One Step Foward, Two Steps Backward

Since Uganda attained Independence in 1962, we have strived to move on. But the journey has not been easy that I am beginning to think that in the next 50 years, Kampala City would not have changed. It will still look like the Kampala City that it is today. There will still be numerous boda’s and taxi’s clogging the streets. There will still be other versions of Erias Lukwago and Jennifer Musisi fighting over who should head KCCA and that chap who preaches at the traffic lights of Shell Jinja road – his son would have inherited the spot to continue his father’s legacy.


That aside, the small strides that we have so far made, some people have made it their mission to unravel those strides for despite having travelled, and also having access to the information superhighway, for every step of progress that we supposedly make, we in fact take two steps backward.

This is the deal.

Thank you for that question: On Monday, a young lady who is the spokesperson for the Director of Public Prosecutions was interviewed on NTV news. When Rachel Arinaitwe, the newscaster asked her the first question, this was DPP Spokesperson’s response: “Thank you for that question” then started blabbering in an effort to give out the best possible answer. I know it’s polite to say ‘thank you’, but why be thankful for the question in the first place? Would Rachel have been peeved if DPP Spokesperson did not say thank you? Or was the question such an easy one that she felt obliged to say thanks for not being put on the spot?!

Am sending my greetings: I have never understood why, people call radio stations and sometimes at an un-godly hour. They then send greeting to friends - OG’s and OB’s who are probably fast asleep. By the way, what is OG and OB? The one I really can’t get and which tends to happen on CBS, are men and women who send greetings to their spouses yet they are in the same room for the message often goes as follows: “I am sending greetings to my wife Hilda Nasuna who is sitting here right next to me.” Why send greetings to somebody sitting next to you?

Turn over there: We have a problem because many people don’t know the difference between left and right. Nine times out of ten, ask a person to show you their left or right hand and they will first glance down to make sure they have picked the right hand. Whilst driving and I came up to a fork in the road and asked if I should turn left or right and the answer was: “Turn over there…” And my response was, “over there where? Left or right?” No need to guess what answer was spewed out but: “Over there!”

Making Friends: The lovely but totally ‘airhead’ ladies who go to university not to do a degree but to ‘pursue’ a degree have still not grasped what the word ‘hobby’ means. When Airhead presented me with her CV recently, I asked how she goes about her hobby – that of making friends. She had an answer which went along these lines: “Okay, I will come up to you and ask for your name then I would ask you if you want to be my friend!” And all this came from Airhead who is a 2nd year university student.

Our choices are limited. Either we stay here and continue sending greetings or we bust and return when greetings are a thing of the past.