[Ugnet] How not to understand Zimbabwe
How not to understand Zim David Sanders, Ben Cousins and David Moore 29 August 2007 11:59 (mail and guardian) Most media coverage of Zimbabwe unthinkingly repeats and reinforces a Western and neoliberal perception of the history and causes of that countrys political and economic crisis. The dominant view is that socialism explains Zimbabwes economic collapse and political repression. The version perpetrated by Robert Mugabe, on the other hand, and uncritically reproduced by many pan-Africanists, is that he is waging a noble and just struggle against Britain and its proxies, white farmers and the MDC. Both these analyses are simplistic, superficial and ahistorical. Let us first consider political repression. This is not a new development -- in fact, it has been a pattern in Mugabes rise to power and the evolution of Zanu-PF. In the mid-1970s, before Mugabe went to Mozambique to join the struggle, a new political and military force arose -- the Zimbabwe Peoples Army. Zipa, whose leaders identified themselves as soc ialists, had attempted to unite soldiers from both Zanu and the Zimbab-wean African Peoples Union. Early in 1977, Mugabe persuaded Frelimo to arrest and imprison the Zipa leaders. Hundreds of their supporters in the camps were tortured and killed; the rest were warned that Zanus axe would descend on dissenters necks. In 1978, more dissident Zanu-PF cadres were tortured and imprisoned. This history is not widely known. What is widely known is the notorious assault by Zanu-PFs 5th Brigade on Zapu cadres and ordinary residents of Matabeleland from 1982 to 1987, which resulted in an estimated 2 deaths. But the British and American governments turned a blind eye to these events, supporting a fledgling government that remained in their sphere of influence -- anti-Soviet and ambivalent in its support of the ANC. The beginning of Zimbabwes economic meltdown is usually ascribed in the media to farm invasions o rdered by Mugabe in February 2000, after losing a referendum on his attempt to revise the Constitution. This led to a sharp decline in (mainly) foreign exchange-earning export crops. (It is important to note that, since independence, Zimbabwes economy has remained capitalist.)To blame the farm invasions for the economic crisis, however, is to ignore the consequences of the 1991-96 structural adjustment programme, which led to increased unemployment, social stresses, government corruption and a growing parasitic middle class. While the economic and food crisis is usually attributed to the occupation of white commercial farms, the key role of Zimbabwes small-scale farmers is generally ignored. After 1980 the proportion of both total and marketed national maize output contributed by small-scale farmers rose from under 10% to over 60%. Since independence smallholders have produced most groundnuts and sorghum, and almost all vegetables sold in local markets. By 2000 smallholders were producing over 80% of the total cotton crop and most burley tobacco.Meanwhile, large-scale commercial farmers, with increasing numbers being black, retained their dominant position in export-generating flue-cured tobacco, dairying and specialised crops, and switched from maize to intensive horticulture. Some ranchers moved into wildlife. These subsectors all demand high levels of capital investment. Replacing white commercial farmers with the beneficiaries of fast-track land reform has not in itself been the main cause of declining food supplies since 2000. Declining agricultural output since 2000 is partly due to the effects of the economic crisis, together with factors such as drought and inadequate government support to land reform beneficiaries. Rising unemployment has hurt smallholder farmers, since wages from family members in town are used to purchase agricultural inputs. This is not to deny that the fast-track has been violent, corrupt, destructive of farm infrastructure and poorly supported by government agricultural services. It has led to massive displacement of farm workers, causing untold hardship and contributing to joblessness. It has also resulted in falling export levels, resulting in an acute shortage of foreign exchange needed to purchase fuel and raw materials. The current reporting on Zim-babwe is not only superficial but also misleading. It also limits any discourse about the lessons for South Africas evolution that Zim-babwes experience provides. Most South African commentators suggest that, in light of their analysis, socialism has failed in Zimbabwe. On the contrary, it has never been tried.David Sanders is director of the School of Public Health, and Ben Cousins is director of the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, both at the University of the Western Cape. David Moore tea ches politics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet %
[Ugnet] Address the (South African) land question
Address the land question Lungisile Ntsebeza: POLOKWANE BRIEFING 19 August 2007 11:59 (Mail and Guardian) Lungisile Ntsebeza: it is time to learn the lessons of Zimbabwe. (Photograph: David Harrison) With more than 80% of the South African land surface still legally in the hands of whites, it is a puzzle that the land question does not feature prominently in current political and economic debates. However one looks at things, land inequality remains one of the main indicators of social differentiation -- and, indeed, it is at the heart of the struggle for citizenship and against poverty. My contribution attempts to unravel this puzzle and pose questions that go deeper than a mere assessment of land reform -- a topic that, despite its importance, is exhausted by now.The colonial context is vital to understanding the land question in South Africa. In a nutshell, colonialism divided the South African landscape between white-claimed territories that made up the bulk of the land (over 90% in 1913), and the rest of the country, which was designated as reserves for African occupation. There was a further division between urban and rural areas. In the white-claimed portions, the rural areas were converted into modern commercial farms that benefited from substantial state subsidies and, most importantly, cheap black labour. After the Natives Land Act of 1913, blacks were not legally permitted to buy and own land in these areas. They were destined to be poorly paid workers on these farms. Initial efforts by black producers to compete with their white counterparts were stifled by the colonial demand for labour. This led to the large-scale proletarianisation of Africans, a growing majority of whom now reside permanently in the urban areas, while a minority retain tenuous links with the reserves as migrant workers. This is what the ANC-led government inherited in 1994.No one -- not even President Thabo Mbeki -- disputes that land reform in South Africa in its current form is a dismal failure. In the past 13 years, only about 4% of white-claimed agricultural land has been transferred. The debate is real ly about the reasons for this failure. There are two broad positions in this regard. There are those who argue that existing policies are coherent and that the problem lies with implementation. Others, including myself, agree that there are problems with implementation, but argue that the problem is much deeper than that. The reality is that structural constraints in the current land reform programme make it impossible to embark on a radical land redistribution programme. The very Constitution that guarantees formal equality before the law also entrenches material inequality, especially in the distribution of land ownership. The entrenchment of the property clause in the Constitution is a major obstacle to the achievement of even the limited objectives of the land reform programme. In South Africa, it is impossible to satisfy equally both the need to protect property rights and to ensure a policy of equitable distribution of land.The compromis e reached at the negotiating table in the early 1990s clearly favoured the existing property holders, and it is this which is responsible for the dismal failure of land reform. The fact that the Constitution allows for the expropriation of land does not alter this position. The recognition of property rights creates favourable conditions for property holders and their allies to contest expropriation in court. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that the state is reluctant to use expropriation as a tool. It therefore makes sense to call for a fundamental revision of both the policy and the mechanisms for its implementation.It is intriguing that a judge in apartheid South Africa had far better insights into the need for equity than the post-1994 regime. Addressing the issue of a Bill of Rights on the eve of the collapse of apartheid in the late 1980s, Judge Didcott warned: What a Bill of Rights cannot afford to do here is to protect private property with such zeal that it entrenches privilege. A major problem which any future South African government is bound to face will be the problem of poverty, of its alleviation and of the need for the countrys wealth to be shared more equitably Should a Bill of Rights obstruct the government of the day when that direction is taken, should it make the urgent task of social or economic reform impossible or difficult to undertake, we shall have on our hands a crisis of the first order, endangering the Bill of Rights as a whole and the survival of constitutional government itself.These insights are as pertinent today as they were in the late 1980s.This takes us to the question of why, despite its importance, the land question appears to be marginalised. Indeed, some have prematurely contended that there is no land question in this country in the form of demand for land. According to this view,
[Ugnet] Whitewashing the History of Abolition
Weekend Edition August 25 / 26, 2007 Amazing Grace:Whitewashing the History of Abolition(www.counterpunch.org) By BRIAN CONCANNON This week the world officially commemorated one of the pivotal events of modern history with deafening silence. On August 23, 1791, a group of slaves in Haiti led by a man named Boukman ignited a revolt that changed the world. They attacked their French masters, and kept fighting until Haiti wrested independence from Napoleon in 1804. Haiti's rebellion metastasized: the independent nation run by former sla ves inspired people held in bondage throughout the world, and forever undermined the "moral" and philosophical underpinnings of slavery. Slavery held on for decades- more than seven decades in the U.S. - but from that time on it was fighting a losing battle. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) proclaims August 23 the official "International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition," but there is little behind the proclamation. The UNESCO website's link to "Activities Worldwide" shows a blank page for the United States. France, alone among former slave trading countries, has an activity listed, but that is for last March's launch of a virtual UNESCO exhibit, aptly titled: "Lest We Forget." The link to the virtual exhibit does not work. There is no mention of the anniversary in any major U.S. media outlets, and very little even on the internet. In contrast, the film Amazing Grace, about William Wilberforce and the fight to end the slave trade in the British Empire, made a big splash when it opened last February. In less than four months, enough people saw the film in the United States for the movie to gross $21 million. Wilberforce, a wealthy member of the British Parliament, risked his reputation, his political career and even his health in a long struggle to convince his colleagues to pass the Slave Trade Act. The Act became a critical step in ending slavery when enacted in 1807, and both Wilberforce and the Act deserve an important place in history. But neither deserves to overshadow the Haitians and their revolution. Haitians risked their lives as well as their health and caree rs- over 300,000 Haitians died fighting for abolition, many cruelly tortured and mutilated along the way. Haitians actually ended slavery in the country, for good, while the Slave Trade Act only ended the transport of slaves by ship in the British Empire (the Empire did not actually abolish slavery until 1834). But it is the Slave Trade Act, not Haiti's revolution, which is widely celebrated as the beginning of the end of slavery. The orator, statesman and emancipated slave Frederick Douglass was appointed U.S. Minister to Haiti, where he saw the disservice that history was already doing to the country. In an 1893 address to the Chicago World's Fair, Douglass acknowledged the contributions of Wilberforce and the other abolitionists in England and the United States. But he reminded his listeners that: "Until Haiti struck for f reedom, the conscience of the Christian world slept profoundly over slavery. Until she spoke no Christian nation had given to the world an organized effort to abolish slavery. Until she spoke, the slave trade was sanctioned by all the Christian nations of the world, and our land of liberty and light included." Amazing Grace actually advanced the process of writing Haiti out of the history of abolition. I caught only one reference to Haiti in the film- a sentence about the revolution's outbreak in a scene from the early 1790's. The film managed to chronicle the abolition movement's progress through to 1807 without even mentioning 1804's actual abolition. The world had another chance to give Haiti its due three years ago, during the bicentennial of the nation's independence. On t he big day, January 1, 2004, Thabo Mbeki, President of the most powerful African nation, South Africa, came to celebrate. But the former slaveholding nations, led by the United States, disliked the economic policies of the people Haitians had elected to serve them, so they boycotted the events. They also forced the less powerful countries of Africa and the Caribbean to stay away, so Haiti's historic celebration was muted. Instead of sending congratulations to Haiti's government, the United States sent guns and money to those trying to overthrow it. When the international spotlight did arrive in Haiti seven weeks later, it came to witness the violent return of another brutal U.S.-supported dictatorship. That dictatorship led to another 4,000 Haitians dying in political violence. I enjoyed Amazing Grace despite its slighting of Haiti, and found it a compelling and inspiring film. That might be because I, like most moviegoers, am a lot closer socially and economically to William Wilberforce than to Boukman and his comrades, or even to their descendants in Haiti today. I am willing to work hard for what I believe in, but I do not put
[Ugnet] Senegal: DVDs dooming cinemas in Africa's filmmaking pioneer
23/08/2007 04:31 DAKAR, Aug 23 (AFP)Senegal: DVDs dooming cinemas in Africa's filmmaking pioneer Senegal's movie business, home of some of the continent's first black filmmakers, is in the throes of crisis with cinema theaters downing shutters as cheap and mostly pirated DVDs flood the markets.Many cinema halls have been turned into warehouses for anything from motor spare parts to cheap, imported Chinese trinkets hawked daily on the streets in Dakar.Others are rented on Sundays by pentecostal churches led mainly by Nigerian nationals trying to make inroads in this predominantly Muslim country."People no longer come to the cinema," said projectionist Amadou Mamadou Ly, who works in Dakar's Liberte movie theatre, one of the five remaining halls in the seaside capital. "The DVDs have had an impact and the poor state of the halls" also puts off movie-goers, he said."A football mat ch shown on a giant screen attracts more people than a movie," he said.The same "movie" crisis is seen across Africa, but is all the more surprising in this country that produced one of the continent's leading filmmakers, Sembene Ousmane, who died recently. The Senegalese were avid movie goers with a taste for American cowboy films, Bollywood fare and cinema from France, the former colonial power whose language is still the official tongue in this west African state.The country had 78 movie houses at the start of the 1980s but now only 18 remain, according to the ministry of culture. Many of these are decrepit, with broken seats, falling roof panels and situated in areas that have gone down hill. Twenty years ago the seaside capital Dakar had 40 film theatres.Cinema halls have been closing across Africa for similar regions with the notable exceptions of South Africa and Nigeria, which have bo oming national film industries, according to the Continental monthly magazine. "African film is in crisis and the closure of cinemas is only the most visible sign," it said in an edition published during Africa's premier film festival FESPACO held in Burkina Faso early this year.In further signs of the worsening crisis, Dakar's most celebrated movie house, the Paris, located near the central Independence Square, was demolished two years ago.A hotel and cinema complex are reportedly supposed to be built on the site but construction has not started yet.The 'El Mansour' movie hall in the working class suburb of Grand-Dakar is now a garbage dump. Vendors of pirated DVD films are meanwhile laughing all the way to the bank selling each film for about four dollars (three euros) or renting them out for a dollar for two days. Most of the pirated movies are foreign and the country's film industry h as also felt the repercussions.Senegal produced some of Africa's leading film makers such as Ousmane, considered to be a "lighthouse" of African cinema.But its film sector, which received generous state support from the government during the rule of the country's founding leader, the late Leopold Sedar Senghor, saw that backing start to evaporate when the poet-president retired in 1980.The state now issues between 60 and 70 filming permits every year and more than half this number of films are actually produced. "But these films (short and long features and documentaries) are screened more outside the country," according to the director of cinematography in the culture ministry, Amadou Tidiane Niagane.After receiving state backing in the post-independence 1970s, producers, directors and distributors have largely had to fend for themselves since the 1990s, when the government cut funding due to pr essure from global lenders."We were misled by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which recommended privatisation of the cinema," in the 1980s, said the president of the association of Senegalese script writers, Sheik Ngaido Ba."It is the worst privatisation we have ever seen in Senegal."With little funding, few to no cinema schools and a poverty-struck public, African filmmakers now have to look abroad for support.A 4.5 million euro fund promised to the film industry early this year in the form of a grant has yet to materialise. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] FW: Idi Amin's son jailed for role in London gang murder - CNN.com]
