If there’s a captain on MV Uganda, please identify yourself to the crew

Stuff happens. Planes fall out of the sky. Buses plunge down ravines. Fires burn. Rivers burst their banks. Buildings collapse. Ferries capsize. Some are acts of human folly, others tough love from Mother Nature; together life is one interminable swinging of the pendulum between the unexpected and the hoped-for.

We must be judicious when apportioning blame for last week’s boat disaster on Lake Victoria that, at the time of writing, has claimed at least 30 lives. First, something must be said about individual agency and the choices we make. Do you willingly board a rickety fishing boat that looks like it was built just after World War I? Do you wear a life jacket or a car seat belt? Drive from the pub or take a taxi?

These decisions do not always determine whether or not stuff happens – wearing a seat belt does not stop a drunk driver in another car from ramming into you – but they might be the difference between life and death or permanent disability.
But, having made the point about individual agency, what is the role of the government? Modern states are a compromise between individual liberties, social norms and collective rules. You have a right to buy a car, but someone must ensure that you know how to operate it safely. That someone cannot be your cousin Billy or your neighbour: they would either be biased, or unqualified to do so.

The solution is to cede some of our liberties and taxes to the State so it can save us from ourselves and deliver social and public goods that cannot be delivered by individual agencies or for-profit market forces. You subordinate your car ownership to undergoing a driving test and applying for a permit so that you do not kill yourself or others.

A partygoer on a lake cruise is responsible for wearing a life jacket if one is provided but they cannot be expected to inspect the ship to certify its seaworthiness, vouch for the captain’s competence, or regulate the number of passengers. They pay the State to do that for them.

And if stuff happens and they end up in the lake involuntarily, it is useful for them to swim or hang onto the flotsam and jetsam and await help but it would be ludicrous to expect them to organise their own rescue.

So, as incredible as it seems, the core problem we are dealing with here is not that an unlicensed, overloaded, uncertified and unregulated boat was on the lake at night in the first place. It is not even that the rescue effort, for all the brave efforts of local fishermen, police and army marine units, was slow and inadequately resourced.

It is that we are drifting, overloaded, rudderless and almost inevitably, towards a waterfall beyond which lies a society with too much government and not enough governance. The paradox is that while our coercive power has never been higher, our bureaucratic competence has never been lower. Our collective mistake is to think that these forms of power, while related, are the same.

For instance, because the army is able to supply its lines thousands of miles away from home, we believe that makes it best placed to supply coffee seedlings. It is not.

That result is a culture of cutting corners, a governing ethos of making things up as we go along, a habit of majoring in minor things and minoring in major things, and an ad-hoc approach to everything.

It is tempting to ask why the army’s marine department is able to track and arrest fishermen with illegal gear in small canoes and unable to find and impound a large boat that has been plying the lake for years. It is more useful to ask what (and why) has happened to the Fisheries Department. It is also more useful to ask how the ill-fated ship was imported in the first place – certainly not as hand luggage!

Societies evolve by learning how to solve increasingly complex problems, and by learning from past mistakes. Fires that destroyed cities informed fire-fighting techniques and building codes. Epidemics that decimated populations informed and improved sanitation rules.

When a ferry sinks, the resulting inquiry should inform new rules on safety and rescue operations. This does not mean that other boats cannot or will not capsize in the future – stuff happens – but it ought to improve response times and reduce the death toll.

This institutional memory and small details of registering ships, enforcing standards, regulating traffic, issuing identity cards et cetera are the difference between failed States and those that work. How many of our government agencies work? If there’s a captain on MV Uganda, please identify yourself to the crew.

Mr Kalinaki is a journalist and a poor man’s freedom fighter. [email protected] Twitter: @Kalinaki.