{UAH} VILLAGE LIFE IS NOT BACKWARDNESS
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11:27 AM |
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VILLAGE LIFE IS NOT BACKWARDNESS:
'Living in villages is backwardness,says Museveni': That was the Daily Monitor headline on Friday, October 3 2014. I think Museveni came up with a such a statement in order to be insolent and provocative. As it is a factual story, rather than a fabricated trolling, I'm happy to bite, and i think this assertion is false to fact. He probably thinks that having lung cancer causes one to smoke, too.
Yes, It is undeniable that villages(rural life) are seen in the wider world as backward and benighted.The only question is whether or not the image fits the reality. I believe it doesn't, and this story is a big part of why.
Uganda's population is predominantly rural and it has been for the last 28 years Museveni has been in power.I've been there. I partly grew up in a village called Kisega near Kangulumira (Bugerere), and i can tell you right now: I hold the best memories of my life in that village. I saw community spirit, genuine friendship among both the young and elders; almost everybody knew everybody;fruits for everyone;...........and I loved it.For all their problems, those villages represent civilization and advancement, and people with advanced degrees and enlightened outlooks continue to move to them and build houses there. May be things have changed now and that is why Museveni is calling all that backwardness?
Look, I have been in a few places around Kampala and Jinja. Oh boy, there is a lot of ignorance and backwardness, injustice and intolerance and now morbid obesity(with KFC opening up in Bugolobi and charging people shs.100,000 for 3 pieces of chicken and chips). Everyone is talking about 'deals' there as if they have got business plans for these deals. Everyone wants to work at Statehouse because that is where the money is, but they don't tell you where it comes from.
The truth is that Uganda has no sustainable Human Resource Development Program. UPE and USE have been mismanaged, and this is reflected with the graduates coming out of our universities. The government is doing very little to turn these graduates into a community of creative people. Everyone is either looking to do more qualifications, going for 'kyeyo', or getting married ASAP to a rich man if you are a lady.
Point is, I lived in fairly deep and dark Kisega for a few years and I don't understand what the "backwardness of rural life" means. My grandfather used to spend more time in the village than in Kampala because he reckoned he was earning more there, till when some people made an attempt on his life. Yes, village life has got its own problems such as: dating unperfumed women; illequiped hospitals; less police protection; lack of any modern facilities - shops, banks, libraries, and leisure facilities for the young; but I would do anything to live like there in peace and quiet.
The idea of being up to my knees in mud and muck, rising early and going to bed before midnight,eating organic foods; owning a farm with a lot of animals; nice house; 5 acres of land for crops; and car in the village, contributing to a small community that appreciates you, e.t.c is my idea of a rural utopia when i get older, and I wouldn't ask for more when. After all, we are all struggling for money(small and big) just to simply live.If someone decides to collect maize and trade them in his village, didn't they just grow that village economy by the value of the picked maize? The labor is creation of wealth since they then traded the maize for a pair of shoes that were also labor and all that labor increased the size of village economy.
Whether we like it or not, we have to accept that there are fundamental changes now taking place in the countryside, however much some of us may lament the countryman. What the government should aim to do is to bring in more facilities in rural areas, encouraging shops, post offices, better transport services, and small industries. This is the only way we can make up for the decline in agricultural employment.This is what the debate has to be about.
Incidentally, I was reading something on Sarah Kagingo's wall recently of a farmer who has started up a banana processing plant in western Uganda, and i think this is good for us as long as long such plants are spread around the country.Perhaps the recession in farming is not so bad, after all. Don't tell me:this is an exception, and we cannot generalize. I don't think we should deny village residents the choice of a wider range of products.
What it seems is happening is that these our president doesn't understand a free market economy and he's thinking in terms of ' Europeans are lenient they can't tell you that'. He briefly taught economics while in exile in Moshi but he has a very simplistic view of economics and a one track mind that can't follow how economic growth happens.So he is in a dilemma when it comes to explaining how an economy really works and wealth accumulation and a gap in wealth is created.
