EBOLA IS NOT THE WORST THING TO COME OUT OF AFRICA

In the 1980’s or even perhaps before I was born; a young rebel leader once upon a time said, quote, that the problem with Africa was African Leadership that stayed in power for a long time, end quote.

This rebel leader fought his way into power and thirty years later. He’s still head of state in this one African country.

The so-called “Ebola outbreak” is nothing else but yet another symbol of how weak African leadership across the continent is; and how much more African leaders and Africans depend on western support but yet in denial of the fact.

 And in fact without help from the United States and other developed countries Africa will probably be a more failed Union/stated as a whole. Hear me out now!  

If these countries did not help “Our Great Leaders” stay in power, by war or Ebola, many of them would be taken out. I can just see groups and groups of different tribes just murdering each other kinda like what happened in Rwanda/Congo/Sudan/ Northern Uganda and or Liberia and such back in the day.

Let’s not mention, that in most parts, the Health Care Systems are beyond third world standard, next to nothing if anything else.

These are a bunch of “Great Leaders” who cannot control any communicable sickness like “Ebola”.

I was a child in the 1990’s and if you geographically grew up where I grew up around that time. My friend, you wouldn’t need a search engine to remind of the horrors of those days.

For as long as I have been alive, Africa has been ruled by Africans; but I can only name a few great things that have come out of this continent.

For as long as I have been alive; it has been Africans committing “genocides” against each other and blaming it on the west. It had been Africans committing “corruptions” against each other and blaming it on the west. 

You have a search engine that you know how to use pretty well; find out how many mothers die giving birth everyday. Find out how many rebels groups are kidnapping little schoolgirls and turning them into housewives.

Find out how many dictators won’t leave government posts peacefully. They have basically made a personal business out of being in government. Find those things out before you can bitch about how Ebola is the worst thing to come out of Africa, because maybe it is…. maybe it is not.

This generation of African leadership/media has this double standard on aide from western countries. When it is to their convince; it is good and needed and indeed a good and noble thing. This whole “African Union” swindle.

When it is not to their convince it is then the west sticking something up Africa’s mailbox; the outgoing part.

Nothing else can drive this point home than what’s going on lately; where are the plans of the “Africa Union” to stop the communicable infections like Ebola.

Recently a dumbass told me that the purpose of the “African Union” was apparently only to maintain peace and that I had my understanding twisted. To which I said, “really, just to keep peace.” That makes no sense to me, but then again…I don’t know.

But here is what I have seen lately. African Leaders/media houses crying for more help and African Leaders just folding their hands for Obama to send help and trust me; this time they need the help. The same people (leaders and media) that tell us that we should not welcome western ways and that we should not embrace western intervention in Africa cannot run the damn continent without western aide. Double standards or just the African way, I may ask. I don’t know! 

This Ebola, Ebola, Ebola, oh this Ebola, it is a good example of what I am talking about above; it is 2014 and we as a continent don’t have the healthcare infrastructures to control such an infection. Sad thing however is that it is going to kill many more people even with help from our friends from the west this time.

And still, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to come out of Africa, no it wouldn’t. It wouldn’t be worse than all the massive corruptions, all of the political genocides, it wouldn’t be worse than AIDS for sure and it is not going to be the worst last thing to come out of the Motherland. The worst thing to come out of this place, is this generation of leaderships who cannot provide a complex healthcare system for the population.

For God,

For the Motherland,

I am Jeremy Jjemba.  

SOME TIPS FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN DOING BUSINESS IN TOURISM

SOME TIPS FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN DOING BUSINESS IN TOURISM...( In Uganda)

By Amos Wekesa

1- Explore what you want others to explore. Exploring gives you first hand knowledge which is key selling any tourist product. Exploring uganda gave me an opportunity to love my country and that will never change and that has made it easy for me to sell.

