ANDREW. M. MWENDA : “AN ANTI-THESIS-DUDE, I AM INFORMED”

Photo Source: Personal Archives: Taken: 2012.Location:2^nd Floor, Ham Mukasa Library, Uganda Christian University-Mukono.

UNINFORMED by definition in my Concise Oxford dictionary tenth edition is defined as: “lacking awareness of understanding of the facts”

The word Uniformed has an antonym, INFORMED. By the same dictionary and edition, it is defined as: “having or showing knowledge of (a judgment) based on a sound understanding of the facts.

This anti-thesis is based on the antonym against Andrew Mwenda’s false claims that I am uninformed.

Teresa Mummert: “the moment you put someone on a pedestal, they will look down on you—trick is respecting each other equally”

LED BY THESE WORDS: As President Obama said on the 14^th April 2009: “LORD, fill my mouth with worthwhile stuff and nudge me when I have said enough”

Dear Andrew M.Mwenda a.k.a OLD MAN OF THE CLAN,

I can be very many things but uninformed is not one of them-unless you disclaim that you are just using that word because you want your so lame narrative to make sense. This is probably the fourth time I am commenting on your sly comments. One thing I am aware of, to begin with, you have certainly had cringe-inducing moments every time I have rebutted your thought opinions. This is the common place truth Andrew. My thoughts are informed, full of insight, full of light that they make despair and ‘futility of reason’ palatable…at least for the length of time it takes to read them. My writing skills are not anywhere close to wanting. I do not throw failing punches, trust me, this too will not be one.

23^RD May 2015, I wrote this: “I used to think that it is only the famous that can influence the world until I realized that some people are just famous for being famous”. It was an engaging discussion on facebook…that you definitely missed. Join in now, it is never too late. As a senior one student at Kigezi High School, in 2004,I read and watched the phenomenal Human Rights activist Toni Morrison present her commencement speech address to the students of Wesley College,Massachutes.I had since known Dr.King’s I have a dream speech as the best speech, still my favorite. While Toni spoke, I saw the world as is, I have since had her as one of my favorite s and read many of her very great literature (as we will see later).In the speech at Wesley, titled Be your own story, I got the motivation to let nothing deter me from being my own story. I will paraphrase the key things:

“You will detect a faint tone of apology in the descriptions of this bequest, a kind of sorrow that accompanies it, because it is not good enough for you. Because the past is already in debt to the mismanaged present. And besides, contrary to what you may have heard or learned, the past is not done and it is not over, it is still in process, which is another way of saying that when it is critiqued, analyzed, it yields new information about self. The past is already changing as it is being reexamined, as it is being listened to for deeper resonances.Actually,it is willing to identify to its evasions, its distortions, its lies and are willing to unleash its secrets”

The best part of you calling me uninformed is that you call me to telling you how much there is that I know that you don’t know I do.Andrew,as long as you and I write things, especially on the global camp fire and for print media, we shall always have critiques to our work. The trick is dealing with them maturely not calling them uninformed taking a whole lot to a very big insult. Before your very unfortunate remarks, I had written a letter to the critiques of my social media expletives and I told them that it is okay to disagree with me as long as they can rebut with substance, see the letter on facebook.Mark Twain in a brief biographical sketch of George Washington writes: “He was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of the youth that he could not even lie. But then he never had any of the precious present day advantages which are within the reach of the humblest of the boys of the present day. Anybody can lie, now”. In an earlier article, when I rebutted you when you called Dr.Besigye just a winner of propaganda and not the election, I warned of cultural hegemony that you do that so well. But I remember beginning with Marcus Aurelius’ mediations thoughts, does it ring a bell? Let me say this again, in the 1954 Aldous Huxley book, DOORS OF PERCEPTION, he writes: “to see ourselves as others see us is almost a salutary gift. Hardly less important is the capacity to see others as they see themselves”.

