SPORTS BETTING A DISGRACE

We are in a world of unemployment, where people work so hard to get a living yet they have no jobs. And most of us want to get rich quick so that we also live better .

Many sports betting companies have emerged and they are seen as a source of wealth by many. Since you use little money and get more money, many people have joined the rope of betting to become rich.

It's just a matter of predicting the results of the game. If you predict right you gain but if u do the opposite, you get the opposite.

If you have ever put in a bet , you understand the thrill that one feels when they are about to win. And the ecstatic feeling when you actually win, it is this feeling that keeps you hooked and coming back for more.

The other day I overhead a conversation whereby one person was saying that the reason sports betting has become so popular among the common mwananchi is that it gives them hope for something better regardless of their current situation.

What many don’t know is that constant betting may lead to a gambling addiction. Gambling addiction is also known as impulse control disorder. Compulsive gamblers just like drug addicts are not able to control the impulse to gamble even when they know that their gambling is hurting themselves or their loved ones.

In Uganda it is quickly becoming a common sight to see individuals complaining about how they lost good amounts of money due to sports betting. Sadly some are even foregoing meals in order to place bets with a hope of winning big.

The combination of youth unemployment and gambling is a powder keg just waiting to erupt. The dangerous side of gambling is beginning to emerge as a boda boda operator John Muchangakilled two people in a Casino at Eastleigh after losing Kshs.30,000 while gambling.

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THE HISTORY OF WHITE PARTIES,(youth's favourite)

Now Ugandans are thinking about Zari-all-white party because it's the best example for them. It has become a habit to celebrities and university students to organise such parties for birthdays, weddings and dinner.

All the other parties ie black party, blankets and wine party and the likes, the idea was copied from white parties.  Now I unveil the history behind these parties. 

White Parties are gatherings at which the standard attire is all or almost allwhite. White Parties have taken place in Miami,New York City,Chicago and other parts of the world. 

In the gay community, the White Party is what is known as a circuit party,and it is just one of a hundred such events that take place around the country (and hundreds more around the globe) all year-round. 

There is also the Black Party in New York, the Black & Blue Festival in Montreal, Mardi Gras in Sydney, the White Party and the Winter Party in Miami, or One Mighty Weekend / GayDayS in Orlando.

One of the first parties was held August 8, 1974, hosted by Chicago business owner Chuck Renslow to celebrate his birthday and thank his patrons. 
It was then held for the next 36 years until 2010. The largest party was held in 1979 at Navy Pier with 5000 participants.

The New York City White Party was first held at the legendary private gay disco"Flamingo" on Broadway and Houston, on Presidents' Day weekend. The white theme derived from the snow often to be found that time of year.

 It was then adopted by the East Village disco "The Saint" during the month of February of each year usually coinciding with the full moon. Dress requirement was always white.

 After the closing of "The Saint" in 1988, The White Party became the norm for other cities around the country in the current circuit party system to host such events.

The Miami White Party is an annual fundraiser party for HIV/AIDS research. The all-white clothing theme was chosen by co-founder Frank Wager because, as hesaid, "White stands for purity.

Frank Wager and Jorge Suarez began planning an event they hoped would raise awareness - and a few dollars - to help fight HIV/AIDS in South Florida.

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WHEN A DEBT TURNS INTO A FAMILY PROBLEM

Borrowing is something very easy but paying back is a very big problem almost to everyone.  Am 100% sure someone demands you money and you also demand someone.

Now let me tell you  about this wife and husband who joined together to demand money from Fred a taxi driver who had failed to clear.

Alice a wife to Mark, owns a mobile money kiosk at Nateete where she sells airtime plus helping people make their day to day transactions using mobile money a system most loved by Ugandans. Fred a taxi driver along Nateete-Kampala road was also one of Alice's daily customers.  He could transact money from Alice's kiosk and also buy airtime.

Since Fred was a daily customer, Alice could even borrow him money and he ever returned without fail. But one day Alice borrowed Fred and he failed to clear within a given time hence making Alice worried.

