Uganda

Uganda#

From the point of view of form, the archetype of all the arts is the art of the musician - Oscar Wilde

      1. f(t)
            \
 2. S(t) -> 4. y:h'(t)=0;t(X'X)X'Y -> 5. b -> 6. SV'
            /
            3. h(t)

Allegory#

`ii` Primo#

Hell-Geothermal/Aperitivo, Antipasto
Primo
Secondo, Contorno

`V7` Dolce#

Purgatory-Mountain/Insalata, Formaggi e Frutta, Dolce, Caffé, Digestivo

`i` Inferno#

Goals-Solar/Dante’s allegory is the theme of S3E10: Tuscany ³⁰
The structure of Dante’s Inferno: Hell, Purgatory, Goals is truly from our collective unconscious

A2 Section vs. Matooke or Envuluga#

The beauty here lies in the familiar ii-V7-i eternally recurrying, but with increasingly tantalizing transformations (insertions to delay premature home coming &, deletions to avoid redundancy in repetition). The thematic coherence of the insertions is perhaps the most charming thing here: they are almost invariably ii-V7-i but drawn by the inimitable Pole from other modes (Phygian & Ionian), qualities (maj, min, dom, dim, 7, 9, 11, 13 & their extensions), and relatives (Ionian-Aeolian)

Case-study: Op 28 Prelude No. 4 ³⁴#

Em (Aelian mode)
Largo common time
ii-(V7sus, dom, b9, #9, b13)-i
Interruptions of above odyssey (Mode, Quality, Relative):

A: i relative/III#

Phrygian: II7, II6th, iidim
I7

B: Im7#

idim7, iim7 relative Maj/i, ii/i
V7 relative Maj
v7 relative Maj
vdim relative
im7/IV

A2: i relative/III (V deletion & other deletions)#

Phrygian: II7, iim7b5, iidim7
I7

B2: im7 (shortest, agitato)#

idim7

Coda i minMaj7 (9)#

ii relative
Vb9 Maj7

Marginal-utility#

By offering a gradually increasing challenge-level to the listener, the audience remains very engaged and ultimately invited to hit “replay” or “loop” because the human mind is attracted to challenges we believe we can match if given the right amount oftime and tools with which to work.

Anthony Bourdain spent 28 years in New York kitchens. Now, that is a “ii” chord – away from our idealized “home”, which is invariably a tropical beach with a nearby garden with vines, grapes, wine, cheese, and friends. Over those three decades he decoded the essence of his craft in the 2000 bestseller “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly” (later inspiring the Typhoid Mary fantasy), which really are all the “insertions” borrowed from ii-V7-I of other modes, qualities, and relatives, culminating in a most severe V7 tension that the only way out is “out of the kitche”.

Indeed, his next eighteen years, also the rest of his life, were lived outside the kitchen:³⁵ A Cook’s Tour (2002–2003), No Reservations (2005–2012), The Layover (2011–2013), and Parts Unknown (2013–2018). This literally involved the ii-V7-I chord sequence, where ii represents work and all the preparation with his team, V7 is the foreign trip and filming, I is returning to New York to spend some time with his daughter (or travelling to Italy to spent time with his girl friend) before heading back to work for the next session. Whether the different countries, personalities, and cuisines represents sufficiently new challenges is questionable. Diminishing marginal utility set in and this ultimate antidote to life couldn’t suffice anymore after 18 years of the same “ii-V7-I”, not at all a paradise (i.e., an ultimate I destination)

Goat Luwombo#

I’ve had a very meticulously prepared goat luwombo that confounded me. I’d compare my experience to that of section A2 of Op 28 Prelude No. 4 in E minor. Before July 30, 2024 I found its beauty exquisite. But on this day I uncovered the beautiful “insertions” or “variations” or “delays” to the ii-V7-i progression: i/III-ii7-bII7-biim7b5-biidim7-I7-i7 (let’s christen this the API insertion: Aeolian ii - Phrygian bII7.biim7b5.biidim7 - Ionian I7). This 3-mode 5-chord “non-progression” is the most exquisite “obstacle” in all of art. And it supports a non-progressive melody on the 5th of the aeolian mode (with the shifting modes this same note B is modified by the chords as follows: 5th, 11th, #11th, b5m, 5th).

Those insertions, the smooth voice leads, modal-qualilty-relative interchanges, in one word: “variations” on the “ii” stage of the ii-V7-i progression! This delay to what would otherwise be a premature home-coming is tantamount to the stuff between a “primo” & “dolce” or what Wilde might call “Chopin’s beautiful sorrows”

Eating most food in Uganda doesn’t invoke such experiences. With the exception of that goat meat luwombo I had once. A fresh crisp whole-fried tilapia is “naturally gifted” with all these beautiful sorrows in some strange way. But in general, matooke, envuluga, and many other items on the traditional menu don’t reach this far high in the harmonic series (and deviating from it in a formal and contained way by modal interchange). My palate was only truly awaked by food from Trinidad, Ghana, Nigeria, Mexico, Japan, and Italy. Only there after did I rediscover the little pleasures I know about Ugandan food.

\[\frac{\partial}{\partial t}\text{Costs} \sim \ \beta_0 + \beta_1 \text{Peasant} + \beta_2 \text{Farmer} + \beta_3 \text{Manufacturer} + \beta_4 \text{Energy} + \beta_5 \text{Transportation} + \epsilon_i\]

Britain | Bagehot

The Kings growne bankrupt like a broken man
Across Africa, nations are spending more on interest than on health or education

Decoding Uganda#

Video 1: Introduction to Topic A#

Video 2: Deep Dive into Topic B#

Video 3: Case Study Analysis#

Video 4: Advanced Techniques in Topic C#

                                   1. Hunter-gatherer
                                                     \ 
                                      2. Peasant  -> 4. Manufacturer -> 5. Electricity -> 6. Transportation
                                                     /
                                                      3. Farmer

