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A Rallying Call To The Cranes: Go For The Win Boys…Go!

14 Jun
NATIONAL PRIDE: The Cranes attract Uganda's most fervent football fans

NATIONAL PRIDE: The Cranes attract Uganda’s most fervent football fans

Cranes legend and former captain Ibra Sekagya yesterday joined the Cranes, not to play but to train with the boys and show them that they have all his support in their endeavor to take Uganda to where we have never been before, to the World Cup in Brazil next year.

The competition for the five slots available for Africa is very tough and only the bravest of our men will fight on behalf of the rest of the country.
They are the ELEVEN men who will line up against Angola tomorrow afternoon at Namboole. The others shall be in the stands and on TV and on radio and elsewhere cheering on the team.
If we win this game, it doesn’t mean we are there, no, it is another battle won, another battle on the long road to Brazil.
There is no reason why we should think we cannot win and the Cranes must play without any fear in their hearts and with pride.

Sport is a celebration of the human spirit, body and mind and I believe the Cranes have what it takes to make us dream after all:

‘Life’s battles don’t always go, to the stronger or faster man…sooner or later the man who wins, is the one who thinks he can.’ - Napoleon Hill circa 1973

 
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Posted by on June 14, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

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Uganda Beats Liberia And We Can Dare To Dream Again

11 Jun
The 12th Man Was Around For The Cranes On Saturday

The 12th Man Was Around For The Cranes On Saturday

When Uganda lost to Liberia, the pundits painted a picture of darkness at noon, doom and gloom.

Uganda’s World Cup campaign was in a death trap, it was now mission impossible, they declared.

I told them not to be silly and that the loss had changed very little in Uganda’s campaign to qualify for the World Cup in Brazil next year. I took in a barrage of abuse but I knew they’d see sense later.

And they saw it on Saturday. Uganda, on Saturday morning was rooted to the bottom of Group J, by end of the day we were second in the group, behind leaders Senegal by a point with six more points to play for.

Of course qualifying for the World Cup is very difficult in Africa. You have 50+ countries vying for only FIVE slots at the finals in Brazil.

Only the brave ones can dare take on such a challenge. Only the finest and the luckiest will make the final cut.

With two games left to play, our task remains unchanged; to play every game the best way we can and hope that along the way, we shall get that little bit of luck.

We are in just about in the same situation, as many other countries trying to get to Brazil and no one should get very adrenalized.

The  Experience

This is a game that lacked fever.

The buildup wasn’t what we have come to expect from Cranes matches. As Uganda Cranes Initiative, we were involved in limited fans drives and the mood seemed dull. Fans seemed uninspired.

I knew that the 12th man would be present in the stands but I was surprised that so many people had turned up when the media and the pundits had been busy telling everyone willing to listen that Uganda’s World Cup hopes were dead in the water and that the games should be treated as tune ups matches for the coming Cup Of Nations campaign in Morocco in 2015.

Ticketing

You can compromise on anything but some information is absolutely crucial on a match day ticket.

In Namboole’s case, the gate to use to access the stadium is very crucial and FUFA or anyone should never print a ticket minus this.

Its simple, if you can put the word ‘complementary’ to the ticket, you can also add ‘use Northern Gate’ to the same piece of paper. This has been done for the last several games. why was it not done now?

Left is the FUFA ticket with no access information and right is a CAF ticket with all information

Left is the FUFA ticket with no access information and right is a CAF ticket with all information

We must stop blowing hot and cold and must have some level of consistency on some standards.

Overcrowding at gates had been solved and parents were getting increasingly comfortable bringing their kids to the games. On Saturday, with Kickoff just minutes away, the scenes at the gates were ugly. The shoving and pushing was back and left very many alarmed.

There is no reason to have madness at the gates simply because we cant print tickets with the necessary information, unless of course someone benefits from the chaos.

Its simple: Most fans access Namboole from the City Centre via Kireka and that puts a lot of strain on the Main Gate and the nearby Southern Gates. Somehow, almost no one uses the Northern Gate.

The main gate has only two turnstiles and should be restricted to only VIP ticket holders and invited guests.

My suggestion would be, to send all complementary ticket holders to the northern gate and dedicate the Southern and Eastern gates to the paid up fans. They have very many turnstiles and can easily handle.

Hospitality

Corporate sponsors have their hospitality tents where they lavish their guests to luxury, but one problem is they don’t have enough toilet facilities.

The stadium toilets are a mess and a no go zone. So when the darkness descends on Namboole, the corporate guests do what comes easy to most Kampalans.

These corporate sponsors need to pile pressure on stadium management to improve the toilets facilities.

Ladies who have dared visit these places have come back with the most harrowing tales. Without clean toilet facilities it will soon become impossible to attract people of class to the stadium.

No one wants to go for a football match and return home with a communicable infection.

The Game

The most important thing is that we won even when we didn’t play very well.

I only wish we can be this lucky away from home.

Martin Mutumba finally showed us what he could do. Never judge a player after one game.

Kizito Luwagga had a bad game and so did Saidi Kyeyune. My suspicion is they found the occasion a little overwhelming.

These are talented boys but who haven’t played a lot before such passionate fans when the stakes are too high. Like Mutumba, they should be better next time around.

Security

Sometimes I think the security guys at Namboole overdo themselves.

Do we need to have these many guys near the playing field? The fans are in the stands but who are all these guys running around the athletic track acting busy?

The police guys are okay but these are plain clothed guys some with radios, some very shabby and dirty, many with blood-shot eyes and reeking alcohol, acting important, blocking accredited visiting journalists from going down to the press briefing rooms and doing all kinds of shenanigans like Osama bin Laden has been spotted in the stands.

The guys even tried to block George Weah who was a Liberian team official.

I saw some barking orders at the ball boys. Some even instructed the Liberian players where to warm up from.

All this takes place inside the stadium to people who have been frisked and cleared and yet outside the gates it’s pure pandemonium. If the security guys have genuine concerns about safety of people who go to Namboole, let them be strict and ensure there is order at the gates too.

 
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Posted by on June 11, 2013 in Opinion

 

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The Media Siege: Could This Be The New Normal In Uganda?

31 May
Police outside the offices of the Red Pepper last week at the start of the Siege

Police outside the offices of the Red Pepper last week at the start of the Siege

The eleven days of the media Siege shocked Ugandans and left a bitter taste in the mouths of many.