Alice started demanding him but all her plans didn't succeed. Fred failed to clear and he had no genuine reason.  Alice decided to report the matter to her husband Mark who got angry and  decided to make a call to Fred.

Mark abused Fred heaven and earth which forced Fred to clear Alice's money.  Fred had the money but he didn't want clear because he had problems that also needed money.

Many people love to clear but they have so many problems.

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WHY RENT IS A CURSE TO UGANDA'S ECONOMY

Since the nucleus of the Country's economy always lies in the capital city, Kampala the capital of Uganda is a good place for business but high rent has hindered business within hence becoming a curse to Uganda' economy.

People everyday  vacate from one building to another  looking for cheap rent. All the profits people earn are paid to the landlords and at the end even capital is used to pay the landlords.

Let's take an example of Sarah a business lady , trying to tell us her first experience as  a tenant in Kampala and how she failed due to high rent;

• ""I had saved enough money to start up a restaurant in Kampala and luckily I got a  room large enough for my business. Rent was 800,000 per month and I was supposed to pay for the first six month jointly which I did. business was moving well but tragedy came after completing the first six months.  I started paying rent for each month I complete and I ended up using the business money to clear.  Time came when I had to run to my husband for help which he later got tired of and I decided to close the business since I couldn't afford rent.""

Many people like Sarah have closed their businesses because of rent. The Uganda government must do something to control the landlords who are destroying the economy. 

If at least 5 people per day close their businesses due to high rent, isn't that a curse  to Uganda's economy?  Give your view in the comment box. 

kato shakilu

HUMAN ORGAN TRADE (why your kidney is expensive)

There's that urban legend. You go to dinner with a good looking stranger, go back to their hotel room or yours, have a drink, and pass out. The next thing you know, you are in the bathtub, naked, covered in ice, with a poorly stitched side, and a phone nearby with a note attached. The note warns you to seek emergency medical care right away.

Organ trade is the trade of human organs, tissues or other body parts for the purpose of transplantation.

There is a global need or demand for healthy body parts for transplantation, far exceeding the numbers available.As of 2011, about 90,000 people were reported to be waiting for a new organ.

On average, an individual will wait three and a half years for an organ to become available for transplant.There is a worldwide shortage of organs available for transplantation,yet commercial trade in human organs was at one point illegal in all countries except Iran.

Trafficking in organs is a crime that occurs in three broad categories.

- Firstly, there are cases where traffickers force or deceive the victims into giving up an organ.
-Secondly, there are cases where victims formally or informally agree to sell an organ and are cheated because they are not paid for the organ or are paid less than the promised price.
-Thirdly, vulnerable persons are treated for an ailment, which may or may not exist and thereupon organs are removed without the victim's knowledge.
The vulnerable categories of persons include migrants, especially migrant workers, homeless persons, illiterate persons, etc.

Trafficking in organ trade is an organized crime, involving a host of offenders. The recruiter who identifies the vulnerable person, the transporter, the staff of the hospital/ clinic and other medical centres, the medical professionals, the middlemen and contractors, the buyers, the banks where organs are stored are all involved in the racket.
It is a fact that the entire racket is rarely exposed and therefore, the dimensions are yet to be appropriately fathomed.

We pray that God protects us Ameen, by kato shakilu

MEN OF STEEL,(boda boda riders)

Boda-bodas, the country's ubiquitous motorbike taxis,snake through gridlocked traffic, navigate potholed roads and provide much-needed employment for young people. They are also maiming and killing thousands every year, monopolising hospital budgets and wiping out livelihoods

.Since they appeared on the streets of Uganda in the 1960s, the number of boda-bodas has swelled. One recent news report estimated there were more than 300,000 bikes operating in the capital, Kampala.

