{UAH} Pojim/WBK- Comment-Uganda’s gone so digital, revenge porn and witchdoctors are thriving
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Uganda's gone so digital, revenge porn and witchdoctors are thriving
The great digital revolution is here in Uganda and we are very much part of it. So don't remind us about the opportunities offered by the Internet, for we know them and have made our choices.
We now have smartphones that we use until they get too hot for us to handle. We use them to exchange and watch movies of Kampala's celebrities in the nude. As such, we can describe to you in great detail the anatomy of some of our stunning television stars. So we have not missed out on the great advantages that accrue from the possession of a smartphone.
And the phones are not just for watching nude movies. They also help us to make money through sports betting. This is one of Uganda's fastest growing industries and it is greatly facilitated by the phones, as you can easily figure out, unless you are an ancient technophobe who has not yet arrived in the digital era.
And by the way, there is a budding politician who is set to win a parliamentary seat in next year's General Election because he has proved to be phenomenally accurate at predicting match outcomes. Many voters in the constituency he is eyeing are so grateful to him for his hot tips that the least they can do for him is to send him to represent them in the national parliament.
And finally, the digital migration from analogue TV that gets completed at midnight of June 27 will find us well prepared. We are already there in fact. Go to any sub-county of Uganda and visit the trading centres. Everywhere pay television is broadcasting European football, which every village boy can watch for just a few coins.
As a result, all our rural and urban boda boda riders can give you expert pre-match analysis and post-match post-mortems on any premiership, Bundesliga or Liga match that would be worth millions if sourced from a football consultant. Such great analytical skills accruing from the digital revolution!
And do not start imagining it is all work and play for our digital era population. We also enjoy movies on our TV sets and satellite decoders. Our favourite are of the witchcraft variety from West Africa.
Where would we be if in the evenings we lacked such an inspiring tonic of voodoo and fetishes? They have indeed helped spur our witchcraft industry that now boasts of employing thousands of practitioners who would otherwise be jobless but now are among society's most affluent. Our witchdoctors now favourably compete with the Nigerian stars.
In case you haven't been following Uganda news in the past couple of years, you would be forgiven to imagine it is only the young people who have embraced the digital revolution. But the old fellows have jumped on board too.
Like those grandpas in the Ministry of Public Service who discovered computerised banking. So they created all these ghost pensioners — two thousand plus, and opened accounts in one bank branch for them into which they channelled some $70 million. Of course, they withdrew the cash promptly. When you are IT savvy, making two thousand withdrawals in minutes is not difficult, even if you are a grey-haired fossil.
Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International Fellow for development journalism. E-mail: buwembo@gmail.com
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Uganda-gone-so-digital-revenge-porn-witchdoctors-are-thriving/-/434750/2734568/-/4txbsn/-/index.html
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