Makerere's greed will be its undoing!

I came across the headline story in the New Vision newspaper to day that just leaves me dumb founded. Apparetnly makerere university is to admit 5,000 more students this academic year.

Well this may not sound too bad until you read on and find out that the annual enrollment of new students will now reach 20,000!!!!!! What on earth is going on???

20 years ago Makerere had a total student population of approximately 7,000. And even then we were feeling the squeeze. But it was just great. everyone knew everyone else, the residential hall was your 'village' and you felt like you belonged to a community. The class sizes were small enough for your lecturer to know if you have been cutting classes.

As recently as recently as 7 years ago a neighbour who was then teaching at the faculty of arts, somplained that every time set his students an assignment or an exam, it meant he would have to mark 300+ scripts. He did eventually admit that he did not mark them at all, instead he looking for key words or if he was really tired he would look at the handwriting and assign marks based on that!!! I doubt he was the only one.

The mad rush by the university top raise cash through increasing the annual intake will eventually push makerere over the cliff. One cannot pretend that quality is seriously in decline across all the faculties. And becuase the university degree is a 'must have' students will put up with anything to get that piece of paper regardless of whether they actually get an education or not. Fake A-level certificates, hired scholars to do your course works or plain simple political influence are many tricks that an over loaded campus has to contend with.

When I heard that Moses Ali was a law student I laughed for days...........Ok, so I am Old Makererean snob. But seriously! I look back at how the university was able to produce quality despite all the adversity during difficult times and now I see them throw it all away in order to raise more cash.

My two cents say: just because 10,00 more people are banging on your door does not mean you have to admit them. The government should build more institutions of higher learning all over the country, that is its responsibility........SIMPLE!

The commision for higher education also needs to get its act together, because the high schools pretending to be universities are on the increase, but that is a story for another day.

Photo for a new year: Only in Uganda

A brand new year brought us a brand new bank robbery attempt/ crime of passion/ whatever. All took place at the Stanchart Bank branch at garden city yesterday. But with it came hope for a humourous year. This security operative provided a true 'Miami Vice' moment, even though it is bordering on the ridiculously bizzare .

I am now taking bets on which branch of the security services this guman works for: my money is on the CMI.

A haunting photo from the past and an ethical debate

This is a picture that has haunted me for a decade. It was taken by a South African photographer called Keith Carter during a famine, in a sudanese refugee camp in 1993.

The story is told that as he watched this child crawl towards the feeding centre a vulture landed and showed great interest in the dying child. The photographer watched the unfolding scene for twenty minutes, having positioned himself in a way that would not disturb the bird, hoping it would spread its wings!

He later claimed that he chased the bird away.

Are we so wretched that a dying african child is not worth protecting. Any one with an ounce of humanity would not sit and watch a vulture liking its lips (or beak). even for a great photo opportunity. Hence the ethical question comes up: should journalists rescue the subjects they are covering or let 'nature' take its course? I doubt journalistic standards are the same when covering Africa.

The incidences that bring this question back all the time include the post election violence in kenya at the beginning of the year and the xenophobic attacks in South Africa ( where 6 photographers gathered around a man who just had been hacked by a mob and lay bleeding to death on the ground).

Here's another angle: if the child in the photo had been white would the picture have ever been published?

Keith Carter recieved the 1994 Pulitzer prize for the photo. However, he was not able to collect it because he committed suicide 3 months after he took the picture.

Conquering the wild waters of the NIle...... and my fears

Last week I finally got to do something I have always wanted to do, that is white water raft the Nile. Another of my life goals conquered.
Over the last 8 years I have tried often to get a group of friends to ‘do’ the Nile with me, but everyone seemed to drop off the list as the date grew closer. So I gave up until this year. The fact that Bujagali dam grows bigger by the day and will one day block off a great section of the rapids played a big part in my ‘do it now’ mentality.

I was picked up by the Adrift rafting company in the middle of Kampala and we passed by a back packers hostel in Mbuya to pick up 3 other people ( an Italian lady and two aussies), business was apparently low and I was informed that only one boat would be doing the distance.

We met up with the rest of the team ( a south African , two Belgians and another Italian) up in Jinja at the Adrift Camp, which was quite a shabby or is it rustic affair? I was the only Ugandan and qualified for a massive discount. One of the aussies wanted to know if she could pass off as a Ugandan and get a discount too……laughter all around. The cost for Ugandans is damn affordable and I would have expected more locals testing the home waters.

