ARE WE GETTING A RAW DEAL FROM BANKS?

I was “strenuously” amazed how officials of Bank of Uganda and the Criminal Investigation Department of Police leapt to defend Centenary Rural Development Bank(CERUDEB) that it was still fully operational and not about to close as alleged by one of the local dailies. Personally, I had issues with a certain Bank over an account credit mishap which they have failed to rectify up to now. Local folks shouldn’t be blamed for hastily getting concerned by the development especially after formerly “unsinkable” banks like Uganda Co-operative Bank and Green land Bank abruptly summed up business without prior warning to clients.I think Mr. Moses Sakira’s admission that a few accounts under the bank were indeed under investigation over fraudulent transactions did more harm than good for the bank’s image(if any still existed)no matter how "noble" the exercise may be. Ugandans have become so sensitive when it comes to money matters especially in this era of gross corruption,fraud,shrewd micro-finance institutions and lately the credit crunch.Therefore, it’s due to this insecurity that those who can spare some “change” for saving are very careful where they keep it. No wonder a top government official can decide to keep Shs900m in his bedroom!

Twitter/gyezimania

www.magyezi.blogspot.com

THE SMOKING BARREL

Close to a month now I have been trekking all the way from my place to office on FOOT because of two reasons (Yes, I said it); one, because one shrewd bank has decided to retain my salary amounting from an account credit mishap they committed but is being accrued on me….(You can add any four-letter word of your choice) Two and most importantly because of….. as usual a CHIC.There’s this lady-cop who mans the main entrance into the British high commission facility along Kitante….Yamaawe!!! This lady can prompt the most coward of men to join the police just to spend a night out…. patrolling the streets of Kampala and sweeping the corridors of the city clean from thugs diligently Uuuuh!!She wears this tough-looking-yet-sexy appearance that makes one love to flirt with crime just to get next to her or get a heavenly-opportunity to be arrested by her. So, every morning I have made it my cardinal obligation to always drop-by this place on foot just to enjoy a few minutes glancing at this lady-cop in her smartly tucked-in police uniform, her AK 47 rifle safely tucked-away on her back and her pretty-face glowing in the mid-morning sun…..am now contemplating on a career change and my next stop could be the POLICE!!!Twitter/gyezimania

AFTER SUN-SET

When you experience something for the first time let it odd, funny, annoying or exciting, it always leaves an impact on your life because it’s the first time you have collided with such strange phenomenon. Just like your first day at school, you either like or hate the experience but it still it leaves a lasting impression on your life over space and time and you always have a "handful" to tell everyone at home about the experience. However, after a week,month,a school term after the other, the excitement burns out and you starting feeling less and less enthusiastic to wake-up early and hit the road to school…you loose the motivation and zeal to open your books or look at the teacher's "scribbles" on the blackboard…so you start dodging classes to try and re-ignite the flame that made class-time more exciting…you have your first smoke on everything and your first taste on God knows what to try and turn the "life-fire" up!!!SO…after spending two years in the same place…"crunching" on the same "substance matte"r…exchanging the pleasantries…one always has this same "rhyme" echoing in one’s mind..... is it time to…..MOVE ON!!
Twitter/gyezimania

ONCE UPON A TIME!

There was a time in my "journey" where I couldn’t drink from the fountain of love because I didn’t have the "pass-word" to do so!
There was a time along my "route" where I couldn’t find confort in my sleep because the ground was too hard to feel sorry for my bones!
There was a time in my norctunal-manouvres where I couldn't fuel my inner-man to heights because my liquid-end was too small to meet the ether!
I always wished and dreamt of the DAY WHEN…….!
With Queen B on my left
A bottle of hennessy in my right hand
Religiously making that paper bubble
I would find the solution to the happiness-cryptic puzzle BUT!
I truly miss my life of "struggle"
It made me struggle for everything
It made me struggle for every penny
At the end of the day whenever we stormed the' journey" to throw off some dust….we always hit the ROOF-TOP!
Twitter/gyezimania

JUST LIVE YOUR LIFE...Eeeeh!!

I have not met the Uganda leader of opposition, Prof. Morris Ogenga Latigo in person but watching and listening to him from afar always gave me an impression of a robust, articulate and “refined” man, whom if life was to be a patient on a surgeon’s table, he would carry out every body-cut and organ insertion with sheer precision and diligence.However, watching him being humbled and confined to a stretcher-bed after being involved in a fatal accident really gives one, 1000-plus reasons to really reflect and re-define: What leading a life and living a life is all about.We usually lead a life in which “other people” dictate what our goals and dreams in life should be; "other people" stipulate ways and routes that must lead us to those goals and dreams; when God helps one to reach the "promised land" and we get "hold" of these goals and "collide" with our dreams, "other people" are always at hand to "scold" us back into line so that we don’t get carried away with all the "fame and success".Generally when we lead lives we do so on behalf of "other people", they only difference is that we "wear" the flesh on our bones as others "whip" us into the direction they feel like!BUT: When we live a life (my favourite), we take control of all our decision-making "faculties" and physical-propelling "knobs". We reign over an existence in which we first please our "inner-selves" before trying to please other people….we live a life to the fullest,undeterred and “uncrowded.”When you lead your life according to the "whims" and “tunes” of "other people" you always feel incompetent and you will exit this world “unsatisfied,” BUT if you clearly roll-out rules on which you are to run your life, you will never regret your decisions….BECAUSE THEY MADE YOU WHO YOU ARE NOW!