To me it was the darkest period for the media in as far as I have been involved.

But I would like to make a few things clear. Contrary to what many have said on social media, the undertakings made by the several media organizations do not weaken the media in Uganda.

The siege weakened the media but the damage is largely financial and is not fatal.

It’s not situations like the Media Siege that kill companies, it’s the lack of them and the failure for those affected to learn lessons.

I am confident there is no media house that will find it financially difficult to recover quickly from the hiccup.

The undertakings with government on the other hand give the media a new life, they don’t weaken the media in Uganda at all.

I have read all the undertakings and there is nothing that wasn’t in the editorial policies already.

It’s just that the undertakings have forced us to reopen pages that have not been opened for a very long time.

What will weaken the media isn’t the undertakings, it’s the power of the police and the law enforcement agencies in this country and how we relate with them.

The police has too much power and the courts are almost powerless.

This was very clear during the siege.

What I found very strange is not that the police sealed off our offices.

The Police Act gives them the powers, the authority to do just that.

What I found very surprising, very strange indeed and very disturbing is that the police can seal off a facility for close to two weeks, do an intensive search and not prefer any charges against anyone and then walk away like nothing happened and that is very acceptable in our country.

This is what the idealists on social media should be worried about. Not the undertakings.

Another thing that the purists on social media should understand is that journalism is a business. They might not teach it in journalism school but any journalist who is an adult must know that news is sold as any commodity and its from the sales of news that journalists get paid.

For eleven days Red Pepper was a crime scene occupied by police

For eleven days Red Pepper was a crime scene occupied by police

Businesses must exist in the real world, not in the ideal world written in the books. Journalism must thrive in the real world and like any business, business decisions must be made.

Today we rant that media houses have made undertakings with the government, but we must not forget that without government the media in Uganda wouldn’t exist in its current form.

The current form might not be perfect, it might be far from the ideal that is in the journalism books, but we cannot sit in Kampala and dream about New York.

The Journalists in New York face different challenges from those faced by journalists in Somalia.

Journalists covering a sports event face different challenges from journalists operating in a war zone. But both are journalists.

We face challenges from the police that is extremely powerful and increasingly militant but that doesn’t compare to what journalists embedded with troops in a war zone face.

But almost all must face up to their different challenges and tell their stories as best as they could.

The situation in Uganda has changed over the years, the police has realized that it is super powerful and now it’s no longer afraid to exercise these powers.

Many of us believe the police are abusing their powers; we have been victims of this abuse during the siege. But what options do we have as journalists?

Its not only the police that have realized their power, the advertisers too have realized their powers and are flexing their muscles every single day.

Must we stick to the books and quit in disgust or must we face up to the new normal, adopt and live to tell the next story? We all know about Darwin and his natural selection explanation. Susan Blackmore, psychologist and author says ‘successful ideas are successful…in an ever-changing world in which the rules of (engagement) keep shifting…(and) that the world fills with creatures, ideas, institutions, languages, stories…machines that have been designed by the stress of this (ever shifting engagement).

Someone once said; if we draw water from the same river where the crocodiles are king and we need to drink water to survive, we must make peace with the reptiles. Unless of course we suffer the treachery of the crocodiles.

 
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Posted by on May 31, 2013 in Opinion, Uncategorized

 

Maybe The Solution To Uganda’s Football Is Death

17 Apr
NATIONAL PRIDE: The Cranes attract Uganda's most fervent football fans

NATIONAL PRIDE: The Cranes attract Uganda’s most fervent football fans

Soon, very soon, the name Bobby Williamson will be in the history of Ugandan football.

The Scot was fired as Cranes Coach and many possible replacements are expressing their willingness to take up the job.

I have read opinions by journalists, listened to FUFA officials on radio, read articles written by rivals of the current FUFA administration and followed the debate amongst fans on social media.

We all seem to agree (although now its too late) that Bobby was a good coach who had done his best and actually improved the Cranes although he had failed to hit the minimum target.

We also agree that firing him will not ease our pain (very typical about us, there is even a song…Basiime Ogenze)

We also agree that the government must play a more engaging role if sport is to improve in our country.

FUFA officials have decried the lack of investment in football infrastructure and the lack of funding for the national team. FUFA’s rivals too, are almost on their knees begging the sports minister to intervene and help bring down the current FUFA, which they blame for the decay of football.

None of the warring factions seems to be ready to offer a solution that is without government.

Yet, we all know that this government will not get involved in sports soon. It has ignored sport for 27 years and it will not reverse this stand next week. No chance.

Salvation for sports will not come from government. Sports administrators must find solutions elsewhere.

Sports journalists have all taken sides. It’s almost impossible to come across a neutral reporter. If they exist in Uganda, then they are the silent ones.

The fans are caught in the middle. Many don’t know what to do. Many are genuinely weary of the endless bickering and are desperate for a quick cure.

Many have erased the local game from their schedules and taken on the game on TV.

You meet a guy in Kabuusu and he tells you his team is Swansea. Unbelievable!

But the bitter truth remains, TV sport does not and cannot bring the same joy and excitement that local sports brings.

You see all this delight in fans when the Cranes plays at Namboole and you wonder where they hide after the game.

What everyone wants and wants badly is a change from the status quo.

My thinking is different.

Susan Blackmore is a psychologist and an author. She wrote a short but very interesting essay for a book am currently reading. The book is titled; ‘This Explains Everything. Deep, Beautiful and Elegant Theories of How The World Works’ by John Brockman.

Blackmore’s essay is titled; Evolution by Means of Natural Selection.

In the essay she says something about successful ideas being successful. She explains why ‘we are here, why trees, kittens…Chelsea football team and the iPhone are here.’

And I think we can use her argument to try to understand what is happening to Uganda sport, and football in particular.

She says that ‘we are here’ because we have survived in a world in which ‘not everything survives…competition is rife’ in an ever changing world where ‘… the rules of competition keep shifting.’

She writes: ‘Copy the survivors…and let them loose in this ever shifting world, and only those suited to the new conditions will carry on. The world fills with creatures, ideas, institutions, languages, stories, software and machines that have all been designed by the stress of this competition’

Every month, FIFA the world governing body, releases ranking for its member countries. Currently Uganda is ranked 24th in Africa, down from 21st and 87th in the world down seven places. Like Blackmore says it’s a world of competition only the best rise to the top, the weak fall to the bottom. Brazil used to rule the roost, currently they are on the slide.

