A Taste of Milégé: Repainting Uganda

Milégé Afro Jazz Band started out in January 2009 with a message of love and tolerance for all humankind through universal language of music—a fusion of classical jazz and traditional African sounds. It is a perfect blend of modern and traditional that signifies the place of contemporary Africa in a global village.
The name “milege” is derived from the Luo word for a rattle-like bell worn around the ankle during traditional dances that herald the arrival of the chief.

The Milégé sound reflects passion as the drums resonate a celebration of joy, love and happiness, soft, delicate and melodious is the harmony as the rhythm bounces along—fiery when fast, soothing when slow. This seven-member band promises to bring a new meaning to jazz by incorporating African culture and tunes while showcasing originality in its compositions.

It is in this spirit that Milégé Afro Jazz Band is headlining a concert Repainting Uganda to illustrate Uganda’s rich cultural diversity. The event scheduled for 29th October will serve as a platform to expose Ugandans to the rich talent that exists within their country. This is also the month that Uganda marks her independence. So, it is as good as it gets.

For more information about Milégé, go to www.milege.org but for a taste of their music, download this mix that I did for my listening pleasure and now sharing it with the world.

A Case for a Noble Profession

Dear Susan,

I became a teacher by accident....at the time the Ministry of Education had declared that there was need to train more teachers and I was among those who were forced to that profession. I spent two weeks at the Registry office begging him to change the course. The registry became very curious and asked why l desperately needed to change that noble profession. I told him while at school I was very stubborn, naughty, full of mischief and that I did not want to be treated in the same way. The gentleman laughed and told me I would remain in that profession and he predicted for those reasons I would be a good teacher and would be grateful to him many years to come and today I can never thank him enough why?

The teaching profession is not about methodology but its a perfect understanding between a teacher and a student, it is a spiritual/sacred feeling, a mission, an ideal that arises betwen a teacher and a student and this help us to construct a better world and future by opening minds and lowering walls.

Teaching means youth, you are young all the time, you meet young people and you feel young (ask Bitamazire) Ed-Uganda's Minister of Education

Its an art as you create different ways to impart knowledge, ability, skills and moral character for intellectual development. The teacher shares the parents' responsibility and directly involves promoting health, mental and moral life of children.

While the teaching profession promises no financial prizes equal to those obtained in law, engineering the material rewards that teaching brings are not the chief reasons for going into it. In my scenario Namasagali gave us the opportunity to enjoy, practice and excel coz teaching was not only confined to the classroom but it included extra curricular development, technical planning, policy making and instructional design. Father encouraged us to grow, experiment and learn different ways to promote the profession. He always reminded us that this is a noble profession and for it to remain so we had to develop its full potential otherwise society would suffer a permanent loss. So Susan some of those challenges you sent below are some of the things that made teaching very interesting and humorous ....

Good day, Lau

Is it Still in Our Common Interest?

The Commission for Africa [which was set up by Tony Blair, when he was British Prime Minister] has released a report, which follows up on the one published in 2005. It examines what has happened in Africa since then and conducts an assessment of the progress made against each of the recommendations made five years ago.

In a statement, the Commissioners said:

“There is much to celebrate. African governments have done more than ever before to promote business and investment. Donors have supported this by boosting their support to infrastructure and providing the aid and debt relief that has allowed African governments to increase their expenditure in key areas such as health, education and agriculture.

But there remains much to be done. Progress on reforming international trade rules has been dismal; donors are still providing less in aid than their commitments; and African governments are still not investing as much as they promised in key areas. That is why we believe this review is timely, and why we believe it is right to renew a number of the recommendations.....because they have yet to be fully implemented........"

They go on to say ".....Africa’s development requires a range of measures, with African governments in the lead supported by the international community...."

This is where it begs the question, can we Africans do it on our own instead always asking for help from donors, international community? It is indeed in our common interest as Africans muster all our energies and synergies as well as available resources to work out how we are going to do it. Since this report is going to form part of discussions at the upcoming UN MDG Summit on 20 September, can our leaders use this opportunity, get together and find a formula to do it without begging donors, international community for help to solve Africans' own problems.

The report can accessed here

We Need More Than Vuvuzelas For Uganda Cranes

Today, Uganda Cranes hosts Angola's Palancas Negras (Black Antelopes) at Namboole Stadium in Kampala. It is one of the matches for qualification to 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. Despite expectation that we are expected to give our all in support to the national side, I am not keen on having my heart broken for the umpteenth time.

