The Musanze Problem; A journey that cannot be made.

 Throughout history, advances in knowledge and technology have made things possible that previously seemed impossible. These advances leave us wondering whether there exists a limit to what can be discovered and known. 

 

This quest for the frontier of knowledge gives birth to two schools of thought. The first school maintains that everything is possible and that humans will achieve unimaginable things. This motivates endeavors such as deep freezing dead people for possible resuscitation in the future. The other school limits what can be achieved. Lord Kelvin for example maintained in 1902 that flying will never be a practical success.

 

Against such a background, Professor Michel Bezy had us debate the future of artificial intelligence in the class Strategic Use of Digital Information. He wanted to know whether we thought it possible that machines would be more intelligent than human beings. 

Entrance to CMU Africa campus, Kigali, Rwanda

This was an issue I had thought about extensively. I had an opinion I considered concrete.  It had never occurred to me to define it in a concrete form because I had never imagined I would encounter such an opportunity to express it so soon.

 

Aware that my argument was subtle; I chose to use an analogy. My argument was that discovering the secret of human intelligence is possible.  As a result of that, it would be possible to make intelligent machines. It was possible to discover this secret because the process of discovering it would not destroy the people who are making that discovery or destroy the intelligence that is sought. 

 In other words, the journey that cannot be made is that journey that either destroys those that undertake it by the mere fact of them undertaking such a journey or destroys the goal for which it is being undertaken.  If you want to, you can say, I was deriving a formula for impossible.   

So I lifted my hand and luck befell me to speak. I said, “yes I think that computers will be more intelligent than people because making intelligent computers would not destroy people” and to drive my point home I started my analogy.

 “So imagine I want to go to Musanze. If every step I take towards Musanze means that I  have to lose part of my body. Let's start with hands, and then the next step, my legs, and then maybe my ears and then…”.  I can’t remember exactly how I concluded this argument. I only remember that everyone looked at me with questioning eyes. The more I tried to explain, the more people got confused. Eventually, I gave up as I could not put myself together enough to explain my point. 

Musanze, Northern Rwanda

 

And then later out of the class, I just can't forget how it became the #1 source of laughter. It still makes me laugh imagining how my classmates later described my attempts to explain myself.

And now, when you going to Musanze…, and your legs are cut off…

 

It was a grim reminder for me to improve how I communicate my ideas to people.

 

I believe that we shall never be able to make computers that can make choices. To make such computers would require us to discover the secret of human freedom. I think that such a discovery will bring an end to that freedom. In my formula of the impossible, this journey destroys the goal which it seeks to achieve.

If such a secret is known,  we will wake up to find Taliban fighters murmuring in sweet melodic tones #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #MAGA #MAGA. One passing by a church might hear people chanting Allahu --hh kBar and somewhere in a Mosque some Moslems will be singing Amazing Grace..,  I don’t think leaders would hesitate to use such means to "bring peace".

Just as an example, the other category of impossibles, journeys that destroy the persons who seek to accomplish it; would be to visit the sun. You would never succeed as you would burn up before you reached anywhere close. Outside these two categories of problems, I maintain that everything else is up for grabs.

Uganda's Sim re-registration with national ID's; a disaster in the pipeline

In response to security incidents around the country. The government has hatched an intervention to curb insecurity by re-registering people with their national ID’s. This re-registration exercise is opening up space for identity theft which could lead to other crimes. This exercise is making all Ugandans more insecure regardless of status.
In the exercise, users register their national id data using USSD codes. Users are prompted first to enter their NIN followed by Names.

What is wrong with the registration exercise ?

This registration exercise does not provide an independent way to verify that someone is who they say they are. In other words I could register as some else if I had access to their national ID card.

How can a person be independently verified ?

The most reliable and affordable way to independently verify a registration is to have an independent person who verifies that the ID is used by its rightful owner. This way if anything goes wrong the registering party can be held to account. This system is often useful for tracking fraudulent bank accounts and transactions. Persons who register are held to account if details are not sufficient to identify an account holder.

