A flower Pot On Your Porch Could Help Make The Climate Better

You do not own land but you rent a house, right? I know you do not have where to plant a tree but rather you have your verandah/ porch where you can have an old 5 Litre jerrycan with flowers or vegetables. The energy is in our hands to fight the harsh effects of climate change because irrespective of whether you are renting or owning farmland, we all face the effects of climate change.

If you decide to grow vegetables, in just a month, 2 or 3 you will be having some free food, and also support a noble cause. Doesn't this sound sweet to you?

The belief that it begins with you is real and we can test this. Imagine if 20 rentals each had 2 flowers in old jerry cans, or in flower pots? My maths tells me we could be having leaves close to what a huge mango tree has. This would mean that just in the city we could be having close to 200 tree-like leaves pulling out the carbon and giving us oxygen.

 No body is thinking this way. Let the information star with you and I.

Climate change effects are not the rich people’s fault alone. It is all of us.

Start Today, don't wait for tomorrow.

James,

Hit me, jamespropa(at)gmail(dot)com

Abryanz Style And Fashion Awards Taken To Serena Hotel 12.12.2015 . Am gonna Miss The Yellow Seats :(

In Uganda there are just a few things that lead the day to day discussion, in Office, at home, in the bar, at the bodaboda stage, at the salon, e.t.c. Basically these topics are the same and like food they just differ from where you are discussing it, someone may have chicken in Serena and the other has it from kiyaaye, Nakulabye its all chicken!

Some of the major drivers of conversation and talk are, Music, Fashion, Religion and Footbal. As

You can see from the list some 2 move along, that is music and fashion. You will find people in office discussing between Bebe Cool and Bobi Wine who is smarter or talking about that dress, Sheebah wore to the HiPipo awards. This conversation will cut all the way to a boda boda stage down in Masaka.

Abryanz S&F Awards Poster

Now here comes a very young man, 25? Am not sure and gives this meaning. His name is Ahumuza Brian, the proprietor of the famous prestigious Abryanz collection. Mr Ahumuza for the last 2 years has been making sense to showbiz by staging the Style and Fashion Awards. The events have always been classy, but I will not spare him for making me and my boss, Herbie Kay of Metro fm, of course you know him, making us sit like commoners. Well that is fine because we love ghetto life.

The events have always taken place on week days at The MTN Arena around Cricket Oval in Lugogo. The events have always had first class production and the awards have always been very fair, apart from…….. don’t mind that.

This time round Ahumuza, Mr….why should I call a young man Mr, anyway? Has come back again with the ABryanz style and fashion awards and this time they will be live at the Kampala Serena Hotel on Saturday 12^th, December in the famous Victoria hall.

What does this mean?

This means we shall have more space and every one of us will be a VIP, man, am gonna miss the ghetto life up there at MTN Arena, you know those yellow seats? Now you know the fun am talking about, but Serena will give the fashion and showbiz industry more flavor and prestige. It is time people, read celebs, stop moving out of their houses, dressed, fwaaaa….

By the way my humble cry is that he may add also a category for best dressed Radio Presenter, man, I would def take that! Towakana ate! Otherwise you all gotta embrace the Abyranza style and Fashion Awards 2015 taking place on 12^th December at Serena.

I will be there, will you?

Please follow me on twitter @jamespropa

Ahumuza Bryan with a female model

Bebe Cool's Contract at Amnesia Ended. My honest opinion About Those brewing a Stupid Beef

Bebe Cool and His WIfe Zuena

Contracts end and people move on, others get signed and life still moves on.

I really don’t understand when people jubilate  because Bebe Cool’s contract with Club Amnesia ended, I mean to be real, even Bobi Wine or Chameleone, or Radio and Weasel have all been under contracts and at some point time comes when the time frame of the contract ends. Life still has to go on and look for better and richer opportunities. Why are people so out there to look at someone whose contract has ended and then jubilate about it? To me this sounds like insanity.

Are you still at your first job you got when you came out of school? No! if yes then something is wrong with your brain, apart from those who have been their less than 5 years. You may be under the same company but at a higher position. Don’t quote me wrong on that.

If Bebe Cool’s contract is terminated or ended at club Amnesia then it is time he actually looked at bigger endorsement deals than just small, small things like club nights. People grow up and move on either for good reasons or bad ones per that.

I saw so many social media posts some mean and others comforting for Bebe Cool, all I can say is, everything that has a beginning MUST have an end. Even the musicians you praise and love so much one day will be gone, 6ft under the ground. What will you do then? Will you still shout that they are the best? No. you your self will forget them and move on with your sweet lives.