Uganda’s football is suffering as the elephants fight.

We have FUFA and its rivals all struggling to outdo each other. We have the same scenario in almost every federation, the only difference are the actors.

This isn’t a sign of a curse, its normal according to Blackmore’s essay, which is an explanation of Darwin’s theory of Evolution.

It’s the story of all life on earth, right from copulation and how one sperm outrun all the other million sperms and fertilized the one egg. Trust me, in the end, after a struggle, someone must defeat another, one always emerges victor, others must lose the battle for survival and die.

For Uganda’s football, am afraid, it will get worse than it is right now before it gets any better. Bobby is gone and many will go. We must be ready for the turbulent times, the bad results, the defeats at Namboole, CECAFA, which we have gotten accustomed to winning, might go too.

We must be ready to endure the pain of competition between the administrators and their rivals, the violence of their war, the shock of near death of our game.

In the end, like a religion, football will not die, it will emerge from the ego fights, from the squabbles, from the slide from the pain.

There is no guarantee that any of the current actors, the administrators, the players, the clubs, the journalists will survive to see that beautiful day.

Some will be victim in the battle, some will be collateral damage, others will be refugees. Only the brave ones, the strong ones, will live, survive the fight and partake in the new dawn; the flourish of the beautiful game in Uganda.

Brace your selves.

 
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Posted by on April 17, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

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I Also Want To Go See The Mountain Gorillas In Bwindi But…

15 Apr

On Thursday morning this past week I posted this on Twitter: ‘Imagine if you got to Kajjasi & onto a plane to Arua, to Kasese, to Kitido. Instead of 6+ hours…30 minutes #DreamsForUganda’.

It was at 7:07am and I was getting ready to drive out of home. My mind was already filled with dread by the thought of the nightmare of the morning traffic I was to encounter dropping the kids off at school 15kms away.

Normally a journey of 15kms shouldn’t be something to fuss about. As an amateur runner it take me about 1 hour 40 minutes. On a bike it’s about 45 minutes. In a car it should be less than 15 minutes.

But I live in Kampala and believe me; it takes me 1 hour and 10 minutes to make the journey from home to the kids’ school every morning.

We have less than 1million cars on the roads in Uganda, the majority of those cars are in the city Kampala. So it’s not that Kampala is choking on cars, the sad fact is that whereas the number of cars on the roads has been steadily increasing over the years, the number of motorable roads has been reducing steadily both in length and in width.

If you scan social media in Kampala on any given morning, you will see lots of exasperated motorists posting about incidents on the road. They are of course driving and twitting at the same time. Its illegal but it’s not dangerous. In Kampala you can be on the road and not move even an inch for over 10 minutes.

How do you pass the time? Many people get onto their smartphones, the traffic policemen lately no longer arrest drivers they see on phone, they seem to have understood that it’s the only way not to get mad in traffic.

The transport sector in Uganda is a disaster and it’s getting worse everyday, and despite the numerous political pronouncements, it’s not getting better.

This Sunday, as I took my place on the couch with my handheld, I came across this article about the 10 things that newly elected Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta must do to make the region richer. (You can read the whole article here) but what caught my eye was this:

‘A Kenyan in Kisumu who wants to travel to Soroti in eastern Uganda, a morning’s drive away, but prefers to fly there, has to catch a flight from Kisumu Airport, land at JKIA in Nairobi, catch a flight to Entebbe International, then drive for over four hours over 400 kilometres (by the shortest route) to get there.’

For a fact, if someone boarded a flight from Nairobi airport to Entebbe in Uganda (over 720kms) and you drove your car from Mukono just outside Kampala to pick him up from Entebbe (about 65kms). If you don’t set off 2 hours to his estimated time of arrival, his plane will land before you are half way there. That’s how badly off our road network is.

This took me back to the tweet I sent out on Thursday morning. and immediately, my mind focused on a challenge I have been discussing with pals over the last few weeks.

Recently the Uganda Wildlife Authority launched a campaign to encourage Ugandans to go see more of Mountain Gorillas. The massive beasts that are man’s closest relatives in the animal kingdom.

Ugandans are lazy travelers and very few have been to Bwindi to see their animal cousins. People fly all the way from Australia to see the beasts but I have never gathered the courage to get onto the road to see the animals.

Upon seeing the promotion online, a friend started an email discussion. He wants us to go visit. It’s the cheapest it has been for years, he said, but two weeks down the road no one has found the guts to pay the UGX150k permit fee, many have promised.

PROMOTION: UWA wants more people to go see the Gorillas in Bwindi

PROMOTION: UWA wants more people to go see the Gorillas in Bwindi in South Western Uganda

I like travel, but I don’t like traveling by road. I have motion sickness and as a kid I would get sick on the bus to school. Well, I no longer get that sick but since those days getting on the bus clutching a sick back, I have never fallen in love with road travel.

The few times I travel, want to be the one driving. I can’t be the passenger without spending the whole time trying not to think about getting sick.

So if the gang decides to travel to see the Gorillas, I will tag along but am sure I wont enjoy the road trip. I have never been to Bwindi but I know that from Kampala to Mbarara is FOUR hours, and another THREE hours to Kabale and about TWO+ hours to Kisoro and then Bwindi.

That’s is NINE+ hours on the road to see the beasts. NINE+ hours on the road, trying not to get sick in bus, in a car, in a van, that honestly frightens me. And am sure it doesn’t excite very many people either.

To put it in perspective, its SIX hours flying from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which is 5,536kms and SEVEN hours from Dubai to Beijing, China a distance of 5,845 kilometers.

I know why people fly half way from around the world to see the animals but am sure many more are put off by the prospect of NINE+ hours on an African road.

Now, back to my tweet on Thursday morning.

Imagine if I could grab a flight from Kajjasi airstrip to Kisoro. Nine hours on the road would be less than 40 minutes in the air. It would be a little more expensive than on the road, but I wouldn’t worry much about getting sick on the road.

And how many visitors from around the world would jump onto the planes to see the mountain Gorillas in Bwindi, to Kasese to visit Queen Elizabeth Game Park, to Lira for Murchison Falls Game Park.

