OH WHAT A TANGLED WEB!

 "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" (Sir Walter Scott, 1808).

White lies, blue lies, colorless ones, harmless lies, prudent lies.... whatever you might say to justify your lying, it is all lies! There is no good lie. Ultimately when men first lie there is a looser in this equation; and that looser is often not the beneficiary of this lie.

Integrity is something that is getting increasingly in short supply in our society today. All aspects of life are full of lies, and often many of them are in the name of God! The world is becoming a pretty dangerous world to the truthful man or woman. A lot of what we see as prosperity is laid on a foundation dug on a bed of lies. People even lie right behind the pulpit, in the name of God too.

Problem with lying is that it is often the beginning of a tangled web that keeps growing around the liar. Sometimes its tentacles reach out even many years after the first lie is told. A liar can never live at ease. They live almost each moment looking over their shoulders lest the lies have caught up with them. I have seen lies at the corporate table in the name of prudent corporate politics, I have seen lies in marriages in the name of protecting the marriage. I have seen lies in business in the name of survival and lies in the church in the name of "touch not the LORD’s anointed.” Politicians lie to us for the votes, and the elected leaders lie to us to survive yet another day. Girl friends lie to boy friends to make a living out of one too many men, and men lie to girlfriends to obtain from them their honor in exchange for shame and nothingness.

Lying does not make anyone’s life any better. It only provides a temporary sense of relief, but like morphine, over time you need an increase of dosage to keep the pain at bay until the morphine is no longer enough and then you need a more advanced pain killer, and then another, and another... The threshold for tolerance is not limitless and will often catch up with you. This makes the world right now a very volatile place for people of truth. And yet the world as it is right now needs more people of truth. The tangled web of lies only gets bigger and nastier the longer you stay in it. The biggest deceit in all this is that you will find peace, treading on the floors of the temple of Lies; the is no peace to those that sacrifice at this alter.

Even the biggest tsunamis begin as small ripples in the middle of the ocean, which continue to feed on the external energy of other forces that eventually make them pickup more speed, water, mass and eventually only dissipate in destruction of years of work and investment. This is what telling a lie will do to you and your years of great work. And by the way, you probably will be the last to see the destruction coming!

Living a life of truth is at first grievous, but ultimately breaks out into joyous liberty. A person that makes truth their culture owes no one any obligation, not even themselves. They are at liberty to take on life as it comes and enjoy every moment of it without attempting to control every coming threat to the light of truth. Truth is such a liberating experience that eventually when you get used to it, living through the temporary pain it sometimes imposes becomes but a small price to pay.

Make up your mind to break the cycle of lies in your life and begin a new page. Pick up that "Get out of jail free" card and wear your freedom and liberty and walk free from the temple of lies, lest you be consumed by the very thing you presume to protect.

UGANDA: MAN IN THE MIRROR...

 Ugandan election Year is here; its been here anyway for a while, but Covid-19 managed to hide it some. 

As a country we have come from far, really far, and yet we still have some pretty good way to go as well before we arrive at the first reasonable station. Our suitors are back once again, telling us sweet nothings (pun intended), and the cycle re-starts again. I hope not this time round!

Ugandans have been famous for wishing things away. What’s been said about wishes is "if all wishes were horses, then beggars would ride!" But are they! It's really time to switch gears to accountable polling. It is time we chose the leaders that will bring about the change we need. Some have pleaded election malpractices, I say that is all because we let it happen. One former president of the republic whilst advising boxers that were about to compete, when they complained of cheating referees, simply gave them one piece of advice “knock them out; just score knockouts and we see how the cheating will happen!” Let all Ugandans of adult suffrage make it a point to go to the polls, this time with their brains in the right place rather than the pockets and let’s watch what will happen.

It has been said as well that we get the leaders we deserve. So, the other day I watched a clip of an Honourable Member of Parliament (not sure if they are honourable after this) being interviewed as to why he sponsored a relatively unpopular bill in Parliament; his response shocked me. In a rather casual and utterly stupid moment he responded something like "you know these things; once I pocketed my price I moved on. My goods are right now for the highest bidder!" Yes indeed, it has been that way for a while; not only for that legislator but for the voting folks in the country too. We are absolutely responsible for putting such Muppets into the house.

It is amazing how much we can do with our apparently "insignificant" votes. This time round we must place them to good use for the sake of value. How do I mean? Assess the candidates for ability to deliver value, assess capabilities and competencies, assess prior performance experience (it does not only have to have been in the political space). Assess their trust worthiness, their integrity, their commitment, their patriotism. We must decide never again to send useless people into any position of responsibility in dear country again. We must decide to become masters of our destiny too. It has been a while, whilst we let our tails wag the dog; story must change now.

A lot can be achieved with the right leaders elected into office for our communities and our country. Part of patriotism is each one of us getting out of our comfort zones and dealing with status quo where it is not delivering. Each one of us must exercise their civic duty of choosing your leaders. We lose our moral right to complain when we sit back as others make our key decisions for us; that CANNOT happen ever again! Have we not suffered enough with non-performance in political offices and public service? Have we not paid enough for that? Have our pockets not bled enough for services paid for using our taxes but never delivered? Aren't we tired of incompetence taking the reigns of society and leading us into temptation and ultimately evil?

We can make a change. In the words of the late Michael Jackson:

" ...I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you want to make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself, and then make a change..."