ELIAS BIRYABAREMA
Kampala--Often when accomplished business leaders converge, as in the just concluded Commonwealth Business Forum, CBF at Sheraton Hotel the ideas and issues under discussion tend to be of the highbrow sort. And why not, after all it's business that makes the world grind on. It’s business that makes societies and nations more powerful than others.
Just as a clue to the grandiosity of this business gathering (November 20th-22nd); the marquee to accommodate the over 700 delegates was hired at $400,000 from Dubai.
But don't be deceived by that and feel a great loss in case you've been unable to attend. In fact if you have ever attended any or participated in the CBF, the sense of déjà vu that you feel as you sit in the sessions can be overwhelming.
The Forum opened at 10 AM on Tuesday, November 20th with a speech by President Museveni. Any Ugandan delegate in there could as well have slept through the president's speech, and then woken up and still accurately recounted what he had told the Forum.
Reuters's correspondent, Tim Cocks quoted Museveni as saying, "We have confined ourselves to the export of raw materials such as coffee, where we have been getting $1 per kg while Nestle in London is getting $20 per kg."
But Mr. Cocks could easily have been accused of plagiarism because that's the same exact line that has run in thousands of stories on Museveni and his economic views.
As is well known of what happens when Museveni meets business executives, somehow the talk has to invariably feature his standard themes: value addition; donation of value to Western nations; Western investors’ failure to recognise Africa’s potential; his wisdom in attracting processors of our commodities; Uganda having the best bananas in the world and suchlike.
That would not necessarily be a problem since, as a head of state, his glib musings will always have an audience. The problem is the precious time lost in such trite talk which would otherwise have been better devoted to exploration of more thoughtful and intellectually stimulating ideas.
But may be we're being harsh on Museveni.
The droves of CEOs and economic policy directors at the CBF didn’t fair any better in terms of the freshness of debate and talking points. Almost all the subjects discussed at the CBF are the types on which you have probably attended half a dozen workshops or so. One such one was, "Leveraging ICT for Business Development." An even more stale one was, "enhancing intra-African trade," that was discussed by a seemingly powerful posse of business executives: Dr Yvonne Muthien, Director Special Projects, Coca-Cola, Africa; Jeremy Pike, Area Director, Sub Saharan Africa, BAT and Sir John Kaputin, ACP Secretary General. But the feeling one got after the debate session suggested that power was actually in titles not in their ideas.
In fact the only new element in the deliberations at the CBF was the personalities that tackled these subjects. But that didn’t necessarily make for a higher quality of debate. A Ugandan Journalist, Mr. Daniel Kalinaki of Kalinaki.blogspot.com derided the sessions as “boring,” and suggested that it was a great deal of pain to seat through any of them.
Nevertheless, some subjects that are new to global business discourses did generate a health and educative debate. The unfolding impact of climate change was such a one. A three-member panel—Mr. James Smith, Chairman of Shell, UK, Bobby Godsell, Director Anglo American, South Africa and Mr Reto Schwarwiler, Head of Global Government Relations, Swiss Re, Switzerland—delivered stimulating insights into this emerging threat to the economic prosperity of nations.
The recent floods that pummelled Uganda’s north, north-eastern and central regions in August and September displaced hundreds of thousands and destroyed infrastructure worth billions of shillings. Although debate about the link between global warming and extreme weather incidents is still continuing, there’s already a broad consensus among scientists that rising temperatures might be behind the increasingly frequent flooding ravaging tropical countries.
Hopefully Ugandan government officials at the CBF took this panel’s lessons to heart and will also possibly review some of the policies like allocating of forests to sugar cane and palm oil investors.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
At a C’wealth Gathering, Kutesa’s Diplomatic Flair is Seen as Phoney.
At a C’wealth Gathering, Kutesa’s Diplomatic Flair is Seen as Phoney.
ELIAS BIRYABAREMA
Kampala--The Commonwealth Business Forum, CBF, one of the prominent meetings that precede the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Chogm, opened on November 20th, 2007 at Sheraton Hotel in Kampala.
A number of officials both from the Ugandan government and the Commonwealth gave speeches before the final one by President Museveni who flagged off the Forum. Among them was Uganda’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Sam Kutesa known widely as one of the most powerful and influential (and wealthiest) ministers in Museveni’s government.
