‘Material Girl’

James Thembo
January 14, 2013 

Material-hungry girls are on the prowl. They will financially suck you dry and then dumb you. Just like that. They have turned 'false love' into a form of Fine Art. They are cautions movers, one foot at a time. They are armed with vampire teeth, thirsting for your wallet. Their suckers run deep. As for you, you will keep 'delivering,' with the thinking of a new convert whose mind is always lagging behind.

When they have vanished, quickly as a mongoose, the truth will sink into you. You will feel hooked in the gills. You will feel hot by the collar, logic and reality playing hide and seek in your brain. At some point, you will even roll your eyes up, as if they are being strangled.

Shocked stupid, you will realize (in self-condemnation) that you have paid for your go-go life-style. You will realize that your triggered-off baggage of curses won't return the 'loot.' You will now develop a personal philosophy that you will keep recounting to your close friends: 'Women and kids are like dogs. Treat them as such and you will never go wrong!'

The next you will hear of the 'material girl' is that she has hooked her next-to-be victim, some hunk somewhere. Somehow, you will feel a wild stab of jealousy:  You haven't forgotten the 'Jerusalem' she used to place you into...her loosening of your tie every evening you returned from work, tired...her rolling of one eye to answer your cheeky queries...her brown long graceful legs...the times she made you feel dropping in gentle clouds of cotton wool...the mornings' rumbled sheets...

Like an Actor in a bad movie with a role of a successful failure over a particular pursuit, you will utter one last consolation: 'That new hooked hunk doesn't know what he is bringing near himself.'

Understanding Islamic Fundamentalism and its Offshoot of Terrorism

By James Thembo

December 31, 2012

 

Many years ago when I was young in the village, I witnessed in public occasional fights between men. The reasons for these affrays as they are called in criminal law terms were numerous: Land ownership disagreements, non payment of debts, infidelity issues, drunken vulgarities or simply waste of time arguments on what was likely to be the day’s weather.

The fighting duo would land brutal blows on each other, neither side often not easily accepting to be flattened like they were weaklings. But other times, there was a clear loser. He would extricate himself from a rain of punches and resort to issuance of threats ranging from rushing home to pick his panga or spear to finish off the rival.

The current global threat of Islamic fundamentalism reminds me of the above scenarios, but we will make the connection later. While not all Muslims are fundamentalists and not all fundamentalists terrorists (there was Christian fundamentalism once in history), it is true that terrorism as we know it today is a derivative of Islamic extremism which has most times bred violence.

History reveals that during Europe’s Dark Ages, Islam flourished. Towards the beginning of the Middle Ages, Islam had made impressive achievements in culture, philosophy, literature, art, education medicine, technology and politics. It was a civilization that spanned a period of over 800 years.

Then, Islam started declining. Islamic popularization crusades died away. The western world made their presence in the Middle East which was Islam’s strong-hold, felt. By the 19^th and 20^th centuries, the west had planted seeds that sprouted into colonialism which with it was the spread of their culture. Arab Muslims attempted to create Pan-Arabism whose purpose was to reject imperialism. It failed.

Even through the cold war days, the west led by America entrenched its presence in the Middle East. They supported rogue regimes if they helped the West’s interests especially acquisition of oil. They supported the formation of the state of Israel in 1948, a thing that the Arab Muslim world in semi-official lingua still calls ‘The Catastrophe.’ The stage for hostility had been set.

It has thus been a competitive bid for dominance, like our village tussle, lost on part of the Muslim world. They have ever since suffered in anguish over lost leadership of a civilization they had taken bliss in.  Presently, many Muslim countries are impoverished and war-torn. Afghanistan is the nearest example. It has the highest child and maternal mortality rates and also the lowest literacy and life expectancy in the world. Their per capita income is bout $200 while that for the US is about $24,000.

Again, like the loosing side in the village fight might do, a chunk of the Muslim world resorted to fundamentalism and with it, terrorism. To them, America is a ‘Great Satan.’ America’s allies, wherever they are in the eyes of the same fundamentalist terrorists, are smaller satans which, like their master, must be dealt with. They have issued many threats and delivered on numerous. America alone has suffered more than five full-size terrorist attacks since 1993, the worst being the bombing of the twin towers in 2001 which housed the World Trade Center in New York.

