Was God a Good Designer?

My cousin, Auna (RIP) went through Budo and the University of Nairobi to become a brilliant architect. I went to school with him earlier on and we shared a deep respect for one another. Steve Job (RIP) of Apple was a  genius in electronic designing, and I only saw him from a distance. Auna and Job are my heroes. Since I admire both a great deal, I decided to channel this question through them: Was God a good designer of man and woman?

Esthetically both agreed that God did a fairly good job. What you see sometimes that make you turn your eyes away quickly is that man or woman decided to do some renovations with too much beer and pork, and the rolling blubber that you see on the streets perverts God's original intent.

 Both Auna and Job had a problem with the structures below the belt. In a woman, down there are all kinds of things too close together. What was he thinking? What designer would make a birth canal so narrow that we have to tear our way through it when we become claustrophobic and decide to get out like yesterday? In the process, with no regard to the kind woman who initiated our life and protected us in a bubble, we even kill her as we get out. Does this look like the work of a benevolent all-loving designer?

Let us not forget the man. He is not off the hook either even if he seemingly has an elegant sac enclosing two pebbles, and to which is attached a cable. Functionally the size of the cable does not matter, but tell it to the man with a tiny peck who had a difficult time among his peers in childhood--he won't believe you. Kids can be cruel: Johnny, your ding-a-ling can't even penetrate a leaf! Did you hear that one about the Acoli prostitute who ran away after seeing the enormous Dinka client's ding-a-long?

Man's problem does not stop on size on the outside. On the inside, the bladder sits on a walnut-sized gizmo , called the prostate. In normal function the gadget squirts some liquid to carry the man's seeds into the female receptacle to begin the frantic trip upstream to burrow into the egg and initiate another life. Let alone prostate cancer, in some men this walnut grows bigger and touches on the bladder. So, as soon as there is some drop of filtration, the pouch sags and touches the sensitive Mr. P and the man has to go. If you have to get to the John three or four times a night, you are not going to be a happy man. Next time you meet a grumpy old man, be understanding!
  

So, overall Auna, the Agnostic and Job, the Buddhist gave God a B- for structural design.

 

Big Ideas that Killed God and Kings

Big Ideas that Killed Dogmatic Religion and Kings. If you have no basic understanding of any, you might as well be a 14th Century man or woman. You will buy into a slick snake-oil salesman who will sell you air: Just say "Amen" and you will get what you want. I have come to deliver you from the killers. He has to be in power because of oil. --The Earth Revolves around the Sun --Evolution --Quantum Mechanics --Probability, Uncertainty and Randomness --Democracy --Monetary System, Stock Market and Entrepreneurship --Mind and Body Non-duality --Chaos Theory, Complexity and Emergence

Biblical Quotes Hostile to Women

Biblical quotes hostile to women: ---Genesis 3:6 ---Exodus 22:18 ---1 Corinthians 11:3, 8-9 ---1 Timothy 2: 11-14 I grew up feeling women were unique and different. But I never would have used any of the language used re. women in the so-called holy book. Mind you, there are plenty of good stuff in the book. That is why people like Thomas Jefferson re-wrote it in The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (commonly called, The Jefferson Bible) in which he took away all the contradictions and miracle acts, leaving only the Human Philosopher

Eclipse party Starts Here

Witchcraft and Religiosity: What is the Difference?

The Catholic Bishop of Kampala urged the vendors of Owino Market to stay away from witchcraft. That sent my mind buzzing with questions: Did I read the same line before as the white man came denigrating our way of life? What is witchcraft about, anyway? 

The description "Witchdoctor" has a dark and disparaging undertone to it. So, I would rather refer to such a person as a medicine man or woman. His or her pratice is often referred to as "witchcraft." Again, a description underscoring the negative perception. Basically, a medicine wo/man wears many hats: S/he is a psychotherapist, a pharmacist, a physician and a counselor. A true medicine wo/man works on the mind, the body and relationships--key areas where we humans often fail to navigate our way through successfuly. 

I posit that the good bishop's efforts are in the same areas as the medicine man, and he uses no less arcane tricks to achieve his ends. In the picture we see him wearing a white dress with a purple band and cap. On his neck hangs a man on the cross. When he performs in his church, he does things that are no less magical than the medicine person. He asks his audience to eat of the body of a Jew and drink of his blood in the forms of some wafer bread and wine which then makes the Jewish Jesus to enter the soul of the receiver. That is magic. Next time I will ask for a bottle of Merlot or Malbec for it to be worth my time--for then will I be able to see a change in me after downing a bottle. 

