No milk, no sugar, no service

Milk was the first to go.

The tea stations at work stopped stocking milk right before my arrival. People told me it was because of the budget. Yet I couldn't understand how cutting out tins of powdered beverage could possibly have an impact on the budget of a major research institute - unless we were talking about symbolic impact. Then yeah, okay, maaaaybe.

That’s what I thought, until I learned the actual cost of last year's milk supply. I won’t quote the exact figure here, but let’s just say it was high enough to give the accountants a headache (and, if actually consumed on the job, every single employee a serious stomachache). So obviously the milk had been feeding more than just the research staff. Spoonfuls…cupfuls…tinfuls of milk had poured out of the research center every day and into the mouths of workers’ friends and families. You see, even at a well-funded research center where people have decent salaries and official job contracts, personal budgets are tight. You have to take what you can get.

This is a very common problem in the research centers and hospitals where I work (and, I assume, almost everywhere in Uganda). I have learned so many euphemisms for disappearing items:  chairs "walk", binders "get lost", mugs "go home early", and laptops "grow legs". Milk is just one example. Photocopy paper is another – this is why I spend 2 hours per week by the copy machine as our 500 pages run through. On guard, ever vigilant. Just in case the tray might "empty itself" before our work finishes.

((Did you know, it’s a new evolutionary biology paradigm? Anything of value can grow legs and learn to walk!))

Next went the sugar.

Sugar is a hot topic in Uganda these days. Sugar prices have been volatile for the past few months, but the general trend is UP - a kilo that used to cost 3000 Ugandan shillings now costs about 7000. (Incredibly, soda prices have remained constant. Wide profit margin, you think?) Most food items cost a little more than before, but nothing matches sugar for price hikes and unpredictability.

If you haven't heard, President Museveni is now proposing (threatening?) a solution to the sugar problem. He wants to sell 7,100 hectares of the Mabira Forest Reserce to a nearby sugar plantation, which would then be able to produce more of the sweet stuff. However, there are many controversies with this plan:

• Environmentally:  Museveni's political advisors, the opposition, and the general public want to protect the forest. Museveni says that he is only selling the "damaged" land, but surveyors have failed to find evidence of such damage. Mabira is one of the few protected forests in Uganda, and it would be a shame to lose it – especially on the basis of false data.
• Politically:  Museveni has been discouraged from going through with the sale, but still he insists. This historically diplomatic leader seems unwilling to listen to others. There was a big to-do when a senior presidential advisor called the President an “autocrat”. Tensions continue to rise between Museveni and his administration... Could this be a sign of an aging, less agile, more extreme leadership in Uganda?
• Economically:  Sugar is small beans compared to the inflation problem in Uganda – the rate of inflation has risen from 6.4% for the year ending February 2011, up to 21.4% for the month of August 2011. The last time the Ugandan shilling performed so poorly was in 1993, in the post-Amin years when guerilla warfare, child soldiers, and the Lord’s Resistance Army held reign over the land. So sugar production may not be the real concern. Some onlookers think that all this fuss is just a decoy from the failing economy. I don't think that insufficient sugar supply explains the fluctuating prices, and I don't think that increasing production will solve the problem.

In the meantime, children have started bringing their own sugar to school. Perhaps we should check the sugar budget soon – we may find that sugar crystals have learned to walk.

Finally, the service.

Last weekend all mobile phone companies increased their rates, by as much as 30%. In a country where most people use mobile phones, this has had a noticeable effect on communication. People now “flash” dial more than ever (instead of waiting for someone to pick up, they hang up and wait for a return call). Conversations are shorter. Texts are reserved for the off-hours. And, when you have time to chat in person, there is endless discussion on what caused the rate increase.

Obviously the economy is hurting, and companies are trying to recoup their losses on a failing currency. But I have also heard that the President holds stock in all the mobile phone services (as well as the sugar industry), and he has forced up the prices in order to make money for himself. Honestly, I don’t know what the truth is. But it's clear the Uganda is in bad financial straits. It's anyone's guess which commodity will embody the struggle next, but I'm certain that "no milk, no sugar, no service" is not the end of it.