The demise of a Nation – certain or avoidable?
Rumbling along a dusty road in Uganda makes you reflect on questions such as “why do all of the locals wave and smile as we roll by?” Is it that we represent something that they want to be associated with or is it that they are simply happy? I honestly don’t know.
On the one hand the people are blessed with a country of astounding natural beauty and biodiversity. On the other hand it is populated with most of the people subject to immense poverty. The towns are filthy and rife with social problems. It has been many generations since these people stopped living a simply farmers or nomadic tribes, but how can traditions that prove themselves as grossly inappropriate still prevail?
Of course, if you are on the move and only have a “biodegradable lifestyle”, it is OK to simply dump bodily and other wastes into the environment. But after almost a century, it must be obvious that the same cannot be done with man-made materials such as plastic. Are cholera, dysentery, stench and other disease not make good deterrents? Does evolution not suggest that the people would find means of adapting to their new ways of living?
Again, I honestly don’t know. Is it a lack of education, motivation or the result of other societal ills? What I do know is that the country seems to be teetering on the edge of a precipice. What lies below is the same demise that befalls most capitalistic countries in the west; however, across the ravine lies sustainable development. The challenge is how to cross the ravine without falling in!
Does Uganda not have the advantage of being able to learn from the West’s mistakes and to use their low development base to move to a state of sustainable harmony? Surely this will make building a bridge across the ravine easier as they will know what not to do. I can see a country that has harmonised local markets and process certain base product for export. Why can’t manjoca (green bananas) become a staple in other markets like India / China? Or the focused planting of forest for charcoal production or eucalyptus oil? Waste that currently lies strewn across the country could be collected and sorted for use in the manufacture of new products and thereby killing two birds with one stone (waste management and raw material supplies). Thus the filth that is choking the country becomes a resource that helps the people rise up out of poverty.
Uganda, I implore thee not to choose the way of the West. You have the potential to achieve something, that we will never be able to do in the Developed World due to our greed and arrogance, Sustainability.