Saturday, 31 July 2010
The Great Canadian Rocky Mountains
www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14338&article=4129&week=30
From the Hammock:
Lessons
LAST week I joined a group of friends to climb some of the most amazing Rocky Mountains in the world. As a first, I learned some important and priceless lessons that I would like to share with you today.
Many of you reading this would most certainly know much about mountains, is it not amongst the Great Lakes Region of the Great Rift Valley that you were born?
Therefore I run the risk of becoming Mr. ludicrous from those of you that might have climbed the likes of mountain Kilimanjaro and Rwenzori, even those of you whose highest peak might be Rwenzori water and Kilimanjaro beer.
The trek
We trekked a 16 kilometre uphill before we started the real mountain climbing, at this point waterfalls spewed from a mountain lake which was fed by mountain springs. The springs gave us the only luxury water bottles would be too heavy to carry; we hid them in the bush.
Observing the features from the base of the mountain was a lesson in humility; there were spots that seemed as though man would never capture them even with his facebook, twitter and Iphone, a place where even the precious wallet and camera were so much weight.
After a while, The crusts and dust of civilization were blown off faces, bodies were indeed interrogated, tortured and manipulated. A temporary victory of the mind.
As the altitude increased even the mind was having ideas of retreat, an interruption in the speech of somebody speaking to another was so much bother. The words that each person spoke as the angle of the mountain became ever steeper and sharper became fewer.
There was energy only to trek and you spoke only if you had to and if you were interrupted it was indeed offending.
I learned that climbing a mountain is as much a life skill and sport as a university degree or even a marathon. You start that journey as a closely knit group but the more distance the group covers the more isolated each individual becomes; by the time you reach the top you are alone and the satisfaction is also beyond words. I never got to the top of the peak but even from my vantage point I felt good and deeply was ego was bruised.
Breathtaking
A breath matters so much that as you climb you save up whatever energy is on your body. After walking for 12 kilometres in two hours we came across a waterfall rising above with its white colour and thundering myths, it appeared both mystical and majestic like the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. You had to raise your head at a high angle to be able to see where the lake was, above the waterfalls. Normally it is the other way around.
The only way upwards to the lake was by climbing a near 100-foot wall of cliff –the chain bolted into the mountain was the only thing keeping you from falling off the mountain.
At this point, a person getting out of their way to give you directions on where to place your foot and where to hold your hands onto seemed like a gift that only mothers give to their babies as they move from crawling on the ground to taking their first steps.
As we moved upwards to ever-sharper escarpments and ridges, holding a rock with bare hands and taking steps was indeed holding onto dear life. There everybody was holding on their own life’s, I’d hear only the breaths of my friends; words became too heavy.
At these moments each of us was alone and the simple decisions of where to step meant a choice between life and death. One mishap would mean falling off the mountain.
The higher we climbed the more we each separated from the group and went into a beautiful loneliness. First David Reize went with his wife Nikayla and after a while even they separated and took different routes.
Never tell the abilities and inabilities ofa person based on their gender
The adage that you can tell a book from its cover may hold true for books but it is far too misleading to be used while describing human beings and what they can and cannot do.
I learned this the hard way. I had initially been scared out of climbing up the high cliffs but when I saw a lady who I estimated to have the same body weight as mine I motivated myself that if she had made it up there; I too would make it. (PS. Nikayla; it was not you, it was the couple we met before climbing the first chain.)
Later I not only learnt that I was wrong but it was also a disrespectful statement to say a woman. While I was talking about this incident with Nikayla, it turned into a big debate about the status of women and what men think them.
I was even scared that it was becoming a discussion about class and race relations. I had to defend myself that I come from a country run by women.
And I never needed any proof about women and their strengths after all. Is it not Jane Mbabazi that raised my four siblings and me?
Mountains have many faces like humans
I also learned that like a human being, a mountain has many faces to it, when you stand at the bottom, the top, and west or wherever you always see different perspectives of the rocks, the gullies, waterfalls and the vegetation.
And they all tell unique and different tales.
Sunday, 18 July 2010
AFRICA'S MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMEN - AND 'HANDSOMEST' MEN!
Every day I get requests to do interviews, articles, book and thesis reviews, name it, about Africa. This week I got the strangest one.
I was asked which African country I thought had the most beautiful women, and the most handsome men! The researcher was actually doing some serious work on African aesthestics and how environments shape physical make up.
I will exclude Ugandan women and men in my listing, but you can be sure they CAME AMONG THE TOP SIX IN BOTH the female and male category in the top 10.
So here is a shortened list of the top 6 African countries with the most beautiful women and handsome men.
•MOST BEAUTIFUL AFRICAN WOMEN
1. Malians
2. Ethiopians
3. Angolans
4. Tanzanians
5. Rwandans
6. Somalis
MOST HANDSOME AFRICAN MEN
1. Senegalese
2. Cameroonians
3. Mozambicans
4, Rwandans
5. Egyptians
6. Burundians
*Don't ask how I reached the list. I decline to talk to the press.
I was asked which African country I thought had the most beautiful women, and the most handsome men! The researcher was actually doing some serious work on African aesthestics and how environments shape physical make up.
I will exclude Ugandan women and men in my listing, but you can be sure they CAME AMONG THE TOP SIX IN BOTH the female and male category in the top 10.
So here is a shortened list of the top 6 African countries with the most beautiful women and handsome men.
•MOST BEAUTIFUL AFRICAN WOMEN
1. Malians
2. Ethiopians
3. Angolans
4. Tanzanians
5. Rwandans
6. Somalis
MOST HANDSOME AFRICAN MEN
1. Senegalese
2. Cameroonians
3. Mozambicans
4, Rwandans
5. Egyptians
6. Burundians
*Don't ask how I reached the list. I decline to talk to the press.