Idi Amin's son jailed for role in London gang murderhttp://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/08/03/idison.london.ap/index.htmlStory HighlightsFaisal Wangita, 25, was part of a 40-strong gang that killed a Somali teenager Mahir Osman, 18, stabbed 20 times, beaten with bats, hammers and kicked 13 convicted in the killing in busy London street; Wangita for kicking Osman Jury did not know Wangita was a son of infamous Ugandan dictator Idi AminLONDON, England (AP) -- -- A son of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin has been jailed for five years after being involved in a gang attack that left a man dead, British prosecutors said Friday.Faisal Wangita, 25, was part of a 40-strong gang that attacked Somali teenager Mahir Osman, 18, in a busy street in north London in January 2006.Osman was stabbed 20 times, attacked with baseball bats, bottles and hammers, punched and kicked and died within a minute, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said. The attack was caught on camera.Thirteen people were convicted over the attack at two trials that ended in April and last week, including three men found guilty of murder. Wangita was acquitted of murder in April but was then jailed for five years for conspiracy to wound and violent disorder for apparently kicking Osman when he was on the ground.Wangita's conviction could not be reported until Friday because the judge had imposed a ban on reporting the outcome of the first trial until the second trial was finished. That ban was lifted Friday.The jury was not told that Wangita was Amin's son because it was felt it would prejudice his case. But they were later told of his parentage by Judge Stephen Kramer, who described him as a "serious risk to the public."Amin settled in Saudi Arabia after his overthrow in 1979, and died there in August 2003. Official papers showed Wangita was born in Uganda but he told police he was born in Saudi Arabia.Amin, a former military cook, seized power in Uganda in a January 1971 coup. His eight-year rule was noted for human rights abuses, political repression, extra-judicial killings and the expulsion of Asians from the central African country. There is no exact figure for the number of people killed during his presidency -- estimates range between 50,000 and 500,000.The dictator's life was featured in last year's film "The Last King Of Scotland," for which actor Forest Whitaker won an Academy Award. Amin had 40 officially recorded children from seven official wives. Nothing is known about Wangita's mother.Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] AFRICOM: Wrong for Liberia, Disastrous for Africa
AFRICOM: Wrong for Liberia, Disastrous for Africa(Blackcommentator.com)By Ezekiel Pajibo Emira Woods(Edited by John Feffer)Just two months after U.S. aerial bombardments began in Somalia, the Bush administration solidified its militaristic engagement with Africa. In February 2007, the Department of Defense announced the creation of a new U.S. Africa Command infrastructure, code name AFRICOM, to "coordinate all U.S. military and security interests throughout the continent.""This new command will strengthen our security cooperation with Africa," President Bush said in a White House statement, "and create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners in Africa." Ordering that AFRICOM be created by September 30, 2008, Bush said "Africa Command will enhance our efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa and promote our common goals of development, health, education, democracy, a nd economic growth in Africa."The general assumption of this policy is that prioritizing security through a unilateral framework will somehow bring health, education, and development to Africa. In this way, the Department of Defense presents itself as the best architect and arbiter of U.S. Africa policy. According to Navy Rear Admiral Robert Moeller, director of the AFRICOM transition team, "By creating AFRICOM, the Defense Department will be able to coordinate better its own activities in Africa as well as help coordinate the work of other U.S. government agencies, particularly the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development."Competition for ResourcesThis military-driven U.S. engagement with Africa reflects the desperation of the Bush administration to control the increasingly strategic natural resources on the African continent, especially oil, gas, and uranium. With increased competition from China, among other countries, for those resources, the United States wants above all else to strengthen its foothold in resource-rich regions of Africa.Nigeria is the fifth largest exporter of oil to the United States. The West Africa region currently provides nearly 20% of the U.S. supply of hydrocarbons, up from 15% just five years ago and well on the way to a 25 share forecast for 2015. While the Bush administration endlessly beats the drums for its "global war on terror," the rise of AFRICOM underscores that the real interests of neoconservatives has less to do with al-Qaeda than with more access and control of extractive industries, particularly oil.Responsibility for operations on the African continent is currently divided among three distinct Commands: U.S. European Command, which has responsibility for nearly 43 African countries; U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, and Kenya; and U.S. Pacific Command, which has respo nsibility for Madagascar, the Seychelles, and the countries off the coast of the Indian Ocean. Until December 2006 when the United States began to assist Ethiopia in its invasion of Somalia, all three existing Commands have maintained a relatively low-key presence, often using elite special operations forces to train, equip, and work alongside national militaries.A new Africa Command, based potentially in or near oil-rich West Africa would consolidate these existing operations while also bringing international engagement, from development to diplomacy, even more in line with U.S. military objectives.AFRICOM in Liberia?AFRICOM's first public links with the West African country of Liberia was through a Washington Post op-ed written by the African- American businessman Robert L. Johnson, "Liberia's Moment of Opportunity." Forcefully endorsing AFRICOM, Johnson urged that it be based in Liberia. Then came an unprecedented allAfrica.com guest column from Li beria's president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, "AFRICOM Can Help Governments Willing To Help Themselves," touting AFRICOM's potential to "help" Africa "develop a stable environment in which civil society can flourish and the quality of life for Africans can be improved."Despite these high-profile endorsements, the consolidation and expansion of U.S. military power on the African continent is misguided and could lead to disastrous outcomes.Liberia's 26-year descent into chaos started when the Reagan administration prioritized military engagement and funneled military hardware, training, and financing to the regime of the ruthless dictator Samuel K. Doe. This military "aid," seen as "soft power" at that time, built the machinery of repression that led to the deaths of an estimated 250,000 Liberians.Basing AFRICOM in Liberia will put Liberians at risk now and into the future. Liberia's national threat level will dramatically increase as the country becomes a t arget of those interested in attacking U.S. assets. This will severely jeopardize Liberia's national security interests while creating new problems for the country's fragile peace and its nascent
[Ugnet] Chinua Achebe: A Long Way FRom Home
A long way from home Chinua Achebe, the father of modern African literature', talks to Ed Pilkington about inventing a new language, his years in exile from his beloved Nigeria -- and why he changed his name from Albert By rights I should be talking to Chinua Achebe in Ogidi, his home town in Nigeria. He should be telling me about his efforts as chair- person of the village council to build schools, improve the water and bring health to the people. We should be talking about whether and when the rains will come and how the yam harvest is doing this year. Instead we are sitting in a bungalow on the banks of the Hudson, upriver from New York, surrounded by clapboard houses, rolling green hills and cows chewing the cud. The nearest restaurants have names such as Rose's Kitchen, Pat's Place and Hickory. As I arrive, Achebe is sitting at his desk at the window overlooking a gravel front drive. It seems a strange place to find the writer credited above all others with inventing the modern African novel. Nadine Gordimer, one of the many writers indebted to Achebe for the ground he broke, described him last month as the "father of modern African literature". She was one of the judges who awarded Achebe, now 76, this year's Man Booker International prize, given every two years for an exceptional lifetime's achievement. A writer as driven and as political as Achebe neither needs nor solicits such recognition, yet he is grateful to receive it. "I'm a practised writer now," he says, as we start to talk in his small, homely sitting room. "But when I began I had no idea what this was going to be. I just knew that there was something inside me that wanted me to tell who I was and that would have come out even if I didn't want it." That "something inside me" was his first, and enduringly monumental, novel, Things Fall Apart. Rereading it before I see Achebe, I find the book has lost none of its power to shock. Set in the 1890s, the first two-thirds of the story steeps you in the ancient ways of Achebe's Igbo people, with their several gods, elaborate ceremonies and hierarchies, and the tough but effective policing mechanisms that force Okonkwo, the subject of the book, into exile for accidentally killing a boy. And then comes the memorable line: "During the last planting season a white man had appeared in their clan." The white missionaries, and the terrible destruction they brought, had arrived. Published in 1958, Things Fall Apart turned the West's perception of Africa on its head -- a perception that until then had been based solely on the views of white colonialists, views that were at best anthropological, at worst, to adopt Achebe's famous savaging of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, "thoroughgoingly racist". As research for his 1975 essay on the Conrad book, Image of Africa, Achebe counted all the words spoken in Heart of Darkness by Africans themselves. "There were six!" he tells me, laughing luxuriously. The rest of the time Conrad's Africans merely make animal noises, he says, or shriek a lot. By contrast, Things Fall Apart was, Achebe says now, "a story that only someone who went through it could be trusted to give. It was insisting to be told by the owner of the story, not by others, no matter how well meaning or competent." And it was not just the ownership of the story that was revolutionary --the language was too. Achebe's novels are part standard English, part pidgin, part language of folklore and proverb. His writing crackles with vivid, universal and yet deeply African images. "Living fire begets cold, impotent ash"; "If you want to get at the root of murder ... look for the blacksmith who made the matchet". "Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly," he writes in Things Fall Apart, "and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten." Achebe says he is particularly pleased that the Booker judges recognised the way in which he created a new language for Things Fall Apart. "The story is so different from what I had read as a child; I knew I couldn't write like Dickens or Conrad. My story would not accept that. So you had to make an English that was new. Whether it was going to work or not, I couldn't tell." If bald sales statistics are any measure, it did work -- handsomely. Things Fall Apart has sold more than 10-million copies and has been translated into 50 languages. More importantly, it spawned a whole generation of African writers who emulated its linguistic ingenuity and political vision. In the same week as Achebe won the Booker Prize, one of his great admirers, fellow Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, took the Orange prize for Half of a Yellow Sun. Achebe's parents lived the life of converts, changing their names to Isaiah and Janet and christening him Albert. Born in 1930, he lived a childhood full of the Bible and hymns and he learned English from the age of eight. Later he was sent to the University of London -- located in the Nigerian city
[Ugnet] Movt MPs are free to wear army uniform
Movt MPs are free to wear army uniformGRACE MATSIKOKYANKWANZINRM members of Parliament are free to wear army uniform and move to places within the country without hindrance, it has merged.The MPs got the much-needed nod of approval from the army authorities at the party's just ended retreat at Kyankwanzi National Leadership Institute (Nali), the party publicist said yesterday.Mr Ofwono Opondo, the NRM deputy secretary for publicity told Daily Monitor by telephone from Kyankwanzi yesterday that some MPs were given a pair of military uniform and gumboots as they packed to leave."Today (Wednesday) we have discharged the MPs after giving those who wanted a pair of uniform and gumboots," Mr Ofwono said. "They were about 252 people who attended."He said the party consulted the UPDF Directorate of Legal Services and got the all clear. He added that it was legal for civilian legislators to wear military uniform.This asse rtion, however, sharply contradicts the crackdown last year on civilians with military fatigues. Many were arrested and court-martialed.FROM RIGHT: Ministers Ezra Suruma (Finance), Namirembe Bitamazire (Education) and Fred Mukisa (State for Fisheries) learn how to assemble a gun during the NRM retreat at Kyankwanzi that ended on Tuesday. PPU photo"It's true the MPs were cleared by Defence to wear the uniforms because of the nature of the work they were doing like drills," Defence and Army spokesman Felix Kulayigye said. "Did the MPs steal the uniforms from the stores? Definitely no," he added.Maj Kulayigye said the plain green fatigues given to the MPs were largely for training and not for combat. He, however, was not aware that some MPs left the training camp with the uniforms.Kigulu South MP Milton Muwuma said, "Those who left [Kyankwanzi] late were able to get some uniforms""Personally I didn't get because I didn't want but I would have got if I wanted. What I know, the people concerned gave instructions to those who got because the army attire cannot just be used anyhow."Attorney General Khiddu Makubuya, who attended the retreat declined to give a firm legal opinion about the issue."Are you sure those are military uniforms?...you need to check the facts with the army," Prof Makubuya said.The Kyankwanzi move has triggered a public outcry."I am confused at the sight of a photo of NRM MPs on a retreat in Kyankwanzi donned in full military uniform...Are they soldiers?" Peter Sabiiti of Kampala wrote in an e-mail to Daily Monitior."If they are not, can other MPs from other political parties put on the uniform if they wish to? As far as I know, this uniform is for the UPDF which is a national army and not for NRM party. A soldier who wears it has successfully completed military training. What about those civilians arrested and court-martialed because they were in possession o f military wear? Can the responsible authorities give us an explanation please?" he asked.Daily Monitor established that after the Movement Secretariat was closed, all other departments were transferred to the President's Office but Kyankwanzi was "temporarily transferred" to Ministry of Defence because of its military component.According to Mr Ofwono, there is debate in the Cabinet on whether Kyankwanzi should be relocated to the National Curriculum Centre or Ministry of Internal Affairs."Kyankwanzi is a public institution where anyone is free to go, whether from the opposition or NRM," Mr Ofwono said. "For a military uniform, it is just like a bed, mattress and water at Kyankwanzi just to facilitate training. All the people that have been going to Kyankwanzi have been accessing uniforms," he said.Mr Ofwono said the retreat also passed a resolution that will enable the opposition send its cadres for a similar retreat at the leadership school. But the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) said the government was trying to militarise the civilian institutions to create fear among the population."If they are trying to operationalise what is in the constitution that every able-bodied Ugandan should undertake military training, then they should go to Parliament and make a law. where is the legal basis for doing that now?" FDC spokesman, Wafula Oguttu wondered. He said FDC can accept an invitation to Kyankwanzi on condition that it cuts across the political scope and that it is not a retreat to discuss internal matters of the party (FDC) because they need confidentiality.But Democratic Party President Ssebaana Kizito said while it is unclear why the government gave military uniforms to civilians, the NRM may not be genuine in inviting them to Kyankwanzi."They may be trying to stem public criticism," Mr Ssebaana said.The MPs are not the first to be offered uniforms from Kyankwanzi. Rec ently sub-county chief finance officers were given military uniforms, which they later took to their homes. They were at Kyankwanzi studying the dynamics of Government's Prosperity for All (bonna baggagawale) programme.On who footed