His speech was, unsurprisingly, low on substance: just about the kind that you would expect from any minister in the NRM government: they typically feature simplistic, generic remarks, shallowness of thought and frequent interjections with Dear-Leader-style praises of President Museveni.
So there was nothing remarkable in Kutesa’s speech and no body had a problem with that because no body expected anything better.
What shocked most Ugandans and the foreign delegates in attendance alike was the sudden trembling of Kutesa’s voice with the wavering worsening toward the end of his speech. There was total silence in the Grand Marquee where the CBF was hosted and so Kutesa’s wavy voice quickly caught the attention of many.
If a CEO of a small concern in Uganda or elsewhere had been intimidated by the powerful gathering (there were two presidents, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame being the second) and started shaking or losing control of himself, it would have been perfectly understandable.
But this was Sam Kutesa; a lawyer, a former Attorney General and one of the longest serving ministers in Museveni’s government. And most important: he’s Uganda’s top diplomat. He has met and talked with presidents, he’s travelled the globe and he has stood before and addressed some of most awesome audiences. On September 20th, 2006 for instance he addressed a gathering of world leaders at the UN headquarters in New York justifying Uganda’s granting of amnesty to the LRA leaders indicted by the ICC. So why did his diplomatic skills and composure fall apart at his most hour need?
Perhaps one would possibly sympathise with him if he was talking off the top of his head. But Kutesa was reading a prepared text.
I have since been asking myself why Kutesa cowered before an audience and I don’t seem to have hit an answer yet. But other questions, too, started popping up in mind: how then is Kutesa able to for instance square off with other foreign ministers or governments when conducting Uganda’s diplomatic business?
A foreign policy, for any nation, is one of the cardinal pillars of statehood. Foreign Ministers (or Secretaries) are typically the standard-bearers of nations’ foreign policies. Unmistakably common among them is their erudition, impeccable eloquence and finesse of personality.
Kutesa’s performance at the CBF showed an astonishing lack of any of these, casting his ability to steward Uganda’s Foreign Policy in deep doubt. One clue though may help us gain some understanding of Kutesa’s personality and why he didn’t shine at a moment he was supposed to.
On August 23rd this year, the Weekly Observer in a lead story, “US Firm Paid 2bn To Edit Museveni, Kutesa Letters,” reported that US’s ex Assistant Trade Representative for Africa, Ms Rosa Whitaker had earned thousands of dollars for assignments that included one where her firm edited Kutesa’s letter to the Editor of a US magazine, Foreign Policy. The letter was rebutting scorching charges by former UN Special Representative for children in armed conflict Mr. Olara Otunnu carried in an article “The Secret Genocide,” that was published around the world.
Any person with a reasonable command of English can read any article in any of our daily English newspapers and if he/she has any issues to raise or communicate regarding that article he can instantly write a letter to the editor. This is what ordinary Ugandans do on a daily basis to the letters’ editors of all our newspapers and that’s standard practice across the globe.
There’s absolutely no need for intermediaries and even if you hired one, it’s no guarantee that your letter will be given any priority over others. Selection of Letters for publication is done on merit.
But what then are we to make of the revelation that a whole minister, Mr. Sam Kutesa with such a “weighty” profile was incapable of personally composing a simple letter to the editor of Foreign Policy magazine?
That could be an important indicator of the level of sophistication of Mr. Kutesa and all these Professors and PhD ministers that populate Mr. Museveni’s cabinet.
ELIAS BIRYABAREMA
Kampala--The Commonwealth Business Forum, CBF, one of the prominent meetings that precede the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Chogm, opened on November 20th, 2007 at Sheraton Hotel in Kampala.
A number of officials both from the Ugandan government and the Commonwealth gave speeches before the final one by President Museveni who flagged off the Forum. Among them was Uganda’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Sam Kutesa known widely as one of the most powerful and influential (and wealthiest) ministers in Museveni’s government.
His speech was, unsurprisingly, low on substance: just about the kind that you would expect from any minister in the NRM government: they typically feature simplistic, generic remarks, shallowness of thought and frequent interjections with Dear-Leader-style praises of President Museveni.
So there was nothing remarkable in Kutesa’s speech and no body had a problem with that because no body expected anything better.