Saturday, 17 July 2010
Memoirs of a Mtwa, the forrest and the gorilla
BY GEORGE KAGAME
A Korean proverb goes: “When two sharks fight; the shrimp suffers,” if that does not make sense as you may not be familiar with sharks and shrimps.
The local version of the proverb drives the point quite straight into your head and it goes: “When two Basopes fight; the Mtwa suffers” and he suffers for an extended period even after the two giants have stopped their fight.
You see the Basopes are not even giants after all but over the years they have built stereotypes against my people and me that it is cliché that a Mtwa is a pygmy; that rare thing that you only read about in storybooks. But my neighbour in the forest was a tall man, so tall he was always requested by the women in our forest community to pick fruit that was way up on the apex of fruit trees. Yet he was a Mtwa, his father Gudulia was well known too.
We lived in the forest; we loved the forest and knew how to take care of trees and bushes such that they would never dry or be cut down. We also existed peacefully with the animals too since mostly the animals acted as our defense shields against unwanted visitors; the animals were also too big for us to kill for pleasure.
Basope arrive
But our peace was disturbed when the Basope started arriving in our ancestral areas and started creating barriers. Barriers for crops, for their homesteads, barriers against other latecomers as well as barriers to keep us away from ever getting nearer these barriers.
The Basope subjugated us; we became the banter of their jokes.
even more Basope
But a short while later another group of people also came in the area and they also wanted a piece of our land for settlement. The new people who were similar in many ways to the earlier Basope negotiated their way to settling in. And settling in they did.
But soon afterwards the two were at each other’s neck and feet. Cue in violence, hatred, intrigue and downright madness. Apparently the First Basope were upset with the new Basope for cutting a share of the land to themselves, thereby reducing the portion of the first Basope. The second Basope did not stop on land; they also came with cows and even established a system of control and order. Placing themselves on top, lording it over the second Basope and they in turn lording it over us.
Baby bonanza and extermination
The population of the two visitors grew sporadically; with the first Basope reproducing at a rate that even spiders envied. My people and I were forced to move further into the forests ever vacating space for newly minted Basopes.
But even in the forests we were invaded as agriculture and further population growth found us. The first Basope were determined to win the battle of mothers and babies, their wives were particularly fertile in large parts thanks to the fertility of lands.
Perhaps that is the reason that the first Basope; having won the babies contest by far, even attempted to exterminate the second Basopes.
When the first Basope had issues with the later Basope the two were separated after widespread violence and death. The aftermath of this skirmish left the second Basope homeless and cultureless and in later years the First Basope attempted to wipe out their rivals completely that in JUST 100 days one million second Basopes were cut into pieces and thrown in rivers.
Who is watching who? the Mtwa and the gorilla
As a result of the contest between the two, we the Mtwas were reduced to nothings, we were not considered as equal human beings but little creatures upon which the Basopes poured their scorn and ridicule.
Somewhere along the way of their ‘development,’ the Basope stopped their violence and ventured deeper into the forests where we had been pushed. Inside the impenetrable forests they found that we were living amicably with a blessing of creatures that were not even heard of in other places on earth.
Oozing With arrogance and contempt, the Basopes now wanted us to vacate the forests for these animals and trees, how absurd?
That’s when we became what we are today. A bunch of incognitos, reduced to numbers sighted for sheer academic interest. We have been rendered landless, and are now living as squatters, surviving as potters and beggars, some of my childhood friends have resorted to crime, while even more have found a prosperous career in rebellion.
It does not matter what rebel groups we join, as long as we also have a right to the violence that for so long we have been subjected to. As a result I normally chat with my friends who are affiliated to several rebel groups-some of these groups in fact fighting against each other- but we don’t care. We have been reduced and forced into mercenaries.
Once we lived peacefully with the gorillas and the chimpanzees but unfortunately somebody came and took the pictures of the gorillas and chimps. These pictures attracted strange coloured people who came with even more cameras. The next we saw gorillas posing for pictures. People were paying in foreign currencies to watch the gorillas. Our comrade gorillas in the forest!
They were now very important.
Their pictures were beamed across the world, the animals acquired spin around them that even the most powerful Public relations firm could not achieve. Yet in all this nobody took our pictures and our stories, how we took care of the gorillas all those years in the forest before even the Basope arrived.
Our story has now become so blurry it resembles a puzzle.
That is because we are nowhere to be seen. The authorities have created game reserves and forest conservation areas where we once lived. Our land now belongs to the prestigious gorillas. Uhm, I wonder since when did animal rights become more important than human rights!
We are like a sore thumb and the authorities are eager to keep us far away from the visitors and their cameras.
My friend Mugabanya Mkolofi who was once very popular with the community belles is now a guide for these visitors that come to see the gorilla. But deep in his heart he is hurting. Reminiscing of the past times, he knows that if the Basope and others had not interfered with his abode he would be a powerful lord.
We could persevere through the foolishness of the Basopes; what we fear most however is the Mai Mai. These are cannibals; not only do they stop at displacing us from our environs as they search for gold and whatever else, they eat us. Like roast meat. According to the Mai Mai a serving of a Mtwa heart is a magic portion for bravery, a sort of Viagra for war!
donuwagiwabo@gmail.com
A Korean proverb goes: “When two sharks fight; the shrimp suffers,” if that does not make sense as you may not be familiar with sharks and shrimps.
The local version of the proverb drives the point quite straight into your head and it goes: “When two Basopes fight; the Mtwa suffers” and he suffers for an extended period even after the two giants have stopped their fight.
You see the Basopes are not even giants after all but over the years they have built stereotypes against my people and me that it is cliché that a Mtwa is a pygmy; that rare thing that you only read about in storybooks. But my neighbour in the forest was a tall man, so tall he was always requested by the women in our forest community to pick fruit that was way up on the apex of fruit trees. Yet he was a Mtwa, his father Gudulia was well known too.
We lived in the forest; we loved the forest and knew how to take care of trees and bushes such that they would never dry or be cut down. We also existed peacefully with the animals too since mostly the animals acted as our defense shields against unwanted visitors; the animals were also too big for us to kill for pleasure.