While we may need to support Cranes, Uganda's football needs more than vuvuzelas on such Saturdays to get things right. It is a process that has to start from the grassroots to the very top. We scream ourselves hoarse then towards the end of the campaign, there are those mathematical calculations we start to 'guesstimate' bse Cranes didn't score enough away goals or win emphatically.

In the final analysis, I don't have much hope in UG's chances in getting to the 2012 Cup of Nations.....the whole FUFA administration, search for upcoming talent, football league, finances, fans support, media, corporate sponsorship, government support/budget et cetera will have to be fine tuned and tweaked to work in sync. Only then can we be prepared to take on the world. It is only then that Uganda will win more awards than just the CECAFA 'thing' [which has become boring].

Food for thought: Why is it that there are more fans of English Premiership clubs in Uganda than for the national team? More media coverage of the lives of the Premiership players and their WAGs than just results of matches from our own football league?

Three Million Dollars

Michael Ezra's press conference at which he flashed what seemed a huge amount of money in US dollars has captured headlines and the buzz around the city. Even earning a top headline on Uganda's #1 independent daily!! (Were there no more important stories, Daily Monitor?) More than it being a case of Mr. Ezra debunking talk of being in the red, owing about $2m (or UShs 1 bn) in back taxes and an outstanding loan of UShs 400m, it was a verdict on the kind of journalism we have in Uganda!

Even without asking the necessary questions like "Are you broke?", a little sense of observation and reading between the lines would have shown the journalists that this is a non-story. First off, while 'tycoons' like Sudhir and Karim owns hotels et al, Mulwana is into plastics manufacturing among others, and Kirumira is in real estate among others, Mr. Ezra has no known source of such huge sums of money that he gladly shows off [with the media playing unquestioning praise singer....]. If the press is the watchdog of this society, then it is asleep on the job. Why journalists risk and put a lot at stake in unearthing shady deals like NSSF-Temangalo "procurement or investment" saga; then fail to probe where this guy gets this money from? Definitely, it goes without saying that in many Ugandans' minds...that is the three-million question?

Moreover, just putting two and two together....there are some obvious questions: Why would someone who can casually move around with three million dollars, borrow just UShs 400m (about US$ 200,000) from a bank at an interest rate of more than 20%? Were those genuine dollars anyway? Further still, keen observation and mental calculation (using the picture as a reference), the amount on the table is a little more than US$ 1m. By the way, who mentioned the figure US$ 3m!!! Even Mr. Ezra didn't, as per the Monitor story!! Besides this guy who purportedly ordered for a private plane, bid for Leeds United (why did the deal fall through?), bought a Lamborghini (for Kampala kind of roads?)...are journalists so gullible not to check this up [They don't need to move from their seats, just surf the net, send out a few inquiring e-mails].

Yes, Mr. Ezra may have money but showing cash in public is not the mark of the wealthy or of a successful business man....It is better suited for rappers in music videos (check Make It Rain and many others).

Lastly, this is a personal appeal, the word "tycoon" is an over-cliched in our newspapers; can we give it a break?

Land of Confusion

Across Uganda, the ruling political party, National Resistance Movement (NRM), is conducting primaries for its flagbearers for different elective positions in the run up to 2011 general elections. The exercise which was supposed to be conducted yesterday (30th August 2010) has been marred by vote rigging, stuffed ballots, missing voters' names, intimidation, vote buying, administrative incompetencies, among a cocktail of many other woes. In many places, there have been postponements. As the Daily Monitor put it, it is a vote of no confidence! Ugandans should definitely ask themselves, if this is a precursor to 2011?

Meanwhile, the opposition are not faring any better albeit in a different way. One of the parties, Uganda Peoples Congress has opted out of the Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC)-which was envisaged as a coalition of sorts to front a single opponent to President Yoweri Museveni. I think a two-horse race would have been a boon to Uganda's 'democracy' at this stage than "[many] dog[s] barking at an elephant" (Museveni in 2006, any one remember that?). As with many opposition parties in other countries in Africa, unity of purpose and aim, it seems, can not be agreed on like the IPC seemed geared towards. A squabbling divided opposition is a blessing for the incumbent. Museveni has one less headache, may be he should use the opportunity to concentrate on putting his NRM in order. Is it about time?