There are other ways which might be less reliable, for example for a re-registration, a Telecom company would double check to ensure that the new name of a sim card matches the name of the old identity. This has nuances that can cause mistakes. Its biggest loophole is the fact there not all people registered before and can be cross referenced. This means that all those people who had not registered have a free pass to register with whichever ID they have access to or are targeting (if the companies are using this method). Given this fact of presence of unregistered numbers. I think it is very highly unlikely that the Telecom companies are cross referencing to ensure that someones new names matches the previous names. And it really does not guarantee ownership.

It might also create additional security if people re-registering are asked a question only they can reliable know such as their mother's maiden name. This is not common information and we would expect only the children to know their mothers maiden name. This would prevent random thefts of identity but it would not prevent targeted thefts ( i.e. a person chooses an individual whose identity they want to steal and finds out their mothers maiden name).

What can go wrong if someone registered using my National ID details ?

If someone registered with your national ID, they could use that number to extort money from someone else. For example they could kidnap and ask for ransom money to be sent to that number. When the police start investigating, they would come for you. Given our justice system, you would only be able to go free if at all you are able to prove your innocence after paying significant sums of money to a significant number of people in the justice pipeline. That is in addition to the time you would have lost trying to prove to the police that you are innocent.

It might also be used to fool and defraud your friends. Some people have known of crime stars who create fake profiles on Facebook of famous and important people. Then they use this as a means to obtain money from friends of this famous or important person promising to pay back. I was myself almost once a victim. This new registration exercise opens up the real possibility that someone could create a fake Facebook profile and corroborate it with a Telephone number. The person sending the money would never suspect since they see they are indeed sending the money to that famous person. The possibility of this might be limited by the way mobile money might be handled. But it is a possibility I can only rule out with full knowledge of the protocol of mobile money and the separations of the mobile money system and the regular usage of sim cards.

In a twist, if you are important, it might be used to trick innocent people into committing crimes and or being innocent accomplices in the commission of crimes. For example, someone might ask an innocent victim to do surveillance on a party of interest with the claims the request is coming from a police chief. He would then corroborate that with a mobile money transaction showing clearly the names of the Chief. The things that can be done with a faked identity are endless. I can not list them all here. 

In what ways can my identity be stolen ? 

Your identify can be stolen by practically anyone who has access to your national ID information since there is no independent verification of ownership.

1. It could be employees of the national ID system who can search in the database for your details. 
2. It can also be done by hackers who have compromised the national ID system. Yes this is possible; everyone can be hacked including the FBI. It might actually be easier than imagined because of the problem of people who are weak links. Once a malicious person has access to your name and national ID number they can register as you. 
3. Agents helping people to complete their registration could copy their ID and register as those persons. 
4. It can also be done by thieves who have stolen National ID cards or who have access to stolen cards. 
5. It could also be done by Telecom insiders who may have access to the portal. 

All of this is possible because there is no way to guarantee that that other someone is not you, be it a malicious agent or a foreign hacker.

How can I know if my identify has been stolen ? 

There is no direct way to know that someone has stolen your identity unless it has been used to commit crime. One possible way would be to search for Telephone lines registered to each and every National ID and verify that these are indeed owned by that 'owner'. This is not a practical solution because it requires every individual to check their registration which cannot happen. It also presents challenges in implementation because it requires searching information in different sources (different operators and the national ID system). 

What can be done to ensure security given this system ? 

The only reliable and workable solution is to stop the exercise and invalidate all the information that has been collected. Because for all I know, it is possible that many fake and stolen Identities are already lying in wait to be exploited.

If the government maintains that people should re-register with their national ID’s it should create a program which stretches over time and which has a mechanism to guarantee ownership of identity such as through a third party. The re-registration should exclude self registration. I also think that the government should do more in evaluating its capacity to handle an intervention in the long run whenever new interventions are being implemented.

Another way of ensuring security given such an insecure process is to do surveillance of all calls that people have so as to detect possible identity theft. There are companies which have this kind of system to detect fraud and theft. An example is VISA, one of the companies that allows users to perform transactions online. Like in the case of our ID; possession of a VISA card is sufficient for a person to perform a purchase.

