aga khan is watching you, part II

Several weeks ago I was discussing my interest in Aga Khan with a friend of mine over a couple of rounds of waragi-and-tonic. This friend works for the Daily Monitor, the more independent of Uganda’s two main newspapers. He informed me, somewhat conspiratorially, that Aga Khan owns the paper.

I filed this piece of information away somewhere in the back of my brain with the waragi and let it sit there until yesterday, when I decided to see if it was true.

First resort: Google, the Omniscient God of Search Engines. I typed in “aga khan daily monitor” and was shocked/thrilled/somewhat disappointed to see that, aside from a couple of news articles about Aggie’s recent publicity stunts, the first result listed was none other than yours truly.

Hello, I’m Jackfruity, and I’m an Aga Khanoholic.

Even more determined to demystify the connection between Aggie and the Monitor, I did a little more research. It turns out the paper is part of the Nation Media Group, a conglomerate that owns a variety of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations throughout East Africa. It was founded in 1960 by (surprise!) our friend, the Aga Khan Foundation for Economic Development, and His Highness the Aga Khan now owns 43% of the company’s share.

This knowledge forces a choice between Museveni’s biases and Aga Khan’s. There’s really only one way to make such a monumental decision. Allow me to present the Official Jackfruity Aga Khan/Museveni Comparison:

Category Museveni Aga Khan Winner
Headgear tie
Parentage cattle herder Shia playboy Aga Khan
Public endorsement Joseph Kony Kurmanbek Bakiev Aga Khan
(lesser of two evils)

Aga Khan it is. Glad that’s settled.

breaking news: Ugandan sportswriters rambling, histrionic

In their October 7 Daily Monitor article on the Ugandan cricket team’s disappointing performance in Kenya last week, Hussein Bogere and Innocent Ndawula manage to use all of the following phrases:

  • the angel of death who plucks out the heart of our loved ones
  • Uganda’s batting problems stand out like spilled gravy on a white sheet
  • wake up and smell the coffee
  • media hullabaloo
  • cricket Czars
  • for heavens’ sake
  • cry the beloved country

And they say Uganda has no literary culture.