Life

#LifeLessons Advice from an 80 year old man. 

1. Have a firm handshake.

2. Look people in the eye.

3. Sing in the shower.

4. Own a great stereo system.

5. If in a fight, hit first and hit hard.

6. Keep secrets.

7. Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen everyday.

8. Always accept an outstretched hand.

9. Be brave. Even if you're not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference.

10. Whistle.

11. Avoid sarcastic remarks.

12. Choose your life's mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90 per cent of all your happiness or misery.

13. Make it a habit to do nice things for people who will never find out.

14. Lend only those books you never care to see again.

15. Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all that they have.

16. When playing games with children, let them win.

17. Give people a second chance, but not a third.

18. Be romantic.

19. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.

20. Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life-and-death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems.

21. Don't allow the phone to interrupt important moments. It's there for our convenience, not the caller's.

22. Be a good loser.

23. Be a good winner.

24. Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret.

25. When someone hugs you, let them be the first to let go.

26. Be modest. A lot was accomplished before you were born.

27. Keep it simple.

28. Beware of the person who has nothing to lose.

29. Don't burn bridges. You'll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river.

30. Live your life so that your epitaph could read, No Regrets

31. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did.

32. Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.

33. Remember no one makes it alone. Have a grateful heart and be quick to acknowledge those who helped you.

34. Take charge of your attitude. Don't let someone else choose it for you.

35. Visit friends and relatives when they are in hospital; you need only stay a few minutes.

36. Begin each day with some of your favourite music.

37. Once in a while, take the scenic route.

38. Send a lot of Valentine cards. Sign them, 'Someone who thinks you're terrific.'

39. Answer the phone with enthusiasm and energy in your voice.

40. Keep a note pad and pencil on your bed-side table. Million-dollar ideas sometimes strike at 3 a.m.

41. Show respect for everyone who works for a living, regardless of how trivial their job.

42. Send your loved ones flowers. Think of a reason later.

43. Make someone's day by paying the toll for the person in the car behind you.

44. Become someone's hero.

45. Marry only for love.

46. Count your blessings.

47. Compliment the meal when you're a guest in someone's home.

48. Wave at the children on a school bus.

49. Remember that 80 per cent of the success in any job is based on your ability to deal with people.

50. Don't expect life to be fair

Source: Pat Divilly

Happy New You 2016

At times we are not happy with what we have,  while many people in this world are dreaming of having a fraction of what we have....

I live in America where I dream of having everything the whole as to offer while some of my family members in Uganda just wish to board the plane one time and go somewhere to make more than a dollar a day..

I have been a small boy in Ssinda Village and saws planes fly overhead and dreams of flying. 

But now as a traveler on a plane when I see land ibdream of returning home. Life is great and plays tricks on us. Be careful what you wish for 

If wealth is the secret to happiness, then the rich should be dancing on the streets. But only poor kids do that.

If power ensures security, then officials should walk unguarded. But those who live simply, sleep soundly.

If beauty and fame bring ideal relationships, then celebrities should have the best marriages. But those who live simply, walk humbly and love genuinely!

All good will come back to you!!!

Man asks, “Where was God when Myles Munroe, wife and his associates were killed in a crash? He answers, "The same place I

sat when John the Baptist my servant was beheaded. 

When Stephen my servant was stoned to death. When Paul my servant was murdered in Rome. The same place I sat when my only Son was brutally crucified, wounded, bruised and killed. I

have not moved from my position."

I am the same. It is not the means of exit from earth that matters but the

destination. Live simply. It's all about God!!

The Case for Term Limits in Uganda

The succession talk is in fact a clever way for the NRM rank and file to say something that they couldn’t dare do previously — that Museveni is tired, and his time go has come.

A newly elected parliament that has many members who are the age of Museveni’s son, possibly younger, see him as a dinosaur who has lost moral authority by failing to deal with corruption over the years.

His attempt to slap down his party’s rebellious MPs on the oil issue was met by defiance from several of them. A few years ago, when he stared down his party, everyone turned tail and run.