However unlike the case of the national ID, the company does monitor every transaction. It also has access to both the buyer and seller and could easily void a transaction. VISA uses algorithms which tell it if a card is likely to be stolen and is being used by thieves or not. This is possible because VISA is directly involved in every single transaction that takes place. It knows where you are and what you usually buy. This system is further protected by the fact that every item ordered is sent to a location and an individual which can be tracked. Unlike VISA however our systems are distributed with each Telecom operator having their own information store which they cannot share with other people for purposes of protecting the consumer. Further the Telecom operators are not motivated like VISA to monitor fraud because it does not directly affect them or directly benefit them.

Finally setting such a system of surveillance with such an insecure system would create a weak link. A malicious person can commit crime with impunity by just compromising the surveillance system. It is the reason why security camera’s alone are not sufficient to prevent security incidents, for the simple reason that when such places are robbed, the Camera’s will be conveniently turned off. Or even everything else can appear on the Camera except the face of the person causing the security incident. With our national ID system, it is possible that before a major security incident, power blacks out and the backups are conveniently under repair or get spoiled at that critical time. Such a system does not fail safe and therefore fails catastrophically.

Further, we have a history of interventions which create news, cause pain and some economic activity in the short run but which are eventually abandoned. The examples range from seat belts, speed governors and even previous registration efforts. It is highly possible that this intervention too will be abandoned after a few months. The only difference with this intervention will be that it will have opened up a huge portal for unprecedented levels of identity theft. Exposing many more Ugandans to crime and many more to being victimized by crime rings.

Can I be victimized ?

Every one is vulnerable to being victimized if they have a National ID. Important people are even more vulnerable because they are vulnerable to being targeted by crime rings and enemies. Yes that includes every one including the Police Chief and our honorable MP's in the August house.

What can I as an ordinary citizen do? 

As an ordinary citizen, there is practically nothing you can do to change the situation. The only thing that would perhaps be of help is to pester your area MP so that parliament can inquire and block this process. Also reminding them that as public figures they are especially vulnerable to identity theft and to being targeted in malicious ways using this system that is flawed. Indeed every person is vulnerable to insecurity as recent events have showed. 

Any questions ? Feel free to leave them below as a comment and I will be glad to answer them

If I had sometime with Pope Francis, what would I tell him ...

Summary

In this article, I argue that relativism which manifests commonly around the world today also does exist in the Church. I argue that this is detrimental not only for the world but also for the Church. The existence of such relativism within paints out God to be an entity afraid of the truth. I also argue that relativism is not only dangerous because it necessarily results in incorrect conclusions but also and most importantly it is abusive. It undermines the capacity of the others to come to the realization of a truth. It paints the people across the divide as being sub-human. Just like it does elsewhere relativism separates freedom from truth and God from the person. Further, I say it stands in the way of the growth of the Christian life because it undermines charity. I also make argument that all teachers should make more effort to communicate the person of God correctly.

While I make all effort to communicate the object of my focus with fidelity. I am aware that I cannot achieve perfection in such any attempt. And my only hope is that what I write will be meaningful to those that read.

An earlier version of this article was seamless, written without any sub titles. My primary goal was to write in a manner such as to present the subject matter in as brief a way as possible without leaving any room for ambiguity from well intended persons or misleading anyone who for one reason or another may be inclined to lean to the right or the left. Since I am writing through a public forum, I have felt that it is imperative that I should make the article especially given its length and possible depth to open it up a little for everyone to be able to understand at the very least parts of it according to the degree to which they might be able to perceive what I am saying.

Contents

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1. Introduction

2. The painter and the painting

3. The Object of Goodness.., What do people really want

4. Relativism in the Church

5. The problem of communication

6. The Wisdom of the Pharisee

7. The Value of the Eternal

8. The Dilemma of the counselor

9. Freedom and the Man in Eden ...

10. The duty of the teacher

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Introduction

Pope Francis will be coming to my country Uganda in November. There is definitely a lot of excitement and strategies to have this possibly once in a lifetime event; see or perhaps meet the Pope. What would I tell the Pope if I had the chance to meet him?

The Painter and the Painting

Recently i watched a video on YouTube in which an atheist answers a question on what he would do if he died and found himself at the pearly gates facing “the man”¹. I found his description of God to be quite like anything i have known. In fact if the description of God that he presented is actually true, then i would not want to near the pearly gates at all either. Fortunately, for me he has concluded and correctly that the entity he is describing does not exist at all; saving me from the thought of having to boycott the pearly gates.