What shocked most Ugandans and the foreign delegates in attendance alike was the sudden trembling of Kutesa’s voice with the wavering worsening toward the end of his speech. There was total silence in the Grand Marquee where the CBF was hosted and so Kutesa’s wavy voice quickly caught the attention of many.
If a CEO of a small concern in Uganda or elsewhere had been intimidated by the powerful gathering (there were two presidents, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame being the second) and started shaking or losing control of himself, it would have been perfectly understandable.
But this was Sam Kutesa; a lawyer, a former Attorney General and one of the longest serving ministers in Museveni’s government. And most important: he’s Uganda’s top diplomat. He has met and talked with presidents, he’s travelled the globe and he has stood before and addressed some of most awesome audiences. On September 20th, 2006 for instance he addressed a gathering of world leaders at the UN headquarters in New York justifying Uganda’s granting of amnesty to the LRA leaders indicted by the ICC. So why did his diplomatic skills and composure fall apart at his most hour need?
Perhaps one would possibly sympathise with him if he was talking off the top of his head. But Kutesa was reading a prepared text.
I have since been asking myself why Kutesa cowered before an audience and I don’t seem to have hit an answer yet. But other questions, too, started popping up in mind: how then is Kutesa able to for instance square off with other foreign ministers or governments when conducting Uganda’s diplomatic business?
A foreign policy, for any nation, is one of the cardinal pillars of statehood. Foreign Ministers (or Secretaries) are typically the standard-bearers of nations’ foreign policies. Unmistakably common among them is their erudition, impeccable eloquence and finesse of personality.
Kutesa’s performance at the CBF showed an astonishing lack of any of these, casting his ability to steward Uganda’s Foreign Policy in deep doubt. One clue though may help us gain some understanding of Kutesa’s personality and why he didn’t shine at a moment he was supposed to.
On August 23rd this year, the Weekly Observer in a lead story, “US Firm Paid 2bn To Edit Museveni, Kutesa Letters,” reported that US’s ex Assistant Trade Representative for Africa, Ms Rosa Whitaker had earned thousands of dollars for assignments that included one where her firm edited Kutesa’s letter to the Editor of a US magazine, Foreign Policy. The letter was rebutting scorching charges by former UN Special Representative for children in armed conflict Mr. Olara Otunnu carried in an article “The Secret Genocide,” that was published around the world.
Any person with a reasonable command of English can read any article in any of our daily English newspapers and if he/she has any issues to raise or communicate regarding that article he can instantly write a letter to the editor. This is what ordinary Ugandans do on a daily basis to the letters’ editors of all our newspapers and that’s standard practice across the globe.
There’s absolutely no need for intermediaries and even if you hired one, it’s no guarantee that your letter will be given any priority over others. Selection of Letters for publication is done on merit.
But what then are we to make of the revelation that a whole minister, Mr. Sam Kutesa with such a “weighty” profile was incapable of personally composing a simple letter to the editor of Foreign Policy magazine?
That could be an important indicator of the level of sophistication of Mr. Kutesa and all these Professors and PhD ministers that populate Mr. Museveni’s cabinet.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Chogm2007: International Media Picks the "Wrong Story!".
ELIAS BIRYABAREMA.
Kampala--Kampalans are agog! After all, haven’t their city been transformed over night into a World Class metropolis. Well, at least that’s the impression of many across central Uganda where the Chogm bonanza has impacted most.
It’s been a breathtaking makeover: roads have been smoothened, pavements laid. Medians have been planted with grass. Garbage mounds have disappeared. Messy intersections have been rebuilt and traffic lights fixed. Cameras are recording, and deterring crime, SPCs are roaming the city to the point of over-policing. Streets are lit. Five-Star hotel towers are shooting through the city’s skyline.
Entebbe airport is dazzling, abuzz with activity.
The world is descending on Kampala.
For once, President Museveni seems to have succeeded in putting Uganda in a global spotlight, right?
So why isn’t the international media picking up this great story unfolding in our city? This is the tale that is even more amazing to watch than the proceedings in the hallowed conference rooms in Munyonyo and Serena Hotels this week.
If president Museveni thought he and his NRM government would somehow harvest some political capital from the global media coverage of Chogm, he will be disappointed that the scribes have their eyes and ears on something else. In fact if the Western media’s disinterest in the ongoing Kampala Chogm2007 fever is a reflection of their disenchantment with Museveni and his government, then it’s pretty worrying indeed.
