Ms. Okurut,
my brother; you think it is still a seed? Oh no! It is now a big tree. And you do
not irrigate trees, do you? At least not in Uganda; where the climate is so
conducive, trees do not just dry up like that, even if they so badly wanted to.
---
It seems your old tree is about to die. I see the roots are getting rotten, the leaves
are turning yellow (and falling), and it does not provide the shade it used to anymore.
What do we do with a tree like this one?
Bwambuga.
Owor Kipenji [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
The Long View
-
By Mary K. Okurut
Ugandans are like children of Israel
August 30, 2003
The Bible is a fascinating book. It contains answers to every question and solutions
to every controversy under the sun. Issues on politics, intrigue, war, science,
creation, human relations, life, sickness and death can all be sorted out using this
one book. You can tell if you are wise or foolish; whether you will end up in heaven
or hell and if you are doing the right thing, by simply flipping through the pages of
the greatest and best-selling book ever.
It is amazing that every time you read the Bible you find something new - even if you
have been reading it since you started speaking. You can have a thousand preachers
speaking on the same verse and coming up with different sermons on the very same
verse. That is why the Great Book has been in use for millennia and there has been no
one to declare it exhausted in terms of content. It is the only Constitution that
needs no review or amendment because its laws and solutions are timeless.
It is the only code of criminal law where ignorance can be a defence and where mercy
and forgiveness take priority over retribution and punishment.
People always ask me where I find time to write yet my job keeps me very busy. My
answer is always the same, simple one: I take off at least half an hour every night
to read and meditate on a portion of the Bible. That effectively recharges my
batteries.
Why am I bringing in the Bible?
Of course as usual, I get hundreds of e-mails responding to this column; some giving
me the thumbs up sign and others bashing me black and blue.
There is one consistent fellow from Australia who, to put it mildly, has got a rabid
hatred of President Museveni. The other day he sent me an e-mail saying, 'Maria, keep
on irrigating the mustard seed, because it is about to die'.
For our foreign readers, the mustard seed refers to President Yoweri Museveni who
used the same expression as the title of his autobiography. It is borrowed from the
Biblical mustard seed that is one of the smallest seeds on earth, but when planted,
grows into one of the biggest trees. President Museveni used the expression more
broadly, to describe the metamorphosis of Uganda from the mire of dictatorship and
economic decline to (after 1986) a progressive affair and a widely acclaimed example
of political and economic success.
I replied the e-mail saying,
my brother; you think it is still a seed? Oh no! It is now a big tree. And you do
not irrigate trees, do you? At least not in Uganda; where the climate is so
conducive, trees do not just dry up like that, even if they so badly wanted to.
Why did I bring the Bible in this column today?
It is because this week, my friend from Australia pens me another acerbic e-mail: In
any case Maria, he chirped. Who asked Museveni to liberate us? We were better off
the way we were before he came in to spoil the show.
For starters, I know why this fellow is against the President.
It is a personal vendetta he is pursuing; too long a story though to tell in these
pages.
But like I have always said, I do not mind opposition - you cannot all believe in one
thing. The only problem with sections of the opposition is that they want to turn
personal disagreements into national crises.
So when this fellow asks me to tell him who asked Museveni to liberate Uganda, I
recalled the story of the children of Israel.
They spent 430 years in Egypt, the huge majority of this period as slaves. Hard
labour, tough punishment and a starvation diet on top of the bondage were all they
knew. In their distress they cried out to the Lord to save them.
The Lord, as usual, hearkened to their cry and sent Moses to lead them out of bondage
and into the Promised Land.
They enjoyed the flight from Egypt and witnessed the miraculous interventions as God
delivered them from Pharoah and provided for them.
But to God's dismay, the ungrateful Israelites kept staging one strike after another
over what they called the big issues.
One of the very big and important issues was that they had run out of cucumber and
onions. They rioted, cursing Moses for bringing them out of Egypt. Who told you to
bring us out of Egypt? they asked. At least in Egypt we had all the cucumber and
onions we wanted.
Another one was that Moses spent a whole 40 days on Mount Sinai in conference with
