Prevention is better than cure

A friend of mine, a nurse, told me of a doctor who told an 18-year-old to quit smoking because it was killing her slowly. The girl rolled her eyes and said, "I really don't care about my life that much. We all have to die sometime, right?"

Physical exercises are a lifeblood to our health and wealth

That girl is the personification of the carelessness of some people regarding their wellbeing. Most of those you see sweating it out in the gym are not fitness freaks but patients submitting to doctor's orders. It is World Health Day today and I cannot help reminding us to start living sensibly, lest we continue dying way before our time. I just read on the World Health Organisation's website that one in three adults worldwide has high blood pressure. Moreover prevalence is highest in Africa with 40 percent Africans thought to be affected.

That is sobering enough for you to go check your blood pressure NOW! But the realest way to stave off this dangerous thing is to obey the dictates of WHO by reducing your salt intake, quitting alcoholism and smoking, as well as turning to a balanced diet.

This particularly goes to fellow bachelors that we cannot continue to compromise on good feeding. The headaches, fatigue and lack of concentration we often complain about come from poor eating and drinking and sleeping habits. If you have not yet slapped a ban on late night over drinking and those fast foods we know so well, you are in far more trouble!

Good feeding is good health

You may not believe this but posho, beans and vegetables, all washed down with a gigantic glass of juice, preferably home-squeezed, are the way to go. Generally vegetables, fruits, grains, cereals and dairy food are rich in carbohydrates that give the body superb strength. They also come with important vitamins, minerals, fibers and plant substances called phytochemicals that prevent diseases.

Fruits and vegetables are 80 to 95 percent water, meaning those who have a problem drinking water can compensate with more servings of the green dishes and liquids. The fact that the human body is 65 percent water, and that we cannot live more than ten days without it, should inspire us to drink more than the recommended eight glasses of boiled or treated water per day.

In all, good feeding, alongside physical exercises, are a lifeblood to our health and wealth. Happy World Health Day.

--First published in Sunday Monitor yesterday

The definition of true legacy

A story is told of a good brother and a bad brother who loved each other so well that when the bad brother died, the good brother gave a lot of money to a revered priest to say at the funeral that the bad brother had been a living saint.

The benevolent priest accepted but during the requiem mass lambasted the dead man saying, "We all know he was an impenitent bandit and murderer who terrorised neighbourhoods, but according to his good brother here, he was a living saint!"



Nelson Mandela represents true legacy

The story teaches that good legacy is earned, not bought. In an attempt to leave a legacy, many people have strived for fame and riches but often at the expense of others. Consider politicians that are implicated for swindling money meant for public good. They live large and have stashes and stashes of money in foreign banks. But of what good is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul?

It is high time somebody exposed the illusion that legacy has a connection with positions and possessions. True legacy is not about leaving tall buildings for your children and stuff. It is not about getting to the top without considering how you get there. Real legacy is about leaving worthy footsteps for others to follow. It is about excellence for the good of others. It is inevitably linked to service above self, as the central figure of the Easter Sunday we celebrate today demonstrated. Loving and serving others even to the point of death is the greatest legacy.

It is not easy dying to self but it is worth it. I am reminded of the wife of Chris Rwakasisi who visited him once every week for 24 years when he was on death row in Luzira prison. Her loyalty and prayers were answered when her husband received presidential pardon and got released. Through self-denial for the love of her husband, she proved that is it truly after a grain of wheat has fallen into the earth and died that it bears much fruit.

There is a poem that says we are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. We do so by choosing righteousness, peace, justice, freedom and by earning an honest living. In all, lasting legacy is synonymous with altruism and a grasp of the true definition of love.

A letter to my son

Dear Alan La Guma,

At 10pm on the night of Saturday, March 25, 2006, I received a text message from your father Denis Tukwatsibwe saying, "This morning@11, God blessed us with a bouncing baby boy..."

Alan la Guma has grown so fast, and is certainly driving his life well 

I immediately called him and was amazed by how his voice had lost the rough edge of manliness and become mellow with love and the new experience of fatherhood. He even had no idea what name to call you. So I suggested "Denis La Guma", wanting his first name to live on through you, and as well celebrate South African anti-apartheid novelist Alex La Guma whose works I love for vividness and unrivalled empathy. Your parents loved the name and asked me to be your godparent.

It was an honour that got my mind whirling back to our formative years when your father and I were inseparable friends who shared not just a name but were up to all sorts of mischief including pulling foolish moves on pretty little girls. It was easy because we come from the same place and studied together from Primary Four to Senior Four until life swayed us on different paths but we knew we would never let go of those memories of innocence and golden friendship upcountry where my love forever has its roots.

Anyway, I was at campus when my friend turned on his charm and stole the heart of a beautiful young woman he had met in college. He walked her down the aisle on a memorable day crowned with a night of passion in which you were conceived.

The priest that baptized you rejected the name "Denis" saying a parent can only share a surname with his child. So your father came up with "Alan", originally a saint's name, meaning harmony and noble.

In our language "Guma" denotes strength and courage, and the fact that La Guma the author was called "a warrior of linguistic arrowheads", because he fought courageously with a pen, means you have a powerful name.

I tell you all this, son, because you have attained an age at which a boy begins to become a man. And as your godfather, I believe there is no better 7th birthday gift than to know the basis and significance of your name. There is so much in a name, and you Alan La Guma, you are a fine, brave and intelligent young man that the world will be in awe of one day.

Happy birthday tomorrow!

--This was first published in Sunday Monitor, a day before Alan's 7th birthday

Good political music

If there is anything I share in common with Okonkwo;s father, Unoka, it is that I cannot bear the sight of blood. Call me a coward if you want, but to me, war and bloodshed are the two ugliest things ever! And I am praying that by the time you read this, everything will be alright in next-door neighbour Kenya where tensions are mounting over delayed release of the presidential election results. I am praying that the camps of the leading men Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta do everything to prevent a replication of the post-election violence and bloodshed of December 2007.

Raila is a man who has patiently struggled for the peace of his country and for a harmonious East Africa. He was arrested in the 1980's for eight years without trial and has endured many political trials and tribulations because he was "born in politics" and learned early that democracy and progress don't come easy. He embodies the greater-good politician who knows that he cannot dare sow seeds of discord regardless of what is done to him. That is why he put aside his personal ambition in 2002 and supported a coalition candidate, Mwai Kibiki, who later rigged him out in 2007 but he still agreed to work with him for the sake of peace.

As for Uhuru, he has always had his political palm-kernels cracked for him. He was wooed into the game in 2002 by Daniel arap Moi in reciprocation of the kindness his father Jomo Kenyatta had rendered him on his way to the throne. Analysts say Uhuru just wants the top job so he can protect his vast chunks of prime land allegedly obtained controversially. He hopes it will also put him in better position to defend himself from ICC over crimes against humanity.

Actually the antagonism between Raila and Uhuru was inherited from their fathers who served together in the first post-independent government before they fell out. All said and done, Raila should not be motivated by ending the hegemony of the Kikuyu and Kalenjin who have dominated Kenyan politics since independence. Uhuru should also not be preoccupied with winning to that he can entrench that hegemony further.

Let both men respect the outcome of the election and work together. Let them not make war over the ballot, but like Unoka, let them pick their flutes and make good political music. And together we shall boogie on the dance-floor of brotherhood.

This was first published shortly after the elections.