At this rate, the boda boda business could be the second largest employer of Ugandans, at least according to Standard Bank reports.The 2013 report authored by Standard Bank analyst Simon Freemantle and economist Jeremy Stevens measured motorcycle exports from India to seven African countries including Nigeria, Angola, Uganda Egypt, Kenya, Guinea and Djibouti.
The findings indicate Nigeria is the largest importer of motor cycles from India followed by Angola with Uganda coming in at third position.

WHY THEY ARE MEN OF STEEL

However tight the traffic is, those guys manage to find their way through. "Me I kick those cars to alert the owners that I need way" one of the riders said. Many cases are at police for boda-man against car owner.

In case your in a hurry the boda guys can help you be on time. They enjoy driving so fast and don't care about the consequences of over speeding.

They are good masters of hustle. A boda guy comes on stage at 5am and leaves for home at 12am midnight. In Kampala it's hard to find someone working 24hrs apart from the boda-men.

They call themselves soldiers "majje" because they are ever the leaders of riots in Kampala.  Most of the riots are fuelled by those guys and the police always condemns their actions. They fear no teargas and they even fight back when police fights them.

Most of them are drug addicts claiming that it brings courage to manage the heavy wind when driving. They have red eyes and it's rare to find a boda-man who is brown in colour.

In summary we appreciate their work done towards easing the transport system in Uganda and we also condemn the bad acts in them.

By kato shakilu

THE CORPORATE PROSTITUTES IN UGANDA

You’ve seen them, the kind that live in a classy Apartments costing over 700K a month, driving a sleek car, partying from Monday to Sunday, donning the latest fashion trends, and having money to burn yet for one thing, you can’t tell which job they do.

Some will disguise themselves working in arcades, selling some clothes. Others, the kind that sell screen protectors and USB cables yet they hold the latest iphones and trending clothes on the market.  Their jobs don't suit their expenditure and they can leave you wondering. Don't stress yourself, they are (corporate prostitutes).

Most of these corporate prostitutes are usually light-skinned and curvaceous and nice looking. Because light skins sell and the advertising industry has programmed beauty to mean light-skinned in the minds of men but even there are those who are not brown.

These girls hang around a number of bars and nice places. They always stage in places with heavy loaded guys.They are the hottest things you can ever meet on a night out. Sometimes while out, they will hang out with two more fellow light skins in their group and dance suggestively as they read the atmosphere for the best the bars or clubs have to offer.

While bars, men ready to crush spot them, buy them drinks and the next step is to end the deal in bed. Most of these girls or ladies have their places of residence and they are sometimes used to seal the deal.

The corporate prostitutes are the queens of all birth control methods. And when the worst hits,they will always go for abortion.

You will never get bashed while talking to these corporate prostitutes. They are the calmest souls out there. You will only suffer their wrath if you mention poverty. Some have now taken their game a notch higher, they are to be found at cocktail parties in Sheraton and Serena. If you remember the girl that gave you bedroom eyes, she must have been one of them.

In summary they don't go to streets but they are hooked from expensive places which makes them corporate.

By kato shakilu

AFRICA AND UNEMPLOYMENT

      This time around am introducing the problem of unemployment which is affecting the AFRICAN continent.  The job seekers  have tried their level best but jobs are nowhere.

Almost half of the 10 million graduates churned out of the over 668 universities in Africa yearly do not get jobs, Kelvin Balogun – President of Coca-Cola, Central, East and West Africa – said.
Speaking at this year’s Africa Transformation Forum in Kigali, he said it is time the private sector works with governments to bring this cancer to an end, saying: “We need to build our human capital to bring about the development of Africa.“Unemployment is a general problem in Africa and there must be a partnership between governments and the private sector to address it.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the fastest population growth projected between now and 2050 and the highest youth population in the world.It is crucial that governments factor this 'youth bulge' into national and social development planning.

Youth employment challenges in Africa are often associated with rapid population growth rates. The correlation however is not always direct, nor that simple. First, the youth bulge has not created an even unemployment rate throughout the continent. Second, it is not the numbers of young people that has created unemployment, but structural issues specific to individual countries.

