Our speaker on the fine Friday was Allan Lingwood, presently of the Victoria Rotary Club and in many respects also an appropriate representative of the Saanich and Oak Bay Clubs, the three of which having effectively combined to assist in the development of disadvantaged segments of society in Uganda.
Allan has been a Rotarian for 5 years, having 15 years ago decided to move there after deciding that the milieu of Vancouver was a bit too “affluent". He graduated with a degree, essentially in business planning, and determined that his skills would be best used to aid the poor and under-trodden in one of the many countries in need of his skills. With the able assistance of Dr. Jim Sparling (by coincidence, well-known to your correspondent) he journeyed to Uganda to render what assistance he was able to offer. And it is evident from both his lecture and his very useful slides that he has rendered a great service to many in that benighted country.
Uganda is a country noted for having the youngest population in any African nation. Its populace increases by some 700,000 per year, but the economy produces only some 75,000 new jobs. The result is a vast flotsam of young, and very young, persons who can generally expect to do little more than live in poverty and revert to begging … or worse. Allan’s task is to bring the expectations of many of those individuals to a point where their self-worth and working opportunities are enhanced by training and self- advancement. He showed to us pictures of structures (self improvement centres rather than schools in the sense that we understand the word) to give youngsters the idea that sport can be improving in ways other than physical fitness: we saw a soccer pitch of which any village school would be proud, and it was surmounted by a stand that allowed exhibitions to be held in areas that were previously known for little other than their poverty, and certainly not for sports events. It was also encouraging to see that various bands (for example, a group of trombonists - perhaps an instrument not normally associated with East Africa!) that comprised happy-looking and well-dressed boys and girls.
The talk, he emphasized was less about the need to educate than to achieve a realization in the young of the need for a feeling of self-worth. His task, and those of his companions, is by any reckoning a monumental one. Almost of necessity he was asked about the state of the Ugandan political world (many people know its past politics best by the depredations of Idi Amin) and he referred briefly to the present despotic reign of its 76-year old Yoweri Museveni, a reign which has begun anew by a ‘victory’ engendered by imprisoning protesters, kicking out a CBC reporters’ group form the country, tear-gassing opposing crowds and the banning of, or shooting members of opposition crowds. On the question of the value of Government assistance in the task that he and his associates have spearheaded, Allan was reserved. Indeed, as Mr. Musaveni has been in power since 1986, it is unlikely that any other response would be possible. The Economist (January 2nd 2021 edition) believes that the Government’s only aim is to remain the Government.
An enlightening and frankly rather sobering talk, though, in your editor’s opinion, redolent of exactly what good members of Rotary, and the Rotary Club in general, should be trying to achieve.
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