Setting the scene for the world stage;How the pawns all fall into place.

“What if I don’t write good enough?” “What if people don’t like it?” These are the fears that I’ve been plagued with for the past few weeks concerning this blog. Luckily, I came across a blog by Ian Ortega –a very sensible young musajja– in which he preached of a life philosophy in which you should consider the worst possible scenario before doing something. Surprisingly, half the time these scenario’s are not as bad as we thing.Hence I thought,”So if I write and people don’t like it, what’s the worst that could happen? I could just drop the project and try new things, but I’ll have no regrets about what-if-I-had-done-it.

As I gather my thoughts on the state of world affairs today,I can’t help but think of the whole shabang as an intricately put-together collection of pieces to the puzzle of humanity. Drawing ideas from Prof.Yuvel Harari’s Homo Sapiens, ( an excellent read,if I may say) humans have, primarily as an instinct, a pre-desposition to establish a heirachy in which a select few individuals oversee and control the other individual.The idea of who is weak and who is strong is fundamentally crutial to the way the nation’s of today interact with each other.The strong nations have a tendency to exercise dominance over the weaker nations in order to re-assert their “strength.” The weaker nations are often left in a position in which they have to submit to the whims of the stronger in order to secure safety and prosperity.

2018.
A peculiar picture can be painted by the clever artist in a doomed effort to express the predicament of world affairs today.In order to give a comprehensive map out of these dangerous waters to you, my reader, it would be best for the centre of this map to be Africa’s pearl; our country Uganda.

We are a nation going 55 years of Independence from the oppressive colonial rule imposed on a us by the British.As you all know,we fall in the category of the weak nations.Especially financially,seeing as to how a considerable number of Multi-billionaires’ wealth doubles or even triples our nation’s annual budget.On the world stage,we answer to regulations of the United Nations, a regulatory body like no other, established with the intention of ensuring world peace and effective co-operation among all nations. It is no surprise however that this body is more often than not strong armed to bend to the whims of the dominant nations,later to be mentioned.

When one stands in Uganda and faces the compass North, our maps will reveal to you the continent of Europe.This chunk of land is home to great civilizations that have etched their mark into crutial parts of human history. Nestled at the heart of Europe is the British Isles,the home of Great Britain.Notice the adjective “great.” We should all be aware that the British once commanded an expansive empire,one like the world had never seen which spanned the globe.

“The sun did not set on the British Empire.”

At any one time the the Union Jack flew somewhere in the world.

Our syllabus teaches us that modern world history stems from Europe,in a country for a long time now known as France.I won’t bother you with the details of the French Revolution and what not but know this;France is the first and oldest Ally to another world power.If you will turn you’re attention to the west then you will know that I speak of the United States of America.A nation formed as a result of rebellion and desire for further frontiers,America grew economically due to a foray of great entrepreneurs and inventors;The likes of John D. Rockafellar, Henry Ford, J.P Morgan and Andrew Carnegie, to mention a few.The nation became a beacon of hope for a successful happy life and attracted people from all over the world for a shot at the “American dream.”Now it boasts of being the most racially diverse nation on the planet.Uganda’s relationship with the U.S. concerns trade interests as well as aid in all forms from the latter to the former.

Lastly,when we turn out attention to the East we see first the middle East, are region budding with economic prosperity,but also burdened with decades of conflict, as a result of both internal and of external influencers.Many will say that the US as well as major European powers have an agenda to exploit the middle East for it’s economic resources,but I won’t delve into that right now.The Beacon of excellence and Power in the East is the People’s Republic of China.This is a nation I only recently gained interest in;The Western Media tends to only focus on itself and it’s interests and therefore is very biased.(Actually,just so you know,CGTN,a Chinese television network,has the best African news report I’ve ever seen.Honestly,check it out!)China’s Leader, President Xi Jinping,is somewhat seen as an emperor in his nation despite this era of diplomatic governance (Oh,don’t forget that China is a communist state and is run by only one party.If you don’t know what communism is ,Google it!),so much so that his ideologies for leadership are taught to university students to internalize and fully believe it.The Chinese political landscape is like nothing else where in the world;Quite fascinating actually and the country is set to play an even bigger role in world policy this year and the year’s to come.Just a glimpse will show you that China has invested $1 trillion dollars on re-establishing the ancient silk road.A high tech railway system that will run from China to Europe.it will run through 64 countries and they will all be indebted to China.

Anyone who is writing about world affairs today would be foolish not to mention the Trump Presidency,the effect of Brexit on European Dynamics and the looking threat of North Korea’s neclear regime.But that will be a topic for another day.

I’ll conclude by saying that I believe we live in good and troubled times in equal measure.The game that countries play with a each other is a complicated and dangerous one and applause should be give to the men and women who work day and night to keep this loose puzzle peace we’ve made for ourselves in place.