Home to the most amazing sights

Today is November 3, the day of the Hybrid Eclipse [rousing applause]! I am hypnotized; giddy with excitement and anticipation like a virgin about to consummate with the woman of his life on their matrimonial night.

Who am I to belong to a country that the world's best scientists have designated the best spot to view the moon strut before the sun? When this happens at 4:15pm today, the sun will be so mesmerized that it will forget its job and usher us in darkness so intense that for one minute and 40 seconds you will feel like your eyes are shut even when they are wide open! The last time something like this happened was a whopping 547 years ago, and it will not happen again until June 3, 2114.

Really, this is the kind of history I cannot afford not being part of. Here I am in Packwach, right on the pass of the eclipse, and will for the whole day be peering at the heavens through a pin-hole camera. I am sure some people behind the Guinness Book of Records have flown in to watch the astronomical occurrence. They also won't help gazing at our physical endowments and confirming that this country is the most beautiful. This is what Winston Churchill meant when he called us the "pearl of Africa" but fell short of calling us the pearl of the world for fear of being accused by his countrymen of extolling a foreign nation more than his.

You have to pity Ugandans who go roaming the world in search of riches instead of developing the riches of their motherland. There is nowhere else where the grass is greener than here unless you have eyes but do not see. Hey, we are the Source of the Nile, the home of the mountain gorillas, perfect weather, loam soil, oil and now the eclipse!

That "American Dream" you hanker after is depicted in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald as a sham. All that intellectualism and dominance, the glitter of Hollywood, the revelry and the philosophy of doing as you like, have left many with scarred consciences and inner emptiness of alarming proportions.

We have to be wary of Western influences, develop our country our way and protect who we really are. "Uganda - gifted by nature" is not just another colourful slogan. The world will best observe the Hybrid Eclipse in this very country. It shows how beloved and favoured we are by God!

Who wants to be Ugandan this weekend? I'm one proud patriot and will always sing the national anthem to that effect!