The bishops of Church of Uganda gathered at the multi-million dollar presidential palace in the dirt-poor nation of Uganda—a nation which depends on nearly fifty percent of its national budget from its colonial master and associates.
First of all, Uganda has no state religion. Why then “Church of Uganda?” Some wonk once stated that how you phrase a thing or an event matters. So, is it surprising then that a rogue scholar would opine that the British couldn’t have allowed the Catholic Kiwanuaka to become the first independence prime minister? According to him the protestant Anglican Britain engineered the cynical disenfranchising of the Buganda populace by allowing the corrupted selection of Buganda MPs by the Lukiiko (parliament) of Buganda. This move essentially chopped DP’s legs in Buganda, giving a leg up for the protestant-leaning UPC in alliance with the protestant dominated Kabaka Yekka(KY) to win. Thereafter the Anglican Church became Church of Uganda. Wink, wink, wink!
Back to our bishops: here they were paying homage to the president, a son of a savedee mother and married to a savedee woman—enough cover to fool the gullible. The bishops blessed the president and minister wife, and at the same time brown-nosing him as they congratulated him for his piety. You want to hold your nose!
Nobody ever faulted Museveni for his adept at using symbolism. Here were a dozen or so old men—princes of the church—trooping like schoolboys to the headmaster’s office to be lectured on how to be self-sufficient. The bewildered peasantry sees that in terms of boss and subjects, as well as an endorsement by the church. That is the subliminal message of the whole exercise.
The bishops are the spiritual leaders of their church. That is a very grave responsibility not to be taken lightly. It is a sagacious office that carries weight. It can shift gravity. In obsequiously herding themselves to the presidential palace rather than have the president make a trip to their gathering, the bishops have done the nation a disservice and served mammon. What would Rabbi Jesus have done?
To add insult to injury, the bishops’ head honcho deplored our penchant for dissing elders since “elders were created by God.” Supposedly, isn’t everyone? Bling, bling, bling!
You cannot force respect—fear may be—, but you earn it. What have the elders done on their watch for the last forty plus years? They have sent the country to the dogs with intrigues, murders, theft and, even today people are anxious about what tomorrow will bring. Look at that lonesome woman stranded in Museveni’s camp in Acoli. By their one act the bishops have shown how unskillful they are in the use of their power. They effectively endorsed the status quo. Respect? No way Jose'. Nada!
Showing posts with label Socio-Political. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Socio-Political. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Follies of Integration
• Only the wild beasts can live without company of their own.
• A serpent once had an egg pure and white, while that of the bird was speckled and dirty. The bird gave up the speckled egg to lay on the white one. The egg cracked open and out came a snake. The bird was eaten by the snake it hatched.
----Movie RAN, a Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear
Martin Luther King typified the Black American middle class. It marched and demanded to have what the white man had—the good life, meaning thinking white, going to white schools, living in white neighborhoods, dressing white, marrying white—basically, being white with the impossiblity of changing the various dark hues, big noses, kinky hair (which is straightened by several billion-dollar chemical industry), and the wailings in christian churches of refuge.
What the middle class fought for they they got. Thanks to affirmative action, the size of the Black middle class has grown. Various government set-asides has created some pseudo businessmen who are one government contract away from the poor house. Where are the artisans, the roofers, the dry goods mom-and-pop stores, and the carpenters who are the backbone any ‘hood? The most viable business now in the Black community is the hair salon and the barber shop. These are the only places where the so-called Black middle class come from suburbia to recycle the dollar with their own. Otherwise, their wages hardly spend a day in the community. If so, how can a people prosper from the bottom up?
That is the question Africa has to tackle if it is to go anywhere in its quest for development. If development merely means putting on a tie, driving sleek four-wheel vehicles, owning mansions, huge tracks of land, and otherwise mimicking wholesale the mindsets of the west, we will pay dearly in time. What is needed is building viable communities with sustainable values. The rest will come based on a strong foundation. The alternative is perpetual knee-jerk reactions and development by trial and errors on a journey to nowhere pleasant.
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Soko’s Classic Movie Pick: Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man. Sankara was a good man with good intentions for Burkina Faso and Africa. But the ends do not justify the means. Thus the imperialist agent in the guise of his friend, Blaise Compaore, had to liquidate him.
• A serpent once had an egg pure and white, while that of the bird was speckled and dirty. The bird gave up the speckled egg to lay on the white one. The egg cracked open and out came a snake. The bird was eaten by the snake it hatched.
----Movie RAN, a Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear
Martin Luther King typified the Black American middle class. It marched and demanded to have what the white man had—the good life, meaning thinking white, going to white schools, living in white neighborhoods, dressing white, marrying white—basically, being white with the impossiblity of changing the various dark hues, big noses, kinky hair (which is straightened by several billion-dollar chemical industry), and the wailings in christian churches of refuge.
What the middle class fought for they they got. Thanks to affirmative action, the size of the Black middle class has grown. Various government set-asides has created some pseudo businessmen who are one government contract away from the poor house. Where are the artisans, the roofers, the dry goods mom-and-pop stores, and the carpenters who are the backbone any ‘hood? The most viable business now in the Black community is the hair salon and the barber shop. These are the only places where the so-called Black middle class come from suburbia to recycle the dollar with their own. Otherwise, their wages hardly spend a day in the community. If so, how can a people prosper from the bottom up?