[Ugnet] Lecturer survives Butabika injection
Lecturer survives Butabika injectionKELVIN NSANGI CHRIS OBOREKAMPALA(www.monitor.co.ug)When Godfrey Muhumza woke up on Tuesday, July 10, the last thing on his mind was the possibility of a black day in offing.Ending up in a psychiatric hospital was not even anywhere near his thoughts. But he did not have to wait long to face his fate as drama started unfolding as early as 7a.m - just as he was leaving his house to start the day.Mr Muhumuza, a lecturer at Uganda Christian University Mukono, as well as the Law Development Centre, says 10 police officers moving in two police patrol cars, 'abducted' him from his home in Kirowooza, Mukono. He says the team was led by police Inspector John Okalany and his colleagues Rashid Agero, Robert Okia, and James Magada.HAPPIER TIMES: Mr Muhumuza insists he is of sound mind but that some people are after him. File photoMr Muhumuza says the officers first claimed to be in need o f help. "At 7.40a.m, while leaving my home with four occupants in my car, a police patrol vehicle blocked us as we joined the main road.When I asked what the problem was, they claimed their vehicle had got a mechanical problem and that they wanted to borrow a spanner from me," he says. "As I was speaking to them, another patrol car - a brand new double cabin Registration number UAH 691L - pulled from behind my car."Mr Muhumuza, who is also an attorney at the High Court in Kampala and legal adviser to Makerere University, says the policemen asked him and his passengers to get out of the car."When I asked why they were arresting us and where their arrest warrant was, one of the policemen ordered me not to ask questions, saying they were under instruction," Mr Muhumuza narrates, adding that his phone and car keys were then taken away. The officers reportedly claimed to have been sent by the acting head of the Criminal Investigations Directorate Okoth-Ochola. "The policemen said they were taking me to the Criminal Investigations Directorate in Kampala, but would first make a stop over at Mukono Police Station," he recounts.Mr Muhumza says he finally gave in and boarded the police vehicle because he had been having threats from his brothers, a case that was before Mr Ochola.He says one of the students who was with him in his car insisted on going with him to the police station. However, he says, the policemen drove past Mukono Police Station.Journey to Butabika"They drove fast and never stopped at Mukono Police Station as they had earlier said. At Bweyogerere, they branched off to Kinawataka Road. When they reached Mbuya, they said they were going to pick a colleague of theirs," Mr Muhumuza says.To his shock, he says, the car stopped at Butabika Hospital - the national referral hospital for people with mental problems."The next stop, we were at Butabika Hospital. The hospital gates q uickly sprung open and we parked outside the out patients' ward," Mr Muhumuza says, shaking his head in disbelief. Mr Agero reportedly walked out, only to return with a grim face. "He was with a younger man who was holding a syringe. I was ordered to get out of the car and go to the treatment room. I refused," Mr Muhumuza says."I identified myself as an attorney with the High Court. On seeing how serious things were getting, I told the policemen about my brother who has always wished me to be admitted at the hospital. I told them to read the messages in my phone to confirm that."He says Mr Okia then got his phone from one of the policemen. Mr Muhumuza's mobile phone has text messages of 2006 where a sender by the name Ben Mugasha calls him a lunatic who should be admitted at Butabika."Mr Okia then asked for my phone from one of the policemen. Later, when Mr Agero returned, Mr Okia allegedly told him, "Don't you think it is that man (Mugasha) who shoul d be brought here for check up?" Mr Muhumuza recounts."Later, a tall man emerged wearing a medical gown and carrying a light green file, on it written 'Godfrey Muhumuza. The tall man ordered me to come out. I asked him who he was. He said he was a doctor and that I should not give him orders because he was under instructions," he says.I shouted at the top of my voice, telling a security officer to inform medical personnel inside the ward that a Makerere University legal adviser was there to receive a lethal injection.""I warned the tall man that I was going to sue him and report him to the medical council."Another man reportedly appeared with ropes to tie Mr Muhumza. "Fortunately, three nurses intervened with one Julius Twesigye who identified me and advised that the matter be taken to Dr Tom Onen, a senior consultant psychiatrist at the hospital."Mr Muhumuza says the tall man then disappeared."The other policemen seemed stranded. One of their vehicles drove off. The remaining policemen told me they would lose their jobs if they did not dump me at the hospital."Dr Onen reportedly spoke to Mr Muhumuza and the policemen and asked the latter to take the lecturer back home
[Ugnet] More earthquakes rock East Africa
More earthquakes rock East Africa(www.monitor.co.ug)ZEPHANIA UBWANI, EMMANUEL GYEZAHO, RICHARD MGAMBA AGENCIESSOME offices in high rise buildings mainly in Arusha, Tanzania and parts of Nairobi were yesterday abandoned as a series of earth tremors continued to hit the East African towns for the fifth day.Panic gripped the two EA cities with dozens of workers declining to enter the high-rise buildings on Wednesday morning. The Tanzania Meteorological Agency confirmed that the ongoing tremors have triggered panic in every corner of the country but allayed public fears about an impending major earthquake.TMA chief Mohamed Mhita maintained that such tremors usually occur at least during this period of the year and he described them as normal. He said they cause no major damage.In Kampala, Geology specialists were quick to assert that Uganda was in a safe zone, even though the country experienced an earth quake last month and last week.The tremors follow a strong earthquake - measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale, which hit the Northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, shaking the area around Lake Natron on Tuesday.The tremors bring to eleven the number of seismic waves that have hit Arusha and parts of Kenya since Thursday last week. The tremors, appeared milder compared to those that shook Arusha on Tuesday evening and Sunday afternoon, but created more fear .Information obtained indicates that one tremor occurred on Thursday and Saturday, two each on Sunday and Monday and three on Tuesday, including the strongest one at 5:11 pm.Thousands of Mwanza residents on Tuesday night slept out of their houses after news broke out that there was a possibility of a heavy tremor hitting the Lake Zone regions between 12:00 and 1 am.News broke out at around 10pm on Tuesday that the Tanzania Meteorological Agency had issued a warning about the possibility of experien cing heavy tremors within the region in the next few hours. The warning was issued just a few hours after another tremor rocked Mwanza city at around 5pm but no damage was reported across the region. This situation caused panic as fears clouded thousands of residents here, with all people leaving their houses and camping on the open grounds, waiting for the tremor to "strike".Many banks and business institutions in Arusha remained closed yesterday after it emerged that some landmark buildings in the city had cracked due to tremors. Many Arusha residents opted to invoke divine intervention and spent much of last night praying in the open. Some slept outside their houses.Employees of various companies housed in the Anniversary Towers at University way Nairobi spent a better part of yesterday morning outside the building after they received information that an earthquake would rock Nairobi at around 9am. The scare came a few minutes after Government Spokesman Al fred Mutua released a statement telling Kenyans to ignore rumours of an impending quake in the city."I was equally shocked when I experienced the tremors while having a shower this morning but experts have confirmed that it is unlikely that anything is likely to erupt in Kenya," said Kenya's internal security minister John Michuki.Mr Michuki told reporters after receiving a situation analysis report from seismological experts. The report by experts from the University of Nairobi said a total of nine tremors have been experienced in Kenya since Thursday last week.The seismologists attribute this to volcanic activity at Oldoiyo Lengai Mountain area located in the Eastern Rift Valley to the north of Tanzania. East Africa's Great Rift Valley runs along a geological fault line, but has largely escaped major quakes in recent years.American geological experts yesterday downplayed chances of the Kenya and Tanzania tremors leading to a major earthquake.A report by American geologists posted online on Wednesday stated that the earthquakes represent a seismic phenomenon known as a seismic "swarm".The experts said this "is an episode of high earthquake activity in which the largest earthquake does not occur at the beginning of the episode and in which the largest earthquake is not substantially larger than other earthquakes of the episode". The magnitude of the series of quakes has been between 4.4 and 6.0 according to USGS data.John Tiberindwa, a senior lecturer at Makerere University's Geology Department said "It wouldn't necessarily mean that once the Eastern Rift Valley is active, then the Western or Albertine Rift Valley as we know it, which runs through Uganda, would be active, although you cannot rule out that since they are branches of the same rift valley, it could happen," he said. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for
[Ugnet] Microcredit makes women poor
Microcredit makes women poor By L. Muthoni Wanyeki (The EastAfrican)The latest manifestation of the ability of our bosses, sorry development partners to absorb and seemingly respond to criticism in ways that renders it meaningless, is the rehabilitation of microcredit as a strategy to address women's absolute and relative poverty. At the global level, Mohammed Yunus of Bangladesh wins a Nobel Prize. And everyone bends over backwards to accommodate the Grameen Bank model-providing small loans to women for entrepreneurial activities at the basic level. The Grameen Bank experience clearly showed that women tend to have higher repayment (and entrepreneurial success) rates than men. And because of the difficulties of accessing credit otherwise, women are also more prone to accept the higher interest and transaction costs generally associated with microcredit. Meaning that the Grameen model can be adapted to make money off women. Here in Kenya, the retreat of the multilateral banks from much of the country during the 1990s together with the collapse of many local banks meant that a void was clearly there to be filled. In stepped new entrants like Equity Bank - who have, in fact, offered clearly necessary and valuable services to Kenyans left out of the credit sphere. I am not oblivious to that fact and I think that examples like that provided by Equity Bank deserve recognition and support - as well as analysis of their impact on the lives of such Kenyans. What I am objecting to, however, is the dishing out of easy answers to complex questions. The government of Kenya's new women's fund for instance. The new injection of funds by the international financial institutions into Equity Bank to enable the roll-out of microcredit to women. The assumption that efforts like these are sufficient to move women out of poverty. RETURNING TO THE GRAMEEN Bank
[Ugnet] Beware white men with briefcases
Beware white men with briefcasesBinyavanga Wainaina: CONTINENTAL DRIFT (www.mg.co.za) 16 June 2007 11:59Years ago I had a conversation with somebody in Cape Town who was helping to develop a tourism marketing plan. She told me that the largest number of tourists to South Africa came from the continent and that they spent the most money. None of this was the result of a plan -- at least up to that point.This made sense to me. I had already met and known many Kenyans -- mostly business people, often women -- who would come to South Africa to buy stock for their businesses or look for universities for their children. They would spend some days in the warehouses of Jo'burg and Durban, sell some things, buy lots of things -- then maybe spend two days at Sun City and depart.Although thousands of Kenyans do this every year, I have never seen a package advertised.Kenya is like this too. In many unmeasured ways, Nai robi services the business people, agencies and governments of eight countries: Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Congo, Somalia and Ethiopia. Right now the only new routes Kenya Airways is opening up are lucrative African routes.Traders come in from all over, looking for spare parts and socks; for new Mercedes-Benzes and toothpicks; for bales of second-hand clothes and banking services; for cement; for cost-effective private schooling; for seedlings and freelance website designers. The most vibrant parts of the city surround the bus ranks that service this massive market.Of course, our world being what it is, there is no service to make the lives of these poor travellers easier. Kenyan police love to harass black African foreigners because they are more afraid of authority figures than anybody and they will cough up whatever is asked. There is no office set up by the city council to support trade and traders anywhere near Tom Mboya Street -- no place to complain, no forum to discuss how to make this business grow.Instead, there are askaris with clubs. Those billions of shillings that flow into the city every month need to be managed and the management plan is clubs and tear gas and the efficient collection of fines and fees.These neighbouring countries may be Kenya's largest source of income, but then we must consider definitions. Take "investor". An investor is a white man with a briefcase; a brown man with a briefcase is here to "bribe"; a black man with a briefcase is an "illegal immigrant".There are signs, though that the thinking is slowly changing. A Senegalese company that makes innovative customs software has just won a huge contract for Kenya. The donors were shocked. Who thought technology could be bought and sold within the continent?Now. The blunt truth of all of this is that there is little meaningful investment that can come from a white man with a briefcase. This is be cause he lives in a different solar system. What he refers to as a low-cost life for him and his family is beyond the means of Kenya to provide.There is a lovely story that circulates in Nairobi about the coffee husk project, in which beautiful and environmentally friendly and well-funded coal was produced by men in briefcases for the African market. This was meant to stop people burning charcoal. Problem was, the costs were high: big homes with 24-hour security, broadband internet, private schooling at the international school and so on had to be provided by the funding.What is not said is that brown men with briefcases are readily available, downloaded from planes from Mumbai with $50 000 and the ability to live on a dollar a day while setting up the Kenya Coffee Husk Charcoal Company, which will undercut the charcoal dealing mafias.It is for this reason that I am refreshed by the idea that the Chinese government built a mall as part of their trade mission in Nairobi. That they talk about doing business -- and mean it. For when you hear our European Union diplomat types talk, you would think all they do is donate and provide "partnership support" -- we are not a market, we are a sort of kindergarten that needs a firm hand and bright, bold colors.A raft of articles has come from concerned people in the West who talk about how China and India are exploiting Africa. But to me it seems that their motives are far more upfront, transparent and sincere than the patronising baby talk that issues from our partners with briefcases who want to start fail-safe businesses by getting pity grants.I recently met somebody who trains Africans in "income generating activities". She has never run a successful business. She took a course in development somewhere in Europe. She was flying business class to Amsterdam.It's a good gig, if you can get it. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including
[Ugnet] ATTN Mitayo: CIA uses Sudanese intelligence in Iraq