2-Tourism requires trust and trust can never be bought,trust is simply earned over time and can be your unique selling point. Don't be in hurry to make money and look good through the wrong means. Tourists pay their money in advance and they trust that you will provide what you promise and remember the money paid to you is very hard earned money. Lots of Ugandans think the people in the western world pick money from trees,far from it, most people have more than 2 jobs and do more than 12 hrs of hard work

3-Never assume that your preferences are your customers preferences. Take time to understand preferences of your customers. Different nationalities have different preferences and understanding them will help you go very far

4-Tourism is all about people be it clients or your human resource. Over 80% of our success depends entirely on how you deal with those around you and one thing I have learnt over yrs is that it takes a lot of trying and failing while creating formidable team. A good company is good because of its human resource and your human resource must be respected, paid on time and the pay must be fair. Never try to be very important for the people that you employ

5-Do every possible to associate with people that have done better than you for mentorship purpose and make sure those people shd be able to trust you and they shd feel that you mean well for them as well something they will be able to tell even without speaking. Show gratitude to them because when people feel appreciated, they do more for you naturally. Don't hate or negatively envy those that have out performed you because that will simply make you not pay attention to that things that make them tick

6-Innovate, do some new things that are exciting rather than copying what you see others do. Mindless copying for short term gain only serves to confuse the potential clients anyway hence failure could be the result.

7-Be passionate about your country and culture because passion is infectious and draws the right people around you. Don't fake it because people are not stupid

8- As others build you, do the same to those that need your mentorship. Great Lakes safaris has and continues to train young people and the results have instead been good to us

9-make deliberate efforts in investing in the people you work with and in assets that support your entreprise continuously

10- Your pricing and information must be as accurate as possible and delight in seeing happy clients at every end of the safari and where you have gone wrong don't defend your wrong doing instead acknowledge and do something about it that will not leave a bad taste in the mind of the client. You never make the first impression, the second time

Amos is a director at Great Lakes Safiris in Uganda 

UGANDAN COURT INVALIDATES NO HOMO LAW

The widely social supported law against homosexuality in Uganda has been deemed null and void by a Ugandan Constitutional Court of five judges citing that the law was passed illegally in a parliamentary session that lacked a QUORUM.

A quorum is…. “the minimum number of members of an assembly or society that must be present at any of its meetings to make the proceedings of that meeting valid.”

December 20^th 2013- Kampala, Uganda, the speaker of parliament and a hand full of MPs proceeded to passing into law a bill that was so childish a first grader would disagree with most of it.

Amidst opposition to the bill due to “lack of quorum” by some member of the government like the Prime Minister of Uganda, John Patrick Mbabazi, the bill was pushed through and it passed and the measure was enacted into law by a signature from the head of state, the fountain of honor, the conquer of the African Empire; His Excellence President Yoweri Museveni on February 24^th this year.

The anti-gay law or the NO HOMO law as I have come to call it provided for jail sentences of up to life in prison for anyone convicted of being GAY!

Key word: convicted: because in Uganda we know that “mu kooti zaffe, ebisinga bi gwa nanguzi.” ( in our courts most rulings end with bribery) 

Homosexuals in Uganda may have some breathing room but should not rejoice so quickly; they are still colonial-era laws in Uganda that could be used against them to criminalize their sexual preferences as against order of nature.

 Another downfall is that although the laws passed without quorum; it is likely to come up for debate again in the August House since the legislation has wide support in most; if not, all of the social makeup of Uganda.

Sad however is the fact that many laws in Uganda pass everyday without a quorum and become law. It is unsure how the court came to such a conclusion knowing that this is one law the country supported widely.

The ruling has helped express two things:  (1) the incompetence of the Ugandan Parliament; a body that can pass a law in such a mafia manner (2) the incompetence of leaders outside of Parliament who are willing to sign illegal bills into law.

For God and MY country,

I am Jeremy Jjemba blogging!

Oh Uganda, May God Uphold Thee..

It is late in 2013and I am flying out of Entebbe, Airport, to Schopol International Airpot to meet up some of my Dutch friends to hangout for a few days in Europe. 

I have flown out Entebbe many times and  in this very occasion I didn't except things to be different. 

I felt as a person would when they go to their local coffee shop where the barista knows how you want your cup. 

However in this day things were different. 

They was extra security from the road leading the airport to the airport ground itself. 