Uganda, more than ever before, is in this tough mix. We are a terrorist target (especially after we sent our soldiers to Somalia in an African Union arrangement.) Reason? We are a friend of America. We are also a buffer against the spread of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism in the Great Lakes Region. Al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based terror group in terms of possible revenge knows no African Union or Amison, the umbrella AU force in Somalia. They know Uganda and Burundi, countries that answered a deployment call to Mogadishu at the earliest.

They, and a few other voices argue we are fighting America’s war there especially with the background that America tried in 1993 to get to Somalia directly but failed. Three of their helicopters were downed. Uganda was to be a joint target with Kenya and Tanzania when American embassies were hit in 1998. We survived because our security services were proactively alert.

The fates were against us on Sunday July 11, 2010  when Kampala was hit by twin bomb blasts that left 76 people dead and many other injured. It is essential that other African countries beef up Uganda and Burundi in Somalia. To withdraw would be cowardly. It would swell Al-shabaab’s pride and operations.

We hope that the African Union summit presently sitting in Kampala acts aptly. In the meantime, we have to do the proactive basics: Hurriedly fix CCTV cameras around town, be stringent on immigrants, pace up the national identity card project and be heedful and suspicious.

James Thembo is a Journalist

thembojms@yahoo.com

By James Thembo

Might the easy access to ARVs be fanning the HIV prevalence rate flame?

The Uganda government, actors in the health sector and indeed many Ugandans are mystified by the recent Aids Indicator Survey that shows that the HIV prevalence rate in the country has increased from 6.4 to 7.3 in only a period of six years. This news found me still thinking about what a friend who works with the Uganda Aids Information Centre had told me two months ago that with about 360 people getting infected with HIV every day, the infection rate in Uganda was hitting an all-time high. 

The minister of health’s revelation at the end of June 2012 about the increasing HIV rate did not therefore shock me. While the figures sited are high to live with, the country has lately taken drifts which would encourage the increase of HIV leading to the acceleration of the pandemic.

I think that background here is crucial for a better understanding of the changing fortunes into the negative. The Uganda HIV/Aids fight started as an earnest battle that made Uganda shine as an international case study for all world populations which were grappling with the problem with varying degrees of success or failure. For nearly two decades, president Museveni combined efforts with local and international organizations towards minimizing the problem which had already claimed the lives of many Ugandans.

Then in 2002, a major question mark about Uganda’s success was raised by the Lancet Medical Journal. It was argued that the country’s success of a dramatic decline might have been tinged with distorted and manipulated figures. At that time, government did well at the PR front, dismissing the journal’s claims as imperialist propaganda meant to

Push into oblivion everything positive from Africa.

Then in 2011, the BBC published a report that clearly indicated how Uganda was losing the fight against HIV/Aids.  A few non-solution-providing discussions followed that report and since then, the infection rate has been on an upward arc; which begs the question: What, in the strategies that are said to have worked for Uganda in the earlier days should be revisited?   What of if the plans were revisited and nothing changes for the better?

Very likely, the main problem is the ‘death’ of fear of HIV/Aids, a fear that in the earlier years had made fear for pregnancy, say, in school something more bearable in comparative terms.  With availability of ARVs, Aids is now a manageable and treatable disease where persons with the virus remain healthy and are therefore not ‘sentenced to death’ or ‘walking corpses’ as was the perception in the earlier years.

And indeed, at many accredited health centres, according to the Uganda Aids Information Centre, ARVs are provided free of charge, though private facilities charge a small fee for consultation and treatment of opportunistic infections. 

Since the publication of the recent report in Uganda, accusations and propositions are flying around, most of them in the media. While some commentators are putting the blame of the negative trend on what they call the ill-advised focus on morality traits, others are saying promiscuity is on the increase as estimated by the number of people especially in Sub-Saharan Africa who appear to have multiple partners almost as a hobby. Yet others are counseling that condoms should have been made as on-hand as free supermarket discount coupons, etc, etc.

