Monday, April 6, 2009

Looking is the Key

What is the sound of clapping one hand?
A Zen koan

Nasruddin, the Sufi was frantically looking for something under the street lamp. Some passersby asked him what he was looking for. He said that he was looking for the key to his house. The passersby joined him in looking, but soon tired, and one asked him where he actually lost the key. Nasruddin said he lost the key in the house!

Then there is the story of the Muslim who was put in jail for a crime he did not commit, and he wanted very much to escape. When a friend smuggled in a prayer mat , he was disappointed . He would have preferred a hacksaw or a knife. However, as he knelt in prayer and looked at the intricate patterns of the mat he saw the design for picking the lock in his cell!

Nasruddin was teaching that looking is the key to finding out about life. And the Muslim story tells us that we don’t have to look far to find reality and solutions to our problems—it is just under our nose.

As we navigate life (individually and collectively) we need to look—and not very far from where we are. Additionally, nobody can do it for us—we are solely responsible for our understanding and knowledge. This is the way of our ancestors and the great minds of old who looked and asked questions.

Here some questions that Ugandans need to ask to find answers to their myriads challenges:

1. Why has Uganda been having dictators since soon after Independence?
2. Can there be a solution to the continuing autocratic governance?
3. Why are there ritual murders in Buganda, the center westernized enlightenment in Uganda?
4. Why was Obote toppled twice?
5. Why did the Lutwa government crumble like a house of cards?
6. Why is Buganda the linchpin of successive governments and yet has not produced any charismatic inspirational national leader in spite of its relative wealth and western education?
7. Can westerners buck the culture of guilt-by-association and ward off revenge that might lurk in the dark minds of some Ugandans? Every other groups have been victimised. Will they be the exception?
8. Why have the Acoli suffered for over 20 years?
9. What is the real story behind the LRA and its phenomena ?
10. How does a supposedly Christian nation come up with an Amin, is corrupted from top to bottom, and is soaked with blood in its history?

The answers to the questions are right under our noses, if we can only look. For example, the Karamojong need to look at themselves and their actions if they are to come with any lasting solution to their challenges. The Munyankole woman is just looking for the interests of her husband, and she is not going to take them to the Promised Land.

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