The Museveni Tax on International Calls (MTIC)

The Minister of Finance, Ms Kiwanuka's 2013/14 budget proposal included a ding on telephone international calls terminating in the Republic of Uganda. It was dubbed as taxing "foreigners." I would bet that ninety percent of those calls are from Ugandans living abroad. So now, not only is  the diaspora increasing the economic activities in the country by its remittances, it is going to be taxed to fund a corrupt regime. And check this out; there is a proposal to float some diaspora bond to help finance the said government. All the while a legislation for dual citizenship lies idle on Mr. Museveni's desk and there is no facilitation for diaspora voter participation. 

Here is Telcom 101 on voice calls. When you call a wireless or a land line in Uganda, that call is directed to the receiver via a local carrier which charges a fee which is passed on to you by the carrier of origination. The Museveni government saw easy money here. It will add a tax to the termination fee and the local carrier will just write a check to Caesar. What a racket! Now, you will be paying more for your calls, and you thought digitization was going to lower your rates.

In the tax activists' world, taxation without representation is a farce. The rationale being that if you can't vote, you have no voice in influencing what goes on. Mr. Museveni can impose his greedy hands into your pocket and take away what you have so that he can ride his jets, throw sacks of money in bribery left and right, and, if you dare come to Kampala and demonstrate, you will be whipped by his policemen.

The Project

To Northerners the sight of General Tinyefuza brings the heebie jeebies. Some touch their noses as if to ward off a foul bad breath or body odor. Some have attacks of cold sweats—a post-traumatic syndrome which recalls when the man locked the North into the dark ages and when perceived leaders were made to frog-walk, subjected to kangaroo court-whims and put in jail.

So now, when the general made another stir and the power-that-be has yet to make a public response other than harass letter-carriers, what are we to make of it?

Our experience is that to understand President Museveni, the main subject of the General’s allegation, you have to look at his actions, not his bombastic utterances.

In diagnosing political intentions, just as in diagnosing the weather, economic trends or even medical conditions, one has to consider the past and present leading indicators. The past trend with Museveni has been about amassing personal powers. When it suits him, he has no respect for the law. There is no difference between him and the man who once said: L'État, c'est moi! (The State is me).

With regard to his son, the boy has had the best military training our taxes could buy. He has been promoted rapidly and now controls an elite military unit which protects the father and oil fields.

So, some of us in the North, while fidgeting with our noses and/or shivering in cold sweats and swallowing hard, have a nagging feeling that the mustachioed general might have stumbled on some truth.

There are some questions: How will the hand-over from father to son going to be effected? Might all these talks not discourage the project, or will it make the man more determined? There are dark clouds in the horizon.

To Thine Own Self be True

Polonius to his son Laertes:

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!---Shakespeare

The context of the above quote might have been about Shakeperean Polonius' advice on self-preservation, but let us take it in the New-Age context of being honest with one's true nature. It is said that a large part of who we are is controlled by the mind: we are what we think. In that light,  Mr. Eriya Kategeya, from my readings, grew up believing in justice and all that go with it. It is not far-fetched to surmise that his true self was about justice. Unlike some of us who reflect on such matters and may be write about it in the comfy of our chair and electronic gadgets, the man got involved with some shrewed characters who would take over control of the country by force of arms. Unfortunately for him, these shrewed operators, exemplified by oft-stated boyhood friend, Mr. Museveni, would betray his raison d'être. Mr. Museveni ochestrated a cynical change of the constitution to eliminate presidential term limits, which, effectively, given state resources, agrarian gullible population and the gun, would give him life presidency. Mr. Kategeya made a tentative protest, but he was of lesser fortitude and soon made a pack with the devil. Unceremonously thrown out of government, he was soon reeled back by the supposed childhood friend who is made of a different fiber.

