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.

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!