Joe M. Watema

Uganda is a country in motion. I, and I believe most Ugandans, would hope for it to be forward motion and not regression. But it takes more than hoping. For the good ideals that drive a society forward (e.g. checks & balances, recognition of bodily autonomy, valuing lives, democracy) do not sprout from a vacuum.   They come from a number of background applied philosophies interacting. So if we only try to propagate great ideals without grounding them in the concepts they're derived from, our...

I am a social conservative. That does not mean I agree with everything said by all entities that ascribe this label to themselves. Rather, I am one of many varieties within that broad philosophy. And broad it is; for reasons among which are the varying contexts in the different locations where social conservatives find themselves. We shall mostly concern ourselves with Uganda, in this piece. That many Ugandans are something akin to social conservatives, in some sense, is clear. You may wonder...

It's good to be free. Of course, it is hard to claim it isn't without seeming contrarian just for the sake of it. On that, almost everyone agrees. What does being free mean in practical terms, though? That's where it gets tricky and the answers diverge, depending on who you're asking and where their life is lived. The concept provokes varying pictures in our minds, based on our interaction with it.   Freedom is like good food. If you have a taste of it and it proves delightful, you develop a...