So, on the other end rather, it was on many cases reported that Bebe Cool used to have a huge drink bill at amnesia as every Tuesday almost 20 people drunk on his bill. This is not good because it is exploiting on the bar owner’s behalf. Artists need to get realistic at times and don’t just drink out what they would have put in businesses of people who give them endorsements.

For now all I can say is wish a happy time for radio and weasel who have taken up the Tuesday nights at Amnesia and just ask the management of Amnesia not let these boys drink as much at they wish because they will actually drink more than Bebe Cool did.

Bebe Cool's New Album Art

Meanwhile we should anticipate his concert coming up in August at Serena and a new album dropping soon. I saw the album art.

We should always stand as one for Ugandan music so that we can beat our competitors, but getting devided on very small matters like these ones is very childish and stupid.

Follow me on Twitwer @jamespropa

Is the media always the bad child at home?

On several instances we have seen artists come out in the madia, and make"stupid" unthought comments on national TV, or Radio or Print and even online. I think you all remember when Radio came on to NTV The Beat and called Jeff Kiwa a "Rat" (read Emmese in capt Dollar's Voice). I think

you also rememebr when another artist beat up a journalist on claims that the journalist said some "bad"(read bad as ebisiyaga) words about him.

I mean to ask, what is the role of the media? I think the media is supposed to bring out the good, best, bad, worse, ugly and everything in that line.

Earlier this week I saw a story on The New Vision website, where they interviewed a Ugandan musician Coco Finger and he bluntly said,

"...................... There a few who understand and that’s why I will never settle down with a Ugandan girl. I prefer whites".

This is a statement that can only be made by someone who has not taken time to think things out. Surprisingly, Coco went to The New Vision Facebook page and commented,

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no plizz .This is not ryt,whoever put this in paper is just trying to look for ways to put me down bt no u can't in the name of God. . . . . . . am a proud black African n proud of our black wemen.i have a happy family wth a black woman n am proud we are blessed wth a beautiful daughter . The fact is i prefer

Black Ugandan ladies to whites.fuuuul stoooooop. 

from that comment, the aim of the artist is to show that a main stream media channel like New Vision publishes Yellow Journalistic work. Am not saying this is entirely wrong, what if Coco Finger is right?
Yes he could be fine and this whole story could have been cooked up, but what if the truth is that he actually gave out that information to The New Vision, doesn't this put the media at stake?
I think musiicians need good PR and should never take an interview out of the blue. Think think think.

Remember to follow me on twitter @jamespropa 

Social Media And Democratic Reforms In Africa

Every time we hear about Social Media and Change, we think about the Arab Spring. Yes, this is a fact but still I believe Social Media can be used for change democratically. Almost every story that breaks here in Uganda, first breaks through Social Media. This wasn't the case 10 years ago when we could all sit on our TV sets to wait for news, or listen to radio 24/7 to wait

One Of The Posters Used In An Online
Movement In Uganda

for the news.

Today any person can actually share their view about any issue they feel is important, be it Politics, Social Issues or Even economic issues. It’s almost hard to spend a day without a friend on facebook sharing a story about politics.

The question is how Social Media can; empower citizens to participate in a democratic dialogue on constructive reforms?

First of all the stories that go around on social media actually pull one’s attention in one way or another, so you either ignore them, or you consider reading and researching a little more. If for example the story is about opposition leaders who were beaten by the police, in this case you will actually know that next time there are elections, your vote counts, so you will actually need to go and democratically cast your vote. The thing is that may be at first you did not care about politics, but when you see that picture of an opposition leader being handled brutally by police, then in one way your mindset about the country’s politics will change, and trust me, you will know that actually it’s you to do something about it.

Secondly, in the old days before social media got serious, it used to be about civil society groups to fight for constructive reforms may be about the laws that govern the country, but today actually Civil society can actually use social media to engage many people to engage in a given reform being pushed for. For example imagine with the widely spread Bribery, nepotism and misuse of public resources in Africa today, Money from mineral resources, for example, Uganda’s Oil would all be going to just a few people’s pockets, but with social media, actually transparency can be enhanced in government departments, because a report will be translated into a picture which will rotate online and actually there will be little gap left to steal public funds.

Thirdly, today there is reduced need for people going to streets to protest. This actually leads to loss of lives and properties, but with Social media, if something is not right, you just come up with say a poster, story, video, e.t.c. Everyone will share that material and the information will actually reach the leaders. At the end of the day, no one will be hurt, and public resources will be saved, because no teargas will be used, or no police man will get extra pay for taking part in the so called restoring peace because people are striking.

Another thing, I think we actually need more people in the Government to engage on Social media, because this is the easiest way to reach to the people. A half hour program on radio costs about $800 and on Tv about $1600 here in Uganda, but on Social Media, even if you were paying for the internet, it would cost you less than $50 to express the same information. I think the information also flows faster on social media, so just in case people want to get something to their leaders, they can just tweet their leaders, and may be something that they feel is not right can actually be rectified in peace and a more friendly way.