The Italian lady gave us quite a bit to think about at the beginning as she hitched herself into a red g-string that had all the workmen gaping. She ignored everyones stares, brave woman.

We hopped into this rubber boat, all eight of us plus our ‘pilot’, a Canadian fellow, who later let it be known that they only hire ‘internationals’ and he was around for only 6 months. There are 4 safety kayaks, each with a guy in it whose brief is to help anyone who falls out and cant get back into the boat. These guys are Ugandan and clearly very skilled at what they do.

Now the thing is white water rafting on the Nile is not one continuous adrenalin rush, in fact it several sets of rapids, interspersed with calm waters that we have to paddle through. The whole trip last approximately 5 hours and 30 km.

Its been raining quite a bit of late and I was weary of spending the day drenched, out in the open, but as luck would have it the African sun was out in force. I basked in it as all the Caucasians poured sun block all over themselves, again and again.

After a couple of drills: practicing how to sit, how to hold on and how to get back into the boat, we set off down the river. And you get to hear the rapids before you actually see them and by then its too late. Thoughts of; “How on earth did I get myself into this?’ do not help. With the pilot shouting instructions we hit the first major rapid big time, tossed around, drenched, dunked, the works….its was amazing. We all cheered when we realised we were still alive and from then on we were more confident, especially since no one fell out of the raft.

The rapids are graded: category 1-6. The higher, the category, the wilder the water. The Nile provides the same volume of water through out the year, unlike the Zambezi and other rivers. And there are numerous category 5s and 6s in there. But our pilot was great and he knew how to guide our raft through rapids. He often asked us if we wanted to take the safe route (won’t get wet) or the wild one ( very likely to fall out of the boat) and each every time we voted to take the wildest route……….the thrill was intoxicating. I did get to fall out once, but being a good swimmer, with a life jacket and the drills we got at the start I did not feel unsafe at all while I was in the water.

‘Big brother’, ‘gunga’, ‘50-50’, the rapids came and went, we were all on a major high. To stare the force of nature in the face and win is something we need to try at some point in life. And indeed the rivers bark is actually a lot worse than its bite.

In the sections where the water was calm we spent time swimming in the river or just chatting away. The river banks are beautiful with spots where I hope build my holiday villa one day……HAAAA!
We got to see kids swimming and the occasional bare breasted woman doing her laundry (‘ just another day in africa’, said our Canadian guide, I had the feeling he would have said a lot more if the I wasn’t there).

The last set of rapids are called the bad place and believe me it deserves that name. The power of the water is so awesome that it is necessary to get out of the river and carry the raft down stream. We did get to raft through the lower half of this rapid and it was the jaw dropping end of the rafting trip which saw us cover 30km.

Will I do it again, absolutely!!!!! Now, anyone for the Ruwenzori’s??????

Can we imagine an 'Obama' in Uganda?

Scenario: A 47 year old man who was born in Kampala, has lived all his life in Uganda, his mother is Ugandan and he holds Ugandan citizenship. His father is Congolese and he uses his father's Congolese surname.

Question: Could this man ever be elected president of Uganda?

How to write about Africa?

A book I once gladly picked up at the book store was the 'Dark Star Safari' by Paul Theroux. I generally love travel stories and this one was brilliant.........that is if you are not an African. It dripped with all the stereotypes and condenscention that only one with a self perceived superiority could generate, especially one who has spent so much time on the continent, that he is admired as an 'old africa hand', an expert of all things inherently native.

This is one book that really got my blood boiling.

I have recently across an essay written by Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, called 'How to write about Africa', and it really got me thinking. I have pasted the link below and I aknowlege the author. I hope it gets us all thinking.

HOW TO WRITE ABOUT AFRICA

The moral of this essay and the books we buy at the bookshop is that we need to write more about ourselves, because if we dont then someone else will do it for us.....with prdictable results. Blogging is a great start.

Is Uganda a failing state?

The Fund for Peace annually produces a survey that depicts the state of national stability around the world. http://www.fundforpeace.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=99&Itemid=140

In its 2008 Failed States Index, Somalia came in at No.1 (no surprises), and Uganda, came in at No.16! And we are in good company: 14. Haiti, 15. North Korea, tied 16th with Ethiopia, 18. Lebanon, 19. Nigeria.

