Who Can Judge Good from Bad?

In a Taoist story, a farmer's horse once ran off into foreign lands. The neighbors all said it was terrible, but the farmer shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not." Later, the horse returned with a foreign horse of fine breed. The neighbors all said it was wonderful, but the farmer shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not." The horse mated, and the farmer became a wealthy horse trader. One day his only son was riding and fell and broke his hip. The neighbors all said how horrible, but the man shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not." Next year, foreigners invaded. All able-bodied young men were drafted. Almost all died in battle. The army had taken all the man's horses, but his son, because of the broken hip, was spared.

The moral: you never know. The other day a good friend of mine asked whether I thought a certain African dictator was grooming his wife to succeed him. She wanted a definite answer, and didn't like my wishy-washy one. You never know; the universe has its own laws. In the chaos theory and complex theory the results of interactions between A & B is dependent on the environment C, plus factors D, E & F.

It Can Never Be Taken Back

Once you say something, it can never be taken back even if you do a Munyankole dance.
Many times what are supposedly careless talks come from the unconscious, reflecting what has been buried deeply—a Freudian slip. But Rubanga pe wany (God is not stingy)—she gives you what you want when you least expect. And that includes the darkness that festers in our hearts unbeknownst to the rest of the world. Then, kaboom!: “Those Jaluos are mad.”

This was the “beloved” President of Uganda in his truest elements. Of course, now there is backtracking and calculated explanations because he wants the East African Community, a concept to accommodate his large ego. Some Ugandans are used to this kind of reckless ethnic slurs. But will the Kenyans and the Tanzanians take such slurs like sheep? He can’t help himself. Next time he is frustrated, we may hear about “those promiscuous Bakusu!”

Isn't It Ironic?

The world is very strange. Take the case of American blacks. I cannot even imagine the kinds of sufferings their slave ancestors went through. One aspect of these sufferings was the fact that the master would take the women and have them for pleasure and/or the production of more slave heads in the plantation. Thus came the category of lighter skin blacks. Here is the irony: soon these lighter skin blacks became of “higher quality”—they had “better” skin tone and “better” hair. To this day the lighter skin tone and flowing hair are at a premium in the black community. Those that did not have had to use skin corroding soap and hot comb. Thanks to some chemistry wizard who has concocted chemicals that take the kinkiness out of black heads. It is a multi-billion industry that is supported by even village women in the remotest jungles of Africa. Poor Africans have but to latch on.

What else is strange? The swashbuckling guerilla top dog marched into Kampala in 1986. One of his proclamation was that Africa’s problem was leaders who stay in power for too long. A predecessor, who did not last long in the caretaker seat once commented that the presidential chair was very sweet. Our guerilla top dog certainly agrees with that as he “forgot” his earlier statement and has clung on to power like a tick on one of his cows. He still wants more after twenty plus years and counting. Isn’t it ironic?

Africans were colonized and abused. We could not wait and were euphoric for Independence. Then we got new masters in black skin. Now we can’t wait to get out of the continent and go to the lands of the master colonists. We lie, starve and undergo all kinds of humiliation to get to the “promised land.” Isn’t that ironic?

In America it used to be that if you much as looked at a white woman, you might be hanged on the next tree. Now some of my brothers specialize exclusively on white women. Our uncle, Hussein Obama got on the bandwagon and produced for us a dynamic president. Isn’t that positively ironic?

Size Isn't Everything

A time in the men’s gym locker room is a study in comedy. There is the tall Rastafarian with a member almost to his knees! He knows what he has, and is not shy about intimidating with it. Then there is the white dude with his fat belly folds almost covering his member. Then there is the rest of us in-betweens.

Men are so hung up on size. So do many women. Yet the mechanics of giving satisfaction does not require reaching the womb. Tantric techniques can make a woman explode without much ado. It is not the size; it is the intelligence in the winnie. But this is not going to stop the myth and much low self-esteems. Incidentally the dude with the navel size has a bunch of kids--testimony that something is happenning to keep the memshahib around.

