Uganda: Of Cons, Cars And Losing a Job Because Of a Blog

This week, Ugandan Insomniac poses an always pressing question that sets the tone for much discourse:

Why are millions of Ugandans still living in abject poverty when an increasing
number of people in the country can afford a brand new set of wheels and
personalized number plates every year?

Meanwhile, Daniel Kalinaki has a different opinion: that everyone’s trying to con everyone else, and especially him:

Why is it next-to-impossible to find honest contractors in Uganda? Of course
we know that government wastes a lot of our taxes on all sorts of schemes,
school children are thrown out of their schools, buildings are razed and the
ground is let to fallow, awaiting some hotelier to make up his mind. We know
that people displaced by war are given rotten seeds when they finally get to
return to their homes, complete with flexi-pangas to help them till the land and
start new lives. We know all that, and more.What irks me the most are the
smaller things; the micro-corruption, the cutting corners that we are subjected
to daily…

And Ivan is tired of other things Ugandan:

I’ve gotten tired of saying we are not ready for CHOGM. I can only go on and
about a topic for so long. What do you take me for? The Red Pepper? Harry
Sagara? I will say this, the visitors are obliged to say they are crazy about
our country no matter what. Sure we have people on the job, guys who started
planting trees last week. Not to worry, the Ugandan variety of tree is the quick
growing kind. We should see some sort of progress some time next year. While the
visitors are here, we shall be encouraged to refer to them as “baby trees”. It
will be politically incorrect to refer to them as “little”.

But the person who really has a right to complain is GayUgandan, who lost his job (almost) because of his blog:

As a good suspicious employee, I will suspect that something is happening.
I have worked too long for my dear employer to be summarily dismissed. But, that
can be done in increments. And I may decide to resign to prevent further
embarassment. Not being needed, but you hang on desperately.

Pathetic?Maybe, and maybe not. Ok, I was outed by the
Red rug. That was last month. I thought that I had done something to create
a soft landing for myself. I talked to my immediate boss. I talked to my
ultimate boss. And things seemed to be cool.A few days to the end of the month,
I get the ‘bad’ news. Lots of apologies, lots of sorries, but it all adds up to
me losing part of my income. And being left with this suspicious feeling that it
is because of my damned sexuality. Or the sudden suspicion of it that my
colleagues at work
have!