I believe everyone who is using social media should actually ask their self, whether the biggest percentage of the stuff they share online actually helps the people they share to and the country at large in moving forward. I believe this should be a question in everyone’s mind, before they share something online. This in the long run will help us actually move to making decisions online, and will bring us closer. It will reduce civil misunderstandings and the crime rate will go down, because everyone will care about the other.

Everything Africa, my continent needs right now is a constructive reform, but to make that reform, we need more than just the governments, but we need every individual’s participation.

Written By:
James Propa
@jamespropa

Over Stay In Power Affecting Human Rights In Africa

So many African leaders tend to be so greedy for power. This is why we have so many wars in Africa. When these leaders come in to office, mainly the presidents, they tend to make the people they fought with happy, by giving them ministerial offices. Some of these people can fight but are not good leaders so they end up doing things the wrong way. At the end of the day, the current president tries to protect his people after they have done wrong things, like taking bribes. Yeah, sometimes this is because of the pressure on their backs from these people, their friends who they fought with.
At the end of the day, what started as a small problem tends to go out of hand, because more and more wrong things are done by the government. At this point the president is even scared to have free and fair elections, because they are not sure if they still have support in the public. I feel even rigging of elections is an abuse of human rights, because at the end you are forcing people to have a president who is not of their choice. Don't you think so too?

Uganda Opposition Leader Kizza Besigye Brutally Handled. Pic by guardian.co.uk

Sometimes the president is scared to leave office, because they fear facing justice for the crimes they did. To protect them selves, they instill fear in the minds and hearts of their people, by imprisoning opposition leaders even when there is no need actually.
Brutality is also used on the people, mainly in the opposition which at the end of the day makes the citizens develop so much fear, as they look at the staggering economy, and fear of losing their family when they are killed or imprisoned in demonstrations.
In the above piece, you find there are over 5 types/ ways through which Human Rights are abused.
So, who is going to make a difference? Difference is going to be made by you and me.
You are a leader in your family, possibly. You have to start with the young people, show them how bad overstay in power can be, show them how bad bribes can be. give them live examples, for example if a man stays in their parents' home, 10 years after school the chances are such a person can never be successful, so same applies to presidency. If a president stays more than ten years in power, chances are, we shall not develop.
Educate the African young people for a better tomorrow.
It starts with you and I.
God bless Africa.

This is a piece I have written in respect for The Blog Action Day 2013 #Bad2013
I am really honored to be part of this noble cause.

James Propa.

October Concerts Will Weaken The Industry

Ugandan music has been growing since 1970s. Today we can see that it fairs well on the Africa and world map. You would say, that after Nigeria, and South Africa, we may be coming next, world over.
The last 3 years have seen some people break to the top positions and the top musicians gambling, just to keep in the game. World over, its un usual for an artist or group to have about 3 songs in the top 10 countdown, but trust me, this year it happened in Uganda, when BET Awards Nominees, Goodlyfe had about 3 songs in the top 10 charts, i.e Obudde, Magnetic and Fitting. still with following songs like Can't let you go.
Well let me get on point. Everybody who the year is leaving out, seems to set a launch date in the remaining 3 months. We see over 4 concerts in October, i.e Iryn Namubiru 4th, Rema 18th, Juliana 18th, Walden 18th, Eddy Kenzo 25th, Walukagga then Later this month we see Pastor Bugembe also launching. Then November, Bobiwine on 8th. Not forgetting the battle of champions between Goodlyfe and Bebe Cool on December 6th.
All these people are struggling for the 30,000 Ugandans who attend concerts,more so at this tough economic time.
Well people have money, that's what you think? Yes they do, but remember there are people/ companies sponsoring these events, who spend at least 50 Million Ugx, which they hope to get back after consumption.
This is what I think is going to happen.
All musicians are going to get a crowd, because each of them has a following, but trust me, non of them is hitting the 10,000 people turn up. Well this is not good to the sponsors, because that means they will pull out, and invest else where, may be kick boxing. This will lead to the weakening of our industry which I think no one of us wishes.

What is the way forward?
The mistake was made, everybody put up dates, but next year, we should remember that its not all about launching to show people that you are good, or to get money to help you survive. There are other things an artist can do, like making endorsements, upcountry shows, e.t.c.
These are things musicians should focus on other than all of them looking at launches.

Don't forget to listen to me on Monday, on 90.8 Metro Fm, at 2pm.
Also send me a request on my fb and follow me on twitter also like my facebook page
I love you all.
JP.