Anxiety builds in anticipation of gifts from loved ones. Gifts are exchanged by family and friends, an outward symbol of the love and affection that bind them together. Gifts are also exchanged by complete strangers and by people who can barely sit in the same room without suffering severe nausea.

Dear Tingasiga:
Markets and shopping centres are hyperactive with buyers in preparation for Christmas. Endless Christmas Carols are played and replayed on public broadcasts as if the aim is to numb us to their original purpose.
Animals and birds helplessly quiver with terror at their pre-ordained fate at Christmas dinner tables. Brewers, vintners and distillers step up production to meet the needs of those who celebrate our Saviour’s birth with drunken orgies.

Hospital emergency departments step up their staffing, expecting an upsurge of casualties, a paradox that reminds us of man’s need for the redeeming birth of Christ.

Anxiety builds in anticipation of gifts from loved ones. Gifts are exchanged by family and friends, an outward symbol of the love and affection that bind them together. Gifts are also exchanged by complete strangers and by people who can barely sit in the same room without suffering severe nausea.

Christmas trees adorn public and private buildings, adding a touch of beauty that harkens back to pagan rituals, now claimed by Churchians, Christians and others besides.
Christmas, of course, means different things to different people. For some it is a time to relax and rest from the labours of the past year. To others it is a time for family to get together and reconnect.
To merchants and transport operators in Uganda it is a time to make sinful profit in service to the gods of capitalism.
For me Christmas does not mean gifts or attention to my gourmand’s palate. I prefer to give to the needy than to receive. Such giving must not be a routine unloading of gifts that assuage our guilt. It is easy to give money and gifts that are left-overs from our self-indulgence.
The challenge at Christmas is not just to give but to give up my treasured possessions or savings to serve the Lord.

Do I wish to give clothes to someone in my village or Church? Let them be my finest threads. Do I want to put food on someone’s table? Let it cost me one year’s worth of the best South African wines that my wife and I enjoy with our dinners.

Do I wish to support a school in my village? Let it be funded by what I would have spent on gifts and decorations this year.

Imagine a country where the wealthy among us choose a school in the rural area and fund its computer laboratory, without seeking public recognition.
Imagine you, Tingasiga, together with 10 of your friends, dispensing with festivities this year and pooling your resources to help a very poor family in your village, unrelated to you, to start a small business or improve their little farm
That is what Christmas invites us to do - sharing our fortune with God’s children. Perhaps you will join me is dispensing with all Christmas shopping and giving everything to those in need.
However, honourable and desirable though it may be, that is not the meaning and purpose of Christmas either.

To those whose lives are in Christ, Christmas is a time of celebration and thanksgiving for the greatest Gift that we received. It is a time for reaffirmation of our faith and total surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ who delivered us from the guilt of sin by His birth, death and resurrection.
By grace we were saved and made alive in Christ “even when we were dead in transgressions” (Ephesians 2:5). We were freed from the power of sin and know that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

We continue to be “transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18), free from envy, hatred, self-pity, anxiety, conflict, self-abuse and the acts of a sinful nature that Paul talks about in Galatians 5:19-21.

As we join fellow Christians to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour, we continue to walk the beautiful journey on Earth, complete with its painful moments, immersed in God’s abundant grace and assured of glorification, our final deliverance from the presence of sin (John 14:2-3). That is what Christmas means to me.
This Christmas has been clouded by the death of Catherine Bikangaga, a beloved sister and friend, who was called home on December 2. Catherine died young after a valiant battle with cancer, an experience through which she taught us the meaning of valor, grace and determination in the face of pain and certain death.

By God’s grace, the pain and sorrow of losing Catherine has been eased and brightened by the news that she gave her life to Jesus Christ and accepted the salvation that assures her of eternal life.
Catherine’s perishable body was clothed with the imperishable, and her mortality gave way to immortality. In the words of the Prophet Isaiah, her death was swallowed up in victory. (1 Corinthians 15:54)

And so we have said our farewell to beautiful Cathy, confident that we shall see her eternal smile again. The birth, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ assure us of that promise. That is the true meaning of Christmas.
Dr Mulera is a Daily Monitor columnist based in Canada. muniinikmulera@aol.com

May all of us, whether rulers or subjects, cherish the supreme worth of all citizens and their right to life, liberty...

