There are two kinds of Ugandans: there are the pragmatists, who see in the various Ugandan social crises, signs of evolutionary pain, almost inevitable in the formation of nation, from a polyglot mishmash of multiple identities towards a single unalterable path of nationhood. Uganda, to this group is a work in progress. They do not dismiss the contradictions that continue to shape and misshape Uganda, but for these pragmatists, each moment is a usable moment. Amongst them are what I call the daily Ugandans - who are on ground zero and continue to conduct the human exchange that drives trade, politics, social life, and the various aspects of the commuting and the communion within the national space that drives both the discourse of nation and its powerful performance. There is the other Ugandan: the cynical and melancholic Ugandan, whose stock in trade is impotent lachrymal engagement with Uganda. For this set, they simply sit on their haunches, like the rooster, raise their coiffeurs and lament the break of every day in Uganda. They exaggerate the Ugandan crisis and have a great apocalyptic vision of Uganda. They rightly see a dying country, not a dynamic country; they see extreme poverty, not progress; there is a powerful self-hating as well indeed as self-regarding impulse behind their reactions to Uganda. This group often feels itself above it all - knowledgeable about the world and above their nation: in fact, better than their nation. They do not find the necessity to engage in a more practical way: join a movement, volunteer in an action committee, make a personal financial contribution, even if a widows mite to any cause they believe in that might be necessary to create the kind of change they want. They simply console themselves with lament, as if mere lament, earns them a participants point. People fought for a democratic nation in Luwero(1980s) though Museveni has disappointed everyone, and sometimes, Democracy by its very nature, smacks us in the maw. Besigye, Mao, Olara Otunu, Lukwago Erias and others are right now mobilising the population against Museveni but Museveni is not even bothered about them that much because he knows that the population they are organising are dull, uneducated and don’t know what they want. As long as he buys them with some money, he will remain the president till his death. I’m starting to believe that president Museveni is indeed going to die a president NOT in prison or exile as we thought earlier on. So, what do we do? Opposition is stuck with answers; the NRMs don’t know what to do; the NRM youths that were making pro-Mbabazi noise have been paid off a few days ago,healthcare is down,................everyone is stuck. WHAT DO WE DO, GUYS? I salute you.
Posted on: Thu, 15 May 2014 10:02:58 +0000
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