Of condoms and priests
ONE of the greatest scourges of all time, we can indisputably agree, is Aids. Thereafter the disputes begin.
ONE MAN’S WEEK By John Nagenda
ONE of the greatest scourges of all time, we can indisputably agree, is Aids. Thereafter the disputes begin.
Do you go public about it or do you
hide it under the carpet for shame? Believe it or not some do the latter; arguing the case for traditional taboos or indeed (ostrich head in sand) hoping that denial improves your standing! Thus you get individuals using euphemisms for why their people died. Even worse you get countries wasting precious time over whether HIV leads to full-blown Aids, for whatever twisted logistical semantics they hold. This week a South African defence minister went as far as to pontificate that although one out of five of his troops were HIV infected, this was of no great concern since his country was addressing the problem etc etc. And even this was not the worst of it.
That "prize" went, as usual, to those leaders of the Catholic church who attempted yet again to rubbish condoms. Having failed to convince many of their flock that condoms were religiously wrong because of their capacity to limit the God given facility to reproduce, they hit on the fully irresponsible wheeze of telling their people that in any case condoms were not safe in fighting Aids. God bless their souls! In the first place did it never occur to them that they, by abstaining from sex, were directly interfering with the same God given reproductive facility? But secondly, thank God, such ridiculous counselling had already fallen on deaf ears amongst sophisticated congregations — as shown by the fact that in Italy itself, site of the Holy See, the birth rate per family had long fallen below the figure of two. (Of course in the more gullible Third World it was another, deadly, matter. Would the prelates then argue, alongside Lucifer, that Aids was a natural way of dealing with birth rates which had consequently shot out of control?)
Their chosen method of work on this occasion has been to preach that minute holes existed in all condoms, through which Aids germs escape into the vagina! But surely this would also help the reproductive process? In any case, their unscientific mumbo jumbo has guaranteed that numberless of their gullible flocks will go in without rubber and die for it. Cannot God in his mercy silence these pestilent priests?
* * *
This week, as expected, another hair-raising road episode ("accident" is a wrong usage in most of these) occurred as per expectation. Up to then the remarkable thing, going by the media correspondence columns, was the comparatively muted expression of public outrage expressed on the earlier Katuna massacre of 54 dead and many mutilated. It was as if Mr and Mrs Public had thought, “Well, we are alive and kicking; let the living continue!†This apathetic reaction is well summed up in Luganda: “Kitalo!†says one, “Bibaawo!†answers the other. (Not as vivid in translation: “Tough!â€, “Happens!†It mirrors, and encourages, the serious lack of conviction in pursuing to the limit those criminals who daily slaughter our citizens on the roads. The lorry which this week brought mayhem to Kiira Bridge, bashing vehicles as if they were dolls, and at least two of them into the river, was said to have been in serious mechanical condition. It appears that on the day in question it had stopped four times to deal with extremely faulty brakes. They failed once again at the bridge, with dire consequences.
The picture of the dead woman being pulled out of the Nile waters, for all the world as if she had been for a swim, will linger in the memory. Her one year old son, dressed in his “Sunday best†perished too, as did his dad, their driver and another man on the bridge itself. Of course none of this would have happened with proper attention to the offending, and offensive, lorry. Supposing the owner and his driver have not yet committed suicide by hanging, they should rectify the omission with minimum delay.
I have already suggested new offensives against road criminals Mr. Baguma is the Chairman of the Transport licensing Board, phone number 236646. Overwhelm him with calls until he has helped to create new, tougher laws, hand in glove with your Member of Parliament. Next time I shall publish companies selling machinery to deter improper usage of vehicles on our roads. I already know of one Danitrax International Limited in Kamwokya using GSM satellite and GTS networks to track vehicles' moments wherever they are. As Muhammad Ali used to say, “they can run but they can't hide.â€
I fell about laughing at reading yesterday's that my old friend, now HE the Vice President, Prof Gilbert Bukenya, had recommended that we Baganda should, as the heading in Vision put it, “Live federal talk to Kabaka.â€
Public comments on the issue of federalism should be left to Kabaka Ronald Mutebi and Katikkiro Joseph Ssemwogerere, as otherwise conflicting statements would cause confusion and misunderstandings among Ugandans. This struck your columnist as a great leap back to the old days when chiefs spoke and we the peasants sat mum and mute. These Baganda of today have thoughts of their own and the voices to utter them. I say this with the genes donated me by, among others, Regent Festo “Mulyambuzi†Manyangenda my grandfather.
Tomorrow, I shall visit, as it is often referred to, The Land of the Pharaos. Land too, of course, of ordinary Egyptians down the ages! It is my first time, as it was earlier when I visited South Africa. What a lot is happening to me with the twilight approaching (but not quite yet please!)
