PRAY UNCEASINGLY, THUS SAYETH THE LORD.

We shall open with a quote from Billy Budd, sailor from the complete short Fiction by Herman Melville: “Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its rugged edges; hence the conclusion of such a narration is apt to be less finished than an architectural finial”

Mr.Museveni and his agents have something that troubles me so very much—their bed of lies—they have fortified a perimeter with a thick layer of egg shells and they expect anyone who comes near to it to tiptoe with caution. And the agents present Museveni as a very delicate flower to us—they demand a very hard thing for me to offer: to be cuddled and coddled at the same time. I have been wondering why our leaders have made it their job to quell down all possibilities of an external audit of the election results but I found a very simple theory: Candidate Museveni & his minions know that he didn’t win the election, so he has to condescend and peddle fiction as much as he can.The French revolutionary Jean Jacques Roseau put it very accurately for you and I: “Falsehood has an infinity of combinations but the Truth has one mode of being”.

I heard and I read that the agents of darkness are at it again—how do you repel Prayer? The often talked about Terrorism in the Kayihura scare-crow terror threats just go it real, how did Uganda Police miss out on alerting the Prayer warriors of this very threat?Well,the often talked about terrorism is not anywhere off the mark with anyone who bans Prayer.Actually,to put it more accurately, it is treasonous and insane. A simple reminder: the national creed goes by the words, FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY, how then would those minions survive being our biggest enemies in a country dressed in colossal corruption? Do not answer because unless you are saying Justice ought to be served, I am not ready to listen to the ding-ding kumbaya my NRM kumbaya.

The renown Naomi Chomsky once remarked: “It is pretty ironic that the so-called least disadvantaged are the ones trying to protect all of us; while the richest and the most powerful are the ones who are trying to drive Society to Destruction”. Every second of everyday, this statement makes so much sense to me.

I keep wondering why the privileged few have that feeling that everything will always be business as usual. Because, we do not even need a control experiment! Many of them can use their present day selves and compare it with their yesterday. Many of them have got rich and richer just because the insane and crass act of conforming to evil caught up with them. The basic truth is that even when they lash out at those who have the temerity to speak against the injustices of our government, they are not having lesser nightmares. I know for sure the God who created us visits each one of us every day, through the Holy Spirit in whom we find the power to discern right from wrong.

Some say you can’t do anything, it’s just talk.

I know right, it always seems impossible until it is done.But,a reminder, like the so many liberation stories even that of 1986;it was once thought a joke—with just 27 men. I have tried to not comment on the often gone bonkers stereotype that Museveni is a god-send. While that may be true that leaders are sent from God, it is also true that when Moses was left, Aaron and Joshua came through. Certainly; I realize how much we may have to pick up our bibles and read. But precisely, as is the case with Mr.Museveni, Pharaoh too had a kabed heart. And very many terrible things happened; things that even affected the innocent ones. Today, after so many years, the same stories are very real. There was a time for the Joshua generation to take on from the Moses generation and by every stretch of imagination, thirty years for a country that goes by the word democratic should be long overdue.

There are two things:

1. They can open their hearts. I think for the most part, the NRM apologists are not necessarily bad people, they are people who have closed their minds to only that which makes them happy—forgetting the plight of the common man(those less fortunate than they are)—Indifference by definition. With this, so much will be more of the same—we will have a very rotten care system and we will still hear them cheer on the steady progress, we will have very defiled justice system and the kumbaya song of steady progress will still ring. There is a better alternative though, we can embrace Change. As I noted earlier in one of my facebook expletives, this isn’t about Dr.Besigye or just the opposition—it is about what offers something better and different from yesterday; rather a future of action against the lip-service decorum. Often the case with the current Museveni administration, they amp people’s hope with just lip service and when time to account comes up, they say sorry and promise to get back to us. Now that is the definition of insanity—they promise a lot during their campaigns with uphill hopes but weigh it down with their downhill habits. In the wise words of William Sloane Coffin: “there are three kinds of patriots: two bad, one good. The bad are the uncritical lovers and loveless critics. Good patriots carry a lover’s quarrel with their country”

2. They can keep close minded and thwart the will of the people from right, left and center—business as usual. I often hear that the opposition has nothing better to offer. It is crazy how close minded this sounds. Because, both on paper and practice, it has been proven beyond doubt that the FDC to be specific has been an informer of what to do for the Museveni government—this is a Fact. As long as the parliamentarians and all the institutions running our government blindly follow this notion, we are doomed—they barricade themselves under the pre-conceived notions or well-rehearsed cynicisms; a manual for avoiding mistakes. At times, we need a reservoir of goodness; that which we can find in the benevolent favor from God. The phenomenal Eleanor Roosevelt couldn’t put it better for me: “a stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping stone to the optimist”. The pessimists could think that every effort they put across will keep Dr.Besigye and his supporters quiet but that isn’t going to happen, they are rather encouraging more of the defiance, history as inference proves my theory positive: it happened with the 1789 French Revolution and the Civil rights movement with Dr.King in the 60’s, we aren’t outcasts, it will happen here equally.

