Africa! You've reignited a fire for real democracy in Africa!
Sphere: Related ContentThursday, July 09, 2009
Obama Talks to AllAfrica at the White House - Part 2
" You're not going to get investments without good governance!"
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Truth!
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote that: "Convictions are a greater enemy of truth than lies." "The truth has never yet clung to the arm of an inflexible man."
"The longer Museveni rules, the greater he loves it, the more he errors, the more justification to rest him; but ironically, the less the people of Uganda unite in this cause." - Fred Guweddeko
Monday, July 06, 2009
Mubarak's Egypt
A Nuanced version of M7's Uganda!
BBC World Service
" The Egyptian government doesn't want to appear like a military regime, although, for all intents and purposes, it is"
" The president and his inner circle have made themselves as secure as possible, protected from any threat; stifling any hope for peaceful change in the name of stability"
"An almost pathological fear of political rivalry has landed Egypt in a deadlock. The only political changes possible are those choreographed by the president himself. After twenty eight years in power, the only person that has been allowed to play a significant role next to Mubaraka, is his son, Gamal. This has prompted fears of a dynastic succession, dressed up as a democratic election."
Mubarak's Egypt: BBC World Service
" The countryside is bursting at the seams with the desperate and the poor."
" A countryside scarred by ugly apartment blocks. Testimony that has blighted Egypt, in spite of its disciplined military leadership."
"The rate of desperation far exceeds that of Mubarak's economic growth.
The aftermaths of one man rule ideologies!
Click here to listen to the BBC original Documentary: June 22nd 2009
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Change is coming!
Voices that long for change need to be heard!
Even if this change produces a weaker leader, it still ushers in a new mindset, away from the comfort zone of the misguided one man rule ideology!
Monday, June 29, 2009
The Perils of Over Extended Stay in Power
Climbing Vine!
Museveni's over extended rule in uganda is like a vine in a forest trying to choke new leadership talent and ability that could otherwise do a job just as well or better than president Museveni.
Vines are climbing plants that use other plants, rocks or walls for support, in order for them to reach sunlight for energy. In the process they rob their support of sunlight.
Extrapolate this to what M7's rule has done to the opposition in Uganda and you will understand the vine analogy! Because he fought and won the bush war, M7 and his cohorts defiantly believe the fruits of leadership in Uganda are indefinitely theirs!
Together with the sycophants in his government that fail to speak out for fear of loosing their jobs, Museveni is able to maintain a workable harmony of mediocrity that stifles our country's ability to reach its fullest potential.
Over extended stay in power is symptomatic of a dysfunctional democracy!
No single human being is that good, to stay in power more than twenty years! Its an aberration!
One man rule ideology is redundant and outdated. The country needs to embrace the untapped potential benefits that come with diversity of new leadership and new ideas and ways of running a country.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
Thomas Jefferson (American 3rd US President (1801-09). Author of the Declaration of Independence. 1762-1826)
Monday, May 11, 2009
M7 is the quintessential tail end of Africa's lingering one man rule ideologues!
Sphere: Related ContentFriday, April 10, 2009
"Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day."
Thomas Jefferson
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
M7's ardent political base
The 23 year old lingering dominance over Uganda's politics!
“... your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on / into the dustbin of history!”
Leon Trotsky quotes
"Change does not change tradition. It strengthens it. Change is a challenge and an opportunity; not a threat!"
- Prince Phillip of England
The largest and most challenging political battle ground for the opposition in Uganda is the peasantry. A whopping 84.6% of the population that depend on subsistence farming. Its festering with blissful ignorance and gullibility that is fertile ground for populists like Museveni. The only antidote is education, which is not a feasible solution in the short term in todays Uganda. No country with a enough informed and educated citizenry would put up with the kind of nepotism and overextended stay in power by one man, as is the case in Uganda today.
Museveni's overextended one man nepotistic rule is like inbreeding, its going to multiply flaws in his government and soon or later will turn into a systemic disaster for the country. The acquiescent rubber stamp parliament that just confirmed Museveni's wife as a minister in his cabinet are like lemmings that follow one after another towards a cliff to their demise!
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