{UAH} The-Ambitious-Struggle-Journalists-Identity-keywords=yasin+kakande
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Dubai is the modern epitome of cosmopolitanism. Its 21st century panoply of economic opportunities reinforces the inviting veneer of its cosmopolitanism, which, at least, appears on the surface to be as enlightened as one would expect in a community that thrives on a monumental scale of innovation and enterprise. Dubai's promise of lifelong prosperity and economic justice has attracted many citizens from all over the world – especially from underdeveloped countries such as Uganda. Success comes easily for some but also frustratingly slow for others. Sadly, many also must give up their dreams, as they realize that even in a desert oasis of so much economic promise the quest for tolerance, affirmation, and respect is, indeed, a universally challenging task.
My new autobiography entitled The Ambitious Struggle: An African Journalists journey to hope and Identity in a Land of migrants. represents a long journey and, to be honest, the book changed and morphed as the story developed and time continued to march on during the writing process. Initially, I planned to write the book focusing heavily on the deep presence of racism and discrimination that confounds and complicates the struggles of immigrants who come to Dubai looking for economic security and freedom. However, as the book took shape, I also learned more about myself, recalling my roots in my home country of Uganda and their still evolving impact upon my life as an immigrant who came to Dubai and eventually established an active career as a journalist. Thus, even as I am still a relatively young man, I realized that the whole spectrum of my formative life experiences endowed a unique, genuine sense of cosmopolitanism that prepared me for the successes as well as the disappointments in the process of creating a productive, happy, and healthy life in Dubai. Furthermore, my experiences abroad have reinforced and strengthened the most essential aspects of my identity – family, the Muslim religion, and Ugandan roots, which are extensively chronicled in the book.
The book comprises many stories – all true, all real and all authentic – taken from a span of more than thirty years, covering my earliest memories and including most recent events, such as the death of my mother and the birth of my latest child in 2012. The only changes were in names of some professional colleagues, friends, and social acquaintances – out of respect for privacy and discretion.
The book also includes many anecdotes about my work as a journalist in Dubai. Many readers might be unfamiliar with how the media operate in one of the world's most progressive and economically developed nations. There are many similarities to mainstream media in other parts of the world but there also are some unique elements which emphasize just how precarious, fragile, and delicate the media's professional commitments and ethics are amid the omnipresent shadows of press censorship and the opaque nature of official spokespersons who aggressively protect Dubai's intricately constructed status quo. These tensions are most frequently observed in the day-to-day coverage of crime, business, public meetings and other routine events that constitute the bread-and-butter of local media throughout the world. Some of the most illuminating insights come from stories about immigrants, signaling themes that easily could apply to similar stories in virtually any other part of the world. In summary, the book explores many topics – how the coverage of crime and police matters, public health concerns (e.g., HIV and AIDS), racism and racial profiling, governmental accountability, corporate responsibility in accidents, and other reporting beats proceeds against a backdrop of tensions that pit an enlightened cosmopolitanism against the strict cultural, social, and religious mores closely associated with the region.
Book Basics
The book comprises six sections and epilogue covering my lifetime. The first section discusses my childhood years, while the second chronicles my challenges as an immigrant in Dubai looking to establish a secure career. The third section is focused on my work as a journalist while the fourth and fifth sections explore the implications of Dubai's cosmopolitan emphasis and the racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination many immigrants face. In these two sections, I integrate my observations as a journalist in Dubai and as a young man in Uganda. Likewise, I follow the same approach in the sixth section, which compares the culture and process of governing in Dubai and Uganda. The epilogue returns the narrative to my family roots, as I chronicle my mother's terminal illness. The book runs approximately 92,000 words.