Ndugu Mitayo, Here is an update of what your progressive Arab friends in Khartoum are up to now: playing hand-in-glove with the CIA. By the way, how did that demonstration against imperialism that you recently advertised go?Vukoni_ CIA uses Sudanese intelligence in Iraq By Chris Talbot 9 July 2007(www.wsws.org) Back to screen version | Send this link by email | Email the author At the same time as the United States has imposed sanctions and is putting pressure on Khartoum to accept a United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur, the CIA is relying on Sudan's intelligence service to carry out spying activities in Iraq. In a June 11 article in the Los Angeles Times, anonymous US intelligence officials and ex-officials explained that the Sudanese intelligence service, the Mukhabarat, had assembled a network of informants in Iraq providing information on the insurgency. The officials declined to say whether Sudanese agents were actually inside Iraq, but claimed that informants could have been recruited as they passed through Khartoum. "If you've got jihadists travelling via Sudan to get into Iraq, there's a pattern there in and of itself that would not raise suspicion," said a former high-ranking CIA official. "It creates an opportunity to send Sudanese into that pipeline." A second ex-official is reported as saying, "There's not much that blond-haired, blue-eyed case officers from the United States can do in the entire Middle East, and there's nothing they can do in Iraq. Sudanese can go places we don't go. They're Arabs. They can wander around." Sudanese intelligence was also said to have helped the US in Somalia, building contacts with the Islamic Courts and fingering alleged members of Al Qaeda. It is widely known that the US has cultivated its relationship with Sudanese intelligence, reopening the CIA station in Khartoum after 9/11. The Bush administration moved away from the previous US policy of treating Sudan as a pariah state, not only for collaboration over intelligence but also because of pressure from oil corporations interested in gaining a share of oil reserves from which they had been excluded because of sanctions. The then head of Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), General Salah Abdullah Mohamed Gosh, made trips to CIA headquarters at Langley and met British Intelligence and CIA officials in London. The information that this Sunni Muslim state is providing a link to insurgents in Iraq is new. It ties in with the analysis provided by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker magazine in March of this year-that the Bush administration has carried out a shift in Middle East policy. This "redirection," as it is known, involves backing Sunni states and even extremist groups as a counterweight to Iran and the Shiite majority in Iraq. (See "The Bush administration's new strategy of setting the Middle East aflame") Although the Los Angeles Times article does not refer to it, the Sudanese government, currently chair of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (Cissa), held the fourth conference of this African Union body in Khartoum last month. It seems that the Iraq connection was made known to journalists attending the conference. The Sudanese regime was eager to display its good relations with US intelligence to the world's press. The event was attended by the intelligence chiefs of over 46 African countries, as well as most Western intelligence agencies, including senior CIA and British security officials. According to reports in the South African and Kenyan press, the assembled spies took part in a junket that involved NISS head Salah Al-Din Abdulla Mohammed dancing on stage and back-slapping his Western counterparts. Journalists were taken on a visit to a refugee camp in Darfur, although they were not allowed to speak to the inmates. Every effort was made to play down the Sudanese government's role in the Darfur conflict, with General Gosh, now the chairman of Cissa, telling journalists that the Darfur crisis only existed in America, where it was an issue between Republicans and Democrats. The importance of Sudanese intelligence to the US, particularly with the Iraq connection, underlines the futility of the humanitarian campaign to bring in United Nations peacekeepers to alleviate the suffering of the Darfur population. It is not possible to separate American policy in Darfur and Sudan from the imperialist invasion of Iraq. The Bush administration has found it necessary to publicly denounce what it terms "genocide" being carried out by the Sudanese government, whilst working covertly through their intelligence services to collaborate with the very regime that is responsible for these crimes against humanity. In the UN the campaign for sanctions against Sudan, led by the US and Britain, has been used to wage a propaganda offensive against China and Russia. China buys much of Sudan's oil and both China and Russia sell
[Ugnet] Why Kenya should be wary of China
Why Kenya should be wary of China Story by MAKAU MUTUA Publication Date: 7/01/2007 (Sunday Nation, Nairobi) Recently, there has been a dizzying parade of high-level visitors between Africa and the People's Republic of China. Some Kenyan officials have suggested that the country should increasingly look East to diversify its economic relationships and reduce dependency on the West. Theoretically, this sounds like a plausible idea. That is until you give it serious thought. China, once upon a time the pivot of the oppressed Third World, has itself become a voracious and cruel imperial overlord. That is why Kenya and Africa must fundamentally recalculate their relationship with the rising Chinese leviathan. China still sings the song about Third World solidarity, but its political and economic actions and interests belie the song. This does not mean that Kenya should not engage China. Rather, it means that Kenya must guard its rear. In effect, we do not simply want to trade the imperial West with another crude exploiter. A smart foreign policy cannot ignore China. But neither can it gloss over China's ugly record in Africa nor hand it the key to our treasures on sweet but empty promises. We must insist on a relationship of equals. In terms of untapped resources, Africa is the last virgin frontier. The Chinese government has only belatedly realised this fact because of the energy needs of its high-octane economy. This explains the State visits by President Hu Jintao to African countries such as Kenya and South Africa that did not previously exist on the Chinese political map. With a population of 1.3 billion, the largest in the world, and in a race for global supremacy with the West, China wants every valuable resource they can lay their hands on. This second scramble for Africa is not very different from the one by the Europeans in the 19th century. It is about economic exploitation. Let's for a moment contemplate what has happened in China. The China of 2007 looks nothing like the communist state that Mao Tse Tung established in 1949. After his death in 1976, China steadily liberalised its economy and has become in reality a capitalist State ruled by a single party that is only communist by name. The Communist Party of China has instead devised a highly successful strategy for global domination driven by a strong military and State-directed capitalism. In the process, nothing is sacred - not the people, the environment, or human rights. I used to have a soft spot for the Chinese because they were one of the major checks on the unbridled global power of the West. At the United Nations and other institutions of global governance, China used to be a firm voice for the Third World. But in the late 1980s, China started to distance itself from Third World causes as its economy grew fast and its national interests shifted. As China's interests became increasingly imperial, it moved closer to the United States and away from the Third World. India is doing the same thing today. Nothing demonstrates the callousness of Chinese policy towards Africa than its support for the Sudanese government in spite of the genocide in Darfur. Even with the killings of 500,000 black African Darfurians by the Arab Janjaweed militias and Sudanese government forces, China does not even have the moral courage to call that genocide. It has threatened to block and veto a robust United Nations force to stop the carnage. Beijing is now the protector of Khartoum at most international forums. President Jintao believes that the West cannot afford to push him very far on Sudan because of China's presumed economic leverage on Washington. Let's be clear about one thing. Beijing is not shielding Khartoum because of some new found love for President Omar Bashir and Sudanese Arabs. China's interest in Sudan resides in three letters: oil. The Chinese economy is burning fossil fuels at a rate that is unprecedented in human history. China also knows that Khartoum desperately needs friends because the genocide has made it a pariah. The two regimes have a perfect meeting of interests. In return, the Sudanese have given Chinese oil companies wide latitude to exploit oil and other natural resources. It is the revenue from the oil industry that buys the weapons to commit genocide in Darfur. It is urgent that the United Nations forces a vote on comprehensive sanctions on Sudan unless it allows an effective UN force to enter Darfur to stop the genocide. The UN should dare China to veto such a resolution. It is here that leading African States - such as Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria - can have real impact. We know that China is seriously courting these three States as its gateway to Africa's vast resources. As a condition for any deals, these States must insist that China ends its support for Khartoum and backs the UN force. The Chinese are not stupid. If three key African States raise their voices, it may be forced to do the right
RE: [Ugnet] Fwd: Let us get the facts of Uganda?s history right
Samuel Baker in the early 1860s described Acholi girls being sold for as little as 13 English sewing needles. -- But those were also the days that Acholi chiefs organized to fight slaver raiders with notable success. And without putting the Acholi people in concentration camps. Which means that nearly 150 years later, the Ugandan neo-colonial state offers even less security to wananchi there than their ancestral confederal chiefdoms did. Original Message Subject: [Ugnet] Fwd: Let us get the facts of Uganda?s history right From: Ochan Otim [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, June 25, 2007 12:03 pm To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda ugandanet@kym.net   Let us get the facts ofUganda's history right Sunday, 24th June, 2007 E-mail article  Printarticle Merrick Posnansky By Merrick Posnansky In Uganda, history has been a simplistic story describing how beforethe Europeans arrived, there were well-established kingdoms likeBuganda, Bunyoro and Ankole between Lake Victoria and the westernlakes. In the north were Lwoo, people without kingdoms who spilled over as theLuo into eastern Kenya. There were also less sophisticated cattle folklike the Karimojong in the northeast. In this scenario things began tochange when the first European explorers turned up in Buganda. FirstBurton and Speke, and in 1875 Stanley. His glowing descriptions of theBuganda kingdom led to the arrival of Christian missionaries, bothProtestant (CMS) and Catholic in 1877. Apart from Christianity, theybrought blessings of trade and civilisation. This over-simplification of Uganda's history has led to manymisunderstandings. The least of which is to give a Lake Victoria biasto Uganda history, stress the accomplishments of early missionaries andconcentrate on activities from the capital Kampala. It has led to amisunderstanding of the past that ignores the north. Research in Karamoja has revealed the ancestors of early humans 15million years ago. If linguistics are a guide, early agriculturedeveloped in north east of Africa and spread south into Uganda. Earlyagriculture involved animals and crops like mullet, sorghum andprobably bananas. As civilisation developed in Egypt, trade from thesouth brought timber, animal products, metals and slaves. With thecollapse of Egyptian civilisation 3,000 years ago, the centre ofgravity shifted to north of Khartoum, where the Meroitic civilisationexisted for a 1,000 years followed by 1,000 years of Christiankingdoms. With the collapse of these Christian states and severe climatic change,700 years ago, people were displaced. The ripple effect was manifestedin the Lwoo movements not only bringing pastoralism, but aspects ofgovernment and language hailing from the middle Nile. In 1821, Mohammed Ali, the Albanian ruler of Egypt invaded the Sudan.Merchants went south for two most sought products - slaves and ivoryused to make billiard balls and piano keys. The upper Nile became aboom area with slavers operating in ways not different from those oftoday's Janjaweed in Darfur, ravaged large areas. Samuel Baker in the early 1860s described Acholi girls being sold foras little as 13 English sewing needles. In return for financial subsidies for a failing Egyptian state, Britainwas given command in the Sudan to control the slave trade. First cameSir Samuel Baker and in 1874 Colonel Charles Gordon, an engineer whomapped the Nile valley, built a network of administrative and militarystations like Dufile and Wadelai and introduced steam ships onto theAlbertine Nile. This represented the first real globalisation of Ugandamuch more than the arrival of four CMS missionaries in 1877, three ofwhom died within a year. Gordon's emissaries visited both Mutesa and Kabalega. Emin Pasha, oneof the most remarkable scientific scholar administrators ever to workin Africa, controlled Equatorial covering the Sudan and northern Ugandatill 1888. Military stations like Dufile covered more than four hectares, hadsurrounding ramparts five metres high with garrisons of hundreds ofSudanese and Egyptians. The fort personnel interacted with the localpopulation, largely Madi and Lugbara and exported foodstuffs to thenorth. Dufile alone grew more than 35 different crops. The forts were abandoned in the late 1880's when Britain abandoned theSudan following Gordon's murder in Khartoum by the Mahdists. TheseSudanese soldiers were brought down to Kampala in 1890 with theirfamilies, who now comprise Uganda's Muslim Nubian population, byCaptain Lugard to form Uganda's first army, the African Rifles. This history of the interactions between Sudanese and the localpopulation such as those in northern Uganda was explored in excavationsat Dufile in December 2006 and January 2007 by foreign scholars withsupport from the Uganda Museum and students of
RE: [Ugnet] UPC takes Oyam South MP seat
Jal Ocii, Thanks for your bluntness. Truth must be spoken, not only to power but also to the people and the power seekers. During the electoral campaigns last year, I remember chastising the opposition parties for reserving their venom for each other. Politics is the art of the possible. It is also the art of making coalitions and utilizing all means that don't require you to abandon your principles to get what you want. As things stand, the probability that an ailing UPC will remove Museveni all on its own is close to zero. No, I'm being generous. It is pure fantasy. But of course, we can't quite match the self-destructive energies of political dilettantes who like to grandstand and vituperate their (potential) allies in e-mail discussion forums instead of doing the hard work of organizing Ugandans for more democratic alternatives. Vukoni Original Message Subject: Re: [Ugnet] UPC takes Oyam South MP seat From: ocii [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sat, June 23, 2007 9:32 am To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda ugandanet@kym.net Quite funny how you don't understand messages! Why don't you read messages many times if thats what it takes, or ask questions before reading finally what you want in them other than what is written?! What has individuals got to do with point B or C?! You see thi's where I normally get peeved!! If you don't understand nothing say so before opening your ignorant mind!! It will help. Moving from point A at present, to point B is a Woodpecking approach to, let me use the same term, usher in fundamental change, enabling putting in place, a modified version of a 'pecking order' in the country; note modified -imparting a nationalistic pecking order! Do you get it now or are still wondering what Ocii is talking about?! Let me know. Ocii Edward Mulindwa [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: And your point B the Kiiza Besigye happens to be very sick to the extent that Mugisha Muntu a car robberer now holds the helm of FDC, may be just may be Ugandans now have Ocii as plan C. Unbelievable how we as a people have failed to wonder how UPC has won this seat and start a new discussion on how the plat form of this electorate has started to move despite the lies of FDC and to wonder how Maama Miria's leadership has some how survived to lead a seat in parliament. But hoi we are in a car accident and we need a plan B. We need to some how slow down and look at Uganda issues with reality for reality is starting to hit home. Lies only work part time. Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - From: ocii To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2007 3:55 AM Subject: [Ugnet] UPC takes Oyam South MP seat At least two people were confirmed dead including Charles Awany, a UPC party mobiliser, who was knocked dead by a speeding vehicle at Loro Trading Centre on Lira-Kamdini highway. This is one among many reasons there is need for point B to be able to usher in a more nationalist and Africancentric constitution, enabling thorough investigations into such deaths, and the perpetrator/s punishable by death, if the death proves motivated by any form of hatred! Ocii ^^ UPC takes Oyam South MP seat SAMUEL O. EGADU OYAM Uganda Peoples Congress has defeated the ruling NRM in the hotly contested Oyam South parliamentary by-elections. District returning officer Robert Beine declared UPC's Issa Otto winner just after 11:00pm on Thursday. Mr Otto polled 8,842 votes against NRM candidate Patrick Ogwang's 5,352. Mr Ogwang came third in the race. Independent candidate Nelson Adea was the second with 6,541 votes while Ruth Ataala Adupa (independent) came last with 1,111 votes. The seat fell vacant following the death of former member of Parliament Yefusa Okullo Epak who succumbed to lung cancer at a South Africa hospital in April. Celebrations Jubilant UPC supporters danced and sang party songs upon hearing the news of Mr Otto's victory. The hotly contested seat attracted several NRM officials including Dorothy Hyuha, minister without portfolio, Daniel Omara Atubo, minister of lands, housing and urban development and Musa Ecweru, state minister for disaster preparedness and refugees who camped in Oyam to rally support for NRM candidate Ogwang. Dokolo Woman MP Cecilia Ogwal (independent) also camped in Oyam to campaign for Mr Adea. There was low voter turn out as only 21,426 people voted out 93,803 registered voters in Oyam South constituency, representing just only 22.8%. Cancelled results Mr Beine said results of Aweikwo polling