It is not very uncommon coming across descriptions that depict the person of God in a poor and even forceful way; even when it can be interpreted in an ambiguous manner. There are people for example who trace their rejection of the conception of God on assertions made that only a certain group of “Christian's” will find salvation which not rhyming with the plausible logic that all people of good will should find salvation has caused people to go in search of truth that is more universal. And many instances where teachers in an attempt to maintain one aspect of the truth which they can perceive have inadvertently destroyed another aspect of this truth and ultimately the entire truth. Even for facts which can be questioned, it is not very uncommon to hear judgments made while seeking to encourage one good act or another that have inadvertently distorted the image of God.

The Object of Goodness.., What do people really want

Not only is God seen as being separate from the object of goodness but arising out of inappropriate execution of judgment and miscommunication he has become the object of oppression. The one who takes away what people like and then takes delight in dolling out punishment to those that do not agree with what he has ordained. His advent is no longer as Zechariah proclaims; “the one who comes to his people and sets them free”². Rather it is something to be loathed. He is no longer that Epitome of goodness as says St John, “Deus Caritas est”³. No longer the one in whom the heart finds rest as indicates Augustine of Hippo when he says “the heart is restless until it rests in God”. That he comes to help man to mend this broken song has been obscured.

Relativism⁴   in the Church

Such tendencies have been fanned also by currents of philosophies within the Church which in reaction to and out of fear of the growth of relativism in the world have taught and promoted principles which have ultimately not only adopted relativistic dimensions but in so doing have justified and promoted the existence of relativism. For example there exist principles which render the salvation of the individual on obedience without any need whatsoever to reference the truth in the execution of such a judgment. The premise of the trueness of such judgments are maintained squarely on the fact of the relative position of the person upon whom judgment is being executed to the person executing this judgment. While such philosophies correctly paint out the passion of Christ from the view point of his total submission to the will of his Father⁵ and the very real difficulty in maintaining objectivity when making judgments about the self, they overlook the fact that not only did Christ lay down his life of his own accord ⁶, but that he longed for that moment⁷. In so doing they have rendered as fundamentally irreconcilable the will of God and the person, thereby creating a permanent rift between God and the person. Ultimately such philosophies have fundamentally separated truth from freedom since the persons that do as they desire cannot posses any truth. Furthermore they disregard the complexity of the nature of communication of a truth.

Such a call eliminates the need for an individual to correctly understand what they have been called upon to undertake creating many opportunities for the distortion of the nature of the truth.

The Problem of Communication

Communicating a truth is not easy because communication is a fuzzy process; one seeking to transmit an object held in one mind to another mind using words and symbols. However words can have multiple meanings. Aside of this, different persons and groups of persons may have different meanings attached to the words resulting from differences in culture, experiences and knowledge. As a result of this different people perceive the same words in different ways. Practically every individual probably has their own language; One whose landscape is reflective of the experiences and knowledge of the individual, of the pains they have suffered and of injustices they have endured real and or imagined. As such it is nearly impossible to communicate the same object to different people using the same words. This makes possible that the attempt to communicate one object will convey a very different object occasionally even the exact opposite of the intended object. In any process of communication, the number of objects communicated is often at least equivalent to the number of distinct groups anywhere up to to the number of people listening. It is such that God too has taken time, more than 2000 years preparing people to receive him; to ensure that at least there are a few people who have the capacity to understand the nature of freedom his dawn promises. That Christ too has to be patient with his Apostles, for even at the time of his departure, there still exist things which he would like to say which would be too much for them to understand.