Dear Tingasiga:
I invite you to join me in prayer to the Almighty God to whom we must give all the glory for the great things He has done for our country. Even at her darkest hours, of which there have been many over the past 50 years, Uganda has been a blessed land upon which the Lord has looked favourably.

We thank you Lord for the millions who have called Uganda home. You have given us a brilliance of mind and collective resilience that have sustained us through a challenging journey that would have destroyed other countries.

We thank you for the men and women who have led our country from its creation 120 years ago to this day. We praise you for those who have discharged their responsibilities with justice and honour. We glorify you for those whose vision and leadership have advanced our standard of living and set us on a course towards prosperity.

We thank you for the unjust rulers, even the most ruthless and murderous ones, whose reigns have reversed the clock of progress or taken us to heights of dreams and deep lows of disappointment. Many of the wounds have been deep and troublesome, yet they have been living lessons that have offered us a glimpse into the hell that awaits those who continue to disobey your golden rule. May we learn from our history.

The sins of greed and selfishness, shared between the rulers and the ruled, have propelled us to hurt one another with our words and with our sinful acts of commission or omission. The rulers and other public servants have betrayed the public trust by stealing funds and other provisions.

The subjects and victims of neglect have cheered the thieves and judged success by the mansions and luxury cars that the corrupt have brought to the villages. They have declared useless those who have refused to engage in the orgy of robbery.

The occupants of the highest office in the land and millions of the least among the citizens have been consumed by the plague of paralysing corruption and dishonesty. In the words of the Apostle Paul, they, like the rest of us, have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Yet we praise your name for them for they are building blocks on our journey of experience and national growth.

We praise you for the millions of honest men and women who have served and continued to serve with unparalleled honesty and faithfulness to the flag and national motto. Teach us to see their good works and conduct, and to emulate them in our personal and public lives. May we treasure and promote honest leaders and boldly censure and reject those who desecrate your name through an outward piety that masks destructive corruption, selfish ambition and deception.

We thank you Lord for the exceptional beauty of our land which you have ordained to nourish the eyes of your children and to bring tourist revenue to our country. May we have the wisdom to protect, preserve and replenish our small part of the Earth that you have placed in our temporary custody. May we leave Uganda a better and safer place than we found it.

We give you thanks for the abundant provisions in the soils and waters of Uganda. May we find the humility and presence of mind to recognise that we are obliged to share the wealth that will flow from the oil wells of northwestern and northern Uganda. Teach us the joy and safety that are ours through sharing this and other resources. Remind us of the pain and death that are ours when we put greed and selfishness before equability and compassion.

Open our eyes Lord to see and understand the difference between countries like Nigeria and Qatar, between Equatorial Guinea and United Arab Emirates and between Sierra Leone and Botswana, all of them materially wealthy lands, yet with different opportunities for their citizens. May we see that greed leads to war and generosity leads to peaceful coexistence. Teach us to do unto others what we would have them do to us. Teach us to live within our means. Humble us to recognise our personal roles in the perpetuation or commission of the very sins we condemn among our rulers.

Fulfil our dreams of a Uganda 20 years from now where our shared wealth transforms the land into a network of the finest and safest roads; a place where all citizens enjoy the right to state of the art healthcare; one where public education and other human development indices are commensurate with the abundant wealth that you have ordained that we share as brothers and sisters under the same flag.

May all of us, whether rulers or subjects, cherish the supreme worth of all citizens and their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of their dreams. May our neighbours’ pain be our burden; may their joy be our blessing. May love trump hate and intolerance; may right always vanquish might. May forgiveness become second nature to us.
May our waking hours be filled with a desire for moral and spiritual transformation, and a genuine desire for righteousness which, the Bible tells us, exalts a nation.