Basope arrive
But our peace was disturbed when the Basope started arriving in our ancestral areas and started creating barriers. Barriers for crops, for their homesteads, barriers against other latecomers as well as barriers to keep us away from ever getting nearer these barriers.
The Basope subjugated us; we became the banter of their jokes.
even more Basope
But a short while later another group of people also came in the area and they also wanted a piece of our land for settlement. The new people who were similar in many ways to the earlier Basope negotiated their way to settling in. And settling in they did.
But soon afterwards the two were at each other’s neck and feet. Cue in violence, hatred, intrigue and downright madness. Apparently the First Basope were upset with the new Basope for cutting a share of the land to themselves, thereby reducing the portion of the first Basope. The second Basope did not stop on land; they also came with cows and even established a system of control and order. Placing themselves on top, lording it over the second Basope and they in turn lording it over us.
Baby bonanza and extermination
The population of the two visitors grew sporadically; with the first Basope reproducing at a rate that even spiders envied. My people and I were forced to move further into the forests ever vacating space for newly minted Basopes.
But even in the forests we were invaded as agriculture and further population growth found us. The first Basope were determined to win the battle of mothers and babies, their wives were particularly fertile in large parts thanks to the fertility of lands.
Perhaps that is the reason that the first Basope; having won the babies contest by far, even attempted to exterminate the second Basopes.
When the first Basope had issues with the later Basope the two were separated after widespread violence and death. The aftermath of this skirmish left the second Basope homeless and cultureless and in later years the First Basope attempted to wipe out their rivals completely that in JUST 100 days one million second Basopes were cut into pieces and thrown in rivers.
Who is watching who? the Mtwa and the gorilla
As a result of the contest between the two, we the Mtwas were reduced to nothings, we were not considered as equal human beings but little creatures upon which the Basopes poured their scorn and ridicule.
Somewhere along the way of their ‘development,’ the Basope stopped their violence and ventured deeper into the forests where we had been pushed. Inside the impenetrable forests they found that we were living amicably with a blessing of creatures that were not even heard of in other places on earth.
Oozing With arrogance and contempt, the Basopes now wanted us to vacate the forests for these animals and trees, how absurd?
That’s when we became what we are today. A bunch of incognitos, reduced to numbers sighted for sheer academic interest. We have been rendered landless, and are now living as squatters, surviving as potters and beggars, some of my childhood friends have resorted to crime, while even more have found a prosperous career in rebellion.
It does not matter what rebel groups we join, as long as we also have a right to the violence that for so long we have been subjected to. As a result I normally chat with my friends who are affiliated to several rebel groups-some of these groups in fact fighting against each other- but we don’t care. We have been reduced and forced into mercenaries.
Once we lived peacefully with the gorillas and the chimpanzees but unfortunately somebody came and took the pictures of the gorillas and chimps. These pictures attracted strange coloured people who came with even more cameras. The next we saw gorillas posing for pictures. People were paying in foreign currencies to watch the gorillas. Our comrade gorillas in the forest!
They were now very important.
Their pictures were beamed across the world, the animals acquired spin around them that even the most powerful Public relations firm could not achieve. Yet in all this nobody took our pictures and our stories, how we took care of the gorillas all those years in the forest before even the Basope arrived.
Our story has now become so blurry it resembles a puzzle.
That is because we are nowhere to be seen. The authorities have created game reserves and forest conservation areas where we once lived. Our land now belongs to the prestigious gorillas. Uhm, I wonder since when did animal rights become more important than human rights!
We are like a sore thumb and the authorities are eager to keep us far away from the visitors and their cameras.
My friend Mugabanya Mkolofi who was once very popular with the community belles is now a guide for these visitors that come to see the gorilla. But deep in his heart he is hurting. Reminiscing of the past times, he knows that if the Basope and others had not interfered with his abode he would be a powerful lord.
We could persevere through the foolishness of the Basopes; what we fear most however is the Mai Mai. These are cannibals; not only do they stop at displacing us from our environs as they search for gold and whatever else, they eat us. Like roast meat. According to the Mai Mai a serving of a Mtwa heart is a magic portion for bravery, a sort of Viagra for war!
donuwagiwabo@gmail.com
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
vox popping
"Now Sancho tell me what everyone in the village is saying about me. Don't make anything up-I promise not to shout at you.”
“Well,” said Sancho, “the common people say you are mad and stupid. The posher people don’t approve of you calling yourself a nobleman, and the noblemen think you are getting ideas above your station. As for the rest of it, some people call you, ‘brave but unlucky,’ others, ‘polite but interfering,’ and others ‘bonkers but entertaining.”
Don Quixote
Miguel De Cervantes
“Well,” said Sancho, “the common people say you are mad and stupid. The posher people don’t approve of you calling yourself a nobleman, and the noblemen think you are getting ideas above your station. As for the rest of it, some people call you, ‘brave but unlucky,’ others, ‘polite but interfering,’ and others ‘bonkers but entertaining.”
Don Quixote
Miguel De Cervantes
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
In memory of William Muwanga victim of suicide bomb
A Letter to a friend in Tanzania
BY GEORGE KAGAME
OMAR, as a Tanzanian and resident of Dar Salaam you understand very well the pain of terrorism.
Were it not in your city and Nairobi that US embassies were bombed in 1998, killing 214 and wounding 4100?
The bombings happening simultaneously in the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar Salaam had effectively brought terrorism on the frontiers where East Africa meets with the new world order.
“Hi; Osama Bin Laden here!”
In fact they did more than that. They brought you Osama Bin Laden and his colleague Ayman Al Zawahiri in 1998. The two were talking about the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, the possible break up of Sudan and the invasion of Somalia. Dustbin Laden was upset about all those things and so he decided to bomb the US embassies in protest.
