Did Kiwanda mean what he said?

Never outshine your master,’’ said an American author, Robert Green, in his 48 Laws of Power.
According to President Museveni remarks that Tourism junior minister Godfrey Kiwanda did not consult almost conflicted with the above principle. Just as they say politics is a game of numbers, also tourism can rightly be said to be a game of psychology. Curvy women or not, the tourism industry is about strategic packaging, not sexuality emotions. This is because false advertising cannot stand the test of time in the industry.

Kenya, for example, powered her country’s tourism image on the basis of the big five - lion, rhino, elephant, tiger, and hippo - all backed by and exploiting her (Kenya) cultural land mark of the Masai men and women in their kikoyi, necklaces and bungles and because of the1985 “One million tourists a year’’ campaign to which I was a participant, many foreign prospects (tourists), especially Americans, can now easily mention the name Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, which they interestingly place on the wrong side of the boarder in Kenya.
Minister Kiwanda may be forgiven for he could have ignorantly taken the tourism woman literally.

Any country’s tourism possibilities can be compared to a young girl curvy or otherwise who has been born with the right degree of natural beauty (definitely Uganda is one of such like girl) with inherited outstanding characteristics such as varied landscape of savanna, dense forests, high mountains, the Equator, Lake Victoria (the largest fresh water lake in East Africa, the source of River Nile - the longest river in Africa), flocks of butterflies, amazing flowers for naturalists, water rafting and kayaking for the adventurous, good food and drinks for slay queens and kings whom we in the tourism profession refer to as layouts. So why the criticism?

Uganda is an ethnically diverse nation with a deeply ingrained intellectual and artistic culture with 56 indigenous communities with different beliefs and values rooted in their culture and in the religions to which they subscribe. These value systems propagate communities and they can be instrumental in the promotion of the culture of tolerance and appreciation of other peoples and their cultures. In this regard, Uganda is a microcosm of living in diversity in all respects.
It is said, for example, that South America has many beautiful women. However, the strength of the continent lies in the game of football, not women tourism. Tourism is psychological and that is why we go for events like candle-lit dinner. While this saves of electricity, to Americans, this is romantic and yes, to some extent, American men find half dressed women rather enticing.

In the Seychelles, just sand-bathing tourism has been packaged and the people there are enjoy a much higher standard of living than Ugandans. Tourists in Seychelles are double the number of natives.
Nabendeh Wamoto S. P,
[email protected]