Air travel is absolutely important to tourism and if we are to benefit more from what God gave to us naturally; we must invest more in air travel.

UWA can launch its ‘Gorilla tracking promotion to enable potential visitors enjoy the same gorilla experience at subsidized rates,’ but am sure with a developed aerospace sector; UWA wouldn’t be talking about UNSOLD Gorilla tracking permits and the promotion being aimed at giving back to their esteemed customers.

It’s a shame, a scandal that out of 378 airports and airstrips in East Africa less than 90% have paved runways and only EIGHT (Nairobi, Entebbe, Kigali, Bujumbura, Mombasa, Kilimanjaro, Dar Es Salam and Zanzibar) receive international flight connections.

IGNORED SECTOR: The State Of Airports In East Africa: Not impressive

IGNORED AND ABANDONED SECTOR: The State Of Airports In East Africa: Not impressive

How many of these airports were actually constructed in the last 30 years?

Kenya’s deputy president, the puffy William Ruto talked about the potential of tourism in Kenya during their inauguration last week, he made reference to Malaysia receiving tourists in excess of 20million a year and how Kenya receives less than 2million a year.

And In East Africa we all aspire to be like Kenya the leaders in tourism.

Now the bigger shame: Uganda, ‘home to more than half of the world’s population of mountain gorillas’ living in organized groups in Bwindi Impenetrable Game Park, yet there is no airport of international status in Bwindi or nearby Kisoro and no scheduled flight from Entebbe and by road its more than NINE hours away, longer than it takes you by plane from Doha in Qatar to Changi in Singapore. And we wonder why not many people come visiting Uganda despite having this rare endowment?

 
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Posted by on April 15, 2013 in Opinion

 

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Brazil 2014: Uganda Loses A Game, One Game, And Its Already Doom And Gloom? Let Us Not Be Silly

26 Mar
FATALISTIC: Newspapers depict doom and gloom after a 'blip'

FATALISTIC: Uganda Newspapers depict doom and gloom after a ‘blip’

Ugandan sports writers have an odd inclination.

They present their stories with that finality tone; you’d think the world is ending.

Take a look at the coverage of Uganda’s 2-0 loss to Liberia.

‘Cranes In A Death Trap’ screamed the back page of New Vision. ‘Hearts In The Mouth’ said the Red Pepper. The Daily Monitor splashed: ‘Mission Impossible’.

I know the pain of defeat and the desire by editors and sports writers to capture the mood and out do each other.

But seriously, the Cranes World Cup campaign was never going to be determined in Monrovia or this past weekend.

I therefore think its pure sensationalism and fatalistic to describe that defeat as having put the whole campaign in a death trap and made it mission impossible.

This was the third game; the Cranes have three other games coming up. This is a marathon, we’ve done half the race, no one is dead and no one has run away with it yet.

You can win in Liberia but lose at Namboole, what difference does it make? Its three points lost.

Before this game, Liberia was bottom of the table and were branded ‘minnows’ by Ugandan’s expert media, they win one game and are second on the table and suddenly they are favorites and Uganda are in a death trap, and its now mission impossible, and our hearts are supposed to be in our mouths?

Am sorry to say this about my friends but this is childish, this is amateurish.

If these sports writers and editors played for Uganda we’d win the title for the most hopeless team in the whole world.

So what is the problem with Uganda?

This is the most difficult question to attempt. But I think our problem lies partly with the advent of TV football and the near dearth of real football in this country.

Suddenly, we have sports pundits who got their proficiency from watching on TV, a few seasons of the English Premier League, the Champions League, the Spanish League mainly games involving Barcelona and Real Madrid and a few games of other games from leagues in Italy and Germany.

We have experts at football management with their only experience being cheering a European team on TV in a bar.

We have senior sports writers whose aptitude is rewriting stories written by journalists in London and Milan and Paris, stories that are posted freely online.

We have sporting gurus whose sole connection to the game is buying a pirated soccer jersey of a team in Europe and who have memorized the entire squad of Barcelona including the academy players but who cannot tell you the captain of KCCA Football club.

The problem with Uganda, I think, is that we lack experience in football, real football, not TV football.

We lack that knowledge that comes with years of engaging with football clubs every day with games played every week where teams win, lose and draw and make their way up or down the table on a regular basis.

Many Ugandans don’t follow football off their TV screens, the few that do, follow the national team and very few have done this over a generation.

As a result of our lack of involvement in football outside the bar, we don’t know what to do when there is a football match.

Every game involving the national team is a final of sorts. Fans expect the team to win because it’s basically the only game they watch in a stadium and not on TV.

We don’t know how to lose, we don’t know how to draw, and we don’t even know how to win and how to celebrate.

One win and we are the best team in the world and fans make banners that read; ‘Bring on Spain’. One loss and we are the worst team in the whole wide world.

And just like fans, reporters, writers and editors aren’t any better. They too find themselves in the same boat. Trying to inform the public without them having any better knowledge.

We don’t know what makes a great team, a bad team and a modest team.

If we were engaged in football every week, at club level, we would be better reporters, better editors and most importantly, better fans.

As a result of engaging in football only on TV, we don’t even know how to cheer and how to jeer.

We have no footballing culture in Uganda and we have made the grave mistake to think that we can develop our footballing culture from watching TV and reading about clubs in foreign countries.

We think we can watch a few games on TV and read a few reports off the Internet and learn and replicate in Uganda centuries of footballing history like in places like Liverpool.

When we see on TV fans starting a chant we think its beautiful and we think we can do the same here. But we don’t know that there is someone in the stadium who starts the chant and there are those who pick it up and those who sustain it.

We have seen some sections of fans at Namboole attempting the Poznan.

After the World Cup in South Africa, we saw hundreds of fans coming to the stadium with Vuvuzelas but not even using them for the entire game.

And in the newspapers, we see reporters trying to copy the style of writing they see in reports filed by their London colleagues, the same sensationalist and mostly cynical headlines that are minus any context in our setting.

Mission Impossible? After three games with three more games to play? Death trap? When you have two home games coming up? Three points or one win separating the top team and the bottom team? And you say ‘What Next?’ like its all over?

Tell that to a seasoned football fan in a serious footballing country and they will laugh at you because they’ll know you are a novice.

