Thankful for being me

On Monday it was Thanksgiving Day and I spent some time thanking God for the person He made me. I'm an eternal optimist who believes that everyone God created has grand beauty that should not be tampered with. But largely because of the influence of Hollywood many have come to believe that natural beauty is not enough; that everything must be done to enhance it. So blacks marry white folks in a bid to improve their colour, only to end up getting "white-faced niggers", according to Claud in Flannery O'Connor's "Revelation".

God does not make mistakes

Claud's conclusion may sound a little racist but it contains some grain of truth. Think of the people that bleach their skins and use an assortment of creams on their faces in order to lighten up (beautify). And then melanin gets corrupted and the skin develops a weird pigmentation and people start casting twisted glances upon them, wondering what happened to their faces. This is what happened to Kimberly Jones aka Lil' Kim. Such a gifted African-American rapper, Lil' Kim was never satisfied with her natural beauty that she confessed to journalist Allison Samuels: "Guys always cheated on me with women who were European looking...really beautiful women that left me thinking, 'How can I compete with that?' Being a regular black girl wasn't good enough."

So Lil' Kim thought she would find real beauty through plastic surgery; breast implants, a nose job and changing her skin complexion all to extinguish her black features for the more 'beautiful' white features. Sadly, everything went wrong from the pain to the new looks; rather than become a pretty sight, her new look provoked pity making her fans wonder why she had to go through all that despite her extraordinary rap talent. 

It may be a cliché but it really is true that God doesn't make mistakes. So accepting and being confident in the way we were created is the best way to find peace of mind needed to bring out our best attributes and inspire the best in others as well.

The best I can do for my country

A statesman named John F. Kennedy made a statement that continue to resonate long after his death: ask not what your country can do for you, he said, rather ask what you can do for your country. It's on days like this while we celebrate 54 years of independence that I realise the sheer power and timeless relevance of Mr Kennedy's words. Ideally every individual has a role to play in bettering his/her part of the world.

Ugandan musicians Chameleon and Lillian identified with victims of Bududa landslides

When Stephen Kiprotich won us gold at the Olympics, as he stood on the dais to receive his medal and our national flag was hoisted and our national anthem sang, I thought to myself: there's a man who's doing a lot more for his country than all our members of parliament combined!

This country so awesomely gifted that Winston Churchill christened us the Pearl of Africa needs its citizens to rise up with determination and let her not so sink as to become the peril of the continent. There's nothing that staggers more than the knowledge that a population comprising more than 80 percent Christians are so steeped in corruption and mediocrity almost beyond redemption. 

It then goes without saying that the least we can do for our country is to engage the paradigm shift gear and be the change we want. So many people are good yet evil. I mean, a man goes to a hotel and after his meal tips the waitress with an amount almost the total cost of his meal. To the waitress, such a man is an angel yet the man could be a dealer in a ministry who swindles public money without a modicum of shame. 

It's therefore not enough to do good. What matters is the purity of our intentions. Oswald Chambers said, "The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being." The best thing you and I can do for our country is to be right not only in our actions but also in our motives and thoughts. Happy Independence celebrations.

What women really want

Hillary Clinton was asked why she stuck with Bill Clinton after his moral standing was found wanting and she said being with Bill was an endless conversation. Bill and Hillary are intellectually compatible, finding it easy to connect and have conversational outflow, but what Hillary meant was that Bill knows how to make spending time with her count. It starts there -- women are crazy about attention and a man who knows how to dish it out properly will always be a ladies’ man.

What women really want is attention

Ladies, correct me kindly if I'm being presumptuous in thinking that most of you would like some men looking in your direction a second, third or even fourth time! To a woman, it's a thing of exquisite beauty to have men gawk especially those not looking for a quick roll on the bed or in the hay. It makes them feel attractive and wanted. Learn to look at her in a way that suggests your eyes will never look that way at another woman because the best thing you can do for her is to make her believe she's the most beautiful woman in the world. And there's no way that's going to happen when you forget her birthday, and when you start attending to your phone while you're out on a date with her. 

