Are 14 Public Holidays Enough For The Year?

This is my first Sunday ramble of the year. Before I run out of column space and while I don’t like conveying greetings or shout outs, let me wish you all a great and prosperous 2019. With the start of 2019 – the day after tomorrow to be detailed, the two things that will concern us most, are getting through ‘Financial Drought January’ and, wanting to know when the first public holiday will be.

Do We Deserve More Public Holidays?

Let’s start off with the latter. Of all countries on the globe, Cambodia tops the list for the most public holidays with 28 observed annually. Sri Lanka follows with 25, India and Kazakhstan with 21, Colombia, The Philippines and Trinidad and Tobago with 18, China and Hong Kong with 17, and Thailand, Turkey, and Pakistan with 16.

Here in Uganda, we have a partly 14 and of those 14 holidays, 4 of them will be ‘fruitless’ as in, they fall on a Saturday or Sunday.

When it comes to long weekends, we have five - International Women’s Day (8^th March) falls on a Friday, Good Friday (19^th April) obviously falls on a Friday and Easter Monday (22^nd April) on a Monday – understandably.

Thankfully It Falls On A Friday

Martyrs Day is on Monday 3^rd June and most likely, Eid al-Fitr will fall the following day on Tuesday 4^th June. If the Imam at Old Kampala Mosque doesn’t start dithering, keeps to his word and doesn’t go altering dates, then that will certainly be the longest weekend we will have save for the Easter weekend. The significant thing about the Martyrs Day/Eid al-Fitr long weekend holiday, is that it falls four days into the new month and the ATM will still be abundant with salary to have a blast of a weekend – unless of course, you are Civil Servant who won’t be expecting to get salary for months to come.

The Martyrs Did Not Burn In Vain. They Gave Us A Holiday

Apart from the religious holidays, the rest of them have little, if not, no meaning to the bulk of the population save for those who work in the civil service. Unlike in the private sector, Civil Servant is expected to show up at Kololo airstrip and take part in marching sessions in full view of UBCs television cameras. They are also expected to sit or stand in the blazing sunshine for hours on end while listening to lengthy speeches that won’t have any impact on them. At the end of the day, all they get out of attending the celebrations is a new t-shirt and a soda. Assuming the celebrations were held in some far flung place like Kaabong or Oyam, all they get is a bottle of mineral water and bogoya.

Moving on, when it comes to sales, we have kind of gotten used to Black Friday and the Christmas sales. But those are not sales. The real sales happen in January because, it’s Financial Drought January. By the time December is nigh, many would have realized that they overspent during the Christmas season that there is need to worry about how to get through January.

January Is Sale Month

With everybody looking for money, everything is up for sale. For Money Lender, January is killing season. They accept anything these days – car log books, laptops, plasma screens, land titles and even your ATM card as collateral.

Financial Drought January, is also the period assuming the banks have not already thought of it, the month they should use to service or carry out major repairs on the ATM for there is next to zero traffic. In fact, some ATM cards will not even get used.

Many ATM Cards Never Get Used In January

And for those who get freebie office lunch, just watch their eating habits during January. On Monday and Friday they will heap their plates because with no money for food at home, they won’t have eaten over the weekend. That’s how tight Financial Drought January can get.