Despite being a leading economy in sub-Saharan South Africa, with almost 50% of unemployed youth, South Africa has one of the highest levels of youth unemployment in the region.
Similarly, although Nigeria's 13% youth unemployment is not well above the regional average, due to the large size of its population (around 170 million), the actual number of unemployed young people is high. On the other hand, small and land-locked Rwanda has one of the lowest youth unemployment rates globally,according to statistics from the World Bank.

Unemployment appears to be on a downward trend in Northern Africa,but labour market distress remains pervasive, particularly among women and youth.

Despite being Africa’s most educated generation to emerge from schools and universities, a youth in Africa is twice as likely to be unemployed when he/she becomes an adult.Africa has the largest “youth bulge” in the world, and the number of youth is expected to grow by 42.5 million between 2010 and 2020, says the World Bank.
AhmqAhmadshakilu@gmail.com

GET-RICH-QUICK SCHEMES AS PREDATORS TO AFRICA

        A get-rich-quick scheme is a plan to acquire high rates of return for a small investment. The term "get rich quick" has been used to describe shady investments since at least the early 1900s

Truthfully, this generation is given more and more opportunities to get rich quick. And this is exactly the problem. A desire to get rich quick takes normally hardworking individuals and makes them feel like they are missing something. We become disillusioned by traditional forms of work and earning.

Wealth building is not simply about increasing the amount of money you have in the bank. Wealth building teaches lessons along the way. You learn mistakes you will not repeat again. Fortunately, in the little by little approach those life lessons cost less. Someone who gets rich quickly is more likely to make a fatal error that puts the entire gain at risk.

When times are hard like as it is in Africa, people search for money-making ideas and hucksters turn to investment scams.They promise high returns with low risks, new ways to invest and then pretend to have inside information — all with the aim of relieving hard-pressed savers of their money.

The likelihood of a long, drawn-out recession and the anxiety we share about the slump in our savings and stock portfolios is the perfect scenario for crooks to lure us into investment scams.This year more than ever, many people are on the lookout for opportunities to stretch what money we do have and to increase our income if we can.

Unscrupulous antiques dealers and online fraudsters are only too happy to describe impressive returns. Sometimes their figures have been plucked out of thin air; other times they conceal huge swings in values caused by minute differences in condition or subject.And then, as we say, sometimes the products they offer are just forgeries.
They come with unique products especially targeting the health sector since most Africans have diseases that take long to set them free.

Others are in products related to technology and they very well know that youths are more interested in discovering new things. They set prices for these products and they assure steady and quick profits within a short period of time which is the real target for every African.

"The more people you bring, the more uou earn. The more products you buy the more the profits you get. And if you're serious enough you can earn one million per day." They say.
So the desperate Africans invest in all their savings to yield fat profits.

*.They will imply that anyone signing up will become rich within months to a year.
*.They will tell potential victims that the route to success is by following “secret formulas” that no one else knows about
.*.They will often claim they have been seen on various websites such as Google and YouTube, causing the viewer to assume said websites endorse the product
.*.They will use pressuring tactics to get the victim to sign up quickly, such as claiming that there are only a certain amount of copies of a CD left, or using special discount prices that are only available for a short amount of time
.*.Schemes such as this will often employ the tactic of displaying testimonials from “previous users.”
*.When trying to navigate away from their website, users are often presented with popup windows offering further discounts, in an attempt to make the user feel special.
Another indicator is the way the schemes are advertised. Many schemes will post so-called “success stories” on post-your-own-article websites.

                       HOW PEOPLE LOOSE IN THESE SCHEMES

After the project running for a few years like three, it abruptly closes claiming to have run bankrupt or they even use legal institutions that come out to claim that the company is not registered and it has been working illegally. At this stage the company closes all it's branches promising to open immediately after sorting out the matter.
People keep on waiting and at the end nothing is gained since the accounts where they pay from are ever fixed deposit accounts.