WHERE suicide bombings and bombings in general were expected to blow up London, Moscow, Madrid, New York, Kabul, Baghdad and add yours cities; they were really not an African concern.
When we were growing up the closest terrorism came to us was the Algerian Ninjas in the mid 90s. The ninjas were reputed to disappear "just like that," other than those crazy ninjas we never had bombings. And terrorism was a thing like fashion. Happening in New York, Paris and London!
And somehow it was a problem for those crazy Arabs with their beards, oh yes we also watched 24.
And yet East Africa beat New York, Moscow, Madrid, London, Kabul and Baghdad in the bombing championships.
Terrorism gets personal
I would expect that you might have known some individuals that died in the Dar Salaam US Embassy bombings or even the horrendous one in Nairobi. They were regular people, who never cared for politics even.
For you it is not just a talk of numbers and figures whenever terrorism is mentioned in the news. You have a personal experience with terrorism and like death, the things becomes entirely different when it starts happening in your neighbourhood.
Awkward conversations
Yes, twice it happened in Nairobi and Dar Salaam but for me that was far away in the city. Then I moved to the city too.
And that is when talking about terrorism became like a conversation about racism. Mysterious and awkward.
The people that took much interest in it were crazy.
Starting with the active participants-the suicide bombers -to others that make a living off it talking, and even fine people, they were all crazy. I never wanted to have a conversation with such people.
Because there would be a lot of misunderstandings, so much sensitivities and awkwardness!
It gets closer to home
Alright; this is when your sympathy.
Keziron was a good kid. He was a close friend to my best friend at the time Edongu Ronald.
Ronald or Edro as he called himself was one of the brightest boys in the school; he was competing with Frank Mugisha another genius in economics by our standards. That outstanding class of 2001 in Katikamu Secondary School also included Muwanga William aka Keziron.
Keziron was interesting in that he never spoke English. He protested the speaking of English as the lingua franca of the school and spoke exclusively Luganda as a sign of loyalty to his King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi of Buganda.
It was always a paradox, if he did not speak English, how did he manage to write and think well in it?
Keziron for all his protest against English was a fanatic of European football and his favourite club was Manchester United.
That was one of the first and major things for which he was famous. He loved his king and Manchester United period.
The World Cup Final and 70 virgins in heaven
Keziron was at Kyadondo Rugby Grounds on Sunday 11 July 2010 to watch the World Cup Final between Spain and Netherlands and was killed in the bomb blasts at halftime. Even the suicide bombers had to watch some football first before they blew up! As if the 70 virgins in heaven are not enough for him/her? Damn it!
The bombs killed Keziron along with 73 people.
One of the things the news highlighted as the story evolved was that Al Shabab; a Somali religious and militant group of bearded men were happy with the efficiency and motive of the bombs and later admitted to carrying out the bombs.
Omar, the suicide bombers are nowadays killing people you know. No longer a story you read about in the newspaper. It is a reality in your life.
And suddenly George Bush was a not crazy afterall.
Terrorism is the one thing whose conversation about I would rather pass. I just don’t understand what it is that is the crap with terrorism. And I don’t want to. What is it that is so hard to figure out really to stop this thing? How come we are talking advancement in technology and solving other problems.
Even for poverty we have the MDGs. That sounds like a hardware application for an awesome video game but it is an important solution to poverty. Just think about it. What is the difference between PS3, Ibox360 and MDG?
That’s evidence enough that we are working on poverty. That conversation we can have. It is also very easy to talk about charity, development aid, and millennium goals, NGO, HIV/Aids and more donor aid please!!!!
But with terrorism people start talking of Israel, Jews, Arabs, Islam, oil, and; you can add your issue too! It becomes a conversation of extremes and passions.
And then I ask myself; “What’s up with the Somalis really?” It is not just the Al Shabab that is fucked up with them Somalis. They have not had much going on their way really.
It is said that they, along with the Ethiopians were the only Africans that were ever colonized. And look what they got?
From Siad Barre they got Mohammed Farrah Aideed. You remember him? The one who brought you the famous BLACK HAWK DOWN series? The movie about 18 US soldiers who died when their chopper was brought down in Mogadishu in 1993, they had their bodies pulled throughout Mogadishu to the global shame of the US and Bill Clinton.
Do you remember them choppers that also did the job in the Afghan and Iraq war where uncle Saddam Hussein was deposed? Yes we saw his statue fall, didn’t we?
But did you watch the Black Hawk Down?
But yet I miss uncle George Bush. He was on the other side of the coin in the conversation about terrorism. HE tried to tackle it practically other than be mouthing on it with declarations and what do they have there in Iran? Sanctions?
Bush for all his weaknesses, I cannot blame him for setting the globe rolling in terrorism. The thing was there way before he became president and hell; he went for it.
Omar; the big picture of Somalia was designed by President Bush and Ethiopia when they chased away the bearded zombies in 2008. Ethiopia at the time overrun Somalia, Installing a government appropriately named as Transitional Somalia Government or something awkward as TSG, LIKE an application for a video game itself.
The TSG like all applications was short-lived and was chased away by the Al Shabab, It as not clear what happened to them Islamic Court Union, the predecessors of TSG.
And when Mr. Mouth ON Him Barrack Obama replaced Uncle George look what happened? Oh how I remember seeing Uncle Bush in Kigali in 2008!!!!!!
I miss him!
donuwagiwabo@gmail.com
BY GEORGE KAGAME
OMAR, as a Tanzanian and resident of Dar Salaam you understand very well the pain of terrorism.
Were it not in your city and Nairobi that US embassies were bombed in 1998, killing 214 and wounding 4100?
The bombings happening simultaneously in the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar Salaam had effectively brought terrorism on the frontiers where East Africa meets with the new world order.
“Hi; Osama Bin Laden here!”
In fact they did more than that. They brought you Osama Bin Laden and his colleague Ayman Al Zawahiri in 1998. The two were talking about the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, the possible break up of Sudan and the invasion of Somalia. Dustbin Laden was upset about all those things and so he decided to bomb the US embassies in protest.