GRIZZLIES

They pretend to be the “all knowing, witty and subtle lot”, they peruse through your scroll with such utter disgust, depictive of a granny whose sandals have flirted with chicken droppings in her back-yard.They often than naught shout when breaking down their "critic-tongue" and later get back to their unpatented trade to run down the hours of the day till they hit the home run. At the end of the day you crash with the load as they sit on your back and eat their cake, and still have it to take home….!!

CLIP-CRACKING ON FATE

I think am steadily but surely losing touch with reality or my mind is getting bloated and gagged up in the wrong place. Take for example the previous week; I had all my plans well chiseled-out and panel-beaten to the pulp proper. 1) I was to put my dime-minded-lustful landlady in her place(read pay my “way-long” over due rent), 2) Punch whoever demands any coin from me right-straight up in the chin(read pay-up whoever owes me a coin) and 3) Get my self a sizzling comfy couch to give my bed a break! That’s when all things went retrospectively wrong, 1) What I had planned to pay the landlady was “way-long” below what she had anticipated to get as if she thought I work for Uganda Revenue Authority,2) The money I owed people just suck-chocked me to pieces and 3) My dream comfy couch was indeed…..only in my DREAMS!!
Twitter/gyezimania

WRITINGS ON THE WALL

With every step I have made…I have left a foot-print in my life’s journeyWith every body-drag I have covered….I have left a trail of my life experiences With every breathe taken…..I have given my life will to move onWith every body-sweat I have shed off….I have rejuvenated my body for tomorrowWith every tear I have shed……I have learnt to pick up my self and hit the road againWith every word I have written….My heart, mind and soul have spoken in volumesWith my hands, pen and ink……I have written my life on the wall

MY HEART’S WHISPER

Arounnnda ArounnndaArounnnda Arounnnda
I wannnder I wannnderI wannnder I wannnder
Nyonnnya NyonnnyaNyonnnya Nyonnnya

Though we been tramped onWe will move on
Though we look weathered
We will rise again
Through the desert
We will wander

Arounnnda ArounnndaArounnnda Arounnnda
I wannnder I wannnderI wannnder I wannnder
Nyonnnya NyonnnyaNyonnnya Nyonnnya

I can see the light on
It’s getting clearer
Though our bodies may fail
Our hearts will make it
Our sons will taste our efforts
Our daughters will keep our line alive

Arounnnda ArounnndaArounnnda Arounnnda
I wannnder I wannnderI wannnder I wannnder
Nyonnnya NyonnnyaNyonnnya Nyonnnya
Magyezi
Poetry-lane Uganda

THE PULSE TO BREAK-THROUGH

We are all created with quite distinctively differing characters and personas, some of us share certain degrees of similarities in how we lead our lives and relate to others first, in our own homes, society and else where.However, among all characters those embody our personality traits in how we can easily adapt to new situations and create long-lasting relationships with strangers is the character that gives the definition of logic and reason a whole new dimension.Man has for long devised differing approaches to adapt to new situations:
* The deprivation stage (situation)The instinctive mechanism to adapt to new situation especially after loosing a person close to you or a person you know or adaptation to a new surrounding like loss of a job, property or failure to achieve something.* The gain/creation stage (situation)The instinctive mechanism to adapt to a new situation like moving to a new community, success or creation of new relationships with strangers.
However, it’s usually how we appreciate this change that determines how long we take mourning the loss of our loved ones, something dear to us or handle and contain the “baggage” that success and relationships carry along the route.
Whenever we try as much as possible to unearth the faintest degree of hope when we collide with disasters and identity key opportunities in times of success, “plenty” and love, may be “tomorrow” will always find us much more prepared and ready.
Magyezi@smsmedia.info
Skype: gyezistep
www.magyezi.blogspot.com

