Hello friends ! Welcome to my world !
I love to play sports, mostly contact sports though its been a while since I did some real playing. I used to play soccer mostly for the fun of it. I have tried my hand at the martial arts as well and I think they are good for good health. I play table tennis and lawn tennis but have not had a good game in a while, a long while as I lost my way somewhere along this "Rat race" ! but like the Terminator "I'll be back !". I love cars, and I once dreamed of being into motor rallying; the dream eluded me ! I love speed, until Caleb my son came along.I also love board games, both Brainy and naughty ones: Chess, Draughts, scrabble, Ludo, snakes and ladders, and others. I love to study leadership. I love to study the bible too (I did not just say read but rather study). I love History (I watch the channel religiously) yet I hated History in School ! what an oxymoron !
Now, this is my first blog and there will be many more to come. I intend to dump my thoughts right here (hopefully you find them profound). My blog will be about life and its goings on, from my perspective though yours will be welcome here on my turf as well, but I must warn you in advance, do not begin anything you will not carry through to the end, and I only mean discussions here this blog.
Today let me share more about my country. I am privileged to live in a beautiful country; Uganda is my home country. This must have been the great garden of Eden mentioned in the bible. Uganda is such a beautiful country that I fail to finds its equal so far. The climate is well tempered ( I once traveled to Accra, Ghana and even a tree shade would not help cool me down !), the people are great, the soils seem to hold whatever you drop into them and thereafter return abundant harvest; the waters are fresh and the fruit is great. A meal in Uganda is not complete if variety of foods is not served. I honestly haven't found tastier food anywhere else. The food is alive even as you eat it.
I have lived to see about 3 different kinds of Uganda in my lifetime; the one of H.E Field Marshall Idi Amin CBE, VSC,etc... (just a tiny, winy bit - I was old enough to understand terror), the one of Dr. Apollo Milton Obote 2 regime as its famously often referred to, and the one of Jjajja Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (He has referred to my sons generation as "Bazzukulu" meaning "Grand Children". All these experiences have taught me many things about life, country and leadership. A bit on this; at an early age I learned to take cover (hit the deck as they say) at the sound of any gun fire. I remember this one time in 1984 as I walked back from school, tired and hungry and observing any thing that cared to present itself; all of a sudden, the quiet and lazy pedestrians had their peace disturbed by a bunch of 10 gun wielding special forces officers as they opened a hail of gunfire only just as I approached where they stood ! Apparently they were "looking" for a renegade colleague; never in life have I ever heard a sound so crude. All I can tell you is that my reflexes and muscle memory kicked in as I dove onto the ground, rolled and found my refuge behind a huge tree, until the gunfire ceased (many more stories on this to come). That was rather common in those days; from that to a place where right now it is actually abnormal to heard the sound of gunfire in Uganda.Surely the guns fell silent.
Ugandan people are creative and love fun, perhaps sometimes a bit too much. Ugandans are an extremely competitive people in a rather subtle way and let me elaborate. We have been told often that Ugandans are found to have a rather lacking and non competitive work ethic that makes us rather disregarded in the white collar world. What amazes me is a place called "Kikuubo" (meaning "Long Corridor" after the topography of street where it all started) in Kampala the capital city. For those that don't know, this is the "Dubai" of East Africa. Traders come from near and far to trade from this place; I have met traders from the DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, etc all this is one place. There is possibly no other place like it in the Great Lakes region. I have been told stories of extremely wealthy men and women (I mean in millions of US Dollars) that run business in this place. Now this baffles me as it seems to portray a different kind of "serious" Ugandan's can have. It is Ugandans that opened the way for the rest of the Africans in South Sudan and Somalia. Kampala, the capital, is one of those places in Africa where the city does not sleep. Ugandans stay awake up to very late (or rather into the wee hours of the morning); they stay awake to party but also to work. I have been to African cities where people are asleep by 9 p.m. Lately Kampala does not sleep as it is not abnormal to catch a traffic jam in Kampala at 11 p.m. You have to live among Ugandans to understand them, else you miss the point.
The level of artisans work in Uganda is advancing so fast that one only needs to introduce a new type of popular furniture before Ugandan's have replicated it. A friend from Malawi once commented to me about the good quality of our furniture at the Ugandan road side "show rooms". Then there is WAKALIGAWOOD the Ugandan version of Hollywood; these guys are not churning out Ugandan movies on every theme. I recall the music scene in the late 1980's; it is a far cry in quality of production from what Ugandan music right now is. Is it not the Ugandans that led the way in many missions to save the world ? I can mention places we all know about: Somalia, Liberia, Sudan, Rwanda, Iraq etc.
In 2011, the Ugandan economy was under severe distress; there was hyper inflation and government had to begin some sort of austerity measures to control the runaway economy. Another country I visited around the same time had similar issues. Uganda right now seems to have recovered despite the fact that the tax burden has not been eased but rather increased. It is interesting however to note that the economy seems to have made a turn around to a great extent, a clear testament to the ingenious hard work of the Ugandan men and women hustlers. These are the true champions of our economy. The other African country still struggles to date with worse issues. Show me any place in the world and I will show you a Ugandan. My people are hustlers.
So I am privileged to be Ugandan. I love my country and its people. I love Uganda !
Happy blogging ! Welcome to my world !