The fact that people for all practical purposes speak different “languages” makes it imperative that of two persons one should move out of their comfort zone to be the one who seeks to understand rather than be understood, so that people might speak at the same frequency and foster communication. This obligation falls on the first person always because it is they who express to have knowledge of truth. In reality though every person needs to be contextualized and the one who is not contextualized is already wrong. And indeed all individuals with charity will always take effort to place other persons in context otherwise they trade the right to be contextualized. However in the case of the teacher when they express their judgment in the absolute sense⁸ (as a judgment that cannot be questioned or interpreted like in the case in which the salvation of the individual is rendered on a judgment whose premise of trueness is founded squarely on the fact of their position), and indeed anyone who expresses judgment in an absolute sense, when they do so; dissolve their right to be contextualized for they have expressed that they have explored sufficient evidence upon which the case can be judged. Any attempt to contextualize their judgment amounts to holding them in contempt. The obligation of charity in this case falls on and only on this teacher or on that individual that expresses their self in that absolute sense. The teacher then in expressing this judgment is obligated to contextualize the student thoroughly because if there is any miscommunication, then the teacher will distort the image of God. This is especially important in the light of the fact that the student has due obligation to respect the teacher and what he says. And this is like abandoning the children of God since it is only with a faithful image of God that the Christian life can take root and grow. In this case, the teacher takes away all Christian options; for if the student bows in obedience, then they are resigned to living with a wrong, perhaps tyrannical picture of God. On the other hand overriding the teacher's words undermines not just the importance of the teacher and the church given that the teacher is a representative of the Church but also of revealed scripture as notes the Angelic Doctor⁹ And any such move is likely to also result in a distorted image of God.

The Wisdom of the Pharisee

Miscommunication (the transmission of an object other than that which the author has in mind) happens all the time. Every time miscommunication occurs (assuming good will) bad things happen. People lose opportunities and sometimes violence results leading to the loss of value. Miss communication that can result in loss of value makes those with a stake to execute communication with prudence. The political scene for example is one in which opponents often seek to take advantage of people's lapses in communicating their object. Using such lapses aggressively to their own benefit with little consideration of the personal, situational and locational context in which the individual speaks. While being unfair, it is only proper that the leader should try to communicate in a way fitting with all people since he has the duty of uniting them. The politician hence often adopts the “wisdom of the Pharisee in response to Jesus's question on the source of the authority of John the Baptist”. Gaging first how the people will think and then providing answers far from what they would like to say or even believe, rather one which they consider will inflict the least damage. The greater the consequences of mis-communication the greater it is that communication should be made to be faithful. What then might we compare the object of the person of God and that of Eternal life so that we might make judgment of its value? The answer to this might be obtained by asking another question, what might one be able to do if they had an indefinite or eternal time frame at their disposal.

The Value of the Eternal

An example with our computer systems might provide an elegant solution. Our computer systems are protected with pass phrases “more commonly referred to as passwords”. These protect personal information and in some cases vital systems making their security of paramount importance. A good sought for, by the enemy, by those who seek to take control and plunder. One of the ways of obtaining these is by trying all the possible combinations until one of those is true a technique referred to as “brute forcing” Now our current computer systems are designed such that it would be meaningless for any individual to try to “brute force” a good pass phrase since this would take an incredible amount of time, perhaps millions of years before the correct combination is found by which time the person seeking to obtain the information is long dead and the information obsolete. This however changes if this person has an eternal time frame at their disposal; because then they do not have to worry about the time they need to get the password. Furthermore people with an eternal time frame are not limited to carrying out operations in a sequence because without time the concept of before and after are meaningless. They would get this password in a single instance of time. So then if they are a terrorist seeking to get hold of the latest state of the art military drones, then any moving creature on earth they do not like is doomed, knocked out from the sky with high precision missiles. Breaking the barrier of time enables persons to break through all limitations imposed by virtue of being temporal entities. So then it can be seen as true from the view point of what can be achieved that there is nothing, no summation of everything that is known or can be imagined that can compare with the value of a single intelligent entity with an eternal time frame in its possession. The person then who has to be correct about eternal issues has a truly colossal task, because the object about which he has to be correct is bigger than his head. He cannot provide any restitution for a judgment that can cause a loss equal to an object of such value.

The Dilemma of the Counselor

So then we can see that the teacher is justified in being stern. He should be vigilant, for as says St Peter¹⁰, the devil is prowling like a hungry lion, looking for someone to devour. He should take all effort to ensure that the children of God are not deceived on the object of goodness. That they are not given a snake when they asked for fish. The task is far from simple task. It can be likened to the counselor desirous of the children that they are counseling that they might not act in ways that might expose them to dangers of HIV. They do not want them to take the issue lightly because of its gravity. If they choose to paint a gruesome picture of the reality without considering that some of these children might be HIV positive; Then they abandon the people who need the Doctor the most; also to being ostracized by the even less knowledgeable compatriots¹¹. Adding salt to wounds already bleeding with profusion.

