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| We are enslaved by the seven deadly sins | ||
| May 23, 2005 - Monitor | ||
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Dear Tingasiga: Among the qualities that we desire in ourselves and others with whom we share our brief appearance on the stage of human history are honesty, humility, moderation, zeal, generosity, courage, faith, fortitude, love, hope, prudence and justice. Where these are found in abundance, there exist happy and successful individuals, homes and societies, albeit imperfect ones. Where they are scarce, those communities are fertile ground for the flourishing of the Seven Deadly Sins, the vices that have had man under their grip since homo sapiens first walked the earth, and are responsible for the endless cycle of pain and suffering that has defined our species� short existence on this planet.
The Seven Deadly Sins, first described by Pope Gregory the Great 14 centuries ago, and enumerated by Thomas Aquinas a few centuries later, are greed, pride, envy, anger, lust, gluttony and laziness. Naturally, I am neither a good judge of my personal attributes nor am I comfortable making claims about my successes, if any, in this monumental struggle against the Seven Deadly Sins. I leave that to others, and live with the hope that my constant personal struggle against these sins may have yielded enough evidence that gives others the confidence to treat my weaknesses as unintended consequences of being human. What I am comfortable sharing with you is the extent to which I fear these sins. Space does not allow me to share my views on each one of them, though I hope to address each one in future letters. Today I will focus on greed, the master and mistress of all the other sins, the engine that gives life to lust, gluttony, envy, pride, sloth and anger. Cast your mind back on our collective story of the last forty years since we gained our flag independence from England. Each of the Seven Deadly Sins has been a key player in the painful experiences that have afflicted our land, but greed has been the greatest of them all. Think of the political crisis of 1964 [the Gulu UPC Conference]; the unresolved debate over Bunyoro�s �Lost Counties�; the Congo gold, ivory and coffee loot of 1965; the plot to overthrow the government in 1965; the 1966 crisis; the five year political crisis leading up to the 1971 military coup; the Idi Amin coup and eight-year regime; the post-Amin chaos; the 1980 election; the guerrilla wars of the 1980s; the twenty years since the unfulfilled promise of a �fundamental change�; the entrenchment and humanisation of corruption in the Museveni era; the killing fields of Acholi and elsewhere; the rigged elections of 2001; the tensions in Kibaale District; and now the Kisanja project to keep the current ruler in office beyond his constitutional term limit. These are some of the offspring of mother greed�s poisoned womb. Yes, greed. Greed for power and glory, greed for territory and resources; greed for vain ululation and salutes from underlings; greed for hosting a Commonwealth conference; greed for dominating society, not for humble service of fellow man. From greed sprouts the pride that deludes our rulers and their courtiers into believing that they are God�s anointed ones, blest with a monopoly on wisdom and a vision for the country. It is greed that triggers the rulers� anger at any and all who dare to challenge their ideas and their claim to a feudal right to the Ugandan throne. It is greed that propels the ravenous lions of the Kalangala Action Plan as they prowl the land on a search and destroy mission, their victims all who stand or appear to stand in the way of their leader�s quest for lifelong power and glory. It is greed that forces the rulers and their courtiers to have an insatiable appetite for acquisition of material riches, directly or through intermediaries, becoming dollar multi-millionaires and proud owners of multiple mansions in Uganda and abroad in a span of less than two decades, even as the majority of their fellow citizens labour under sinful poverty and want. From selling public assests to themselves or their cronies at highly discounted prices, to outright stealing of public funds; from abuse and misuse of public property to allocation of funds to serve their personal wants at the expense of public needs, greed is alive and well in the land. We need not look further than the Ugandan parliament for a living example of greed at work. Men and women are selling their souls for thirty three pieces of silver. They have become Oliver Twists, shamelessly kneeling before the master, basin and spoon in hand, and saying: Please sir, we want some more. First it was a Shs5 million Kisanja bribe. Then they wanted a Shs100 million commission for supporting the referendum bill. Now it is a Shs10 million tip, euphemistically baptised �constituency development fund�, not a single coin of which will develop anything except the MPs� own political campaigns. And before we rush to pour scorn on parliamentarians, a reminder that they are not alone in this fatal embrace of money no matter what its source or purpose. The Ugandan president, an accomplished student of the Ugandan character, misses no opportunity to use money to buy off men and women of substance, reducing them to cheerleaders in his single-minded mission to claim an indefinite occupation of the Ugandan throne. And he is succeeding. The trouble is that it may all be short-term gain for long-term pain. The Apostle Paul put it well in his letter to Timothy 6:10 where he wrote: The love of money is the root of all evil. Of course Paul was building on what Jesus Christ Himself had taught earlier when He admonished those who desired to follow Him to sell their possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. One can�t read those words of the Lord Jesus Christ and of St. Paul without thinking about the lifestyles of our secular and ecclesiastical rulers. The material riches that are enjoyed by our insatiable generals and bishops, our secular ministers and our ministers of the cross, are at great variance with the biting squalor in which their flock exists. Take a look at the fraction of the national budget that is spent on providing comforts to the ruler and his family and compare it with the amount spent on providing health care to the country�s 25 million citizens. Look at the amount spent on bribing parliamentarians in exchange for their votes, and compare it with what is needed to provide basic necessities to the country�s internal refugees. Yet these gluttonous consumers of this borrowed money are regular attendees of Churches, some of them self-proclaimed born-again Christians. The Bible tells us not to judge, lest we be judged. But the Bible does not prohibit us from making observations and asking questions about the conspicuous consumption of those charged with the duty of serving fellow humans, especially those who claim to be Christians even as they accumulate untold wealth in the midst of extreme poverty. Do not get me wrong. I admire and encourage those who, through hard work, accumulate profits and contribute to the material wealth of their families and society. Uganda has a healthy number of men and women of industry, and I rejoice in their achievements. I pray that they will continue to find the grace and strength to tame their greed, as we all must do, and to generously share their good fortune with our fellow citizens who are not so lucky. What we must reject and openly challenge is the pathological greed that is on display among the rulers, those who have been using the public treasury like a personal piggy bank, withdrawing and spending your money to serve their needs and wants in a manner reminiscent of the monarchs of pre-revolutionary France. And of course we must demand a firm and written commitment from those who hope to replace the current rulers that they will not only resist and fight this pathological greed, but will cede power to someone else the moment they too develop symptoms of the dreaded disease. We live in hope. Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
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