Kiyini kibi kijjukirwa Malima-The DP Dilemma

The Ganda have a saying that basically translates to the idea that the only way you realise that something is wrong with your digging implement is when the time to dig comes. Then you more easily think about fixing the
stick.

In Uganda this means many things but first and most important of all is that as far as symbolism goes, the Democratic party made some great choices with regards to icons. This being a agrarian community
and all. As did Bidandi Saali with the choice of
a lantern and later on FDC with the key.

You have to go quite a distance before you run into a bus...and a yellow one at that. The best you can do is maybe find your way into an American public school.

For the parties on the local scene, and for the democratic party, digging time came in 2016. And after a terrible
and maybe unavoidable set of circumstances, the party fell
short. They like the UPC were unable to field a candidate. 2011 deprived UPC of any significant plays in the political space while 2016 was the year that DP suffered. All of this took place under hopes that the emergence John Patrick Amama Mbabazi would prove to be a formidable for the president but the ambitions of the older players were too difficult to calm. Talk of a coalition soon failed with each prospective candidate perceiving himself to be the right replacement for the presidency.

So this was the time when DP and its 'Kiyini' were tested. 'Malima' came and does come every five years but as far as parties go, the loss of life can serve as a great opportunity to win a seat in the
constituency.
A war of attrition against all political parties of significance had Al Hajji Nasser Sebagala lose to Mao, in a move that had some maybe tribal minded people viewed as a coup deta. But no none with a knowledge of history was really going to buy into the idea that DP was
really a ganda party. If anything, the party is more Catholic and needs to depend on its links to the Mother Church.
The same plague has man thinking of the UPC in terms of the Acholi who have been at the helm for a while while forgetting its Protestant roots. In our view, UPC needs to lean into its mother church at Nakasero or Namirembe.

One of the major criticisms that has emerged in the current battle for spots, which some are seeing more as a succession debate has to do with party structure and thus membership which have both been articulated well by the Buganda regional head.

Historical considerations have brought about a series of challenges that have had us feeling as though we were back in the sixties
dealing with a King, Prime Minister, an Army general and a state at war with itself.

The regional head for Buganda has called for a come comprehensive
resturcturing program that will make membership of political parties more costly and therefore more important and beneficial. This is a
call that makes sense accross all parties and that reveals a flaw that needs fixing. It is also useful in creating a democratic system that
favors institutions as opposed to personalities.

Dens, Leaks, English Monarchs and Southern States.

Transition, Transformation and Radical Thinking. 

There are some changes in Ecuador that may bring in a new leader. 

Is there going to be a new strategy and response to the Wikileaks questions? Is the new government going to continue sticking it to the British by harboring the Whistle Blower? Rafael Corera is clearly an outlier. He is an eccentric. He loves the attention that he received from serving up the west with a fair measure of their own medicine. He probably falls into the same category as Ceaser Chavez and the current Nicholas Maduro, as well as Christina Fernandez Of Argentina, and naturally their great mentor of Cuba. 

So there is a southern front but it is weakened and threatened by some of the overtures from the new U.S administration which is using Mexico (the gateway into the U.S) to find a new way of dealing with the southern states. Memories of Reagan are still fresh the minds of historians and so is U.S involvement and support of paramilitary groups. 

The drug wars are important and may be used in the U.S as they were in China (opium wars) where they were responsible at least in part for wearing down the existing aristocracy (the middle class in the U.S can be equated to the monarchs of the day in China). 

The additional strain exists in trade as the current head of state begins to think about a rethink of the agreements that favor business between the Americas and Canada. 

Does the U.K still care given their current state of challenges with like Brexit? 

Also how does the case against the whistleblower stand given the amount of unsolicited support that he has received from none other that POTUS himself? Should the words of the president be seen as a pardon of sorts or should be separate between the case against him in the U.S and the charges that are set against him in Europe and Australia? How can you judge fairly someone who had been praised by the fountain of Honor? 

Russia has probably won the Hegemony wars that have characterized the post cold war era. At least her footprint in the middle east will prove difficult to replace. 

Does Edward Snowden have have enough room to play and does he know enough to sink the current administration? Did he already exhaust those who were listening with enough info? 

If he is still an enemy of state, is it fair to separate between his acts and those of the wikileaks founder? 

The business of intelligence has changed and now instead of favoring states, in the conventional sense the system favors corporations. And now we are seeing more of those that have stood at the helm of these groups come to the forefront of leadership so that the are negotiating for their countries yes but also for their businesses and personal interests across continents. 

This is resulting in a more important fourth estate as well as a fifth which given its freedom has found itself benefiting from the machinery its more constrained neighbor. The whistleblowers found the Information but had to depend of the larger media companies for distribution and to some extent protection. 

So instead of focusing too deeply on traditional states, we will find ourselves paying close attention to commodities and the men that manage and control access to these commodities. 

While still benefitting from the work and sacrifice of the whistleblower he will become increasingly isolated unless he is able to find a territory whose devotion to truth exceeds its concern for its global agreements.