Of course the team has issues to sort out, very many issues and not a lot of time but you cannot say this is the end.

So, it’s okay to copy but much of what we copy from TV, from foreign media is neither applicable nor sustainable here and most importantly its not helpful to our fledgling sport.

It’s better to develop our own football culture but we cannot develop it without developing our own football first and to develop our football means not watching too much TV football and getting more involved with our local clubs.

 
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Posted by on March 26, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

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Fr. Musaala’s Sins Are Not The Faults Of The Entire Holy Catholic Church

21 Mar
LOST SHEPHERD: Fr. Musaala wants Priests to Marry

LOST SHEPHERD: Fr. Musaala wants Priests to Marry

Fr. Anthony Musaala’s missive is not news to anyone, anymore.

As I wrote this he had been suspended from perfoming sacraments in the Catholic Church and it’s my opinion that the suspension was the right thing to do.

Fr. Musaala’s open letter didn’t break any new ground.

I believe it only came to make news simply because the allegations were being retold by a priest, who is famous.

As someone who has lived very close to the Catholic Church, (our village home is less than a mile from the Parish and we are immediate neighbors to the Bishops retirement home. We actually used to pick for our enjoyment, mangoes and grapes from the Bishop’s compound, I learnt to play tennis and basketball with Priests, Brothers and Deacons, I spent two years in a preparatory seminary and many of my closest friends are ex seminarians) I can say I have heard more stories about priests and the Catholic Church than most ordinary people.

Priests and the clergy are mystical people and many people in society can’t help but gossip about them about almost everything they see or hear or fear about them.

But I must add that hearing about stories about people who lead the Church doesn’t make me an expert at all.

What I can say is that what Fr. Musaala wrote in his missive is what I have heard a million times. And frankly speaking, I do not have any idea whether any of the allegations raised by are true or false.

Before going further let me reproduce what my friend and ex seminarian Innocent Nahabwe shared with his pals on facebook.

‘Dear Friends, this is a personal note about something I feel very strongly about-faith. Please bear with me:

I have read with gladness the news that Fr. Musaala has been suspended from active service.

I was angered by his utterances. It pains me as a Catholic and a former seminarian to hear someone trying to make a quick shot at fame by uttering outrageous allegations.

The 2000-year church cannot change traditions now because some horny priest somewhere wants to bonk unhindered. It’s in a church, a communion of willing believers who have faith and belief in a certain way that matters of faith should be handled. If one doesn’t feel the church fits well in their beliefs (he/she) is free to move and join the “advertised churches” and buy their pastor a Hummer or Jeep Cherokee.

Fr. Musaala is a populist preacher who would do well as one of the pastor/ Bishops in Kampala, I am sure. He could marry and bonk whomever he so pleases at will without anyone complaining. It’s his choice to remain in the church. Just as you can’t eat your cake and have it, you can’t be a priest in the Catholic Church and marry.

Sin happens and no one is innocent. So Fr. Musaala and those he says he advocates for will once in a while stray and father a kid or two. These priests are from our community. The same community that has thieves, pedophiles, murderers. So, much as there is scrutiny in the seminary, some hypocrites manage to go through and become priests. They are pretenders that shouldn’t have become priests in the first place.

The same reason, I am not one after spending five years in the seminary.

Does marriage stop men from preying on children under their care? No. We have heard of people with three or four wives who still go ahead and defile minors, sometimes their own kids.

Its not that they have been denied the right to marry! We have heard of ministers who can’t take care of their kids yet they are millionaires. Anglican priests marry but a few bad ones prey on their flock.

Now for Fr. Musaala and those of his ilk, marriage for Catholic priests won’t help much in as far as solving the concerns he is raising. Fr. Musaala, if you are digging, and you get tired, you don’t tell the land to go away, you go away yourself.’

I completely share Nahabwe’s opinion.

MAN OF GOD: Archbishop Lwanga suspended Fr. Musaala

MAN OF GOD: Archbishop Lwanga suspended Fr. Musaala

Now my views:

Do I think priests, sin? Yes. Like Nahabwe ably puts it, priests are not from planet Mars. They come from the same communities that you and I come from. We all commit sin sometimes.

But when we sin, the church gives us the opportunity to confess and be forgiven or be damned.

I could read from Fr. Musaala’s letter a confessional tone. But confessions must be pure and sincere. To me Fr. Musaala’s expose is neither honest nor sincere.

The church has channels and avenues through which priests can raise their grievances, their concerns and have them sorted. The church also has its own ways of punishing its own clergy and hundreds have gotten punished for various transgressions.

The media isn’t one of these channels. Fr. Musaala chose to write an open letter, not a letter to his Bishop or Archbishop. Fr. Musaala wrote to the whole world. Did he expect the world to change what is wrong in his Church?

I believe in openness, but I also believe in institutions. Fr. Musaala was not ordained priest yesterday, he has served in the Church longer than I have been an adult. He went there willingly and no one has forced him to stay.

He knows the channels through which to raise concerns and he knows very well that the media; the internet is not one of them.

I believe Fr. Musaala chose to write and leak his ‘open letter’ because he has something sinister against the Church. It’s his secret. And for this I say he deserves to serve his punishment.

Fr. Musaala wasn’t even truthful in his letter. If he knew what he was writing about, why didn’t he drop any names. Why not say Priest this or this Bishop this is living with a wife and they have kids?

The church doesn’t want priests or any of its clergy washing their linen in public but as a person I have no problem with someone being truthful, honest and sincere.

I believe if someone has genuine concerns about any thing, they are better off expressing themselves than suppressing themselves. If Fr. Musaala was sincere and he wanted action taken, why didn’t he address his letter to any authority?

What Fr. Musaala has achieved is not reopen debate about the centuries old question of celibacy in the Catholic Church. No, Fr. Musala has simply tarnished all the priests in Uganda and beyond.

Fr. Musaala is blind to the goodness of thousands of honest and God-fearing priests doing God’s work across the country.

By writing an anonymous letter alleging grave sins and crimes, Fr. Musaala has, as Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga put it, cast ‘a dark shadow of suspicion’ over all priests’ some of whom he has never met.

It’s very easy to say priest so and so is having sexual relations with this or that woman. But it’s almost impossible to prove it beyond reasonable doubt unless you are the priest or the woman.