When I shared with colleagues some aspects in the report, three of them lightheartedly told me life was too short to be spent worrying about Aids and besides, they added, there is currently means to live a healthy and productive life for even two or more decades. This is when the availability of ARVs to many who need them vividly struck me as a paradox because in that advantage also lies the danger that is likely causing spread of the pandemic!

I therefore opine that there should be vigorous media campaigns and drafters of those messages should re-introduce an element of fear for the prowling disease. Widely publicize figures like the recent ones from the Uganda Aids Commission (2011) which show that new infections rose from 120,000 in 2011 to 180,000 in 2012 with the possibility that in the next five years, the number of the infected will be around 700,000 if no effective methods to condense the trend are not put.

James Thembo is a journalist.

Why Autocrats Drag Their Families in State Affairs

                  

                                           The eight Gaddafi children two of whom died fighting NTC rebels and a third bombed by NATO

           By James Thembo                November 22, 2011

There are times when one’s gathered thoughts lead to the conclusion that some leaders intentionally toil towards their ill-fate, and then that of their family. Let us explore this starting with the fresh occurrences in Libya.

November 18^th and 20^th 2011 came with two big prizes for the National Transitional Council, the new leaders in Libya: The capture of Seif Al-Islam and Abdulla Al-Senussi. The former was, until his father’s slaughter, the presidential heir-apparent while the latter was the powerful brother-in-law to Muamar Abu Minyar Al-Gaddafi. He was the intelligence chief of the Gaddafi regime and was associated with a myriad of atrocities. The two captives are wanted by the International Criminal Court.

Seif Islam is a Western educated sleek face who acted like an informal Prime minister of Libya. He recommended ministers and recruited the dreadful mercenaries whose acts sustained Gaddafi’s response to the Benghazi-based rebels. Needless to say, he was loaded with money and businesses and sporadically ran his dad’s charities, including one to the mighty London School of Economics. Other Gaddafi children, seven in number, were absorbed in state affairs with varying degrees of meddling. Three of them; Saif Al-Arab, Khamis and Mo’tassim were killed fighting NTC forces.

Many such cases are sprinkled across Africa. Eyadema senior in Togo was succeeded by his son Faure Gnassingbe Eyadema. It was the same story in Gabon where deceased Omar Bongo was substituted by his long geared-up son, Ben Ali Bongo. Ben Ali of Tunisia and Mubarak of Egypt were scheming the same transgression until their stratagem was thwarted by the Arab Spring. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, it was a rushed substitution, monarchy style, of eliminated Laurent by young Joseph…and a Mobutu son who is a presidential contender this year (2011) is failing to convince voters that his mission is not re-establishment of ‘Mobutuism.’

                        Left to Right: Mubarak, Eyadema, Bongo, Kabila and Gaddafi                                                             

Imagination is good. So visualize how nosy the children of Idi Amin and Jean Bokasa (in Uganda and Central African Republic) would be if they became adults at State House! These two rulers’ offsprings at a pre-teen age were already receiving first rate state medals of achievement when their fathers were toppled.

 Here is why I think these things happen. Dictators, especially in Africa, have molded the practice of taking care of their own into a form of fine art. If it is not nepotistic job offers, it is business rewards using taxpayers’ money… (making P.A.Y.E, one of the top taxes griping citizens’ throats in Uganda echo like: Pay As Yoweri Enjoys!)

Again in Uganda, journalist Andrew Mwenda on March 11, 2009 wrote a story in The Independent titled: Family Rule In Uganda. He quoted American journalist David Lamb in his book, The Africans (p. 9) thus:

“William Tolbert, the assassinated Liberian President had his brother Frank as pro tempore to the Senate, his brother Steven was minister of finance, his sister Lucia was Mayor of Bentol City, his son A.B was an ambassador at large, his daughter Wilhelimina was the Presidential physician, his daughter Christine was deputy minister of education, his niece Tula was the Presidential dietician, his three nephews were assistant minister of Presidential affairs, agricultural attaché’ to Rome and vice governor of the national Bank, his four sons-in-law held positions as minister of defense, deputy minister of public works, commissioner for migration and board member of Air Liberia. One brother-in-law was ambassador to Guinea, another was in the Liberian Senate, and a third was mayor of Monrovia.”

