Practitioners of Contemporary Philosophy

This pic tweet was one of the salvos fired at the head of the country's pension fund.

Instead of joining the laughing and trolling chorus, it reminded me of 1 of the most sobering epitaphs (I know) on a tombstone that read;

"Wat u r, is wat I used 2 b & wat I am, is wat u will b!"

Death, unlike a life challenge, is inevitable and irreversible, but in this case, in a world where age creeps up on u without realising....
My question is....Wat r we (for those much less than 60 yrs today), doing 2 avoid similar or worse? That at age 60, we don't also hang on to jobs, against the law, and turn out to hv learnt nothing from the trolling we did to others many years before?

CHANGE AGENT'S CREED.....

In the quest for sustainable systemic change....its not the action of ex*****on that matters the most, but rather the shift in mindset that is triggered by the action, which then goes on to guarantee consistent action to ultimately deliver the desired change....sustainably - RTT

To attain is hard, to sustain alot harder.....
Income is a good example of attainment....savings a good example of 'sustainment' ...... and investment a good example of ensuring the savings made from the income attained, r multiplied & sustained!
>attainment

Yesterday, I represented the Uganda Agribusiness Alliance at a budget breakfast organised by the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) at the Serena Hotel Kampala.
We were discussing the effects of the current contractionary monetary and fiscal policies being implemented by GoU through BoU.
In my submission, I talked about how the policies were not Ugandanised enough to deal with some of our realities like having a fifth factor of production (in addition to the traditional land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship) that other developed economies don't have as much.

At a recent closing workshop, organised by the Innovations Against Poverty Project under SNV, for the soft skills & values training of 5 SMEs, 1 of which is already a client of Yunus Social Business Foundation Ltd, we had an intetesting discussion about the merits and demerits of business succession through family lineage especially for our Ugandan and greater African context.

My own opinion was that it had more merits than demerits and that although there is no full-proof blue print to execute it successfully, there are time-tested practices (some of which I have witnessed) that have generally yielded positive results;

1- Parents teaching their kids, very early on, abt the value of money, how it is earned and that human wants and needs always exceed the money available, and hence the need to economise, prioritise, be frugal.

2- To avoid spoiling the kids with an extravagant lifestyle for which they hv not been involved in generating the funds to understand the process and source.

3- When kids are of age, involving them in the business as both workers and later shareholders so that they can learn the ropes of the biz, from purchasing, to warehousing, processing, selling, invoicing, transportation, labour mgt, statutory compliance, customer care, etc, so that they get an all round practical education and appreciation of how to run an enterprise.

4- Guide and fund the kids (wherever possible) to study a profession that will address a key need of the business e.g. finance and accounting, production engineering, law, etc. This has been particularly perfected by the Indians to great effect.

5- Mentor the kids in gd values (courage, resilience, integrity, compassion and creativity) as well as soft skills (public speaking, negotiation, team building, networking) that wd set them up nicely to build resilient and sustainable businesses based on a long term view of things.

6- Allowing yr kids to modernise the business based on emerging contemporary trends of their times, basing on the firm foundation u set for them. A gd example here is how the late James Mulwana's kids hv expanded, improved and transformed their father's businesses in sync with their own times, while standing on the strong and tall shoulders of their old man.

I submit.....

"Ekitambulira waggulu....otegera wansi, kubba, empuungu terya birre!!"

Beautiful luganda proverb.....

The wisdom in its crafting is world class!!

In these kinds of generally tough economic times, obesity is a problem with an expensive cause, and an even much more expensive consequence and cure....
Prevention is always better (read cheaper) than cure....
'SRUN....without looking backwards!!!

One of the proverbs from the Kigezi region of SW Uganda where my heritage is, goes.... "Omutima tigubihirwa ekyamaisho gatalebire" translated as... "The heart can't desire what the eyes have never seen."
One of the easiest, yet most important roles that can and should be played by the privileged small elite class of the developing nations, is to deliberately and systematically engage with and pass on info, knowledge and ideas to their majority of economically challenged citizenry so that their hearts can desire the right things beginning with giving them belief that there is a better life than they're living and that its possible for them to work in particular ways to achieve that better quality of livelihood!
Relatedly, another African proverb is captured in the pic attached.....
Once we know better.....we can't settle for less!