Archive for February, 2008
Politics
February 10th, 2008. Published under Life in Uganda. 1 Comment.
Funny story that happened today: I met with Uncle Richard and Uncle Ralph today. Richard is on our Board of Directors and a very influential guy, and Ralph is his brother and is the Permanent Secretary for the High Court. Both cool old men, they are helping set up meetings for Bob’s upcoming trip. But as we met Ralph started talking about politics and how much he had studied United States democracy (you’d be surprised, people here know more about our current elections than most Americans probably do). But Ralph started laughing and said he really respected the US system because two opponents could battle each other for months, then one of them wins and the loser will back up or support the winner. He started laughing and said, “It can’t be this way here. If you go against me and I win, then you should be dead. That’s the way it is, you can’t oppose me then support me. If you oppose me and I win, then you die.” I started cracking up laughing because of the subtle truth to it. He was laughing as he said it, just reflecting on the military style of politics here. But it’s somewhat true. Makes me glad to be from a country where we really are free and don’t have the constant threat or reminder of military rule.
Also, as I was meeting with them I really didn’t feel like I was in Uganda. Something about sitting on a leather couch, watching a football (soccer) game on a nice TV, and drinking a really nice glass of wine doesn’t fit with most people’s description of Africa. Both of these guys are rich old men and we met at Richard’s house in Kampala. The “meeting” lasted like 5 hours, most which was spent watching football (soccer). That’s definitely not how most of my time has been, but it was fun while it lasted today.