Skirting the Issue

When the Americans and their Second Amendment rights feel violated,
they invariably begin to stock up on arms. Great news for the NRA...not
the National Resistance Army a la Uganda but the National Rifle
Association. And while some may argue that this particular piece of
legislation is rather outdated, i think that it has gained relevance as
government has continued to exert its influence in American life.

On our national front, i predict a similar effect after the Anti_Porn
bill begins to be enforced. In our case though, i think there will be a
corresponding rise of use and possibly the creation of a
counter-cultures. Kind of what happened with the prohibition.

Historically, we have shown a distaste for certain aspects of the
opposition and responded in kind to parts of their strategy that were
proving a little too effective.

For example, when the Walk To Work campaigns and other street
demonstrations began to disrupt the work of government, we came up with
the Public Order Management Bill which in a nutshell, will not let more
that three individuals gather together without supervision.

Having realized the possibilities that lay in public squares, the
Turkish government decided to build a mall in their 'Tahrir square'.
Uganda in the meantime, is a little too small for that kind of thing but
to avoid any of this, closed the constitutional square to the general
populace. The word though is that the caterpillars have not read the
signs and have chosen to set up shop in the trees on our square.

In addition to this, some rapid and controversial changes were made in
the Internal Affairs Ministry placing a Military General into the
drivers seat even if critics of this move complained that the could not
hold both offices without first resigning from one.

While this is a good move in some respects, it also strange granted the
top security posts in the country are run by generals (Police and
Army...naturally). The challenge then would be to make sure that none of
the generals gets too friendly with opposition members or finds a soft
spot in the hearts of the populace.

The NGOs and the CSOs will be quiet for a while and so will the
Churches. They have been given their morsel of bread and will feed on it
for a while celebrating a victory on the moral front.
In the meantime though, the purse will continue to grow smaller
hindering the effectiveness of the opposition movement. All this while
we race to yet another five year term.

Sometimes there are advantages of having a central rallying points.
These can be used as thermostats to gauge the state of the nation but
can also be squashed by governments. It is also possible and better to
have myriad of rallying points and to cause plenty of harm or disruption
although the management of these centers can be quite a challenge. And
this is where the generals would come in as was the case in Egypt, Libya
and Syria.

I suspect that the tension between the generations is going to increase
driven by numbers that favor a younger marginalized population (almost
50% under the age of 25).
Why does this matter? Well it means that the most important part of our
population has not been given a chance to engage and to begin to
participate in a process that clearly belongs to them.

I guess the country is keen to see a greater determination to fight
poverty and unemployment. Maybe it is time to create a campaign similar
to the one that was used to fight the dreaded disease.