When the Commonwealth Youth Forum, the first of the major meetings that preceded Chogm got underway last week in Entebbe, it didn’t generate a world headline. Instead the French newswire AFP hollered to the world on Saturday, November17th; “Floods Deluge Uganda Capital, Kill Four.”
The online edition of BBC, the western media house with the broadest coverage of African news and supposedly with the keenest interest in the Commonwealth affairs has largely ignored the chogm frenzy in Kampala. And as if to demonstrate the triviality of the chogm euphoria in Kampala or even their loathing for the organiser-in-chief, they quickly picked up a gutter story run in local papers on November 14th, “Love Zones Set up in Kampala,” in reference to the restricting of whores to Kabalagala and Bukoto suburbs.
But if the BBC was mean, the Sunday Telegraph of UK gave Museveni a generous early Chogm gift. From Lira, their correspondent, Mr Mike Pflanz reported on November 18th, “Uganda’s £70 million Conference, £7 million Flood Relief.” The reporter sounded out the agonies of half a dozen starving flood victims slamming their government for spending so profligately on a useless meeting while its citizens were collapsing from hunger in sordid camps.
The report described Uganda as “poverty-wracked.”
For the whole of this year, president Museveni and his ministers have been quick to dismiss those criticising the splurging of vast amounts of money on a seemingly inconsequential meeting as blind.
Chogm, they have claimed, will “showcase Uganda’s rich potential to the World,” and draw in investors in their droves.
But the world’s businessmen and women reading the cries of the dying in the Sunday Telegraph story will probably first ponder the wisdom (or lack of it) of those of ruling the country before they inquire about the investment opportunities in Uganda, if they ever will.
In fact the Sunday Telegraph story mirrors the sort of questions and ideas that will run through the minds of the thousands of scribes jetting into the country this week. From the comfort of their hotels they will stroll around in the vicinity and see Nile Avenue, Garden City, Jinja Road intersection, Kampala Road: it’s a decent city.
But they know that’s not Kampala. Before they came they read up on Uganda’s online country profiles. They know Uganda’s GDP is a miniscule $8 billion and income per capita, a humiliating $230. They know Museveni bribed parliament to lift term limits so he could stay in power. They know Kampala is home to hordes of poor. They will look for them in Katwe, in Namuwongo, Kibuli and other slums. IDPs in northern Uganda will cry out and they will grab better headlines than the banquets and political rhetoric in Kampala.
That will be Museveni’s chogm media publicity harvest.
In the Western media; it will be the IDPs that that Museveni has betrayed, the dying flood victims in North East and the foolishness of the chogm extravagance that will run in banner headlines, not his taking of the Commonwealth chairmanship.
Kampala--Kampalans are agog! After all, haven’t their city been transformed over night into a World Class metropolis. Well, at least that’s the impression of many across central Uganda where the Chogm bonanza has impacted most.
It’s been a breathtaking makeover: roads have been smoothened, pavements laid. Medians have been planted with grass. Garbage mounds have disappeared. Messy intersections have been rebuilt and traffic lights fixed. Cameras are recording, and deterring crime, SPCs are roaming the city to the point of over-policing. Streets are lit. Five-Star hotel towers are shooting through the city’s skyline.
Entebbe airport is dazzling, abuzz with activity.
The world is descending on Kampala.
For once, President Museveni seems to have succeeded in putting Uganda in a global spotlight, right?
So why isn’t the international media picking up this great story unfolding in our city? This is the tale that is even more amazing to watch than the proceedings in the hallowed conference rooms in Munyonyo and Serena Hotels this week.
If president Museveni thought he and his NRM government would somehow harvest some political capital from the global media coverage of Chogm, he will be disappointed that the scribes have their eyes and ears on something else. In fact if the Western media’s disinterest in the ongoing Kampala Chogm2007 fever is a reflection of their disenchantment with Museveni and his government, then it’s pretty worrying indeed.
When the Commonwealth Youth Forum, the first of the major meetings that preceded Chogm got underway last week in Entebbe, it didn’t generate a world headline. Instead the French newswire AFP hollered to the world on Saturday, November17th; “Floods Deluge Uganda Capital, Kill Four.”