While chronicling my journey on Activism and Advocacy for Change here on this blog, I was very crystal clear quoting a verse from the 1973 William Blake’s poem, MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, he says: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as is,infinite”.see, you want everyone to hold you to a pedestal but you can be sure I will not be party that superiority crap,in give credit where it is due and to someone who deserves it—I kick ass where someone begins melding me into blunt blindfold of foolery. I want to refer to book I read a few years ago that made so much sense to me, FLIRTING WITH THE WORLD By John White. On Pg. 117(153), he writes on the cult of self-worship: “I am grateful to Professor Paul Vitz for alerting me to the specific dangers of this particular fashion in psychotherapy in his book Psychology as religion (Eerdmans, 1977).Vitz, a New York psychologist, coins the term selfism, by which he means preoccupation of one’s own ego, one’s personal fulfillment and the pampering one demands in the name of self-worth”. Basically, what I am saying is that, as I said earlier, we ought to open up to Criticism or else we will not grow. Andrew Mwenda cannot be the fountain of Knowledge and neither can Grace, we all need one another, we have to support each other. In the SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE by Stephen R.Covey, Pg.185 (352)—on the paradigm of interdependence, he writes: “Before we go into the area of public Victory, we should remember that effective independence can only be built on a foundation of true independence. Private Victory precedes public victory. Algebra comes before calculus. As we look back and survey where we have been and where we are in relationship to where we are going, we clearly see that we could not have gotten where we are without coming the way we came. There aren’t any other roads; there aren’t any shortcuts…………(he continues to write on Pg.186), we are dealing with a very dramatic and very fundamental paradigm shift here.You may try to lubricate your social interactions with personality techniques and skills, but in the process,you may truncate the vital character base. You can’t have the fruits without the roots. It is the principle of sequencing: Private Victory precedes public Victory. Self-mastery and self-discipline are the foundation of good relationship with others”

See, Andrew, what makes your argument so stale and very empty is because you try to evade every avenue of challenge every day. You tend to rub it in our faces that we didn’t in anyway contribute to who you are—that’s so wrong. We actually did, it may not be direct but we did. For me, I love living in reality not just a world of fantasy—yes I have dreams, but there is when we have to let reality talk to us. For instance, about the plight of the young people that you call uninformed even when they put up solid arguments. I once read an interview of Tennessee Williams with James Grissom that I identify with a lot, and in this interview he said:

“I move around and function, for the most part. This edifice, this scaffolding behind which we think and dream is a mask for the hysteria and fear that I think motivates us all.Isnt everyone desperate about something or someone? I think we love people because we can imagine the similar horrors they are facing, and we reach out and try to get into their edifice and let them know that they are not alone. We light a light in their edifice with our oil of sympathy”. I have met many people who do not want to associate with a life different from theirs, those that do not want to know about the harrowing upheavals of even their nearest neighbor, because they are doing okay where they are but—but, I have pledged to be a voice and I will not stop. This is not because I am an authority but as Albert Einstein once said: “For rebelling every form of authority, fate has banished me by making me an authority”.

While you lay claim to my being uninformed, I must say with confidence that by every stretch of imagination, your assumptions are aren’t based on a country in which we live in but a country you wish we lived in.When you went to facebook and called me uninformed, you employed a very cruel rhetorical device called apophasis, you want me to try it on you and you feel the sting? In your comments, the underlying contradiction is impossible to overlook, If the underlying claim is that I am uninformed, how sure are you? The evident facts say otherwise, what is it you are digging on your fishing expedition, Andrew? Well, the irony is so thick that I might choke on it.I have been wondering why and how you picked yourself up to respond a not-worthy rebuttal. I wrote you a rebuttal, I said: “Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: if we would have wine from it, we must bruise it; we must press and squeeze it many times….”                                 and you responded grasping for straws         .

You shock me, you keep ringing the doorbell of the devil and yet you call on those who offer solid rebuttal uninformed. That is telling (PS: Mark the anaphors employed here).I have come to one conclusion, you are just uninformed of how informed I am.I am going to leave for you some notes for your Private reading. When you are done, call me for me coffee and say sorry. I will listen.