Talking about size; it has of late been a major theme song of the president of Uganda. Not that size! Rather the relationship of population size to economic development. Most recent one was in a lecture to the students at university of Dar-Es-Salaam. He, ostensibly, wooed for the need for a East African Community as a means of a larger economic free flows. Tanzania has been dragging its feet to the creation of the common market.

Size is not decisive in bringing about economic development. There are numerous economies with small populations which are prospering in this globalized world. Uganda has for several years now had the markets of Southern Sudan and Eastern Congo to exploit. It only stole stuff from Congo. It could not take full advantage beyond petty commerce. The obsession with the East African Community is a misplaced effort. With the dilapidated public structures and leadership-by-whims, Uganda will only be a dumping ground for the goods of those more prepared, and the fledgling Uganda wannabe-industrialists will be snuffed at birth.

Tanzania should stick to its course. Better later than sorry.

The Monkey Mind

Ever heard of the “monkey mind”? That is how some people describe the seemingly uncontrollable activities of the wondering mind. Like a monkey, constantly jumping from one tree branch to another, the untamed mind jumps about from one thought to another—now it is thousands of miles in London, next it is thinking about Odiya who did me wrong years ago, then it is to the future when life will be milk and honey with a knight with shining armor and on a white horse—hither and thither it wanders.

The other day, instead of biting the morsel of food I was taking to my mouth, I bit the fork and chipped my tooth! The reason: my mind was miles away from eating. Many accidents have occurred because the mind was not with the activities at hand. Besides accidents, the danger to the monkey mind is that it can cause us a lot of miseries. This has nothing to do with the “mind” that can comprehend such arcane concepts as quantization in digitizing analog communications signals, brain elasticity, or fractal geometry. The monkey mind is an equal opportunity phenomenon that afflicts the high and mighty as well as those who eat grass to subsist—unless, of course, one tames it.

All who know agree that a pristine mind is one that dwells in the now. The now and the here is the only earthly reality. The past, a series of the now, is long gone and is reflected in the present circumstances. The future is illusive but can be influenced, to a large extent, by the now.

So, when a snake-oil salesman comes and tells you: “ keep your health and do not die because the future Uganda is a jewel, not unlike Britain or even better,” beware. Just role your eyes and wonder about the state of his mind. If you live in the now in a certain way and hope for a different future, you are either stupid, ignorant or insane. Mismanagement of resources will not change even if Acoliland begins gushing oil in the billions of gallons. Those who are “eating” will continue their gluttonous eating at the expense of the multitudes. A dog will always go back to its vomit.

Onen, the Cause Célèbre for the Nile Republic?

Who can remain patient
while the mud gradually clears?
Who can remain still
while the moment for action so slowly emerges?
Lao Tzu

It was a long time ago. He came, he saw , he conquered. That was Julius Onen. He had come from another school for his A Level. I was may be in form One or Two. His good friend Ocan (now judge) also came over from another school. While Ocan had a heavier soul, Onen was light—a likable personality by anyone. Soon he was elected house prefect. He was the school’s football goalie. There was no fire and brimstone crusader disposition about him. No wonder other countries would recommend him for the East African job, and the Northern MPs would rally to his cause. What is surprising is that his job cause would become a rallying point for the Nile Republic.

It is difficult to understand why groups would want their own to be a minister or a high-level government appointee. Would Onen’s appointment bring a paved road to his village in Layibi? Such is the kind of question a Museveni would cynically pose. The counter question is, in spite of preaching non-sectarianism and, if it doesn’t matter, why has he filled most high-level government positions with his westerners? The point is: it matters. Such appointments have a feel-good and motivational effect for the rest of us. When Onen passes by in his sleek car and throws dusts on my face, I can proudly point and exclaim: the ambassador is in Gulu this week-end and may be, if I am lucky, I may get to shake his ambassadorial hands! It tells a young man or woman that s/he can be all s/he can be unhampered by tribal affiliation. It says, if I excel, I can get a road-sweeping job without having to talk Lunyankole.

