You're All Invited to Uganda's Dinner Party!

What’s the recipe for success for an impoverished country? Simply bust out an apron, an Emily Post book and have themselves a dinner party!

This November, Uganda is set to host over 50 commonwealth nations for the annual CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting). This is where the heads of government gather to discuss issues regarding member nations.

Ironically, the country whose poverty and disease are only surpassed by its tragedies is the one left with the burden of hosting CHOGM. In light of recent floods and British Foreign Minister McCartney’s revelation that the Ugandan government would meet the full costs of hosting CHOGM, it is clear that the world needs to stop wondering how Uganda can help them, but how they can help Uganda.

The numbers are known, and the situation has been publicized. There have been over 100,000 deaths, 20,000 abductions and over 1.5 displaced in and out of Uganda due to the LRA and war. Though things have improved, the total population for the IDP (internally displaced persons) camps in Uganda alone is easily half a million. And though there has been some U.N. aid, to the tune of 18,000 mobilized, it still has not been enough. Furthermore, a recent study by Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz reveals that the monthly bill for the war in Iraq is $4.5 billion dollars. If this were calculated in terms of the Ugandan schilling, it would equate to over $7.2 trillion schillings!

In addition to these well-publicized facts and numbers, these don’t include the havoc wreaked by the recent floods. The contamination of two-thirds of the water sources has led to a 30% rise in malaria and other illnesses. Furthermore, the flood has taken away Uganda’s bread and butter, the harvests that come from their farming industry, creating severe food shortages. The floods have also shut down 300+ schools which educate over 100,000 students. The Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, has had to declare a state of emergency due to the flood displacing over 300,000 people as well as claiming 21 lives.

And yet, despite these trials, with little help in sight, Uganda has had to bend over backwards even more to accommodate the CHOGM conference. Uganda is like the hostess who, thanks to Emily Post, puts on fantastic dinner parties for the public, but desperately needs help to straighten out her personal life. There are real problems going on, but it seems that the commonwealth nations that are going to gather have been anything but worrying about Uganda. They have found it convenient and more beneficial to them and enjoy the “dinner party” while Uganda finds itself picking up the pieces. This is especially unfortunate since the point of CHOGM is to promote the well-being of all member nations.

The cold, as-a-matter-of-factly indifference towards this issue is summed up by British Foreign Minister Ian McCartney, who stated the “government of Uganda will meet the full costs of hosting Chogm. The British government will not contribute anything to these costs”. On the one hand, the $1 trillion schilling cost for Uganda in hosting CHOGM could be easily covered by less than a week’s worth of bills due to the U.S. for the Iraq War. But just as easily, in a kind of throwback to colonialism, Uganda’s loss has been the West’s gain.

The opportunity cost of something is defined as the monetary cost that is lost in order to take another course of action, or, conversely, the benefits that could have been received by choosing to take that alternative course of action. Nowhere is this opportunity cost more apparent than it is in Uganda. Having spent a month there this summer, I personally saw the widespread poverty and lack of funding in the IDP camps in Gulu. The kids ran all over the place, with rags for clothes, scar tissue on thei bodies and bellies full of poverty. The reality of Uganda, as I saw it, makes the CHOGM mission statement, “Transforming Commonwealth societies to achieve political, economic and human rights", less a rallying call and more a passing phrase.

In all this, the opportunity cost that could have gone towards stabilizing Uganda has been mismanaged. The costs that have gone towards CHOGM, the lack of funding on part of the commonwealth nations and the War in Iraq have been at the expense of avenues that would have been to Uganda’s benefit. The rising contradiction between the costs of an unproductive CHOGM and rising crises in Uganda serves as the focal point of the issue at hand.

So, knowing this, why not redirect focus and monetary funds away from an outdated conference and towards resettling displaced people settled in camps? Or towards creating jobs that are more than just the rudimentary security guard and hotel waiters? Why not redirect funds to renovate hospitals such as the Mulago Referral Hospital and provide adequate equipment? These are just a few of the many questions that plague Uganda daily.

In looking forward, for the betterment of international relations and the stabilization of the African continent, we need to be less concerned with what we get from Uganda in the here and now; but rather, what we can give Uganda for long-term stability. Maybe then, we can return the favor and invite them over to our place for dinner.