The online edition of BBC, the western media house with the broadest coverage of African news and supposedly with the keenest interest in the Commonwealth affairs has largely ignored the chogm frenzy in Kampala. And as if to demonstrate the triviality of the chogm euphoria in Kampala or even their loathing for the organiser-in-chief, they quickly picked up a gutter story run in local papers on November 14th, “Love Zones Set up in Kampala,” in reference to the restricting of whores to Kabalagala and Bukoto suburbs.
But if the BBC was mean, the Sunday Telegraph of UK gave Museveni a generous early Chogm gift. From Lira, their correspondent, Mr Mike Pflanz reported on November 18th, “Uganda’s £70 million Conference, £7 million Flood Relief.” The reporter sounded out the agonies of half a dozen starving flood victims slamming their government for spending so profligately on a useless meeting while its citizens were collapsing from hunger in sordid camps.
The report described Uganda as “poverty-wracked.”
For the whole of this year, president Museveni and his ministers have been quick to dismiss those criticising the splurging of vast amounts of money on a seemingly inconsequential meeting as blind.
Chogm, they have claimed, will “showcase Uganda’s rich potential to the World,” and draw in investors in their droves.
But the world’s businessmen and women reading the cries of the dying in the Sunday Telegraph story will probably first ponder the wisdom (or lack of it) of those of ruling the country before they inquire about the investment opportunities in Uganda, if they ever will.
In fact the Sunday Telegraph story mirrors the sort of questions and ideas that will run through the minds of the thousands of scribes jetting into the country this week. From the comfort of their hotels they will stroll around in the vicinity and see Nile Avenue, Garden City, Jinja Road intersection, Kampala Road: it’s a decent city.
But they know that’s not Kampala. Before they came they read up on Uganda’s online country profiles. They know Uganda’s GDP is a miniscule $8 billion and income per capita, a humiliating $230. They know Museveni bribed parliament to lift term limits so he could stay in power. They know Kampala is home to hordes of poor. They will look for them in Katwe, in Namuwongo, Kibuli and other slums. IDPs in northern Uganda will cry out and they will grab better headlines than the banquets and political rhetoric in Kampala.
That will be Museveni’s chogm media publicity harvest.
In the Western media; it will be the IDPs that that Museveni has betrayed, the dying flood victims in North East and the foolishness of the chogm extravagance that will run in banner headlines, not his taking of the Commonwealth chairmanship.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
A Wrenching Quandary: Can Black People Build Prosperous Societies?
ELIAS BIRYABAREMA
Kampala--Mr. Yoweri Museveni has a background of good education. A calm and well exposed man. Straight thinking and intelligent, his grasp of contemporary world affairs, including some quite complex stuff, is commendably firm.
For years he burned his young energies battling vile governments. Narrowly escaping death on occasions, he showed resolve, sacrifice, devotion to his people and a deep abhorrence for oppressive leadership. Sure. This man had no shortage of good qualities.
And yet, to the astonishment of history, Mr Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has still failed us. Twenty years at nation building have produced incompetence so shocking that some think a psychopathic illiterate, Idi Amin, did better work.
Uganda has been fairly stable long enough. The conditions for an economic takeoff have been there for 20 years. Mr. Museveni has enjoyed generous goodwill from nearly all the world’s rich governments. Their largesse has poured in ceaselessly and in hefty amounts.
Uganda should have taken off. We haven’t. We’re stuck. And so is Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia, Mali, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Eritrea, Malawi, Congo Republic and pretty much all of Black Africa, excluding the region’s sole economic power, South Africa. This led me to pose a question to myself: can Black people build prosperous societies?
Just about every reason-from slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism to inequitable world trade rules-cited for the backwardness of Black African nations has been so debunked by time that it has now become necessary to look beyond the realm of such contemporary explanations. The maddening inertia of Black people and the mystical forces that keep tramping down our nations, in fact, seem to have their roots deep within us, not from without as has been argued for decades.
Just about everywhere you look, evidence abounds. Vietnam suffered a war of colonial conquest and it was eventually subdued by France in 1884. For almost a decade, it again fought a devastating independence war until France was vanquished in 1954. And then came the epic battle of 1965 to 1973 with US military and its allies, seeking to squelch the North Vietnamese communists.