The medicine man equally does his things: sounds, images, concoctions and what have you to change the states and circumstances of his clients.

I would rather not have the medicine man kill somebody in order to harvest the scrotum of a young lad  to feed to a client to enhance a failing libido, for example. He has enough power and other tools that can effectively "cure" the mind of his client. If the libido problem is physical, a good medicine man should be able to concoct some herbs. But killing, per se, is not something foreign in the traditions of the bishop's line of trade either. The Christ basically committed suicide to offer his body and blood. How could a God get killed by mere mortals?

  

What Lions Do: What is the Message?

The Quislings Are Coming! The Quislings Are Coming!

In Museveni's world-view of convenience and make-belief, the problems of the Acoli begins and ends with Joseph Kony, the LRA Supremo. He has pumped this line of farce into people's heads such that even the ones that should know better in the region parody the same song and dance. Why is that? 

First, in the region there are the spaced out ignoramous who possibly dont't know why they are even on this earth. They just exist and take anything that comes--thanks to the break-up of whatever semblance of pre-1980s social structures. These are the ones who probably cast their Museveni/NRM votes in the belief that Museveni saved them from Kony and heralded peace. 

Then there are the mentally defeated who were exhausted from the chaos that prevailed and a respite was welcome. Any meme could be slid into their consciousness which the NRM/Museveni obliged with an occupation army and well ochestrated propaganda techniques.

The interesting groups are the mixed of characters Museveni has dubbed the"progressives" ( Museveni-woos-Acholi ) at a pretentious wedding ceremony of one of them. These, in his mind, are replacing the "bad leaders," the negative forces who have stymied his plans for the Acoli. Many wonder how in a short period of time Acoli could turn such loyalists to a man who was shunned not a while ago. This is not something new and peculair in history. The Stockholm Syndrome can help us out here, where in Freudian fashion the victim adopts the aggressor's values in order to protects his or her ego. The aggresor then poses not a threat. To some of us, these are quislings in the manner of the Norwegian collaborators with the Nazis in 1942-1945.

Many of us who think Museveni is a common village thug are not into the hatred business. Hatred would be giving away our power to the manner of the man. We would be selling our souls to the devil and depravity. We are, however, convinced that the attrocities that spawned the emergence of Kony must be kept forefront until it is addressed conclusively. That is what we stand for and will impart on generations to come.

Mr. Museveni may say he has his so-called "progressives" and he may now embark on advancing his vision for the Acoli.We don't want his vision. We want our vision as was wonderfully articulated by one Ateng in the Monitor commentary:

Ateng • 2 days ago

But developing Acholi land or northern Uganda as a whole does not necessarily call for land transfer from the indigenous people to the so called investors! In the north we are not short of business and management acumen owing to our long time background in state affairs management. So let all development funds from government and donors be channeled to local investment initiatives/coperative societies. That aside, in the north we have a different perspective of lifestyle and livelihood so much that whereas M7 is intending to make us entirely herds men by supplying calves like he has done elsewhere, we want to be professional sportsmen, world class models, professors, public speaker, actors, acclaimed writers, researcher in all disciplines etc because thats where our in-born potentialities are vested. Thats where our calling is. Therefore whoever is willing to help us should rather focus on developing our envisioned service based economy. We already have formidable infrastructure that can support our aspirations and perhaps we only need someone to allow us be what we want to be rather than super imposing sugarcane growing on us! After all even most of the sugarcane workers at scoul and kinyara are northerners but non of them has ever returned home rich or any better. Lastly, we cannot be compelled to convert to nrm as a pre-condition to development. We have already suffered for 26years under museveni and we can afford to wait for the few more years remaining for him to go in 2016. I know that God has a reason why he has still kept us the Luos of Uganda alive all this time despite the strains and stresses previously imposed on us in concetration camps and cross-fires.

As the writer said, we want to cultivate professionals in various fields. We want small-scale farmers in cooperatives interpersed with medium-sized (not plantations) individual farmers. The investors can buy land in the towns. The rural land is sacrosanct to the Acoli and Luo way of life. That is why every holiday we head to the village to recharge in the quiet under the moon with punctuation of allulations, and sounds of Aguma, Nanga, Adungu and drums.

