I have stated over and over again that we have political buffoons running the
country. I shall keep on stating so.
Now seriously, do tourists come into a country because the country has many
hotels? Such is the buffoon thought processes that make me laugh way loud!
Now these hotels are useless; no one is going to use them. Citizens can't
even lodge in these hotels. So, Uganda tax payers money used for building these
hotels have simply been thrown into garbage bins!!
What next?
Ocii
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rwanda punches above its weight
The Chogm juggernaut has finally rolled out of town and with it the hype
that preceded it and the tactical language that characterised its main
proceedings. Some have hailed the event as a great success. From where they
were sitting, it probably was it all depends on what one was looking at.
Much of the theorising about the benefits it would bring to the common man
and woman, though, was more than just a little extravagant. Many had been
excited into expecting to make fortunes out of selling stuff to the delegates.
Media reports suggest that only very few got to do that.
Others, having sold very little or nothing at all thanks to the hectic
schedules of the official events which kept many visitors too busy to shop, are
now wondering what to do with the extra stock they invested in. To make matters
worse, some mobile merchants of artefacts and associated odd bits had their
merchandise stolen from their stalls under the very noses of heavy security.
In place of the windfall they had expected, are dashed hopes. However, the
fact of would-be beneficiaries having walked away with very little has not
prevented new promises from emerging. Now the song has shifted to Chogm will
put Uganda on the world map.
Someone with a sense of humour might wonder at exactly what point the country
had fallen or been wiped off the map. The world map claim has a tantalising
extension: Chogm will lead to increased foreign direct investment and numbers
of tourists, especially now that Kampala has more hotels.
In case you need reminding, this simplification of complex matters has a
history of producing poor results. It saw us flirt with barter trade in the
early years of the revolution before reality set in and forced us to
re-embrace modernity. More recently it loaded the taxpayer with the now dead
Apparels Tri-star and even got a school and buildings housing an important
institution demolished to make way for Chogm hotels that were supposed to
create employment but never materialised.
Not being ones to learn from mistakes, we stubbornly carry on with the
theorising. What else should one call the notion that merely having a large
number of hotels in the capital city attracts tourists to a country that
starves its tourism sector of much-needed financial resources? Also, what did
Chogm do that will attract investors who previously preferred to invest their
money elsewhere?
What did it do to make Ugandas political future predictable in the medium to
long term or even to change our erratic policy making? Did it change the
countrys corruption record? Well, it did not, and that is no small matter.
These are issues of major concern to foreigners looking for investment
opportunities, especially where large projects and financial outlays are
concerned.
That aside, aspects of Chogm made me smile. Admittedly, sometimes the smiles
were the result of suppressed laughter, as when Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwes
better known opposition leader called on President Museveni to rein in his
brother, Robert Mugabe. How exactly, I wondered, did Mr Tsvangirai envisage
that happening? And then, of course, there was the tribute to Ugandas respect
for the rule of law, by Queen Elizabeth II and the undertaking by heads of
government to fight corruption.
At least one smile, though, was prompted by something serious: Rwandan
President, Paul Kagames keynote address to the Commonwealth Business Forum
meeting. Tiny Rwanda, a newcomer to the East African Community and not yet even
a member of the Commonwealth, had come to the event with a truly big idea: it
would no longer require professional East African citizens of the Commonwealth
to apply for work permits in order to work in the country.
Those who were there say that the countrys high-powered delegation turned up
with glossy marketing brochures that left many delegates eager to go and visit.
Other delegations apparently turned up virtually empty-handed. Some have
claimed that our own ministers and officials were probably shopping for clothes
to wear to the Queens official address to Parliament.
Clearly punching way above its weight in influence, the little country with a
serious approach managed to demonstrate the meaning of impact. A good neighbour
would smile at that and learn its lessons.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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