Our Neighbours rank better: Kenya 26, Tanzania 75, Rwanda 42.

How did we sink so far down the food chain? The Fund for Peace calculates the score according to various factors:

Mounting demographic pressures (Score 8.7/10). My take is that with one of the highest growth rates in the world, the youngest populations under the age of 15 years of age, and a political nutcase telling us we cannot develop our economy unless we breed like the rabbits this could be a time bomb ticking as we scramble for natural resources.

Massive Movement of Refugees or Internally Displaced Persons creating Complex Humanitarian Emergencies (Score 9.3/10). No need to think to hard on this one. Hundreds of thousands in the North of Uganda have lived for decades in squalid camps and are still not fully resettled in their homes. They still live in fear of violence, suffer disease and struggle in poverty.

Legacy of Vengeance-Seeking Group Grievance or Group Paranoia (Score 8.3/10). Joseph Kony’s and the LRA have meted out vengeance on the people of Acholi for decades, is there an end in sight?
As for paranoia, we have to look westwards, where milk flows freely……… Only the paranoid and self isolated need those levels of protection.

Chronic and Sustained Human Flight (Score 6.0/10). Much better than before, but it arises from the point above.

Uneven Economic Development along Group Lines (Score 8.5/10). Look who gets all the parastatal jobs, look who gets all the top civil service jobs, look who gets all the state house scholarships, look who gets poorly secured loans from UDB and the Bank of Uganda. Look who gets bailed out when their lack of entrepreneurial skills threatens to crash their businesses.

Sharp and/or Severe Economic Decline (Score 7.6/10). The government quotes GDP growth rates of 5-8% all the time, though this does not seem to trickle down to the villages. With rising oil prices, poor road infrastructure, a power generation deficit, high costs of doing business and falling remittances from the Ugandan diaspora, tough times are certainly ahead.

Criminalization and/or Delegitimization of the State (Score 8.3/10). We have witness the gradual but steady irrelevance of national institutions. When one has a land dispute, a disagreement with a bank, disagree with a magistrates ruling, the normal rules do not apply…..you head straight for state house, or beg on TV for the presidents intervention. The police, the courts etc are mere spectators.

Progressive Deterioration of Public Services (Score 7.9/10). This is not rocket science, look around you.

Suspension or Arbitrary Application of the Rule of Law and Widespread Violation of Human Rights (Score 8.1/10). If you are rich, powerful and well connected it next to impossible to go to jail, even if you steal millions of dollars from people dying of AIDS, or get the NSSF to buy swamp land at a premium price or use your lake side mansion as a landing point for smuggled goods. How ever, if you are a regular Joe, the high court can grant you bail as many times as it wants and you will still get rearrested, in the courts corridors if necessary. You may be kept in a safe house some where, even though they are illegal under the law. You might even get yourself charged with terrorism for trying to defraud a bank with your cheque book simply because your mentor does not get along with you know who.

Security Apparatus Operates as a "State Within a State" (Score 8.1/10). Again this is not rocket science. The security services are above the law and can pretty much do whatever they like with our civil liberties. A member of the public can be arrested by just about 5 or 6 different security outfits, no need for an arrest or a search warrant. He or she can be held in just about any location, for any length of time. One’s phone can be tapped at the stroke of a faceless officials pen. And if you are well connected you can have soldiers guard you, hound you’re your rivals, harass villagers off their land or just carry your suitcases.

Rise of Factionalized Elites (Score 7.8/10). The Global Aids Fund saga and now the NSSF debacle has put paid to the image of the NRM as unified and strong monolith. The scramble for power and the need to grow in stature and wealth has revealed factions amongst the ruling elite. Currently Amama Mbabazi is in the blue corner and Jim Muhwezi is in the red corner. The sycophants are falling in line and the rest of us look on wondering where our next meal will come from.

Intervention of Other States or External Political Actors (Score 7.8). Uganda has regionally perceived to be the proxy for the West (read the US and UK). It requires that Uganda to do the dirty work: be buffer against Arab Sudan, shake up the Congo and get at the minerals, fight terrorists(?). In return the West looks the other way as the issues above grow.