While on a run yesterday, my mind began questioning what makes a society function…well. It was Election Day. And I found myself, once again, running through the dirty, crowded, chaotic, and scattered streets of this country. I often ask myself, what is so hard about cleaning up a city? Or building good quality roads?
The country lacks the foundation of democratic infrastructure needed to sustain what it calls a government of the people. There are no real, powerful objective institutions. As many of my colleagues at the school say, the man is bigger than the institution. When ideally the institutions should be bigger than the man. The country’s leadership usually keeps a low profile. Their daily appointments and tasks kept secret from the general public. It’s difficult to know just what the president is up to on any specific day.
People have little faith in change. They keep strolling to that ballot box every 5 years with the hope that some unique effect will be derived from their actions. Something that will help them. Something that will help the country. But year after year, all they are met with is more corruption, more complacency, more dysfunction. It’s something that has become an innate part of the culture in many people here.
In the United States, we have these institutions. They are stronger than the man. They are stronger than corruption. They are stronger than the power of those elected and appointed. We built the oldest, most transparent, overanalyzed, criticized, scrutinized, examined, researched, recorded, photographed, discussed, admired, audacious, hated, envied, examined, inspected, explored, resilient, stable, wealthy, flexible, accountable, sustainable, self-sufficient, failsafe, and secure form of uniformly representational democracy ever known to man. How lucky we are. How far we have come.
The effects and conditions of countries subsisting without these adjectives in their so-called democracies contribute to a harder life for those people living in those countries. They cast away opportunity. There are no easily navigable channels here to earn a better life for yourself. There are no student loans. No student jobs. You have to truly work at it. And if you make it, you've done exceptionally well. But to make it in a community like the small village of Kamuge in Pallisa District in Uganda, East Africa, it requires you to become a magician. To make teachers appear where there are none. To make reliable health professionals and prescription medicine appear where there are none. To bring light to a place where the students evening study sessions are cloaked in darkness. To make clean and nutritious food available when there is none at school.
Navigable channels. My whole life I feel like I have been overwhelmed with opportunity. And a general feeling that there would and will always be a path for me to reach my next goal. A loving and supportive family. Great friends. A fantastic public education system. A quality and affordable university education system. A vast and thriving job market. A freedom to choose to do what I want to do. An ability to act on that choice. Choice. Choice.
What’s a difference between us and the developing world? We have a choice.
The election is over. The votes are being tallied. Uganda has made their “choice”. It appears to be Museveni, again. I praise this country for being as peaceful as it has for this long. I hope it lasts a few more days while tensions are still high. I continue to be amazed at the grace and perseverance human beings can display day in and day out in a country with so many problems. But, the people have spoken, and though the election may have been marred by semi-corrupt and unfair electoral practices, which I know almost nothing about, I truly respect and support the will of the people, if the count truly represents their majority opinion, if it represents truth.
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