ein kunterbuntes haus.... a colourful housing

uganda is surely a developing country with all aspects, represented by a corrupt government, lot of international NGOs, a very rich capital and a poor backland (here called "upcountry"). the social and economic division is huge. yet, there is one sector that is booming, even among poor households everywhere: the mobile phone. and amazing phenomena with even the remotes farmer owing a phone. but at the same time it is not, cause it is a status symbol, fullfills a human basic need of communication, and with a prepaid system and good connection better to handle than expensive landlines.
so, ICT and especially mobile phone business becomes a lucrative one, with 4 big companies competing the market. they are sponsoring p.e. big concerts for the big crowd in kampala (UB 40 and Akon as such). Additionally they have an interesting marketing concept for rural areas: Painting the houses. by the odd stone houses suddenly shine in bright yellow (MTN) or red (CELTEL) or blue (UTL) oder red-white (WARID),which makes the towns at least look colourful, despite the annoying advertisments. And while driving through the smalltowns, i spend my spare time counting the colours and determin the winner in the housing competition.