Ssemakula <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Bw. Matovu,
In Uganda, as elsewhere, money talks. An acquaintance once told me that
Uganda has to have one of the cheapest publicity machines. The reason being
that if one picked up a couple of $75 suits and "donated" them to a journalist
and a photographer one would be assured of extensive coverage in the local
press. And, we talking of only media-hounds and publicity seekers here.
Now, if stakes were raised, I'd say anything is possible. Indeed, many a
time, we have seen a story go both ways even in the same paper.
That said, in this case we have a business trying to immunize the public
about impending bad news about his company. AYA is then reported to have
borrowed $20M, apparently securing the loan with its stocks of wheat awaiting
processing before sale.
For a terminal skeptic like me alarm bells go off right away, and I can't
quite get the rat's smell out of my nose. I mean, can you imagine how big a
mountain of $20M (twenty million smackaroos!) worth of wheat has to be? Which
buildings in Uganda would be able to store that much wheat in good condition
for more than 1 day? What is the profit margin on a kilo of wheat in Africa
these days?
So the skeptic has to be pardoned when he s/he concludes after that brief
consideration, that either the lending bank is fully staffed by morons or AYA
has help deep in the vaults of the said bank, e.g. those in charge of
verification etc in due process, in order to pull this heist off.
Guess what, it soon transpires that all those trucks seen by milling about
and several askaris guarding silos of wheat turn out to be just an elaborate
ruse, for there is no wheat in the silos, but wheat husks. So now the bank is
left with silo-fulls of byoya bya nswa! How many ways do you spell ENRON?
Given that we are talking about a colossal sum of mulla, given the size of
Uganda's economy, AYA can justifiably sue for any injury resulting and collect
damages -- but only if the story is false, and it is in fact sitting on
mountains
of wheat worth $20M on the market.
Depending on what else was put as collateral for the $20M loan, I am afraid
the Kampala Hilton will simply remain a figment of Museveni's fertile, but
naive, imagination for a while -- until he comes up with another scam.
Whatever the case, come CHOGM, the Kampala Hilton will still be a set of
blue prints, if that. ... er, you can take that to the bank.
Musamize.
Ps:
How many hoteliers do you know that are into wheat trade on the side or vice
versa? While I have heard of portfolio diversification, I have trouble
visualizing such a happy merger of such skill set. But then again, unlike our
dear leader, I am no visionary.
----- Original Message ----
From: Frank Matovu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: UNAANET <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 9:00:19 AM
Subject: [UNAANET] Don't Believe Every News Report
Dear All,
On 11/12/2006 , the New Vision [the pro-government Ugandan Daily] reported that
the proprietors of the Kampala Hilton were insolvent. But I remember reading
over the weekend where the Managing Director of the group warned that an untrue
negative story about them was about to hit the Ugandan press.
This morning, I went into the archives of Allafrica.com and found the story.
On 11/12/2006 , The Monitor, [the pro-opposition Ugandan publication] had the
story that I was looking for. According to the Monitor, the New Vision report
is baseless. See the Internet link below. Who should we believe?
Frank.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611130178.html
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