[Ugnet] Lustful women jam emergency lines
Lustful women jam emergency lines ZURAH NAKABUGO KAMPALA SOME 900 Kampala women call the Uganda Police emergency lines every night begging the officers for sex. Shocking reporters at a usually drab police weekly press conference, Kampala Extra Police Spokesman Simeo Nsubuga said the information room was flooded with unwanted calls from lonely women. We warn desperate women who call our officers at night using police patrol lines asking them to make love. They call the toll free line everyday saying they are feeling so cold in bed and need some assistance from police, Mr Nsubuga told the bemused journalists. These women also go further to direct our officers at their places of residence so that they can reach them. They mainly start calling from midnight up to morning talking nonsense. Hotlines which the Police Force publicises regularly are meant for quick response to emergencies like fire, robbery and theft. The force which is strained by small numbers and less than ideal number of cars would rather respond to genuine emergencies rather than naughty callers. Some naughtier callers, Mr Nsubuga said went as far as dialling the police only for officers to be treated to the sounds of people having sex. Few policemen According to official figures there is just one policeman for every 1,880 Ugandans. According to Mr Nsubuga the information or dispatch room receives between 800-1,000 calls per night but only 10 per cent are genuine. He singled out female callers as the most notorious abusers of the facility. Interestingly, Mr Nsubuga said some of the women claim it's the newspapers, radio stations and their pastors that convince them that men are available at the other end of the 999 emergency dial. We are warning them to stop congesting our Patrol lines because they deny access to people with serious emergencies, he said. Mr Nsubuga warned that the public risked a no response from the police in times of real need. Police mission The mission statement of the Uganda Police is to secure life and property in partnership with the public. That mission is made difficult at times such as this. Among other complaints, the police mentioned callers who insult the officers and others who simply engage the lines but say nothing. Some drunkards just call us asking to be escorted back home after dancing and drinking. This is too much for us. We shall follow every caller and arrest those who don't have genuine reasons for calling, Mr Nsubuga said. Police said among the bizarre requests made on the emergency 999 line are people who want to talk to their dead friends or relatives. They call us when they want to talk to Kadongo kamu artiste the late Paul Job Kafeero because their pastors told them to use 999 very late in the night and be able to talk to their beloved deceased, he said. He advised the public to be brief when they call and clearly mention their address. The police also advise residents to interest themselves in the phone numbers of area police stations and urged local leaders to clearly mark roads to enable accessibility by the police rescue teams. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Leading us blindly in East Africa
OPINIONS COMMENTARIES THE OTHER SIDE OF LAW | Moses Sserwanga ... Leading us blindly in East Africa June 19, 2007 In his State-of-the-Nation address on June 21, President Yoweri Museveni emphasised the need for regional integration reasoning that the advantages of such a grouping far outweigh the disadvantages. The 5th extra-ordinary summit of East African Community (EAC) heads of state and council of ministers which was opened in Kampala yesterday admitted two new member states: Rwanda and Burundi, to broaden and consolidate the benefits that come with regional political and trading blocs. As the heads of state re-examined their commitment and the progress made towards regional integration; they needed also to reflect on the provisions of the East African treaty which in the most obligatory language, require the Partner States to implement a dispensation of constitutionalism, democracy and good governance. The governments of the member states are also under a legal obligation to ensure the rule of law, and the protection and promotion of human rights in accordance with the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. These obligations require that the process of enactment or amendment of the Treaty, its Protocols or any legislation subsidiary to them are lawful and do not infringe the Treaty or laws made under it, or national constitutions or laws, or settled principles of international law. It is now trite international law that the process of enactment or amendment of a Treaty, is people-driven, consultative and participatory. Peremptory (decisive) norms of international law call for enactment and amendments of treaties to be made in good faith - to strengthen, and not weaken, the organs, programmes and processes for which they are sought. In other words the principle of public consultation in Treaty reform or amendment is fundamental. One of the key issues that was addressed by the heads of government at the EAC Kampala meet is the recent illegal amendments to the EAC treaty which have since been challenged in court by the East African Law Society. Unfortunately, the EAC heads of state endorsed the illegal changes in the Treaty's provisions. The purported amendments contravened the provisions of the Treaty itself since no wide consultations were made by the three governments. Indeed, the net effect of such illegal amendments will be to imperil the very life of the East African Community. The East African Law Society is on record that the process of amending the Treaty should be carried out according to the provisions of the Treaty. The regional lawyers' body has noted that the amendments to the Treaty are aimed at creating avenues in which judges of the East African Court of justice (Eacj) could illegally be sacked, thereby undermining the institution of justice within the Community. Traditionally, ratification of international legal instruments such as treaties, conventions, protocols that legally bind nations for common purpose is the preserve of presidents and their ministers. However, this practice `has been abused by governments that opt to ignore the broader interests of the people they govern when entering into international and regional treaties. Because of these underlying problems associated with the unlimited powers of the Executive (the presidents and their ministers) to commit their countries to international obligations, the Kenyan parliament has recently wrested that power from Cabinet. In a bold move, the Kenyan parliament argued that agreements that bind the country in whichever manner must be endorsed and ratified in parliament by the people's elected and nominated representatives. This should be the practice and the other member states in the community (including Uganda) should follow suit. It is also about time now that a general review of the East African Treaty is carried out by the three governments in a democratic manner involving all the peoples of East Africa. Some of the provisions of the Treaty are contradictory in nature and need revision. Take for instance the issue of having the sitting justices of the East African Court of Justice retaining their positions as judges in their respective countries of origin. This doesn't only create a situation where there is conflict of interest but the judges are exposed to coercion and intimidation by the partner states. This is not good for justice. Next week: The law on corruption should be enforced to the letter. The writer is a Journalist/Advocate [EMAIL PROTECTED] msserwanga.blogspot.com 0772 43 46 77 ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.
Re: [Ugnet] Why do African Governments Neglect Their People?
The condition of children in many African countries leaves much to be desired. True. But a so-called expert who makes meaningless statements such as In Africa, there’s a taboo around mourning a baby.” doesn't inspire my confidence about the accuracy of other social inferences or assumptions he makes. The Ma'di, my immediate community, and all our neighbors do mourn babies, even more than I've seen Europeans or their American cousins mourn their grown ups. To me it is fuzzy social science (which isn't exact to begin with) to make sweeping generalizations of this kind about a multicultural, multinational continent of nearly $1 billion people. Very soon, some Africa hand in UNICEF or the plethora of Western agencies will design a remedial program based on this study and stupid African governments who should know better will embrace it with the dollars attached. My beef apart, I think for the most part the neocolonial state (what Chinweizu calls the Lugardist state) in Africa is incapable of delivering the goods because it was never designed to solve the problems of its citizens. Sorry, this type of state can't even be reformed. It's rotten to the core. So, why do African governments neglect their people? The answer is because they were designed that way. Until a critical mass of us understand this and are motivated enough to yank government from its colonial, essentially anti-people roots and fundamentally restructure it, we will keep asking this question for another 100 years or more. musamize wrote: November 22, 2006 Counting African Lives Lost in First Weeks By CELIA W. DUGGER http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/celia_w_dugger/index.html?inline=nyt-per More than a million babies die across Africa every year in their first month of life, a tragedy neglected by donor countries and African governments and hidden from view because the deaths often occur in societies where mothers and their babies are secluded after birth and the children go unnamed for weeks, according to a report by dozens of medical and public health experts released today. “Look at the reaction in the U.S. or the U.K. if even one baby dies, particularly if there is malpractice http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/malpractice/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier,” said Dr. Joy Lawn, a lead author of the report, “Opportunities for Africa’s Newborns.” “Families get very upset and there’s a big hoo-ha. In Africa, there’s a taboo around mourning a baby.” Major international efforts to reduce child mortality from measles http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/measles/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier, malaria http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/malaria/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier and diarrhea have largely benefited older babies and young children who have survived the trials of being a newborn. The 60 scientists and doctors who collaborated on the report say they hope to bring a new focus to the care of infants in Africa during the first days and weeks of life. Countries where newborns have the highest risk of dying — among them, Liberia http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/liberia/index.html?inline=nyt-geo, Ivory Coast http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/ivorycoast/index.html?inline=nyt-geo, Mali http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/mali/index.html?inline=nyt-geo and Nigeria http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/nigeria/index.html?inline=nyt-geo — also have the most easily preventable deaths, according to the report, which was financed by Save the Children, the United States Agency for International Development and the World Health Organization http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/w/world_health_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org. Following are some of the most significant findings: ¶Many of the more than 300,000 babies who die because they are not breathing at birth could have been saved if birth attendants knew a simple resuscitation technique that relies on a mask and plastic bag device that can be sold for as little as $10. ¶Some 70,000 babies die of tetanus infections that could have been prevented if mothers had been given two 20-cent tetanus shots when they were pregnant. ¶Many of the babies born prematurely who die could have survived if they had been kept warm and snug against their mother’s chests, skin to skin, and wrapped in place with a cloth. This technique, called kangaroo mother care, uses the mother’s body heat to care for a small premature baby suffering from low body temperature. It has been found as effective as incubator care, the report said. Lacking an understanding of their babies’ need for warmth, poor mothers often give them cold
Re: [Ugnet] Sharangabo's tirade against The French is totallyunwarranted.(To Mr Matek)
We seem to be missing the fine point in this saga. It is that people are going to find more creative ways to pursue justice. So if you're a rebel, make sure you kill only the nationals of banana republics that don't care a hoot what happens to their own citizens. I leave the rest to your imagination who else among our sorry bunch of murderous political bufoons could find themselves in the crosshairs of an ambitious West European judge. Edward Mulindwa wrote: Sharangabo So since the facts are on our side let President Kagame take a stand and we clear this once for all what is so complex here? Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - *From:* sharangabo rufagari mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *To:* The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda mailto:ugandanet@kym.net ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *Sent:* Saturday, November 25, 2006 2:47 PM *Subject:* Re: [Ugnet] Sharangabo's tirade against The French is totallyunwarranted.(To Mr Matek) Mr Matek Opoko, You seem to not master what going on or either you may be completely ignorant about the French politics. Let just suppose that Paul KAGAME the now President of Rwanda could have ordre the assasination of Habyarimana(What I can guarantee you that such order never happen).But just think for a second!How many President in French speaking countries have been killed in office under the directives of the French government? THOMAS SANKARA of Burkina Faso,Marien NGOUABY of Congo Brazzaville,Leon MBA of Gabon(to name few..)Some were outrghtly overtrown by mercanaries like Bob Denard under the pay of the French Government.Do you remember the Comoros Islands. PAUL KAGAME and his comrades where the first Africans to have challlenged that MYTHE about the French in our Continent.Not only they were able to stop a genocide prepared and under the supervision of France,they were able also to chase out of power their PUPPETS like MOBUTU and on.. Dear Matek,I know the french very well.And what I can tell you is that the BRITS are angels comparatively to them. Let speak about the History of Colonialism and it's legacy. Sharangabo */Matek Opoko [EMAIL PROTECTED]/* wrote: Why the attack against France, and yet you spare Britain ? The truth be told Britain and Museveni's Uganda were deeply involved in the shooting of the Plane carrying President Juvenile Habyalimana, an event which lead rather triggered the genocide of 1994 . In all fairness, therefore, Mr. Sharangabo should be pissed off at the British other then the French. The French judge,no doubt, has a right to demand that President Paul Kagame and nine of his associates MUST answer in the courts if only to shed some light as to what exactly happened on night President Habyaliman's plane was brought down with an ant-aircraft Missile. More so because a french citizen who was traveling in that plane with President Habyaliman also died in that plane. Attacking the French and sparing the British, is pretty much a futile exercise to say the least. Matek Dear Africans, Again FRANCE has shown that it's ARROGANCE toward the AFRICAN PEOPLE. It has been a common and normal thing for those neo-colonialist and imperialist fellows to look on Africans Blacks as inferiors peoples.They could go and dismiss any leader in our Continent as they wished.They had assumed that any little Judge could come and just summon an African leader,overthrow him has they didi for BOKASSA and all the bouffons we still have and who can't swear in any other language than french. Apparentely those PAUVRES IDIOTS can't figure out that the times of OUI MONSIEUR! is over.Long time ago it has been over! FRANCE was not only a passive participant in the genocide of TUTSIS in Rwanda.In my view it was actualy one of the PRINCIPAL ENGINNER of it! In the days coming the days ahead.I will be presenting to the world all those braves SONS of Africa and DAUGHTERS who dared to challenge FRANCE for the