It’s easy to allege that this priest has produced a kid but it’s almost impossible to prove minus DNA tests. Many women are not sure who is the father of their kids.

I have heard stories of priests having sex with women, with young girls a thousand times but I have never confirmed any. I also know of priests who have gotten arrested by police for allegedly defiling girls.

Fr. Musaala retelling the old rumours and innuendos without providing any evidence doesn’t make them less of rumours.

Reading Fr. Musaala’s letter gives the impression that all priests are sinful and this simply isn’t true.

Of course there could be priests engaged in criminal activities and if any one knows any of these it’s their duty as citizens to report them not to the Bishop but to the Police.

I believe there could be priests who may have strayed and broken their obligation to celibacy (I don’t know any myself) but priests are men and like a husband can stray, so can a priest.

Those priests who have fallen short of God’s glory have sinned as persons and not on behalf of the whole church.

Now let us assume one priest commits this terrible sin and the woman gets pregnant and delivers a child.

Should the priest be excommunicated from the church because he has done wrong, should the woman also be excommunicated for falling for the priest’s sinful advances or should the kid be killed because he/she is a product of a sin?

Does committing a sin make one less of a priest? Does it diminish one’s ability to do God’s work? I don’t think so. Didn’t Jesus say he was on earth because of sinners?

Does becoming a priest make you less of a man who is completely unattracted to the fairer sex?

And because some have fallen victim to fatal attraction, and because some have fallen victim to Satan’s evil scheme, should the Catholic Church’s doctrines on celibacy be forfeited or scrapped?

Should priests be allowed to get married because, as Fr. Musaala says some of them are living like married men with wives and children?

Is marriage the silver bullet that will stop priests from falling short of what is expected of them?

Do we as society expect too much from these priests and he clergy?

Fr. Musaala, reading from his letter, has lost his belief in the vocation of priesthood and could be living in terrible sin himself. His failure to stay celibate is his own failure as a person and not that of the whole church in which he is a priest.

If Fr. Musaala has lost interest in the church, it’s only fair that he exercises his options which are readily available to him and calls time on his priesthood and goes to live the life he finds more uplifting, not the double life he is living right now.

You can serve God in so many ways; you don’t have to be a priest.

Fr. Musaala has done his part and am sure God is grateful. Let him now confess his sins and move on and stop living a lie.

But let him not, because of the weaknesses in his heart, bring to shame, Gods Holy Church.

Priesthood is a vocation that is undertaken willingly and is never forced on anyone. It is not a prison sentence.

 
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Posted by on March 21, 2013 in Opinion

 

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Uganda Cranes Must Play Liberia With Pride And Without Any Fear

20 Mar
SUPPORT: The Cranes Team That Lined Up Against Zambia In Ndola

SUPPORT: The Cranes Team That Lined Up Against Zambia Last Year

The names have been selected, from the millions of players across the country.

Their task seems simple but it’s daunting.

They will represent Uganda in a game of football away from home against Liberia.

The prize at the end of this campaign is a chance to represent the motherland at the world’s greatest sporting spectacular.

The FIFA World Cup in Brazil next year (2014). It doesn’t get any better than this, does it.

The beauty with sport is that there is always another opportunity.

We missed, by the proverbial whisker, the last bus to AFCON 2013 in South Africa but here is another chance to get on an even bigger bus, to Brazil 2014.

Whoever of the players is finally selected to get on the plane and whoever will be picked to start must do so with dignity and bravery.

These players are some of Uganda’s bravest citizens; they put their bodies on the line to bring footballing glory to the country they call home.

They take Uganda to places many of us have never been before.

There is no guarantee that they will deliver the Holy Grail but there is every chance and as with all sport, we must fight for that chance and believe that we can grab it and make it our own. Of course where there is competition there must be a loser. That is a truism.

The Journey to Brazil2014 started last year. Senegal tops the group and Uganda is second with two points from two games. The team we face, Liberia is bottom of that group that includes Angola. Only group winners advance to the next level.

Pundits say Liberia have nothing to lose, but they are wrong. Liberia might not stand a big chance to top the group but they have everything to play for, they may have lost a game but they have not lost their sense of pride.

And pride in ones country is what comes naturally to every citizen.

Like honor, pride is one gift that no one gives to you and no one can take away from you.

And when the Cranes line up against Liberia on Sunday afternoon in Monrovia, at stake, will be more than the three points the winner gets.

It will be a footballing battle of the bravest and the proudest. Our players must play without any fear in their hearts.

As supporters of the team, as proud Ugandans, our duty is to believe in the boys, in the team and their abilities to lift us to where we want to be as a country and beyond.

It’s a great shame that some in the media have already written off the teams chances, even before the boys get on the plane.

Some called the World Cup campaign ridiculous and a waste of time.

Some have called the players fat, unfit and good for nothing and branded the coach clueless.

It’s a terrible shame that the greatest enemies of the Uganda Cranes team are actually Ugandans not aliens.

Ahmed Hussein, of a sports journalist with Sanyu FM, writing this week in the Red Pepper said: ‘I know my colleagues in the media will try as much as possible to bring out the minor details to bring down the team but for heaven’s sake, why at this time?’

The enemies of Uganda are not only the thieving politicians and the rebels and the criminals who roam the alleyways in the dark.

But Ugandans, supporters of the Cranes, proud as we are, must not dwell on those who preach failure and wish only disaster to the team.

Some facts are undeniable.

The Cranes have put the country where it never used to be and we must be thankful and full of belief that more success is coming Uganda’s way.

The boys have put us in a league just below the cream of teams that rule the African continent; we are just a heartbeat away, and its one hell of a battle to break into the league of teams just above us.

Any team that rests on its laurels will be overtaken. We saw how Cape Verde, demolished Cameroon, stormed into this super league of nations and the wonders they performed at AFCON 2013 in South Africa.

For Uganda to get into this league we must battle. For us to stay where we are, just below the finest on the continent also requires double the hard work.

We are in a world similar to where Alice in Wonderland found her self after falling down the Rabbit’s hole. Where one needs to run twice as fast even to stay in one place: When Alice complains about the tough work the Rabbit tells her: ‘It takes everything you’ve got to keep the clock from turning back…it’s worse to go backwards.’

