To Mr. Ojambo Urban Planning, Uganda Politics & the Media
- Over 200n voted yee , democracy and power. - Motorisation of transportation; Matatu and Bodaboda in recent times has facilitated the quickest rural to urban migration, a debacle ever experienced in Ugandas modern history. It will take years to evaluate the consequences. - The only precondition is a few coins and hit the road what comes next, tell it to the mountain. - In fact Ive discovered, Ugandas hottest economic growth sectors, thriving Bars, Hair Dressing, Mivumba clothe selling, Security Companies, one room rentals in wetlands and Road Side food vending, is a response on demand side, to absorb but also augmented with an excess supply of new urban migrants. - They eat, seek cheapest labour market entry, they hunt for cheapest shelter (mizigo), and also try to find a fashionable outlook, to bit off the village in them. These types are particularly women - Enter Bodaboda and the mix becomes the more real and interesting. In mukono Bodboda are demanding their bucks back as bodaboda has only entrenched poverty than alleviating it. - Japan had announced a US 4.2 $ to transform Kampala junctions by Japanese engineers and new vision reporter called a graphic model an aerial view. So far so right. - I was very happy however left me also dumbfounded that on the following Saturday I was at Wandegeya to restudy traffic flow. - Science hence technology is a social practice and for this reason a social activity. - All the time traffic jam stretched beyond Makerere gate, Stanbic Bank on Wandegeya Bwaise stretch and the same was repeated on Mulago and Bombo road stretch. - My fears were for once re: grounded the symptom is known but not the remedy as the Japanese tries to battle traffic jams in Kampala. - Will renewed efforts by the Japanese to help the Uganda Afrikaans help heavens forbid since morning rush hours are still chaotic on Bakuli Mengo, Natete as it is at Nakawa junction all the time. - If the Japanese hard work is to redesign the entire city their geo-anthropocentric (earthquakes) influenced engineering for wider roads will do Kampala a great deal of good but will leave us as they found us. - My ¼ century stint living among Europeans taught me one thing the media has a limited impact and capacity in the development of any society. Particularly if not guided by a principal. - When stretched, the media will either corrupt the society or the media itself will be corrupted by its own acts. - It has three distinctive arrays; a). Media balancing of a profit motive and social concern, b). Mediation struggle with antagonistic principles/ideology & reality c). Media presumptive bias hence limitation to fore tale reality. - In January, I used a held belief that mediating urban planning could but with some reservations solve the problem. I was wrong! - I visited virtually all media houses in Uganda and was almost shocked when I was told everywhere, Urban Issues were not a favourable discussion issue - It was a very dangerous field which either will land media houses in trouble!, be closed down , the subject was an interesting , or face retribution. - In fact all managers in directing position were willing to meet me for the first and second time but when I presented a format of what to write or talk about like traffic congestion, slum growth, they never wished to meet me again. - They suggested remote contact i.e. by e-mail or phone. In their mindset I was too radical, rebellious to the existing order and revolutional at that to be accommodated. - I can now attest, one TV station can now go in details they never will, before I approached them on the same urban issue which before then was approached in a conformist manner. - Written text was resisted with all vigour, the print media could muster - they fear loose of income writing home about a subject uninteresting (!) and in that case so dangerous to expose the political class - Here the political class means the profiteering class on taxis matatus, dilapidated building ownership, landlords, opposition political class, indeed government tax rebates on fossil fuels guzzled by a hundreds of vehicles were in danger of loosing their wealthy. - These were actually some of the reasons given to me by those media proprietors. - The rest went to the extent of warning me how I will be phased out i.e. killed if ever I talked about urban planning. These threats are real, I can confirm them I registered many. - Bwanika ________ http://www.idrconsulting.com --> for your consultancy needs --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.Poker.se - Sveriges nya pokerportal! _______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
