Newspaper columns Archives – Page 38 of 64

New security plan is a good start; more now needed

Leave a Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / January 14, 2013 / 2013, African culture, African university life, thievery / 4 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Tuesday, January 14, 2013)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It was the children. “Daddy, daddy,” they said, unable to sleep. “What if the thieves are still out there?”

Yes, to add to the rotten tally of 2012, at year-end thieves stole our electric piano, the one my children loved. Six days later, thieves got my bride’s laptop plus valuables from her purse.

Two violations in six days from inside our campus home. It took our breath away. Six days.

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We’ll always pay for our actions

Leave a Comment / New Vision, Newspaper columns / January 14, 2013 / 2013, African culture, African university life, corruption, corruption in Africa, responsibility, security, thievery, Uganda / 3 minutes of reading

(The New Vision – Monday, January 14, 2013)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ There are six of us around the table. We’re disturbed and talking about how to help. The place where we work and live and have friendships and worship with others is under attack.

Through 2012, this place, an educational institution, became, as one Ugandan said, “a den of thieves.” Then the new year had barely arrived when a campus home was broken into and robbed while its Ugandan family slept.

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Once, there was a poor, young girl …

2 Comments / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns, Popular / December 15, 2012 / 2012, African culture, childhood, children, Christianity, Christmas, Froese biography, Jesus Christ, Mary, poverty, spirituality, suffering, Women's rights / 4 minutes of reading

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Once there was a little Ugandan girl who loved school.

The girl, who had been an orphan when she was younger, loved learning new things and making new friends and pretty well everything about it, especially the stories.

Maybe she loved school all the more because of her years as an orphan, which started in a hospital in Mbarara, in western Uganda, where she was left abandoned when she was barely larger than a cat.

There she was given all she ever owned, her name, Hannah.

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Say ‘Yes’ to inspiring others

Leave a Comment / Christian Week, Newspaper columns / December 1, 2012 / 2012, childhood, children, Christianity, Christmas, girls' education, human rights, Malala Yousufzai, Mary, poverty, Women's rights, youth / 3 minutes of reading

We know little about them, these grandparents—if they came to babysit on Friday nights or if they maybe played checkers with the curly-haired, laughing boy while he grew in wisdom and stature.

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Getting along in the Divided States of America

Leave a Comment / New Vision, Newspaper columns / November 20, 2012 / 2012, American divide, Barack Obama, culture wars, human relationships, tribalism, US election 2012, US politics / 3 minutes of reading

… if America ever had greatness, if America ever was a modern republic to emulate, it’s largely because it’s been a nation united with rather different peoples and regions and perspectives.

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Where words, mere words, mean trouble

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / November 3, 2012 / 2012, African culture, African politics, David Cecil, East-West relations, gay rights, homosexuality, human rights, suffering, Uganda, Ugandan art and politics, Ugandan politics / 4 minutes of reading

The official charge is ignoring orders of a public official. But the real problem is words. Just words.

You know, words can be enough. Too much, even, when they say this and that; when they’re relevant and lacerating; when they’re passed to others and speak more than anyone even realizes; when they speak truth that isn’t just truth to be understood, but that deeper truth that causes a lump in your throat because you know someone has experienced it with some amount of pain.

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About cults and this unforced rhythm of grace

1 Comment / New Vision, Newspaper columns / October 14, 2012 / 2012, African cults, African culture, Christianity, Christianity's global growth, grace, Jesus Christ, religiosity / 3 minutes of reading

There’s the guilt and fear. There’s the drama and emotion. There’s the conformity and the teaching of “Us versus Them.” Of course, there is also that feeling that you’re not good enough, that you have to somehow work your way into God’s love. These are hallmarks of cults, dangerous but strangely appealing religious groups like

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New approach clearly needed to curb out-of-control thefts

Leave a Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / October 1, 2012 / 2012, African university life, security, Uganda Christian University, Ugandan thievery / 3 minutes of reading

A fresher unwittingly gives her laptop to someone posing to be from UCU’s IT department. The computer is never returned. An Honours College resident has her laptop and i-Pad stolen through a broken window. A couple of nights later, a camera and money are lifted from the same residence. A pair of laptops are taken

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