Uuhhh, you sigh to even-out your breath after reading the quote. But again, you gather your thoughts: How does the extract above compare with Uganda’s current nepotism? Has anything changed since Mwenda wrote his Family Rule in Uganda story and later adding another article, By-bye Republic of Uganda, Welcome Rwakitura Kingdom?

In the first article, critical Mwenda gave a vast number of Museveni’s relatives and in-laws in government while in the second piece, he wrote:

“And so, we have finally neared the summit of our journey from the Republic of Uganda to the Kingdom of Rwakitura under the Kaguta dynasty.” This media celebrity concluded his articles by stating: “Short of walking nude on the streets of Kampala, there is nothing that Museveni can do that can shock anyone anymore…he behaves like Nyungu Ya Maawe of 19^th century Nyamwezi.”

So, yes, a few key things have changed, beginning with Mwenda himself. He is now a part-time critic; infrequently condemning Museveni’s unchanging government and praising it under the same breath. Mrs. Museveni has since become a full cabinet minister while first son Muhozi is in-charge of his dad’s security. Muhozi allegedly recruited members of the presidential guard squad after he, himself irregularly joined the army as an LDU. This brings him closer in terms of nature of job to the Gaddafi soldier sons.

I suppose autocrats encircle themselves with relatives and tribes henchmen to stave-off betrayal, including that which relates to assassination. Then together, they elongate their stay until the chief is replaced by a son.

But by doing this, they construct conditions for what they fear most: Loss of power. Resentment accumulates against them and when the bubble bursts, you see a slain Gaddafi put on view like a prized trophy. You see a Mubarak caged like an animal during court trials. You see a Yemen president hit by a rocket in his palace, and still refusing to quit (there is nothing as mad as an infuriated dictator!)

In Uganda, the above tendencies have bred what characterizes our country today: Political god-fathering that rules the job market with big careers and big pay for the well connected, some, hardly out of their teens, leaders’ meddlesome and vindictive behavior, endemic corruption, organized crime syndicates in league with government officials, compromised integrity of media houses and a long list of lead-sycophants to vocally smoothen the status quo.

       James Thembo is a 2^nd year Masters student of Journalism and Communication,                                   Makerere University, Kampala.

                                      Thembojms@yahoo.com

It’s Called “Bullying Media Owners into Editorial Compliance…”

This is how it comes about…and allow me concentrate on media luminary, Andrew Mwenda and his media company, and not Seezi Cheye.

Mwenda was all negative because he worked in other people’s business i.e., the Daily Monitor. Even then, he was a liability to the business possessor, the Agha khan.

A story is told of how Museveni called the Agha Khan, who lives in Paris. He, Museveni, would easily close the former’s businesses in Uganda if he kept funny journalists at the Daily Monitor. The doable shut-down would be as effortless as you close a water tap. Our media possessor had just been awarded the financially thirst-quenching Bujagali dam project.

That is how Mwenda and Timothy Kalyegira reportedly left the Monitor.  Obbo Onyango Charles had earlier left the paper under a comparable situation. (Does this mean the current leadership at Daily Monitor has been bullied into editorial conformity?)

Then, Mwneda and Kalyegira started their own newspapers. Mwenda virtually failed to print and publish the first Issue of his paper, The Independent.  Government had blocked all possibilities. This is when he made the first  known dishonorable concession.  Kalyegira  never compromised, and his online paper is a deceased thing.

There are of-course other factors. Mwenda appears dare-devil because he has secret secure heavens: Museveni’s is a family friend to his parents. Muhozi, the first son, is his fine friend.  Mwenda has numerous siblings who’ve worked at State House.

…and Mzee Boniface Byanyima has before said in published interviews that Museveni should be asked who his earliest wife was and what happened to her.  The answer works to Mwenda’s favour.

Yet me thinks, (as Nobert Mao would say of Museveni), Mwanda qualifies to be a case study of sorts. The ‘boy’ is well read, widely traveled, brave and has key, high-level contacts. These attributes have turned him into a power-broker among the powerful.  