WHERE suicide bombings and bombings in general were expected to blow up London, Moscow, Madrid, New York, Kabul, Baghdad and add yours cities; they were really not an African concern.
When we were growing up the closest terrorism came to us was the Algerian Ninjas in the mid 90s. The ninjas were reputed to disappear "just like that," other than those crazy ninjas we never had bombings. And terrorism was a thing like fashion. Happening in New York, Paris and London!
And somehow it was a problem for those crazy Arabs with their beards, oh yes we also watched 24.
And yet East Africa beat New York, Moscow, Madrid, London, Kabul and Baghdad in the bombing championships.
Terrorism gets personal
I would expect that you might have known some individuals that died in the Dar Salaam US Embassy bombings or even the horrendous one in Nairobi. They were regular people, who never cared for politics even.
For you it is not just a talk of numbers and figures whenever terrorism is mentioned in the news. You have a personal experience with terrorism and like death, the things becomes entirely different when it starts happening in your neighbourhood.
Awkward conversations
Yes, twice it happened in Nairobi and Dar Salaam but for me that was far away in the city. Then I moved to the city too.
And that is when talking about terrorism became like a conversation about racism. Mysterious and awkward.
The people that took much interest in it were crazy.
Starting with the active participants-the suicide bombers -to others that make a living off it talking, and even fine people, they were all crazy. I never wanted to have a conversation with such people.
Because there would be a lot of misunderstandings, so much sensitivities and awkwardness!
It gets closer to home
Alright; this is when your sympathy.
Keziron was a good kid. He was a close friend to my best friend at the time Edongu Ronald.
Ronald or Edro as he called himself was one of the brightest boys in the school; he was competing with Frank Mugisha another genius in economics by our standards. That outstanding class of 2001 in Katikamu Secondary School also included Muwanga William aka Keziron.
Keziron was interesting in that he never spoke English. He protested the speaking of English as the lingua franca of the school and spoke exclusively Luganda as a sign of loyalty to his King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi of Buganda.
It was always a paradox, if he did not speak English, how did he manage to write and think well in it?
Keziron for all his protest against English was a fanatic of European football and his favourite club was Manchester United.
That was one of the first and major things for which he was famous. He loved his king and Manchester United period.
The World Cup Final and 70 virgins in heaven
Keziron was at Kyadondo Rugby Grounds on Sunday 11 July 2010 to watch the World Cup Final between Spain and Netherlands and was killed in the bomb blasts at halftime. Even the suicide bombers had to watch some football first before they blew up! As if the 70 virgins in heaven are not enough for him/her? Damn it!
The bombs killed Keziron along with 73 people.
One of the things the news highlighted as the story evolved was that Al Shabab; a Somali religious and militant group of bearded men were happy with the efficiency and motive of the bombs and later admitted to carrying out the bombs.
Omar, the suicide bombers are nowadays killing people you know. No longer a story you read about in the newspaper. It is a reality in your life.
And suddenly George Bush was a not crazy afterall.
Terrorism is the one thing whose conversation about I would rather pass. I just don’t understand what it is that is the crap with terrorism. And I don’t want to. What is it that is so hard to figure out really to stop this thing? How come we are talking advancement in technology and solving other problems.
Even for poverty we have the MDGs. That sounds like a hardware application for an awesome video game but it is an important solution to poverty. Just think about it. What is the difference between PS3, Ibox360 and MDG?
That’s evidence enough that we are working on poverty. That conversation we can have. It is also very easy to talk about charity, development aid, and millennium goals, NGO, HIV/Aids and more donor aid please!!!!
But with terrorism people start talking of Israel, Jews, Arabs, Islam, oil, and; you can add your issue too! It becomes a conversation of extremes and passions.
And then I ask myself; “What’s up with the Somalis really?” It is not just the Al Shabab that is fucked up with them Somalis. They have not had much going on their way really.
It is said that they, along with the Ethiopians were the only Africans that were ever colonized. And look what they got?
From Siad Barre they got Mohammed Farrah Aideed. You remember him? The one who brought you the famous BLACK HAWK DOWN series? The movie about 18 US soldiers who died when their chopper was brought down in Mogadishu in 1993, they had their bodies pulled throughout Mogadishu to the global shame of the US and Bill Clinton.
Do you remember them choppers that also did the job in the Afghan and Iraq war where uncle Saddam Hussein was deposed? Yes we saw his statue fall, didn’t we?
But did you watch the Black Hawk Down?
But yet I miss uncle George Bush. He was on the other side of the coin in the conversation about terrorism. HE tried to tackle it practically other than be mouthing on it with declarations and what do they have there in Iran? Sanctions?
Bush for all his weaknesses, I cannot blame him for setting the globe rolling in terrorism. The thing was there way before he became president and hell; he went for it.
Omar; the big picture of Somalia was designed by President Bush and Ethiopia when they chased away the bearded zombies in 2008. Ethiopia at the time overrun Somalia, Installing a government appropriately named as Transitional Somalia Government or something awkward as TSG, LIKE an application for a video game itself.
The TSG like all applications was short-lived and was chased away by the Al Shabab, It as not clear what happened to them Islamic Court Union, the predecessors of TSG.
And when Mr. Mouth ON Him Barrack Obama replaced Uncle George look what happened? Oh how I remember seeing Uncle Bush in Kigali in 2008!!!!!!
I miss him!
donuwagiwabo@gmail.com
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
: MTN and how World Cup Citizens have mouths on them!
From the Hammock
4 July 10
Majukumu aka responsibility: Everything about him is irritating, he is smart and that’s okay but he also comes across as if he is ever driving the point home and proving a point to himself that indeed as advertised, he is smart.
I don’t like Majukumu sometimes but it is inevitable to recognize him. His turf stretches from Johannesburg, through East and West Africa. Others call him MTN, but I disagree, I think MTN is his poster face. MTN puts in the work and makes Majukumu’s money.
