Hello,
I like this discussion very much and I agree with the idea of attitude change as a good kick start, my challenge though is how to translate whatever is discussed on this forum to the ground. I feel very disturbed and sad that we share very good strong points, views and knowledge here, but we are very weak in linking this to actual interventions and for this reason you find passionate members eventually run out of steam and go quiet. We are therefore creating a class of West Nilers who know but keep the knowledge within forums like this and a class of those who do not even know that chicken could change their lives, that other forms of production or business could make their livelihoods much better. Let's work more towards actualising our ideas like The Palui, Family day & Science cafe teams and potentially the dinner & cultural teams. My suggestions would therefore be to start creating synergies with members who have NGO's to advance some of the issues to the ground or even work with existing NGO's like CEFORD etc.... I know the leadership of this forum is voluntary. However there is a need for more time, they can volunteer more time into strategy formulation for interventions in the villages and our towns where the real issues/problems are! The leadership can also strategise on mechanisms where their time is eventually compensated (this usually becomes a problem) - In this way we shall ensure that we are playing a role in creating real change. -- "Website & e-Solutions, Networks, Marketing Communications" Blog: <http://asili4u.wordpress.com/> http://asili4u.wordpress.com Tel +256 312 294857/1 and Mobile +256 772 725252 (Uganda) From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Christine Munduru Sent: 26 November 2010 15:31 To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile Subject: [?? Probable Spam] Re: [WestNileNet] The Tabled Motion for Discussion Dear Banduga, Unfortunately I have no time to discuss this topic but what I have observed in the current generation of parents and children in the villages of westnile is alot of laziness. The thinking that we must be employed in a factory, white color jobs etc is killing initiatives at local level. people dont even want to think of things like carpentry, building etc. If the factories are not there etc, should we just sit fold our hands and complain? I think there is alot we are not doing and this is directly related to our attitudes.Tthere is alot of seslf employment we can create. For example if I started growing local chicken in the village and I had about 100 of them, in this festive season they go at around 25,000= (100x25,000= 2,500,000=)I would get 2,500,000= so much more than a tobacco grower. If I reared pigs which is a hot cake at Ediofe(Yitia) and other similar places in Arua and sold them, how much do I get. we can not sit and complain every time, let us first do those within our mandate then we can complain about other people's responsibilities I know there are certain responsibilities to be fulffiled by the government and private sector but this basic laziness if we dont come out of it, it will be difficult for us to come out of poverty. Whereas our parents worked hard those days and whereas we also worked hard both in school and at home to support get school fees, you find these days the men sit and play cards by the road side and drink waragi, the children are chewing "marungi" and dropping out of school, most times the women are left to struggle with the family battles and they can only do so much and remember they are not educated and not working in any office. I am actually scared that after this generation of westnilers whom you can get almost in every big office, we may not get such in the next generation because they are not reading hard even if there is school fees, parents are very lazy etc, no functional by-laws against parents who cannot take their children in school, alot of marungi and bangi is being grown to occupy the youth in the villages. I feel the issue of attituted is first and foremost important to realize development in westnile. To change people's attitudes towards development in their own circumstances I feel is important. Secondly about the issue of using people for research unethically, we would like to do some work starting with an assessment of what is going on in research involving human subjects and also clinical trials for evidence-based advocacy so if any of you has come across such research where people have been unethically used please let me know, this would be a confidencila information and you can send a personal email to me. Your duty will only be to tell this kind of project did such a research or such a person suffered in this way after being used in such a research then we would follow up ourselves. I have been trying to get hold of this book but I have failed, it would provide some good literature review, if any of you has a copy please let me know. Thanks Christine . On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 11:52 AM, banduga ismail <[email protected]> wrote: Dear members, What are the people from West Nile doing, or not doing, to change from negative attitudes and perceptions towards work?" This seems to be the motion under discussion and has Jadribo said, requires our attention. Let us not forget one that I tabled a few days ago - Testing diseases in West Nile District. Back to the motion, I have a bit of a problem with some key words of this motion - "negative attitude", "perception" and "work". What is the working definition we have given to these words so as to link them to the people of west nile? i.e. what is meant by negative attidue, negative perception and work? Again this is not being academic or long in rhetoric, but understanding of the first principles is a