A Recipe for Cooking the Cock

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2012

A Recipe for Cooking the Cock

In the East a birth year is a big deal because it is alleged to have archetypal relationship to animal beasts. It is believed that a person takes on the characteristics of the beast-year of birth. Thus from the knowledge of a person's birth year, one can gauge the person's predispositions. It was then not surprising that the Ninjas of medieval Japan, who were adept at stealth and surprise, exploited such a knowledge to  their advantage. For example, a person born in the year of the Ox  is prone to be a complainer. So, the Ninja would probably feign sympathy with the bitching, gain confidence and the poor fellow will not know what hit him.

This brings us to our favorite subject, the dictator of the Republic of Adnagu who demonstrates all the characteristics of the Cock.......

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For more@The Liberal Manifesto

Of God, Guns, Gays, No-New Taxes and Millions of Dough

 

Of God, Guns, Gays, No-New Taxes and Millions of Dough

My friends turned Gothic in spite of their supposed education. Numbers didn't mean diddly, let alone the fact that their academic research efforts were anchored on numbers--that is, statistics. And so, no matter what one told them their candidate was a non-starter and it was better to use someone more likely to put up a credible challenge to the Ogre of Uganda, they circled the wagon of emotional stupidity.

Fast forward to the US elections of 2012 and the difference would be the same with the pitiful Carl Rove , the Republican King-Maker.

 For more go to : http://the-liberalmanifesto.blogspot.com/

Much Ado About Nothing: The Gay Hullabaloo

Much Ado About Nothing: The Gay Hullabaloo

Uganda media crackled with emotional excitement:  Kadaga, Canadian Minister in Gay Row , Kadaga Gets Kudos for Defending Country. While many hailed the Madam Speaker of the Uganda Parliament, I have a contrarian opinion that her hysterical defense of Uganda government's stance on gay rights was a waste of energy. The lady was probably venting her frustration for having been undermined back home by her president who pushed approval of a rejected minister through a quisling of a deputy speaker suffering from a bout of the Stockholm Syndrome.


Gay issues, judged from the hundreds of online comments, get the juices of Ugandans boiling. You could probably get only about thirty or so comments on Dr. Besigye being hauled to a dingy dirty little police cell. Amazing priority, if you ask me.

For more @The Liberal Manifesto

It Is More Than Just About Investors and Consumers

It is More Than Just About Investors and Consumers

 

A tell-tale dark clouds hanged over the venue for the national fête to the 50 years of "freedom" from our colonial masters as the chief cheerleader pronounced his ambtious plan to catapult the nation to a first-world state. Key to this latest farce, per The Monitor, is yet another of Museveni's New 10-Point Plan. And the impetus behind all this is "the sovereign" power of "the investor" and "the consumer," so says the master tactician. Whatever happened to the last one as he emerged from the bush? The wonks have often called him to task on the original ten. But the man on-the-move has often answered with more vacuous gimmicks after gimmicks because they sell. The population likes such simplistic one-liners as " Let them get rich," coupled with strategic brown envelops

 

More@The Liberal Manifesto

 

Is the God Business Any Help?

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2012

Is the God Business Any Help?

@http://the-liberalmanifesto.blogspot.com/2012/10/is-god-business-any-help.html

God's Existence in Limbo

Will Science Someday Rule Out the Possibility of God?

White House Beer Recipes

Free Speech; What Free Speech? Only in America!

A reminder to always be on the look out because the caveman lurks in power.

US Presidential Politics Today

Diabetes Hits Acoli

My Ghanaian friend had a wonderful day at the beach with his family. He set off on the highway back where he veered off the road and crushed, killing himself and the rest of his family except a young daughter. He had a diabetic shock—a state of extreme low blood sugar.

Recently I read a story in one of Uganda’s dailies that said there has been a surge of diabetic cases in the Acoli region. This is in addition to the other negative statistics that are coming from the sub region. A reflective rabbi once asked himself: What is it about me that attract these negativities? In the same vein, what is it about the Acoli that allow the activities of two psychos in Museveni and Kony to land them in concentration camps, disrupting their core ways of life with devastating long-term consequences? Many would probably rise up in arms that such a question is an attempt at blaming the victim rather than the perp.

I am not a medical doctor. The information about diabetes is available out there for anyone curious and/or concerned. The basic information is that glucose, an end product of what we eat which is also produced by the liver, needs insulin to enter cells for brain function and energy for the body. Insulin is produced by the pancreatic gland which is located just behind the stomach. For some people body cells become resistant to the action of insulin even as the pancreas deteriorates and unable to produce enough insulin to overcome the accumulation of sugar in the blood stream. Early treatment usually begins with taking some medicine orally and combining it with diet selections and regular physical activities. Eventually the insulin will have to be supplied by regular self-injections. Without proper care other organs begin to fail leading to premature death.