Dr Mulera is a Daily Monitor columnist based in Canada.
muniinikmulera@aol.com

Therefore, the time to start giving towards the 2016 campaign is now. We have learnt from Barack Obama that every dollar counts.

Dear Tingasiga:
Once again, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has set the bar higher than Uganda had witnessed since independence in 1962. First, Dr Kizza Besigye, the party president, stepped down well ahead of the expiry of his second term in office.

He did so because he wanted his successor to succeed. That was practical patriotism that challenged the culture of personalised rule that has hobbled the older political parties and the country.

Second, the campaign for the party presidency reminded us that it was possible to have genuine competition for the approbation of the voters.
The campaign teams engaged in vigorous efforts to sway the vote their way, a healthy process that some misunderstood to be a “fight that might fracture the party”. We understood the anxiety that informed such fears in a country where genuine competition among colleagues had been taboo until the advent of the FDC.

By all accounts, the fairness of the process and the efficiency with which the FDC electoral commission team conducted the entire exercise were music to those of us who considered process to be more important than results.

Third, the speed with which the unsuccessful candidates conceded to Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu indicated a faith and confidence in the process that assured all that the results were a genuine reflection of the will of the delegates.

No doubt there were things that could have been done better. The party leaders have an opportunity to take corrective measures that will help to deepen a culture of internal democracy that has been taking root in the FDC.

Fourth, the new party president has earned his position through a genuine trial by fire. The vigorous campaign tested him. He passed by keeping his cool and insisting on an issue-based campaign. He elevated the party in the process and established himself as the leader that Uganda desperately needs.

Fifth, the party delegates moved the ball forward on the journey towards democracy. That Gen. Muntu, an ethnic kinsman of the outgoing party president, received huge support from all regions of Uganda was a mark of political maturity and positive change in the FDC. That the delegates treated as irrelevant the rhetoric about Muntu’s military background, his ethnicity and his non-confrontational politics revealed a very reassuring sophistication in their assessment of the national interest.

Indeed, these qualities were seen as his strength, not a weakness.
Yet Muntu cannot afford to enjoy the public adoration. He may have won the majority vote, but 49 per cent of the delegates did not vote for him. He must use his formidable humility and listening skills and work to earn their trust and support.

His campaign team and all of his supporters must respectfully reach out to those who supported his opponents, seeking a common agenda for growth of the party and for political change in Uganda.

Meanwhile, Muntu’s election has triggered enormous excitement and renewed hope among many who had either given up all hope or were content to continue holding their noses and supporting Gen. Museveni. The Internet has been abuzz with excitement and declarations of intent to vote for Muntu in 2016. I have received similar correspondence from NRM friends in Uganda. Muntumania is rapidly spreading. There is hunger for change.

In fact, Muntu has not been elected to stand against Museveni in 2016. He has simply been elected to lead the FDC and to continue to grow the party over the next five years. His leadership offers an opportunity to all progressive Ugandans to join the FDC and help carry the party forward and prepare it for the elections three years from now.
No doubt his performance as party president will determine whether or not he should be offered the chance to be the party’s flag bearer in 2016, assuming that he is interested.

Muntumania should be a force for change. Ugandans everywhere should organise themselves into FDC branches through which ideas for change can be generated, and through which funds can be mobilised to support the challenging task that Muntu must carry out before the next national elections.

Those who prefer to remain uncommitted to a political party still have an opportunity to provide financial support to Muntu and his team. Come 2016, the FDC will face the same NRM which has a blank cheque to use.
The FDC presidential candidate, whoever that will be, will need a massive war chest to survive the gruelling campaign to unseat Museveni. Likewise, candidates for Parliament and other elected positions will also face better financed opponents from the NRM. Therefore, the time to start giving towards the 2016 campaign is now. We have learnt from Barack Obama that every dollar counts.

