Uganda Perspective

Ugandans Gaga Over Obama

I began receiving excited emails from Ugandans about Barack Obama weeks before Americans went to the polls.  People were engaged, hopeful, energized at even the possibility that a Blackman [sic] could be chosen for the most powerful job on earth.  Now, a week after the election, the gushing about Obama in the East African media with its giddy sense of hope continues unabated. 

Calling Obama's election the "Triumph of Humanity," Jerry Okungu seemed amazed that a blackman [sic] could win the American seat of power.  'For the first time," he wrote, "America proved to the world that their system really works..."  As if America hasn't worked for more than 200 years to become the most powerful nation on earth.  Jerry used Obama's rhetoric and McCain's concession speech as examples of how people of differing opinions can get along - unlike many tribal factions in East Africa.  And he quoted the popular U.S. TV evangelist T.D. Jakes who quipped: "Now I can die, knowing my children will be fine," revealing the smoldering sense of resentment apparently felt and fueled by blacks worldwide.  Echoing this sentiment was Rebekah Heacock on 11/5/08, a white blogger in Kampala whose page simply featured the word "Yes" and a high school photo of B.O.

A New Vision writer likened Obama's eloquence to Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King and lauded America's overcoming its racial divide - interesting because apparently the world sees the U.S. as racially divided.  The writer also lauded the Obama campaign for its "grass roots support" much like Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM).  The lessons of opportunity - that any person could be elected to such an office were voiced over and over.

Within days, we saw hopeful stories about "AIDS funding to be expanded with Obama" - where the George Bush PEPFAR program would be extended and expanded only this time, "without restrictions to ideology (abstinence and being faithful)."  The article reprinted Obama's speech made on World Aids Day 12/1/06.  Author Charles Wendo played up the hope and expectation but did insert all is possible "if the U.S. gets its economy working." 

To all those who are euphoric about our new President-elect, I must advise take a "wait and see" attitude.  This man is not a messiah; he is a Chicago politician.  Half the voters in America did NOT vote for him.  If he enacts all of his economic reforms and social programs, there will be few dollars left to send abroad, maybe some change.  I have lived in Chicago all my life.  I have seen too many good-looking, smooth-talking, big ego politicians of all races promise things they cannot deliver just to occupy the seat of power.  I pray to God Obama is not another one.  

The wisest comments I found were written by Paul Busharizi who said, "As a continent, we need to ask not what Obama can do for us, but what we can do for Obama, so he can help us.  Whether Africa reaps a dividend from Obama’s presidency is really up to us. "
(Hat tip to NewVision/ Rastoon for the graphic.)

The National Motto: “We Are Not Organized"

I need to take a break from The Reality of AIDS for a moment to get something off my chest. Why is it, with Uganda's tremendous oversupply of highly educated people, all those engineers, consultants, architects and scientists – and access to the world’s expertise just for the asking - why can’t they build a road?

Take a look at the photo included here. This is a brand new road in Mbarara that collapsed earlier this month. There is a “bypass” in Kampala that was supposed to be completed for the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting in Uganda a year ago and is not finished yet. A 60-mile road from Kabale to Kisoro, under construction for over a year, a very very expensive and very needed project, has been graded and smoothed but is not yet paved – and is washing away while it waits for macadam. The main roads in Kampala are paved while all others – thousands of miles of them connecting neighborhoods and back streets are dirt, eroded with ruts up to three feet deep.  Dodging potholes, people die on the Kampala-Mbarara Road every week. Here is a typical wreck.

Yet, the President vows major new road projects in the next two years. “It will help our economy,” he says. He’s said it before and he is right. But it’s all for naught if the roads don’t last more than a month.

“We are not organized” could be the nation’s motto. The chaos of society here is part of its charm for visitors, but it wears thin for people who live here. Nothing is maintained – half the solar/wind gizmos attached to light poles to impress CHOGM attendees are broken. The Nile River dam in Jinja that supplies most of the nation’s electricity is not “wukking” due to lack of maintenance so another dam is being built. To a nation desperately trying to build its economy, this one seems to be trying to fly with porous wings.

Traveling the only route from Mbarara to Kamwenge and getting a “road massage” as the car tackled the ruts, I saw a – wonder of wonders – a yellow Caterpillar grader parked alongside the road. I asked the driver why the machine was sitting idle when clearly the road needed grading. He said, “Oh, that is just the government responding to the local council. They want the road fixed.” He shrugged. “The government sends a machine and a man. The man grades just enough to show he has done something. Then he siphons the diesel out of the tank, sells it and spends the rest of his day in the bar. The next day there is no fuel so he cannot continue. What is he to do?”

Well, I thought, while he’s sitting in the bar, he could revise the national anthem to something like, “O, Uganda, We Are Not Organized.” There. I feel much better now.