Down Memory Lane

(Photo: malcom McCrow)

Any guesses where this is in Kampala?

Books, Books and More Books.

I came across a post on the Ugandan insomniac's page. It was all about books we have on our shelves and yet we are embarassed to say we have not yet read.

So here's my spin on this:

Books that have given me the greates joy!!!!!

1. Tick bite fever
2. No.1 ladies detective agency (series) ( Alexander McCall)
3. Miguel Street (VS Naipaul)
4. Purple Hibiscus (Chimamanda A)
5. The Prince (Machiavelli
6. Shogun (Jame Clavell)
7. Asterix
8. Tintin

Books that I have and have not read (Shame!)

1. Great railway bazaar (Paul theroux)
2. Isles of Oceana (Paul theroux)
3. A bend in the river (VS Naipaul)
4. Art of War

Books that I seriously need to buy ( and hopefully read)

1. A long walk to freedom
2. A house for Mr. Biswas

Books I have been told that if I haven't read then I am semi literate

1. War and Peace ( oh lord!)
2. Heart of Darkness
3. Midnight's children (salman Rushdie)
4. 100 years of solitude (Garcia Marquez)
5. A suitable boy(Vikram Seth)

Books that I cant be bothered to look for

1. Rich dad Poor dad
2. The monk who sold his ferrari

Buying land in Temangalo ( The NSSF way)

Two weeks ago the story broke in the papers of a land deal that the NSSF was involved with that has the public shaking their heads in disbelief. It runs something like this:

1. Minister Amama Mbabazi has 400 acres (or so) of land to sell in Temangalo.
2. He asks the NSSF to buy it off him.
3. The NSSF, in their wisdom, realise its a serious case of conflict of interest, so they 'cleverly' advise Mbabazi to first sell the land to Mr. Amos Nzeyi (well connected business man and owner of the ugandan pepsi franchise) and they would then buy it off him.
4. Mr. Nzeyi, being the entrepreneur, adds another couple acres to the lot and then sells a total of 463 acres to the NSSF
5. Parliament sees red and demands an explanation!
6. Simple arithmetic shows that the land titles add up to a lower acreage than was purchased (414 to be exact).
7. The government valuer was avoided because he has 'frustrated' the NSSF before and so a private valuer was engaged and he put the value at 10 million Ug Shs more than two previous valuers.
8. The NSSF used an external lawyer to facilitate the deal ( they do have a whole legal department), only for it to be discovered that the same lawyer is also the minister Mbabazi's private lawyer!
9. And the bank (NBC) that handled the transaction on behalf of the NSSF has the minister and the chairman of the NSSF as shareholders.

Do we need to be rocket scientists to realise that something is not right! How much more can the public take of these blatant theft and influence peddling, SURELY!!

Or is is this the wake up call we needed, liberalisation of the pension sector!!!

Dare I say I told you so

After a such long lay off, technical reasons, I am back to blogging and am determined to make a better meal of it, now that I have a jet powered laptop and a great internet connection.

So I cannot help but start off with with one of my favourite subjects and that is airlines. especially our beloved Air Uganda. Remeber her, that beautiful plane and all the optimism and hope of a land locked nation resting on her shoulders, everyone praying that she woould take on the big red machine (KQ) and win.

Well despite the deep pockets of the Aga Khan development fund and the management expertise of Meridiana airlines, the cracks have appeared and even grown into fault lines!!!

The 98% on time performance has gone to the dogs, delays lasting hours and even days are not uncommon. And the image has been shattered. Apparently they are down to one plane instead of two, what ever the reason, and what a mess they have left alot of people, including many who recommended to friends that this was the best option to Entebbe.

Air Uganda is so constrained that it has cut its flights from 2 to only one, in the evening.

Well in the real world patriotism can overcome delays, inefficiency and poor options only for a short while. Busy lives and un missable flight connections cannot allow us to patronise Air Uganda for much longer. And KQ is not standing still, they have finally acquired a replacement for the B737 that crashed in cameroon and shoould be back to full strength in a jiffy.

Are we about to watch another brave Ugandan David get devoured by the Big red Machine, I will close my eyes, the thought being to painful and the puch in the pocket too gut wrenching