Saturday, September 27

Uganda: A Hole In The Storm Of Heartbreak?


Ida Amin's demagoguery warped the sentiment of Ugandans into their will. Tyrant's snatch power by  turning hope against fact. It's their promises of romantic hope that pummels reality with ferocious storms. 

Pedaling exhaustingly above those clouds, do Ugandans wonder now, is the tempest impending or receding? Is this a hole or an end in their storm of heartbreak?

Uganda is as close to Eden as a place might get. High up above the equator, it's climate's fixed in the range we call delightful. Uganda's green, lush, and fertile: Croesus' rich in precious minerals. Everything will grow there but prosperity. It's people have created a place between promise and performance. Perhaps when nature yields without resistance, there are fewer muscles of will to separate reason from madness?

*GEEK STUFF* The image was captured high into Uganda's south-western mountains with my Canon 7D through its EFS 17-85mm (f4-5.6). PP in PS4. The wispy/cloudy texture screens and brushes are mine. I cross processed it in part with AlienSkin's Exposure 4 and my own palette imaginings. And the details were selectively enhanced with Topaz Adjust 5.

2 comments:

Cedric Canard said...

Africa is an endless source of wonder and paradoxes. My memories of living in Africa are severely skewed both due to age and to the conditions in which we lived at the time. It is known as the cradle of humanity and yet, despite all its resources has not managed to go far beyond that stage. Of course there are many reasons for this but in spite of those, the potential remains, powerful but dormant. For now.

The president of Senegal has been calling for a United States of Africa and while this may just be a dream for now, what an incredible vision this creates.

By the way, your image depicts your own vision perfectly.

Ted said...

I despair of Africa's potential Cedric. It is a cauldron of bubbling cultures, each popping malevolent acid over another. Their ethnic hatreds make the Serbs and Croatians seem like Disney characters. Once geography both nurtured but separated their differences. It's failed to contain their passions. They lack a common rule book.

The thing is, as homogeneity here in the West collapses and micro cultures explode, I'm wondering if Africa is not only our past, but our future?