Thursday, September 18, 2008

The NSSF saga..Keeping the tradition

Its not uncommon to hear the African adage...When you are eating, you are not supposed to talk and indeed when they were eating, there was no talking till Mwenda heard the chewing and swallowing and broke the news that the Monitor later on capitalised upon. True to tradition, Mr. Jamwa and accomplices did not talk till the eating was done.

The Moral of the story: Always keep your mouth either busy eating or talking but not both at a go. The choice is yours.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Corruption: The most established peagant on Uganda's "moral" contest

As records keep being made and broken in the battle of who the smartest corrupt civil servant is, Ugandans ought to look at the lighter side of this corruption pageant. Initially tales of corruption scandals took the ordinary Ugandan with shock, anger and bitterness but thanks to the dynamics of the day, surprise is no more. Ugandans have learnt not just to live with corruption but to envy the gurus of corruption as well. It is not uncommon to find Ugandans labelling corrupt people as “sharp” and those who are unable to outwit the system as “fala”. While all this labelling goes on, civil servants are locked in different races and various leagues trying to out-do eachother. In this contest, the size of the "loot" determines the "glory" at stake. Depending on which championship you win or lose, you will either become a "sharp" guy or a "falla."
What is the moral of this labelling? The optimism that Ugandans had two decades ago, regarding socio-economic progress has been dashed by the inherent inequalities of the system. The bulk of Ugandans are desperately poor, jobless and desperate, while the few are making strides at an alarming pace often bruising the toes of the less fortunate. The end result is an ever widening social divide which has left the underprivileged yearning for opportunities to “eat” as well. The end result....two desperate classes...one desperate to extend their dominance in eating and determining who takes what where and for how long and the other to get to the eating table.
When one visits the numerous bufundas where ordinary folks gather to wash away their stress and vent their frustrations, talk of Jamwa Chandi being a sharp young man and the Amamas tying to eat in order to catch up with their junior colleagues who have out-eaten them in earlier deals predominates. In the eyes of many ordinary Ugandans, corruption is a means to an end...a bus that can surely get one out of the path of the dreaded elephant...poverty. In anycase, not all that is immoral is bad after all, and corruption can be functionally positive in the eyes of many in the pearl of Africa.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Molokony....Uganda's ever trendy delicacy

A woman munches away at a hoof....restaurants that want to survive in bizness should add this delicacy to their menu.
One of the fondest memories of nutrition and my childhood is molokony...cow hooves for that matter. Once upon a time my siblings and i visited an aunt and she presented us with a huge chunk of meat, armed us with knives and welcomed us for lunch. It turns out that this was my inception into eating molokony. Recently i got a nostalgic feeling when i was at Transit Bar...opposite UMA show grounds in Kampala. Patrons and gurus were biting molokony and sipping soup with the traditional sound that characterises a child eating porriedge. Of course, boiled cassava was handy. A colleague of mine affirmed that this was a major attraction to the venue.



However, i also noticed that the misses and mistresses were shunning the cow hooves and opting for "Daudi Muteweta"....roasted swine caracases. In my heart i was like ...Happy are the ignorant for they do not know what they are missing.



Little do these misses and mistresses know that molokony is rich food especially for people suffering from the bone conditions of osteomalacia and osteoporosis and highly recommended for people with gout.


Osteomalacia is a disease occurring mostly in adult women that results from a deficiency in vitamin D or calcium and is characterised by a softening of the bones with accompanying pain and weakness while osteoporosis which literally means “porous bones”, occurs when bones lose an excessive amount of their protein and mineral content, particularly calcium.
In the case of osteoporosis, with time, bone mass and thus bone strength is decreased, resulting into bones becoming fragile and easy to break.


Most cases of osteoporosis occur as an acceleration of the normal aging process- referred to as primary osteoporosis. Thus, the aging group could potentially benefit from the delicacy.



So folks, please let them know about MOLOKONY..the real deal!

Of Kampala's much-sought-after buses

By now Kampalans who have passed by the constitutional square, especially at rush hours, must have noticed the lengthy fat queues awaiting entry into the "pioneer easy bus" buses.......while the taxi conductors jealously look on. It is clear there is a huge demand for these services majorly because of the lower charges in contrast with taxis. This leaves me wondering why more buses are not brought in. Imagine, when i move by these buses from town to Mutungo, i save 500 shillings as opposed to taxis. Am reliably informed that the savings of my folks from Gayaza actually doubles mine courtesy of these orange buses. Am yet to present graphical images of these queues, but for now...this is adequate for letting the powers that be, or their proxies know the urgency of these bus services. May we see more buses in the near future....Amen!

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