Museveni is a complex communicator. If you isolate his words from their context, or from the tone and facial expression with which they were spoken, you may misread his convictions and meaning. But of course print media cant give you the facial expression or the tone. And space limitations often mean that a reporter cant adequately provide context. So be careful with what newspapers say Museveni said. It may be far removed from what he actually meant. We are now told that he dismissed the humanities courses as useless. I find this ironic, not only because Museveni is a political science graduate (who happens to double as the only citizen with a vision!?), but also because he is a man whose speeches invariably delve deep into history and who never hesitates to lambast the perceived ideological bankruptcy of other leaders. Of course Museveni, co-author of a Runyakitala dictionary, has a deep sense of the importance of humanities. Very few Ugandans have shown as much appreciation for Humanities as Museveni has done. How does he now turn round and say that humanities are useless? Politicians expediently align their speeches to occassions, and Mr. Museveni is a politician (not a prophet), and the occassion was the launch of a science laboratory. If he had been launching a history book or his dictionary, he would have said something different. No country has ever sidelined humanities and substantially and sustainably developed. But I think its important to be mindful of numbers. Whats the ratio of humanities graduates to science graduates that best serves national interests? When you are a president, you have to face that question and try to answer it. I think Museveni feels that considering the prevailing national circumstances, Uganda needs more science graduates that humanities graduates. That, I suspect, is what he meant to say. If in fact he ended up saying humanities are useless, it may be because he fell into the trap of pleasing the immediate mob.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 18:58:04 +0000
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