When the guns fell silent with the withdrawal of US troops in 1973 and the eventual fall of Saigon in 1975, the Vietnamese [death] toll stood at a horrifying three to four million. Diplomatically isolated, its economy shredded and its population maimed and traumatized on a scale unparalleled in any Black African nation (except DR Congo), Vietnam would seem to have no chance at success.
But just two and a half decades later, Vietnam is storming the world stage as an economic powerhouse. Its exports are flooding western nations; heavy and advanced manufacturing is thriving at a rapid pace. Its GDP, $258 billion, is having an average growth rate of 8%, the second highest in Asia after China. Europe had to put curbs on the country’s shoe exports after they nearly sunk much of the continent’s manufacturers.
According to a news report in New York Times on October 25, 2006, Vietnam now sells “nine times as much to Americans as it buys from there.” Since 1990, a space of 15 short years, Vietnam has pulled off one of the most stunning economic feats: reducing absolute poverty-World Bank standard: subsisting on $1 a day-from 51 to 8% of its population.
Back home here (Uganda), the sort of wars and the scale of devastation that Uganda has suffered since independence can hardly be said to be as crippling as the cataclysm that struck Vietnam.
This is true for many of the Black African nations. But the difference is staggering. Vietnam’s economy is roaring. Sub Saharan Africa is dead stuck known more for: constant disease outbreaks, emergency food relief appeals, civil strive, genocide, chronic corruption, flimsy or nonexistent infrastructure, constitution breaches, state failure than anything else. This disgusting state of affairs after, according to an estimate by South Africa’s Brenthurst Foundation, a colossal $580 billion worth of donor money has been poured into the region since independence. Why have the Vietnamese overcome their historical setbacks and prospered while Black Africans stagnated or regressed?
Or if we may ask another question: why is it that White people prosper wherever they settle while Black people head for the opposite direction. The British crown started asserting its colonial rule over small territories on the continent of Australia in 1788, taking several decades before it brought all the areas into a unified Australian colony.
Throngs of Europeans emigrated en masse and settled there throughout the 1800s. These émigrés went ahead, starting from really little or nothing, and established one of the world’s economic and military powers that is Australia today. The history of New Zealand, the other White country in the Southern Hemisphere, is pretty much the same.
Now contrast these nations with Haiti, the only black nation outside of Africa. It gained independence in 1804. It’s near the US, the richest market on earth and Haiti has a coastline unlike other African nations whose landlocked status is blamed for their underdevelopment. And fine, it has had a fairly brutal past but nowhere near Vietnam’s horrors. But what have our Haitian brothers made of these generous natural advantages: it remains the most backward country in the Western hemisphere, bound up by privation, cyclical coups, spasms of mayhem and blood-thirsty gangs. At home and away, that’s your Black people!
In fact Haiti is perhaps just about the best that we can achieve in nation building. Ethiopia never had colonialism. It registered impressively high levels of literacy as early as 1970, a fact a friend of mine brought to my attention recently. It has a rich and widely shared cultural heritage, a common ancestry. This should have propelled Ethiopia but see the shameful portrait of hunger and disease that this country projects to the world.
And so, to go back to that question that I have been chewing over and over again of late: can Black People build prosperous societies; I firmly believe the answer is a sad NO.
The dumbfounding incompetence of President Museveni thus is not a failure of an individual. It’s a failure of a people: Black People. Museveni only rose and touched our low ceiling. The shamefully limited achievement of his “fundamental change” regime thus should be interpreted in this cruel context.
Kampala--Mr. Yoweri Museveni has a background of good education. A calm and well exposed man. Straight thinking and intelligent, his grasp of contemporary world affairs, including some quite complex stuff, is commendably firm.
For years he burned his young energies battling vile governments. Narrowly escaping death on occasions, he showed resolve, sacrifice, devotion to his people and a deep abhorrence for oppressive leadership. Sure. This man had no shortage of good qualities.
And yet, to the astonishment of history, Mr Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has still failed us. Twenty years at nation building have produced incompetence so shocking that some think a psychopathic illiterate, Idi Amin, did better work.
Uganda has been fairly stable long enough. The conditions for an economic takeoff have been there for 20 years. Mr. Museveni has enjoyed generous goodwill from nearly all the world’s rich governments. Their largesse has poured in ceaselessly and in hefty amounts.
