Tonight’s Blood Moon

Tonight September 27/28, 2015 we’ll witness the last of a spectacular and rare tetrad of lunar eclipses. The first three total eclipses in this lunar tetrad occurred on;

April 15, 2014,

October 8, 2014,

and April 4, 2015.

  
You’ll not need eye protection to view this spectacular lunar eclipse. As opposed to the last one our dear president helped “cause”! That was a solar eclipse, don’t look at the sun with naked eyes unless you want to go blind. 
A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon. And the Earth’s shadow is cast on the moon. 

This supermoon lunar eclipse is recently referred to as “blood moon” because of it’s reddish brown color.

Mainly because of Rayleigh scattering, the same mechanism that causes colorful sunrises and sunsets.

If you are in kampala expect some action to begin early this morning 28 September 2015 from 3:00am to 6:00am! 
  

  
And No, the world will not come to an end as some apocalyptic pastors and dooms-day predictors may have you believe. 
This is just normal movement of planetary bodies and their interaction with light from the sun. Don’t read much into its significance or any such bizarre nonsense. 
#BloodMoon  

It could be a scam

We all want to succeed in life! We have dreams that are almost certainly shared by most. Watch out tho, on your quest to succeed, some fraudulent individuals have figured how they may exploit your weaknesses to their benefit.

 
The pitch! 

“How would you like it if I told you that you can have fun, freedom, and fulfillment making money. In other words I have this secret that allows you to make a living doing what you do in your spare time but also being paid for it. 

You will retire early with more than enough money to last you a lifetime. And you’ll have made this money effortlessly by just living and loving what you do everyday anyway.” They’d say. 

Sounds good?

 “Well, here’s what you have to do. Sign up for this program, service, product by paying a substantial, up-front sum of money to join. Then share this opportunity/secret with your friends, family and anyone you know. Then the company will pay you depending on the number of people that you enrolled into this success club.”

Reality; 

Now if you happen not to have come up with this sophisticated plan and are receiving this pitch. You my friend are about to be a victim of a scam. And if you buy into the pitch. You have a 95%+ chance that you will loose your money and live the exact opposite type of life that was pitched to you. 
Here are a few signs that you are about to be scammed. 

• If it sounds too good to be true. It most certainly is not true.
• You are offered a chance to join a group, scheme, program or team where you need to recruit new members to make money.
• You are required to pay a big upfront subscription or membership fee to join. 
• The scheme involves offering goods or services of little or doubtful value that serve only to promote the scheme, such as information sheets good ratings and the numerous countries of operation.
• The promoter makes claims like ‘this is not a pyramid scheme’ or ‘this is totally legal’. 
• There’s pressure for you to join. “If you don’t join early, there may never be a next time.” Or “This is an opportunity you can’t afford to miss.” “Join us you will not regret it” “This is guaranteed income.”etc. 

Uganda, like many mismanaged nations. Has a large unenlightened, ambitious overzealous, young and gullible population. This is scam-heaven for such get-rich-quick schemes. And the government lacks effective institutions to protect its people (more like sheeple). 

Many people will come to you with such seductive money making deals from some company you’ve somehow never heard of,  that are scams and even they themselves may never know that they are victims of a scam.  The few I have had the misfortune of learning about from friends are; QNet, FOREVER, WORLD VENTURES. 

These companies are pyramid schemes at the core disguised to sell, product/services that are of no value like Bio-discs, difficult to sell products, or some other poor quality or downright useless substance. The true purpose however is recruiting members to support the pyramid. 
The enrolled members make a payment and join. In exchange, the organization promises its new members a share of the money taken from every additional member that they recruit (their down-line). The directors of the organization (top of the pyramid) also receive a share of these payments. 

For the directors, (the only ones that pocket enough money) the scheme is potentially lucrative—whether or not they do any work, the organization’s membership has a strong incentive to continue recruiting and funneling money to the top of the pyramid where they are positioned.

The enrolled member has to recruit more members to earn, meanwhile the company solicits more money from its current members. Eventually, recruiting is no longer possible and the plurality of members are unable to profit from the scheme.
The sad part is, those that have joined are now trapped and they have to haggle and hassle their friends, family, and loved ones to join. Soon they’ll discover they can’t recover their investment as the guys at the top cheer them on and blame them for being lazy or not doing enough. If they don’t break through.

Truth is you can’t break through. It is mathematically impossible to break through if you are not anywhere near the top 3% of the top member of the pyramid.  

Now you know! The best way to protect yourself is your critical thinking and skepticism. 

Death good or bad?