The question one might ask is: why are Blacks and, Acoli in particular, more susceptible to diabetes? Increase in diabetes has also been noted in Southern Sudanese Acoli who have been relocated to the US from refugee camps in Uganda. Such predispositions, if any, can similarly be asked of the prevalence of stomach ulcers in people of western Uganda. There may be some genetic component to some of these maladies. Some other causes of diabetes include diet, obesity, virus infection, age, emotional stress and smoking.

Acoli of our fathers were generally tall and leanly sculpted. This was probably an adaptation to the paucity of food supply and/or the kinds of food that were eaten. Besides, the lives of an Acoli was often outdoors. A male child hanging around the kitchen instead of out playing was frowned at. While the default mode is to blame, may be it would help if one looks back in order to act skillfully now for a better future.

The Flip-Flopper Club

From:
 http://the-liberalmanifesto.blogspot.com/

Flip-Flopper sounds like the sound of sandals Ugandans call slippa. In the American political lexicon, it is the political opportunist who changes his or her tunes by slurping the finger with saliva and testing where the winds are blowing. The sole purpose is winning and/or scoring a point. In that vein ex-governor and investment banker Mitt Romney fits the mold. The Obama campaign machinery, making a calculated guess that Romney is the likely Republican opponent to beat in 2012, has labeled the man as having no core value. Coming to crunch time of their primary season, Romney’s fellow competitions are also drumming similar beat.

Romney’s apologists are out countering with something of the cliché that change is a constant. Obama has also flip-flopped, so they say. We all change our positions at one time or another on the basis of new information or better insights. True, that we change. But how does one distinguish a flip-flopper from someone who has evolved due to better knowledge of a situation? That one is a tough one. May be we could call on the Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in his stated test for identifying pornography: I know it when I see it. When Governor Romney destroys hard-drives to erase his trails during his tenure, there is a red flag.

If we know a flip-flopper when we see one, then there is no greater flip-flopper of the 21st Century than Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Museveni has defined opportunism to the extent that some wonder about his mental health. Is he so full of himself that he can say just about anything at no cost to himself? Is he a sociopath? Or, is he, like the rest of us, has some issues arising from suboptimal developmental attachment circumstances that often chain the adult in skewed self-regulation states. Does a Mulokole background have something to do with it? What happened in the Banyimas’ household from which he is now bitterly alienated? Whatever it is, unfortunately for him and to our chagrins his outcome is playing out in the public arena.

What would you do if you stated publicly that the problem of Africa was leaders who hang on to power for too long? The flip-flopper did just that at the beginning of his rule. You know the rest of the story.

The man castigates the opposition in his country for harping on the issues of corruption without concrete evidence, but goes to the neighboring country of Rwanda and states that he is surrounded by thieves in his government. What kind of man is this?

Surprise!

Surprise!
http://the-liberalmanifesto.blogspot.com/

Long before there was the Putin dance of constitutional manipulation, there was the original night-dancer of central Afrika. With the tacit complicity of a rubber-stamp Parliament he did his Afrikan witchcraft to ensure his effective life presidency. A few magic coins in the pockets or bras of parliamentarians sealed the deal.

Now, self-assured, here are what we get in this dirt-poor country. By the way, did you know that Uganda's GDP is less than half what Americans spend on their dogs and cats?

The dancer must of necessity have his swanky presidential jet which he must upgrade to a newer model every so often. His travel comfort taken care of, not unlike the wajeti of corporate America, there is no need for a national airline for the despised ninety-nine percent of us.

The treasury plunked in millions to refurbish a colonial governor’s mansion to a palace befitting of a dancing president. The Egyptian dancers may call theirs a palace, but look at what became of the last occupier. In the magic kingdom we know the power of words, so we choose the less pretentious “state house.”

An obscene sum of money, few Ugandans can wrap their brain around, was paid to an NRM robber baron for a failed commercial transaction. The attorney general was corralled into signing off on the loot. Apparently his weak balls trumped his legal mind. It is conceivable that the fund found its way into the NRM political election machinery.

Are we into fiscal irresponsibility yet? The dancer, being afraid of his own shadows, runs the treasuries dry of the almighty dollar in order to equip his coercive forces with the latest phallic symbol of the latest Russian fighter jets. There were seismic tremors in the tiny economy as a result. I should be happy that now my remittances to those who benefit from my largesse can receive relative larger shillings from the tiny dollars I have to part with every so often. I am not happy for them because, on top of the dearth of dollars, gazillions of shillings were dumped into the economy to buy votes, bringing with them the inflationary Grinch.

