You say Obote and Amin were bad. How come we have disorder and chaos?

There are simply too many people in this country who have grown up in an environment of disarray and instability to believe that we have always been like this.

We were not like this even under previous regimes. We’ve just ushered a group of selfish, disorganized individuals into workplaces where turmoil and disorder are meant to be avoided.

We aren’t in a position to fire them since we aren’t organized enough. You must understand that I, like the editor of this paper, was born and bred in Kampala. The wonderful old Kampala is a place we remember and miss.

Look, no one in Kansanga, where I grew up, ever poured water from their roofs onto the streets. How could you possibly do that? Mr. Kiggundu, Mr. Musoke, Mr. Nadula, Mr. Kizito, or Shaban the Nubian, the Village’s Pilau specialist.

Who knows? Mr. Baketunga was a big asset to the town even before he moved in, and everyone adored him. People were concerned about the greater good. One day, three rogue Obote members arrived in the area and abducted one of the village’s residents.

Mr. Ndaula, who was now late, was released when the community paid the money these social misfits demanded.

My father, for example, flew back from one of his foreign trips with so many whistles when things went extremely terrible after Mr. Kizito was gunned down while reacting to an alarm at the neighbor. They were given out to everyone in the neighborhood.

When someone was in distress, everyone would blow their whistle. It was the idea that we are more powerful than our particular powers. We used to take turns going around the village late at night. Every home had a turn, and these tasks were completed. I don’t recall seeing many wall fences back then. I don’t recall any razor wire or armed guards, either.

For security, I recall using a bow and arrow. The sight of so many armed guards patrolling neighborhoods every evening to protect homes is quite NRM.

I’m referring to the so-called “dark days.” We have more armed guards at residences on good days than we had on bad days.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that there was a sense of order. There were no plastic bags all about. We used paper bags and the ‘Bikapu’ to buy groceries and other items. Then came the Kikuyu sacks. Then came the unbridled use of plastic, with no accompanying teaching on how to dispose of it. Sad!

The NRM government has done a lot of positive things, but one thing you have to give them credit for is overseeing the tremendous outbreak of disorder in this country. All you have to do is look at our driving to see what we’re talking about.

And believe me when I say that this driving problem is not about safety. It’s just a lot of “arrivalism” and “selfishness” all over the place. I know a member of the first family that stayed at home because they didn’t have a sticker for their automobile because their category had been eliminated!

They could have beaten the system and gotten as many stickers as they wanted, but they didn’t. Compare that to the ones who continue to abuse everyone on the street before asking whether we know who they are… Do we give a damn?

People who are good relax. You’ll never be as powerful as those Obote thugs, in my opinion. Those guys would show up in a village and we would give them whatever they wanted without saying anything. I witnessed a kid solder at a checkpoint request watches, and everyone willingly removed them as though they didn’t own the timepieces.

Too many people have slept on their work, resulting in disorganization in Kampala and elsewhere.

Once upon a time, Owino Market served as a parking lot for cars heading to football games. After that, the parking lot became a market. Then someone had the brilliant idea of turning the entire thing into a shopping mall. They now claim to be constructing a world-class stadium. Tell me where in the world there are stadiums without a parking lot or a railway to transport football fans! Go see how stadia are being constructed in other parts of the world. You’re slinging the term “world class” around haphazardly. Is it truly world-class? It’s my foot!

Sadly so many don’t know order. All they know is chaos. Unlike the few of us who have context and know what things were, they don’t. They think wrong is right. Let us brace ourselves for the worst before we get better. I am not very hopeful that order will return.

Those thinking and talking of changing things are themselves are also disorderly. It does not help that now we have made disorder cool by calling it ghetto. That makes it normative and on we go. Were we are now, you do the right things people find you odd.

Can you imagine where we are? You cannot superintend over the restoration of order when you are very disorganised and bending rules at every turn to fit your conveniences.