A government appointment is a good litmus test that a group belongs. If such appointments are not forthcoming, however qualified, it means you don’t belong. Why then stay? Coupled with various other forms of marginalization, it is time to seriously consider other options. There will be no love lost if the North went its separate ways. One wonk opined that it is wishful thinking. Yes, may be, but it is a good start. Even the Protectorate from which Uganda was cobbled was initially a wishful thinking when some people were peeing in their kanzus in fear of the fearsome Kabalega.
What the leaders need to do is to prepare the Northern population. Causes and conditions will come when the Nile Republic can be effected if the collective psyche is ready. In the meantime we should streamline and consolidate our votes to the side of the forces of overall genuine fairness and respect for the rule of law.

Patriotism is the New Religion in Uganda

Look at your present body to determine what you did in the past. Look at your present mind to determine what will come in the future. Shiddhartha Gautama

When China was in the throes of convulsions, great teachers emerged to its aid. Thus Kungfu Tzu (Confucius) coded elaborate ethics and methods of running governments. And Lao Tzu enacted moral codes for living in harmonious unity with nature.

In Uganda the Luwero war was the war to end all wars—human sacrifice and blood was to give birth to a new nation—for the gun having been demystified by willful carnage, the population would henceforth be unafraid of any devil that would emerge to lord over them. Moreover, the good of the nation would be foremost in the minds of the rulers and the ruled. The distortion in the power structure was corrected, so we were told.

All, however, did not turn up as planned for, as they say: Man plans, the gods decide. Uganda is not the shinning star on the mountain in a dark continent. Hence, the need for the new religion—Patriotism—to revive the fortunes of lost dreams.

Mr. Museveni, the fabricator extraordinaire, just completed a whirlwind budget busting tour of his fiefdom, preaching the gospel of Patriotism. In the North a prospective presidential candidate told teachers in his district to ignore Museveni’s call and just do their work. He has a point. What could be more patriotic than teachers concentrating on their job and avoiding distractions?
Another potential candidate, in a jujitsu-like reaction, began to preach his version of Patriotism to the youths of Nakawa. It seems that, if you are a prospective candidate and you never understood that Museveni has already thrown the gauntlet and has started the 2011 campaign in earnest, then you have lost ab initio.

I am not a candidate, but I will vote, and here is my version of Patriotism: Know thyself and control thy mind. From these come self-confidence, self-respect for yourself and others who make up the nation, the focus of Patriotism. So equipped, you will not take was is not yours without permission. So equipped, while horse-trading is a political reality, you will not blatantly and cynically buy MPs to enact laws for the benefit of you, the individual. So equipped, you will respect workers' resources and not muscle your way to obtain such resources to build your private enterprise. So equipped, you will be mindful of your priorities and maintain good roads and other public infrastructures. The list goes on and on. To know thyself and to respect thyself and others is to understand interdependence, impermanence and the emptiness of it all. Grasping and clinging to self in ignorance of reality, instead of embracing the whole, breeds lack of patriotism and its concomitant defective people and nation.

Next, Britain Will Donate Grasshoppers

The story that Britain is donating two lionesses to Uganda is unbelievable. It is a story that demonstrates the hopelessness of Africa at its core.

Lions and many other animals are native to Uganda, and would have been a critical cash cow. Where did the lions go? Poisoned by pastoralists, so says the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). That is the shifty (Allan Tacca) explanation. A major part of the problem is lack of foresight and planning, which also shows up in bad roads and collapsing public infrastructures. Foreigners took, were given or stole a variety of animals just as they did humans. They went built zoos in their homelands. Now, why would middle-class Americans go to Africa to see animals when they can go to Florida and see the same animals? Which fool gives away his precious assets so that others can profit from while he starves?

Now that climate change is happening and the power that be sells away forests to “investors,” grasshoppers (cinene) may find nowhere to spawn. I understand part of the Baganda bride price includes cinene. We need to send an SOS to mother Britain. I am sure a foreign service Eton kid foresaw the day cinene would be of service in winning and influencing “friends,” and arranged for the breeding of imported cinene in Pax Britannia.