Uganda should have taken off. We haven’t. We’re stuck. And so is Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia, Mali, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Eritrea, Malawi, Congo Republic and pretty much all of Black Africa, excluding the region’s sole economic power, South Africa. This led me to pose a question to myself: can Black people build prosperous societies?
Just about every reason-from slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism to inequitable world trade rules-cited for the backwardness of Black African nations has been so debunked by time that it has now become necessary to look beyond the realm of such contemporary explanations. The maddening inertia of Black people and the mystical forces that keep tramping down our nations, in fact, seem to have their roots deep within us, not from without as has been argued for decades.
Just about everywhere you look, evidence abounds. Vietnam suffered a war of colonial conquest and it was eventually subdued by France in 1884. For almost a decade, it again fought a devastating independence war until France was vanquished in 1954. And then came the epic battle of 1965 to 1973 with US military and its allies, seeking to squelch the North Vietnamese communists.
When the guns fell silent with the withdrawal of US troops in 1973 and the eventual fall of Saigon in 1975, the Vietnamese [death] toll stood at a horrifying three to four million. Diplomatically isolated, its economy shredded and its population maimed and traumatized on a scale unparalleled in any Black African nation (except DR Congo), Vietnam would seem to have no chance at success.
But just two and a half decades later, Vietnam is storming the world stage as an economic powerhouse. Its exports are flooding western nations; heavy and advanced manufacturing is thriving at a rapid pace. Its GDP, $258 billion, is having an average growth rate of 8%, the second highest in Asia after China. Europe had to put curbs on the country’s shoe exports after they nearly sunk much of the continent’s manufacturers.
According to a news report in New York Times on October 25, 2006, Vietnam now sells “nine times as much to Americans as it buys from there.” Since 1990, a space of 15 short years, Vietnam has pulled off one of the most stunning economic feats: reducing absolute poverty-World Bank standard: subsisting on $1 a day-from 51 to 8% of its population.
Back home here (Uganda), the sort of wars and the scale of devastation that Uganda has suffered since independence can hardly be said to be as crippling as the cataclysm that struck Vietnam.
This is true for many of the Black African nations. But the difference is staggering. Vietnam’s economy is roaring. Sub Saharan Africa is dead stuck known more for: constant disease outbreaks, emergency food relief appeals, civil strive, genocide, chronic corruption, flimsy or nonexistent infrastructure, constitution breaches, state failure than anything else. This disgusting state of affairs after, according to an estimate by South Africa’s Brenthurst Foundation, a colossal $580 billion worth of donor money has been poured into the region since independence. Why have the Vietnamese overcome their historical setbacks and prospered while Black Africans stagnated or regressed?
Or if we may ask another question: why is it that White people prosper wherever they settle while Black people head for the opposite direction. The British crown started asserting its colonial rule over small territories on the continent of Australia in 1788, taking several decades before it brought all the areas into a unified Australian colony.
Throngs of Europeans emigrated en masse and settled there throughout the 1800s. These émigrés went ahead, starting from really little or nothing, and established one of the world’s economic and military powers that is Australia today. The history of New Zealand, the other White country in the Southern Hemisphere, is pretty much the same.
Now contrast these nations with Haiti, the only black nation outside of Africa. It gained independence in 1804. It’s near the US, the richest market on earth and Haiti has a coastline unlike other African nations whose landlocked status is blamed for their underdevelopment. And fine, it has had a fairly brutal past but nowhere near Vietnam’s horrors. But what have our Haitian brothers made of these generous natural advantages: it remains the most backward country in the Western hemisphere, bound up by privation, cyclical coups, spasms of mayhem and blood-thirsty gangs. At home and away, that’s your Black people!
In fact Haiti is perhaps just about the best that we can achieve in nation building. Ethiopia never had colonialism. It registered impressively high levels of literacy as early as 1970, a fact a friend of mine brought to my attention recently. It has a rich and widely shared cultural heritage, a common ancestry. This should have propelled Ethiopia but see the shameful portrait of hunger and disease that this country projects to the world.
And so, to go back to that question that I have been chewing over and over again of late: can Black People build prosperous societies; I firmly believe the answer is a sad NO.
The dumbfounding incompetence of President Museveni thus is not a failure of an individual. It’s a failure of a people: Black People. Museveni only rose and touched our low ceiling. The shamefully limited achievement of his “fundamental change” regime thus should be interpreted in this cruel context.
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