Papers by Kizito Michael George
The issues confronting ‘independent'' nation states in Sub-Saharan Africa include but not... more The issues confronting ‘independent'' nation states in Sub-Saharan Africa include but not limited to: neo-colonialism, absolute poverty, gender injustice, war and civil strife, human rights and bad governance. This book argues that we can not thoroughly appreciate these challenges without a clear cognizance of the global paradigm shift from organized to disorganized capitalism. The book categorically reiterates that these problematics ought to be situated in the neo-liberal discourse that is largely responsible for their production and reproduction.The book opines that because of the neo-liberal paradigm shift , global justice institutions have been incredibly reconfigured and compromised and hence rendered instruments of oppression and hypocrisy.
Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions
One of the fundamental fallacies of racism is the confusion between biological accidents such as:... more One of the fundamental fallacies of racism is the confusion between biological accidents such as: body, colour, environment, size, shape, and melanin with metaphysical essences like; soul, mind, and intellect. Personness for instance is an essential category that does not depend on the above accidental attributes. Since time immemorial, racism has been reinforced by deeply entrenched social structures. These structures are the offspring of both overt and covert racism. Structural racism is epitomised by ideologies that have been well disguised under facades of science. These ideologies include: Eugenics, Social Darwinism, Modernisation theory and Neo-liberalism. This paper critically analyses the religious, political, psychoanalytic, historical and economic construction of structural and institutional racism that reinforces honorary whiteness in the African social milieu. The paper argues that the purpose of racism is constructing Black and Brown people as entities in dire need of W...
Estudos Kantianos [EK], 2022
The communal characteristic of African Societies has frequently been juxtaposed with the individu... more The communal characteristic of African Societies has frequently been juxtaposed with the individualistic tenets of Western polities. However, the evolution of African societies into liberal democracies with the obligation to promote and protect constitutionalism and individual liberties calls for a philosophical niche to bridge between communality and individuality. This paper argues that Africa’s moral and political philosophy is in an urgent need of a Kantian Copernican revolution to ameliorate the conflictual interface between sociality and individualism. The paper opines that the revolution will help to harmonize the dilemmatic relationship between communitarianism and individual rights. The paper also contends that the Kantian categorical imperatives are necessary in eliminating the unclear deontological/teleological situatedness of African ideological philosophies.
Open Science Repository Philosophy, Jun 20, 2013
Since the early 1990s, Uganda has been cajoled by the IMF and World bank to pursue a neo-liberal ... more Since the early 1990s, Uganda has been cajoled by the IMF and World bank to pursue a neo-liberal approach to development as opposed to a liberal development modus operandi. However, in theory the World Bank has pursued a liberal, rights based approach to poverty reduction policy but in practice, it has implemented a neo-liberal, market centric approach to poverty reduction. This is the reason why pro-poor poverty reduction in Uganda is more of rhetorical than practical. This paper critiques the epistemological pre-suppositions characteristic of the ethics of the current pro-poor poverty policy in Uganda. The fundamental premises of this critique are; Can the views of the poor in Uganda influence poverty policies given their asymmetrical disadvantage? Who knows the views of poor? Do the elites interpret the views of the poor as they are or as they think them to be? Do the poor have poverty knowledge or poverty opinion? Are some of the views of the poor simply adaptive preferences? What constitutes poverty knowledge as opposed to poverty opinion? Is its ethical to eradicate poverty using opinion riddled poverty polices? Is it ethically sustainable for poverty policies to persistently aim at integrating women in poverty eradication interventions while largely giving lip service patriarchal power relations that asymmetrically disadvantage them.
cycle-of-poverty-and-poorhealth/the-cycle-of-poverty-and-poor-health1/ Accessed on 26.03.2012.
Journal of research in philosophy and history, Nov 18, 2022
The Covid-19 pandemic struck Uganda like a storm. On 18 March 2020, President Museveni ordered th... more The Covid-19 pandemic struck Uganda like a storm. On 18 March 2020, President Museveni ordered the closure of schools and suspended religious gatherings, public rallies and cultural meetings with effect from 20 March. This was aimed at safeguarding the right to health in general, and the right to life in particular, of all Ugandans. By 30 June 2020, Uganda had not registered a single Covid-19 death and had had less than 1 000 infections. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, created great panic among the leadership of Uganda's neoliberal regime. For three decades, the Ugandan state has deliberately underfunded the health sector, using the neoliberal logic that the market will address the challenges of the health sector. The state has treated economic and social rights as mere aspirations and not as genuine human entitlements. Museveni's regime has rejected pleas from civil society organisations to allocate 15% of the budget to the health sector, as per the Abuja Declaration. The New Public Management philosophy of neoliberalism advocates for public hospitals and health facilities to be run like private-sector enterprises that employ fewer personnel in order to cut the costs of salaries and wage expenses. This article argues that the Ugandan state violated the right to health of Ugandans during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown. It contends that the ruthless enforcement of the lockdown in Uganda in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic aimed to protect the neoliberal state from embarrassment occasioned by the prioritisation of markets over people's social and economic rights.