In fact MTN’s motto can be his logo; “everywhere you go,” and like many latecomers in the Citi, Majukumu has a mouth on him. Just think about it for a second, how many people used MTN to communicate this Sunday morning, and then consider the mouth doing the communication. How busy? How important?
After mouthing his way to bringing the World Cup to Africa he is now demouthing it away, dismissing it as big business, the usual suspects; Coca Cola, McDonalds (poor McDonalds,) the Jabulani, beer and even bigger countries.
And talking about Africa’s World Cup how come there is never been a European Cup or even American one?
Is it not because those countries are so diverse that one country cannot represent them? Is it not true that most of the Africans who played in the African teams Cameron, Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, and Ivory Coast also have EU citizenships?
Many of the African players in the six African teams also played in the most prestigious leagues in Europe just like the players from Brazil, Argentina and Spain.
Of the Algeria’s 23 players at the 2010 World Cup, 17 had French citizenship and 6 had represented France at junior level. The Algerian Coach: was the only African coach in the world cup and even he exited in the preliminary rounds of the tournament.
African time my foot; it is a very good thing the world cup but it is not African time. And yet all the African teams failed miserably?
See the Nigerian president Jonathan Goodluck has more to his leadership than an appropriate name as he has suspended Nigeria’s football from international tournaments until the Nigerians find out; ”what’s up?” with their talent and mediocrity.
Majukumu is yet another lazy African elite.
Mtali: (he can speak for himself)
What’s up with these cities of the World Cup? Drakensburg, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban, Rustenburg, Dutchburg, Franconstenburg, Englishburg(and those shrewd and crazy Bafokeng had to appear here also.) Do you remember them Bafokeng? They are the people that had a kingdom in South Africa throughout the time of colonialism and apartheid.
Somehow…
The kingdom was within the country of South Africa where apartheid and its predecessors had ensured black people and their kingdoms were irrelevant.
The Bafokeng had some smartness; they bought land from government and continued their kingdom under semi autonomous rule. At least the even crazier Boers believed in good old capitalism.
Therefore when the South African government banned gambling, the Bafokeng and some white South African types built Sun City. The Bafokeng were considered a separate nation in South Africa.
Today Sun City is known for a different spin. But the Bafokeng were still able to build this World Cup stadium from which England were chased out of the tournament by Germany? Totally a cool tribe that one.
And talking about tribes. Is it not odd that the only African ethnic group that has the same name as the mother continent is that of Afrikaans?
Of all Africans, these are white. Indeed the rainbow country.
The truest and closest to a rainbow nation I know of is Brazil and boy; are they having a wonderful time in African time? They make Argentina look indeed talented and lucky rather than efficient.
And what’s up with Africa, FOOTBALL and the World Cup? We are failing so bad that we’re accustomed to being the cute under dogs in everything.
It is not just football where we have a lot of promise and potential that we never fulfil. If you thought that making it into the big league, as a sportsman is almost impossible ask local musicians how they have developed their talents and you will be shocked.
Think about the relationship between football and politics. Politics is heated because it is the only avenue that one must take if ever they will achieve any meaningful accomplishments in life. The universally accepted ones at least, a family, a job and a home. Politicians rule in Africa.
We all bend to their whims, cruelty and violence.
Semi illiterate power brokers on the other hand manage sport; they operate with a mystery and they are mostly a hybrid between businessmen, witch doctors, politicians and peasants.
The day we demystify politics in Africa and demand of our leaders the same results as we demand of sportsmen then it will be our time.
African time.
Mtali: noise, noise, noise. That’s what you are all making all the time. Noise. Talking without speaking, hearing without listening. We’re fed up of people like you.
Ends
4 July 10
Majukumu aka responsibility: Everything about him is irritating, he is smart and that’s okay but he also comes across as if he is ever driving the point home and proving a point to himself that indeed as advertised, he is smart.
I don’t like Majukumu sometimes but it is inevitable to recognize him. His turf stretches from Johannesburg, through East and West Africa. Others call him MTN, but I disagree, I think MTN is his poster face. MTN puts in the work and makes Majukumu’s money.
In fact MTN’s motto can be his logo; “everywhere you go,” and like many latecomers in the Citi, Majukumu has a mouth on him. Just think about it for a second, how many people used MTN to communicate this Sunday morning, and then consider the mouth doing the communication. How busy? How important?
After mouthing his way to bringing the World Cup to Africa he is now demouthing it away, dismissing it as big business, the usual suspects; Coca Cola, McDonalds (poor McDonalds,) the Jabulani, beer and even bigger countries.
And talking about Africa’s World Cup how come there is never been a European Cup or even American one?
Is it not because those countries are so diverse that one country cannot represent them? Is it not true that most of the Africans who played in the African teams Cameron, Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, and Ivory Coast also have EU citizenships?
Many of the African players in the six African teams also played in the most prestigious leagues in Europe just like the players from Brazil, Argentina and Spain.
Of the Algeria’s 23 players at the 2010 World Cup, 17 had French citizenship and 6 had represented France at junior level. The Algerian Coach: was the only African coach in the world cup and even he exited in the preliminary rounds of the tournament.
African time my foot; it is a very good thing the world cup but it is not African time. And yet all the African teams failed miserably?
See the Nigerian president Jonathan Goodluck has more to his leadership than an appropriate name as he has suspended Nigeria’s football from international tournaments until the Nigerians find out; ”what’s up?” with their talent and mediocrity.
Majukumu is yet another lazy African elite.
Mtali: (he can speak for himself)
What’s up with these cities of the World Cup? Drakensburg, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban, Rustenburg, Dutchburg, Franconstenburg, Englishburg(and those shrewd and crazy Bafokeng had to appear here also.) Do you remember them Bafokeng? They are the people that had a kingdom in South Africa throughout the time of colonialism and apartheid.
