UGANDAN PEOPLE - A BOOK ON UNDERSTANDING THEIR CULTURE...

THE BOOK

The book “Ugandan Society Observed” is a selection of Kevin’s best newspaper articles over the last 13 years. The 262 page book contains 111 articles, divided into 14 subject chapters (Religion; Sex and Love; Language; Sport; Music; Education; Media; Poverty and Inequality; Health; Tobacco; Gender and Sexual Orientation; Bazungu and Aid; The Environment; Pot Pourri). Each chapter contains a cartoon by the Monitor’s Moses Balagadde, together with a striking front cover cartoon.



THE AUTHOR

Kevin O’Connor was born in London in 1952. He obtained an MA in Economics from Cambridge University and then spent two and a half years as a volunteer (VSO) teacher in a village in Northern Nigeria . This was followed by a 20-year career with the British Council, with his last posting as its Deputy Director in Uganda . Kevin and his wife Sue, a professional photographer, returned independently to Uganda in 1997 and Kevin began his weekly Roving Eye column, initially in the Sunday Vision and then in the Sunday Monitor. The column has become an acclaimed part of the Ugandan media. Kevin and Sue are also accomplished volunteer athletics coaches.



REVIEWS

Reviews include:



“Forget the travel guide books about Uganda . If If you want insight into the country's media, music, development assistance, foreigners (whites) and sex-life, this collection of articles from the column "Roving Eye" is more entertaining and just as interesting.” Bistandsaktuelt (Norwegian monthly newspaper on Aid and Development)



“Visitors looking for a general read about contemporary Uganda to complement the travel info in the Bradt Guide are pointed to Ugandan Society Observed, a collection of essays written by Kevin O’Connor AKA “The Roving Eye”, the outspoken columnist for The Sunday Vision and more recently The Sunday Monitor.” Philip Briggs The Bradt Travel Guide – Uganda (Internet Update)



"Being Ugandan is more than skin deep. After more than a decade of living in Uganda , no matter how blond one's hair is and how pale their skin is, one is bound to take on all the characteristics of a Ugandan through and through. Kevin has produced a book that anyone coming to Uganda for the first time, and wants to bring themselves up to speed, should buy as a matter of importance." Sunday Monitor, Uganda



"Agree or disagree with him, this book is guaranteed to give you plenty of good reflection as well as great entertainment." Fr. Carlos Rodriguez, Leadership Magazine



“Ugandan Society Observed is a classic read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Congratulations to Kevin.” Rachel Magoola (Ugandan Pop Star)



PURCHASE OPTIONS

Bookshops in Uganda e.g. Aristoc (Ug Sh 15,000).



Websites for purchase include:



Amazon www.amazon.com; Michigan State University www.msupress.msu.edu; Barnes and Noble www.bn.com; the African Books Collective www.africanbookscollective.com. The publisher's website www.fountainpublishers.co.ug (prices vary between websites)



And to hire Research Assistants and Field Officers Contact dishma.imhs@gmail.com or Call +256774336277


To attend Vipassana Meditation Technique in Uganda, book your place via Purna Wasti

And to donate to Dishma Community Advancement Programs let us know through dishma.imhs@gmail.com or call +256752542504

MANAGING TAKE-OFF STAGE OF AN INCOME GENERATING PROJECT

Starting a income generating project is a very challenging. It is an outcome of several ideas tried one after another -sometimes at ago. Several failures prompt some proprietors to visit the spiritual world for intervention. It has taken some Ugandan businessmen crazy and fierce actions like human sacrifice. Human sacrifice has been more pronounced this year -with the greatest proportion of victims being children.

Whereas some have had project successes either by coincidence or mere inspiration after consulting the spiritual world, others have taken on proven dynamics necessary for project success. At the beginning, it is nothing but a one-man project. Positively, this helps to minimize costs by saving what would have been incurred at hiring several project assistants.

But there is always a time -when the project branches out into different growth lines, so much that the project founder fails to be at all points. For the the sake of trust, the founder will prefer hiring able family members. The challenge to it, however, is that family issues often override business interests -by way of hired relatives siphoning from project resources to solve family financial crises. The nature of relationships will always provide certain excuses for wrong business or management decisions. Compromise will be the order the the day -regardless of how much revenues are stifled and the direction the project may have turned to.

As bankruptcy crops in, the project founder will find it painful to attack or blame family members -which, in turn, accelerates the problem. Indeed, it would take proprietor a long time before changing the action of bringing family into business for another. It becomes even worse when the founder has to a few other assignments outside the business or project line.

To succeed beyond this level, the project owner must rethink family continued family involvement in affairs of the firm. He or she can do this by investigating losses -either by himself or someone else. However, an independent report would be comprehensive, most interesting and highly motivating to implement.

Following that, the founder can embark on key adjustments -which may be; to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation team, teach family members basics of business-monitoring accompanied by stern warning for those implicated in revenue losses. However, the statement of caution must carry consequences and be made clear. Possibly, repercussions should be written on paper and copies given out to every member working for the firm. A brief summary of them can be pinned on the walls as reminders.

And of course, he (project owner) must review them weekly or monthly -to ensure effectiveness and efficiency towards the projected goal. A choice too may be made to reorient them in basic business skills and ethics. If it is about pressure to fulfill their career goals, career guidance can be integrated to provide them with different channels to success. While if old bad stories occur, the family member involved must be firmly relieved of his or her daily business input.

Usually, it is by asking him or her to go for a holiday -until “certain company issues are rectified.” The proprietor may not have to be exact about the kind of issues. Some money to take him or her through life after the current job to another one can be given.

This shows continued care for the worker until his or her last step out of the company -while at the same time humbly asking him or her out to go home -as “investigations” get underway. As already noted, it is just diplomacy at work. It will take him or her several months to learn that, indeed, the job is gone. Perhaps until the promised phone-call for long time fails to show up.

It will not be so long when the proprietor soon starts to build trust and confidence in human resource outside the family. But, even for them, they must have recommendations from renown and trustworthy people in order to reduce risks due to theft and mismanagement.

Whoever is brought in, given his or her desired skills, abilities and personality-fit, must be put on probation to undergo a period of on-job training and evaluation. Such are intended to have the trainee adopt the much-desired business values to pursue over a considerable period of time. This also empowers him or her to make autonomous decisions pertaining to project or company goal -where for contentious ones, he or she simply seeks the proprietor's intervention or advice.

Jacob Waiswa
Situation Health Analyst
www.situationhealthanalysis.blogspot.com