Last King of Scotland - Uganda

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There are many examples of bad government and corruption in the film "Last King of Scotland" that clearly lead to poverty within the nation. President Idi Amin, or the 'Butcher of Uganda' was to blame for most of the issues in the country in the 1970s.

One example of "THE BOMB" associated with Idi Amin and Uganda is bad government. Idi Amin was a terrible leader; in some ways, he was almost a puppet ruler for the British. Although they did not control Amin, they had ways of trying to. The British put Amin in charge because they knew what kind of leader he was--in other words, he was an unqualified one. However, their plan to rule the nation through Amin went awry when he spiraled out of control. He often put his assignments in the hands of his advisors, and then did a total 180 and claimed he was in charge. Since there was often a confusion over power and it came from a few different people within Amin's circle, things were accomplished very slowly or not completely.

Another example of "THE BOMB" associated with Amin was military conflict. Amin came to rule after overthrowing the elected president before him, President Obote. The British put Amin in power because he was a military ruler, and they knew that he would not be able to handle running a country.

Bad government, poor leadership, and political instability an hinder economic development in many ways. One way is that dictators like Amin don't have a primary interest in their economy; instead, they care about power. Because of this, they are willing to spend money wherever necessary, whether it's paying for their own luxuries and using the country's money or paying off other leaders and causing corruption. This unneeded spending cuts funds for local businesses and farmers, as well as money for imports and exports around the globe. Furthermore, since most people are afraid of dictators, it sets a bad atmosphere for foreign relations. Countries who have vital exports like food and other products may not want to do business with deranged dictators like Amin. This puts the country in even more poverty, and also drives away people who have talent in their job and can find employment elsewhere.

When all of this happens, all of the citizens who are left are either unqualified for work, too poor to afford goods in the economy, or scraping everything they can together just to get some food for the week. Often, these citizens have a lack of freedom, which makes it even harder for them to get out of poverty since they can't always carry out a plan to attend school or get a job.

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