SAILING THROUGH NEW-MEDIA CANALS AND RACIAL WAVES

My youngest brother this week will make it close to 3-weeks stuck in a far-strange land in Europe where he plans to spend 2 years sharpening his mental edges in the public health discipline. I have had one too many run-ins with this chap and despite my unshakable and non-apologetic take on various issues we argued about from child-hood, I have always hidden and reserved something about him to my self…..he is the brightest amongst us (four siblings) and up to now I hate to love the fact honestly (Come on am supposed to be the smartest…I was even named Magyezi(literally translated to mean wisdom in Rukiga, a local dialect)
After completing his final year at Makerere University henceforth graduating with an undergraduate degree in Social Works and Social Administration, the chap decided never to become any man’s employee retrospectively disregarding the rest of us who traversed the streets of Kampala heavily armed with thousands of our CV copies looking for jobs.
The most amusing part of this melodrama is on the side of our aging mother in Mukono District, who has never had her last and beloved son stay far away from her and for this long. Whenever I tell her that we can talk using my skype line(gyezistep), or chat and see his pictures making his rounds and acquaintances in Denmark(with white ladies....see the pix below... Hahahaha) on face-book, she often wonders what else is left for the white-man to exploit after land,water,humans,communication and outer-space!! I always remind her that her son is always in touch with what’s hitting headlines at home at www.smsmedia.ug or www.smsmedia.wordpress.com
Stephen Magyezi
www.smsmedia.ug
www.smsmedia.wordpress.com
Twitter/SMSMediaUganda
Myspace/SMSMedia

WEATHERING THE CREDIT-CRUNCH STORM

Just like life whose continuity and replenishment is inter-twined with endogenous and exogenous pressures (Museveni’s philosophy), most of the 3rd world countries rhyme with this school of thought economically. Close to 3-years now, all countries have had a spike from the ruthless credit crunch cane either; 1) directly and imminent, or indirectly and pro-longed.BUT: Just like the story in the bible about Noah’s ark and the storm, two countries have had their doves return with an olive branch, Germany and France are out of the global economic recession and are now experiencing minimal economic growth, though not sufficient and doesn’t paint a more global economic portrait, at least it gives us hope that YES WE CAN.
Fact-file (GERMANY)Germany has a developed social market economy ranked as the world's fourth largest economy in USD exchange-rate terms, and the largest economy in Europe. The German economy is heavily export-oriented; as of 2008[update], Germany is the world's leading exporter of merchandise, and exports account for more than one-third of national output. As a result, exports traditionally have been a key element in German macroeconomic expansion. Germany is a strong advocate of closer European economic and political integration, and its economic and commercial policies are increasingly determined by agreements among European Union (EU) members and EU single market legislation. Germany uses the common European currency, the euro, and its monetary policy is set by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany.FRANCE:A member of the G8 group of leading industrialized countries, it is ranked as the 5th largest economy by nominal GDP. France joined 11 other EU members to launch the euro on 1 January 1999, with euro coins and banknotes completely replacing the French franc (₣) in early 2002. France's economy combines extensive private enterprise (nearly 2.5 million companies registered) with substantial (though declining) government intervention.
Magyezi
www.magyezi.blogspot.com
BIZ-sense central

THROWING REASON TO THE WIND

I have learnt to refrain from activities and sentiments that usually rattled my fresh starts to a week and least of all days a Monday! It has been said that inspite of how neutral or unallied we might publicly position our selves we harbour inner-ethnic and racist sentiments BUT its up to an individual to either, conceal and ride with the “different colours, one people” wave or aggressively dive into “A good Muganda is a dead one” sea.From morning my day has been relatively free-flowing to say, and I assumed it would be so till signing off in the evening……..UNTIL one of my work-mates made one of the MOST (if I can put it mildly) absurd (read stupid) statements in the history of Magyezi-hood. He retorted after an argument, “I will never marry a Munyankole!”Such words coming from a mouth of a University graduate made me wonder if really our formal-education system is still relevant but remembered a local slidge, “You can take a person from the village but you can’t take the village out of him/her”I have always loved to differ with individuals in opinions and sentiments if they always back their assertions with facts and more undoubtly with sheer reason. I have had the best interactions and acquaintances with people we differ in tribe and race. Iam a Mukiga, I grew up in Buganda,studied in Busoga, my University scholarship was “footed” by whites, my best friend is a Muganda and my girl-friend is a Muganda…..I can’t speak my mother-tongue but I speak relatively fluent Luganda and Lusoga. So listening to such ill-blubber from this chap just caused me a serious stomach upset!

GO..GOING...GONE

Its quite resounding in every sphere of life from science or humanities that; to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction! So, after several months of misunderstandings and later making sense of the moments' hype, she stayed grounded and gave it a second chance! After months of enduring all the heartache and pain, she gathered all her broken pieces and took to the love-trip again! She always had it in her conviction and steadfastly embedded in her heart and mind that.....one day....one day....I will regain my earlier "gentle-man persona" and treat her with respect and as a lady BUT i was too blind to see beyond the beer bottle......till i woke on Sunday and she was GONE......!

TAKING ON THE MILE WITH A SMILE!

When the going strenuously gets tough!....sometimes one needs to shade the baggage off and just chill. When stress stretches your ribs apart,weighs your heart down and scotches your soul...one may end up looking 20-years at 15 and 30-years at 20.
Everyday we crash into various hitches ranging from tragic losses of loved ones to waking up and hassling all-day long on an empty stomach! BUT we always throw all this weight onto our shoulders and steadfastly face the break of DAY with sheer zeal.....!