Regional cooperation and freedoms?

Wondering about the implications of regional cooperation on freedoms in general.

I wrote all of this because as I have mentioned before, there seems to be a replication of ideas in this region by NGOs, Opposition Parties as well as Civil Society Groups. In one of the article I mentioned how Strikes of medical personnel and teachers in Uganda, were being replicated by colleagues in Kenya and Tanzania. I also mentioned how advocacy campaigns by local opposition groups were also finding their way into certain sections of Tanzania (Activists for Change-A4C). Government too was in on the game and had began to introduce complex and costly legislative rules that would make it harder for journalists especially those with an investigative lens to challenge leaders (Kenya). In addition to this back in the home space I also found that a law had been introduced that was designed to make it hard of large gatherings to occur and at least give the government a head start in nipping in the bud any attempts to opposition groups to achieve momentum (public order management bill). 

While these occurrences took place quite a while back, we had a visit from BHO. Soon after that another left handed head of state showed up. His trip was interesting because he addressed parliament and met some important business leaders. But he also took a few jabs at the Opposition. 

His position back at home is complex and he is running government with a coalition (predominantly tribal in nature feeding off of Kenya's strange tendency to coagulate around its regional and language groups). 

In what I have referred to as schizophrenic-like foreign policy responses that pit one branch of government against another, we had no mention of the "choices have consequences" message of the assistant to the secretary of state for African Affairs J.C. 

Instead lawns were mowed and lectures were delivered to African Presidents.

But it was good to see that our man could hold his own against the great eagle and the star spangled banner (nothing against either). And as I have stated in another tweet, it was also good to see the younger man being affirmed by Kenya's second president (a trained teacher) as well as the country's third (an accomplished Economist). 

I was not certain what to make of the message delivered to the Uganda's Opposition. My concern was that the little space that was left was shrinking and that any hope of receiving assistance from Neighboring countries was suddenly vanishing. If this works against the Opposition for now, it will work against the leaders in the future. Because markets are designed around safety the time will come (if the pan African dream is realized) when the presidents will find themselves demoted to senators and their nations to states as the African Union takes shape merging the vast size and potential of our economies with some form of government. The question is where will we place our capital. 

Over to you!

Leadership Suggestion Box

Its been ages since the last reshuffle. Ok...its been
about a year. Strange that i did not notice this last time
around...but clearly our UN Representative made a come back
to the office of health. Yes indeed although he was then referred to
as Ndugu or brother or Comrade (in those former communist
and revolutionary years).
Anyway we are not certain if there will be similar shakeups in the
royal kingdom but what we are almost sure of is that there will
be more suggestions about the possibility of some shrinkage.
On another note we are hopeful that there will be more moves
to ensure the safety of our citizens that that we will make few heroic
moves that place ordinary men in the face of fire.

When we last talked i hinted on some changes that i would make in
the cabinet and in the Ministers of State where to a great extent there was an overreach in form and function. Knowing well your tendency to think of leadership in
military terms i thought long and hard on the challenges you would
continue to face in the process of administration when you were having to
deal with so many sources of information.

For those who are charged with the task of advising you on various issues of
governance, i made the suggestion that these pieces of information be published
for all to see in regular columns in state sponsored newspapers for records sake
and also in your well designed web portal. Maybe all of this would go under the planning ministry which would be used by future presidents...God Forbid!

While i recognize the challenges you may be facing in splitting up your cabinet
to include sectors of development, I would prefer the creation of sectoral clusters
like Energy, Agriculture(Fisheries, Animal Industry), Regional-Internal (Teso, Luwero triangle, Northern, Central, Karamoja), Regional-External (EAC, AU,) Economic (Privatization, Micro-finance, Investment, Finance, Planning,Trade, Industry) Lands (Housing, Transport, Roads)Internal Affairs (Defence,Local Government,Public Service)Education (Primary, Secondary, University)Sports, Gender and Culture (Youth, Elderly).
. 

The rise of a new religion-human rights it's priests are called activists.

This week I heard an interesting program on the BBC in which an interview was done with a former British intelligence officer whose level of expertise seems is in ISIL. 

