{UAH} NATIONAL LIBRARIES DAY
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6:44 AM |
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Today Saturday 6th February is UK National Libraries Day. It is a day
that we celebrate the joys that a public library service brings and
how the UK public library system has been such a faithful servant over
the years. I have already visted my local libraries in Hemel Hempstead
and Dunstable in rural Hertfordshire this morning, and I am on my way
shortly to join in the celebrations at the Deptford Library in South
East London, a library which has been my spiritual home, on and off,
for the last 20 years. At precisely 8PM tonight, I am going to be
honoured by Deptford Libary as its longest serving member with
regular unbroken attendance of 19 years. I am also a member of
public libraries in 33 out of the 50 London borough councils, and in
total, a member of 107 public libraries in the UK.
Libaries have been part of my life ever since I was a 14 year old boy,
when I left home in Dokolo to embark on secondary education. In all
that time, I am never spent a consecutive 10 days without visiting a
libary, except only when I was in foreign countries without a public
library system. In Uganda, in every town I visited or lived in, be it
Lira, Hoima, Fort Portal, Mbale or Soroti, I always made it a point to
visit public libraries, even though during and after the Idi Amin
Fascist regime, most of them fell into disrepair and neglect. The
Makerere Univeristy Library became my regular retreat all the time I
lived in Kampala, and even after I left the University, I still found
time to visit it regularly. Sadly, there are today no public
libraries in Uganda, the fascist regime of the semi-educated Rwandan
outlaw has put paid to that.
The UK public library service has for many years remained the best in
the world and has truly transformed reading and literacy and turned
both into acclaimed human rights. Every citizen should have access to
information. Every citizen should enjoy the pleasures of reading, even
just for the sake of it. It is one of the success stories of the UK
welfare state, that practically every council or locality has an
accessible libary available completely free of charge to all
citizens. In the last 20 years, nearly all UK public libraries have
had free internet access, thus helping communication and information
flow amongst the most deprived in society.
Since I came to the UK in 1986, the public library has been my first
port of call in any town I have vistied or stayed in for longer than
one week. I am a member of obscure libraries in Aberrytswyth in Wales,
Galway in Scotland and hidden ones in many rural villages of the UK.
Libraries have not only constantly satisfied my constant quest for
knowldedge and meduim for communication and debate, they have also
been a veritable refuge or retreat for me. In some of the darkest
hours, when I lost my sister, brother and relatives and could not go
home to bury them, the Library became my final place of solace, the
only place that would give me the space to grieve and to come to terms
with what had happened to me. Picking up a book at random, and reading
it from cover to cover in one go, was often my way of coping with
loss.
But Libraries have also been places of the greatest joys of my life. I
met two of my long-time partners in Libaries; my first girlfriend at
University soon after leaving Uganda, whwre I never had a girlfriend.
We met by chance in my first week when a lift in the University
library we were in got stuck after closing hours and I got trapped
with a very beautiful English girl for almost one hour. After our
release, we became friends and thereafter partners until I left
University. I also met my third partner in a public Library in
Mottingham, South London; a beautiful Caribbean girl was seated next
to me at the computers; she was a writer and had written a beautiful
poem, and she asked me to read it and to give a genuine assessment;
this enabled her to discover our common interest in reading and one
thing led to another.
I feel nostalgic about my un-ending love affair with the public
library. Sadly, the future of the libabry is very bleak as the advance
of the internet now means you can have your own libary in the comfort
of your lap top in your bed-room, toilet or train. It is a sad loss
that may never be replaced, because I am yet to learn the ways of the
current fashion of internet "dates" and "friends". I preferred to meet
people face to face. I think my time has come and gone, but Five
Cheers to Public Libraries.
George Okello
--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
that we celebrate the joys that a public library service brings and
how the UK public library system has been such a faithful servant over
the years. I have already visted my local libraries in Hemel Hempstead
and Dunstable in rural Hertfordshire this morning, and I am on my way
shortly to join in the celebrations at the Deptford Library in South
East London, a library which has been my spiritual home, on and off,
for the last 20 years. At precisely 8PM tonight, I am going to be
honoured by Deptford Libary as its longest serving member with
regular unbroken attendance of 19 years. I am also a member of
public libraries in 33 out of the 50 London borough councils, and in
total, a member of 107 public libraries in the UK.
Libaries have been part of my life ever since I was a 14 year old boy,
when I left home in Dokolo to embark on secondary education. In all
that time, I am never spent a consecutive 10 days without visiting a
libary, except only when I was in foreign countries without a public
library system. In Uganda, in every town I visited or lived in, be it
Lira, Hoima, Fort Portal, Mbale or Soroti, I always made it a point to
visit public libraries, even though during and after the Idi Amin
Fascist regime, most of them fell into disrepair and neglect. The
Makerere Univeristy Library became my regular retreat all the time I
lived in Kampala, and even after I left the University, I still found
time to visit it regularly. Sadly, there are today no public
libraries in Uganda, the fascist regime of the semi-educated Rwandan
outlaw has put paid to that.
The UK public library service has for many years remained the best in
the world and has truly transformed reading and literacy and turned
both into acclaimed human rights. Every citizen should have access to
information. Every citizen should enjoy the pleasures of reading, even
just for the sake of it. It is one of the success stories of the UK
welfare state, that practically every council or locality has an
accessible libary available completely free of charge to all
citizens. In the last 20 years, nearly all UK public libraries have
had free internet access, thus helping communication and information
flow amongst the most deprived in society.
Since I came to the UK in 1986, the public library has been my first
port of call in any town I have vistied or stayed in for longer than
one week. I am a member of obscure libraries in Aberrytswyth in Wales,
Galway in Scotland and hidden ones in many rural villages of the UK.
Libraries have not only constantly satisfied my constant quest for
knowldedge and meduim for communication and debate, they have also
been a veritable refuge or retreat for me. In some of the darkest
hours, when I lost my sister, brother and relatives and could not go
home to bury them, the Library became my final place of solace, the
only place that would give me the space to grieve and to come to terms
with what had happened to me. Picking up a book at random, and reading
it from cover to cover in one go, was often my way of coping with
loss.
But Libraries have also been places of the greatest joys of my life. I
met two of my long-time partners in Libaries; my first girlfriend at
University soon after leaving Uganda, whwre I never had a girlfriend.
We met by chance in my first week when a lift in the University
library we were in got stuck after closing hours and I got trapped
with a very beautiful English girl for almost one hour. After our
release, we became friends and thereafter partners until I left
University. I also met my third partner in a public Library in
Mottingham, South London; a beautiful Caribbean girl was seated next
to me at the computers; she was a writer and had written a beautiful
poem, and she asked me to read it and to give a genuine assessment;
this enabled her to discover our common interest in reading and one
thing led to another.
I feel nostalgic about my un-ending love affair with the public
library. Sadly, the future of the libabry is very bleak as the advance
of the internet now means you can have your own libary in the comfort
of your lap top in your bed-room, toilet or train. It is a sad loss
that may never be replaced, because I am yet to learn the ways of the
current fashion of internet "dates" and "friends". I preferred to meet
people face to face. I think my time has come and gone, but Five
Cheers to Public Libraries.
George Okello
--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
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