INSIDE THE CHAMPGNE LIFE OF CAMPUS GIRLS

      I know you might be wondering how the well known poor girl at university quickly got a range rover sport and a good apartment for herself. Yes girls get the best things with in a short period of time and let try to unveil this for you.

Nadia (not real name) is a third year student at COSTECH. When she joined university, she stayed in a low cost hostel commonly known as “Dusaidi” with her mind focused on school to study hard, graduate, get a nice job and generally live her dream. But two years down the road, Nadia is not the girl who came from the village with a 2-inch mattress, a plastic bag and a university admission letter.She now lives a life of Champagne laced by luxuries. She lives in a well furnished apartment in the leafy suburbs of Kigali and drives a Vitz.
Her source of this luxury is a man in his mid 40s, who drives a Benz in the latest series. Nadia has kept the source of his gifts and luxury under the wraps.She tells her friends that the old man is her uncle, but to her friends she doesn’t relate to him like a relative.

They believe it’s the sugar daddy financing Nadia’s expensive lifestyle.Nadia holds an iPhone 6 and has a unique home theatre in her fully furnished apartment. She spent two weeks of the school holiday away with her “family” but the pictures on her phone suggested it was just her and the person behind the camera.Like Nadia, many campus girls within and around Kigali are going for sugar-daddies to finance their lavish lifestyle. It is a common perception that most university girls live a lavish lifestyle.
Their rooms are littered with the latest electronic gadgets; they put on the trendiest clothes and own expensive phones although few are employed.

What needs do these girls have?

You will be surprised what the needs of these girls are, says Maria Gatabazi, the former social affairs minister at National University of Rwanda.“There is a strange urge for female students to feel like being at campus comes with a certain status and lifestyle. They want to quickly transition from being the innocent high school girl to the sexy trendy campus girl and will do anything to achieve that status. Being a campus girl means holding a nice bag, wearing a nice fragrance, changing clothes often and definitely holding a nice phone,” Gatabazi says.
All these goodies sometimes can’t be asked from one’s parents so they easily get them from older men in exchange for sex.However, it is very rare that a girl will sleep with a man to get tuition, Gatabazi said. It isn’t something she has heard of.“These girls have perfected the art of keeping their Sugar Daddies away from the prying eye of the public. Sometimes someone can have one all through campus and people will never know, even her roommates.”Gatabazi cautions male students who are in relationships to be keener or the type of girl friend they are dating. Some female university students have three boyfriends: one for marks, one for money, and one for love. This trend has grown over the past three years, based on the drastic increase in the number of female students at university gaining sudden wealth, among other things.

When the sugar daddy romance goes sour? 

There are situations that will cause a storm, like when the girl gets pregnant, when she starts demanding for more time, when she wants to end the relationship or when she starts cheating with another rich man or young boy and the man finds out. According to a reliable source, Peace (not real name) got pregnant just before her final year exams at a top university in Kigali and people didn’t even know she had a sugar daddy. The boyfriend who used to help her read for exams found out and left her immediately and within a week, she had lost her apartment and flashy gadgets. She also lost many of her friends and finally dropped out of school because of shame.There is little about what she is doing now.

What do parents think? 

Francois Ntare, an engineer and parent of two university girls, says it is all about upbringing.“These men lure these girls using very cheap gifts that cost them their dignity and sometimes even life. University isn’t a dumping place for sugar daddies to pick girls. Send them to university but keep a close eye on them and have real conversations about these things,” Ntare says.He adds that students who are close to their parents and have truthful conversations with them are less likely to be involved in such acts.
Joyce Kirabo, a counselor and parent, says the cause of this vice should be addressed as opposed to talking a lot about the problem.“These girls are driven towards the lies of these cunning men because they feel like they are missing that intimacy and love from their parents and it is easily filled with cheap gifts from sugar daddies,” she says.
She goes ahead to say that it she encountered this as a parent, she would sit her daughter down and openly talk about it. She would also find out what the girl needs and try to provide what she can, with hope that the girl won’t go looking for them elsewhere.

ahmadshakilu@gmail.com