We Love MP Anywar of Kitgum

Sowing the Mustard Revisited

 I  heard that the man wrote a book, called Sowing the Mustard Seed. Having a very low opinion of the man, I have never bothered to read the book.

Considering his Balokole background, it is fair to say that he derived his title from the biblical Mustard Seed story. And one would surmise that he was making reference to his humble peasant-pastoral beginning and starting a guerilla out-fit that culminated into his owning a country.

Here is the biblical quote: Mark 4: 30-32...
“With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

The questions: Who or what is the large tree?  Is the large tree protecting all the birds or only select birds? Has the mustard seed grown into a newfangled thorny bush, judging from the state of affairs in the "kingdom of god"?

The Case for Secession from Uganda

The Church and Power

In the annals of wo/mankind the "church" has always been in cahoots with the powers that be. The great warrior-king/chief of yonder years had his or her retinue of soothsayers, alchemists, medicine wo/men sangomas, sorcerers or witchdoctors. Constantine, in the Edict of Milan and a later edict made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. The Church of England (from which the Church of Uganda is derived) was created by a debauching, licentious King who hanged his wife at the Tower of London.

That the Bishops of the Church of Buganda should be hobnobbing with a despised family is nothing surprising. It seems the Kisozi farm (carved out of a huge tract of Buganda land) has subtly replaced Rwakitura as the venue for deal-making. But that is another story as we will be seeing more and more self-interests trooping to the halo ground.

Next time the bishops come praying, thump your nose from the stinks they carried from Kisozi lest you go into a coma and become a zombie.

 

What Does Mahatma Gandhi Say?

How does Mahatma Gandhi play out in present Uganda where things are in flux and we don't know what the future holds? Yet the dictator wants certainty by assuring his sole candidacy, afraid of the vagaries of the natural law of uncertainty.

Gandhi synthesized the teachings of Buddha, Jesus, Thoreau and Tolstoy. He argued that there are three responses to evil:
1. The lowest and least recommended response is to submit to evil, to surrender and do its bidding in abject docility.
2. The second response is to fight evil with evil, to oppose it violently.
3. The best response to evil is non-violent resistance, to fight against evil without evil tactics.

Gandhi was questioned about the third option: Would the NAZIs or the Boers of his native country of South Africa have cared and  mowed down the population en masse? His response was that the perpetrators would then have realized that they were committing atrocities sooner than what ensued with WWII and the loss of lives with Apartheid. --Adopted from Robert Thurman on Mahatma Gandhi.

Will Cuts in Aid Bring about Fiscal Discipline?

It is said that foreign aid helps prop dictators. The donors plug the gaping sores that are affronts to the conscience of humanity. The sores having been given band aid by do-gooders, the rulers become profligate and go on spending binges. In our case, the president builds himself a palace, complete with a whooping budget. He can change his plane every so often to keep up with the Joneses. Not bad for a son of a peasant. You have come a long way, dude. Since he is a militarist, that means the military budget goes through the roof. That is also how we can have gigantic numbers of MPs, ministers, presidential advisors, districts, and RDCs. And as if the brown envelops were not enough, we can now have "gifts" in sacks.

The question is: will the "development partners," a less humiliating euphemism for donors, have the guts to cut their largesse because of the anti-gay law? I hope so. If they did, would our rulers come to some sense and chop the bloated government? Fat chance. They will not. These are hard men, full of themselves, and are not going to sacrifice privilege for the minions under them. They will probably print money which may lead to massive inflation, let alone high interest rates for borrowings. If the minions--the people--will have had enough pain, then, hopefully, something will trigger a revolution for change. It won't be pretty.