Newspaper columns Archives – Page 34 of 64

A strange forgiveness

1 Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / April 19, 2014 / 2014, forgiveness, Rwandan genocide, Rwandan genocide 20th anniversary, Rwandan recovery, Rwandan reunification / 4 minutes of reading

The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, April 20, 2014

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Forgive and forget is how the old saying goes, but you and I both know that it’s not worth spit, that we’ll never forget certain crimes committed against us, maybe even imagined crimes like those in a recent dream of mine.

It was a nightmare with Africans carrying machetes. I looked out my window. The university grounds where I live was crawling with the killers.

“We won’t kill anyone,” one said. He looked at me through a window of a bedroom where my 10-year-old daughter lay sleeping. “We’ll just cut your arm off.”

A strange forgiveness Read More »

Dear student who’s cheating: You’re rotting inside out

Leave a Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / March 31, 2014 / 2014, African education, African university life, cheating, dishonest gain, education as business, education in Uganda, student pressures / 3 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Monday, March 31, 2014)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It’s a new day, a good day, a day when you’ll be tested. Yes, it’s time for another exam and you, dear UCU student, are out of bed, finished your breakfast and walking with a confident smile.

This is why today is such a fine day: you know the answers, every one of them. Because you know the questions too.

Nobody is suspecting that you’re a cheater because you know the game and you play it with skill

Dear student who’s cheating: You’re rotting inside out Read More »

Uganda is Gay Ground Zero thanks to fear, politics and misguided religiosity

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / March 15, 2014 / 2014, African culture, African politics, East-West relations, fear, homosexuality, human rights, relationships, suffering, Uganda's anti-gay bill, Uganda's anti-gay law, Uganda's Jail-the-Gays law, Ugandan politics, Yoweri Museveni / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, March 15, 2014)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦Fear is a strange thing, which is why it’s so hard to look into the eyes of another human being that you’re about to gas or bomb or, in the case of Uganda’s gays, throw to the lions.

This is also why President Yoweri Museveni recently refused to meet with Uganda’s gay community – there were repeated requests – before signing Uganda’s infamous anti-gay law.

The new law means even touching with the intent of a homosexual act – try to prove or disprove this one – will get you seven years. Short of jail, a life-sentence for a single homosexual act, there’s obviously also a new chill on the street here.

Uganda is Gay Ground Zero thanks to fear, politics and misguided religiosity Read More »

Love is our highest calling

Leave a Comment / Christian Week, Newspaper columns / March 12, 2014 / 2014, African culture, African politics, Christianity, East-West relations, gay rights, homosexuality, human rights, relationships, suffering, Uganda's anti-gay law, Ugandan politics / 3 minutes of reading

(Christian Week – March 12, 2014)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ By now you’ve heard plenty about Uganda’s new toughened laws on homosexuality, the news that spread to the West with the fanfare of a dark sporting event.

Even short of jail—terms range from seven years to life—it’s a new day of survival in a horrible state-sanctioned chill.

Several weeks in, like so many things in developing nations, it’s hard to know all that’s happening. Was that murder really a robbery gone bad? And that street beating? Why did she really lose her job? Many things simply don’t make the news here in Uganda.

Love is our highest calling Read More »

After Women’s Day, men … wake up!

2 Comments / New Vision, Newspaper columns / March 8, 2014 / 2014, African culture, human rights, International Women's Day, poverty, relationships, suffering, Women's rights / 5 minutes of reading

(The New Vision – Saturday, March 8, 2014)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It’s International Women’s Day and we’re all happy to celebrate women in Uganda and around the world, but the truth of the matter is that it’s the men who need to come to terms with who they are and why they’re around, or it’s all for nothing.

This is the strangeness of this big yearly celebration. Women’s Day largely revolves around the hard times women face because their men are so hopeless. Plenty of husbands and fathers don’t pull their weight and don’t understand or care how desperately their families need them.

Now I am not about to beat-up myself or my brothers everywhere because I have nothing better to do. The Daughters of Eve are just as fallen as the Sons of Adam. But have an honest look into the homes of Uganda. I’m imagining you see what I see. It’s a bloody mess.

After Women’s Day, men … wake up! Read More »

What if the joy of singleness is just for you?

Leave a Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / February 27, 2014 / 2014, African university life, divorce, Jesus Christ, relationships, singleness / 4 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Thursday, February 27, 2014)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ Last time in this space we were talking about marriage, how good things come to those who wait, and about falling in love with our Creator, really, the One who knows us better than we know ourselves.

I shared that I was 35 before I met my wife and how there was something to this, something mysterious and with joy, the sort that you can’t contrive because it comes from a deeper place inside but also somehow outside of you too.

What if the joy of singleness is just for you? Read More »

The long rollercoaster ride of one Ugandan adoption

2 Comments / New Vision, Newspaper columns / February 15, 2014 / 2014, African adoption, African culture, Froese family, Hannah Froese, maternal mortality, Ugandan adoption / 5 minutes of reading

(The New Vision – Saturday, February 15, 2014)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ There’s new joy in our Mukono home these days. Our Ugandan daughter, Hannah, is now legally in our family. She danced when we showed her the formal adoption paper.

This, after waiting more than 500 days. That’s five hundred. Welcome to the world of international adoptions where you need the patience of Job to slog through it all. Adopting a child, especially in Uganda, can be this much of a roller coaster ride.

In our case, we’re Canadians in Uganda since 2005. My wife and I met Hannah in 2009, when she was three, in a Jinja orphanage. When she was barely larger than a cat, she had been found abandoned in an Mbarara hospital. Her family? Unknown.

The long rollercoaster ride of one Ugandan adoption Read More »

You’ve heard of Jamaican bobsledders? These are Ugandan hockey players!

2 Comments / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / February 15, 2014 / 2014, African hockey in the Olympics, hockey in Africa, hockey in Uganda, humour, Winter Olympics 2018 / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, February 15, 2014)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Okay, maybe it’s too late for Sochi, but I hope you haven’t forgotten about Olympic hockey in Africa. Yes, dear members of the International Olympic Committee, I’m before you to personally share the good news of a Ugandan ice-hockey team.

Of course, in Canada nobody says “ice” before “hockey” because Canadians realize hockey’s natural state is with ice, even the frozen-pond variety.

Uganda, on the other hand, is a place where some poor soul with a hockey stick in-hand might yell out, “We’re Manchester United!” before informing you that he’s a “striker.” But I’m working on this and I’m happy to report remarkable progress.

You’ve heard of Jamaican bobsledders? These are Ugandan hockey players! Read More »