A famous writer acknowledged that one of the saddest lessons of history is that we’ve been bamboozled long enough that we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth.
The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
Looking at that, the hullabaloo in our country, demonstrations against corruption are far from fact and will never yield fruits to the touched population because corruption is a normal necessary and inevitable evil that suffices on the root of all humanity.
Biblically recognised, our forefathers rewarded those they cherished with favours even God himself rewarded Abraham with subjection of all believers as a consequence of his sacrificial life.
Looking also at our churches today , not in my words, I quote a writer Clive Barker that expressed his unbelief in God, how you interpret it is your own business he said;
“I think that God that we have created and allowed to shape our culture through, essentially Christian theology is a pretty villainous creature. I think that one of the things that male patriarchal figure has done is, allowed under it’s, his church, his wing, all kinds of corruptions and villainies to grow and fester. In the name of that God terrible wars have been waged, in the name of that God terrible sexism has been allowed to spread. There are children being born all across this world that don’t have enough food to eat because that God, at least his church, tells the mothers and fathers that they must procreate at all costs, and to prevent procreation with a condom is in contravention with his laws. Now, I don’t believe that God exists. I think that God is creation of men, by men, and for men. What has happened over the many centuries now, the better part of two thousand in fact, is that that God has been slowly and steadily accruing power. His church has been accruing power, and the men who run that church, and they are all men, are not about to give it up. If they give it up, they give up luxury, they give up comfort.”
Paul kagame of Rwanda seems to have grasped this fact better, that’s why we see him banning churches whereas here in uganda, pastors are praising the president for upholding their freedoms of worship.
This is to show us how corruption is inseparable from humanity. To the extent that by fighting it you are fighting humanity and all the underlying principles of life and this doesn’t render corruption, nepotism the worst evils in mankind and besides a one Theodore Roosevelt said “A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.
However this is not to eradicate the fact that corruption is a wicked value, it’s only meant to stop using it as an excuse for the cruel life majority of Ugandans live .it should rather be brought to our attention that the briberies, nepotism, abuse of office should not be seen in singularity as targeting parliament or the president.
The whole system is immersed in the vice with the wolf called capitalism every where in the world. Looking at communist countries, this evil has been tamed because the system has been shaped to eradicate the idea of “man eats man”, survival for the fittest kind of.
Uganda in particular, the outcrys should not be against the evil in particular, but rather the failure of the system to deliver. As per the recent population statistics, majority are teenagers probably Living in oblivion of the future and to most have consoled themselves and given up on survival, to drugs and a friend recently told me that No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious & charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful. This implies that they live a day by day life.
This is where corruption has become hell to Ugandans, and is nolonger just an evil .
The question is how did it start?
Firstly when President Museveni came to power, he had , with no doubt a communist school of thought, having been nurtured by the Nyereres of this world, and along the way once he got the power things had to change, we all ought know that Power does not corrupt.
Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power , the president for dear of losing power saw a lime light in capitalism because capitalists once gathered can conquer the world, hence the need for laws protecting them, like the anti demonstrations laws we all know that the state has come up with to protect its capitalistic tendencies.
Secondly the world has advanced, from guerella struggles to corporate civilised savaged battles, hence the need to have gentlemen in suits fight battles, that’s why we have a wide parliament, with over 500 heads legislating petty laws like anti homosexuality and agelimit and making them matters of concern to the hungry nation yet they shouldn’t have been.
Maintaining this battle makes the state vulnerable to the worst corruption ever , because these gentlemen and ladies in suits need to be blindfolded with money less their conscience won’t let them , because they know what they do is wrong. They will make all the laws to protect their saucepans and will never tolerate anyone to stop them.
They serve their master, the one who lets them get paid, the population is just full of cheerleaders who will never matter to them. They will even wake up one morning and pass a law letting the incumbent rule for life, because they have been so tainted with guilt and cannot for once face innocence. “That’s our parliament”
Once you come to terms with all this, you will realise that the demostrators in Kampala are not bonafide victims but rather opportunists trying to be visually recognised and get to the dinning table, because the evil is Also part of them and they are part of it. They try to walk while knowing , they will be arrested and make news, but have at the back of their mind that they can’t beat the system.
Lastly , the only way to fight corruption is not a day thing but a generational one , the need to stifle the system, and adherence to the fact that corruption is natural and more with capitalism.
We should rather fight profit repatriation, and those that steal from here and invest abroad.
It would be different if Anita among and her accomplices embezzled the funds and built good hospitals and schools and perhaps charity foundations here in uganda, afterall we should come to reality that’s it’s just “one life”….
And building a 2.5 billion church in a local population of bare footed young children going to school should be a topic to discuss.
Derrick Nuwaine.