good way to go. If our first diagnosis is not correct, its likely our solutions will not be correct. >From my rudimentary understanding, I do not see any work our people cannot do or do not want to do. We are luggage carriers everywhere, securikos everywhere, drivers every where, we dig in every village, burn chacoal, fish, sell groundnuts, samosa, buvera, cassava, maize etc. So am hesitate to think we are negative to work. What comes clear is that we are mostly in petty works, works that cannot sustain us as a people for long. That is not because we are negative to work but rather because of structural determinism. How many factories to we have in west nile that can employ for example 100 people at ago? - nothing. How many sons and daughters of west nile have the capacity to set up such factories? - I don't know. Dr. Adriko set up one and I was able to see farmers selling sugarcan directly to the factory. I am not sure whether the factory is still operational. If not, why? One possible reason may be lack of electricity. I am told when the cotton ginneries in Pakwach and Rhino camp were operational, the situation us far much better. Families would grow cotton for two seasons and realize the money they need to send children to school, buy a bicycle and one or two cattle. My father used to tell me that it was money he and his mother (my grandmother) made from sale of cotton that supported him in school upto Kibuli TTC. When the ginneries collapsed, what haven't we seem. I would like to say that the people of west nile are toiling day and night to work to develop. Structural difficulties cannot make them breal even. That is why west nile is still a hub of manpower for kasanmvu. Ismail ------------------------------------------------- _____ From: jadribo victor <[email protected]> To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, 25 November, 2010 6:28:04 Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] The Tabled Motion for Discussion The current tabled motion by Fr. Ruffino and J.J Avudria; "What are the people from West Nile doing, or not doing, to change from negative attitudes and perceptions towards work?" deserves our attention at such a point in time when politicians are trading lies to win favors for votes. Lots of chill goes down my nerves while taking a quick look across West Nile with some common denominators such as Passiveness, Taking things for granted and being expectant while waiting in hope. Series of observations have been advanced into the intra and interrelation complications in our region. It's a common knowledge that we westnilers rarely have good working relations among ourselves, we like identifying with other cultures, languages, people and region. Traditional cultures are vanishing under the disguise of been backward, satanic and in the name of being modern. Greed and selfishness is at its peak in our region in that we end up to a greater extent not wishing well for our neighbor (Jirani) if not a relative (s). Every day we have to spend lots of money, but the question is where does this money come from? What is it that West Nile can boast of having (source of income) apart from taxes? We have dominated companies whose wages are below survival point and means of transport is either trucks, tractors or even footshubish yet we have a good number of sons and daughters, brothers and sisters in places of influence that would help open ways for others but alas our Loyalty and Moral uprightness is paramount in a country whose current era has less regards for such. We can boast of having people, this is a big human resource but then the question still remains as the Bishop Emeritus once decried at the funeral of Late Maj. Tom Angutoko, how many sons and daughters are in the cabinet for example. What about these seeking for higher offices like the head of state? Which MP from West Nile chairs a committee yet most of parliamentary work is done within the committees? I am sure of the IGG Baku Raphael being the highest positioned WestNiler but he is only a whistle blower not a player. Political promises are taken as gospel truth and thus no cultivation of individual efforts for community initiatives as everyone looks up to the state for all services. When the politicians brought the idea of scrapping off Graduated Tax, everyone was happy not knowing that we were losing control of co-running and co-maintain efficient social services and instead pay even more indirectly. Universal Education Systems now going to Advanced (A) Levels (Mana from the heavens) has a destructive and deteriorating effects on the education standards of our region yet no deliberate attempts have been made by locals to curb the situation since it is stressed that education is free and parents should not be levied extra money whatsoever; whereas other regions are supportive and actively engage in the affairs of their communities. In short, are we being taken for a ride or we are a great deal of our own troubles and riding ourselves? Is it lack of self-esteem or inferiority complex? All this is incumbent upon us the watchdogs and mouthpieces of the afflicted West Nile. If we don't act now, West Nile will continue to remain a fishing ground for Kasamvus, security guards, employees for other people.. other than undertaking enterprises that benefit the region. I am writing this knowingly it is full of "emotional outbursts" which oftentimes is a defense mechanism used by the powers whatsoever for keeping the voices of the voiceless unvoiced. Over to You. _____ _______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list [email protected] http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list [email protected] http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. _______________________________________________