He made some important references to U.S work in Iraq and the errors that were made in dismantling the former presidents state machinery. His view was that those who had formerly served the Iraqi president had now coagulated and gathered around the new core (ISIS). This made sense because I was beginning to see a revival of Baathist tendencies especially with the attack on Yazidis. In my view therefore the former president was not dead...not in the complete sense. 

One could see the same happening in Libya even if the forces that displaced the Colonel in that country seem to have been more home grown. What one should therefore follow is the after effects on Libya and if marginalized groups will begin to suffer abuses from the past as in the case with Iraq. If the same happens, then one might as well rewind all the way back to 2011. 

The conflict here rises out of what we can loosely refer to as established authority and the broad subject of Change. What I have also found and what I ascribe to is a belief that nations are just like people. When they are hurt or wounded, they often cease to grow or at least begin to limit resources to those areas that are wounded until those parts are healed. 

If they have unanswered questions or dilemmas, these often cause deep questions which after a passage of time will result in a loss of confidence in their systems or a birth of doubts and fears and negative attitudes. 

So the natural flow of questions in this regard then is this? Are Americans ready for change and what does this mean for the next administration? 

Will it take the rapid form as it did in the early 1900s so that suffrage predates the struggle of the sixties with the civil right movement? 

Was Hillary meant to be first and is America ready for the return of the Clintons to the white house (after the primaries we can see how the Clinton family played the role of king maker in B.H.O's election). 

As power begins to centre more along family lines, will we see the return of the larger Bush Family to the white house too? Is Florida going to play a significant role in the elections? What role if any will the new dynamics in the U.S-Cuban relations play in the coming elections. Do these changes benefit the republicans or do they favor eye democrats?

Have recent development in the petroleum brought about a sea change in the machine that is government? Are we going to see something similar to what happened in the Seventies when the Saudis tightened the note on foreign relations?

The Christian faith calls these strongholds, or you can call them mindsets.

You could say, that the sixties were a prime example of this challenge on the American Psyche. The Vietnam war, the Kennedies and Martin Luther on one hand and the drive to the left which was characterized by the Jesus Movement, the hippies and the rise of experimental drugs. 

While we are still dealing with the subject of our relations, another group has arisen whose prime focus seems to be on the elimination of western education. 

In my most recent post (trends and prediction) I wondered aloud why we seem unprepared for an event which we for such a long time had predicted. 

Could this be the case now too? 

Do we now have a solution to the problem of endemic corruption?

A forceful return to faith (sharia) and a complete revamp of the education system? 

Have you ever silently cheered for someone who challenged authority even if you did not approve of their actions. Did you ever wish that they succeeded and fought for a position once they did even if you were unwilling to engage as deeply as they did?

There are some aspects of this in the faith struggle that seems to accompany all major faiths especially those that have proselytization as part of their doctrine or that insist on some sort of hell fire message. 

In addition to this there are some references to what Zacharias calls man's responsibility versus God's sovereignty which in summary questions, tries to differentiate between those activities for which men must act and those for which God bears full responsibility. 

The result of this is the creation of two distinct groups of believers those who act and those who wait for God to act. Maybe some groups draw inspiration from the book of Genesis in which God places men at the heart of his garden and commands them to subdue and dominate the earth. 

The Stadium the Church and the State

Right at the end of the year when pundits were beginning to ruminate on the year that past and the year to come, I watched in amazement as an interesting formation took place in the battle for the Ugandan electorate. 

In these parts we were dealing with the effects of certain fissures in our resistance movement watching as historical leaders began to quarrel openly for new positions and places in the hearts of their populace. So we monitored (as much as we were allowed to) the events that would soon take place as waited patiently for our 'Blue Eyed Boy' for any signs of resistance and activity. 

What took place in the Large Stadia was in a word choreographed and highly restricted and most of what emerged was served to us using the machinery of media. 

It is strange that this was not the first time we looked and experienced a change that took place in a stadium, with the activities of the Forum For Democratic Change not being very different. 