Now, at 67, Mr. Eriya Kategeya is dead of an apparent blood clot. 67 is a relatively young age for most people of previlege with creature comforts and access to good medical care. Again, we go back to the mind. If we subscribe to the notion that the brain, in concert with the mind, controls our essence and functions, it follows that when we do things that conflict with what is hard-wired by long-held beliefs or genetic make up, we create upheavals in our body systems. We may never know, but Mr. Kategeya was already dead the minute he went back to work for his self-obsessed boyhood friend. One can only imagine that he agonized about his decision and all the police brutalities and the blatant manifestations of the very evil that he stood up against. Worse still, he found himself trapped, serving Mammon.Who would not get high blood pressure, stomach ulcers,strokes and blood clots?

  

The Rwakitura Mumbo Jumbo

This is the scene: The Big Man is seated on a nicely upholstered chair placed on an equally nice red carpet on the grounds of his private home. In front of him is what goes for Uganda media, members of whom are seated on plastic chairs placed on dirt. <Newvision>  That alone says volumes about what the man thinks of himself relative to other Ugandans.

Every so often Ugandans take trips to the country home of the Supremo of the nation. Of course, the expenses for such trips contribute to developments towards first-world economy. Of course, there is increased productivity as people travel from, usually, Kampala to the western enclave of civilization and progress.

Sure, once in a while a leader is taking a vacation at his private residence and he may interact with the media or conduct some official duty. But Mr. Museveni has taken this Rwakitura business too far. It says of how much he has personalize his presidency. Right now there is no difference between his home and the state houses. The whole arrangement is a farce, a waste of taxpayer money and time. It is a form of corruption when taxpayer resources are used to satisfy his personal convenience.

Now Cameron May Understand

Cameron: I don't want a country called Europe

news.yahoo.com

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has slammed any moves to forge a United States of Europe.Cameron, who has shaken up Europe's political landscape by offering to let citizens vote on whether to leave ...

Cameron: I don't want a country called Europe
May be now he can appreciate the anguish, frustrations and difficulties of cobbling a country out of disparate groups as in Uganda--a legacy of his country.

The Quislings Are Coming! The Quislings Are Coming!

In Museveni's world-view of convenience and make-belief, the problems of the Acoli begins and ends with Joseph Kony, the LRA Supremo. He has pumped this line of farce into people's heads such that even the ones that should know better in the region parody the same song and dance. Why is that? 

First, in the region there are the spaced out ignoramous who possibly dont't know why they are even on this earth. They just exist and take anything that comes--thanks to the break-up of whatever semblance of pre-1980s social structures. These are the ones who probably cast their Museveni/NRM votes in the belief that Museveni saved them from Kony and heralded peace. 

Then there are the mentally defeated who were exhausted from the chaos that prevailed and a respite was welcome. Any meme could be slid into their consciousness which the NRM/Museveni obliged with an occupation army and well ochestrated propaganda techniques.

Events that Portend Conspiracism*

A young woman with a promise of becoming a very effective legislator suddenly dies under murky circumstances. Then the state actors, in what might have been age-old turf wars and ego trips, orchestrate a cavalier blocking of a parallel forensic investigations by other interested parties.

Ms Cerinah Nebanda, MP for Butaleja District died suddenly last Friday in the prime of her life.( MP Cerinah Nebanda is Dead). This is a big deal, and an event of great national import of historical proportion. The country's history is littered with sudden deaths of who-is-who of remarkable Ugandans. The circumstances and the causes of many of such deaths have been kept hush-hush from the public. And there have been whispers, and to nip any doubts seemed to have been the primary motivation for the parallel forensic tests.

By now this government should have wised up. When the government tap dances and threatens jail time for any speculative talks, it is making it worse for itself. It begs the question, and legitimately so: what is it hiding? Times are achanging, and such an event, if not handled well, could conspire with other events to trigger chain reactions. 

*Conspiracism is a word coined by Loren Collins in Bullspotting, Finding Facts in the Age of Misinformation. 
It implies the tendency for conspiracy theories.