What International Connections?

Storms form only when moisture, pressure, and temperature dictate; wishing for rain before these conditions are met is a waste of time and energy.
A commentary on an I Ching hexagram

By now the highly media-touted return of Olara Otunnu is old news. Other than some of us, news junkies, and the aroused elderly UPC faithful, by all accounts, it has been a non-event for people like my uncle, Sabino in Mucwini, Kitgum.

One line that came up over and over in some reporter’s imagination was that Otunnu’s purported international connections would be a boon to the opposition. Just how this will be, my uncle, Sabino would want to know.

A leopard does not change its spots. We are generally so conditioned such that the past is an indication of what we will do in the future. Given, people change and circumstances change; however, in weighty matters such as choosing a lifetime mate or electing a leader, woe unto those who don’t look with a jaundice eye to the past.

So, what has Otunnu done so far with his international connections? Min Acan rotted in Museveni’s concentration camps. What mobilization did Otunnu engineer with his “connections” to rally the world to the plight of Les Misérables in the camps? Sure, he uttered some catchy phrases; so what? Instead, he wasted his energy vying for a UN post. How could he, with his heralded brains, not have anticipated that the Museveni government would not give him the time of day?

Somebody is selling us a bill of goods. Or somebody is smoking some herbs and hallucinating.

Out Of Tune

He came. He sang some religious song. He waved with arms wide open like a pope. And the safari jacket and West African attires were passé, a throwback to the sixties and seventies.

Mr. Otunnu, Ugandans have enough pastors who could have pulled for you some raucous old-time revival party for merely thirty pieces of silver! Many of us have had enough of the religious stuff waved on our faces from state house. There is no doubt about your faith, but get on with the program, man.

My brother, the English League football-watching Uganda population would mistake you for a porter if you wear those safari-cum-West African garbs. They like to see their masters in Armani suits and/or military fatigues. There is a guy who puts on military fatigues when he heads North. He sports swanky western suits and a ten-gallon hat to boot when in town or flies his sleek jet to Russia or Iceland. Take a cue from him.

What Goes On In Milton Odongo's Head?

An inflated consciousness is always egocentric and conscious of nothing but its own existence. It is incapable of learning from the past, incapable of understanding contemporary events, and incapable of drawing right conclusions about the future. It is hypnotized by itself and therefore cannot be argued with. It inevitably dooms itself to calamities that must strike it dead.

Carl Jung

There is a dubious office created by Uganda’s Museveni, dubbed the Resident District Commissioner (RDC), which harkens to the days of the all-powerful colonial district commissioner. The docket of the office is supposedly security which, in context, means ensuring the president’s omnipresence and self-perpetuation. From observations it seems the office is a dumping ground for election losers and the dumbos in the Museveni’s NRM fiefdom. Now, give such characters access to the coercive security apparatus such as the army, the police and other opaque state tools, and some of them will throw their weight around to the chagrin of those not in the government camp.
The Grotesque Milton Odongo Looms over Bewildered Peasants
The name Milton Odongo may not mean much, but in the minds of local opposition politicians in the district of Gulu, Uganda, he is the personification of the Anti-Christ. He is the overzealous and overreaching Gulu assistant RDC, who for the last few years has been such a prick. He has jailed, harassed, and disrupted many opposition politicians—all for what?

Here are some unskillful incidences of assistant Gulu RDC in action:
Ordered local radio station not to host Dr. Besigye, the leading opposition presidential candidate

Assaulted Betty Aol, an area MP

Kissing Museveni’s butt in Kaberamaido

Ordered that drugs at a public hospital be given only to members of his party, the NRM

Shoves Gulu mayor in jail

Arrests a local journalist

Each of us has perceptions on how things should be, but as soon as we come into contact with others, we find that they may have different perceptions of their own. Determining whose end will prevail is what leads to conflict. And conflict is not bad in itself because often the end results are greater than the sum of the parts if handled skillfully. Our particular action to achieve our objective depends on our view of the world and how we have been conditioned to act aggressively, passively or respond skillfully. Incidentally, Odongo uses the schoolyard logic of: my way or the highway; heads I win, tails you lose; winner takes all; zero-sum game. Unfortunately, this is the environment which is far too common in the African political dance. Stripped of any semblance of organic traditional wisdom for consensus, we have the dualistic and competitive consciousness we learnt in centuries of western schooling.

The west can open its market; vast wealth can be dug from the rich African soil, but without a collective change in attitude, Africa will continue to spin on its wheel on a journey to nowhere. Milton Odongo, the Gulu assistant RDC, a cog in this wheel, is a poster child of what is wrong with Africa.

Taking Whole*

Taking a company whole is superior
Destroying it is inferior to this.
Sun Tzu

He did it again. He likes to be the center of attention. He is the night dancer dressed in dried banana leaves with body powered in white ashes. Each time the world has to react to him. In less than three months: those mad Jaluos, Acoli MPs are in cahoots with a nascent armed rebel group, and now this. He pushes the envelop of some wacko notions only his head can conjure, and people react, to which he does the familiar foxtrot dance. It doesn’t matter what the idea—only that it benefits his cause—which is his personal interests.

In the wisdom of ancient China, this is not the Way of a sage general. It is not “taking whole.” Taking Whole is premised on the inevitability of conflict as the human condition and the interdependent of the universe. It is achieving victory with minimum bad blood. It portends a transcendent view, practice and action. It is synchronization of the heavens, earth and sentient beings for harmony that leads to progress and prosperity.

In Iraq there was no real victory because there was no Taking Whole. The wholesale dismissal of the Baath establishment ensured the continual quagmire and loss of lives. When the whole wasn’t taken in the settlements in Versailles, it spawned the white man’s second world war. Millions perished. It was also the root cause of the Iraq problem as the winners divided the lands of lesser beings among themselves. On the other hand, the rebuilding of the Axis countries was taking whole that gave unprecedented period of overall peace and human progress.

Taking whole is about enlightened leadership. The president is the Mind of the nation. If he is crafty, the people will be devious. He should be farsighted and appreciate the interconnectedness in the affairs of the nation. The latest contemptuous attempt at having only the indigenous natives of Bunyoro contesting for national elective offices in their respective locales is yet one among a series of snafus and unskillful acts. Another person would have handled the British Banyoro compensation moneys , if any, with finesse to the satisfaction of all concerned. But not our man—Mr. Museveni will screw this thing up. He will open up several fronts of weeping, anger and resentment with unpredictable consequences.

*The Rules of Victory (Gimian & Boyce, 2008)

The Unlikely Filipina Heroine

She was a house wife when her husband Benino Aquino was gunned down by a dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, a once-US client. Asked about her lack of experience, she said she knew she did not have the experience for stealing, corruption, etc. She became the emblem of mass opposition by the weak against oppressive state powers everywhere--the People's Power!