The president has not helped himself by a spate of perplexing utterances. He often refers to the recently discovered oil fields as “my oil.” He slams critics of the increasing cost of food, saying it is a great opportunity for farmers to grow rich.

However, at the same time, he refuses to increase public sector wages of those who would buy the food, so less of it find its way to dinner tables.

One old Ugandan observer noted that the effect of all this is to inflate the cost of patronage. Museveni has stood by Mbabazi. But in a Uganda where the executive has to buy votes in the house, it might cost to restore calm in the party.

My source argues that several of the MPs will only be silenced if their election expenses are reimbursed, perhaps at double the rate.

Museveni will also need to find juicy pork for the army of unemployed or underemployed former party functionaries, to avoid their joining the restless ranks.

Yet it would overly cynical to say that all the clamour is just the sound of ruling party politicians increasing the price of loyalty.

For the president, it is probably like trying to buy health insurance when you are well past 60. Many insurers will refuse to take your money.

However, it also true that the few that do, will charge you exorbitant premiums. In that sense, it is cheaper to die young. If Museveni, who has now been in power for 25 years had been a good businessman, he would have left power at least five years ago. But then he isn’t.

The Case for Term Limits, away forward after M7

REQUIRED GOVT REFORMS:

-----------------------------------------

1) Disband the office of RDC & empower DPCs to do the job. Review the role of DISOs/GISOs to establish why an empowered Special Branch with in the Uganda Police cannot do its work.

2) Disband the office of Presidential Advisor & empower the National Planning Authority to be the nerve center for central government strategic planning

3) Reduce the size of Cabinet from 70 Ministers to 25. Abolish some Ministries such as Teso, Bunyoro, Luwero or Rwentobo, amalgamate some ministries while others into Commissions. Enhance the capacity of technical units such as commissions to deliver results complete with a performance management codes.

4) Review & Audit all government financial management protocols, internal controls & establish the cause of systemic corruption in th public sector with a view of establishing punitive sanctions for offenders.

5) Audit Uganda Revenue Authority internal controls, tax collections & disbursement to the Govt for the past 10 years to establish compliance to eliminate possibility for under declarations of revenue collections due to lack of political independence.

6) Establish a Constitutional review commission & where possible a referendum to ensure constitutional changes meet public expectations especially where parliament might need to be disbanded and sent home.

7) Amalgamate all fragmented districts into single parliamentary constituencies to reduce the size of parliament from 400+ to 120MPs.

8) Review all powers of the Presidency in the Constitution & delegate these to various State institutions to ensure full separation of powers and enhance the over sight functions & accountability with in government and State Instititutions.

9) Conduct a review of the UPDF & UPF to establish strength and formation with a view of increasing efficiency, accountability in procurement processes and identify potential areas of demobilization of redundant personnel.

10) Conduct a forensic audit of the entire civil service, establish strength, identify areas for enhancing efficiency, accountability, retrenchment based on credible criteria with the object of having a small but efficient and accountable civil service.

11) Conduct an HR review of the entire Public Service including State House and office of the President to establish strength, role of personnel, competences and establish areas for retrenchment, streamlining and alignment with government priorities of service delivery.

12) Conduct a review of all the past National Development Plans, review performance, establish cause-effect logic for poor performance with the object of ensuring all government departments and the State are aligned to deliver the NDP.

13) Review Bank of Uganda Management & Operational business processes and audit compliance with relevant regulation. Identify gaps and strengthen laws to maintain independence from political interference.

How the media treats Africans: The Case for Amin Dadda

Picture: BRITISH CONFIDENTIAL REPORT, 1977 (clear transcript below).

Let Truth Be Told: Henry Kyemba Secretly Arranges Smear Campaign Against Amin with the UK Government.

