The truth is the airlines business is congested especially in our region.
I grew up at the Uganda-DRC border town of Butogota in Kanungu and I witnessed the science and dynamics of money making. Becoming wealthy has little to do with acquiring an MBA or PhD in Economics. It has much more to do with orienting one’s mindset into that which matters. Money!
For example, when other peers were walking long distances and spending all day at school in the 50s thru 70s, Mzee Donati Kananura, arguably the richest man in Kigezi was walking long distances and spending all day practically studying money and making friends in neighboring countries. Today he employs MBA and PhD consultants. Mindset!
But, in the same environment I also witnessed how rich men would make foolish economic decisions because of a “cultural and traditional” mindset. When John bought a Mercedes Benz, Michael and Godfrey would also buy Mercedes Benzes the following week not examining whether it made economic sense or not.
I saw rich men stagnating and others falling down because of such foolish economic decisions influenced by culture, tradition or what I would call a “no referee” competition for bogus status.
If nothing is done, Uganda shall fall into the same trap of following cultures and traditions forgetting that this has no place in the fast paced 21st century.
Thus, I was recently angered by commentators who kept saying that Uganda should revive the “Uganda Airlines” and they would argue: “look, Kenya, Tanzania and now Rwanda all have airlines.” Okay! But does it make the economic sense or we are just following the illustrated wind. Don’t we have other sensible ventures where we can inject those millions of dollars?
The truth is the airlines business is congested especially in our region. I recently sat on one of those planes that were supposed to carry over 500 passengers but we were less than 100 all the way to Amsterdam. So, I decided to make friends with one of the hostesses, and she confided in me that “this has been going on for years.” She added, “this business is running on [bogus] hope that the economy will get better soon.”
I loved Charles Onyango-Obbo’s piece in the October 26th Monitor Newspaper titled “In 2035, a Crane Bank-type Crisis will not be possible.” Charles highlighted to the laymen the “Blockchain Bitcoin” modern currency which is intended to match with the dynamics of modernity full of technology and time consciousness.
Oblivious traditional rich man! She will soon establish a commercial bank not knowing that 20 years from now, banks will be irrelevant.
If you want to comprehend this that am trying to highlight, then, remember how we used paper letters through the post office which was replaced by internet cafes [that littered the entire streets of Kampala]…and they also have been replaced by smart phones – emails and WhatsApp. Maybe this isn’t clear enough, remember how mothers would use nappies which has been replaced with pampers…where is the future of the nappies factory now?
Uganda needs to carry out a serious SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis which should be free of drama (cultures and traditions.)
After a thorough study of Uganda’s experiences since 1900 and of course recognizing her natural endowment, Cube Nine discovered that Uganda’s strength is in first, producing and selling peace and security as a product, and then put the rest of her energies into the oil industry, agriculture, tourism and the arts, period.
Even an O-level graduate will tell you the vast advantages of [such] selected specialization. She doesn’t have to do everything. She just needs to know “who she is” and orient her mindset to modernity and step into more than just the middle economy class. Yes we can, by 2020!
Mr. Dan Morris Tumusiime is a security expert at Cube Nine Limited, a peace, security & espionage firm. dantumusiime@yahoo.com
