mr. president

This past Friday, I went to Uganda's 12th Annual Prayer Breakfast... We arrived around 7:30 in the morning, along with many influential people of the city who came together for the occasion. The breakfast buffet included things like eggs, sausage, fruit, croissants, imitation coco crispies, and a few stranger items like baked beans and chicken wings (its always amusing to me to see what other cultures consider to be "breakfast food"... needless to say, I did not participate in the baked beans at 7:30 in the morning).

While we were eating, there was a performance by a local children's choir, solos sung by Judith Babirye (who I'm told is the Ugandan equivalent to Amy Grant.... go figure), and the musical stylings of some man in a purple velvet shirt who was lip syncing to a recording of one of his albums. Then there were several leaders who got up and prayed.... for the country of Uganda, for its leaders, for the world... and then the performances started up again as we waited for the host, President Museveni, to arrive... Let's just say a lot of singing took place that morning, because Museveni didn't show up until around 10:30. After the president walked in, the guest speaker began his presentation.

The man who spoke was a professor from South Africa and gave a great message about how we will only be able to achieve peace and progress if we recognize each other's humanity.... When certain groups start seeing other groups as less than human, that's when genocide happens. That's when a country that took a step forward, takes ten steps back... Dehumanization... there is a history of it on the continent of Africa, and the speaker was encouraging Uganda and its leaders to learn from the past mistakes that South African had made. The talk was titled "Am I My Brother's Keeper?" and through that he emphasized the reality that we are all responsible for one another. All in all, I really enjoyed his talk.

Then Museveni took the podium... he was the host for the event and when he got up he acknowledged that the host doesn't normally give a speech, but since he had a mic, he was going to... For the next forty five minutes or so, Mr. President talked about a smattering of topics... from the progress of Uganda, to what the Bible has to say about discipline and work (ie "he who does not work, does not eat"), to the recent growth of the country's corn crop... But the comment he made that was most interesting to me was this: he called Uganda one of the "African Lions."

The term "African Lion" is in reference to the "Asian Tigers" (Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan), and if I remember correctly from my econ classes in college..... all that was needed was a little capital infusion to get those economies goin'. Just a little cash and these relatively poor countries took off to become the up and coming economic powers of Asia. But I just don't think that's going to be the case with Uganda, or most African countries for that matter... Sorry Museveni.

Here's a little proof: this is a Wall Street Journal article that describes the plight of Bono's fashion company called Edun. The intention of the company was to have all its products manufactured in Africa and then marketed in the US. Bono, of course, had crazy connections in the fashion world, and the line was soon in the top stores and fashion weeks etc.... But even will all his millions and awesome connections, the project took a turn for the worst.... Quality issues began to arise... In the article, one of the Edun promoters said that she planned a promotional event to take place in semi-darkness "to draw attention away from the clothes".... Really?



And now Edun does their manufacturing in China.... womp, womp.

So much for capital infusion.

It isn't just going to take good designs and billions of dollars to put Africa on the map for fashion, manufacturing, or investment-appeal... And Bono's wife, Ali Hewson, came to recognize that: "the aesthetic we always new would be important... but we didn't realize how difficult it was going to be to achieve quality." It's quality that's key. Making a quality product in Africa takes more than just an injection of cash. But just because Bono gave up on manufacturing in Africa doesn't mean its not possible. It is possible, but just its not easy.

Anyways, that was my train of thought during Museveni's speech. From that poor comparison of African Lions all the way down to the Bono-fail... I had plenty of time for this train of thought though because all in all the prayer breakfast lasted for about 6 hours. Starting at 7:30am and ending around 1:30pm, it probably should have been called the "Prayer Breakfast, Lunch, and Afternoon Tea." It was quite the experience. Definitely on the long-side, but I'm really glad I had the opportunity to attend.