In the conversation below, I sit down with Egesa Ronald Leonard to talk about Uganda. While the conversation is not as focused or well-structured as one might hope—which is to be expected of first-time conversations—it still gives a clear sense of how Egesa and I diagnose the Uganda problem.
While I am of the religion that Uganda is one or more good systems away from becoming the paradise it was always meant to be, Egesa instead believes that it is the absence of quality values among Ugandans themselves that is stopping the country from operating at its optimum.
Egesa identifies and points out many major problems within Uganda. He shares behaviors and manners from other countries, like Japan, that differ from ours, and he believes this difference in values, behaviors, and mannerisms justifies the gap between Uganda and Japan. I am obviously oversimplifying; that is why you should listen to the conversation for yourself below.
While I wasn't able to express myself as clearly as I would have hoped in the video, the main point I wanted to make was that the values, behaviors, and mannerisms a society wants are engineered intentionally. They are built within a society using structures and systems that compel people (through reward, punishment, obstruction, ritual, etc.) until, over time, the people are so accustomed to those mannerisms that they simply consider them culture. I use the Ejembe analogy, which is a Baganda practice where families build systems and rituals that help protect them and make them prosperous.
The conversation is almost three hours long, but I highly recommend it. If you would like to see another conversation between Egesa and me, please make that clear in the comments.