We went through it all and as we approached a group of guards who had dogs by the entrance of the airport, they were rude, they were rude to my family, they verbally harassed us and the scene could have been some what ugly. 

We were called names based in our ethnicnity, one of the guard stated that the Baganda, a tribe that I belong to were  "stupid." 

I went in schock as you would imagine, I was pissed off indeed and but I understood that I had to remain calm. 

I asked around airport security in how I could report the issues. 

I was shown a couple people in charge who wanted nothing to do with my complains but rather directed me to exist the airport and head to Kampala to report the issues at the security offices there. 

I had a plane to catch, I asked for a report I was told they don't issues reports for such cases and I moved on to my trip heartbroken and no longer trusting of the "Ugandan Government"!

I will make this story short, but my Ugandan passport was taken from me that day by goons at the airport who had no reasons to...

Those who have led Uganda for the last 30 years, which is all my lifetime and then some have not accomplished the basic principles of human rights that they themselves went out to pick up arms and overthrew a legitimate government at that time.

There seems to be a class of people who have set out to push their agenda on the rest of us. 

You see this in every level of leadership, 

The majority are ruled by the manority, 

You need to look a certain way to get quick and direct access to government services..

Go to the "internal affairs ministry", a Twemebazze beats a JJemba to get government documents any day. 

The "Uganda Police" is the most corrupt government organ, that and all the other special forces security agencies in place to keep he fountain of honor at bay...

The police, they will arrest you for anything they want, at our houses they have arrested us for being "lawless and Disorderly" and have raped the last shillings from our parents on dumb charges...

The education system is non existent' it is by far the simplest of them all to set up and education system that works, lots can be done, Ugandans work had to educate their children but have gotten nothing out of it. 

Instead of creating jobs in the country, I'm talking information technology jobs, accounting firms, banking, engerning and manufacturers, they are trading our young adults to oppressive regimes in Arab countries to work as maid. And guards at embassies. 

I am not wrong when I say that the government has failed some of us. 

The health care system is in scrambles, most people who seek health care in our country die in that process,,, you can have the money but in a place were everything is third world and the system is broken,,, money talks...

Therefore our sisters and mothers our aunts and wives die while giving birth, and motor cycle accidents are on the rise with no adquate physical therapy care, we are creating a nation of disabled people... 

The NRM is one person  supplying a few people chosen to accompany him on his venture for a life presidency! 

And perhaps only God will save Uganda from a dark path empending history from repeating itself..blood like in Luwero! 

It's true, not everyone can vote in an election but it is also true that those that engage in the process should let their votes count,,, in Africa those who came by the gun, rule by it... Elections don't matter to them...

You have leaders in parliament like the speaker who cannot lead their groups to passing laws that can benefit the Uganda of today.

Everything they do is to their own benefit and is in mockry of the every foundation their took an oath to protect.,,

Rebecca Kadaga has failed to work the her party to pass laws that the majority of Ugandans want.

Ms. Kadaga has failed to pass electoral reforms bringing back president term limits, she has instead took part in oppressing the mass passing laws against public assembly..etc....

But even if she passed these laws, orders from above won't respect them, but at least we would say she tired .,,,

Local government: our local government have the best stuctures and if the systems are allowed to work as disigned Ugandan would with no doubt benefit from the services of local government.

Local governments take in a lot of cash,to issue IDs, they take cash, to issue a letter for any matter, be for eviction or for proof of residency, they charge a few, some Local governments correct fees from vandors, shop owners, home owners etc but all that money usual goes to the government personnel,,,,

Local government from the RDC, DISO, to the GISO, to the local L C have one function and that's to correct fees for small services, they have been reduced to nothing by the central government that they accomplish nothings for the average citizen besides oppressing them... And robbing them.

In Uganda,

In the early days, 

Power came by spears not votes 

In Uganda in the early days,

Power came by the gun  not votes...

In Uganda these days

Those that came by the spears are all dead 

But those that came by the gun still rule by the gun! 

Which makes me wonder...

Is that knowledge or dis creation tot the young ??? 

...we lay our future in thy hand...

