Deliver us from the bondage of free-dom

The world has two very good examples of negative reactions that have been prompted by two vastly different groups of people that received massive 'gifts' from their governments only for the recipients to turn around and 'rebel'. The first is Libya and the Second Saudi Arabia. From what we hear, the government under the previous head of state allowed citizens to go to school gratis and provided them super allowances as well as access to money for homes and travel. The second might not be a good example given its monarchs are still in charge, but there is a boredom that pervades its youthful citizenry which is synonymous to a form of rebellion. As a result the conservative youngins are often spotted in the sun bathed paradise's streets spinning the wheels of their Sports Utility Vehicles passing time and making full use of the music systems that define their vehicles. Maybe these troubles are part of the organization of oil producing countries all of which have taken advantage of the price of oils to benefit their citizens. 

Nothing wrong with that. But as the prices have plummeted, these economies are being forced to go back to the drawing board. Similar challenges seem to await the Nigerians as well as the Venezuelans even if in the case of the latter, their left wing leanings and veiled attacks against their Neighbors in the North seems to have aggrieved the troubles in their country. 

So how do you create economic development without tampering with the natural in-built ability of people to strive and achieve? How do you generate prosperity without creating an atmosphere of complacency? 

Is it worth the risk creating the short term benefits of growth at the expense of long term changes that are often painful but good for the populace? 

This is what we are asking ourselves on the home front. Our providers have come up with all sorts of neat little tools that can give us free or cheap options that will let us communicate and interact via social media. But is all this worth it? 

Are you ever going to be able to teach people how to work and strive and think by providing free stuff to them?

Is this the same challenge that our friends in the Rainbow Nation are also facing as their students gather demanding free education? 

Will be ever be in a position to provide anything that is of utmost quality st no price? We leave it to you! 

Good Idea bad press.

Its been about four weeks since the launch of a new project to help register Ugandans. The project is a great idea but also a challenge for the new head of the Internal Affairs Ministry.

Around the time of the previous elections, we became familiar with the new system and many of us indeed did brave the process,long lines, photos and finger printing that came with this project. It is highly doubtful that the Germans that helped manage this project could have failed in its execution (but that is just my opinion regarding the effectiveness of our Bavarian Friends). But that is besides the point.

The ads that are running in some media outlets are rather discouraging especially for someone who has lived in other countries (Kenya, Uganda and South Africa?). For starters, the ad refers to kitambulisho which is an infamous term that those who lived in Kenya in the early eighties are all to aware of. At the time, many Ugandans were living as refugees and fears were ripe about the possibilities of being deported to a country that at the time was rather unstable and still recovering.

The Kenyans too had similar encounters although their experiences predated independence and were more common in the class system that separated blacks from white and that brought about the rise of the Mau Mau movement.

As the gap between rich and poor grows larger and as a revival of precolonial tendencies seems to reemerge, i suspect that we will find ourselves battling our old colonial demons.

Another common reference that has fueled many concerns amongst historians and common citizens is the return of late seventies systems of leadership and law enforcement that were referred to as panda gari. At the heart of some of this concern was the use of the Swahili language which was often used by liberators but that was also used by rowdy and undisciplined soldiers to intimidate the populace.

Hard core ganda loyalists were therefore often anti-swahili because they seemed to have borne the brunt of the force.

South Africa comes into mind because more and more Africans seem to look on her as a liberator of sorts mainly because of the work of men like Madiba. Others though have seemed more doubtful about the true demonstration of these freedoms and have accused the ANC of failing to deliver and instead consolidating power into political hands. South Africa has relevance because here too, the concept of Kitambulisho came to the fore and was fiercely resisted by the vibrant populations.