Nze bwendaba banange!
--
-- 'Living in villages is backwardness,says Museveni': That was the Daily Monitor headline on Friday, October 3 2014. I think Museveni came up with a such a statement in order to be insolent and provocative. As it is a factual story, rather than a fabricated trolling, I'm happy to bite, and i think this assertion is false to fact. He probably thinks that having lung cancer causes one to smoke, too.
Yes, It is undeniable that villages(rural life) are seen in the wider world as backward and benighted.The only question is whether or not the image fits the reality. I believe it doesn't, and this story is a big part of why.
Uganda's population is predominantly rural and it has been for the last 28 years Museveni has been in power.I've been there. I partly grew up in a village called Kisega near Kangulumira (Bugerere), and i can tell you right now: I hold the best memories of my life in that village. I saw community spirit, genuine friendship among both the young and elders; almost everybody knew everybody;fruits for everyone;...........and I loved it.For all their problems, those villages represent civilization and advancement, and people with advanced degrees and enlightened outlooks continue to move to them and build houses there. May be things have changed now and that is why Museveni is calling all that backwardness?
Look, I have been in a few places around Kampala and Jinja. Oh boy, there is a lot of ignorance and backwardness, injustice and intolerance and now morbid obesity(with KFC opening up in Bugolobi and charging people shs.100,000 for 3 pieces of chicken and chips). Everyone is talking about 'deals' there as if they have got business plans for these deals. Everyone wants to work at Statehouse because that is where the money is, but they don't tell you where it comes from.
The truth is that Uganda has no sustainable Human Resource Development Program. UPE and USE have been mismanaged, and this is reflected with the graduates coming out of our universities. The government is doing very little to turn these graduates into a community of creative people. Everyone is either looking to do more qualifications, going for 'kyeyo', or getting married ASAP to a rich man if you are a lady.
Point is, I lived in fairly deep and dark Kisega for a few years and I don't understand what the "backwardness of rural life" means. My grandfather used to spend more time in the village than in Kampala because he reckoned he was earning more there, till when some people made an attempt on his life. Yes, village life has got its own problems such as: dating unperfumed women; illequiped hospitals; less police protection; lack of any modern facilities - shops, banks, libraries, and leisure facilities for the young; but I would do anything to live like there in peace and quiet.
The idea of being up to my knees in mud and muck, rising early and going to bed before midnight,eating organic foods; owning a farm with a lot of animals; nice house; 5 acres of land for crops; and car in the village, contributing to a small community that appreciates you, e.t.c is my idea of a rural utopia when i get older, and I wouldn't ask for more when. After all, we are all struggling for money(small and big) just to simply live.If someone decides to collect maize and trade them in his village, didn't they just grow that village economy by the value of the picked maize? The labor is creation of wealth since they then traded the maize for a pair of shoes that were also labor and all that labor increased the size of village economy.
Whether we like it or not, we have to accept that there are fundamental changes now taking place in the countryside, however much some of us may lament the countryman. What the government should aim to do is to bring in more facilities in rural areas, encouraging shops, post offices, better transport services, and small industries. This is the only way we can make up for the decline in agricultural employment.This is what the debate has to be about.
Incidentally, I was reading something on Sarah Kagingo's wall recently of a farmer who has started up a banana processing plant in western Uganda, and i think this is good for us as long as long such plants are spread around the country.Perhaps the recession in farming is not so bad, after all. Don't tell me:this is an exception, and we cannot generalize. I don't think we should deny village residents the choice of a wider range of products.
What it seems is happening is that these our president doesn't understand a free market economy and he's thinking in terms of ' Europeans are lenient they can't tell you that'. He briefly taught economics while in exile in Moshi but he has a very simplistic view of economics and a one track mind that can't follow how economic growth happens.So he is in a dilemma when it comes to explaining how an economy really works and wealth accumulation and a gap in wealth is created.
Nze bwendaba banange!
--
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
Stalk my blog at: http://semuwemba.com/
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