International Journal of Science, Technology and Society, 2021
This paper argues that there is a need to reconstruct a new paradigm for poverty policy planning ... more This paper argues that there is a need to reconstruct a new paradigm for poverty policy planning in Africa because Neo-liberalism, Ubuntu ethics and African Socialism as proposed paradigms for Africa’s development are untenable. This is so because the above trio are sexist, androcentric and oblivious to structural injustices that feminize poverty in Africa. The paper further argues that even in the Western world, the neo-liberal GDP metric has been challenged and the search for alternative development indicators and paradigms is on. In addition, there is a fully fledged post-neo-liberalism movement in Latin America and a de-growth and post-growth social movement in the West against neo-liberalism and its nebulous economic growth understanding of wellbeing. The paper contends that Africa cannot afford to remain aloof to all these developments. There is therefore a need to develop Pan African paradigms to articulate an endogenous perspective to African development. The paper thus advo...
This paper situates the Sub-Saharan African state amidst the conflictual interface between the fo... more This paper situates the Sub-Saharan African state amidst the conflictual interface between the forces of political (Note 1) and economic globalization (Note 2) that have been ushered in the state milieu by neo-liberalism (Note 3). The paper argues that states are situated in an imperialistic globalization with capitalistic economic extirpation as central concern and social justice as a peripheral one. This categorically explicates the persistence of globalised economies and localized oppressive state apparatuses, ideologies and practices. The paper also contends that the forces of economic globalization have superimposed the cultural mantra in the Sub-Saharan Africa state milieu, rendering it virtually impossible to pursue a Rights Based Approach to Development (RBAD). The apparent assault by this globalization from above (economic globalization), continues almost unabated due to absence of an afro centric globalization from below to mitigate the homogenizing effects of economic glo...
Philosophy of Law or jurisprudence or legal philosophy rationally, critically and systematically ... more Philosophy of Law or jurisprudence or legal philosophy rationally, critically and systematically studies the assumptions and problems of Law as a discipline. Philosophy of law asks fundamental questions concerning law and legal systems. Such questions include: Why is law important? What would a society without laws be like? (Hobbes), Does anyone have an obligation to obey the law? If so, what is the source of this obligation? (Socrates/Plato), Is it ever morally permissible to disobey the law, i.e., to engage in civil disobedience? (Rawls), What is the purpose of Punishment? Should we legislate basing on moral principles? In the absence of a world government, is international law possible? (Kant), What is the nature of law itself, and in particular, what is the connection between law and morality? (natural law theorists vs. legal positivists) What is the nature of legal reasoning? (legal formalists vs. legal realists vs. constructivists) What are the different types of freedom/liber...
Estudos Kantianos, Marília, 2021
The communal characteristic of African Societies has frequently been juxtaposed with the individu... more The communal characteristic of African Societies has frequently been juxtaposed with the individualistic tenets of Western polities. However, the evolution of African societies into liberal democracies with the obligation to promote and protect constitutionalism and individual liberties calls for a philosophical niche to bridge between communality and individuality. This paper argues that Africa’s moral and political philosophy is in an urgent need of a Kantian Copernican revolution to ameliorate the conflictual interface between sociality and individualism. The paper opines that the revolution will help to harmonize the dilemmatic relationship between communitarianism and individual rights. The paper also contends that the Kantian categorical imperatives are necessary in eliminating the unclear deontological/teleological situatedness of African ideological philosophies.
Journal of African Studies and Development
For over two decades now, Sub-Saharan Africa has been superimposed in a coercive and contradictor... more For over two decades now, Sub-Saharan Africa has been superimposed in a coercive and contradictory neo-liberal development economism agenda. According to this paradigm, markets and not states are the fundamental determinants of distributive justice and human flourishing through the promotion of economic growth that is believed to trickle down to the poor in due time. Despite the global intellectual criticism of this neo-liberal development economics orthodox of measuring development and wellbeing in terms of market induced economic growth, autocratic states in Sub-Saharan Africa that have accumulated un-dimensional growth continue to be applauded as role models on poverty reduction, wellbeing and social justice by donors and global development institutions such as the World Bank and international monetary fund (IMF). This is basically because they have wholly embraced the implementation of the anti-pro-poor neo-liberal structural adjustment tool kit. This study uses a critical hermeneutics methodology to expose the distortions embedded in neo-liberal gross domestic product (GDP) growth cartographies and how these disguise the social injustices against the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa with particular reference to Uganda. The study contends that in measuring development and wellbeing, human rights and social justice must take precedence over economic efficiency and GDP growth for that matter.
