Screwed by the Man

Have you been screwed by the government? If no, wait for your turn. If yes, then you and this protestor can relate.

Haha.

College?

A young man finished college about 6 months ago. As of now, he has not found a stable job. When he was younger, people encouraged him to go for higher learning; it would pay off when he was finished. He would have a job and wouldn't have to struggle. At least that was the plan. The young man went through college and received his degree. He thought a degree would open many doors but they stay closed. Many college graduates these day are in the same position. Students go to school and accumulate massive loan debts. The jobs and easier lives that come with higher learning are no where to be found after school. Sure the economy is bad, but something has to be done about this! What's the point of going to college these days, If jobs are not granted at the end? Especially, if one  comes out of college with massive debt of school loans? Then for high school graduates, is it better of to join the military?

Bad day to be a Star!

Meet Cygnus X-1, a black hole 15 times bigger than the sun and her companion massive blue star. Believe it or not Cygnus X-1 is eating the blue star. As a result, the energy and light being absorbed forms an orange disc ring around the black hole. That energy is then sucked in by the empty pit of doom. The following action is very violent. The black hole expels incredibly powerful jet streams of pure radiation from the star energy that was absorbed. Astronomers used various telescopes to see this event. As you can see in the left image there is a red box. That's the area Cygnus inhabits, but there is nothing right? That's because, it can't be seen with a naked eye, with normal human vision. You need to use x ray vision like Superman to see the giants' heat signature. Plus, astronomers use all kinds of other special vision modes that see things our eyes wouldn't see, such as magnetic waves, sonar-sound, etc. Oh yeah, the Jet streams of radiation coming from the black hole can travel long distances and I'm talking about Millions of light years. Planets in the path of the jet stream will be vaporized instantly. Life in neighboring solar systems can also  be eradicated and their ashes as well. Imagine all that power, if it can be harnessed? I can only wonder the possibilities we could achieve. Anyway it's a bad day for a star because she gets eaten up and her leftovers, in a sense, get blasted across the galaxy. This star ain't the only one with a bad day though, because according to Chandra X-ray center run by NASA, Stephen Hawking lost a bet that he placed in 1974 that there was no black hole in Cygnus X-1. Sorry blue star and Sorry Stephan Hawking. 

More info at:

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/cygx1/

Your amazing Brain

The Brain is part of your soul. Take care of your brain and it will take care of you. 

what is MicroFinance?

http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/12/current-state-microfinance-overhaul/

I figured i could give you the answer to What Microfinancing is but the picture is self explanatory.

Dialect

Do want to learn to speak a little bit of a foreign language?  Below are simple Lusoga language words that are translated into to english. 

Friends of Basoga can learn a few things about lusoga and this should delight your eyes and tongue
Nze – me
Ighe/Imwe – you
Wano – Here
Kino – This (thing)
Ono – This (person)
Oyo – That (person)
Bino – These (things)
Ani – Who?
Ki – What?
Lwaki – Why?
Tya – How?
Nhinze Denis – I am Denis
Okukola – to work/to do
Okusoma – to read/to study
Okunhwa – to drink
Okutambula – to walk
Okuvuga – to drive/to ride
Okusobola – to be able to
Okutwala – to carry/to take
Okuseka – to laugh

Food

Food – Emmere
Sugar – Sukaali
Coffee – Kaawa
Milk – Amata
Chicken – Nkoko
Teaspoon – Kajiiko
Plate – Sowaani
Saucepan – Sefuliya
Cup – Kikopo

Vocabulary

Ssente imeka – How much (price)
(Bed)room – ekisenge
Table – Meeza
House – Enhumba
Kitchen – Eifumbiro
Door – Olwiggi
Chair – Entebe
Wait! – Linda!
Journey/trip – Olugendo
Get out – Fuluma
Tomorrow – Idho
Yesterday – Idho
Slow – Mpola
Quick – Mangu
Mr – Mwami
Miss – Mukyala
My friend! – Munange!
Under – Wansi/Ghansi
Aunt – Senga
Person – Omuntu
Man – Omusaiza/omusaadha
Woman – Omukazi
Child – Omwaana
Lamp – Eitaala

Twegaite, The Busoga Communty

 

I was born in Uganda and migrated to the USA with my mother and siblings when I was 12. I have now completed college and pretty much you would have to delve deep to know my heritage since the American in me takes precedence.  Even with that said I am still proud of my heritage, so proud that I will never forget where I came from. When some people see me, they see a suburban Boston kid; it’s when we start splitting the Atom that you find that I have a rich royal heritage that I am so proud of. After some serious reflection in the past, i realized that I was not representing my Ugandan side in an applicable way. I can speak Lusoga (the language of the Basoga people) but being a Musoga is much more than that. So I put some thought into how I could represent where I came from and the answer has been in my face for three years, just never gave it thought until recently. Ok where should i start?

