Laughing at others

Recently someone asked why people laugh at those who trip. I remembered an incident in primary school when a teacher missed her seat and fell flat on her back. We giggled and never stopped joking about how she had fallen like an elephant. We felt God was punishing her for us because she had been severe with the whip.

It's uncouth to laugh at people facing challenges

Sometimes people laugh to get even. Consider Teddy Ssezi Cheeye. He used to publish a magazine, The Uganda Confidential, that was merciless to the rich and mighty. I recently read one of its old articles about a minister who had been on a mission to accumulate as much money in the shortest possible time until he was caught trying to fleece an investor of billions of shillings. I am sure when Cheeye was sent to the coolers for misappropriation, many people his magazine used to harass must have said, "Let him taste some bitter medicine too!"

Presently the most suffering Ugandans are Manchester United fans. Their team no longer rules the roost in English club football. Their purpose and arrogance of champions is gone. So shambolic is the once great team that it is now called 'Manchested Disunited', and its home ground is no longer Old Trafford but 'Cold Losefford!' Last Sunday when it was humiliated on their own turf by Liverpool, comedian Richard Tuwangye, who is an Arsenal fan, joked: "Be a good Christian and give a Man-U fan a painkiller!"

So, not everyone who falls is laughed at, but only those who have been on high pedestals long enough and needed to be brought back to earth.