Tag Archives: written

Challenges and opportunities of E.A. Cooperation

Radio Munansi English program February 9, 2013

This is Eric Kashambuzi communicating from New York

Greetings: fellow Ugandans at home and abroad, friends and well wishers. Welcome to the program. We look forward to your active participation because this is an interactive program.

During the last two weeks, we discussed Uganda’s population growth and birth control, migration and refugees and their impact on population growth and on politics, economy and social services as well as the environment, leading to conflicts with indigenous people.

Today we want to continue this debate within the context of the East African economic integration and political federation by examining the history, challenges and opportunities.

I have written extensively on this subject and the articles are posted at www.kashambuzi.com for easy reference. I will therefore make a brief presentation to guide the debate. Please call in and give us your views or correct me should you disagree with my presentation.

Ugandans have not had a chance to discuss this very important subject. What they have been told are the assumed benefits of larger population in terms of creating a bigger market for Uganda goods and services and a common passport that would facilitate mobility within the community.

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The idea is to make life better for all Ugandans, not to make history

My humble contribution in Uganda politics and writing about the Great Lakes region (I have written ten books and created a blog www.kashambuzi.com) has been interpreted by some Ugandans as an expression of ambition and the desire to make history. They are wrong.

In making choices about what to do as a student and worker, I have been guided by my parents’ advice, Christian and community values. I was born and raised in a Christian family. My father, now retired, served in the Church of Uganda and rose to the rank of Archdeacon. He served in many places in Rukungiri and Kanungu districts where we interacted with people from many walks of life. Our house was open to all and they opened their houses to us.

I was also born and raised in a large extended family that includes Protestants and Catholics. And coincidentally some of the managers of my businesses are Muslims. I also grew up in an atmosphere where community cohesion and sharing on a reciprocal basis was very strong and children belonged to the entire community.

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“My best friend is truth” – Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was born in England in 1642 almost 100 years after Galileo (Italian scientist) had written that the earth goes around the sun contradicting ancient Greek scientists including Aristotle and Ptolemy who had written that the sun went around the earth. Newton became very interested about how the world worked. He read every book he could lay his hands on.

Newton got admitted to Cambridge University to study science. There, he was told to study the ideas of ancient Greeks like Plato and Aristotle. However, Newton thought that the ideas of modern scientists like Copernicus and Galileo were closer to the truth than those of ancient Greeks, a radical move. He wrote in his notebook in Latin that “Amicus Plato amicus Aristoteles magis amica veritas” which in English translation reads “Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my best friend is truth”. He experimented with the ideas of modern scientists until he was able to determine the force that pulls on the apple. He called it gravity. In 1687 he published his ideas in a book titled Principia Mathematica, or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Because he told the truth, Newton occupies a proud position in the pantheon of scientific investigation and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

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