Journal of Research in Philosophy and History
The development discourse has been thrown into a disarray and paradigmatic quagmire by the impass... more The development discourse has been thrown into a disarray and paradigmatic quagmire by the impasse of neo-liberal transnational social cartographies. There are calls within the development discourse fraternity to deterritorise the concept of development so as to grapple with it sufficiently and effectively. Failure to adhere to this call, various development discourses have been accused of methodological territorialism. This paper uses critical hermeneutics to argue that the trajectory from Trickle Down and Basic Needs Theory to Human Rights, Capability and Functionings approaches to development is fundamentally a paradigm shift from territorial to social cartographies. This paper further argues that despite the significance of social cartographies occasioned by neo-liberal globalisation, territorial cartographies as envisaged by structuralists, post-structuralists, post-developmentalists, post-colonialists and global ethnographers are still vital because of their thorough critique ...
Journal of Research in Philosophy and History
Democratic systems ought to have certain central tenets that act as ethical boundaries. The viola... more Democratic systems ought to have certain central tenets that act as ethical boundaries. The violation of these ethical boundaries relegates democratic systems to mere mirages, perversions and phantoms. The market fundamentalistic stance of neo-liberalism leads to the abuse of virtually all the central tenets of democracy. Neo-liberalism advocates for a weak interventionist state in terms of fostering human rights and social justice and a strong regulatory state in terms of protecting and promoting markets and private property. Democracy on the other hand calls for a strong interventionist state to implement the human rights and social justice mandate on behalf of the people and a strong regulatory state to curtail the abuse of human rights and social justice. This paper argues that in neo-liberal states like Uganda, markets and the accumulations of private property in most cases through primitive accumulation take precedence over democracy. This has culminated into privations of dem...
International Journal of Science, Technology and Society, 2021
This paper argues that there is a need to reconstruct a new paradigm for poverty policy planning ... more This paper argues that there is a need to reconstruct a new paradigm for poverty policy planning in Africa because Neo-liberalism, Ubuntu ethics and African Socialism as proposed paradigms for Africa's development are untenable. This is so because the above trio are sexist, androcentric and oblivious to structural injustices that feminize poverty in Africa. The paper further argues that even in the Western world, the neo-liberal GDP metric has been challenged and the search for alternative development indicators and paradigms is on. In addition, there is a fully fledged post-neo-liberalism movement in Latin America and a de-growth and post-growth social movement in the West against neo-liberalism and its nebulous economic growth understanding of wellbeing. The paper contends that Africa cannot afford to remain aloof to all these developments. There is therefore a need to develop Pan African paradigms to articulate an endogenous perspective to African development. The paper thus advocates for the Dignified Humanness Paradigm (DHP) as an alternative to neo-liberalism, Ubuntu ethics and African Socialism. The paper also surmises that the actualization of the DHP requires an immediate awakening of the Pan African Moral Consciousness since this will militate on decolonization of the African mind from the amoral neo-liberal economism.
The African State in a Wake of Neoliberal Globalization: A Cog in a Wheel or a Wheel in a Cog, 2020
This paper situates the Sub-Saharan African state amidst the conflictual interface between the fo... more This paper situates the Sub-Saharan African state amidst the conflictual interface between the forces of political (Note 1) and economic globalization (Note 2) that have been ushered in the state milieu by neo-liberalism (Note 3). The paper argues that states are situated in an imperialistic globalization with capitalistic economic extirpation as central concern and social justice as a peripheral one. This categorically explicates the persistence of globalised economies and localized oppressive state apparatuses, ideologies and practices. The paper also contends that the forces of economic globalization have superimposed the cultural mantra in the Sub-Saharan Africa state milieu, rendering it virtually impossible to pursue a Rights Based Approach to Development (RBAD). The apparent assault by this globalization from above (economic globalization), continues almost unabated due to absence of an afro centric globalization from below to mitigate the homogenizing effects of economic globalization. Worse still, the inability of political globalization to check the daunting implications of economic globalization using a human rights antidote and the consequent slumber of the glocalisation dialectic in the African state locale explicate the problematic of Africa in the wake of erosion from above (global pillage) and devolution from below.
