Third Edition: Know Your Country for Policy and Decision Making

Having traveled and understood one’s country would be a way of measuring the level of patriotism in oneself. That could be a basis on which each individual citizen would stop having a moment of social impact, with prior knowledge about the challenges of countries to be addressed at the individual level.

Recent talk on patriotism has featured the heads of political parties from two nations taking to the field to spread the gospel of patriotism. Unfortunately, the speeches of patriotism have been partisan, applicable only to the supporters of the ruling party while, according to them, the rest (Ugandans) never qualify to be patriotic outside their parties.

While the idea was fantastic, it has served the competing interests of FDC and NRM to foster love for one’s own party, rather than the best way to build national identity, unity and solidarity in the face of the challenges facing Uganda. as a whole.

As a consequence, the NRM party has resumed its patriotic activities by recruiting students for paramilitary engagements commonly known as chakamchaka. From that, we are ready to have new definitions of patriotism; among them one according to the FDC party and another from the perspective of the NRM.

An interesting compliment on the speech of patriotism was one from Uganda’s former vice president, Wandera Specioza, who suggested to members of parliament that they view their positions as mere service to the country rather than a career, while responding to the proposal to ensure a government. house for an acting vice president.

His appeal was a display of patriotism; although during her time as her vice president, she accepted large sums of taxpayer money to finance her doctoral study. If she Specioza was patriotic as she meant, she would have turned down the taxpayer money and opted for her own allowances, since she was working and she could afford it.

Perhaps, if she were in Bukenya’s position, she would also support the idea of ​​taxpayers providing housing for her. However, it is hard to imagine that while some people are making their lives as comfortable as possible, in other parts of the countryside citizens lack essential subsistence services.

In Busia district, for example, HIV/AIDS services have to be sought in Kenya or in nearby districts like Tororo and Mbale. The situation may be worse for more rural people, who have to travel several kilometers to access ARVs and other related services. Maintaining hospital care in a health center can be quite expensive for them, and the stigma is very high in rural areas.

Family members maintain anger and denial for a period of no less than six months -characterized by violence against the person living with HIV/AIDS. For this reason, a much longer positive life and recovery program would be desirable, for example; 1) having to address household poverty – which makes life with HIV difficult to live, 2) having to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS – to desensitize people to fears and negative cultural attitudes about HIV HIV/AIDS and, 3) encourage the establishment of NGOs in places like Busia to provide psychosocial services and medical services that promote a positive life.

There are a handful of NGOs in Busia. The HIV/AIDS components of existing organizations are too weak or limited to offer tangible services to potential clients. However, Busia, being one of the historic cross-border routes through which HIV/AIDS is said to have entered Uganda, should have benefited earlier from both local and international HIV/AIDS service organisations. In Busia, they mainly focus on widows, orphans and other vulnerable groups.

Based on an evaluation of a sample of twenty-five women selected to benefit from a microcredit scheme; a New Hope African Children poverty alleviation program in Busia showed that all married women did not make independent decisions that affected their health and livelihood.

Husbands often interfered in their businesses and played a more influential role, negatively affecting creditworthiness, given the danger that men would completely determine the allocation of money and possibly go on a drunken binge.

Furthermore, not all of them had the knowledge to ensure proper hygiene and sanitation, and were under constant threat of heavy rains due to precarious housing. In fact, some stayed awake when it rained; fearful that their shelters might be razed.

What was interesting about NGOs was their ability to use brains and paperwork to earn and manage large sums of money from donors. However, its management was so centralized that the founder actually acted as chairman of the board of directors.

The organizations’ decisions never involved the board members stipulated by the constitution requirement. It was only strategic to include prominent men and women as board members, to win the money and reputation of the donors. They just sat down and prepared attractive reports to maintain healthy relationships with donors.

Some of them are lucky to have done it without key organizational structures. Perhaps the Christian face of such organizations left their patrons in no doubt that they should offer all the help they could.

And those who work for the organization are a small team of family (wife and husband), in-laws, friends and distant relatives. This was supposedly intended to reduce the incidence of conflict and speed up the decision-making process in the organization.

While emerging cities like Busia are basically safe, there are individuals or small groups that are highly influential and seemingly untouchable. Reports say that criticizing them could cause problems.

They can organize violent actions against people they consider a threat to their personality or any possible competitor in terms of power and wealth. And when they need something, they explore every means to get there; an interesting value, however.

For example, a famous president of a local or town council could easily become ward president, an opportunity only reserved for a ward-level councillor, who chooses to run for that position (ward president).

However, religion as the main tool for social order has larger roots in Busia. An interesting element is the ease with which one becomes a shepherd. The Balokole, born-again Christians, have a large network of members, who get along well and often help each other in times of need.

Again, it was the most influential and vocal balokole: who, as others go to bible schools to become pastors, labeled themselves or simply began calling themselves pastors. It was like a business to do it by organizations and individuals, who want to make financial gain or attract money from donors.

Bazungu – White or colored people are seen as gods due to the common opinion that they are “rich” guys who have come to the area to give away money. Therefore, they are made to feel as comfortable as possible. For a field team consisting of two or three whites, it is most likely that there will be discrimination of home team members by the local communities they serve.

Perhaps the only privilege home team members would enjoy is paying lower prices for goods and services. Even with equal roles and responsibilities, side by side with mutual respect within the team, outside of it, it will be concluded that the members of the home team are servants of the bazungu.

On home stays, chefs will want the bazungu to eat the best of the food being served rather than share it equally among team members. According to the hosts, the best food consisted of passion fruits, Irish potatoes, meat and rice. Home team members could only serve from that menu long after the bazungu had served.

Hosts’ expectations are always that when foreign visitors return to their respective countries, they send them gifts and other donations, which really any member of the local community could do to someone in need.

What Africans need to develop is the culture of volunteering and caring or helping to change the lives of vulnerable groups, victims of war and natural calamities, for the better. This could help elevate and preserve African dignity in the face of the bazungu.