Ends
ONE of the greatest scourges of all time, we can indisputably agree, is Aids. Thereafter the disputes begin.
Do you go public about it or do you
hide it under the carpet for shame? Believe it or not some do the latter; arguing the case for traditional taboos or indeed (ostrich head in sand) hoping that denial improves your standing! Thus you get individuals using euphemisms for why their people died. Even worse you get countries wasting precious time over whether HIV leads to full-blown Aids, for whatever twisted logistical semantics they hold. This week a South African defence minister went as far as to pontificate that although one out of five of his troops were HIV infected, this was of no great concern since his country was addressing the problem etc etc. And even this was not the worst of it.
That "prize" went, as usual, to those leaders of the Catholic church who attempted yet again to rubbish condoms. Having failed to convince many of their flock that condoms were religiously wrong because of their capacity to limit the God given facility to reproduce, they hit on the fully irresponsible wheeze of telling their people that in any case condoms were not safe in fighting Aids. God bless their souls! In the first place did it never occur to them that they, by abstaining from sex, were directly interfering with the same God given reproductive facility? But secondly, thank God, such ridiculous counselling had already fallen on deaf ears amongst sophisticated congregations — as shown by the fact that in Italy itself, site of the Holy See, the birth rate per family had long fallen below the figure of two. (Of course in the more gullible Third World it was another, deadly, matter. Would the prelates then argue, alongside Lucifer, that Aids was a natural way of dealing with birth rates which had consequently shot out of control?)
Their chosen method of work on this occasion has been to preach that minute holes existed in all condoms, through which Aids germs escape into the vagina! But surely this would also help the reproductive process? In any case, their unscientific mumbo jumbo has guaranteed that numberless of their gullible flocks will go in without rubber and die for it. Cannot God in his mercy silence these pestilent priests?
* * *
This week, as expected, another hair-raising road episode ("accident" is a wrong usage in most of these) occurred as per expectation. Up to then the remarkable thing, going by the media correspondence columns, was the comparatively muted expression of public outrage expressed on the earlier Katuna massacre of 54 dead and many mutilated. It was as if Mr and Mrs Public had thought, “Well, we are alive and kicking; let the living continue!†This apathetic reaction is well summed up in Luganda: “Kitalo!†says one, “Bibaawo!†answers the other. (Not as vivid in translation: “Tough!â€, “Happens!†It mirrors, and encourages, the serious lack of conviction in pursuing to the limit those criminals who daily slaughter our citizens on the roads. The lorry which this week brought mayhem to Kiira Bridge, bashing vehicles as if they were dolls, and at least two of them into the river, was said to have been in serious mechanical condition. It appears that on the day in question it had stopped four times to deal with extremely faulty brakes. They failed once again at the bridge, with dire consequences.
The picture of the dead woman being pulled out of the Nile waters, for all the world as if she had been for a swim, will linger in the memory. Her one year old son, dressed in his “Sunday best†perished too, as did his dad, their driver and another man on the bridge itself. Of course none of this would have happened with proper attention to the offending, and offensive, lorry. Supposing the owner and his driver have not yet committed suicide by hanging, they should rectify the omission with minimum delay.
I have already suggested new offensives against road criminals Mr. Baguma is the Chairman of the Transport licensing Board, phone number 236646. Overwhelm him with calls until he has helped to create new, tougher laws, hand in glove with your Member of Parliament. Next time I shall publish companies selling machinery to deter improper usage of vehicles on our roads. I already know of one Danitrax International Limited in Kamwokya using GSM satellite and GTS networks to track vehicles' moments wherever they are. As Muhammad Ali used to say, “they can run but they can't hide.â€
I fell about laughing at reading yesterday's that my old friend, now HE the Vice President, Prof Gilbert Bukenya, had recommended that we Baganda should, as the heading in Vision put it, “Live federal talk to Kabaka.â€
Public comments on the issue of federalism should be left to Kabaka Ronald Mutebi and Katikkiro Joseph Ssemwogerere, as otherwise conflicting statements would cause confusion and misunderstandings among Ugandans. This struck your columnist as a great leap back to the old days when chiefs spoke and we the peasants sat mum and mute. These Baganda of today have thoughts of their own and the voices to utter them. I say this with the genes donated me by, among others, Regent Festo “Mulyambuzi†Manyangenda my grandfather.
Tomorrow, I shall visit, as it is often referred to, The Land of the Pharaos. Land too, of course, of ordinary Egyptians down the ages! It is my first time, as it was earlier when I visited South Africa. What a lot is happening to me with the twilight approaching (but not quite yet please!)
Ends