In other related developments, the display of voters' register winds up today. Though the Electoral Commission (EC) achieved its target of registering 3.5 million new voters, the display exercise has not attracted as much enthusiasm. However, the EC should be commended for the effort and even enabling online access to the register. Props....after the display, there does not appear a clear-charted way forward from EC...my question is what happens next?

As Wedding Anniversaries Roll By, Some Truths We Should Take With Us

Someone sent me this via e-mail and I decided to post on the blog as a number of my friends and my sister have beeb celebrating wedding anniversaries in the June-August period. This is also all those that come to the blog and could do with this advice or give it to others. Congratulations are in order and all due credit goes to the author/s.

WHAT MARRIAGE COUNSELLORS DO NOT TELL YOU ABOUT MARRIAGE

That may sound grim. But here's a secret: Sometimes it's the least romantic parts of marriage that have the most to teach you about yourself, your partner, and the nature of love. Read on for some simple truths that will unlock the surprising treasures and pleasures in your imperfect, unstorybook, real-life love.

1. You will look at the person lying next to you and wonder, Is this it? Forever?

When you get married, you think that as long as you pick the right guy -- your soul mate -- you'll be happy together until death do you part. Then you wake up one day and realize that no matter how great he is, he doesn't make you happy every moment of every day. In fact, some days you might wonder why you were in such a hurry to get married in the first place. You think to yourself, "This is so not what I signed up for."

Actually, it is. You just didn't realize it the day you and your guy were cramming wedding cake into each other's faces, clinking champagne glasses, and dancing the Electric Slide. Back then you had no idea that "for better and for worse" doesn't kick in only when life hands you a tragedy. Your relationship mettle is, in fact, most tested on a daily basis, when the utter sameness of day-in/day-out togetherness can sometimes make you want to run for the hills. That's when the disappointment sneaks in, and maybe even a palpable sense of loneliness and grief. It's not him. It's just you, letting go of that sugarcoated fantasy of marriage that danced in your eyes the day you and your beloved posed in all those soft-focus wedding photos. You're learning that marriage isn't a destination; it's a journey filled with equal parts excitement and tedium.

Waking up from a good dream to face the harsh morning daylight may not seem like a reason to celebrate. But trust me, it is. Because once you let go of all the hokey stories of eternal bliss, you find that the reality of marriage is far richer and more rewarding than you ever could have guessed. Hard, yes. Frustrating, yes. But full of its own powerful, quiet enchantments just the same, and that's better than any fairy tale.

2. You'll work harder than you ever imagined

Early on, when people say, "Marriage takes work," you assume "work" means being patient when he forgets to put down the toilet seat. In your naivete, you think that you will struggle to accommodate some annoying habit, like persistent knuckle cracking or flatulence.

If only it were that easy. Human beings, you may have noticed, are not simple creatures. Your man has mysterious, unplumbed depths -- and from where he sits, you're pretty complicated, too. You have to learn each other the same way that you once learned earth science or world geography. And getting married doesn't mean you're done -- it just means you've advanced to graduate-level studies. That's because every time you think you've mastered the material, he'll change a bit. And so will you. As two people grow and evolve, the real work of marriage is finding a way to relate to and nurture each other in the process.

"It's like losing weight," says Andrea Harden, 45, of Buffalo , NY . "You want it to be a one-time deal. You lost it, now just live. But then you learn it's a lifestyle. That's marriage. The effort is a forever thing." So don't be too hard on yourself -- or him -- on those days when you feel like you're struggling through remedial math.

3. You will sometimes go to bed mad (and maybe even wake up madder)

Whoever decided to tell newlyweds "Never go to bed angry" doesn't know what it's like inside a bedroom where tears and accusations fly as one spouse talks the other into a woozy stupor until night meets the dawn. If this scenario sounds familiar, I've got three words for you: Sleep on it.

You need to calm down. You need to gain perspective. You need to just give it a rest. I've found that an argument of any quality, like a fine wine, needs to breathe. A break in the action will help you figure out whether you're angry, hurt, or both, and then pinpoint the exact source. Maybe the fight that seemed to erupt over the overflowing garbage can is really about feeling underappreciated. Could be you're both stressed out at work and just needed to unload on someone. Taking a break will help you see that, and let go. Or maybe you really do have a legitimate disagreement to work out. Without a time-out, sometimes a perfectly good argument can turn into an endless round of silly back-and-forth, rehashing old and irrelevant transgressions as you get more and more wound up.