Gen. Muntu has received the baton from Col. Besigye. He now has the opportunity to inspire his party and a Ugandan electorate that had become despondent to, in the words of John Quincy Adams, dream more, learn more, do more and become more. We wish him well.
Dr Mulera is a Daily Monitor columnist based in Canada.
muniinikmulera@aol.com

This can be the shining moment for the FDC, and the hope for transition to a new dispensation in which all Ugandans enjoy their full rights.

Dear Tingasiga:
The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) chooses a new party president this week. The new leader is expected to build on Dr Kizza Besigye’s formidable accomplishments and to prepare the FDC to offer an alternative leadership to Ugandans who are near exhaustion after 27 years of a spectacularly corrupt regime.

The three candidates - Geoffrey Ekanya, Nandala Mafabi and Mugisha Muntu – are good men who have served their party with distinguished dedication and sacrifice. They each have admirable qualities and evident weaknesses that speak to their humanity. They each belong to ethnic and regional communities that claim kinship ties and natural biases.

Yet the delegates must choose a man who will lead a national party, not an ethnic or regional organisation. Therefore, regional and ethnic considerations that have been marketed during the campaign should be relegated to irrelevance. Instead the central criteria for choice should be merit, character, integrity and ability.

The FDC must take national power in order to make a difference. Whereas the man who will be chosen this week will not necessarily be the party’s candidate for president of Uganda, his work and stature will prepare the party and the country for national elections just over three years from now.

To win the 2016 elections, the FDC must attract millions of Ugandans, including members of the NRM, to join the ranks of party membership. To attract this expanded coalition, the party needs a credible leader who will allay the fears of those who are anxious about the freedom and safety of their persons and of their legally acquired fortunes once the FDC gains power.

What kind of man deserves to lead the FDC then? He must be one who will unite the party, not divide it; one that can rally Ugandans towards a common goal of national renewal and achievable hope.

He must be one who has the humility and foresight to seek a national vision from the people. He must believe in and insist on internal meritocracy, democracy and accountability within the FDC and in the country as a whole. He should be one who offers Uganda the hope of national greatness, an achievable dream if we dare to hope and to act as other nations have done.

There was no magic that led countries like Botswana and Mauritius to become true beacons of hope as they emerged from backwardness to middle income nations. There is no mystery to Singapore’s remarkable journey from Third World to First in the span of one generation. The significance of Singapore, a former British colony, is that at independence in 1965, that country was less economically advanced than Uganda. Its GDP per capita was $511.

Today, that small island nation of 5.4 million people enjoys the third highest GDP per capita in the world ($60,500) and ranks number 26 in the UNDP’s overall Human Development Index. It is ahead of countries like Britain and the oil-rich United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Uganda ranks number 161 out of 187 countries.

Central to Singapore’s success was that it was blest with Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew, a leader who believed in Singaporeans; one whose vision was rooted in the needs and vision of his countrymen; one who did what he said; one whose exemplary private and public life gave him the moral authority to exhort his people to sacrifice and excel.

It is not beyond us to dream of achieving the success of Singapore. The Lord has endowed Uganda with more natural wealth and human resources than that Asian country.

Uganda can become a great nation, not because of our great athletes or artists or newly discovered oil or natural beauty or academics or mighty army or commerce. If natural wealth had anything to do with greatness, the Congo Free State would be a shining example and resource-poor Israel would be some backwater reserve.

Our greatness will come from the freedom and the latitude and the opportunities that Uganda gives to her citizens to exceed their potential. Uganda can become great if its leaders inspire the citizens to manifest a spirit of service to others before self; a noble spirit that firmly rejects the evils of corruption and injustice and deception that have taken hold of our country.

These are the dreams of national greatness that I hope the FDC will be in the vanguard of realising, led by one who fully understands that the propellant for such a vision is the collective wisdom and resolve of citizens proud to declare that they are truly free Ugandans.