Re: [Ugnet] RE: APG TO SUE GOV'T OVER LAND
Ssenyange, I have a theory about land fraud or dispossession. In places like Buganda, Bunyoro, and Acholi where the central government (colonial and postcolonial) has been heavily involved one way or other, predatory and speculative land transactions (e.g) proliferate. However, for most people and communities who lose their land, the fraudsters are usually local -- politicians, civil servants, or businessmen. With a few exceptions, foreigners are bogeymen. I would go on a limb and suggest that if the Odongas looked hard enough, they would find members of the Acholi middle class quietly or blatantly involved in land grabs. Okello Okello certainly knows where the bodies are buried, as it were, since he was land commissioner on Parliamentary Avenue for a very long time. Having said that, I think we have a serious land crisis, much of it related to tenure and degradation. The NRM regime didn't start the crisis; the colonial government did and hereditary rulers, including the royal family in Buganda (crown and mailo land anyone?) and their proteges were some of the beneficiaries of that initial tinkering. All post-independence governments have continued to play God with our land and property. But Museveni has made things worse by personally interfering with land laws and policy with little regard for cultural traditions, environmental protection, and even laws that he has engineered himself. We do need to revisit the land issue both at ocal and national levels, but lynching foreigners isn't going to change anything. V Its amazing to see that many other nationalities have waken up to defend their ancestral\ native land against the NRM land grabbers who use tax payers money + money collected from the sale of govt properties to unfairly deprive the peasants of their land. Baganda have been complaining and peacefully fighting for the same but almost of politicians and non politians outside Buganda viewed it as Baganda wants to chase us out of Buganda . On this note, we've been fighting a lonely battle, accusing us of sectarian\ tribalistic etc. Imagine if a fund is set up to buy off all non Baganda land owners with more than 1 acre in Buganda ( similar to Buyaga and Bugangazzi). How much will be the outcry of Tribalism? Imagine the spear threats came from Baganda. PGB and 2 more bridgades would be deployed into Buganda within 2 months, and many will be charged for inciting hatrate. In This world we will never been equal. History will judge. J. Ssenyange - From: Ochan Otim [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda ugandanet@kym.net To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda ugandanet@kym.net,[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Ugnet] Fwd: APG TO SUE GOV'T OVER LAND Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2006 09:13:57 -0800 Acholi MPs to take government to court over land BY JOHN MUTO-ONO P’LAJUR 24/11/2006 THE CHAIRMAN of Acholi Parliamentary Group (APG), Hon. John Livingston Okellokello, November 24th, 2006 vowed to take government to court over its claims that Aswa and Acholi ranches located in Present Pader district belongs to government and therefore has no rights to give them out to any investor. “This matter will go to court should anybody come to claim ownership of the land. We shall take them to court.” Okellokello is leading members of APG in a tour of the sub-region to sensitize the community on land matters, return of IDPs and the Juba Peace talks. On Thursday they held a long discussion with Acholi Cultural leaders. He clarified that the then Acholi district gave the two ranches to a parastatal body called Uganda Livestock Industries, which is a legal entity on its own. “The parastatals are not government. They are legal entities on their own, which are entitled to own properties, can sue or be sued. It is those who know nothing about land laws are the ones misadvising government. How callous.” He said the only land government could claim to own are all the lands whose titles are with Uganda Land Commission and any piece of land, which had been gazetted as government land on 8th October 1995, when the Constitution was promulgated. In a public statement dated 18th November 2006, the Vice-chairman of APG Hon. Reagan Okumu said having lost almost everything to 20-year-old insurgency, northern Uganda guards the only major resource i.e. Land jealously. He said perceived fears and threats to grab Acholi land in particular should not be misunderstood to mean the region rejects investors. “It is in this spirit that we invite investors to partner with our people for mutual interests and also to prepare to shoulder social responsibilities to permanently cement good relationship as social security to investors.” Okumu said in his statement. Okumu told Daily Monitor the first casualty over land with come from Ankole and Kigezi because rich people there now compete over buying
Re: [Ugnet] Fw: [Mwananchi] Thirty percent of African children want to live abroad: study
EM, Does anyone have a copy of the real survey? I'm itching to ask some probing questions but I don't want to base them on AFP's interpretation of the report (if they have even read it at all). Vukoni Edward Mulindwa wrote: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061115/wl_africa_afp/africachildren http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061115/wl_africa_afp/africachildren *Thirty percent of African children want to live abroad: study * Wed Nov 15, 2:18 PM ET ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Thirty percent of African children would prefer not to live in their country of birth, although most consider themselves happy and optimistic about the future, a report said. Conducted for the UN childrens' agency UNICEF and presented to the Economic Commission of Africa in the Ethiopian capital, the study surveyed 4,000 nine- to 17-year-olds in eight sub-Saharan African countries. Among its chief findings was that three in 10 African youngsters would rather live abroad, many of them in the United States, Canada and Europe but also in more developed African nations like South Africa and Kenya. The desire to leave their country was most pronounced in Malawi and Botswana, where 45 and 38 percent of children respectively indicated they wanted to live elsewhere. The report was released in the wake of the international uproar over pop diva Madonna's adoption last month of a Malawian child that sparked debate over the desirability of removing African children from their roots. Despite the attraction of other nations, the survey found a healthy majority of children to be happy in their current conditions and an even greater number to be optimistic about their futures. Sixty-four percent thought their birth country was better off than it was ten years ago and 79 percent thought they would live better than their parents. In the case of Africa, happiness means no war, no shooting around while it could mean for Asian children, to get more gadgets, said Madka Taffese, a researcher with the UNICEF affiliate that helped conduct the poll. Assefa Bequele, the group's executive director, said there was a correlation between the state of mind of the child and the state of democracy in the country where they live. Children in Tanzania were happiest and most confident about the future while the lowest rates were recorded in Angola and Rwanda, countries recovering from long bouts of unrest, she said. The survey, conducted in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia, Malawi, Somalia and Tanzania, where about 90 million children live, also found an extremely limited knowledge of key issues like HIV/AIDS and human rights among youth. About 57 percent of children surveyed knew nothing of the HIV/AIDS pandemic that is ravaging Africa and the 52 percent had none or only a slight understanding of their rights, with the most ignorance in Angola, Burundi and Somalia, the report said. Forward Ever (by any means necessary)! Karen C. Aboiralor __._,_.___ Messages in this topic http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mwananchi/message/71439;_ylc=X3oDMTM2bGJobnZ0BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzI0OTg4NjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NDQ0NTk1BG1zZ0lkAzcxNDM5BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3Z0cGMEc3RpbWUDMTE2Mzg1NDExMQR0cGNJZAM3MTQzOQ--(1) Reply (via web post) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mwananchi/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJxM29yaDQ2BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzI0OTg4NjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NDQ0NTk1BG1zZ0lkAzcxNDM5BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3JwbHkEc3RpbWUDMTE2Mzg1NDExMQ--?act=replymessageNum=71439| Start a new topic http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mwananchi/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJldjU5ZjhtBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzI0OTg4NjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NDQ0NTk1BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA250cGMEc3RpbWUDMTE2Mzg1NDExMQ-- Messages http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mwananchi/messages;_ylc=X3oDMTJldWhuZTFrBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzI0OTg4NjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NDQ0NTk1BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA21zZ3MEc3RpbWUDMTE2Mzg1NDExMQ-- | Polls http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mwananchi/polls;_ylc=X3oDMTJmZDB0ZGxsBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzI0OTg4NjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NDQ0NTk1BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3BvbGxzBHN0aW1lAzExNjM4NTQxMTE- | Calendar http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mwananchi/calendar;_ylc=X3oDMTJkOHB2MzA3BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzI0OTg4NjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NDQ0NTk1BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2NhbARzdGltZQMxMTYzODU0MTEx Mwananchi is an open forum that discusses/updates you on the latest news in Africa. It is a group that is made up of 900 members worldwide. To join it simply go to http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/mwananchi You can also join a Kenyan community based group that is open to all. This forum has ngos and members that are networking on how to help communities in Kenya and the url is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Kenyainternationalgroup You can also be added directly to any of the above forums by simply emailing chifu at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thank you for your membership. Chifu Moderator Yahoo! Groups http://groups.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTJkaGZqc2FqBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzI0OTg4NjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NDQ0NTk1BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2dmcARzdGltZQMxMTYzODU0MTEx Change settings via the Web
[Ugnet] Link to online Kiswahili Classroom
These two are the best Kiswahili learning resources I've come across online: http://www.africa.uga.edu/Kiswahili/doe/grammar.html http://ww.yale.edu/swahili ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] [Crusnet] U.S. is top weapons supplier to unstable states
U.S. is top weapons supplier to unstable states November 14, 2006 By Bryan Bender Boston Globe WASHINGTON - The United States last year provided nearly half of the weapons sold to militaries in the developing world, as major arms sales to the most unstable regions - many already engaged in conflict - grew to the highest level in eight years, new US government figures show. According to the annual assessment, the United States supplied $8.1 billion worth of weapons to developing countries in 2005 – 45.8 percent of the total and far more than second-ranked Russia with 15 percent and Britain with a little more than 13 percent. Arms control specialists said the figures underscore how the largely unchecked arms trade to the developing world has become a major staple of the American weapons industry, even though introducing many of the weapons risks fueling conflicts rather than aiding long-term US interests. The report was compiled by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. We are at a point in history where many of these sales are not essential for the self-defense of these countries and the arms being sold continue to fuel conflicts and tensions in unstable areas, said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the nonpartisan Arms Control Association in Washington. It doesn't make much sense over the long term. The United States, for instance, also signed an estimated $6.2 billion worth of new deals last year to sell attack helicopters, missiles, and other armaments to developing nations such as the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Israel, Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Developing nations are designated as all those except in North America, Western Europe, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition to weapons already delivered, new contracts for future weapons deliveries topped $44 billion last year - the highest overall since 1998, according to the report. Nearly 70 percent of them were designated for developing nations. Many of the US sales are justified by American officials as critical to the war on terrorism or other foreign policy goals such as checking an emerging China. One such example is the recent decision to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. The United States has long relied on arms sales to prop up allies or enhance collective defense arrangements. For decades, during the height of the Cold War, providing conventional weapons to friendly states was an instrument of foreign policy utilized by the United States and its allies, according to the report, titled Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations. 'This was equally true for the Soviet Union and its allies, the report said. Yet there is growing evidence that the sales are increasingly more about dollars and cents for the US military-industrial complex and other major military economies. The trend began after the end of the Cold War, when American, European, Russian, and other defense industries were forced to consolidate and competition for foreign sales heated up. Where before the principal motivation for arms sales by foreign suppliers might have been to support a foreign policy objective, today that motivation may be based as much on economic considerations as those of foreign policy or national security policy, said the congressional report, which detailed both arms deliveries, or weapons actually delivered to customers, and arms agreements, or contracts signed for future deliveries. Washington's desire to maintain the status quo was on display at a meeting at the United Nations on Oct. 26, when a UN panel voted to study whether a new treaty might be possible to regulate the sale of conventional arms. The United States was the only country out of 166 to vote no, though China and Russia were among a handful of countries to abstain. With that lone dissent, the UN's Disarmament and International Security Committee approved a British proposal to draw up uniform standards that might block arms sales considered destabilizing, including those that might fuel ongoing conflicts, violate embargoes, undermine democratic institutions, or contribute to human rights abuses. A UN task force is set to make its recommendations to the General Assembly next year. But powerful interests in the global arms industry have long stood in the way of controlling the arms flow to the developing world. After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, for example, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Russia, France, Britain, and China - pledged to limit the sale of arms to the volatile Middle East, attributing the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to the region having been awash in high-tech arsenals. More than a decade later, those pledges have gone unfulfilled. The United States is not the only culprit. For the first time in eight years, Russia outpaced the United States last year in the value of new arms transfer agreements reached with developing nations, according to the Congressional Research Service
Re: [Ugnet] Museveni defends forest allocation
