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This article was run in the Monitor in July 2003.
Uganda’s Disorganisation
What is wrong with Uganda that we remain so underdeveloped? This
question has always puzzled me. Could it be that Ugandans are
just lazy or outright intellectually inadequate? Seeing a village
woman toil away from down to dusk quickly dispels the laziness
explanation while if you put a Ugandan in any academic setting,
they will perform well or even excel (thus putting to rest the
intellectual inadequacy view). Since Ugandans work hard and are
also intellectually capable, I think the main reason for our undeveloped
state is disorganisation. This country is simply way too disorganised.
Ugandans’ hard work and intellectual capacity never translates
into any meaningful development because of the disorganisation.
At the core of the disorganisation is ubiquitous greed. There
is an every-man-for-himself attitude that blinds people to the
benefits of the order resulting from working in unity with others.
People here don’t see that working together as a
nation offers greater benefits to everyone than selfishly going
it alone or stealing monies. The simple truth behind the developed
world is that it is strongly organised into systems which are
much stronger than individuals with the result that the systems
channel the people’s diverse activities to directions that
beget development. In Uganda the reverse is true – individuals
overwhelm systems resulting in disorganisation and consequent
underdevelopment. Therefore as people work hard, the activity
they generate is too disparate to achieve much good and as such,
all amounts to ‘no work done’. Could there be something
with the Ugandan that he cannot see the benefits of a system?
Is it that no Ugandan is capable of developing systems that tap
the potential of all individuals or is it that it is just impossible
for a Ugandan to exist congruently in a system?
Take a look at the economic system. The import-export status
is untenable in that we continue to import more than we export
thus leading to net loss of foreign exchange. The fact that we
import a lot means there is a huge local demand here and yet,
instead of steadily seeking ways to satisfy this demand using
indigenous products, we are always crying foul over protectionist
policies of developed countries. Why cry over those foreign markets
when our own people are consuming imported products? Why not satisfy
our own people’s demand by supplying them with the things
they crave (radios, mobile phones, cars etc)? It takes only 30
years to organize society to supply these things and yet in over
40 years of independence, we have made no serious efforts in that
direction. Developed countries, while they might have benefited
some from colonial markets, largely grew because they first satisfied
the basic local needs to create income and more demand. For those
who still so strongly believe in export remember the earth is,
economically speaking, a closed system. Earth is self sufficient
and so can Uganda.
That foreign exchange shortage resulting from our export-import
situation is a terrible malaise is attested to by the shameful
fact that this country only manages to survive on dole outs from
donors and NGOs (possibly over 90 percent of the Ugandan economy
is donor driven). As such, begging for funds has become an essential
component of our lives with top leaders going on specific missions
overseas to suck-up for a couple million dollars. There is so
much begging that we sometimes take it as a right to receive monies
and become indignant when they are not forthcoming. In Kampala the begged monies are shamelessly stolen
by a minority clique that is totally fascinated by the glitz of
cars, beer and hi-tech gadgets.
Looking at our education system, it is completely baffling that
a country so much in need of skilled people has a sham system
where there is more emphasis on the paper than the actual skills.
‘I have got papers’, one is wont to hear people boast,
possibly with a heavy accent from the ruling elite’s home
area. Our education continues to produce economists who for forty
years have failed to make any prudent policies, politicians and
a society incapable of holding the peace even for a year, engineers
who cannot produce a single machine…. As if that is not
bad enough the university level now puts more emphasis on numbers
thus increasing quantity at the expense of quality. It’s
hardly surprising that there a few, if any, Ugandans who are specialists
and expert in a particular field. Just how do we expect to develop
without experts?
Specialists are what make a country. When Dubya (the US president) speaks he does so with the confidence
of one with a sound backing of specialists. Thus, though he may
sometimes sound rush, every statement he makes is pregnant with
meaning. In plain English he can issue a threat, and it will not
be empty because behind his simple words are specialists capable
of assembling the most awesome arsenal on this planet. Yet for
all the talk about the serious developed countries, it is amazing
when you visit them just how little people appear to work. The
appearance is deceptive because in those countries each person
does what s/he is assigned quietly but efficiently. Here people
do lots of chest thumping but little work (and think any minute
achievements they make give them a right to stay on a job for
life).
Let’s keep quiet and start working. Instead of complaining
of the biased world-order let’s dig-in and create internal
efficiency, and beget systems that work to produce the things
we need to consume. Let’s produce quality items which require
specialized skills and demand for them will not fail. Producing
low-skill items and trying to market them to someone who can produce
the same items without much sweat is surely in vain. Produce quality
stuff requiring special skills and the market will follow automatically.
If a Ugandan scientist for example managed to find a cure or preventative
drug for AIDS, just tell me how he would fail to find a market
for it here and overseas. Producing the things we need is hard
but possible through organized hard work (remember how German
and Japan arose from the ashes of World War II);
so lets put in place systems to produce them. Give people skills
and assign them to particular manageable tasks, a competent individual
to handle each problem we face. Organise, interrelate and produce.
And before you despair remember all the knowledge we need is available
if we know where to look. So let’s use available knowledge
to organise the human resource in space and time to crystallise
development.
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