A PROPOSED READING LIST FOR ANDREW MWENDA.

Sometime last year, I said that I do not compete with anyone but I want to add, when you give me an invite to beating down the foolery I know how to wrestle. If you read the Elizabethan theatre play by William Shakespeare, THE TWELFTH NIGHT, there is a scene where Viola plays down Malvolio with the words: “some people are born great, others achieve greatness and to some greatness is thrust upon them”—the movie, SHE IS THE MAN, has it too. I wrote this, on Competition.

While I wrote my journey of Activism and Advocacy, I said I wasn’t gone back down, Andrew you can be sure your whims do not shift a thing. Read here, Advocacy & Activism. Again read what I vowed in Exhibit A & B, on facebook.While at it read my message to people like you peddling anti-intellectualism, hereagain, read.

Last year, April 2015, I learned of David Brook’s book, THE ROAD TO CHARACTER, I read this in a New York Times article titled the Moral Bucket lists. In the article, David Brooks wrote:

“It occurred to me that there were two sets of virtues, the resume virtues and the eulogy virtues. The resume virtues are the skills you bring to the market place. The eulogy Virtues are the ones talked about at your funeral—whether you were kind, honest, brave or faithful”

I went ahead and downloaded the book; by June 15^th I had finished reading the book. I discovered very pivotal questions in career development and sealing a lasting legacy. They are Question. On Pg.261, David Brooks writes: “Toward what should I orient my life? How do I mold my nature to make it gradually better each day? What virtues are the most to cultivate and what weaknesses should I fear most? How can I raise my children with a true sense of who they are and a practical set of ideas about how to travel the road to Character?” Those a very beautiful words from a beautiful book, I will leave it here for you to download.

After you had besmirched Dr.Besiye as a sour loser, and just a winner of propaganda and not the election, I sat and wondered about the kind of Legacy we will live in Society. I was reflecting on James Baldwin’s SON OF THE NATION and David Brook’s book, above. This is what I said about you: “Mwenda will carry these two things to the grave: maybe cowardice and most def opportunism”. If you want to read, find it on my page on Legacy

My Year of books for 2015 had very many interesting books, and of the 53 books I read last year, I had a pick of my best six books I recommended for my friends who read. I will make a recommendation, find it on facebook.

PS:

Andrew, I have since known Faith, Hope and Love  through books as a young child, to the present day—how do you find it convincing to call me uninformed, old man?. I capture this in an eulogy for my father. Also, I went ahead to tell more about my thirst for information while I wrote a memoir for President Obama. Surely, rock bottom has been my sturdiestfoundation.

Finally, let me tell you a story. Before I knew you existed, I knew some greater writer and teacher named, Cornel West, today he is Dr.Cornel West. I really loved Cornel West to the letter. In the 2008 Presidential race for the United States, he supported Sen. Barack Obama, present day President Obama. Cornell had his egos bruised when Barack became president and he didn’t have his long-thought plans come to fruition. Actually, it begun with the 2009 inaugural ceremony—the inaugural balls…blah blah.Then Dr.West started right away to vent out his anger calling Barack and all sorts of names. Guess what! Do you know who has since put him to his place? His former student and great friend for over 35years, Michael E.Dyson.Are those names familiar? You could have been here before me, but dude, before you call me uninformed, think. Read the story for yourself, here is the link.

As Stephen R. Covey advises on Pg.207 in the SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE, think win-win: “Win-Win is a belief in the third alternative. It’s not your way or my way;it is a better way, a higher way”

FOR MY READERS: A well informed Citizenry is essential for a Vibrant Democracy. As my last note, I never go without Scripture, read with me from Philippians 4:8 : “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is admirable—If anything is excellent or Praise worthy, think about such things”

Sincerely,

Grace Abaho Sr , INDEPENDENT BLOGGER.