If only our president could trash those antiquated books he likes quoting from and read 21st century scientific stuff he'd talk a lot more sensibly. Years ago, while shilling for BAT, he infamously told anti-tobacco activists to shut up because you could smoke and avoid cancer as long as you don't inhale. Lugemwa FN wrote: Forests are easier to plant than constructing industries, said Museveni. Sometimes solving a problem causes more harm than good. The President needs to check his 'hypothesis,' because problems often develop a life of their own. Why not construct factories where they are no forests?FN Lugemwa 13 Uganda Federal Union States: Acholi, Ankole, Buganda, (Bugisu Sebei), Bukedi, Bunyoro, Busoga, Karamoja, Kigezi, Lango, Teso, Tooro, (West Nile Madi). */sammusoke [EMAIL PROTECTED]/* wrote: Museveni defends forest allocation Sunday, 12th November, 2006 E-mail article http://newvision.co.ug/E/8/12/531771 E-mail article http://newvision.co.ug/E/8/12/531771Print article http://newvision.co.ug/PA/8/12/531771 Print article http://newvision.co.ug/PA/8/12/531771 FACE-TO-FACE: Museveni chats with Rubaga South MP Nampijja and Mayor Sebaggala as Mutagamba looks on FACE-TO-FACE: Museveni chats with Rubaga South MP Nampijja and Mayor Sebaggala as Mutagamba looks on *By Conan Businge * PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has justified the sale of forests, saying it opens more land for industrialisation. Museveni said the greatest problem in Africa is inadequate manufacturing industries and called for the usage of forest lands. He said he cannot aimlessly sell forests to private investors, saying he knows their value.In Africa, the greatest problem we have is inadequacy in the number of manufacturing industries. This has affected us so much. Forests are easier to plant than constructing industries, said Museveni. Museveni was on Saturday launching a safe water accessibility project for the urban poor people in Rubaga south. Museveni promised this when campaigning for the February presidential elections. Water and environment minister Maria Mutagamba, mayor Nasser Sebaggala, area MP Susan Nampijja Lukyamuzi and National Water and Sewerage Corporation chief Dr. William Muhairwe were present. Environmentalists and the local people have protested the proposal to give the Mehta Group 5,000 hectares of Mabira forest to cultivate sugarcane. Museveni said, I lure investors that show interest in constructing industries. Industries get us employment, raise our social status and raise taxes which we use to support our country especially in the education sector. We can now fund UPE (Universal Primary Education), and free secondary education is beginning soon. Museveni added, I just ignore people making false allegations about me. I believe in the construction of factories and I have no apologies over that. Most countries are economically strong because of factories. If you have factories, you can get funds to conserve the environment but you cannot do this when you are poor. Museveni recently said he would not arbitrarily give away Mabira forest to investors without permission from Parliament. He reportedly said he would first brief the Cabinet, which would present the issue before the NRM caucus to table it in Parliament. Museveni promised to expand the accessibility of safe water to 500,000 poor urban people in Kampala. He said water supply had been extended to 250,000 urban poor and the number would double soon. He said in his campaign in Kampala, residents told him that a 20-litre jerrycan of water cost sh200. Now you can get it for sh25 at the water kiosks in Kampala, Museveni said. Muhairwe promised to supply water for sh25 a jerrycan at the 1,200 kiosks around Kampala. Another 1,000 kiosks will be built in the next six months. We are also to construct GABA III. It will be enough for the next five years. This is not political. It is technical, he said. __._,_.___ SPONSORED LINKS Kampala hotel uganda http://groups.yahoo.com/gads;_ylc=X3oDMTJjMG4yc2FwBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBF9wAzEEZ3JwSWQDMjU2OTkzOQRncnBzcElkAzE3MDUzNjM5NzUEc2VjA3NsbW9kBHN0aW1lAzExNjM0MjM3MzA-?t=msk=Kampala+hotel+ugandaw1=Kampala+hotel+ugandaw2=Kampala+uganda+hotelw3=Uganda+safariw4=American+sailing+associationw5=Uganda+tourc=5s=122g=0.sig=EcTGYvs3jfQulhflaaS_gA Kampala uganda hotel http://groups.yahoo.com/gads;_ylc=X3oDMTJjMGlvNmM5BF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBF9wAzIEZ3JwSWQDMjU2OTkzOQRncnBzcElkAzE3MDUzNjM5NzUEc2VjA3NsbW9kBHN0aW1lAzExNjM0MjM3MzA-?t=msk=Kampala+uganda+hotelw1=Kampala+hotel+ugandaw2=Kampala+uganda+hotelw3=Uganda+safariw4=American+sailing+associationw5=Uganda+tourc=5s=122g=0.sig=qEltt9h-kIDmEu9ml2zUaw Uganda safari
Re: [Ugnet] I shocked by the statement of LC 3 of Okwang
MK, Is this from New Vision or Rupiny? If the latter, do you have the Luo version? Thanks. Vukoni Matek Opoko wrote: I shocked by the statement of LC 3 of Okwang Is he eating? Zadok Odongo Sir- I was overwhelmed by shock and anger after reading the local tabloid, Rupiny of 20.9.2006 on the issue of Land on page 4, titled “Kop lobo pwod tye anyweno wi Langi.” The statements attributed to the LC 3 of Okwang, Zadok Odongo attacking the residents (although currently he is in the squalid camps) of Barlegi was not amusing to say the least. He said that “if the residents don’t give their land to the president, then the UPDF will not defend them against the LRA.” Is the LRA war about land? I want ask Odongo Zadok that should peace return to northern Uganda, what are the people of Barlegi going to profit from after selling their land to the President Museveni and his personal army the PGB? Land brings about enormous profit to a community but a military barracks brings with it, raping young girls, terrorising the locals, taking the women from their partners by force, and torturing civilians as they have been doing for the last 20 years. When a visitor comes to your home and his eyes glitters at the sight of beautiful items in your home, does it mean that you give your items to the visitor? It was government failure that uprooted its own people and forced them into camps; destitute today, some are walking and sleeping in the streets of Kampala. In their entire history Langi and Acholi have never begged for food from anywhere, it is Museveni's war and encampment of the people that has destroyed their livelihood and rendered them vulnerable. Strangely enough, on the 4^th page of Rupiny dated 9-15.8.2006, Museveni’s Minister Omara Atubo, who is being used as the smoke screen to grab our land, said that “Museveni does not want to grab land.” But we are hearing everyday that Museveni, his family and military officers are grabbing land in different parts of Uganda. So how can we believe the minister's statement? Zadok should be ashamed of saying that if Lango land is not given to Museveni then the war will continue. Is Museveni’s government fighting to grab land or to bring peace? Zadok are the type of people who “eats” by “selling” hot air about the innocent people of northern Uganda. Since he is now advocating for Museveni to grab our land or the 'peasants to give it' to him, it must be clear that he has been given something small for his up-keep, perhaps a brown envelope? Cpl. Lubangakene K, Kabamba. Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=42297/*http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. --- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
Re: [Ugnet] HERE COMES AN 'OH BY HTE WAY POSTING
At the center of Western civilization, which is based on the ideology of white supremacy, there is a deep-seated insecurity. This insecurity feeds on two visceral fears: 1. that the victims of white supremacy will one day be strong enough to take their revenge 2. the sense that their way of life is unsustainable and the party will one day end in tears Hence the search for super weapons to stop 1) and 2) from happening. Matek Opoko wrote: EM: I have always wondered as to why this Super Powers often develop even more expensive dangerous weapons to kill even more people! They claim they want to kill people with Greater accuracy then ever. Conventional wisdom has it that NO single nation can win, in the real sense of the word an all out war, were nuclear weapons are used without really destroying the World as we know it? So now why all the saber rattling? Matek */Edward Mulindwa [EMAIL PROTECTED]/* wrote: BEIJING, Nov. 10 -- France has successfully tested a new long-range nuclear missile over the Atlantic Ocean. The launch aims to push forward a new generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The submarine-launched M-51 missile carried no nuclear weapon for the test flight on Thursday. It has a range of 6,000 kilometers that's 50 percent further than that of the M-45 it will replace. The M-51 was developed by European aerospace giant EADS. It was fired from the CELM test site at Biscarrosse about 70 kilometers from the southwestern city of Bordeaux. The new missile is due to come into service around 2010. The French defense ministry says it has enhanced accuracy and is designed to reduce collateral damage. (Source: CCTV.com) The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. --- Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=41244/*http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. --- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
Re: [Ugnet] Alur are not mad..!
I knew this had to be Sagara! It's hilarious. Peter-Rhaina Gwokto wrote: This is awefully fully...! never laughed so hard in a while.. *Alur are not mad* November 10, 2006 I read with muted shock last week that a minister had insinuated that we Alur are mad people. Can you imagine, a mere cabinet minister denigrating the whole integrity of a serious tribe? Just in case you missed the juice, the State Minister of Lands, Dr Kasirivu Atwooki found himself in a spot of bother when a bunch of Alur surrounded him in Hoima and threatened to beat the living daylights out of him. Well, I would approve of the beating! But one thing I cannot tolerate is the defamation he meted out on a ballistic tribe like the Alur. Mbu the Alur were half naked…and to quote him, We can't tolerate this madness. I hereby demand an apology from Dr. Kasiriivu Atwooki for grossly defaming the Archbishop of Uganda and I. I mean there's no mad cow disease in Nebbi. The paranoid Banyoro are dying to evict whoever they deem omugwira ever since the herdsmen discovered that the word Hoima was misspelled-it is supposed to be hoilma! Truth be told, these Bagwira are the people who spend sleepless nights drilling these oil wells as the Banyoro (whose laziness is for world cup) sit back picking their noses and passing gas while waiting to claim the finished product as theirs. You can ask the Bakiga! At the risk of being branded tribalistic, I will say that these people think we are here to take their oil and for that matter I am going to demand that they forfeit the names we lent them (like Amooti, Atwooki, Abwooli, Adyeeri ) which are all words from my tribe. I swear to God we as the Alur are not at all bothered by the Bunyoro's oil. If the Banyoro think they have MPUTA 1, WARAGA and whatever, let them wait and see. We also have oil in Packwach and we are about to start testing at ANGARA 1 and PEDU 1 (though this was not confirmed by press time). I am so pissed by Dr. Kasirivu referring to the Alur as mad. Don't you have to be mad to try and quell a rebellion of mad people?! I hereby want to read this minister the riot act. Dr. Kasirivu: Never, ever again say anything sinister about my people, whether they are Congolese Alur - they are still Alur. We even have American Alur, British Alur and Caucasian Alur to name but a few. This should be the last time that you ever blaspheme the Alur or else I shall invoke the gods of Abiba and you will turn into Dr. Musiriivu - and this is not a threat! How on earth can you insinuate that the Alur are mad people? Wek awecu iri. The last time I checked, the following Alur were not mad. Not Albert Thopacu aka DJ Alberto, not OPP either. Not even baby Theo who was cooing and aahing after discovering his two teeth. Brigadier Peter Kerim isn't mad. If he were, he wouldn't have gotten promoted from Colonel to Brigadier. Justice Stella Arach isn't mad, neither is Justice Peter Onega, Okumu Ringa or Peter Uchanda. Cox Ojuko is not kukus either. Phillip Olarker is nothing near mad. Lastly, Saggy isn't mad. I wonder what you were smoking by the time you proclaimed us insane. Actually I think the people who surrounded and wanted to lynch you were your own Banyoro disguised as Alur. At least the Banyoro have a track record of violence. We have evidence in Brigadier Kyaligonza roughing up a radio journalist! Alternatively, you can ask the Bakiga how rough these guys are! In pe yel wii danu. Wafwodi */[EMAIL PROTECTED]/* ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. --- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] FW: ILRInfo: Two African language positions (tenure-track)
Please circulate: There may well be people in your circles who qualify. -Original Message- From: Jackie Granat Sent: Wednesday, 08 November, 2006 2:44 PM To: Vukoni LupaLasaga Subject: FW: ILRInfo: Two African language positions (tenure-track) Vukoni, Perhaps you know some people who may find this job opening of interest. Jackie -Original Message- From: Online Discussion Group [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jackson, Frederick H Sent: Wednesday, 08 November, 2006 10:05 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: ILRInfo: Two African language positions (tenure-track) Frederick H. Jackson, Ph.D. School of Language Studies Foreign Service Institute Department of State Tel: 703-302-7018 -Original Message- From: NALRC [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 4:36 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: FW: Two African language positions (tenure-track) The African Studies Center at Boston University, one of the nation's oldest and best established is seeking to fill two tenure-track positions in African languages to begin in September 2007, pending approval. It is interested in candidates who can provide leadership in developing regional specializations in West African and in South African languages. Native or near-native fluency in African languages, strong research potential, and completion of the PhD at the time of appointment are required. Teaching experience in one or more African languages is preferred. Successful candidates will be appointed at the rank of assistant or associate professor, depending upon achievement and experience, and the appointments will be made to a department at Boston University that is appropriate to the discipline and research specialization of the candidate. Interested applicants should send a cover letter, CV, recent teaching evaluations, a published paper or writing sample, and three letters of recommendation to Professor James Pritchett, Director, or Professor James McCann, search chair at the African Studies Center, Boston University, 270 Bay State Rd., Boston Massachusetts 02215. Applications received by December 15, 2007 will receive first priority. Boston University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity employer. Preliminary interviews will be held at the African Studies Association Meetings in San Francisco, 15-18 November 2006. Job posting.doc Description: Binary data ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Ugandacom] Africans - P.W. Botha Speech
TRC in South Africa was a cruel joke. And the ANC is too happy to go along with the willing-seller willing buyer formula of land redistribution that totally failed in Zimbabwe. Isn't it sad that the chief beneficiaries of liberation in South Africa are the same whites who profited from apartheid? There is no justice in the world for us. Edward Mulindwa wrote: Matek I am with you all the way, but we need to create these institutions seriously, for P W Botha is surely dead but today his body is laughing at us. Some how we need to start thinking along those lines. For you and I know that we still have the Bob Astles alive and well in London. I just refuse to accept that a dead African means nothing. It is going to be a long journey to hold them responsible but we need to start. Remember Patrick Shaw who was a Police commissioner in Nairobi? Thank God a Kenyan got a bullet for him but man this is getting way out of hand. Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - *From:* Matek Opoko mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *To:* ugandanet@kym.net mailto:ugandanet@kym.net ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *Sent:* Sunday, November 05, 2006 9:01 PM *Subject:* Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Ugandacom] Africans - P.W. Botha Speech EM: Just to play the devil's advocate? who exactly are you going to sue the likes of PW botha to, The courts in the Hagua? that one is controled by one of them, UN? that one is also controlled by one of them? Tutu's court? that one will not work as Tutu man is preaching a different gospel according to T R... African Union courts? .. even that one has already been co-opted ( hint: they depend on handout from whitee) ..and therefore does whitees bedding!! or whatever they want! ..so now where are you going to sue the wakina PW BOTHA? MK given to */Edward Mulindwa [EMAIL PROTECTED]/* wrote: Matek Your posting needs to be up graded to call for suing this man, that is where we as Africans are falling short. Our failing to sure such monsters creates more Museveni's. Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - *From:* Matek Opoko mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *To:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; ugandanet@kym.net mailto:ugandanet@kym.net *Sent:* Sunday, November 05, 2006 7:37 PM *Subject:* [Ugnet] Re: [Ugandacom] Africans - P.W. Botha Speech The fellow PW Botha, based on his utterances, was surely a Nazi member of the SS No doubt about it. Indeed, in his utterances , he Sounds just like that Museveni's against the Anyanyas of Northern Uganda in the late 1980's. There is however thruth in what he says ..at least among some elements of the White society. May PW's tortured sorry soul get peace hopefully. in the next world. Also we can only hope he is correct in his interpretation of God. otherwise..otherwise his soul is to expecience even more torture in hell!! Really people I feel sorry for the fellow MK */[EMAIL PROTECTED]/* wrote: THE FOLLOWING is a speech made by former South African President P.W. Botha to his Cabinet. This reprint was written by David G. Mailu for the Sunday Times, a South African newspaper, dated August 18, 1985. “Pretoria has been made by the White mind for the White man. We are not obliged even the least to try to prove to anybody and to the Blacks that we are superior people. We have demonstrated that to the Blacks in a thousand and one ways. The Republic of South Africa that we know of today has not been created by wishful thinking. We have created it at the expense of intelligence, sweat and blood. Were they Afrikaners who tried to eliminate the Australian Aborigines? Are they Afrikaners who discriminate against Blacks and call them Niggers in the States? Were they Afrikaners who started the slave trade? Where is the Black man appreciated? England discriminates against its Black and their Sus law is out to discipline the Blacks. Canada, France, Russia, and Japan all play their discrimination too. Why in
