The great paradigm shift

In the movie The Great Debaters, when James Farmer, Sr. (Forest Whitaker) asks his son James Farmer, Jr. (Denzel Whitaker) what the greatest weakness of man is, the answer is prompt: "Not believing; doubt" – that’s man’s greatest weakness.

In high school, I witnessed first-hand how doubt can be debilitating even to students with first-rate intelligence. All my classmates that used to say with a tinge of resignation in their voices that Makerere University was a reserve of students from schools like Kings College Budo sure did not make it to the "Ivory Tower" on government sponsorship while those who refused to be infused with self-doubt did.

I had forgotten how lack of faith in our ability to deliver in the hour of need still affects us as a people until Zambia left Uganda heartbroken following the October 13 showdown at Namboole Stadium. Our lack of faith was evident even way before the match. Everybody was looking for two goals. And when they did not come, we moaned what a "cursed" nation we are. Sports scribe Fred Kaweesi was the winner: "It seems Uganda needs some sort of ritual cleansing to overcome a jinx that has now become legendary," he wrote.

No, man! What you and I, and indeed what this nation needs is to aim for the sky. There's nowhere we are going without great ambition and the tenacity by which extraordinary stuff happen. It is said that in his heyday, Mike Tyson "hit with bad intentions" – it’s what got him into record books as the youngest heavy-weight boxing champion of the world at the age of 20. Similarly, American boxer Rocky Marciano was at 187 pounds a man of "diminutive" physical stature’ compared to most of his opponents yet he retired from heavy-weight boxing in 1956 with 49 wins and no losses, because he would never allow the thought of defeat to cross his mind.

That is the faith we need. No one is jinxed. Uganda has the most brilliant brains and the most gifted people but rarely do we let our "light shine." When James Farmer, Sr. says we must do all we have to do so we can do what we need to do, he’s talking about the great paradigm shift in our thinking, approach and practicability as the only cure to this averageness from which we have failed to awaken.

To put it simply, extraordinary ambition and extraordinary belief is all we need to touch the sky.

The value of knowing your value

The art of negotiation is one that continues to elude many yet it determines the level of your success, once you have risen above your fears and forayed into self-employment. Did you know that you might be the best person for the job yet fail to nail it on account of not knowing your value?

I know my value. How about you?

I learnt the hard way. The day I quit my boring and financially unrewarding government job, I received a call from a "big" lady who runs an annual film event. She wanted me to head their public relations team for three weeks. When she asked how much I was willing to work for, in my naivety, I said one million shillings. She said she would consult, and when she got back to me she said they had decided to go with a marketing agency instead of an individual. An insider later divulged I lost because I asked for "cartoon money instead of professional payment" so they would not trust me to do a thorough job.

A few days later, I got another offer – to write some report as well as edit material for a company website. I completed the job in three weeks and was blown away when I was paid more than double the amount I was earning a month at my previous job. When I told a friend in excitement, he laughed and said I had still been ridiculously cheated.

"A consultant would have earned no less than Shs5m for that work," he said factually.

The next time the lady called me, I told her I was busy, to which she immediately responded that she would double my payment if I left everything for her work. The smile on my face said it all; it was an epiphanic smile; of recognizing that I had skills some were in desperate need of; skills that would actually pay the bills. That exciting discovery earned me a level of confidence that will never let me look back again.

I tell you, there is nothing better than knowing your value. That intimidating girl ceases to be, and you do your work with a certain charm that spills over and sells you like a hot potato; a charm that will have you asking as much as you want, and looking for opportunities sync with your style. Clearly, knowing your worth is all you need to achieve big time.

Golden jubilee reflections

I was born in the month of independence. No wonder mixed feelings tumble up and down in my being two days to our golden jubilee celebrations. Visualise with me what bubbled in the hearts of those who were present on October 9, 1962 when the Union Jack was lowered and the Uganda National Flag hoisted, officially ending 68 years of slavery.

Patriotic Ugandans bedecked in the National Flag on golden jubilee eve

Patriotic reverberations of "Free, free, thank God we are free at last" must have rocked the foundations of this country, and, probably no words are apt to capture the emotion and promise of Dr Apollo Milton Obote picking the mantle from the British imperialists. It was the day we began running our affairs—the most optimistic day in the history of this country.

Yet what do we have to show for it 50 years later? The capital city still has no smooth roads, and you must be "somebody" or know "somebody" to get panadol from the National Referral Hospital! We are stuck with an autocrat who bought legislators to knock term limits from the Constitution. Misappropriation goes on, ghosts earn from the hardworking tax-payer while our devoted teachers and doctors languish on miserable and delayed wages.

Sorrow becomes my companion and tears sprout from the corners of my eyes when I think of that and the homeless children that still share the gateman's curse of romancing the dark cold night. At least the gateman has a jacket and earns a wage. Then there is the pain of watching our rugged fathers and poor mothers in the countryside grappling with poverty in spite of all their toil.

It is on days like this that I want Sir Winston Churchill to resurrect so I can correct him that we are not the "Pearl of Africa" but the "pale of the world" instead. Yet my heart still leaps with hope and a sense of belonging when I see the National Flag fluttering in the wind and hear the National Anthem playing. I close my eyes like a mzungu being injected with Vitamin D from our morning sun and open them again to peer into the future.

I see the marvellous light we will bask in if we divorce the darkness of our hearts and hassle with integrity to earn our country civility and respectability. Then we will sing romantic ditties and forever remember the kiss of independence on the luscious lips of Uganda! Happy golden jubilee! For God and my country!

Make your resolve and just start to move

When President Museveni advises young graduates to become job creators and not job seekers, they dismiss his advice as a clichéd refrain from a decrepit leader. But I think it is high time we considered his words seriously.

There is a lot of disillusionment for the unemployed and the underemployed. The two groups have everything in common. They have dreams of driving nice cars, building your parents a house, marrying a girl of your dreams and taking your children to good schools to give them a solid foundation to compete favourably at a global stage. But all that costs money, a lot of it

The writer (right) with Moses Bagonza

And in a country where mediocrity is rewarded on nepotistic grounds, and meritocracy unappreciated, even the ambidextrous and nobly-intentioned have accepted a corrupt system and underestimated their ability to challenge and defeat it. They have accepted the view that unlike in the times of our parents when a high school certificate was a license to a good life, today not even a doctorate is guaranteed to get you a financially rewarding job unless you know "someone". So they have become proponents of the ends-and-means theory by bribing and doing everything including selling their souls for a job, a promotion and commonly for perishable riches.

Yet all that is bound to change with a new mindset. It is time we recognised that each one of us has a brainpower to do something worthy for his country and for self. It takes some hard thinking and the guts to go all the way. A friend of mine, Moses Bagonza, did it, and agreed to share his story to encourage you:

"I quit my job in July because I have a really bad attitude for employers that don't value employees. Since I set out solo, opportunities have not ceased coming my way –it's just one immediately after the other, mostly from foreigners. My first project was a compostable latrine in Iganga; many laughed at the mere fact that I was building a latrine but I made some good money and some good friends too that are sending me more projects, including building a maternity ward in Fort Portal…now I'm working to incorporate my firm and start bidding next year. My experience has taught me to believe that you will encounter your blessing when you make your resolve and just start to move."