I previously discussed how one Mr. Lawoko’s  book "Dungeons of Nakasero" was a financial scam that he concocted to make money off the late Archbishop Luwum's death. In his book, Lawoko said he was being inhumanely tortured at the State Research Bureau at the time he saw Luwum being brought to the dungeons, yet in reality he was diligently busy at Radio Uganda dispatching journalists. He should have written about intelligence officer Major Moses Okello instead, the true last person to see the priest alive, as he was the person driving the vehicle that the Archbishop died in. There are also no dungeons at the State Research Bureau, it is still a normal office building today.

However the focus here is on Mr. Henry Kyemba. Particularly how he came to write his book “State of Blood”.

Remember that all the awkward and brutal stories about my father, whether in news reports or movies, are based on the two books mentioned above.

What transpires from the confidential report pictured is that Kyemba was frantically trying to cash in on anti-Amin sentiments in the UK.

The secret document shows that Kyemba, who at the time had reportedly stolen $7 million USD government funds that Amin entrusted to him for purchasing medical equipment and medicine for poor Ugandans, had instead fled his tasks, and like Judas Iscariot, he went to the Sunday Times with an offer to sell them a horror story about Amin.

The newspaper had given him a large sum of advance money for this story [even more cash], and proposed to send him to a cottage in the country-side accompanied by a staff member, where they would then write what they called "a fairly long report.”

In their own words, the rejoicing British were expecting the revelations "to produce something of a furore" adding that "the first installment would be published on 5 June.”

However Britain was reluctant to provide security for Mr. Kyemba, and in their typical condescending fashion, they had asked him to arrange his own protection "from one of the commercial security companies” instead.

This is the background on how Henry Kyemba was on "Kyeyo" (person trying to make money overseas by any means necessary).

He simply claimed to have all the inside knowledge about Amin. This pitch made the Britons drool with expectation.

As a good immigrant, Mr. Kyemba knew what the UK government wanted to hear (in this case blood, guts, horror, murder, my own mother's severed limbs...etc) for their anti-Amin smear campaign. And he was therefore ready to make money from it by hook or crook.

So Mr. Henry Kyemba, at least first refund the Ugandan tax payers $7 million USD. I am trying to estimate how many Ugandans you killed by not purchasing the medical equipment and medication as Amin had instructed you to.

(Below is the full transcript)

---------------------------

CONFIDENTIAL

Sir A. Duff

Uganda

1. Just before he left for Chequers this afternoon, the PUS [Personal Under Secretary] had a telephone call from Mr. Frank Giles of the Sunday Times, who said he had with him in his office Mr. Kyemba, who until yesterday had been Minister of Health in Uganda. In that capacity he had gone to Geneva for a WHO meeting, but he had decided to defect, and had come to the Sunday Times with an offer to sell them his story. The newspaper had given him a large sum of money, and proposed to send him to a cottage in the country, accompanied by a member of their staff who would assist him in producing a fairly long report.

2. According to Mr. Giles, Mr Kyemba is in a position to reveal a good deal about the Amin regime; for instance he has said that he knows the true story of how Mrs. Bloch and Archbishop Luwum had died. Not surprisingly Mr Giles expects the revelations to produce something of a furore: the first installment would be published on 5 June.

3. Mr Giles said he wash telling the PUS this with Mr. Kyemba’s agreement, and indeed his express wish. He had indicated that he had already been in touch with the Home Office about his defection, but in what terms Mr Giles was not clear. Mr Kyemba had mentioned that he had a Ugandan bodyguard while he was in Geneva, and that this man had followed him to London, but had been turned back by the Immigration authorities at Heathrow:  Mr Giles seemed to think that this indicated that the Home Office had known before hand of Mr Kyemba’s proposed defection.

4. Mr Giles said that it seemed to him that for the next 2 or 3 weeks at least Mr Kyemba should have Special Branch protection, and he asked he asked whether the PUS thought this could be arranged officially. The PUS said he would think about it; his first reaction was that the newspaper might wish to arrange protection from one of the commercial security companies but he would contact Mr Giles again tomorrow when he had had an opportunity to consider the point.

5. The PUS would be grateful for your advice on what he should say to Mr. Giles about protection, and whether he should comment on the proposed timing of the Sunday Times story.