Market Fundamentalism and the Ethics of Democracy in Uganda, 2019
Democratic systems ought to have certain central tenets that act as ethical boundaries. The viola... more Democratic systems ought to have certain central tenets that act as ethical boundaries. The violation of these ethical boundaries relegates democratic systems to mere mirages, perversions and phantoms. The market fundamentalistic stance of neo-liberalism leads to the abuse of virtually all the central tenets of democracy. Neo-liberalism advocates for a weak interventionist state in terms of fostering human rights and social justice and a strong regulatory state in terms of protecting and promoting markets and private property. Democracy on the other hand calls for a strong interventionist state to implement the human rights and social justice mandate on behalf of the people and a strong regulatory state to curtail the abuse of human rights and social justice. This paper argues that in neo-liberal states like Uganda, markets and the accumulations of private property in most cases through primitive accumulation take precedence over democracy. This has culminated into privations of democracy such as; autocratic majoritarianism, mobocracy, kleptocracy, prebendalism and neo-patrimonialism.
Social Justice: Perspectives from Uganda, Apr 2013
Since time immemorial, poverty reduction interventions in Sub‐Saharan Africa like everywhere in t... more Since time immemorial, poverty reduction interventions in Sub‐Saharan Africa like everywhere in the South, have focused on the individual as the basic ingredient of a moral society (ethical individualism). According to this perspective, in order to lift human persons out of poverty, it is imperative to integrate poor persons into poverty eradication interventions irrespective of sex, social status and gender. Scholars and institutions that subscribed to this conception of poverty thought that individuals were poor because of personal weaknesses (case poverty).This perspective has been greatly challenged due to the upsurge of gender and human rights scholarship in the 20th century. Gender scholars have painstakingly argued that in order to understand poverty, we need to look at society (ethical collectivism). They have rejected the Women in Development(WID) discourse that aims at integrating women into the development process in favour of the Gender and Development(GAD) approach to development and poverty reduction that aims at confronting power relations between men and women (empowerment).This GAD perspective looks at poverty in terms of the powerlessness speared head by prevailing structures in society (structural poverty) and hence the need to empower vulnerable persons such as women to challenge structures and strictures of oppression. The International Monetary fund (IMF) and World Bank as vehement promoters of economism in Sub‐Saharan Africa for decades have urged governments to include the perspectives of the poor in poverty polices through what they call participatory poverty assessments (PPAs). Despite its deceptive appearance, this PPAs stance of the IMF and World Bank tacitly looks at poverty as a case and not structural issue and that is why Uganda’s ambitious poverty reduction policy though greatly informed by Participatory Poverty Assessments greatly ignores structures and strictures that render women vulnerable to poverty. This paper critically assesses the obliviousness of Uganda’s Agricultural poverty policy to structures and how this has militated on the gender poverty production in Uganda. The paper contends that in order to realise engendered poverty eradication in Uganda, it is pertinent for the agricultural policy to ultimately make paradigm shift from focusing on the individual as the basic ingredient of a moral society (ethical individualism) to confronting structures and strictures that disempower and vulnerablelise individual moral agents (ethical collectivism).
Open Science Repository Philosophy , Jun 2013
Since the early 1990s, Uganda has been cajoled by the IMF and World Bank to pursue a neo-liberal ... more Since the early 1990s, Uganda has been cajoled by the IMF and World Bank to pursue a neo-liberal approach to development as opposed to a liberal development modus operandi. However, in theory the World Bank has pursued a liberal, rights based approach to poverty reduction policy but, in practice, it has implemented a neo-liberal, market centric approach to poverty reduction. This is the reason why pro-poor poverty reduction in Uganda is more of rhetorical than practical. This paper critiques the epistemological pre-suppositions characteristic of the ethics of the current pro-poor poverty policy in Uganda. The fundamental premises of this critique are: Can the views of the poor in Uganda influence poverty policies given their asymmetrical disadvantage? Who knows the views of poor? Do the elites interpret the views of the poor as they are or as they think them to be? Do the poor have poverty knowledge or poverty opinion? Are some of the views of the poor simply adaptive preferences? What constitutes poverty knowledge as opposed to poverty opinion? Is it ethical to eradicate poverty using opinion riddled poverty polices? Is it ethically sustainable for poverty policies to persistently aim at integrating women in poverty eradication interventions while largely giving lip service patriarchal power relations that asymmetrically disadvantage them. - See more at: http://www.open-science-repository.com/the-ethics-of-propoor-poverty-policy-a-critique-of-the-neoliberal-imperative-and-the-epistemology-of-poverty-eradication-in-uganda.html#sthash.rjtWTng0.dpuf
Abstract
Since Karl Marx’s expose of the explicit exploitative tendencies characteristic of c... more Abstract
