Last of the green patches

Spending a weekend in Kampala the other day I still marvel at the speed with which sky scrapers pop up all over the place, The even the Hilton is finally showing its ‘head”, but I have to spare a thought for Windsor crescent.

This the little patch of green is found at the junction of Acacia Avenue and Kiira Road at Kisementi. And therein lies the problem, there is now a huge building site that will soon emerge as a petrol station and …………a ‘childrens play park’.

The green cover that kampala used to have is fast disappearing: Bat valley, Lugogo, kitante green belt. The list is endless. We are well on our way to becoming a bonafide concrete jungle, Lagos is not pretty, so why on earth do we want to look like it?

A bleak future?

(copyright Karsten71)
I look at the picture of this child and wonder whether there will be anything for him to inherit when he comes of age. Everytime I open the newspaper the CHOGM scandal burns my eyes, how much worse can it get.

Now half way through the financial year the government has requested parliamet to cut the health, education and agricultural budgets. Good lord in heaven, it does not take rocket science to know that our hosppitals are crumbling, our kids are studying under leaking roofs and agriculture is the back bone of our economy...so why would anyone think it prudent to cut the budget of these vital sectors.

The real kicker in this tale ( or stinger in this tail) is that State House and the Office of the president have asked for their budget to be increased...in the same breath.

Am I missing something????????

Its Official: India.Arie and I

With great embarrasment, I have to admit that until 6 weeks ago I had only known of India.Arie by name. She always generated rave reviews whenever her name was mentioned and I just played along, not daring to admit that i had never really listened to her music.

All that has since changed, many thanks to my good friends back in Joburg. I have her loaded on my Ipod Shuffle and can't play anything else. Its simply that acoustic, unplugged sound,which is coupled with the clearly audible and equally deep meaning lyrics. Add her striking 'african'beauty and you have me cheering from the rafters.
The effect is the same as when I first heard Tracy Chapman sing, way back when I was still in O-level at King's College, Buddo.

She is addictive, she is inspiring and she easily gets you to sing along with her. The sound is dubbed 'acoustic soul' and I love it.

Sing on sister.

What does it mean to be Ugandan?

After a long hiatus from blogging I must ask my fellow citizens: what does it mean to be Ugandan, is there really anything holding us together or are we staring the inevitable in the face, things will fall apart sooner or later. Allan Tacca's article in today's sunday monitor says it all, we simply do not build things to last, we have the incessant need to tear down all our institutions and rebuild all over again, every few decades.

So I ask again, what does it mean to be Ugandan, is there really anything holding us together??

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.