The Musevenian Kamya

Museveni came to power on the disaffections with Obote and the Northern hegemony—some real some imaginary. Other than the unnecessary losses of lives in the exercise, I have no tears for the Obote governments, nor that of his immediate successors. I owe them no favors.

The early Musvenian rhetorics—10-point program, sowing the mustard seed, building machines that build machines, the problem of Africa is leaders who overstay their shelf-lives, etc, etc—appealed to emotions. But emotions are often contaminated and lead down perilous paths to disappointments. A keen observer would have, however, soon detected the dualistic essence and anomalies and not been fooled. Other than the losers, all were out for a euphoric ride like children with candies, only to wake up shackled and gagged.


BK












WB

Fast forward to 2006. After Winnie Banyima abandoned us, her fans, Beti Kamya was the new heart-breaker gal on the block—brilliant and with the chic hairdo to boot! Check out the stylish headscarf of WB! BK like WB appealed to my intellect and emotions. Give me beautiful, fearless and brilliant women or give me death! I could not wait to read BK’s incisive articles. Then came the catfights with her party, FDC. I am a lover, and irrational cackling frightens the jibbers out of me! However couched, it was all about her ego. As we know, ego must get what ego wants, no matter what. It spoilt it all for me.

Ego is a mental construct. It has no inherent intrinsic existence. It is a deluded sense of self-grasping. It is the single source of a lot of miseries because it plays with our minds that it is a real solid phenomenon. Untamed, we all have it in various degrees, but it seems more prevalent and pronounced in the political classes because theirs plays out in the public arena. In the political realm ego sometimes projects as cleverness—the so-called political astuteness—when it is just plain old lying, cheating and back-stabbing.

Now, the question is: if Museveni is all about his ego at its grossest, and Kamya has displayed gross ego-centric behaviors with FDC, what is the difference between the two? The mantra of both is: my way or the high road—a chorus of confirmed egomaniacs. If both had tanks and guns to back their wishes and fantasies, the difference would be the same.

How Special is Buganda?

The statistical odds of many Ugandans reaching the age of 54 is not for the average Okello. And so it was an occasion of joy celebrating the birthday of the calm and level-headed King of Buganda whose ancestors were often erratic, if not mentally deranged. As characterizes many such occasions in Uganda, however, court jesters came out in full swing with such nonsense as: Buganda is special and must be so treated.

Buganda certainly has a crucial role to play in Uganda, just as much as Karamoja. When the clergy disrobes and gets right down being irrational, calling for a special Buganda, many Ugandans have a problem. We have been déjà vu down this path before, and it has not been pretty.

At the dawn of Independence the Mengo cabal wanted a special Buganda role—which effectively meant a special roles for themselves—even at the cost of disenfranchising the general population of Buganda. The Baganda effectively did not vote for the Independence government—an act that was patently corrupt, if not outright illegal. What would have happened had Baganda voted? Would their numerical advantage (which the NRM now salivates over) not been decisive and the history of Uganda been different?

We are in the era of democratic dispensation of free elections. However flawed the process has been, why is the Buganda population electing the ones who might be emasculating the “special Buganda?” Something is not jiving here.

Living in Cocoons

In Acoliland homes were (and still are) joined by pedestrian paths. So, going to the next village, school, hospital, or wherever, you would walk through the open compounds. That was the physical openness of Acoli life which might also explain the pervasive psychological construct. Contrast that to the Ugandan Indians who built walls around their shop-cum-homes. They would emerge to the store fronts to peddle their wears and retreat inside the walls at closing time. There they remained mysterious unto themselves. No wonder few black Ugandans had any empathy when Amin expelled them.

Now in Acoliland my brothas and sistas are building mansions enclosed in obscene tall walls. I am told one prominent Acoli politician is planning (or has already done so) to erect walls around his 500-acre farm. What is going on? Is it fear? Fear of what? My sista, my brotha, we just want to pass by and say: I rio maber? And also check on whether you still go to the toilet like the rest of us! There is no envy or covetousness. In fact, we celebrate with you on your success. No one wants the junks you have collected in the mansion. Might we ask whether this physical cocooning is also a manifestation of mental and heart cocooning which shows up in rigidity and fear of other points of views?