My Workmate just lost her father -accident! She was getting married in October 2015. It is her father that brought this good news to us in an upbeat mood. He was everything you’d hope for in a father of his generation. Very jovial, a teacher and an engaging elder. It’s is sad. Very sad indeed.
I happed not to believe in an After Life as proposed by most faiths. And actually find the idea demeaning of human life, so I abandoned it to the unreflective. But that finality of life chills me every time someone I know dies. 
So I have always given it some thought. I find nothing radically wrong about dying. After all, who said we were to go on and on indefinitely? I never asked for life. I never missed it. But now that I have it and love it -even with all it’s challenges. It’s hard to let go.
But if we were to enable life to continue indefinitely. Would you make the choice to live forever? 
I think not. For how long can we afford to indefinitely postpone death? How could we deal with overcrowding as new beings come into existence? Why would we need to have children? 
Through us, the universe becomes aware of its existence. A fresh new view is afforded thru our children, we pass on the process of life to them and we have to eventually make way -leave the stage for them to experience the magic of life. Have different view from our own. Appreciate life, recognize its magnificence and what a chance it was to win this lottery of life. 
Death in that sense takes a very important role in rolling this dice of life. A good thing that comforts my memory in such hours of grief. And we would do it anyway if we were to try living forever. At some point all we could accomplish would be accomplished and we would want to die! 

Jiggers in Uganda are a punishment from god?

Just a glimpse of how Uganda could have sank too deep in the sea of poverty and suffering.

And my thinking is that; when a country’s leadership abandons it’s responsibilities of planning, and ensuring a country has a sound and secure future for its citizens. Given enough time. Things start going wrong in almost all sectors of society, health, education, wealth creation, security, agriculture in our case, infrastructure and all services breakdown. The effects are felt directly by Ugandans in this case and start wondering what happened?

In Busoga they are wondering why they just can’t shake the jiggers off. These tiny mites have caused immense pain to these people for so long, it is now synonymous with being a Musoga!

Now for an ordinary Musoga in Mayuge who is wondering whether they should blame themselves, or the Neighbour, for bewitching him or any other external agent that brought this suffering on him and his people, can not see through this malady to its genesis and architect- poor leadership(government)

At this point the Pentecostal churches show up with a supposed answer for your suffering, who is responsible and what will end your suffering. They claim to know all the answers to your happiness because they speak from God. And as you can see they are well off and better than you, so surely you can trust them and be sure you are on the right path.

So Ms Babirye a gospel singer says “jiggers are a punishment from God” if you buy into that nonsense, they follow with whatever you have to do to be safe- be on terms with God. Repent, join a their church and start remitting 10% of your income to God. Driving you even deeper in this sea of poverty. Completely ignoring the culprit who is obviously a father that was never there to shoulder his responsibilities- the leader!

Weddings.

Once upon a time, marriage made sense. life was hard and short; most marriages were arranged and a woman was simply the property of her husband. It was how women ensured their financial security, elevate their social status, enjoy approved sex, have as many children as possible knowing that many would die and live what in those days was a fulfilled married woman’s life. The ultimate achievement, complete with the adoption of the husband’s name. It was like freedom from slavery, to someone that now finally had a duty and a place in society.

Religious institutions made rules that were designed to protect the couple and give the union a permanence and mystery that it was divine for fear of the consequences of a divorce. It is not surprising that girls were brainwashed into thinking marriage was the ultimate prize and a wedding the ultimate entitlement.

The times have changed. Longer lifespans, birth control, gender equality, women ‘empowerment’, and sexual freedom have rewritten the rules of matrimony. There are more inspiring and fulfilling life endeavors that should be prioritized and committed to in our lives today.

So, whatever motivates people to get married is as diverse as there are couples willing to commit to one another forever. What has baffled me however is the couples’ decision to make an immensely pricey stride down the aisle.

Faced with a decision to take an insane amount of cash and splurge it on a  wedding and making an investment that will eventually end up paying for our kids’ tuition. I cant see how i can be so deluded as to go with a wedding. It’s insanely ridiculous.

The recent one of singer Lutaaya & Namatovu is rumored to have cost 1.2 Billion shillings. Most of this money is usually fundraised in what is known as ‘wedding meetings’. Now if you haven’t been to these ones, take yo favorite drink and relax. It is the awkwardest trap of a meeting you can imagine. They literally choke money out of your pocket. A combination of intimidation, blackmail and other crude methods of coercion are mated out on the attendants until they have no coin left on them. All this building up to the one day of formulaic, overpriced, nuptial frenzy a.k.a wedding day.

And you see never-married couples with the intention and focus to stay together, for the stability of the children and the family, will still be just as married whether or not you had a million dollar wedding or not!

The energy time and money you will invest in that glamours extravagant wedding may just be a sure way to start a miserable bankrupt marriage.

This idea that you deserve a wedding is not the point; of course you deserve a wonderful day. But what you deserve even more is financial security and a debt-free future. So plan a wedding based in reality, and who you are and what kind of wife you want to be: supportive, smart and with two feet firmly in reality.