It is true.

For you have to relate with the pain to feel the pain. Personally, I can’t do much but together we can do so much. I know the ideas enveloped in the dire need for Change are not just for a few, it is the majority, that’s practically why I use this platform—to talk to millions, that together we can stand tall and claim that which shouldn’t be given to us as a favor but rather as a right. One wise man, Simon De Beauvoir once said: “In order for an artist to a world to express, he must  be first be situated in this world; oppressed or oppressing, resigned or rebellious, a man among men”. Recently, I responded briefly to the comments by Don Wanyama, a Museveni apologist—that’s what I was talkingabout.

Many people have bought their minds into a very faulty notion that they are powerless—just because the odds are great, that’s a lie told by the evil spirits. Obviously we have the power to vote, demonstrate and actively support the candidates of our Choice. Equally, and perhaps most importantly, we have the power to resist the culture of Hostility gutting down our politics—to act daily in ways that foster a culture of hospitality in our humanity and our democracy can flourish. As Gregory Ellison the 2^ND tells his participants in his Fearless Dialogue’s Project: “you can’t change the world but every moment, you can change what’s happening within three feet of you”

The common-place truth: A time for everything.

I have wanted to tell you a story about Dr.King once more. I did that earlier when I told you the dream I have for Uganda on 12TH JANUARY 2016(that was just a few days the day we voted in millions for Dr.Besigye).Since it has gotten this far and Darkness is light for the NRM officially, let read this extract from Dr.King’s letter from a Birmingham jail: “society must protect the robbed and punish the robber. Oppressed people can’t remain oppressed forever; the yearning for Freedom eventually manifests”. The bell is rung, pick yourselves up and do what you have to—reclaim your rights whilst playing along with your duty as a Citizen; the role of a Citizen is to protect his country from his government.

The problem of sin, when we have common grace.

Jesus wasn’t wrong to die as a means to bridge the gap between mankind and the supreme deity. I know some people have now decided to mess with this grace since they have swept their crimes under the rug and got away with it.Now the problem is man has willfully decided to play god in his myopic thirst for power—but, scripture in Paul’s 1^ST letter to the church of Corinth, he is very crystal clear: “the ‘foolishness’ of God is wiser than the ‘wisdom’ of man”. A very great man of God, Gerard Manly Hopkins once wrote these priceless words:

“I say more: the Justice man justices;

Keeps grace: that keeps all his going’s graces;

Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—

Christ—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,

Lovely limbs, and lovely eyes not his

To the father through the features of men’s faces”

I have said it before that we live in a nation devoid of Justice and I will say it again with no remorse. In the word of Scripture, Proverbs 17:15 says: “Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent, the LORD detests them both”. Time and again we have seen this happen within our very corrupt institutions, on this note, a very healthy warning from the book of Isaiah 5:20: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness”

Let us re-learn to be ashamed

Make No mistake—we are diving into the abyss, plunging right into the bowels of Hell. Lies sink in really fast than truth has ever been. Society is torn between how to raise the next meal for their families and the wicked means that is done. Of course that worries me—the only developments that could halt this is if we start to look beyond the day’s meal and shift focus to decency. We can do that if we remove shame from our lives though; light might continue to be taken for darkness and light for darkness till Christ returns maybe.

PS: AS AN AIR OF FINALITY

The two Revolutionary Modes: Non-Violent vs. Violent

As I sign out, we will talk about my Preference for non-Violence—while at it, we will get along to see Prayer and boycotts as earlier mentioned under my journey of Activism & Advocacy for Change. A long while ago, Dr.King sent a telegram to Cesar Chavez as seen above, it read: “As brothers in the fight for equality, I extend the hand of fellowship and good will and I wish continuing Success to you and your members. The fight for equality must be fought on many fronts—in the urban slums, in the sweat hop of factories and fields. Our separate struggles are really one—a struggle for Freedom, for dignity and humanity”—this beautiful story goes on.

Cesar Chavez while appreciating Dr.King’s nonviolent strategy had these beautiful words and more: “In honoring Martin Luther King we also acknowledge non-violence is a truly powerful weapon to achieve equality and liberation, in fact the only weapon that Christians who struggle for social change can claim as their own…….our conviction is that human Life is a very special possession and that no one has the right to take it for any reason, or for any cause however just it may be”—the mother of all coincidences is that by virtue of the fact that I root for Dr.Besigye,I am a ‘criminal’ by association, basically a good thing: I would rather be branded a ‘criminal’ by the agents of darkness than lose my conscience just for an applause from those who have made it their job to see me and so many others  in status number two—the second class citizen(s).

Between now and the time Justice is served—I do not know when but I will keep down on my knees. In my fervent Prayers, I will basically focus on the restoration of truth in our institutions and that those who are luckier than I am will learn to empathize with their neighbors. Our ideological differences are real but there is more that unites us than divides us—we are all Ugandans and above all we are one race, the Human race. I tried to explain that when I was talking about UBUNTU recently. We talk soon—Grace Abaho Sr, INDEPENDENT BLOGGER.