Monday, 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!

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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.

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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

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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!

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Sunday, July 19, 2009

Partners in African Politics!

Corruption, mediocrity & over extended stay in power have often accompanied each other in African politics!

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Saturday, 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

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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!

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23 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!

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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

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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!

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Thursday, July 09, 2009

Obama Talks to AllAfrica at the White House - Part 2

" You're not going to get investments without good governance!"

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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

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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

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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!

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