That is the question Africa has to tackle if it is to go anywhere in its quest for development. If development merely means putting on a tie, driving sleek four-wheel vehicles, owning mansions, huge tracks of land, and otherwise mimicking wholesale the mindsets of the west, we will pay dearly in time. What is needed is building viable communities with sustainable values. The rest will come based on a strong foundation. The alternative is perpetual knee-jerk reactions and development by trial and errors on a journey to nowhere pleasant.
----------
Soko’s Classic Movie Pick: Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man. Sankara was a good man with good intentions for Burkina Faso and Africa. But the ends do not justify the means. Thus the imperialist agent in the guise of his friend, Blaise Compaore, had to liquidate him.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Speaking of Brands
In a local daily, one writer opined that Michael Jackson was a formidable brand. To him the creation of best selling records of all times and the sight of fans becoming unglued because of his death were enough to classify the MJ brand as all-enduring. But is it?
Music appeal, like most products goes hand in hand with the image of the creator—at least to the informed. MJ from childhood until early adulthood was a phenomenon of unsurpassed talent, whose creations sent the young and the young at heart into ecstasies. Peddlers of sugared carbonated water, which the young are prone to guzzling, gave him carte blanc checks for commercials. He was on a roll. They dubbed him “ The King of Pop.” But then all human constructs come laden with flaws. Soon the ass of a god began to leak—the effeminate voice, the gradual change in nose shape, the lightening of skin tone and the affinity for the company of children.
The general fan chorus was: Come on, MJ, we have grown; grow with us! That was not to be. And so many fans left him in his childhood where he felt most comfortable—a childhood many of us could never imagine. This same childhood projection was to become his Achilles’ heel in the morbid American sexuality and money. Soon he was milked of millions of dollars on conjectures of molestations. He lost many more fans and would-be fans. He was later to buy his own playmate kids produced from donated white sperms and eggs.
Amidst all these advertisers could not touch him with a long pole. Other than to his hard-core fans his music lost its appeal. Was the sold-out comeback tickets mere curiosity? If it were for his music, the fans would have been disappointed. MJ would have ended up in failure and humiliation that could have even killed him on stage. The gods spared him the ordeal.
So, speaking of brands; maintaining one requires skills, adroitness, ability and willingness to change and adopt with the times. For example, one might ask: What is the NRM brand—if any? Supposedly it was sold on being different from past regimes and getting rid of the Northern hegemony. It has achieved the latter and made many people happy. However the chief archtitect could have wished the North, especially Acoli, to come to its knees. Other than the random obsequiousness and confusion, that will never happen. The NRM has also contained several amateurish armed challenges to its authority which gives it credibility among the bewildered masses. But let us look at the so-called Fundamental Change.
The Fundamental Change clearly defines the NRM brand. There is the wild-wild-west capitalism defined by fire sale of quasi-government enterprises, neglect of public infrastructures and get-rich-quick greed manifested by obscene corruptions. Then, what about key government positions? The chief architect talks about non-sectarianism but, in broad day light, cynically packs key positions with his tribal people. That is change, indeed. More than anything, the NRM has refined the art of self-perpetuation through fear, double talks and bribes. Is this brand sustainable in the long run? Even the uninformed and unthinking masses will soon see through the charade and stop buying NRM.
Music appeal, like most products goes hand in hand with the image of the creator—at least to the informed. MJ from childhood until early adulthood was a phenomenon of unsurpassed talent, whose creations sent the young and the young at heart into ecstasies. Peddlers of sugared carbonated water, which the young are prone to guzzling, gave him carte blanc checks for commercials. He was on a roll. They dubbed him “ The King of Pop.” But then all human constructs come laden with flaws. Soon the ass of a god began to leak—the effeminate voice, the gradual change in nose shape, the lightening of skin tone and the affinity for the company of children.
The general fan chorus was: Come on, MJ, we have grown; grow with us! That was not to be. And so many fans left him in his childhood where he felt most comfortable—a childhood many of us could never imagine. This same childhood projection was to become his Achilles’ heel in the morbid American sexuality and money. Soon he was milked of millions of dollars on conjectures of molestations. He lost many more fans and would-be fans. He was later to buy his own playmate kids produced from donated white sperms and eggs.
Amidst all these advertisers could not touch him with a long pole. Other than to his hard-core fans his music lost its appeal. Was the sold-out comeback tickets mere curiosity? If it were for his music, the fans would have been disappointed. MJ would have ended up in failure and humiliation that could have even killed him on stage. The gods spared him the ordeal.
So, speaking of brands; maintaining one requires skills, adroitness, ability and willingness to change and adopt with the times. For example, one might ask: What is the NRM brand—if any? Supposedly it was sold on being different from past regimes and getting rid of the Northern hegemony. It has achieved the latter and made many people happy. However the chief archtitect could have wished the North, especially Acoli, to come to its knees. Other than the random obsequiousness and confusion, that will never happen. The NRM has also contained several amateurish armed challenges to its authority which gives it credibility among the bewildered masses. But let us look at the so-called Fundamental Change.
The Fundamental Change clearly defines the NRM brand. There is the wild-wild-west capitalism defined by fire sale of quasi-government enterprises, neglect of public infrastructures and get-rich-quick greed manifested by obscene corruptions. Then, what about key government positions? The chief architect talks about non-sectarianism but, in broad day light, cynically packs key positions with his tribal people. That is change, indeed. More than anything, the NRM has refined the art of self-perpetuation through fear, double talks and bribes. Is this brand sustainable in the long run? Even the uninformed and unthinking masses will soon see through the charade and stop buying NRM.
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