If there is one country today that cherishes Christmas more than the rest of the world, it is China. It is one of the most non-Christian countries on earth, but the Chinese are already in Christmas mood – making Christmas paraphernalia that the rest of the world will buy for billions of dollars.
The massive trade imbalance between the United States and China in favour of the latter and the dizzyingly huge debt the US owes China are just two of the signs that China’s economic march forward is simply unstoppable, at least for now.
China’s biggest asset is its people, the working force. But for over a century before the rise of China, other countries made enormous wealth using their peoples’ skills to transform raw materials exploited from colonies.
A German imperialist told of native kids in Tanganyika whom he found playing a board game (omweso) using diamonds and when he tried to grab them, they pointed him to a nearby valley where he could go pick all the diamonds he wanted instead of disrupting their game.
The story of colonialism has been told and retold; how Britain & Co. made fortunes, and we still blame America for buying our people from our chiefs though many African-Americans are glad their grandparents were taken there and not left here. But even after decolonisation, new powerful economies like Japan have emerged. They developed workmanship, not natural resources.
Some countries got rich selling oil but forgot to build a well-oiled working culture, so their superficial riches can go up in smoke the Libya way or keep wallowing in confusion like Nigeria. A nation is best defined by what it does, not what it has.
The arid UAE-Dubai has become a major trade hub and tourist destination in three decades by developing hospitality skills. But Uganda, which owns the only source of the world’s longest river, the world’s hardest water drop, the only Bwindi forest, equatorial snow, the world’s second largest fresh water body, possibly the biggest number of bird species in the smallest area and a central location that accesses five other countries by a mere four-hour drive from the capital, if roads were smooth, continues wallowing in confusion.
In dreamy self-delusion, some even believe that oil exploitation will create prosperity here. At most, our oil earnings will only equal what we have on average been receiving in aid and loans over the last 25 years. If we couldn’t prosper with that, what magic will oil cash contain to make the population hard working and the leaders less corrupt? If we even fail to protect the visible resources needed for our very survival like Mabira forest, how can we protect the oil revenue, which majority of us cannot see or monitor?
The dumbest grandmother in Kiboga will tell you that whenever you cut a tree, you must plant another to replace it. It is a universal law of civilised societies. If Scoul cuts a third of Mabira and earns an estimated one billion dollars (Shs2.8 trillion) in hard wood sales even before planting any sugar, where are their plans for planting an equal number of trees elsewhere in Uganda?
And will URA collect its Shs840 billion from the deal as required by law?
These must be answered even before discussing the environmental catastrophe of cutting Mabira, because these are undebatable, existing laws.
While the Chinese prepare to earn billions of dollars in Christmas sales from the collective labour of their workers, someone is set to collect a billion dollars through timber sales that will not engage the useful skills of our population as only habitual criminal loggers and some migrant labour from across the border will be used.
The felling of Mabira would engage no useful national skills. As for sugar production, we need an audit to prove that Scoul are the most efficient sugar manufacturers around to take the treasured Mabira.
International Development Journalism Fellow, International Centre For Journalists- Washington, DC.
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