The Uganda Cranes must now jump higher, run faster, throw farther, train harder, play more difficult teams and win tougher games. And we must believe that we can or this game is not for us.

 
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Posted by on March 20, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

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Uganda And The Deadlines That Mean Absolutely Nothing

01 Mar
People were still lining up to register their SIM cards on deadline day

People were still lining up to register their SIM cards on deadline day at MTN service centre at Lugogo

As expected the Uganda Communications Commission extended the deadline for SIM card registration by 90 extra days.

Mobile phone users will have three extra months to have their lines registered in their names.

Am not surprised by the extension.

I wasn’t born yesterday.

And this lack of backbone by UCC shouldn’t surprise any adult living in Uganda.

It’s the Ugandan way of doing things.

According to UCC about 70% of the SIMs in circulation were registered over the last year.

How they expect to register 30% over 90 days is beyond ambitious. But the pressure was on UCC from the telecoms and they pay the taxes and call the tunes.

So for the next 90 days, crooks, criminals, thugs and complete lazy guys will have the right to use their SIMs to do just about anything they want. Terrorists can stock up their numbers and blow bombs using phones as detonators for the next 90 days.

I first registered my SIM on March 13, 2012 at MTN Lugogo. I have a copy of the form I filled. But when I checked with MTN towards the end of last year, I was told by their system that my SIM wasn’t registered. The clerks must have lost the form.

I then registered at a shop in Mbarara when I was buying some top up airtime. That form was also lost. Then early this year as I was in Mukono town I tried to register and was told they were only working on mobile money.

The workers told me that SIM registration was closed at their shop and that if I wanted to register I would have to go to Lugogo.

It was at Lugogo that I registered for the third and final time.

SIM registration was a simple exercise. If one had the requirements was fast and seamless. Less than 5 minutes.

I had a chat with a guy who has experience registering people for sporting events and he says it’s an exercise that can be achieved countrywide in less than six months.

The telecoms were given a year and they have scored just 70%. There were queues at the start of the exercise but after some months the campaign run out of steam, the clerks were so idle and most telecoms reassigned them to other duties. That’s why MTN Mukono workers sent me to Lugogo. But on deadline day there were lines of Ugandans who had just woken up from a slumber and remembered their lines would be dead the next day.

Uganda is held hostage; by the rich telecoms who call the shots because they pay more tax than me and you; by overpaid fat-cat officials like the guys at UCC who have no backbone and no principles and are pleased to swing with the wind as long as their allowances are in the bank; and by a bunch of lazy clods who can’t seem to get themselves to do anything in time. The kind that were still lining up at Lugogo on deadline day to register their cards after letting 365 days pass them by. It’s these same guys that telecoms use in their adverts lately.

I registered in March last year but some people are yet to register almost a year later

I registered in March last year but some people are yet to register almost a year later

Anyone who wanted to register his or her SIMs got registered. There is no justification for the 90-day extension apart from UCC trying to please the guys who pay their salaries, the telecoms.

Because getting a phone line was so easy and very cheap in Uganda, many people and I know many people, had more than 5 lines, same number on each network. Then there was the office phone and then a couple of data lines.

But unless you are a thug or an extremely patient person or a lady with a handbag, there is no way you can move around with five handsets and not end the day with a stinging headache.

Having several lines is nothing but stressful. Many of my friends would after a few months abandon several lines and stick to about two lines and one data line.

But occasionally they’d call you on one of the lines that you thought they had thrown away.

Am sure a big chunk of the 30% unregistered SIMs have gotten abandoned. People like my brother who at one time had 8 numbers but has since dropped to two.

The only people still totting numerous handsets must be mainly Kampala’s notorious conmen and thugs (bafeere) and of course the court bailiffs who need many numbers to track down guys who don’t want to pay their debts.

With SIM card registration most people I know have decided to stick to a few numbers. The era of buying a number to abuse a girlfriend is over.

There’s no need to have several lines anymore. Sex pests have to find another way to communicate with their lovers and side dishes.

Am almost sure that even after 90 days the percentage of registered lines will not shift much. I have three idle lines in my desk and I will not be registering them. How many people are like me?

But in Uganda nothing works on deadlines. They are a joke meant to be ignored. How many people report to work on time? Even those who try very hard to be at work on time get delayed in traffic. We have so many excuses why we cant deliver on time it’s become part of our culture.

For the SIM cards some people blamed the absence of National ID cards. Some blamed the Local Council officials who charged them money to write for them reference letters. Some claimed to live and work in places so rural it would take them a year to reach the nearest registration center. Some even blamed the weather. Some claimed they hadn’t registered simply because they knew the deadline would be extended.

Uganda is a country of excuses, its pathetic.

We always blame someone else for our failure. And when we are many people blaming something the government officials like those at UCC buy into our blame game and do as we want and life goes on.

The same UCC has extended the deadline for TV digital migration for I don’t know how many more years.

John Nasasira when he was Works minister issued several deadlines against potholes in Kampala. All of the deadlines were missed.

KCCA and its boss too decreed against potholes. Every year Uganda experiences a fuel crisis and the blame is put on the derelict national fuel reserves. Repairs have been on going for years, they never end.

Kenya goes to the polls on Monday and last time, they did there was chaos and Uganda too was in chaos. We are landlocked and when the Kenyans get excited and close the roads and rip up the railway lines we choke and gasp for breath. Last time Kenyans got excited and rioted, our government talked about activating the southern route (via Tanzania) as plan B.

That plan was hatched when Kibaki and Odinga were still feuding and destroying their country before they made peace and formed their coalition government. That government served its term and they are about to elect another and our plan B is yet to be given a trail run.

And already fuel prices are going up and diesel is scarce. The jitters from Kenya and we remember that we never did what we were supposed to do.

Uganda has some of the best laid plans, sadly they never come to pass. How many headlines have been published that start with ‘Government to…’ how much is actually done?

Here are just a few promises that I can remember off head:

Government promised to spray chemicals (like DDT) to kill mosquitos and eliminate malaria?

The government banned polythene bags below 30 microns.

Government promised to have the UPDF repair the railway line.

Government promised to build another bridge over the River Nile at Jinja to relieve the old and decaying bridge inherited from colonialists.

Government promised to finish the northern bypass. It’s 21 kilometers by the way.