The sections are:
My Roots
The Road Map to Dubai
Reporting from Dubai
The New Society
The Color of My Skin
Kings, Presidents and Rulers
Epilogue
TESTIMONIALS
"Kakande's gripping and very personal account of a life lived between Uganda and Dubai is a must read. Charting a path taken by many before him, he evocatively describes the dramatic transition from East Africa to the skyscraper cities of the United Arab Emirates." --Christopher M. Davidson, author of "After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies"
"Yasin Kakande offers an entertaining read providing insights into how the news media operates in the United Arab Emirates. Kakande, for instance, describes how public relations executives often act as de facto censorship arms for powerful government officials. The journalist pulls back the veil on the difficulties of practicing journalism in an environment where secrets are often preferred to be kept secret." -- Dr. Matt J. Duffy,
Fellow with International Center for Media Education, Georgia State University
"A work straight from the heart of Kakande...recount(ing) his relocation from Uganda to glitzy Dubai where dream merchants thrive to sell dreams that shrink by the day." Rakesh Kombra, Assoc. Ed., The Telegraph, Bangalore, India.
"Behind glossy magazine stories about Dubai the hopes and aspirations of the migrants who have built this city are often forgotten. Yasin Kakande offers a rare first-hand account of their daily lives. With the sharp eye of a reporter he describes their their cultural diversity, their quirks and prejudices, but never without regard for their dignity. Essential reading for Dubai citizens, expatriates, and visitors." --Eckart Woertz, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) and author of "Oil for Food"
"This is an intensely human story about trying to maintain personal integrity in a struggle for survival and success. How can you remain honest in a society that is corrupt? How can you tell the truth when your silence can be so easily secured by dismissal or deportation?...and he writes vividly and powerfully about both. His accounts of the sex industry for example, are as harrowing as they are shameful." Esther Dowling, Business Intelligence Consultant, UK.
Kakande is a good writer. I like the simple writing and the descriptions are so vivid. I felt like transported to where the whole book started. I hope and look forward to reading more of Kakande's great work.
--Omega V. Rakotomalala Senior Monitoring Journalist BBC Monitoring Nairobi.
When reading autobiography it is easy to forget that the life in question might not have turned out as it did. The structure of the narrative implies the teleology of the journey and the inevitability of the arrival at that final destination: success. Not so in the case of Yasin Kakande's The Ambitious Struggle. Throughout the book the odds faced by this young Ugandan journalist hover between grim and insurmountable. The reader follows the protagonist from the frying pan of an African childhood haunted by penury, ignorance and corruption to the fire of a professional life in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), all the while holding little hope of a happy ending. Nevertheless - and true to autobiographical form - our hero wins in the end.
As a man Kakande survives - and then triumphs over - adversity. So too as a writer he avoids the pitfalls of lurid detail and self-pitying or triumphal style. As a consequence the book offers a clear and unrestricted view of what ambition and struggle really mean in the developing world. The snakes and ladders of the hyper-competitive environment of the Ugandan private school system that are vividly depicted here were good preparation for the slings and arrows of life in the UAE, a subject on which Kakande is fascinating.
The Emirates serve as a portal for the world's poorest and most aspirant migrants who come looking not only for wealth but also for stability, social cohesion and security. Much more often than not they meet with exploitation or rejection. If they do manage to secure a toe-hold at the very bottom of these societies then they remain there vulnerable and expendable. As a journalist Kakande has a peculiarly interesting and informative vantage point of both Emirati society and the migrants' precarious position within it, and he writes vividly and powerfully about both. His accounts of the sex industry for example, are as harrowing as they are shameful.
It is fortuitous not for Kakande but for the reader that he had to contend with working as a journalist in the UAE during and after the Arab Spring. Already paranoid dynasties and their intrusive security apparatus felt profoundly threatened by the flood of change that washed away so much of the regional status quo. Selling information and opinion – Kakande's principal wares – became more difficult and dangerous than ever before.
This theme is perhaps the most interesting: the difficulty of telling the truth for a living in a society that is controlled by ruling interests that are entrenched to the point of being unassailable. This is an intensely human story about trying to maintain personal integrity in a struggle for survival and success. How can you remain honest in a society that is corrupt? How can you tell the truth when your silence can be so easily secured by dismissal or deportation? Similarly, perhaps the best passages in the book do not pertain to politics or race but rather to the pillars that have supported Kakande's life and success; the golden threads of faith and family that have run throughout his life thus far : the beauty of the sacred texts of Islam and the strength of his mother..- Esther Dowling, Business Intelligence Consultant, UK.
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