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.

God Works in Mysterious Ways

Bringing God into politics is a dicey complicated affair since God herself works in mysterious ways not unlike the political realm. So, I am flabbergasted and scratch my head (and I suspect many are) when the first lady of Uganda attributes or calls upon God for her political fortunes. This is in a milieu where her husband (by his own statement) is a representative of God in Uganda. Who is kidding who? Are we that gullible?

Recently Mrs. Janet Museveni was appointed as an assistant minister for Karamoja affairs. She quickly announced that it was God who gave her the daunting job—a job that defeated the British power, was not completed in Obote I, and her husband’s NRA exploited.

Is the Karamoja appointment an attempt by the national representative of God to lock in the monolithic Karamoja votes come 2011? In the meantime maybe her friends from America can flock in to dress the Karamojong and stop the slicing of women’s clitoris. If successful, the efforts will be major historical achievements.

She has asked the Karamojong to pray for rain. For the rain to materialize the Karamojong can aid their prayers by stopping stealing cattle and murdering their neighbors with the NRA guns supplied to them in the days of strategic containment of neighbors unsympathetic to the excesses of the early NRA. The Bible says that, for your prayers to be answered, you have to settle with your brother first—extinguish the bad karma unless, of course, you have a powerful spouse who is beyond the grasp of karma—so he thinks. The Lord, indeed, works in mysterious ways.

Impermanence is the Great Equalizer

The tulips are sprouting. In the last weeks of winter some evergreens are blooming with flowers. Tiny leaves are emerging. Change is afoot. That is the nature of life—nothing is permanent. We are born, we grow old, we die—no matter who or what we are—kings, queens, presidents, war heroes, poor people, rich people—no exceptions. Change is the only constant--the common denominator.

When we accept and embrace the phenomenon of impermanence, we relax and are loving and compassionate. The problem with most of us is we try to fight time and we attempt to freeze it to satisfy our egocentric desires.

At a crazy time in my insignificant life I was one of the last to leave a party. Then, I and my kinds headed to after-parties till daybreak! Subconsciously I didn’t want the ecstasy to end. I was freezing the time of the delectable sensory pleasure. At that time it was very real and, like all delusions, no one could have convinced me otherwise.

Mugabe has frozen time, but all will come crushing down sooner than later. When another despot says that at 65, after more than twenty years at the helm of power, he would still go to war if his presidential seat is threatened, we know he is deluded. He is freezing time, but time marches on and his presidency will end like all the rest of them. That is the incontrovertible Truth that one can take to the bank.

Is the Lion Becoming a Softie?

Amin ruled him for only two days. He single-handedly chased Big Daddy out of town—followed by Obote and Okello Lutwa. Then Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga had to abandon his vast resource-rich fiefdom when the Lion marched in to assist Elder Kabila, whom he later turned his guns against. Bashir to the North quickly saw the wisdom of peace when the Lion charged in to help buddy Garang. Impressive resume' –only marred by tiny Rwanda rubbing his nose in the fertile jungle dirt of Kisangani.

We can write pages on the bravado and the insults. Anything that fails, is other people’s faults. Every success is his alone and the NRM—as if there is any difference! That is the real manhood we are familiar with, but only betrayed by quirky Jungian Anima, which is manifested as second-rate female archetype, characterized by unconscious show of moodiness, betrayals, jealousy, irritability, vainness, etc. Does anyone remember the The Tonya Harding - Nancy Kerrigan Saga? Tonya Harding is the quintessential second-rate female who arranged to club a comepititor’s knee so that she could win in the Olympics! Any similarity to high-stake presidential rivalry in Uganda?

Now, in the twi-light of his long rule, which he doesn’t fail to remind us of, he has pulled a rabbit out of his gallon of a hat. It is about love—of country, of self and of East Africa—patriotism a la Museveni.