J. O. Kerr, PS/PUS

1 June 1977

Copied to:

CONFIDENTIAL

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Is the State of African security strong

The recent attack on college students in Kenya and the none stop terror of Islamic terrorist across the continent in particular Nigeria and Somalia have recently left a soar test in many people's mouths across our great African Land.

And many Africans across this great land are beginning to question the matters of security within the borders of thier individual nation.

Across the continent...from Abuja, to Nairobi, Kigali,....and to Kampala Uganda...the State of the African security is questionable and it has been for awhile in many of these places.

It is 1997, June..my older brother Noah and I have just crossed the border of Uganda into Kenya.

We were traveling to the American Embassy in Nairobi.

We would spend the rest of that year in Nairobi at High Point Court....

During our stay in Nairobi..we made endless trips to the American Embassy navigating the busy streets of jam packed Nairobi..

Noah and I left for Houston Texas later that year, in December. The embassy was bombed down by terrorists in 1998.

The attack on the embassy hit us hard. We had just been in building. We had spent hours in and around the embassy that the Marines

There's no such thing as post racial or post tribal eras

It is 7:21 AM central American time and I am making my way through a crowd of high school students heading to my work station with a group of teenagers.

Amazing things happen in these types of settings, one can see the true nature of primates as they relate to their race and or tribal beings.

It is not trivial that all of us relate better to other people who are just like us and this is the true order of things.

Blacks relate better to other blacks and even within our race as blacks we relate better to our tribal beings.

This is better illustrated in a continent like Africa...where for centuries one tribe hates another tribe just for simply being created differently...in Uganda the Bakiga people  may have learned to live around the Basoga people but in the end these tribal beings have core values that they are not willing to trade in just for the  simplicity of getting along.

It could be their way of laungues, their traditional dances and clothing  or other ceremonies...and they are places where one cannot enter unless one plays his part of a said group/tribe/race....there are so many hidden facts that are never told or taught in the mystery of slave trade..the fact that other blacks sold off their racemates ..trabial cheifs would capture and invade different villages back in historical Africa and sale their racemates to the slave masters, not saying it was the most common way but yes, the trade happened in Africa where some chiefs played a part.

Back to 7:21 AM central American time...as I walk through the halls of a large high school heading to the office..evidence is clear that Blacks, Whites, Arabs or Asians mainly gather with each other..it is the same way during lunch, gym, the bus stops or other free time outside of organized instructional time.

States are strict to zoning schools leaving a huge gap to where students can attend...the school system today is the most segregated system in the US ..that and church, some foxs would go as far as  protesting a said group to moving or building closer to their different boundaries calling upon all sorts of reasonings...but at the core, it is usually because of race or one group's economic status.

I was once filling in for a teacher at one elementary school around the corner..teachers in their lounge were talking about the rulings of a meeting that happened previously.

To conclude, they were discussing about the matters of their school's demographics, and the situation that had pissed everyone was the proposed amendment to the school zoning.

What had happened was the school district had suggested to bus in some students from a nearby neighborhood perhaps not so as affluent as the demographics here.

I sat there is both wonder and awe as I heard them discuss the rulings of the meeting..it was a basically "hell no" we don't want those low economic students bussed here...they were talking about their school pride..."our kids are not on free lunch" and other things..their school did not have many ESL students and the idea of bussing in a lot of none native English speakers at the bottom of the economic ladder was not acceptable at this place.

..I ate my cold pizza in silence..I didn't know these people well to jugde them as racist or tribal but I questioned their understanding especially in a public school system deemed as "not separate" but equal.

I went on with my life after lunch...

Funny thing is church is open to all..but at the end of the day black Baptists will feel better attending church with their kins as to say mexicans Catholics would do the same attending mass with their said cohort racial and tribal groups.

I haven't done research on this, but the little church boy in me has taken good observations on this matter..try to attend "the church without walls" in west Houston if you're not black and tell me how comfortable you feel there.

