What Matters

Who meets you at the airport?
Who picks your medicine prescription when you are sick?
Who holds your hand when you are in a funk?
Who cleans after you when you are a pig?
Who can sit with you without talking and ya'll be at peace?
Who understands you in spite of yourself?
Who feeds you when you can't?
Who shelters you when you're homeless?
Who defends you even if your are a dog?
Who cheers you in your moment of brilliance and glory?

The answer, my friend, is in love
And love knows no tribe, no race, no age, no physical or mental handicaps, no sexual orientation, and no status
And so folks,
Let us love one another and be free!
For the yolk of hate, greed, anger and delusion is too burdensome .

Libarilism v Conservatism Undressed

Dr. Besigye, has little sympathy for authority. His forte are Compassion and Fairness which might explain why he first gravitated towards medicine. His rebellion against the NRM authoritarian and predilection to order under one man is a another testimony to his innate makeup. Mr. Museveni, has some trace for Fairness and Compassion but is more about Loyalty, Authority/Order and the Sanctity of conviction.

Researcher, Jonathan Haidt tells us that we are born with these five characteristics, which might also be swayed towards one group or the other by our experiences.

"The first one is harm/care. We're all mammals here, we all have a lot of neural and hormonal programming that makes us really bond with others, care for others, feel compassion for others, especially the weak and vulnerable. It gives us very strong feelings about those who cause harm. This moral foundation underlies about 70 percent of the moral statements I've heard here at TED."

The second foundation is fairness/reciprocity. There's actually ambiguous evidence as to whether you find reciprocity in other animals, but the evidence for people could not be clearer. This Norman Rockwell painting is called "The Golden Rule," and we heard about this from Karen Armstrong, of course, as the foundation of so many religions. That second foundation underlies the other 30 percent of the moral statements I've heard here at TED"

The third foundation is in-group/loyalty. You do find groups in the animal kingdom -- you do find cooperative groups -- but these groups are always either very small or they're all siblings. It's only among humans that you find very large groups of people who are able to cooperate, join together into groups, but in this case, groups that are united to fight other groups. This probably comes from our long history of tribal living, of tribal psychology. And this tribal psychology is so deeply pleasurable that even when we don't have tribes, we go ahead and make them, because it's fun. (Laughter) Sports is to war as pornography is to sex. We get to exercise some ancient, ancient drives."

The fourth foundation is authority/respect. Here you see submissive gestures from two members of very closely related species. But authority in humans is not so closely based on power and brutality, as it is in other primates. It's based on more voluntary deference, and even elements of love, at times."

The fifth foundation is purity/sanctity. This painting is called "The Allegory Of Chastity," but purity's not just about suppressing female sexuality. It's about any kind of ideology, any kind of idea that tells you that you can attain virtue by controlling what you do with your body, by controlling what you put into your body. And while the political right may moralize sex much more, the political left is really doing a lot of it with food. Food is becoming extremely moralized nowadays, and a lot of it is ideas about purity, about what you're willing to touch, or put into your body."

Can there be a resolution? There is need for recognition of where one comes from. That is the start, otherwise we end up tearing one another to the destruction of all.

Does Unity Mean Kissing Someone's Butt?

Abwoye was my childhood friend. He did not ask to be born in his family. Neither did I. We would visit one another's home or meet somewhere in the playground. Sometime we fought each other or ganged up against others. But we always made up and were tight. We were both different. Abwoye was an amiable guy, easy-going with an infectious smile. I was an aggressive and take-no-prisoner little tyke. At the end of the day we each retreated to our parent's house to re-energize. We later went on to different schools and colleges, earned degrees, and worked in various places and professions.

In Uganda we have many different families, tribes or groups. Just as Abwoye and I, no Uganda chose to be born in a family, tribe or group. That family, tribe or group is unique based on its experience and historical journey. Just as with Abwoye and I, we find ourselves having to interact with one another--sometime in play, work or conflict. At the end of the day we go back to the family, tribe or group to re-energize--not out of selfishness, hate or chauvinism but that is the way it is. In time, if we do it well, the family, tribe or group prospers and is strong--so are the others--and there is mutual respect. Overall the nation moves forward and prospers. This is the way it should be. Is it?

Unfortunately that is not the way it is in Uganda. We gain power and lord it over others in fear. The abused, in fear, now want to kiss the butts of the oppressor in the hope of some crumbs from the King's table. Meanwhile others go on rampages of tribal chauvinism of their group's greatness and superiority, all the while throwing Molotov cocktails of invectiveness towards their supposed inferior enemies, who also have nasty choice of words of their own. And the state of the nation that is not mentioned in the State of the Nation address flounders, but survives shakily by what my Christian friends would say, the grace of God.