Since Karl Marx’s expose of the explicit exploitative tendencies characteristic of capitalism and the consequent emergence of prominent socialist blocks in addition to the cold war, capitalism has attained an incredibly complex metamorphosis that the 19th century Marxian analysis can longer adequately capture. Under the new global neo-liberal capitalism(disorganized capitalism);slavery disguises as freedom, nudity as decency , gender exploitation masquerades as empowerment, dictatorship disguises as democracy, socialized practices masquerade as nature ordained practices, crimes as sickness , terrorism as justice, poison as nutrition , oppressors as liberators, terrorists as freedom fighters , might as right , propaganda as news, ignorance as enlightenment, simulation as reality, the devil as Jesus, privileges as human rights, junk science as genuine science, manmade viruses and God made viruses, genocide as ethnic conflict, genociders as role models, corruption as economic growth, debts accumulation as charity, adaptive preferences as rights, hardened perceptions as knowledge, human rights violations as human rights, school enrolment as education, disinformation as information, conspiracy as truth to mention but a few. This article explores a number of neo-liberal capitalism dissimulations that are inimical to minority rights before situating gay rights as part and parcel of neo-liberal capitalism dissimulation. The article further critiques the naturalistic foundation of gay rights and vehemently situates gayism as a socialized reality and gay rights(as recognized in various legal systems) as legal rights which conflict with moral law and hence internal moral guides. The article further contends that minority rights under neo-liberal capitalism are simply dissimulations intended to disguise the wrath and anti-rights nature of this system.
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Papers by Kizito Michael George
Since Karl Marx’s expose of the explicit exploitative tendencies characteristic of capitalism and the consequent emergence of prominent socialist blocks in addition to the cold war, capitalism has attained an incredibly complex metamorphosis that the 19th century Marxian analysis can longer adequately capture. Under the new global neo-liberal capitalism(disorganized capitalism);slavery disguises as freedom, nudity as decency , gender exploitation masquerades as empowerment, dictatorship disguises as democracy, socialized practices masquerade as nature ordained practices, crimes as sickness , terrorism as justice, poison as nutrition , oppressors as liberators, terrorists as freedom fighters , might as right , propaganda as news, ignorance as enlightenment, simulation as reality, the devil as Jesus, privileges as human rights, junk science as genuine science, manmade viruses and God made viruses, genocide as ethnic conflict, genociders as role models, corruption as economic growth, debts accumulation as charity, adaptive preferences as rights, hardened perceptions as knowledge, human rights violations as human rights, school enrolment as education, disinformation as information, conspiracy as truth to mention but a few. This article explores a number of neo-liberal capitalism dissimulations that are inimical to minority rights before situating gay rights as part and parcel of neo-liberal capitalism dissimulation. The article further critiques the naturalistic foundation of gay rights and vehemently situates gayism as a socialized reality and gay rights(as recognized in various legal systems) as legal rights which conflict with moral law and hence internal moral guides. The article further contends that minority rights under neo-liberal capitalism are simply dissimulations intended to disguise the wrath and anti-rights nature of this system.
Since Karl Marx’s expose of the explicit exploitative tendencies characteristic of capitalism and the consequent emergence of prominent socialist blocks in addition to the cold war, capitalism has attained an incredibly complex metamorphosis that the 19th century Marxian analysis can longer adequately capture. Under the new global neo-liberal capitalism(disorganized capitalism);slavery disguises as freedom, nudity as decency , gender exploitation masquerades as empowerment, dictatorship disguises as democracy, socialized practices masquerade as nature ordained practices, crimes as sickness , terrorism as justice, poison as nutrition , oppressors as liberators, terrorists as freedom fighters , might as right , propaganda as news, ignorance as enlightenment, simulation as reality, the devil as Jesus, privileges as human rights, junk science as genuine science, manmade viruses and God made viruses, genocide as ethnic conflict, genociders as role models, corruption as economic growth, debts accumulation as charity, adaptive preferences as rights, hardened perceptions as knowledge, human rights violations as human rights, school enrolment as education, disinformation as information, conspiracy as truth to mention but a few. This article explores a number of neo-liberal capitalism dissimulations that are inimical to minority rights before situating gay rights as part and parcel of neo-liberal capitalism dissimulation. The article further critiques the naturalistic foundation of gay rights and vehemently situates gayism as a socialized reality and gay rights(as recognized in various legal systems) as legal rights which conflict with moral law and hence internal moral guides. The article further contends that minority rights under neo-liberal capitalism are simply dissimulations intended to disguise the wrath and anti-rights nature of this system.