The marked difference between the observations of both political parties FDC and NRM were not so much on the machinations or mechanics of the election process (alliances being mainly based on tribe and region) but in numbers. In this case, I compare the numbers for a strictly political gathering and those of religious gatherings that were designed to Usher in  the new year. 

The Christian groups and their events represent to some extent a reassertion of the Born Again Group (Balokole) and its leadership and it's juxtaposition to highly political happenings in the country. 

Several leaders emerged and have emerged over the years as power brokers or movers and shakers. 

The stadium served as a stamp of sorts to distinguish between Pastors or leaders with prominence in a season where the shadow of 2016 is already beginning to have it effect.

Are we seeing the rise of a new political force and to what extent will this affect the outcome of the election? 

In a previous blog I spoke about what I referred to as power centers where, politicians tend to gather for influence and power. In another blog post i also mentioned the possibility that the head of state would face a challenge similar to that faced by Idi Amin Dada when he was forced to move rather strongly against a church which in his view was involved in subversive activity. While the subject of foreign policy is too broad for this it is useful to note that while Idi Amin was in power, Uganda made some sweeping changes which leaned heavily in support of Arab countries, Libya, Palestine and the Middle East. A reversal of these changes was a little too much to ask for in what is referred to as Obote II or even the start of the present regime. Often what leaders will do is reverse the effects and work of their opponents (which is often reactionary) especially if their rise to power was not peaceful. But as time passes there is often a softening which results in much more appreciation of former enemies. 

So without exception it was remarkable to watch as each of the major leaders in the stadium created alliances and succeeded in filling the massive seater monuments to Rome to full capacity. Nambole, Kololo, Nakivubo were call packed and full to the brim. The excitement was palpable and it was interesting to listen as the preachers each began to flex their respective political muscle. 

On a slightly different but related tangent, we were also amazed to see how the Catholics and the Anglicans caught on and began to create similar movements of their own to bring in the new year but also in my view to assert their place in fight for significance and relevance in a obviously younger population. 

Rome comes up in this discussion because not long ago, the stadium was a place of fear and dread for Christians as roman elites gathered to watch believers, slaves and gladiators fight each other and a collection of captive animals all for their entertainment. 

It will prove interesting how the head of state negotiates the rise of this new movement. The consummate politician delivering his book (Mustard Seed) to Pope and managing to often quote a few impressive scriptures what he may now have on his hands is a source to 2016 and beyond. Or will it be that easy?

A rock and a hard place: Between the cops and the merchants

Last week the students at the MUK responded to a proposed hike in their graduation fees. The response was measured but when the students began to be seen as disruptive, the riot police was forced into action. Some of the students then found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place...or in this case between the police officers (anxious to preserve order) and the merchants (keen to protect their merchandise). 

As can be expected soon the matter was resolved, albeit temporarily and a few heroes emerged. The solution in my view was temporary because the problem that brought about the hike in fees...which in this case, is likely to be a shortage in funds, still remains. In addition to this, the enforcement arm of the law continues to undermine the administrative work of the university council by appearing at strategic and calculated moments to play the role of messiah in times when they should really allow the University and it's systems to play their role. 

The students seem to be concerned that they have been gagged while in council and at the moment restricted to observer status so that they are unable to present their views in order to influence in a direct manner the way business is run at their University. 

As though this is not enough, our lecturers have emerged through their association with fresh demands regarding some of their payments. 

Unlike their counterparts though, they are more likely to down their instruments in an effort to paralyze the system a move that will further enflame the student body to response with yet another demonstration resulting in the same cycle in which yet again another savior will emerge dressed in full riot gear. 

Advise? Try as much as possible not to alienate yourselves from the merchants...they happen to be the ones who feed you. 

The use of force is brutish and must be your last option. After all you are being trained to be our first line of defense and there is great likelihood that most of your will find your way into some top positions in parliament and in our political parties. 

Thirdly, do not take part in activities that place you at the mercy of better armed and better trained officers of the law. Do not chose to be a pawn unless you are certain of promotion at the end of the game. 

Fourthly, you are aristocrats...do treat the rodents with some measure of respect!