Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Its crunch time, peeps

Tomorrow, if everything goes as we pray it shall, we shall start a whole new chapter in this big book called Ugandan Life. We shall start over, probably with a new president at the helm and with new possibilities.

We have come a long way. From the moment the current regime decided to go against the way things are supposed to be and extended their legitimacy, we have been unsure of anything. No one could get a straight answer when they asked about events that were to occur in the future.

If you have a foreigner for a boss, chances are that business has been slow for the last month because the boss man jumped ship. Many others, even indigenous Ugandans, have jumped on the jet planes and made the airport at Entebbe very busy.

The rest of us have been left to make snide remarks, hoping against hope that no one will see the worry written all over our jokes.

Tomorrow we shall wake up early, those of us who feel the urgency of the situation, and go over to the polling stations. Those who don’t feel that patriotic in the circumstances will probably stay home and watch TV. And then they’ll say silent prayers asking whatever power they’ll have tuned into that those voting will vote wisely.

The phrase “vote wisely” has taken on a sinister shade to it. It always seems to come from the same camp. It reminds one of those posters that were captured at the airport. Like a religious zealot forcing their beliefs down your throat.

If all goes well, we shall go to our desks again on the 24th and blog. We shall have tales to tell, certainly. We shall probably be back to our usual selves, telling witty jokes. We shall all be rearing to go, full of life and thankful that our fears had been unfounded after all.

Otherwise, we shall be hiding under desks and beds, just like we did during the last war. The memories will never fade. Back then, with barely formed brains, we saw the adults shitting their pants and we knew that things were rally bad. We shat our PJs even faster.

Most of the people I know have ignored the warnings on radio that we should all store up stuff; dry food, cereals and water. We have decided to have faith in the goodness of humans. We have decided that this country has seen enough turmoil and that whatever comes out of the elections; all the parties involved know what is most important for this country.

Arthur Koestler’s Rubashov told of the swing of history which will always reach a high point every now and then. Whenever it gets to one extreme, there are many who shall invariably fall off. The screams don’t really help because that it the way the cookie crumbles. And according to Koestler, this is good for humanity because it helps in balancing the masses.

But something tells me the swing has not got to the extreme. We still have some time. However, if we are at that scary time, I believe we have learnt some good lessons. That there will always be people predisposed to cause havoc. That there is always going to be wars and rumors of war.

Because of this knowledge gained in the time we have spent running from one explosion to another, we have learnt to hang on. The swing can go to whatever heights it wants but this people here is going to still be on it when it comes down.

Go and vote wisely.

1 Comments:

Blogger ish said...

here's to waiting for your blogs on the 24th, u wouldn't want to dissapoint your loyal readers now would you

4:51 PM  

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