  

The Rural Uganda Education Initiative #TRUEINITIATIVE

TRUEINITIATIVE: ( #2) (Essay) 

I am the kind of person who has had to deal with people older, wiser, successful…and way more educated that myself…. my time is Uganda was the same way…. Dealing with mostly people that are way older than me…. Some that probably understood the system better than me ….the only way I could survive such an ordeal was the fact that on October 22 last year I turned 28 years old while I was in Uganda.

So what that means is that this year I will be 29 years old and I will begin to live my last year as a twenty something year old. Now that does not means that the child in me would go away or anything! No, it simply means that I am going to understand more of what I want and what I am capable of accomplishing.

Personally, I am an extrovert, a right brained kind of a fellow…my personality is just that, if I was a dog I would be a Shepard, a German Shepard that is…and being that my brain allows me to look at things more at whole; for example, if I sit at your desk at your job…I am learning so much more about you with what I am seeing than what you are telling me about you…I feel the say way about how people feel about me; I am an open book/person and it is easy for me to share my experiences and being with others.

That being said, I find myself constantly in front of people that do not know me; don’t care for me; or view me negatively sometimes; at times it was because of my long hair…other times it was my American Swagger;

I explained to so many people about my intentions of being founder and president of a TRUEINITIATIVE; I found myself drafting documentations, such as by-laws, work plans, I had to find board members and volunteers. Yes human beings that can work for free. I have had to find donors. Yes human beings that are willing to hand me one-hundred or one-thousand bucks..trusting me to put it to good use…

Being that I will be 30 soon and I have been a teacher most of my twenties, I have learnt how to put up with “the should-of” in my life, I have learnt to put off societal pressures; yes, people ask when I am getting married, I don’t have kids, most people in Uganda can’t understand how an almost thirty year old can be there unmarried and with no kids…nobody, I mean, nobody wants to trust a person like that down here…but two years before I turn thirty I know, I am not going to care too much about what others think about me; and honestly I cannot spend one second of my life on negativity.

I FACED A LOT OF NEGATIVITY while seeking the paperwork of TRUEINITIATIVE; I don’t even know why they call it an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization or a Non-Profit …because A.) you have to get approval from the government to run an NGO, which means the government is giving you authorization to run an organization B.) The fact that a successful NGO has to be ran like a business I have to argue that a non profit is a business that brings in profits for the economy in which it operates and its benefiting populations….

The fact is running a non-profit cost money; and that’s why I choose to call what I do (social entrepreneurship); non-profits have to hire contractors of all sorts, website designer, graphic designers, etcs…some places it is hard to find a legal consultant that would do work pro-bono. Let’s not mention the money spent on fieldwork, paperwork, travel, air and land, hotels, events and such things. I would call that a business, period!

There’s no business venture that has grantee success; and most business success is dependent on its owners and those that run it. Nothing can be firmer than that when it comes to running an NGO.

It is mid November 2013 here in Uganda and it is a rainy season; it rains everywhere; it is 10AM and it has rained on me most of the morning as I made my way to the internal affairs ministry office to register for NGO status, I couple of days ago I had come to the same office and picked a pamphlet that had all the recommendations; I have them all or I thought I did.

A bunch of us are waiting outside in a green tent; people are here for different reasons, from passports to work permits to what have you… 10AM became 11:30AM it became 12:30PM it became 1PM and now it was 2PM…the person I am waiting on is no where to be seen.

After all these hours, I have went from being wet, to feeling hungry to being pissed off, to having my phone calls not answered or being hung up on.. I am holding five folders full of wet paper, I am ready to go back to the village …at about 2:30 PM I got up and walked through the gates of internal affairs ministry.

I took a long walk from Jinja Road without looking back to the old taxi park where I would board a taxi heading back to the village…I could not get over the fact the my time was wasted and I was treated like a second grader in a bathroom line by someone in a position of power, someone way older than me.

That moment I realized that what I had got myself into wasn’t easy and that I wasn’t going to quit because I had invested so much time in this and I had flown about 9000 miles to be treated like crap a few weeks ago. And if it was not me; someone else would be doing this and there is a reason why it is me, because I can handle this … “I have got to keep on moving,” I said to myself! 

