Final Terms: "We need to keep loving one another."

First of all, my heartfelt condolences to those who lost friends and family in Kampala bomb attacks that took place during the World Cup Finals this past Sunday. This is the third big terrorist attack on a major East African city, after the 1998 bombings. Yesterday's Citizen had this to report on Museveni's first public reaction :

'Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has vowed to crush the militant Somali group al Shabaab group, which has claimed responsibility for last Sunday's twin bomb attacks, which killed 74 people in Kampala. "We are going to go on the offensive and go for all who did this in al areas, starting here." [...] President Museveni also appealed to Ugandans not to target the Somali community in the country, saying they had nothing to do with last Sunday's bombings. 'Some people may interpret the tragic events on Sunday, but Somalis living here are part of the system.'

We do need to keep loving one another, as Jay Kay said to parliament yesterday. Some things only get better with translation.

World Cup post-mortem? Not so much. Spain won. Okay. Africa... well, South Africa really... proved to the World what We (They) are Capable Of. I was impressed- I honestly thought there would be some trouble with crime but it was not so. I don't know what the SA authorities did but it worked! Zuma was on the tube yesterday talking to some talking head somewhere overseas and he hinted at the Olympics as the next South African target. High Five.

The election season has finally kicked off. Jay Kay has selected his running mate, Mohamed Gharib Bilal, an (old) soft-spoken scientist-turned politician and one-time Chief Minister of Zanzibar. Meanwhile, the other (old) soft-spoken scientist turned politician, Dr. Shein, is CCM's candidate for the Zanzibar Presidency, running against CUF's (old) candidate Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad. It's a gerontocratic Vice-Presidential-Chief-Ministerial Merry-Go-Round. No sign of Chadema presidential aspirations. The others? UDP, DP, TLP, NCCR-Mageuzi? Meh. Let's not even raise the specter of CCJ. This is going to be an one-horse race.

Of course, the real game is in the parliamentary and council elections. Jay Kay's address to the outgoing parliamentarians was... well, interesting. My Lady of the Crooked Smiles thinks he's shown signs of personal growth over the past five years. Teachers, eh. To me, it sounded like a bit of a cop-oyt. It's going to be very interesting to watch a couple of promising young(er) politicians handle their first time running, as well as keep an eye out for major upsets as greyheads get pushed out- hopefully- by some serious competition :) Will the coming Bunge contain more thinkers and doers and fewer sluggish, corrupt, entitled, ancient, ineffective, apathetic money-sinks? Hope so.

The Best Housekeeper in The World, meanwhile, is keeping me appraised of the shenanigans that local government is indulging in on the streets. She was barred from a 'rally' meeting the other day because the candidate was CCM and she isn't a card carrying member. Her neighbors who were card-carrying members attended the meeting and got 5000 TShs for their trouble- roughly three dollars. Le sigh. None of the opposition parties have resources to compete with such flagrant 'grassroots mobilization.'