They promised to have the Namanve industrial park functional by 2007?

They promised to have speed governors in all PSVs?

They promised to issue national Identity cards?

I can go on and on. But all these projects were actually started on and activated and deadlines set but along the way, interest wanes and political priorities change and the projects get abandoned. Don’t be surprised if the SIM card registration project is extended again before everyone forgets all about it.

 
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Posted by on March 1, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

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Can Africa’s Boozing Middle Class Deliver A Better Future!

19 Feb
BOOZER: Signpost reminds clients not to go home thirsty

BOOZER: Signpost reminds clients not to go home thirsty

I’ve lately developed a running habit.

Every weekend when am in town, with a few friends, we run around Kampala. Mainly through the suburbs of this city of ours.

The other weekend we did 15kms from Kyambogo through Najeera and Kyaliwajala and back to Kyambogo.

This past weekend we did Kyambogo via Ntinda, did a maze around Kololo hill and back to Ntinda and finally back to Kyambogo, 20kms in all.

What I have noted about my detours of Kampala is the proliferation of bars and restaurants and kindergartens.

And of course the roadside Chapati guys and the numerous pancake makers.

There is no better way to appreciate Kampala than to run around its suburbs.

Kampala is largely a slum town. Stinking dirt roads, toilets that look like they are storied and the occasional sparkling mansions and apartment blocks next to huge piles of garbage and a narrow dusty road.

But the most noticeable feature around Kampala are the signposts. We are a city of signposts. Sign makers must be making a killing. And the most distinct signposts advertise ‘Bar and Restaurant’ the swanky ones call add Lounge. The others advertise rest rooms, guesthouses and lodges. The clever ones add ‘clean sheets’ in small fonts at the bottom of the signposts.

I think we have the highest proliferation of pubs, bars and restaurants and lounges and nightclubs and discotheques in the East African region.

And all these sell the same brands of alcohol, Beers and spirits. To be exotic and gain some competitive edge, am told some drinking places now sell Ajon and Kwete and Tonto.

The swankier the place, pricier the cost of the booze. The crowd is largely the same, corporate class the so-called middle class.

Talking about middle class, this week my attention was grabbed by two reports about the middle class of Africa.

And yes Uganda also has a growing middle class, the kind that frequent the social scene which in Kampala means the pubs, bars and restaurants and wedding meetings.

The cutoff point between Africa’s middle class and rank poor is rather small. Anyone who spends between USD 2-20 is classified middle class. That’s anything between Uganda Shillings 5,000 and 50,000. The poor are those who live off less than USD1.5 a day.

Both reports capture the role of the Middle Class in economic development. They more than detail how middle class consumption is key to the health of any thriving economy.

According to Grail Research a firm based in South Africa; ‘In 2012, the Brazilian middle class accounted for 38% of the country’s income and household consumption.’Another report reveals Africa’s middle class citizens as being very optimistic about their futures.

McKinsey Africa Consumer Insights found that 84 percent of Africans believe their economic situation will be better in two years.

There is no doubt where Uganda’s middle class spend most of their money.

And it’s more evident when one goes jogging around the slum that is our city.

In the well to do suburbs, there are loads of Japanese made vehicles parked in vacant plots with fencing and a sign indicating ‘night parking and wash bay’.

Some of Kampala’s motorists leave their vehicles in these night parking facilities and walk to their rented cribs.

The suburbs are also dotted with apartments, shops and lately supermarkets at every corner.

In fact the McKinsey report says that Africa’s middle class spends more on groceries and food than in Brazil, China, India and Russia. To be precise the reports days Africans are projected to 45% of their total spend on apparel, consumer goods and food by 2020. And that already private consumption in Africa is higher than in India or Russia.

There is no doubt the business in Kampala’s suburbs is bars and restaurants followed closely by nurseries, day care centers and kindergartens and lately, gambling shops.

Ugandans are busy boozing, eating and procreating at a very high rate. They are also gambling on sports.

The other day I saw in the newspaper odds for the Canadian football league. I didn’t know they had a league but Ugandans are betting on results in droves.

And the economy must be appreciating from all this consumption and it shows. Despite the economic downturn URA hasn’t been so disappointing as many had feared, thanks to collections from beer companies.

But now the million-dollar question:

Can a middle class that’s doped up on booze, junk food, freelance sex and sports gambling amount to anything serious?

Especially where the writing culture is worse than the reading culture like is the case in Uganda?

Perennial social critic Timothy Kalyegira doesn’t think so. This week he took to twitter to critique these western sponsored reports touting Africa and its rising Middle Class.

Sarcastically he tweeted me: ‘The Africa that drives second-hand cars from Asia, women wear second-hand bras bought on streets in major cities. Next Big Thing!’

‘That is the West for you. They claim North Koreans are starving and then praise as “emerging market” the Africa (is) actually starving.’

Kalyegira has a liking for the controversial but he is not just bluffing especially when you compare the Western Media’s depiction of countries like North Korea and their current love affair with Africa’s ‘resurgence’.

It’s only when you realize that ‘Starving North Korea’ can afford to fire satellites and rockets into orbit and cause artificial earthquakes with their nuclear test, while ‘emerging’ Africans cannot build a hydro dam and need USD1million to construct a tarmac road, that you realize that maybe these reports by Grail and McKinsey are hoodwinking us.

Africa and its emerging middle class take pride in consuming what we don’t produce and produce what we don’t consume. We drink beer and produce babies with reckless abandon, cheer foreign sports teams and go for odd jobs in foreign capitals while Asia’s ‘starving’ class, make rockets, phones and clothe almost the entire world.

I will end with a story I have told here several times before. A couple of years ago an Indian engineer here to do some work was frustrated after failing to find the foundation bolts he needed to finish his job. He asked us to take him to mechanical tools shops in Entebbe, thinking that since the airport is in Entebbe, it must be a bigger town than Kampala where he had combed all the shops for the bolts to no avail.

Exasperated, we ordered for the parts from India, they arrived by DHL in two weeks and the Indian was done with his job in two days. On his way back to the airport, we asked what story would he tell his people back in Asia.

He said he would tell his mates that Ugandans produce only two things, ‘boy and girl’.

Now tell me if he was wrong?

 
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Posted by on February 19, 2013 in Uncategorized

 
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