Somehow…
The kingdom was within the country of South Africa where apartheid and its predecessors had ensured black people and their kingdoms were irrelevant.
The Bafokeng had some smartness; they bought land from government and continued their kingdom under semi autonomous rule. At least the even crazier Boers believed in good old capitalism.
Therefore when the South African government banned gambling, the Bafokeng and some white South African types built Sun City. The Bafokeng were considered a separate nation in South Africa.
Today Sun City is known for a different spin. But the Bafokeng were still able to build this World Cup stadium from which England were chased out of the tournament by Germany? Totally a cool tribe that one.
And talking about tribes. Is it not odd that the only African ethnic group that has the same name as the mother continent is that of Afrikaans?
Of all Africans, these are white. Indeed the rainbow country.
The truest and closest to a rainbow nation I know of is Brazil and boy; are they having a wonderful time in African time? They make Argentina look indeed talented and lucky rather than efficient.
And what’s up with Africa, FOOTBALL and the World Cup? We are failing so bad that we’re accustomed to being the cute under dogs in everything.
It is not just football where we have a lot of promise and potential that we never fulfil. If you thought that making it into the big league, as a sportsman is almost impossible ask local musicians how they have developed their talents and you will be shocked.
Think about the relationship between football and politics. Politics is heated because it is the only avenue that one must take if ever they will achieve any meaningful accomplishments in life. The universally accepted ones at least, a family, a job and a home. Politicians rule in Africa.
We all bend to their whims, cruelty and violence.
Semi illiterate power brokers on the other hand manage sport; they operate with a mystery and they are mostly a hybrid between businessmen, witch doctors, politicians and peasants.
The day we demystify politics in Africa and demand of our leaders the same results as we demand of sportsmen then it will be our time.
African time.
Mtali: noise, noise, noise. That’s what you are all making all the time. Noise. Talking without speaking, hearing without listening. We’re fed up of people like you.
Ends
Friday, 2 July 2010
From the Hammock : Football not among “things of note” in EAC
BY GEORGE Kagame
But in consolation even reclusive North Korea finally opened up; albeit only briefly.
Misery is being subjected to the hooh hah of football and The World Cup when you don’t care what the hell it is about.
mean, what really? You wonder where the sentiment comes from. I once had friends who would swear their lifetime allegiance to Argentina and Arsenal.
Conte was a fanatic of Manchester United and Italy, but secretly he hoped Argentina was a better team. Conte’s real name was Tusiime Anthony and he was a staunch catholic too, he had never been to England or Argentina but hoped to someday make the trip; somehow!
East African sport is bizarre; when people from far off places hear that football is popular here they never realize that our interest in it is only limited to watching it on TV. And even that is watching the football played in Europe and not here Africa.
But Football is important because for many it is the only chance to see and watch television in their lives. When the World Cup happens, the anticipation it carries equals that of Christmas. In Kigali we have businesses starting out with a television set, a bunch of benches and a shack nearby a market. These in most cases provide the only real leisure time activity of many in the country.
A football match between Arsenal and Manchester United is much more anticipated than even the budget and Independence Day ceremonies combined. On FM radio stations Competitions are held, draws, raffles and picks, prizes, awards, airtime and “so much more.” Most Rwandans do not care who the minister of the environment or public service is but they know the entire line up of Arsenal and Barcelona.
There are very stark contrasts and fortunes between the football being watched and that being played around here.
I have met The lumpen, a self styled expert on English football. In the pub they call him Arsenal.
For those of you who are wondering what Arsenal, it is an English football club managed by a Frenchman who is an economist and I got those facts spewing from the lumpen in less than three minutes of acquaintance.
Maybe we love to watch the football quite a lot on television so much that we have no time to play the sport or go to the stadiums to support those who play it or we have despaired from the administrators of the sport that we don’t care what they do anymore.
When Tanzania hosted Brazil in a friendly in Dar Salaam before the Brazilians flew to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, and lost the match by 5:1, the Tanzanian players were congratulated for the loss by all sundry in the country. They were expected to lose by a larger margin. And I won’t tell you about CECAFA as you will forget it by the end of this paragraph anyway.
There is no platform of success that East Africa is renown for in competitive football, the biggest export from the region so far is a certain Kenyan aptly known as Mariga;
“many sheep,” who plays for Inter Milan. Perhaps the West Africans have been much adventurous in football, but they also remain whipping boys when prestige stares them in the face.
Football really is an extension of our politics where the most powerful people in the game are also the same in any other sector of the economy. And if politicians in Africa are corrupt; as advertised; yet they are the rule makers, just imagine how far more corrupt the football administrators are. Many like the politicians above them in the pecking order of “people of note” have no or limited expertise, experience and skill.
And like other sectors of many economies in east Africa, it is a waste, pure carelessness. A mess.
But for its mess, football is an outlet. In the days of dictators and liberators in east Africa and indeed on the entire continent, The World Cup was the only event where east Africans got a chance to see a TV. Personally, as an eight year old in the early 90s, I watched Italia in the middle of Lake Victoria on an island known as Kibbanga.
On this island there was no telephone, no radio, health centre or even a road but somehow we were able to watch the World Cup. It was our only contact with the other world.
Also football enables fair competition and debate to take place, the kind that is unheard of in politics, business and legislature.
The good thing about being a journalist in Africa is that when there’s a mess in sport the coverage is freed of other restraints in the mainstream media about politics and its cousins. The mess is much more scrutinized than politics because it attracts less serious people.
“People OF note,” are too cool to be bothered by politics and crucially the donors are not interested in your sports, you may run, walk, sleep or kick about, as you want.
Donors are talking about serious things like human rights, world peace, saving endangered animals, climate change and capacity building. Football or sport IS way down the pecking order of “things of note.”
A sports reporter will therefore uncover details of a fraud scheme in football and they are quite aplenty and expose it without sanctions and limits from big brother.
