SHLIIGENS AND CENTS

BY PAUL BUSHARIZI

IN the last few weeks, Migingo Island, a one-acre rock sticking out of Lake Victoria, that serves as a landing site for Kenyan and Ugandan fishermen, has taken on added importance.

For casual onlookers, the spurt over the island, which looks like a cut out of a Kampala slum, is baffling. The Kenyan media choose to play this as an attack on their country’s sovereignity, an attempt to deprive Kenya of its fishing rights.

Understandably, the fishing tribes of Kenya’s Nyanza province have been sucked into the melee. It does not help that Kenyan politics is in a delicate state, with the dysfunctional nature of the coalition government coming into full view.

The coalition government was cobbled together as a compromise after the badly flawed 2007 elections.

The tribal/nationalistic element is a cover for commercial interests buffeted by the international global crisis.

It is not true that if it turned out that the island is in Uganda, Kenyans will be deprived of their fishing rights. Migingo is two hours by boat from the Kenyan shores as opposed to six hours from the Ugandan shore and as a consequence, all fish caught around Migingo are sold in Kenya.

However, last year, world fish prices plummeted, and fish processors in the region are suffering lower margins. As a result, the processors are wary of fish prices. The Ugandan fisheries authorities have been levying the Ugandan fishermen less than their Kenyan counterparts. This has had the effect of lowering the unamused Kenyan fishermen’s margins when they sell their catch to the processors.

A few disgruntled fishermen will not make MPs rise in their defence, but the discomfort of some major fish processors is another matter all together. Evidence of this is the deafening silence from our own MPs, which is in sharp contrast to their Kenyan counterparts.

At the beginning of society’s evolution were the hunter gatherers, small bands of people in constant motion, living off the bounty of the land and lugging around narrow family and clan loyalties. Populations were small and bountiful lands were guarded jealously, with bloody clashes the main avenue of conflict resolution.

Violence as a means of settling disputes faded as populations grew and the agrarian revolution set in. Interdependence between communities became critical because larger communities could not provide for all the needs of their people. Enter trade. Trade cemented interdependence and reduced the incentive for violent conflict resolution.

The initial movement towards globalisation, at the beginning of the last century, was nipped in the bud by the two world wars, stalling human advancement in many fields.

With the demise of the Soviet Union, globalisation has regained steam and borders are falling, facilitating trade and banishing the spectre of war in the advanced economies.

Chest-thumping and beating of war drums has been left to our pre-agrarian revolution societies.

If ever there was a case for fast-tracking of the East African Customs Union, Migingo has given us that reason.

By easing trade, the EAC will increase interdependence of the region’s countries beyond sentimentalism.

The middle class – the children born of better trading relations, are the ultimate guarantors of regional peace and stability.

In his seminal book, “The Lexus and the Olive tree,” Thomas Friedman pointed out that no two nations with a fastfood McDonald’s outlet have ever gone to war – with the exception of the former Yugoslavia.

A McDonald’s outlet is an indication that a country’s middle class have achieved a sufficient critical mass to put a lid on our primordial instincts of violence and lawlessness.

In our case, maybe a Nakumatt or Uchumi outlet or a KCB branch might serve as a useful indicator.

pbusharizi@newvision.co.ug

Courtesy of:www.newvision.co.ug