|
On The Mark
With Alan Tacca |
The rise of the tough guys
Sept 19 - 25, 2004
|
There is no wind that blows nobody no good so goes the saying. Come to think of it, even in the most depressing of situations (like the death of an exemplary soul who was loved by all), there is an undertaker delicately measuring the grief, and who will provide a special coffin at a special price. Perhaps a little more often than not your average undertaker politicians will jump on anything that comes with the wind as long as it could be remotely useful. Take the recent hostage drama in Kampala. You may follow President Museveni’s cue and call it a “circus”, but you probably will not share the gate money. A windfall like that, and suddenly his banana republic looks like a serious country. At this particular point in the history of human civilization, every serious country must face the threat of terrorism. And in Uganda, where thousands upon thousands of “self-employed” citizens have turned Ludo into a full-time occupation, and a country where a region wounded by eighteen years of war has failed to mature into a “disaster area”, the question of seriousness had certainly become an issue. The exhibition at the Ministry of Lands on Parliament Avenue may not have been on the scale of Beslan, a school building siege that left the teeth of Russian President Putin grating with rage, but then Rome was not built in one day. Once we are on the list of serious countries, only the resources of each of us will limit how far we can march with the times. Inspired by the fantasies of a government minister, many youngsters were already getting confused whether to become rocket scientists or to go for Hollywood heroics against the likes of Joseph Kony. Now the climate definitely favours Hollywood. A few eyebrows were raised, but some people got impressed, and the episode must have got a number of our more pompous braggadocios thinking: if an ordinary-looking man could raise himself to this glorious act, why not real men? Why not the men known to wield power? This is what free enterprise is all about. You bring guts and an ego on the scene; I bring a stronger mixture. The graying (and in some cases estranged) old Museveni friends had their day in the Luweero Triangle. So you have the president’s new cronies claiming slices of the present action. One spears a loitering nephew in the afternoon; another relishes shooting dead a car junk parts hoodlum in the morning. In America, too, you have noticed that the mastery of the arts of war and killing are big on the screen. Where was George W. Bush when the Americans were killing the Vietnamese? If John Kerry was with his fellow countrymen in the heat, did he fight gallantly enough? And which of the two men will more competently lead their country in tomorrow’s battles against terrorism? Then in Russia, where the resources of Mr. Putin (being a former spy chief) cannot be doubted, the President still feels a need to prove his mettle by vowing to annihilate the Chechen terrorists. Kenya and Tanzania got their fiery baptism a couple of years ago, with terrorist attacks in Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. Then Kenya has just received another dose with its drivers held hostage in Iraq. The Parliament Avenue event should give Uganda an opportunity to catch up. Some people worry about this brave new world, because with the talk of terrorists in the air, the men of power who express themselves more readily through violence are likely to be in accelerated ascendancy. If it is street corner hoodlums now, why not opposition politicians tomorrow? And what if “the people” decided to shoot all those officials who steal, not car mirrors, but billions of their money from the treasury? It is a fear President Museveni will probably not take seriously. |
© 2004 The Monitor Publications
STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