You want to demonstrate? There is a law making its way that will lock you up without bail along with child rapists and body-parts hunters. Will history repeat itself? As a wily hunter of the delectable delicacy of anyeri, I always made sure I knew where I laid a trap lest I “accidentally” had my feet chopped off. Ms MP worthy of her chops should take it from a seasoned trapper that this law is a trap that might come to haunt her.

Ever been near a spoiled brat? Should you refuse to give him that shiny toy, he will scream and stomp his feet in an apoplectic frenzy. And so, if the 6th parliament had not frustrated him, the dancer would have had power reaching my grass-roofed-mud-and-wattle village paradise—so, he complained, whined and called names.

Other than news, few shows on TV captivate me more than watching Nature. In one show it was fascinating to see the process of how a once-mighty alpha lion, with a huge mane, being manhandle (or rather lionhandle) by up-and-coming young Turks for dominance over mating rights in a pride. The old warrior ended up sauntering away limping alone to die in the brushes remote from the center of action he once controlled.

The South Africans dub him the Lion of Africa. Of course, brisk one-way trade to Uganda helps elicit such praise songs. The question for us here, however, is: Are the young Turks in Parliament now virile enough to challenge the lion and maul his tail? Or will the roaring and stomping of his feet scare away wanabe statesmen to retreat into their mothers’ wombs?

All along for twenty five years the writings have been on the wall. Only now are some benefactors shutting down the spigots of Dollars/BP/Euros. Probably seeing the man buying war toys from savings on Debt-Forgiveness gimmick ticked them off. Now, you also hear from the class of chief-you-kill-me-with-laughter brownosers: The man has changed. Surprise!

Posted by Sokolokobangusay

Talking with Two Sides of the Mouth

From
http://the-liberalmanifesto.blogspot.com/

Andrew Mwenda is a hard-hitting journalist. Some people in my circle hang on his every word for insights into the murky waters of Uganda politics. Take his latest, Uganda is bigger than Museveni, Besigye (7/8/11), which seemingly is an attempt to portray a balanced perspectives on the two protagonists, but, in fact, is a tirade on Dr. Besigye and his opposition, FDC. There is also a certain amount of self-pity in the piece: Oh poor me, harassed by Museveni’s goons, and maligned by Besigye’s people.

Mr. Mwenda puts on his Economist-in-Chief hat. He dissects how the economy came to be what it is and provides some prognosis. One wonders whether many of his audience understand what he is talking about. What they experience is high prices and intuitively know that there is something wrong with the economy, but whether or not it is a consequence flooding the economy with printed money in supplementary budget to finance campaign “brown envelops,” chais to MPs, or spending dollars to buy the spiffy phallic symbols, aka, fighter jets, they don’t give a hoot. Somebody is responsible for the plight, and not the opposition.

Having analyzed the problem and provided the solution, the “economist” then heaps blame on the opposition for wailing without giving any solution. What?! It is not incumbent on the opposition to provide detailed alternative solutions at this stage of the game. Theirs is to point a bird’s eye-view assessment of the problem and pound on the failure of the government to deliver. Theirs is to point out that “the emperor has no clothes,” otherwise we may as well go back to the “umbrella” dispensation.

The labeling by unnamed opposition members that Dr. Besigye’s rather combative stance in the walk-to-work as counter-productive is a framing that does not probe into intention. He leaves it to us, the readers, to assume. Coming from a premise that behind every behavior there is good intention (albeit maybe misguided from an observer’s point of view), what if the boorish behavior was intended to draw attention of a world where the killing of Bin Laden, the Greek economy, the tottering US economy, or the Arab Spring were front pages? On cue, the government reacted heavy-handedly and the walk-to-work in little Uganda filtered into BBC and earned some mentions in major US papers. Did it matter? Very little, but every scratch and dent in the dictator’s armor counts. This government would rather have horse-trading deals with governments in these locales rather than have its negative underbelly enters their public consciousness.

In the end, what are Ugandans “sick and tired” of? Might it be Mr. Mwenda’s abuse by Museveni’s operatives and the taking him to task by Besigye’s hatchet loyalists? What Ugandans are really sick and tired of is a balding man clinging to power when he has no new ideas. And that is what Mwenda, if he is fighting for a change of course, should concentrate on rather than talking with two sides of his mouth and getting into trouble.