Even when you do manage to stay focused and on topic, there are some fights that stubbornly refuse to die by bedtime. And if you stifle your real feelings just to meet some arbitrary deadline, your marriage will surely be the worse for it. "This was a huge lesson for me," says Andrea. "As women we've been trained to make nice. But the whole kiss-and-make-up thing just to keep the peace was eating me up inside. I'd let things build up inside me until I just exploded. Now I wait a while to get hold of myself -- let the emotions settle a bit -- and state my position. Even if that means reopening the fight the next day."

4. Getting your way is usually not as important as finding a way to work together

I can be a bit of a know-it-all. There, I said it. It's really not my intention to be hurtful or brash with people I love. It's just that a lifetime of experience has taught me that in most areas, at most times, I am right about most things. What shocked me several years into my marriage, though, was the realization that the more "right" I was, the more discontented my husband and I were as a couple. See, oddly enough, throughout his life Genoveso has been under the misguided impression that he's right most of the time (go figure!). So we'd lock horns -- often. That is, until I learned a few things.

Namely, that when it comes to certain disagreements, there is no right or wrong -- there is simply your way of looking at things and your husband's. "I used to be very black-and-white earlier in our marriage," says Lindy Vincent, 38, who lives in Minneapolis . "Now I see that I'm not all right and my husband is not all wrong. There's more gray in life than I thought, and that's taught me patience and the value of compromise."

5. A great marriage doesn't mean no conflict; it simply means a couple keeps trying to get it right

Maybe you think that because of my newfound wisdom, Genoveso and I never fight anymore. Ha! As important as it is to strike a balance, it's also important to have a big, fat fight every now and then. Because when you fight, you don't just raise your voices; you raise real -- sometimes buried -- issues that challenge you to come to a clearer understanding of you, your man, and your relationship. I wouldn't give up our fights for anything in the world, because I know in the end they won't break us; they'll only make us stronger.

6. You'll realize that you can only change yourself

Ever seen the '80s sci-fi cult classic "Making Mr. Right?" When the stylish heroine, played by Ann Magnuson, is hired to teach a robot how to act like a human, she seizes the chance to create a perfect guy. A hotshot commercial whiz, she uses her marketing prowess to shape John Malkovich's android character into her personal version of the ideal man -- sensitive, eager to please, and willing to listen.

There is a bit of that makeover fantasy in all of us -- something that makes us believe we can change the person we love, make him just a little bit closer to perfect. We may use support and empathy or shouts and ultimatums, but with dogged conviction we take on this huge responsibility, convinced we're doing the right thing.

Whatever our motives, the effort is exhausting. Transforming a full-grown man -- stripping him of decades-old habits, beliefs, and idiosyncrasies -- is truly an impossible task. And you will come to realize, sooner than later if you're lucky, that it is far easier to change the way you respond to him.

7. As you face your fears and insecurities, you will find out what you're really made of

There were clues when Genoveso and I were dating, especially with the trust thing. Early on, I was supersuspicious of him. He used to say things like, "I'll call you at 8." Then, just to try to trip me up, he'd call at 8. I knew he was up to something, I just couldn't figure out what. The same kinds of experiences followed after the wedding. Except occasionally he would actually mess up. And I had no sense of scale when it came to rating his offenses; everything was a major violation. Whether he teased me about a new haircut or came home late, I seethed for days and even let thoughts of divorce creep into my head. I figured, if he loved me -- really and truly -- this stuff wouldn't happen.

I'd like to be able to say that this irrational behavior lasted only a few months and I eventually worked it out. Kind of, sort of, is closer to the truth. After years of looking deeply into my soul and talking to good friends and the best sister a girl could ever have, I've come to recognize certain things about myself. Not to get all Dr. Phil about it, but I've had to examine my history with an emotionally distant dad and a strong-willed mom and face up to all the ways, both good and bad, that those relationships have affected how I approach my marriage.

That's the strange beauty of marriage: It's full of hard times and hard lessons that no one can ever prepare you for. But in the end, those are the things that give richness to your life together -- and make your love even deeper and stronger than when it began.