Go to any of these "second baptist" churches around here and tell me how unsegrated they are on a Sunday.

I am for the motion that black lives matter just as much as white lives do...but I am not naive enough to believe that every blackman is my kin or that every whiteman is my enemy. But some are!

I basically believe that we  have just learned to put up with each other ..you can never take these instincts out of people...

Racism and or tribalism is not taught...
it is just the way we were programmed by nature like our cousins...the animals that protect their territory....,

Because we are humans ....we have come  up with rules and laws to let white people sit on the same bus with blacks or drink off the same water fountains and attend the same schools..none of that makes us un racial or un tribal.

I can drink off the same water fountain as you but in the end that hasn't taken away our racial and tribal genetic instincts ...it is what we think in our heads...what we do in our homes and our social groups that explains that better.

I have the best of both worlds sometimes because I have been in the situation where some old white guy didn't want me around his daughter only to fly home to be told by an elder in my family back in Uganda to get married but please "don't bring back a white girl"

I'm friends with many white people and I grow up around them..sometimes I cannot relate to black Americans....just as much as I don't find it easy to relate to Bakiga, Banyankole, Banyoro or Batoroo...mainly because I am a Muganda boy from Kasubi, but we are all Ugandans.

And when it comes to being African, Kenyans and Ugandans..etc are just as different as whites and blacks are..on these basis, I see no functional African Union in my lifetime....

I have met some cool Southafricans, I have met some nasty Nigerians, I have met people of all races..but one thing for me has been that people are both racist and tribal who are evolving to get better with each other.

Take for example all the civil wars that are ongoing in Africa as you read this..they're mainly due to tribalism,,,where one tribe attacks another...no greater example than the recent xenophobia in southern Africa..or the abduction of school girls in Negeria by a religious group....and I conclude by saying perhaps in my own reasoning rereligions are the biggest promoters or both tribal and races issues...more on that later!

I may be wrong but you would have to prove that I am wrong....

Haile Selassie said it best....the king of the only African country that was never colonized stated that ..

"until the philosophy which holds one human race superior and another inferior, is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation, until the color of a man's skin is no more significant than the color of his eyes and until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race, there is war...and until that day, the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursed but never attained."

For God, for my Country and the human race...I am Jeremy Jjemba a Muganda boy of Uganda!

POEMLESS

Remind me the point of writing poems knowing that public opinion is more of a weak tyrant compared with my our private opinions of myself.

Remind that "being happy is not only happiness" ...remind me why I write from the narrowness of my experiences confined to everything I believe.

"While from the twist of the neck nothing but liquids can pass into the stomach"

Remind me that from the twist of my pen..nothing comes through but my made up words...remind me I love to write...

Remind me of the words that wake me up from my sleep so I can write them down into this poem....remind me of how much I read and perhaps I will wake back into normance ....remind me I am a poet and I will write you a love poem.

In respect to egotism

Remind me why I write poems about myself....perhaps if there were others I knew as well...then I wouldn't...

Remind me that I have travelled a good deal and I would say to you..
Yes
Man..is soon placed into soil for compost that is in common everywhere.

Remind me I will die one day like MOTHER did....by a seeming fate commonly called death..remind me that my pen will run dry one day

Remind me that the finest qualities of our human nature is like a bloom of spring flowers..or summer fruits to whom we pick and preserve only in the most delicate way ...but yet we do not treat each other thus tenderly.

Remind me I am guilty of the above too

..remind me that the characteristics of wisdom is not doing anything desperate...that it is never too late to give up our prejudices....

Remind me not to be like the mass of men who live of quiet despreration ...

Remind that what everyone echoes or what they do in silence only passes as true to-day and may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow ...mere smoke of personal opinions...which some trust for a spring cloud that would sprinkle fertility sun on thier faces.

Remind me that what some people say you cannot do...you can turn out and do.....

Remind me I'm poemless on a cold homeless February night...remind me I am poemless on the day I come to die.