On the other hand by expressing the truth in a violent manner, they express that except through fear people are not able to come to the acceptance of the good. They have employed fear, an object of oppression and of slavery and have thus inadvertently obscured the freedom that the advent of Christ promises. He has forgotten that Christianity is for those who can take courage; to wake up again after miserable failure; to admit they are wrong; the brave ones and not the fearful. They also stand in the way of the growth of the Christian life; for it is only in an environment in which there is no fear that charity; the origin, the basis and the end of the Christian life can take root and grow. They are no longer shepherds but they are goatherds, who have to stand behind the flock with massive sticks beating the flock to keep them from straying.

Freedom and the Man in Eden ...

He is like a man who afraid that his wife will be unfaithful to him decides to lock her behind doors. This man maintains unfortunately that his wife cannot be saved for she will always be evil. That the only acceptable course of action is to protect his wife from the bad consequences of her evil nature. And he cares to have a wife but does not care to have one capable of loving him freely. By locking his wife, he has expressed himself in absolute sense, as the person whose conclusion can always be trusted. That he is not subject to the temporal, spatial, sensible, sentimental and even intellectual limitations which obviously plague the reasoning process of other individuals creating uncertainty on the completeness of their observations from which correct conclusion would have been drawn and therefore rendering their conclusions to be inaccurate and their actions to be questionable. He is like a man who has given to himself exclusive entitlement because of an apparent superiority that he possesses. So that tomorrow when appears another individual who can demonstrate a superiority greater than his, then he no longer has any right to any entitlement since the truth he has created is that exclusive entitlement belongs to the individual that demonstrates the greatest superiority.

He has acted as if to use force to block Adam and Eve from consuming the forbidden fruit and has therefore painted as foolishness the fact that God is painted as waiting until after the fact to appear to Adam and Eve even with the knowledge that this action of Adam and Eve was going to cause his death and the loss of many souls. Otherwise, if we are to maintain the assumption that God is infinitely wise, rational and has infinite Love for mankind, then we can argue that the only reason why he choose not to intervene in time to prevent Adam and Eve from consuming the forbidden fruit is for a reason at least equal in value to what their action put at stake. The sharing in the life of God.

This teacher has taken worry, forgetting that salvation is the work of God. That nobody can come to the Son unless the Father draw him¹² and that the Son leads everyone to the Father¹³. He has forgotten that it is the Spirit that leads people to the truth¹⁴ That it is the lord who builds the house as says the Psalmist, for they labor in vain if he does not build the house. And keep vigil in vain if he does not guard the city¹⁵. Afraid that the truth will be vanquished, he has raised the sword forgetting that it is Christ who calms the stormy sea.

The Duty of the Teacher

If it is to be assumed that the teacher is moved to teach out of charity which should indeed be the case since this forms the foundation of all meritorious Christian action as notes Paul of Tarsus¹⁶. Then the relationship between the teacher and the student can be modeled as that between the lover and the loved one. The lover if they ascribe equality to the loved one will make considerations that that which is available to them can also become available to the loved if it is indeed true since the lover and loved one are fundamentally the same. He is mindful of the fact that what is said is important, but what is understood is most important. For it is what is understood that has the power to become motive. If he has charity and therefore wishes to communicate the truth that they might witness the salvation of the persons they care about, they become aware that it is not sufficient anymore just to know the truth. It is important that they communicate faithfully this truth. And for this he gets knowledge that he can rely on the example of Jesus, looking beyond just the words he said, to the way he has cared to communicate the kingdom of God. He should teach, trustful that those who have been admitted to the class have been given the capacity to understand that which is necessary for their graduation and the grace to accept that which is beyond their capacity to understand.

I am asking, that the Church may make more effort to help the painter to paint a faithful picture of the person of God. Because not only is the quality of the Christian life dependent on the fidelity of the picture of God. But also the ability for the Christian life to grow. Without a faithful painting we shall be resigned to lamenting that the Christian life should not be a sad one. That teachers may never obscure the effort that God has taken and which he still takes everyday to communicate himself not just as being good but as being goodness itself. That they should keep the name of the Lord Holy.