I love to play sports, mostly contact sports though its been a while since I did some real playing. I used to play soccer mostly for the fun of it. I have tried my hand at the martial arts as well and I think they are good for good health. I play table tennis and lawn tennis but have not had a good game in a while, a long while as I lost my way somewhere along this "Rat race" ! but like the Terminator "I'll be back !". I love cars, and I once dreamed of being into motor rallying; the dream eluded me ! I love speed, until Caleb my son came along.I also love board games, both Brainy and naughty ones: Chess, Draughts, scrabble, Ludo, snakes and ladders, and others. I love to study leadership. I love to study the bible too (I did not just say read but rather study). I love History (I watch the channel religiously) yet I hated History in School ! what an oxymoron !
Now, this is my first blog and there will be many more to come. I intend to dump my thoughts right here (hopefully you find them profound). My blog will be about life and its goings on, from my perspective though yours will be welcome here on my turf as well, but I must warn you in advance, do not begin anything you will not carry through to the end, and I only mean discussions here this blog.
Today let me share more about my country. I am privileged to live in a beautiful country; Uganda is my home country. This must have been the great garden of Eden mentioned in the bible. Uganda is such a beautiful country that I fail to finds its equal so far. The climate is well tempered ( I once traveled to Accra, Ghana and even a tree shade would not help cool me down !), the people are great, the soils seem to hold whatever you drop into them and thereafter return abundant harvest; the waters are fresh and the fruit is great. A meal in Uganda is not complete if variety of foods is not served. I honestly haven't found tastier food anywhere else. The food is alive even as you eat it.
I have lived to see about 3 different kinds of Uganda in my lifetime; the one of H.E Field Marshall Idi Amin CBE, VSC,etc... (just a tiny, winy bit - I was old enough to understand terror), the one of Dr. Apollo Milton Obote 2 regime as its famously often referred to, and the one of Jjajja Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (He has referred to my sons generation as "Bazzukulu" meaning "Grand Children". All these experiences have taught me many things about life, country and leadership. A bit on this; at an early age I learned to take cover (hit the deck as they say) at the sound of any gun fire. I remember this one time in 1984 as I walked back from school, tired and hungry and observing any thing that cared to present itself; all of a sudden, the quiet and lazy pedestrians had their peace disturbed by a bunch of 10 gun wielding special forces officers as they opened a hail of gunfire only just as I approached where they stood ! Apparently they were "looking" for a renegade colleague; never in life have I ever heard a sound so crude. All I can tell you is that my reflexes and muscle memory kicked in as I dove onto the ground, rolled and found my refuge behind a huge tree, until the gunfire ceased (many more stories on this to come). That was rather common in those days; from that to a place where right now it is actually abnormal to heard the sound of gunfire in Uganda.Surely the guns fell silent.
Ugandan people are creative and love fun, perhaps sometimes a bit too much. Ugandans are an extremely competitive people in a rather subtle way and let me elaborate. We have been told often that Ugandans are found to have a rather lacking and non competitive work ethic that makes us rather disregarded in the white collar world. What amazes me is a place called "Kikuubo" (meaning "Long Corridor" after the topography of street where it all started) in Kampala the capital city. For those that don't know, this is the "Dubai" of East Africa. Traders come from near and far to trade from this place; I have met traders from the DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, etc all this is one place. There is possibly no other place like it in the Great Lakes region. I have been told stories of extremely wealthy men and women (I mean in millions of US Dollars) that run business in this place. Now this baffles me as it seems to portray a different kind of "serious" Ugandan's can have. It is Ugandans that opened the way for the rest of the Africans in South Sudan and Somalia. Kampala, the capital, is one of those places in Africa where the city does not sleep. Ugandans stay awake up to very late (or rather into the wee hours of the morning); they stay awake to party but also to work. I have been to African cities where people are asleep by 9 p.m. Lately Kampala does not sleep as it is not abnormal to catch a traffic jam in Kampala at 11 p.m. You have to live among Ugandans to understand them, else you miss the point.
The level of artisans work in Uganda is advancing so fast that one only needs to introduce a new type of popular furniture before Ugandan's have replicated it. A friend from Malawi once commented to me about the good quality of our furniture at the Ugandan road side "show rooms". Then there is WAKALIGAWOOD the Ugandan version of Hollywood; these guys are not churning out Ugandan movies on every theme. I recall the music scene in the late 1980's; it is a far cry in quality of production from what Ugandan music right now is. Is it not the Ugandans that led the way in many missions to save the world ? I can mention places we all know about: Somalia, Liberia, Sudan, Rwanda, Iraq etc.
In 2011, the Ugandan economy was under severe distress; there was hyper inflation and government had to begin some sort of austerity measures to control the runaway economy. Another country I visited around the same time had similar issues. Uganda right now seems to have recovered despite the fact that the tax burden has not been eased but rather increased. It is interesting however to note that the economy seems to have made a turn around to a great extent, a clear testament to the ingenious hard work of the Ugandan men and women hustlers. These are the true champions of our economy. The other African country still struggles to date with worse issues. Show me any place in the world and I will show you a Ugandan. My people are hustlers.
So I am privileged to be Ugandan. I love my country and its people. I love Uganda !
Happy blogging ! Welcome to my world !
Awesome!!
ReplyDeleteI need the bazukulu to start reading these articles, so much wisdom in here.
ReplyDelete