Macho revolutionaries can see a vertigo if they were to talk about sissie love. What is going on here? Should this love thing not have been the primary sentiment before front-loading the government with his tribesmen, purchase of an expensive presidential jet, creating a batallion for personal protection, fire-sales of state corporations and the likes? Is this about creating a legacy—a lasting imprint on the country? Whatever it is, love is good. It is the antithesis of hate, greed and ignorance. And we are all the happier if it will emanate from the top down, latterraly all around, and whichever way.

Much Ado About Delusions in Garamba

If cute code names were the Midas touch of successful military campaigns, Kony would have been killed many times by now. Now, as Operation Lightning Thunder winds down, and Uganda’s vaunted “professional” army is on its way out of Congo territory, courtesy of young Kabila’s naïve government, it leaves sans the prize.

What was the core mission of the exercise all about? Was it rescuing the LRA captives? If 80% of the LRA forces have been demobilized, as claimed, it also implies that 80% of the captives were killed since the bulk of Kony’s forces were captives who had no clue what this madness is all about. So, we can surmise that rescue was not the primary motivation—honorable and heart-warming as it might be as we see some being paraded for PR.

Was the mission about capturing or killing Kony? If so, it has failed hands down. The man is somewhere calculating his next move, and some lazy minds will say with the connivance of the Diaspora, the perennial scapegoat of convenience.

Some say the mission was about a right of passage—a bar mitzvah of some sorts—for OB Muhoozi. Probably, if the thunder had struck on target, Mr. Muhoozi would have been front page holding Kony’s head for a trophy. Instead, we see a soldier debasing himself with Kony’s wig on his head.

On the whole the mission was about Museveni’s penchant for violence. He was itching for battle all along, and the delay and snag in the peace process gave him the excuse. Now, hundreds are dead. Does he and his countrymen even feel an iota of guilt or remorse? Nature has its way of rewarding all our deeds—good or bad. If we ever wonder why things never seem to go right in the so-called Pearl of Africa—Uganda—, let us look at what the leaders have done with the tacit consent of sections of the population. We will see that the past is not pretty; the present is murky; and the future is dark for we reap what we sow. If you sowed mustard seeds (no pun intended), you can't reap juicy mango fruits. But, in our perverted ignorance, we behave as if we could. That is the epitome of delusion.

Robert Thurman on Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi, who synthesized the teachings of Buddha, Jesus, Thoreau and Toltstoy.....argued that there three responses to evil:

1. The lowest and least recommended response is to submit to evil, to surrender and do its bidding in abject docility.
2. The second response is to fight evil with evil, to oppose irt violently.
3. The best response to evil is nonviolent resistance, to fight against evil without adopting evil tactics. It takes the greatest courage of all, combined with unwavering intelligence and compassion, to stand up against evil without fighting it violently.

For people to resist the Nazis, they would have had to have stood en masse in the streets in front of the tanks and firing squads, letting themselves be killed rather obeying any order.

Gandhi's experience in South Africa and India had taught him that this action would eventually force the German soldiers to come to terms with the fact that they were not fighting an enemy but were commiting attrocities against all reason and all nature. Their evil command structure would then crumble, and their war would end.
Gandhi admitted that this high road of nonviolence would result in many casaulties before the killers relented, but he pointed out that violent resistance also would cause high numbers of casaulties; in fact, it destroyed the whole of Europe and the flower of entire generations.
Robert Thurman in Inner Revolutions (Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Real Happiness)

In Uganda there have been and continue to be a lot of evils done by the powerful. How the evils are dealt with creates the results we have today and continue to have.

The Folly of Wrong Thinking

Wrong thinking creates misunderstanding and misunderstanding creates suspicion and non-trust, and these create a lot of social conflict, not only within communities but also among nations—Samdhog Rinpoche

We are in a public hot tub/jacuzzi. For some reason this retiree African-American opened up to me for the first time. Hearing my accent, he asked where I was from.

AA: Is that where Amin is from?, he queried.

