December 2007

The year was 1994 at a prayer breakfast in a hotel in Washington when one of the several hundred participants, Mother Teresa (RIP) made her famous speech, “You did unto me”. And it was that speech that I vividly recall Mother Teresa quoting from John the Apostle when she said something to the effect of it not being enough for us to say that we love God and leaving out our ‘neighbour’. St. John actually writes that you are a liar if you say you love God and don’t love your neighbour. How can one love God whom they cannot see and yet hate one’s neighbour whom they can see? Somebody killed Benazir Bhutto last Thursday. Or perhaps many people killed Benazir Bhutto last Thursday as in the late Bhutto’s words to her husband before she returned to Pakistan, “what matters (in the case of my assassination) is not so much the hand that pulls the trigger, but the hand behind the hand that pulls the trigger”.

Enjoy your holiday.And I hope the true meaning of christmas sinks in your system.You can come for a piece of cake.

It rains every December. It snows every December. It's cold every December. It's hot every December. Depending on where you might be on this globe, there's a extreme of weather every December. This 'December rite of custom' brings us closer together as family, even as a human race at this time of year. I particularly love the way even the hardest of hearts are somewhat softened every December; if not by the story of Christmas, then by the hope of making amends and getting into a New Year at peace with most people, if not everyone. Thank God for December. I have a fetish for pens and I just got myself two new ones this morning, that really struck my sight but which I am sure I shall not have need of now; the little man at the duty-free shop took too much trouble explaining how the mercury enabled the pen to write better, et al. I forgot to tell him I had more than enough mercury pens already since I was more fascinated by his thick rimmed glasses.

Safaricom's decision to float its IPO on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) has sent ripples through the financial market in Kampala. Seen largely as a vote of confidence for the young exchange, the move may prove to be anything but.

I am finally here, still confused at my inability to blog lately. May be I ought to take a real break like 27th and Magoo did. Doesn’t some study say something about people needing a holiday? Oh! even some song says lovers need that too.Anyhow, I think I will do it when I finally take leave. Can you imagine my leave for 2007 is being taken in 2008 and it was meant to be on 1st Jan but damn! Have to wait for someone else to get back from their leave on 7th.Am up to my **** with fatigue. To be honest, work is not even working out great coz of it. I got over that annoying fact. What is really making me grind ma teeth today is Antonio’s Grill. I haven’t eaten there in Donkey years but today I thought, why not walk down memory lane there. Got a takeaway, masaala chips, a favourite(am one for spicy food) and sausages. I rushed to work anxious to savor each chip as it crushes between ma teeth.

Image courtesy of wardancethemovie.com War Dance is the latest in a line of documentaries made by Americans about the war in Northern Uganda. Like Invisible Children before it, War Dance focuses on how children have been affected by the 20 year conflict. But unlike previous documentaries though, this one is not retelling a tragedy, playing on audience guilt, or trying to sell us of why it is cool to care.

In the news this week: a new Ebola virus has hit western Uganda; Kony has been given one month to leave the DRC; The falling U.S. dollar may harm Uganda's economy; Rising food prices have implications for the government's industrialization policies; and World Cup qualifiers.

THE FIRST SUGGETION...The current surge of Ebola problems has caused quite a stir in the country. you would think that with all the CHOGM money the government would afford to contain the situation, if not with ease then with difficulty, you know?But clearly I digress,for that is not my concern today. I am asking what do you do about close to 2 million people displaced from their homes after 20 year of civil conflict? What can an ordinary person do to change this kind of situation? When a war has taken everything you have ever had and considered dear you have little to live for and /or die for. You have no land and you have no pride.I will tell you what one man did. In 1996. A man chose a path that many would not. After having his village ravaged and burnt to cinders, this man chose (we always have a choice) to have hope. He went out and sought for a solution that he as an individual could do to make the burden lighter, if not for him, for other war-affected people.

I am a big fan of great design, and I wanted to do something to promote the efforts some Ugandans are making to bring great looking sites to the web. So every month, if I see something great, I will applaud it here. And if I see something horrible, I will call that out too. I wont see everything though, so you are welcome to recommend a site you know and love, or hate.

Tonight we are going to keep the paying guests awake with song and drums and celebration of all our dreams. Tonight, tonight, the highway’s bright. We’ll go racing in the streets. Over the lawns minute orbs of spilt beer clinging onto blades of grass with a shine like jewels. Three hundred hungry fans sit on plastic lawn chairs, falling away from a raised stage. The stage is lit a blazing yellow. The large and extravagantly coloured logos of brewers and a mobile phone service company stand behind and to either side. In between is a bare square of wood. That is what we beam our hungry eyes at, waiting for the singers to leap up and set our fantasies to rhyme and to a clapping raga beat. To my right, the entertainment and social affairs editor of the biggest newspaper in town. “Is it true, what you write?” I ask him. “When you say, ‘the most happening party, the hottest spot in town, the biggest star’ is it true?

Well finally we have another David trying to take on Goliath. This time in the name of Air Uganda. We can only hold our breath and hope not to turn blue!Air Uganda is a consortium that is made up of Aga Khan Development Network and the meridian airlines group from Italy. This is clearly a total departure form the amateurish attempts of the East African airlines and the VIA to take on Goliath (Kenya Airways). This is a well heeled, monied and managerialy experienced outfit, which they have to be because KQ takes no prisoners.The Nairobi-Entebbe route is undoubtably one of the most profitable in the world, from an airlines point of view. And the most unbelievably expensive route if you are a passenger. After all its just a 45 minute hop, so why on earth do you have to pay $350 for a return ticket. You can almost get to Dubai with that and that is a 5 hour flight!!!!!!The answer comes in one word, MONOPOLY. KQ is king on this route and if you dont like it catch the bus.