#TrueInitiative #youthofafrica #supportjjemba

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Former Ugandan Child Solider "Dominic Ongwen" is a victim of the state

 UGANDA TODAY!

Charles Tolit, a Ugandan human rights lawyer and journalist recently stated that when it comes to the justice for the people in Northern Uganda, "the choices for justice should not be cheap." Meaning that Dominic Ongwen's case should not be used as to settle all the layers of responsibility that occurred in a war that lasted over twenty years in Northern Uganda. 

There are many "Dominic Ongwens" in Uganda. There are lots of adults now who as children; ( 14 yrs. old Dominic was) were abducted, brain-washed, stripped of all understanding of humanity and turned into monsters, as in trained to kill other humans in cold blood by men who wanted power and control of the state at all cost. 

 The core of Uganda sits at a history that makes Uganda more like all the other African countries in Africa. Especially her history of war and child-soilders. I mean until recently...children in Africa always fought in battle, as far as history dates, there has always been child soldiers in (Africa) Uganda.

I am neither the judge nor the author of moral laws and I stand for the motion that Dominic should be tried by his people. Seeing Dominic appear at the Hague is not in line with what the leaders of (Africa) Uganda preach about the Hague. 

In Uganda's History; the only peaceful exchange of Head of State happened in 1960s when the British's Union Jack came down and the Ugandan Flag rose under the African skies to birth of a new nation.

Right from the start; Uganda faced many rebel groups who were all men fighting to gain power of the country's resources and the position as Head of State.

There were many rebel groups I said, all formed to overthrow all the government/s that ruled Uganda at that time, basically from formation all the way to 1986 when a rebel group, not the LRA...but the NRA (National Resistance Army) seized power by the gun and has ruled our nation since then. So if you ask me, Uganda is ruled by former rebels some who came into the country from other African countries like Rwanda.

The President of Uganda and the President of Rwanda were once upon a time rebels fighting the governments of those two countries.

The NRA, a rebel group...rebranded themselves as the NRM (National Resistance Movement) created a sense of democratic and constitution rule that has made them some of the longest ruling rebel group turned into government in the entire world.

They can not tell their history without mentioning how they fought for their peace, almost prompting a series of questions, such as...what else can you do to overthrow the NRA/M without using the same force they used, the power of the gun!

 

"In Africa now days those that came by the gun still rule by it.." 

Although "Dominic Ongwen's group, the Lord's Resistance Army, led by Joseph Konyi is well known for it's contribution to  the Northern Uganda twenty plus year civil war.

For facts, it is not the only rebel group in Uganda to ever wage a civil war against the people of Uganda using child soldiers. And Uganda has found a way to move on from gun to gun...from boy to man...from girl to woman, Uganda has moved on like the waters of her Nile River/s.

It is well document that the NRA/M now in power had similar practices earlier in their coups that led them to power, child-soliders

 in fact were at the front end of the war in the 1980s, some of those former child-soilders have been forgiven by Ugandans their war hurt, and now, for the generation that fought and won, should clearly understand that the losers like "Dominic Ongwens" deserve a chance to all moral arcs of the law. 

"Dominic Ongwen" represents hundreds of former/children in this generation who were taken against their will and were trained to rape and kill their friends, families and neighbors.

I am for the motion that his trail should not serve as the highest order of justice the people of Northern Uganda can have.

 I am for the motion that his trail should be handled carefully because we know that "Dominic Ongwen" has a resume worth noting.

Taken against his will at age 14. He has managed to survive the bush for so long that he gave up himself peaceful.

With his wives and children still on the run. With comrades and other sources. The trail express many things, among these, that former child solders won't be surrendering and coming home, afraid of such treatment. And that my friends, leaves a sour test across the hills and valleys of The Pearl of the African Crown, Uganda.

And finally I cannot defend "Dominic Ongwen's" criminal record because I am not a lawyer. But those representing him should not fail to prove his case as a child the Ugandan state could not protect. Not just him but for the many others  still on the run.

For God!  For my Country!"

I am Jeremy Jjemba

www.trueinitiative.org