It's the mandate of every man to master the game of surprises. If you're going to buy your wife a special gift or take your girlfriend to some cozy place only on her birthday, you're losing it. Engage that surprise gear the most when she least expects it. Although money is an important factor in relationships, financial brawn will always be outfoxed by a romantic brain. The "pomp and circumstance" that wealth creates to blow away girls like the super-rich Tom Buchanan blows away Daisy in The Great Gatsby cannot eclipse the magnetism of a man who knows how to give proper attention to women.

Why can't we just get along?

Why? Why can't we just get along? Why should there be a Muganda, a Munyankole, an Acholi...why can't we all be children of Uganda? Why should the poor and the rich be suspicious of each other? Why should children of two mothers with one father struggle to gel? Why should one group belong, and not the other? Why can't we all sit and laugh together as a people that share one universe despite our diversity? If we all come from the womb and will all end in the tomb, why can't we just get along while we still can?

The beauty of unity in diversity is unparalleled

It's such a beauty when we throng Namboole Stadium to cheer on the Uganda Cranes. We lift our voices in one accord, laugh and cry together, forgetting tribal lines and educational or status differences. That togetherness is then taken to the kafunda where we sip malwa through long wooden straws. Even those with empty pockets are welcomed in typical Ubuntu style. 

Alas it ends there! Often the following day at the workplace you remember that your supervisor is a Munyankole and begin to sulk. The reason he's your boss, you would rather have us believe, is not because he's meritorious but because he comes from western Uganda! It's more flabbergasting that some still blame our disunity on the colonialist's divide-and-rule system, a whopping 54 years after the white man left! 

Oh how I love the sweet voices of birds in the morning! In Kampala you don't get to see or hear many but upcountry they really can sing and the sun can really shine. The wind blows and the trees bend and the bushes totter in a dance of their own. They love to celebrate being alive and have no time for discordance.

How I long that we become one people singing the same melodious song of brotherhood and sisterhood; helping, loving, living and getting along as one. That would put a smile on the face of God and make all the difference.

Tribute to a great artist

He was a man who blended perfectionism with humility and loyalty in what he did and believed in so well that I never could cease wondering how he managed to pull it off. I first met the genius through his cartoons and we connected immediately even before we met physically. I felt honoured that he was the one chosen to draw complimentary cartoons for my Daily Monitor series, "Banjo's adventures." Writing these fictional accounts on a weekly basis is sweat and blood as I often run out of ideas and resort to merely filling my allotted space. But Moses Balagadde always had a way of gilding my boring accounts with humorous cartoons. Thus any popularity Banjo's adventures have enjoyed for ten years has little to do with my writing ability and more to do with his drawing ingenuity.

King Solomon once said that a man who excels at what he does will not stand before obscure men but will stand before kings. This much became true of Mozeh, as we fondly called him, for he served the biggest independent newspaper in Uganda, Daily Monitor, as its senior cartoonist for 15 years, distinguishing himself for the realism, golden humour and incisive commentary in his cartoons. 

One of the Banjo series illustrated by Mozeh

Imagine my shock on Sunday morning when I got the heartbreaking news about the sudden death of the master artist. The first thought that hit me was whether Daily Monitor will ever be the same again without his witty cartoons. I also wept for the Banjo series, because they had become a part of him as much as they are a part of me. Plans were underway for an animated television adaptation, but how will this be executed without Mozeh? 

Uganda has lost such a genius but as we cannot continue to cry over spilt milk, we can only continue to thrive on the best Mozeh inspired in those he encountered. He was a true motivational figure who heeded the words of Paul the apostle that whatever you find to do, do it heartily as though you were working for God rather than for people. 

Rest in everlasting peace Mozeh, we shall always be inspired by the light you so radiantly shone.