Too many people make this mistake and it is the major cause of unhappy, unfocused miserably poor unions. Now you know better not to follow the bandwagon, most don’t know where they are going.

BLESSINGS FOR SALE!

BLESSINGS FOR SALE!

Vivid in my mind are memories of the hard work I had to endure with my cousin in my teen years. A group of pastors had come to Mbarara for a crusade. So they rented a house in the neighborhood. Somehow they connected with my uncle(my guardian) and he offered us for housework for a week to the pastors and their assistants for free! We were doing gods’ work, washing cars, clothes and utensils, cleaning the house and it’s compound for a dozen or so guys. Tough time! And we were paid the best way they always do- blessings!! Blessings indeed, some of them have mega churches now and I’m still hustling.

This idea of blessings has always baffled me to this day. I don’t know how to quantify blessings, god’s criteria of blessing and how they are different from human effort. Pastors sell something that is not tangible (blessings) for something valuable and tangible(money).

I’m all in support of individuals that have a good Innovation, idea, service any contribution to society that eventually gets them rich. I’m against those that use holly books, power, spirituality to control their adoring followers and take from them to satisfy their selfish ends. Living lavish lifestyles at the expense of the gullible. It just boils my blood.

I have been to church in Uganda. But majority are people that are in real pain and have major challenges in life. It’s beyond me why anyone would want these impoverished people to give to church. They barely have enough to survive on. But they are told that is the most critical time to give to The Lord. Give is the wrong word, return what already belongs to god! And The Lord will bless you, and multiply what you have given!
Essentially meaning give to us and The Lord will bless you! These pastors put on the latest designer clothes, drive the latest and most expensive cars, own the plushest houses and live the most luxurious lifestyles than these poor church members can ever hope for!
This advertises them as people who are blessed and are on terms with god. It never occurs to them that their contributions to ‘god’ (actually pastor) are the ones supporting this lavish lifestyle.

This humbug that I call the “Name-it-and-claim-it” in churches is ridiculous. Belief in the words that the mouth speaks. That they possess some sort of power and that god will work on those utterances to create the desired change! That you can throw them at any circumstance as a weapon at any time.

It’s now 31st the last day of 2013. The envelopes like the one in the picture were distributed a month ago for believers that will flock every church and open space tonight. They are supposed to put money in there! A seed that will sprout in the year 2014 and shower the Beliver with blessings. It’s also the harvest season, this is an annual event 8th for this particular envelope and you are expected to share your harvest with your god(pastor). Oh and I forget, entry fee is 3,000Ugsh per head!

I’ll be home with my family as you make your pastor richer and waste your precious time on some activity that I honestly think is a gross waste of time!
Just try reason!
Happy 2014 y’all!

Polite Xmas.

It was a lovely day, calm weather, delicious food. Family and friends. I think I was still tired from a hectic month of work nonstop, so I took a deserved nap and enjoyed the rest of whatever was taking place. That picture of my love says it all. It was “itis” time.

Lingering in mind however was this Anti-Gay Bill that was passed by our parliament. Something that seriously
Annoyed me but the parliament had offered as a gift to Ugandans. Being in festive mood I thought keeping calm as some section of this society is criminalized for essentially expressing their sexuality like anybody else should, is unjust! So I posted this on my wall!

I am amused by people quoting the #bible as saying that homosexuality is wrong when their bible also says judging others is wrong. They seem to conveniently forget that part. Pick and chose which ones to believe leaving others out.

This mess of a book explicitly allows slavery, including selling your own daughter as a sex slave (Exodus 21:1-11), child abuse (Judges 11:29-40 & Isaiah 13:16), and bashing babies against rocks (Hosea 13:16 & Psalms 137:9).
Rape, murder, pillage, genocide, and all manner of heinous crime we know as moral beings is wrong.
Christians haven’t really read the Bible, or if they do, not objectively. They just take what their pastors have prepared for them, pay him and that’s it!
Which goes to show how unserious they take their very own heaven mission.

Loving people is inherently human & also good for our survival. It’s insanely absurd that a book that is clearly corrupt, full of hate out of our time, still informs how people behave today. To the extent that a country would make a law to put any group of people other than criminals in prison for life!

We are better than this! Or we should be. Put the rules aside do unto others what you’d have them do to you, will do for starters.

I don’t eat snake meat, but when I go to a place where snake meat is a delicacy I say no thank you, but I do not condemn or harm snake eaters. It’s the human & respectful thing to do. Their snake eating has no harm on me. Let #gays be!

So until I settle for a
Greater analysis of what informs, motivates hate, prejudice and homophobia, I’ll be back!

Happy New Year.

My first blog.

All this on a smart phone thanks to technology. And I mean all the registration, and posting my first one. Clearly I’m elated and look forward to pouring my thought here! 

That will do for now untill I feel something that I can’t keep a secret! Happy New 2014.