So in 1998, an Organization named Twegaite (meaning, let’s unite) was formed in New Jersey. It started out as an organization of Basoga and their friends in the Diaspora with the commitment of the development of Busoga and Uganda. Now it has grown into a multinational organization and has taken on initiatives that include improving the livelihoods of communities where Basoga and their friends live across the world.

I got involved in Twegaite about three years ago, back then I was a part of the organization for the fun of it. You get to go to a three day convention every year held at the best hotels in cool cites. I am talking about LA, Boston, Minneapolis, etc. It’s fun, trust me. Lots of dopamine stimulating activities packed in 3-4 days. Though that’s all it was to me, fun, until this year. So this year, I was impressed with all that Twegaite had accomplished in a short amount of time. The Organization has managed to expand a village Micro Finance program within Busoga and others; with the money given to the village groups directly, it has helped increase farming production output, and therefore increased earnings, which promotes socio-economic development. Note that Twegaite directly deals with the communities and not through the government. This is real good because when it comes to Africa the governments there is so much corruption and ineptitude. If one sends support funds to people in need in those funds will go through the governments first and by the time it reaches its intended destination, there are little or no funds at all. Can you imagine that? You donate money to a third world country to provide relief for poverty or people in a drought and then the government puts it away in its pockets. Some African nations exports many resources and get plenty of money out of it but where does that money go? Not in Healthcare or education. Anyway, Twegaite works directly with the community. If one wants to donate their funds for a good cause Twegaite is an excellent Organization to use in order to achieve your goal; it will get it to the right people and not greedy and corrupt hands. That's not all, other community development goals for Twegate include rebuilding Tourist cities in Jinja and surrounding districts of Busoga. The organization is now working on building a good school with a health care center, public Library computing center, and other support activities involving the community like metal and wood work, mechanical center, agricultural mechanized unit and a farm.  Now, if your grown up in a first world country, a functioning full library for example is something part of your society in every city. In Uganda public libraries are very rare and nonexistent in most communities. So building a public libray with updated books and computing center with internet connection is a game- changer. The library and computing center will not only serve student needs but it will provide knowledge and education for the community it will expand their horizons. Third, one of the primary goals that the Organization is extremely pursuing this year and the next is to build a Cancer Center and education institute at Jinja regional referral Hospital. This is and has been a high task. The project started in September 2012 and after 7 months of hard work it has progressed fast. Twegaite has convinced the government and the city of Jinja to donate land for the cancer center. The organization has partnered with Ugandan communities across the world, key government bodies including the Speakers office (Uganda), and now plans to hold benefits to raise more than 5 Miliion dollars required for the first phase. Twegaite is consulting with American hospitals and many physicians have expressed interest and have assented to this worthy project. Some medical equipment has been acquired as well. This has been good progress but there is still so much to do before the cancer center is up and running. The plan is to build a state of art center and plan an efficient health care service delivery system that will be replicated throughout the region. If you would like to know more or be a part of Twegaite Organization, there are two links on the bottom of this post. One will bring you to the website. The other will bring you the Twegaite blog. Post note, i learnt about the organization goals in the beginning of this year. I was in the organization for three years and barely knew what the organization stood for. What was i doing for the past three years? I could have been more applicable and that’s what I am striving for now.

The organization also works behind the scene to advocate for policies that enable social economic improvement I Busoga and in Uganda.

So I have been pondering how I can get involved: I wanted to start with this blog to get opinions of my peers since many of them are clueless like I was 3 years ago. I do feel like there are bigger issues out there than the daily razzmatazz and besides getting involved makes life worth living for right? Anyway the most important issue is to find money for these programs and I am going to be part of a benefit – fundraiser program. I am more interested in Microfinance b’se it’s kind of a social investment program where you loan money to folks at low interest rates using Twegaite, and you better people’s lives while benefiting yourself. This way there will be no donor fatigue. The other way is to interest philanthropies and you my audience, this organization has a bunch of focused, hardworking, altruistic individuals and its difficult to find this bunch and I want people to know so share your thoughts and ideas here of how to better get involved.

Twegaite website. http://www.twegaite.org/

Twegaite Blog. http://busogatwegaite.blogspot.com/