I said this in an email to a friend, and decided I'd throw it up here. This is something I've thought about a fair amount, I believe first coming to mind in my visit to Cambodia a couple years ago. I'd love to have the opportunity some time to do more in-depth research on it.
In general, elections went fine - I'm actually disappointed by how smoothly they went. Not because of the lack of violence or unrest, because of the lack of change. This country NEEDS it and Museveni is a hypocrite and too entrenched to see what's been born under him. It's the same old story of a traumatized populace though: a generation needs to die before anything's going to change. Just like in Cambodia and so many other countries torn apart by war in the past 50 years: there are too many people who lived through the terror and who are thus easily enough appeased by "peace and stability" campaign platforms. Change, to the generation(s) that lived through the bad, is synonymous with "danger". Amazing how often you hear - from elders speaking to youngers - "you don't know how bad it was". This generation needs to pass on - or at least dwindle in numbers enough to no longer be a majority - before anything will change.
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