Skills and professions Uganda urgently requires By Timothy Kalyegira 1. Police detectives and forensic crime investigators In Uganda, the only crimes and offenses that marshal the resources and effort of the police tend to be political crimes or allegedly political crimes. Opposition, media and civil society activists, when the levers of power demand it, are pursued and prosecuted with every resource the police has. However, the investigation of ordinary but still serious crimes usually leads nowhere – thefts of laptops, phones, cars, burglaries, and so on. At an advanced level, British or American investigators are flown in. 2. Archivists Given the dearth of information and records in Uganda, this is a second area of critical need. Everything from speeches by major public officials to television and radio programmes, national photo archives, documents of national importance, newspapers and magazines and other such records disappear over the course of time, with so much valuable information lost forever. 3. Songwriters It might seem hilarious to list songwriters as a skill Uganda lacks, given the thousands of new pop songs by Ugandan artists we seem to hear every year. But listen carefully to them, to the lyrics and the instrumentation, and it becomes clear that what we have on the Ugandan pop music scene requires some upgrade. Most songs are based on a computerized rhythm section, which is why most sound the same. Most music written is the up tempo, dance variant, with not too many thoughtful ballads composed. We are also short of songwriters who can compose for an international market, with Luganda having now become the lingua franca of the Kampala music scene. 4. Customer care/after sales service personnel As anyone who has dealt with Uganda-based companies knows, one area of major frustration is what we know as customer care, the department in a business that handles customer complaints and needs. Customer “care” in Uganda is often indifferent, rude many would say, but almost always incompetent, especially those in the electricity, water and telecoms sectors. 5. Television and news script writers This is an area that might not seem obvious to most, but for those who follow our news media keenly, Uganda could do with more compelling scripts on radio and TV, especially documentaries and features like obituaries on prominent public figures. The standard “The president has said…”, “The minister has urged...”, the “CEO has advised…” script could do with an upgrade. 6. Historians As we lament at the high youth unemployment rate in Uganda, we only need to look around to realize how silly we sound. Uganda’s problem, like most of the rest of Africa, is not that there are not enough jobs but that there are not enough minds thinking seriously about national life. Let us take history as an example. So much Ugandan history has never been documented. At most it might be only about 30 percent documented, most of it political history. The other history fades undocumented into the past because we do not regard history as a “serious” subject. Think of the history of Uganda Airlines, Gayaza High School, Radio Uganda, the second UPC government from 1980 to 1985, the Uganda Cranes, Makerere University, KCC football club, the Munno newspaper, Coffee Marketing Board, Afrigo band and so many other national institutions that have shaped the country and the fact that their stories have never been documented in say 400-page books. Who is supposed to write this history? The many Ugandans who have no jobs. Why is this not being done? As stated, the problem is not a lack of jobs or lack of resources but the lack of thinking minds across Africa. 7. Photographers As it is with songwriters, this seems like a redundant area. After all, does not everyone these days own a phone fitted with a camera? Yes, everyone does. But judging by the quality of photos that are uploaded daily on social media, it is clear that the image created at the click of a button or touch of the screen is not necessarily a “photograph” in the strict sense of the word quality. Just take a look through Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, from uploaded events photos to people’s profile pictures. A huge amount of work needs to be done. Visit Ugandan blogs, websites, and other Internet forums and it is immediately clear how desperately the country needs good and actual photographers, not “snappers”. 8. Agricultural extension workers Considering that 80 percent of the national labour force works in agriculture on small holdings mainly for domestic consumption, the need for agricultural extension workers who genuinely feel for the peasantry cannot be overstated. How much more productive would our farms be if this colonial service had not gradually been eroded by excessive expenditure on public administration, defence and politics since independence and also the simple lack of interest in field work by Ugandans? 9. English teachers As it is with songwriters and photographers, this is an area in which there is an alarming shortage of skilled personnel. The fact is, English is Uganda’s official language. We might hate that fact, but for the time being we have no alternative. To make it worse, English is now the main language of the Internet and world’s most widely-used language. If what we read in student essays, in our newspapers and on social media and hear on radio and TV is a reflection of the state of English in Uganda, then we need help. 10. Industrial designers and quality controllers I am about to complete a book titled “Understanding Uganda”, which takes a detailed look at almost every sector of the country. In my research, one of the reasons given for the lack of competitiveness of Ugandan products on the world and regional markets is the quality of their packaging. There is a need for properly labeled, attractively designed packages and carefully inspected quality. These are only ten of the many areas in which we need serious help. ENDS
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 13:12:36 +0000
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