As such, there are resignations in sports and some form of procedure is followed. In politics there’s limited scope of unearthing a fraud and corruption. News comes at its time.
In these circumstances of relative freedom to compete on the pitch, east African football administrators outdo each other in competing for attention, sympathy, success, prestige and good old bragging rights amongst human beings.
For its sheer fun, try watching a match between APR FC and Rayon Sport in Kigali; YOU will enjoy it immensely. If you happen not to be a football fan, at least the traffic dilemma in the city and Kwa’Rubangura that day will be less congested and so you will get home earlier.
But if east African football is misery, beyond misery is being a North Korean football fan or even worse national team player. In that country they have never watched a live World Cup match or any other live programme on their lone television station. So last week’s decision to show North Korea against Portugal was a blessing.
But it was a classical Case of Typical wrong timing.
North Koreans used to seeing only positive news about their country were shocked when their first opportunity to watch live television ended in disaster with Portugal humiliating the dear brother leader’s team seven nothing.
Television and the World Cup were immediately halted and positive news restored.
But in consolation even reclusive North Korea finally opened up; albeit only briefly.
Misery is being subjected to the hooh hah of football and The World Cup when you don’t care what the hell it is about.
mean, what really? You wonder where the sentiment comes from. I once had friends who would swear their lifetime allegiance to Argentina and Arsenal.
Conte was a fanatic of Manchester United and Italy, but secretly he hoped Argentina was a better team. Conte’s real name was Tusiime Anthony and he was a staunch catholic too, he had never been to England or Argentina but hoped to someday make the trip; somehow!
East African sport is bizarre; when people from far off places hear that football is popular here they never realize that our interest in it is only limited to watching it on TV. And even that is watching the football played in Europe and not here Africa.
But Football is important because for many it is the only chance to see and watch television in their lives. When the World Cup happens, the anticipation it carries equals that of Christmas. In Kigali we have businesses starting out with a television set, a bunch of benches and a shack nearby a market. These in most cases provide the only real leisure time activity of many in the country.
A football match between Arsenal and Manchester United is much more anticipated than even the budget and Independence Day ceremonies combined. On FM radio stations Competitions are held, draws, raffles and picks, prizes, awards, airtime and “so much more.” Most Rwandans do not care who the minister of the environment or public service is but they know the entire line up of Arsenal and Barcelona.
There are very stark contrasts and fortunes between the football being watched and that being played around here.
I have met The lumpen, a self styled expert on English football. In the pub they call him Arsenal.
For those of you who are wondering what Arsenal, it is an English football club managed by a Frenchman who is an economist and I got those facts spewing from the lumpen in less than three minutes of acquaintance.
Maybe we love to watch the football quite a lot on television so much that we have no time to play the sport or go to the stadiums to support those who play it or we have despaired from the administrators of the sport that we don’t care what they do anymore.
When Tanzania hosted Brazil in a friendly in Dar Salaam before the Brazilians flew to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, and lost the match by 5:1, the Tanzanian players were congratulated for the loss by all sundry in the country. They were expected to lose by a larger margin. And I won’t tell you about CECAFA as you will forget it by the end of this paragraph anyway.
There is no platform of success that East Africa is renown for in competitive football, the biggest export from the region so far is a certain Kenyan aptly known as Mariga;
“many sheep,” who plays for Inter Milan. Perhaps the West Africans have been much adventurous in football, but they also remain whipping boys when prestige stares them in the face.
Football really is an extension of our politics where the most powerful people in the game are also the same in any other sector of the economy. And if politicians in Africa are corrupt; as advertised; yet they are the rule makers, just imagine how far more corrupt the football administrators are. Many like the politicians above them in the pecking order of “people of note” have no or limited expertise, experience and skill.
And like other sectors of many economies in east Africa, it is a waste, pure carelessness. A mess.
But for its mess, football is an outlet. In the days of dictators and liberators in east Africa and indeed on the entire continent, The World Cup was the only event where east Africans got a chance to see a TV. Personally, as an eight year old in the early 90s, I watched Italia in the middle of Lake Victoria on an island known as Kibbanga.
On this island there was no telephone, no radio, health centre or even a road but somehow we were able to watch the World Cup. It was our only contact with the other world.
Also football enables fair competition and debate to take place, the kind that is unheard of in politics, business and legislature.
The good thing about being a journalist in Africa is that when there’s a mess in sport the coverage is freed of other restraints in the mainstream media about politics and its cousins. The mess is much more scrutinized than politics because it attracts less serious people.
“People OF note,” are too cool to be bothered by politics and crucially the donors are not interested in your sports, you may run, walk, sleep or kick about, as you want.
Donors are talking about serious things like human rights, world peace, saving endangered animals, climate change and capacity building. Football or sport IS way down the pecking order of “things of note.”
A sports reporter will therefore uncover details of a fraud scheme in football and they are quite aplenty and expose it without sanctions and limits from big brother.
As such, there are resignations in sports and some form of procedure is followed. In politics there’s limited scope of unearthing a fraud and corruption. News comes at its time.
In these circumstances of relative freedom to compete on the pitch, east African football administrators outdo each other in competing for attention, sympathy, success, prestige and good old bragging rights amongst human beings.
For its sheer fun, try watching a match between APR FC and Rayon Sport in Kigali; YOU will enjoy it immensely. If you happen not to be a football fan, at least the traffic dilemma in the city and Kwa’Rubangura that day will be less congested and so you will get home earlier.
But if east African football is misery, beyond misery is being a North Korean football fan or even worse national team player. In that country they have never watched a live World Cup match or any other live programme on their lone television station. So last week’s decision to show North Korea against Portugal was a blessing.
But it was a classical Case of Typical wrong timing.
North Koreans used to seeing only positive news about their country were shocked when their first opportunity to watch live television ended in disaster with Portugal humiliating the dear brother leader’s team seven nothing.
Television and the World Cup were immediately halted and positive news restored.
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