Ismail, I agree with your analysis of the topic. I think the idea of this topic was from the document Fr. Ruffino attached when he posed this question or topic for discussion. The topic of the document was *The Real Reason People Won't Change.* This document was an investigation into the reasons why in a work environment (of employers and employees), most employees are resistant to change. I think this topic of *What are the people from West Nile doing, or not doing, to change from negative attitudes and perceptions towards work?” *was posed in the context of how we can change the social and economic situation in West Nile. I probably think the question of topic posed should have been *What are the people from West Nile doing, or not doing, to change the socio-economic development situation in West Nile. *I agree with you that our local people are not lazy as may be perceived for they have done and a lot of manual work and I would to think that most of our parents have either been involved in some manual work which pays basic wages for a living for many years. I also tend to think that our labour has been the major contribution for the development of the Southern regions. The sugar plantations, the coffee plantations, the banana plantations, the copper mines, the security guards, whatever the our people could do to earn a living they did and still do up to now to make a living. The question is whether we should believe if that is the only way to earn a living? How do we change from that situation to a better situation and what in our view is the better situation and how did we get into that manual labourer situation? are some of the soul searching questions we need to ask ourselves individually and collectively. I think most of the answers to these questions have been discussed and some solutions suggested in one way or another on this forum for quite a number of times and there seems to be very minimal movement to implement those ideas. This is where the response by Okuti, Christime Munduru and others become vivid, especially what Okuti opined. Among some of the issue which I believe have affected us is that social change brought about by the war which resulted in us all becoming refugees at one time or another. Ever since people came back from the refugee situation, life has never been the same especially in the rural areas, the social and psychological dynamics changed. With population pressure on a limited land, loss of land productivity in our subsistence food production, collapse institutions and ineffective political arrangements have all contributed to the sense of pathetic hopelessness we talk about all the time. How can we help ourselves to overcome these limitations so that we can become more successful as a community in what we do is what we should really seriously think about or ask ourselves as individuals and as a community. We have shown a deep commitment and support change in West Nile, yet inexplicably we have done nothing other than dragging our feet to act and move in that direction of change. Could it be that we are exhibiting signs of Resistant to change we so deeply talk about all the time on this forum all the time? Resistance to change in our case here is that we do have the skills and smart ideas to make change within our community and we have shown a lot of interest and commitment to support change in West Nile, yet we do not seem to be doing anything tangible to bring about that change. We avoid volunteering in doing some of these assignments and fear handling some of the issues. While we all talk about collaboration and teamwork, we equally avoid issues we think are conflicting with our ambitions of team activity. *Do we have a hidden Competing Commitments within ourselves as individuals and as a community? * Competing Commitment in case would be a situation where we have agreed that we want change in West Nile yet unconsciously our behaviours as individuals and as a community to support that change reflects otherwise. We are dragging our feet in every effort we have brilliantly suggested to implement and we do not implement them or forget or do not pay much attention to the decisions we have made as a group. 1. Just to name e few examples, we formed Education committee to look into situation of the poor performance of Primary and secondary schools in West Nile, but we have never received any conclusive report. 2. We also committed to the hunger project in West Nile and since then we have never had a conclusive implementation of what to do for food security in West Nile. 3.We talked of organizing meetings with the people on the ground in West Nile to discuss some of the issues affecting them to find out their views, especially, challenging the prospective candidates about their vision of development in West Nile during this election time which up to this time has not been implemented . 4. We have a draft Strategic Plan document for WNF where suggestions and comments were requested from some members and up this moment we have not done anything to have a working document for WNF. May be we should try to find out some of the reasons why we have resistance to change and some of the Competing Commitments we have as individuals and as a community so that we may uncover our immunity to change and begin a more successful path to realizing change in our community.
Perhaps if we can all read through that document Fr.Ruffino attached we may be able to realize one or two issues with each of as individuals and with all of us a s a community and discuss development issues in West Nile with an open mind. Over to you brothers and sisters. Vasco Oguzua. On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 3:52 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. _______________________________________________