@the office

"Oh Uganda, may God uphold thee....we lay our future in thy hand"
National Anthem of Uganda 

The Rural Uganda Education Initiative #TRUEINITIATIVE

TRUEINITIATIVE: ( #1)

So after spending all that time in the field in Uganda. I had lots of time planning, thinking and understand more and more what (A) non-profit(s) in general are and what they are not…. why the failure rate is so high…why do some over promise and fail to deliver.

I was searching and checking myself and rethinking and thinking about the mission and vision of TRUEINTIATIVE

As our title states: we are an educational non-profit initiative operating in rural Uganda. Therefore I spent most of my time learning about education in rural Uganda.

I spent my time volunteering and researching the needs of education in rural Uganda. I was more interested in the community education and community education. .

I spent most of my time in (About three months) Ssinda, Kivuluba Village of Mukono District in Uganda. I basically spent most of my time in Mukono District than anywhere else…

Population on village level is less than five thousands but more than three thousand… this is where I am a local boy…this is where I lived before I took off to America in December of 1997…as for the case of education the village of Ssinda, Kivulba has about six different schools ranging from nursery schools to late high school…the majority of the schools are private and one primary community school.

I spent most of my time teaching and doing other things at Kabimbiri R/C (Roman Catholic) Primary school. It a community public school and it is also where I went to Primary five through seven. (1995 – 1997)  The headmistress of the school was very welcoming knowing that I was running an experiment she was able to offer me as much access as possible to what I was doing. She also offered great advice…

I took a lot of notes, draw up all sorts of project, and went back to my notes again… most rural schools in Uganda that I visited are like this one; the structures: are very old, the windows and doors are no more or not functional, the roofs, well let’s just say that when it rains it pours in some of the classes especially the class that holds grade four students in this school: in this particular class there is not even a cement floor, student spend their whole days walking through dust some are barefoot.

The classrooms have no technology of any sort; there are no computers, no smart boards and well no electricity; just a blackboard and chalk, most blackboards are faded…they are about nine rooms that function as such in this school including and office and a teacher’s workroom…. the school has latrines where the pupils go when nature calls…overall it is a gross places, no running water, most did not wash hands after using sometime I noticed. The headmistress is working on rebuilding the area…she has a project going! 

0ne evening after our reading break 

The school has no kitchen; lunch was usually in open spaces around campus anywhere. The headmistress begun a kitchen construction project to which TRUEINITIATIVE has pledged to donate ten bags of cement; we have so far donated five bags and in May/2014 we will fulfill our pledge.  

So this is the basic explanation of how a community school looks like in Rural Uganda…

Private school had better structures; better staffing, the student population was not local, they are in the education business to make a profit, they are day and boarding, and some receive help from the Ugandan government and other donors.

So in conclusion the need of our services and presence is clearly needed and therefore there is a need for functional Community Based NGO Organizations in Uganda and anywhere else in the world were a need to do good exists. 

So what's the probability of Uganda becoming a Middle-class economy?

About 15 hours ago a popular journalist or a public figure like his profile states asked the question above to his Facebook friends.

It wouldn’t have been blog worthy if the comments on the subject were more supportive of the question asked.

But it became interesting when about three in say five of the hundreds of the people commenting on the question disagreed in some way or another with the friend asking the question.

Or they couldn’t understand why he was asking the question in terms of probability.

Because the commenters had their way on how they understood probability…. the public figure used a story saying if your past lover broken your heart the probability is high they would do it again…

The way money is handled in UG today doesn't promise a
middle class tomorrow
Photo Credit: Google Search!

AND THIS IS WHERE I whole-heartedly disagreed with him…I BELIEVE that the probability also exists that a person who breaks another person’s heart could learn not to do it again…hence the question he asked his friends was incomplete; why…the probability of Uganda’s economy becoming middle class is always there…thus the question should then be when?

Because this public figure should know, that possibility and probability are more of the same thing, while YES it is possible for the economy in Uganda to become middle class; it will probably take a very long time, perhaps not even in his lifetime.