International Monetary Fund (IMF) came to Uganda a while back and declared that we lived on less than a dollar a day. Meanwhile, in Washington where they come from, one finger of a yellow banana is one dollar. I highly doubt that the average Ugandan cannot afford one finger of bogoya.
To survive in Washington you need to spend a monthly minimum of 1,700,000/- on food (Google, never been to Washington). Meanwhile, in Uganda, you can survive on about 500,000/- monthly with even a much wider variety of non-processed food. My personal minimum is 300,000/- (excluding the 'free' food at office). We spend a third of what they spend on food not because we are broke but because the food is extremely cheap.
Where does the IMF get its figures to conclude that Ugandans have ever lived on less than a dollar a day? I am confused. How are we so poor that we cannot afford a dollar a day? I do not think that because I grow my own food then it should imply that the food has no monetary value. Because you have no cash in your pocket but can still afford to eat a decent meal everyday that you got from your own garden does not necessarily mean that you are broke. Money I think has been overrated.
Ever noticed what happens to poor people in most societies currently? They are avoided like Ebola patients by those richer than them. However, as far as I know, we are not avoided by the international community. They are in fact so tied up in our internal affairs that they even send "election observers" to "observe" our elections. If we were indeed poor, China would have never stepped a foot on our soul. France wouldn't be making its former colonies pay taxes directly to them up to now. They wouldn't have offered to print their currencies till now. They would have avoided them as much as possible. But they do not.
I think that we are perceived as poor by the average westerner because we do not own our story. They control the narrative and the medium through which those narratives are shared so they choose the story that is told about us, and that is the story that we read and the story that we believe. We have rotten infrastructure, but we are by no means a poor country. If you want to see real poverty, go back to Europe before the industrial revolution.
I can see the emotions in this post hehehehe.
I had this same discussion with my neighbors recently where I told them that they use the dollar or money as the yardstick because it is easy to count....!!
This neighbor recehoed exactly what you have said here....Why do they call us poor yet we have all the food...???
Anyway it's mainstream media(MSM )that does all this ....It is why I avoid news at all costs....
Hi easydimes,
Thank you for the article and your opinion.
There are lot of differences between your country and for example Germany, where I come from.
Here we need to pay for everything. The most people have no garden. The weather is mostly bad and we life in houses.
So without money you can't survive here. Even poor people get monetary help.
Maybe that is the reason, that we compare everything with money.
But I agree with you, that your country is not poor, it is just not as monetarized as ours. And this can also be wealth.
Achim
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