Primo 1, 2, 3#

$f(t)$ Smaller groups had the luxury to respond to sensory inputs such as hunger, which set them off to hunt and gather. As numbers grew, the likelihood of conflicts in similar niche’s emerged and settled peasant societies emerged from this equilibrium
$S(t)$ Communities from the beginning of time have been supported in their nutritional needs by settling down, taming a patch of land, and harnessing stable produce
$h(t)$ The landscape and seasonality of nature and its elements will support plants and animals at different times of the year. Occassional extreme deviations in weather may set a community back an entire season. But farming is done under “controlled” green-houses or meticulously watered vines and plantations, with irrigation schemes

Dolce 4 #

$(X'X)^T \cdot X'Y$ Surplus produce from plants and animals is transformed into butter, cheese, yogurt, wine, beer, whisky, soap, etc. Here the programmable processes are divorced from the seasonality from which farming depends and machines and automation take and increasingly important role, allowing for scaling

Inferno 5 , 6#

$\beta$ The complete range of parameters that decode a heroes ii-V7-I journey including the “insersions” and “overcomings” (see API allegory as well as Dante Alighieri’s Allegory). The sheer amount of energy & “inferno” required to support the “compute” will not be available to any African nation in the foreseeable future ¹²
$SV'$ When products and services are highly personalized and able to distinguish one persons needs from the next, they’ll resonate across the world and fetch forex

Essay#

ii: Fledgling#

In the evolution of nations’ economies, securing low-cost financing is crucial, as it can either facilitate or hinder transformational shifts in economic activities. In the Peasant stage, societies might have historically resorted to raiding neighbors to secure labor, a practice that could have financed the qualitative leap to large-scale agriculture, as seen in the historical development of the United States. This move towards large-scale agriculture would have demanded energy sources, such as coal and eventually electricity, on a significant scale to produce excess for local consumption and eventually for export. The transition to the Manufacturer stage often involved incorporating products from farms, such as bread, wine, beer, sugar, tobacco, cotton, corn-syrup, into industrial processes. This transition required substantial financing for factories and machinery, and specialized labor away from the farm and finally into the factory. Indeed, the move towards manufacturing and industrialization is a gradual shift away from community-dwellings to commutes and sprawling activity, facilitated by low-cost transportation of people, goods, services, capital, and information, such as buses, railways, airplanes, banks, and exchanges – all key component in this qualitative transformation.

V7: Nationalism#

When a society has evolved from hunter-gather, via claiming specific territory for the peasant life, and perhaps utilizing slave labor from neighboring tribes (or later tools from the industrial revolution) to scale up to farming, then the issue of surplus and perishable produce such as milk and fruits will emerge & be addressed by manufacturing yogurt, butter, cheese, wine, and vinegar. This scaling up will also transform the non-perishables such as the cereals, nuts and beans so that manufactured bread, pasta, sugar, beer, peanut-butter, coffee beverages are available, far surpassing local needs. A tribe that looked outward for slave labor will not only look outward for a foreigh market to purchase these goodies. This natural evolution may be interrupted when other foreign entities instead enslave the locals to manufacturer these products, as was witnessed during colonialism. In modern times and with automation of manufacturing processes, the limiting step is not longer slave labor but electricity or energy to keep the factoring running at capacity. And this explains why colonialism quickly faded away with industrialization. But what is left is foreign entities disrupting the organic evolution of a society, leaving it stranded with a peasant mindset, with the tools, factories, energy, and logistitics being managed in foreign soil, where costs are lowest. And that brings us to the modern global divide. The first world, who’ve walked through all six stages of societal evolution in sequence -like a harmonic series emergic in Bach’s prelude in C Major. A third world, whose development was arrested at the peasant stage, as modern tools, factories, and modes of energy production were imported into the country, denying them the gradual embrace of more remote overtones of the harmonic series. And thus you have a world wherein the global market for coffee is a whopping $460B. South America and Africa only tap $25B of that market. Uganda reigns in $900m from its high quality coffee. Yet Germany earns $65B from coffee without producing any coffee.

i: Self#

Museveni’s statement about leaders overstaying in power being the problem, made when he was a 40-year-old leader just beginning his tenure, now rings with a bitter irony. At 80 years old and still in power, he himself embodies the very issue he once criticized. His observation about the struggle for funding for critical sectors like railway, electricity, and manufacturing, while insightful, seems to overlook the irony of his own prolonged leadership contributing to Uganda’s economic challenges. The struggle for funding, particularly evident in high government bond yields, reflects a broader challenge of market forces dictating Uganda’s economic direction. Commercial banks are sustaining a cancer upon Africa by providing finance to leaders who have overstayed their welcome. But can you blame them when they make record-breaking profit year-after-year?

Bagehot#

Jeremy Clarkson, patron saint of the Great British bore
He who speaks for the bore speaks for Britain

“The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people, but leaders who want to overstay in power”

Africa
- Producing what it doesn’t consume
  - Coffee
    - Worth noting that caffé is the 9th course of an Italian meal. We have no such “obstacle course” in our culinary experience
    - Our experience is of premature home-coming in the ii-V7-i chord sequence: luwombo-envuluga-malwa
    - How can we expect to earn foreign exchange from our “rich” heritage? We only have three $\beta$ parameters in our culinary lives, where Italians have 10
- Consuming what it doesn’t produce
  - Autos
    - Italians have given us 10 cars: Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Pagani, Lamborghini, Maserati, Lancia, Abarth, Fiat, Pinifarina Battista
    - They’ve interpreted la dolce vita with love. We’re still struggling with the basic elements of existence and are yet to declare: my cup runneth over!