NOTES

1 . I am presenting this as a characteristic inversion of the object of the person of God and of the Christian life which I find to be common. I can not make argument to blame any particular member of the Church for the views that Stephen Fry presents in the Video.

I think that it is also important to point out the very common rhetoric which seeks to attain happiness by annihilating guilt which the Church is commonly accused of creating. The argument to destroy the conception of guilt so as to achieve happiness is as lethal as saying people should be numbed against pain because pain is horrible. As disorders like congenital analgesia suggests, pain is actually vital for survival. Go Back

2.Canticle of Zechariah Lk 1:68 Go Back

3 Deus Caritas Est, Benedict XVI, Love has come to mean many different things for different people Go Back

4 This is a topic covered by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical, This is summary in Wikipedia is nice “The Splendor of truth” Go Back

5.Lk 22:42 Go Back

6.Jn 10:18 Go Back

7.Jn 10:18 Go Back

8.The Judge should be free to make judgment as long as he references the truth like the example of St Peter with Ananias (Acts 5:3). Go Back

9. St Thomas Aquinas makes argument for the need for divine law (Sum I-II, 91, 4). In regard to his second answer on the uncertainty of human judgment; I have observed that, we make judgment basing on what we have seen or experienced. And since only a total subset of observation is required to arrive at a correct conclusion. It is not prudent for any individual to lay claim to being correct since he cannot absolutely guarantee that his set of observations is complete as I have argued herein. St Thomas Aquinas also argues very beautifully about the Judgment of internal issues not available to the human being since we Judge based on what is visible. I argue in regard to such a principle in relation to salvation, that any Judgment pertaining to especially individual salvation cannot be complete without a thorough consideration of the internal movements within the individual including the possible action of the grace of God as Jesus paints in the story of the rich young man in the gospel Mt 19:16-22 Go Back

10. 1 Peter 5:8 Go Back

11. The cruel treatment of aberrant people is often justified in the proverb, "a rotten tomato spoils the whole basket"-that their continued presence will inflict damage on the society by spreading their evil nature. It therefore seems acceptable that the aberrant persons should be eliminated from active society at the very least. If justice is to be maintained. It would be required that evil is uprooted from its primary source. As the history of serial murderers has often shown, the genesis of evil is often deeply embedded in the society, in blatant neglect of duty, in cruel inhumane treatment, in wanton selfishness. Carrying proper justice then would wipe put the entire society. And in any case, removal of the aberrant tomato would not remove the primary causes of the origin of evil. It would therefore not really serve its purpose. While it is true that people are subject to bad influence and the power of social conditioning especially on those whose judgment is justifiable compromised such as children and who therefore should be rightly protected [Mt 18:6]. To maintain that a rotten tomato will spoil the entire basket also inadvertently maintains that people are passive participants in the society. Further Jesus points out that it is not possible for the servants to correctly select the weeds from the good wheat Mt 13:24-13 which implies that an attempt to execute justice would fail. Go Back .

12. Jn 6:44 Go Back

13. Jn 14:6 Go Back

14. Jn 16:13 Go Back

15. Psalm 127 Go Back

16. 1 Cor 13:1-3 Go Back

The many uses of a coconut

Many years ago when I was young, a relative came home with a coconut.  The fruit was shared at dinner and I remember the buzz of excitement from adults and children alike as the rough, dry skin split open to reveal the vibrant fruit beneath. The grown-ups then started a lengthy discussion of the practically infinite ways in which the coconut could be used. One use I vividly remember was that its fiber could be used to make sofa sets. It set my mind in motion and I desired to learn more. Of course, being a kid, I could only listen attentively as the grownups engaged in this very lively conversation in spite of the fact that my thirst for knowledge was even greater than my thirst for the sweet coconut milk itself.

This talk inspired a peculiar dream. In it, I had a piece of that magic coconut, and starting from practically nothing, I made very many things. Practically anything you can imagine. It was one of those dreams, which seems without beginning or end, one where you feel you have lived your entire life in the dream. And you have struggled and have been overcome and have overcome and finally you have died and you have been victorious. And you are still dreaming.