A friend who’s a loose-minded supporter of Mwenda told me thus: ” Mwenda has now grown. He’s securing his future and that of his children (thru’ compromises in his media business and journalism practice). “

…and the future of his children. I smiled. He doesn’t have children (yet). When he was speaking to MUK Mass Communication students on November 17, 2011 on the topic: How the Uganda Media has handled the Oil Debate, (I was there), Mwenda said: “I can bet my dick that the documents implicating ministers over oil bribes are fake.”  

Quite a crusade, I thought. So how would he have children if he lost the bet? Thru’ the non-natural line of attack perhaps? 

I wish myself a blissful research experience on the topic Media Possession and Control soon.

Kampala Traffic Jams: The Blocked Arteries of City Life

         

It is a situation many show they hate: The Kampala traffic jams. The drivers will honk pointlessly. If at a junction, the traffic police will have possibly pulled rank to rule against traffic lights. It is scorching hot and the taxi glass windows won’t slide open, the type that would justly be marked ‘leave it.’  

Or maybe, it’s raining and a mysterious heat is ‘brewing’ you. Here, the options of jumping out to walk faster on foot are nil. The police will appear to have forgotten your lane, allowing the other to flow forever. Practically, you are breathing-in each others carbon dioxide.

Pathetic! you snarl under your breath.

An on-the-spot check around Nakivubo, Mulago round-about, Spear Motors, Ntinda Trading Centre, Clock Tower, the whole stretch of Kampala Road, parts of Jinja Road plus entries and exits from both the New and Old Taxi parks reveals that traffic jam has become the norm especially at peak hours. During these times, vehicles, motorcycles and pedestrians jostle for space in a nightmarish state.

According to Dr. Kiggundu Tamale, an urban planer and President Uganda Transport Users Association(UPTUA), 23,813 man-hours are lost each day by commuters because of traffic jam and lack of an efficient transport system in Kampala.

Kiggundu, in his blog articles cautions about an impending threat of a traffic standstill in Kampala unless sweeping measures through a well-formulated traffic master plan are put and implemented.

While there was a raised pulse of traffic life in Kampala after the opening of the European-Union funded Northern by-pass, it is too little an achievement to celebrate for long. First, that road is too narrow for comfort. The bigger problem however is that many vehicles continue to drop onto the country’s roads each day, a pile that is not matched by any road width expansion.

Inspector of Police Maate Brian, in-charge records at the Central Police Station traffic section says creation of a Southern by-pass would do the city much good to supplement the ease brought about by the Northern bypass.

Maate who occasionally regulates traffic at Kampala’s Clock Tower thinks traffic along Entebbe Road is a chocking affair because there are no effective arterial roads that majorly link areas south of Kampala.

He defends the continued traffic police’s continued stay at road junctions with working traffic lights (the Inspector General of Police recently said they would leave) saying the lights constantly fail. He also says some drivers and riders behave like they know no rules, including respect for traffic lights.

To return sanity on Kampala roads, the following measures would be good starting points:

The much-talked about Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system should be implemented. This will relegate the traffic jam-prone taxis to suburbs at a reasonable radius outside the city centre. With the constant rumour that many influential politicians own hundreds of taxis plaughing the Suburb-City-Centre routes, implementers will have to gear-up against political nosiness. This measure should apply to motorcycles often referred to as Boda-bodas which all accident statics rate as the main cause.

Equally, shopping malls that appear to be an attractive investment nowadays should be constructed in city suburbs where most people reside and not the City centre. This calls for shrewd leadership that will formulate urban decongestion policies that they will stick to, to full implementation.

With a crack-down on illegal structures in Kampala that has seen several pulled down, the road reserves should be widened. This should go with creation of dual carriageways and overhead driveways at junctions and round-abouts.

Authorities should also consider levying a high public parking toll to halt the craze of everyone seeming to want to drive a car. mostly the cheaply imported used cars which in a double tragedy streak are environmentally un-friendly. 

With the management of Kampala now under the central government, city residents hope for an improvement in the transport system. Conflicts between Erias Lukwago, the Lord Mayor, and Jenifer Misisi, the Executive Director of Kampala Capital City Authority could however easily dash these hopes if not resolved.

It’s like a fight of two bulls…of different sexes!