The FDC’s destiny and Uganda’s hopes will be shaped by the choice of leader that the FDC makes. If we dare to dream; if we dare to transcend ethnic loyalties and regionalism; if we dare to reject cash in exchange for priceless votes; if we dare to closely examine the character and personal records of the candidates, this can be the shining moment for the FDC, and the hope for transition to a new dispensation in which all Ugandans enjoy their full rights of citizenship as One Uganda, One people.

So the Lord chose the son of an African father and a European mother to avenge that pain and carry America to a promised land...

Dear Tingasiga:
Barack Obama has avenged America’s pain of the last 400 years. He has done it, not for himself, not for his family, not for African Americans, but for all of the Americans.
The contest between Obama and Mitt Romney was not about the different visions the two men had on America’s daunting social and economic challenges.

The contest was not about which man offered a better foreign policy. Obviously Obama had restored America’s place of honour in the international community.

The contest was not about which man would make a better commander in chief of the world’s most formidable armed forces. Obama had ended the war in Iraq and had managed the war in Afghanistan and against terrorism way better than his Republican predecessor had done.

Obama’s central role in the war against Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi had avenged the lives of many Americans who had died at the hands of terrorists that the Brother Leader had sponsored in the 1970s and 1980s.

Obama had killed Osama bin Laden, America’s enemy number one who had wrought fire and destruction on the lives, the buildings and, most importantly, the American psyche that had been pulverised in the flames of 9/11.

In most civilised nations, the man who ordered the killing of bin Laden would have been declared a conquering hero by his grateful nation. In short, Obama’s re-election to a second-term ought to have been a given, except for one thing. He was an African American. Yes, the contest was about race. It was a contest between history and the future of the USA.

Obama’s virulent opponents - The Tea Party, the Citizens United, the Birthers and so on - were driven by the pain of watching an African American sitting in a chair that had been occupied by some of the most revered European Americans of the last 200 years.
It was a contest between a past when the master and the slave knew their respective places, and a present and future where millions of Americans had embraced Martin Luther King Junior’s dream of a nation of racial equality.

Obama’s re-lection has shown, once again, that he is at the head of a new generation of Americans of all races that have vanquished the folly of apartheid and slavery. The ground troops who worked tirelessly to get him re-elected were predominantly European-American.

While it is true that he was the choice of the vast majority of the minority voters, he would never have won without the votes of tens of millions of liberated European-Americans.

The pain of America’s 400 years of slavery, apartheid and racial injustice has afflicted both the European and the African citizens of that nation. So the Lord chose the son of an African father and a European mother to avenge that pain and carry America to a promised land that was so eloquently described by Martin Luther King Jr. when Obama was only two years old.

Back in 1963, King dreamed of a day when “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
He dreamed of a day when his children would “live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Obama’s triumph is part of the realisation of King’s dream. Yet he almost blew it with his lacklustre performance in the first debate with Romney. All of a sudden, a Romney presidency was no longer a distant dream.

But the Lord’s work through Obama was not yet done. And so out of the giant ocean upon which millions of slaves had been brought to America came a hurricane that would redeem Obama’s fortunes. No it was not sent by Kenyan magicians. It was the Lord at work.
Hurricane Sandy hit America days before the election, propelled by the fury of the ghosts of millions of slaves who had perished in the Middle Passage over the centuries of slave terror.

It was a horrific storm that claimed lives of Americans and destroyed property across the Eastern coast of the USA. But like the storms that nearly killed the Apostle Paul near Crete (Acts 27: 13-44) and John Newton (the writer of Amazing Grace) in the North Atlantic, the Lord was working His purpose out. The racists would not reverse the gains of recent decades. Hurricane Sandy would see to that.

Obama, the steady hand in the White House, the man who had kept America safe for four years, was now in charge, bringing relief to the storm ravaged communities, receiving the endorsement of a Republican governor of New Jersey, reassuring the country that they were safer with him than with his opponent whose beliefs were akin to the colour of a chameleon.

Hurricane Sunday sealed the deal. Obama would be re-elected, cheered on by millions of Europeans, Africans, Latinos, and Asians, to avenge the pain that all of them had suffered. We pray for him and his great country.