Did I believe this to be a real prediction of my future? In fact, I once experienced a dream, which happened the next day exactly the way I dreamt it. But no, I don’t believe in dreams and would never advise anyone to take them seriously because they could potentially disrupt your life, and make you paranoid. Instead, I think that sometimes dreams can represent innate desires which can become motives even without our knowledge and spring into existence like a zombie emerging from nowhere in a horror movie. My principle is to just live life the way it comes and try my best.

Fast forward two decades, I’d graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Food Science and Technology and was placed at the School of Food Technology to work as a graduate assistant helping with research and product development. I found myself having to do some pretty repetitive tasks and I realized that if I am really to get the kind of results I want with a guarantee that they are the best anyone can get, then I would have to learn how to write computer programs.  Ask the computer to run them for me, and get my results in the morning. Then go perform two or three tests in the lab and BAM, here comes my new PRODUCT.  

Without wasting time, and since I knew that all somebody needs to learn how to program is a computer and internet connection, I dove right into the heart of Java. Java, however, decided I was not a good enough opponent and gave me a bloody nose, but still I learnt something.

I then found a friendlier Visual Basic and given the user input provided by excel, I soon find myself singing as I wrote code. In fact, I got so lost coding that one day, upon leaving my chair to do a small errand, I came back to find my chair removed in my absence. Without realizing I was standing, I dived straight back into the heart of code, until the person who had pulled my chair actually realized I was standing. Knowing the limitations of Visual Basic, I decided to learn to Python; particularly because I developed interest in natural language and its processing. And every day I spent time thinking about structures; about how to do things, and finding out how to possibly implement the structures I was imagining.

One particular task I set out to do that really frustrated me was how to implement a super quick dictionary. Actually, I borrowed the idea from a movie.  I imagined this super structure and then surfed about it. What I found kept me busy for three entire weeks without my ever coming up with the best style of implementing it. This was partly because I could only learn and write code at night given that I had to work during the day. The elusive knowledge I craved was out of my reach and I experienced the same frustration I felt when I desired to learn more about that coconut so many years ago. Then I just made this decision, the one decision I had never imagined I would take two years earlier on my graduation. I resolved to study.

I wrote to a mentor telling him that I was simply better off studying computer science rather than just lone programming because working was simply not giving me enough prime time to do what I really thought was of importance to my work. Of course, I understood that there were definitely money issues and this added to the fact that I was a food scientist was definitely going to make it hard to find someone or an organization that would sponsor me to pursue a degree in computer science. His initial response was:

“Man, you are just beyond me now and I can’t help you that much. Please try some other people; maybe they might help …”

It was perhaps unsurprising and I kind of gave up and dived deeper into coding.

What was surprising was that he didn’t forget my idea and several months later I got this email from him about a university called Carnegie Mellon University Rwanda that was having information sessions in Kampala. I followed those quick instructions to register, phone number, email address etc. and found myself with an interview date. Before the day arrived, I received a call from a lady who turned out to be very calm, persistent and consistent at calling and finding out my plans.

“Hi Stephen. I see you registered…”

I had not forgotten about the interview, but honestly speaking what chances did I consider myself to have: none. They were offering Master’s in Information Technology, which was what I wanted and needed to help me learn the principles of computing and for which I had no background. So when I reached there, I pulled this lady aside and said you know what, I don’t have a background. Her reply was just as I expected. She didn’t think I would make it as the university was looking for people who could write code. But she also told me to wait and to talk to the Professor. Just maybe. 

I got through the interview and to cut a long story short two months later, I get this email: Dear Stephen you have been shortlisted and are required to sit for GRE and TOEFL….

Of course, I was delighted but damn it! Why do these American universities make our lives so hard? I didn’t have the money and I couldn’t see how I was going to get it in the time frame within which they wanted my results back. My dream was alive but just out of my reach. I kept quiet. Work took me to field far away from where regular internet can be found. Then one day I resurrected from “before the internet (BI) land” and found my inbox full of emails among which is one from the persistent, consistent and calm lady. This time round I have the money and the unbelievable happened.

Dear Stephen, I am pleased ……

Then I find myself in another dream, seated in class, listening, and this time it is for real and I can even stop and rewind, “excuse me Professor, did you say ...” The good side is, in this one I am still alive.

And I continue to discover that the coconut is not the only object with infinite possibilities.