I am familiar and used to this kind of question.

Me: Yes, I said.

AA: Is he still alive?, he went on.

Me: No. The dude is gone to the other side, I replied with a hint of losing my temper.

Now I can see he looked animated.

AA: Is Uganda near Rwanda where all the killings are going on?

Me: Yes, Uganda sits on top of Rwanda .

I then gave him History 101 of Tutsi-Hutu chasm.

AA: There is a lot of trouble in Africa .

Me: There is trouble everywhere, and Africa has its unique versions.

AA: It is a custom in Africa for men to pour acid on the faces of women who disappoint them, isn’t it?

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had to control myself.

Me: My friend that is wrong thinking. Hate and anger shows up in macabre ways all over the world. There are manifestations of hate and anger everyday in your country.

AA: But in Africa that is the custom of those people. They don’t have laws.

The dude was already getting to my nerves. I had to pull my arsenal in a controlled way.

Me: Tell me Willie, was what O. J. Simpson did to his wife and her friend the custom in America? Are hanging you guys on trees the American custom?

It was getting hot, and Willie decided to leave the hot tub to cool off in the swimming pool.

AA: Okay, okay.
He muttered as he climbed out.

This is the nature of wrong thinking. We begin to utter and do things that are stupid—causing divisions, bad blood, if not deaths. Unfortunately in Uganda wrong thinking is pervasive, and that maybe the root causes of all the problems that the country has faced since it was artificially cobbled together by the British.

Related to wrong thinking we will in the future tackle the issue of “guilt by association,” a phenomenon we may see it play out again and again if leaders and the led are not careful.

Patriotism Clubs: Another of Museveni's Gimmicks

With his fertile imagination Mr. Museveni has concocted yet another game plan: Patriotism Clubs in in secondary schools. He even hinted on having a Patriotism subject in the school curriculum. It will be interesting what will be discussed in those clubs or what topics will be in the school subject. Already teachers are horse trading their votes for better services if they are to participate in the charade. What a country!

Mr. President, when you love your country, you keep your words because it brings honor to the nation. If you lie that you were going stand for the presidency one last time and, you not only go over your words, but bribe your parliamentarians in daylight to give you efective life presidency, that is not patriotism. Mr. President when you assist a favorite minister to bilk the nation's workers of billions of retirement money, that is not patriotism. Mr. President, when you lose an election and go to war in which millions lose their lives, that is patriotism tainted with evil.

If you truely want patriotism, look yourself in the mirrtor--that is where to start. Life is cheap in Uganda where children are used as human sacrifices because you like to solve everything by viloence. That is evil patriotism. People cheat and abuse the public coffer because those at the top are doing it without consequences. When you fly in a 80 Billion Shilling jet and yet the roads for the banakyalo are in a sorry state, that is not patriotism.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/regional-special/Mao_warns_teachers_on_patriotism_clubs_80115.shtml

Love Archetypes

Carl Jung coined the archetype concept. Here are six as potrayed by Dr Allan Hunter.

• The Innocent
• The Orphan
• The Pilgrim
• The Warrior-Lover
• The Monarch
• The Magician

Check these yourself. But I will touch on the Orphan, which I have seen projected even in octogenerians. Here you find savage jealousy, clinging, hate, and plain evil. Many know of acid treatment by some Africans on the object or rival to love obsession. My friend, Patrick came back from Nigeria a blind man--courtesy of acid as a weapon. Houses and clothes have been burned to "get back." My school mate (RIP) burnt his girlfriend's car and ended up in jail. Bless his soul wherever he is now. If OJ Simpson did it, then that was one macarbre mainifestation of the Orphan.
Ugandans know of one dude who put his rival in jail and concocted rape charges against him. The object of love was power. The dude continues to play the Orphan in his obsession with Lady Power. Only God knows how it will end.

The Buddhists say that such acts will keep one coming back in samsara, the realm of suffering humans. Or worse, you might come back an animal, hell being or hungry spirit. Let us not joke with the Karma thing--it is real!