[Ugnet] Obama: Black Like Me
Click here http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061113/younge to return to the browser-optimized version of this page. This article can be found on the web at *http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061113/younge* *Beneath the Radar* /by/ Gary Younge Obama: Black Like Me [from the November 13, 2006 issue] Less than ten years ago I found myself one Sunday in a white Baptist church in rural South Carolina listening to a sermon titled Surrounded and sincerely wishing I was somewhere else. For more than an hour I sat there, gradually realizing that my own considerable discomfort was dwarfed by that of the worshipers around me. The stares I received betrayed not hostility but genuine confusion. In a segregated town that was 60 percent black, my presence in this white space was itself a statement. But about what, no one knew. The eyes fixed upon me desperately sought answers. What are you doing here? You know the rules. Everybody knows the rules. We don't go to your churches, and you don't come to ours. Why are you doing this to us? What do you want? When the sermon was over, I tried to leave as quickly as I could, but a hand caught my shoulder. Welcome. I'm so glad you came, said one woman. Thank you, I'm glad to be here, I said. On hearing my voice her face relaxed a little. You're not from here, are you? she said. No, I'm from England, I said. As the words were repeated all around me a small crowd formed. He's from England, He's English, I could hear people muttering as a mini-stampede came to shake my hand and greet me. I was English. I was not their problem. I would not be coming back. As a black Briton I know a thing or two about white America's comfort zone around race. The wariness at the sight of me and the relief at the sound of me can leave doors half-open that might otherwise be firmly shut. American racism has me pegged somewhere between the noble savage and the idiot savant--it adds twenty points to my IQ for my accent but docks fifteen for the bell curve. Watching the orgy of interest in Illinois Senator Barack Obama these last few weeks reminds me of that Sunday morning in South Carolina. It is rare to have a Democratic black politician simultaneously on the front cover of /Time/, /Harper's/ and /Men's Vogue/ and the subject of four mostly adulatory op-ed columns in the /New York Times/ in five days. Obama is, of course, a worthy subject. He is the smartest, savviest, handsomest and most charismatic man in the Senate--sadly, the competition is not great. In an era when America's political class lacks character and intelligence, he stands out. What little the nation has seen of him, it has liked. But none of this quite explains the magnitude of the Obamathon currently taking place. Perhaps what the nation has liked most is not what Obama has said or done but what he is. In short, Obama is a black man who does not scare white people. This is mostly not Obama's fault. He is who he is. He has a life to live, a job to do and a book to promote. He cannot be held responsible for a white paranoia that--outside the music, sports and entertainment industries--demands: If you have to be black, then please don't be too black. It is impossible to understand his currency or his trajectory without taking this into account. Describing the crowd's reaction to him in Rockford, Illinois, /Time/'s Joe Klein noted: The African Americans tend to be fairly reserved The white people, by contrast, are out of control. White commentators get out of control too. David Brooks wrote, With his multiethnic family and his globe-spanning childhood, there is a little piece of everything in Obama. Klein has ranked Obama alongside Colin Powell, Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan as black people who...seem to have an iconic power over the American imagination because they transcend racial stereotypes. Quite how a person transcends anything to do with race in the United States in 2006 is difficult to fathom. In a country where whites were five times more likely than blacks to believe that racism played no part in the Katrina debacle, you are far more likely to transcend gravity. This is not just true for blacks. Remember Hillary Clinton's display of ebonics in Harlem on Martin Luther King Day? Sister girl took it to a whole new level. But Obama does not have to try so hard. He was raised in Hawaii and Jakarta by his white grandparents and mother and Indonesian stepfather. He brings with him no familial tales of slavery or Southern segregation--his father was Kenyan. He does not have the messianic style that Columbia professor Manning Marable notes is characteristic of that generation of African-American leaders raised in the church. He came up through academe. Not only did he not attend the March on Washington, he was only 2 at the time. He is the first prominent black politician of the post-civil rights era. (Condi was born the year of
[Ugnet] The Bottled Water Lie
The Bottled Water Lie By Michael Blanding, AlterNet Posted on October 26, 2006, Printed on October 27, 2006 http://www.alternet.org/story/43480/ When Antonia Mahoney moved to Boston from her native Puerto Rico 35 years ago, the first thing she noticed was how much better the water tasted. Over the years, however, the water she was receiving from her tap began to lose its appeal. Little by little, the taste changed, says the retired schoolteacher, who eventually gave up tap water altogether and began paying over $30 a month to get bottles of Poland Spring water delivered to her house. Walking through Boston's Copley Square on a sunny day last month, however, she was intrigued by a banner advertising something called the Tap Water Challenge. As she approached the table, a fresh-faced activist behind it told her the challenge was a blind taste test to see if passersby could tell the difference between bottled water and tap water. Mahoney turned her back while four water samples were poured into small paper cups -- two of tap water from Boston and a nearby suburb, and one each of Poland Spring and Aquafina. That's tap water, Mahoney declared after draining the first cup. That tastes just like what I drink at home. Her confidence faded, however, as she downed the next three, which all seemed to taste the same. When the cups were turned over, it turned out that what she thought was tap water was actually Aquafina -- and what she thought was Poland Spring was actually the same Boston tap water she gets at home for free. I couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe it, she says later. You know I pay so much for that water. Now I am thinking to stop the Poland Spring. Mahoney wasn't alone in that decision. A student from Connecticut who attends Massachusetts College of Art says that she has cartons of bottled water stocked in her dorm room, because she doesn't want to chance city tap water. After taking (and flunking) the test, she says now she'll start drinking from the faucet. It tastes the same as the tap water I drink at home in Connecticut, and I drink that all the time, says the student, Katey vanBerkum. Why spend your money on bottled water if you don't have to. The two are among the many who have been converted across the country over the past year by the taste test, which, if not quite as ubitquitous as the Pepsi Challenge, is equally surprising in its results. Of the hundreds of people who have participated in the Tap Water Challenge in cities including Austin, Baltimore, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia, few of them were able to identify all the samples correctly, says Gigi Kellett, who is doling out water samples this afternoon. It's usually those who are the most die-hard or committed to a certain brand who are most surprised when they realize they can't tell the difference, she says. Kellett is associate campaigns director at Corporate Accountability International (CAI), a nonprofit formerly known as Infact, which is best-known for its relentless crusade against tobacco companies in the 1990s. Now, the group has started a campaign to blow away perceptions that bottled water is somehow better-tasting or purer than good old H2O from the tap. At stake, they say, is the increasing commodification of a resource that should be a basic human right, not a product on sale for $1.50 at the local convenience store. In the past decade, the bottled water market has more than doubled in the United States, surpassing juice, milk, and beer to become the second most popular beverage after soft drinks. According to a 2003 Gallup poll, three in four Americans drink bottled water, and one in five drink /only/ bottled water. Together, consumers spent some $10 billion on the product last year, consuming an average of 26 gallons of the stuff per person, according the Beverage Marketing Corporation. At the same time, companies spend some $70 million annually to advertise their products. Typical are Aquafina's ads advertising the beverage as the purest of waters, Dasani's ads contending the water is pure as water can get. In fact, says Kellett, not only does tap water often taste the same as bottled water, but it is also often safer to drink as well. They are spending tens of millions of dollars every year to undermine our confidence in tap water, she says, even though water systems here in the United States are better regulated than bottled water. That's because tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which imposes strict limits on chemicals and bacteria, constant testing by government agencies, and mandatory notification to the public in the event of contamination. Bottled water, on the other hand, is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which according to federal law is technically required to hold itself to the same standards as the EPA. The devil is in the details, however, since FDA regulations only apply to water that is bottled and
[Ugnet] U.S. drops to # 53 in global press freedom ranking
North Korea, Turkmenistan, Eritrea the worst violators of press freedom France, the United States and Japan slip further Mauritania and Haiti gain much ground New countries have moved ahead of some Western democracies in the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, issued today, while the most repressive countries are still the same ones. “Unfortunately nothing has changed in the countries that are the worst predators of press freedom,” the organisation said, “and journalists in North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma and China are still risking their life or imprisonment for trying to keep us informed. These situations are extremely serious and it is urgent that leaders of these countries accept criticism and stop routinely cracking down on the media so harshly. Each year new countries in less-developed parts of the world move up the Index to positions above some European countries or the United States. This is good news and shows once again that, even though very poor, countries can be very observant of freedom of expression. Meanwhile the steady erosion of press freedom in the United States, France and Japan is extremely alarming,” Reporters Without Borders said. The three worst violators of free expression - North Korea, bottom of the Index at 168th place, Turkmenistan (167th) and Eritrea (166th) - have clamped down further. The torture death of Turkmenistan journalist Ogulsapar Muradova shows that the country’s leader, “President-for-Life” Separmurad Nyazov, is willing to use extreme violence against those who dare to criticise him. Reporters Without Borders is also extremely concerned about a number of Eritrean journalists who have been imprisoned in secret for more than five years. The all-powerful North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, also continues to totally control the media. Northern European countries once again come top of the Index, with no recorded censorship, threats, intimidation or physical reprisals in Finland, Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands, which all share first place. *Deterioration in the United States and Japan, with France also slipping* The United States (53rd) has fallen nine places since last year, after being in 17th position in the first year of the Index, in 2002. Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of “national security” to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his “war on terrorism.” The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 US states, refuse to recognise the media’s right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism. Freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf was imprisoned when he refused to hand over his video archives. Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj, who works for the pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, has been held without trial since June 2002 at the US military base at Guantanamo, and Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been held by US authorities in Iraq since April this year. France (35th) slipped five places during the past year, to make a loss of 24 places in five years. The increase in searches of media offices and journalists’ homes is very worrying for media organisations and trade unions. Autumn 2005 was an especially bad time for French journalists, several of whom were physically attacked or threatened during a trade union dispute involving privatisation of the Corsican firm SNCM and during violent demonstrations in French city suburbs in November. Rising nationalism and the system of exclusive press clubs (kishas) threatened democratic gains in Japan, which fell 14 places to 51st. The newspaper Nihon Keizai was firebombed and several journalists phsyically attacked by far-right activists (uyoku). *Fallout from the row over the Mohammed cartoons”* Denmark (19th) dropped from joint first place because of serious threats against the authors of the Mohammed cartoons published there in autumn 2005. For the first time in recent years in a country that is very observant of civil liberties, journalists had to have police protection due to threats against them because of their work. Yemen (149th) slipped four places, mainly because of the arrest of several journalists and closure of newspapers that reprinted the cartoons. Journalists were harassed for the same reason in Algeria (126th), Jordan (109th), Indonesia (103rd) and India (105th). But except for Yemen and Saudi Arabia (161st), all the Arab peninsula countries considerably improved their rank. Kuwait (73rd) kept its place at the top of the group, just ahead of the United Arab Emirates (77th) and Qatar (80th). *Newcomers to the top ranks* Two countries moved into the Index’s top 20 for the first time. Bolivia (16th) was best-placed among less-developed countries and during the year its journalists enjoyed the same level of freedom as colleagues in Canada or Austria.
RE: [Ugnet] Sharangabo is Kagme's sycophant and boot licker!!(Vukoni, Matek)
EM, I was wondering too. Anyway, he's probably not aware that the man in the house asked that question. V Original Message Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Sharangabo is Kagme's sycophant and bootlicker!!(Vukoni, Matek)From: "Edward Mulindwa" [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: Tue, October 24, 2006 2:00 amTo: "The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda"ugandanet@kym.net, [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED], "baziga ligoga"[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sharangabo Are you sure you wanted to address Mrs. Vukoni in this posting? Just curious Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" - Original Message - From: sharangabo rufagari To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; baziga ligoga ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 10:06 AM Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Sharangabo is Kagme's sycophant and boot licker!!(Vukoni,Matek) Mrs Vukoni and Matek, I am not a propagandist.I am just doing some infomations sharing with my African brothers to let them know who is the real PAUL KAGAME.His vision for the Continent etc.. SharangaboMatek Opoko [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: That the man is kagame's propagandist, is self evident...no doubt about that . I would add: healsoKagame's sycophant and boot licker! MKVukoni Lupa-Lasaga [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Sharangabo,Are you Kagame's propagandist?Vukoni___Ugandanet mailing listUgandanet@kym.nethttp://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.--- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2/min or less.___Ugandanet mailing listUgandanet@kym.nethttp://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.--- Sharangabo Rufagari The best gets better. See why everyone is raving about the All-new Yahoo! Mail. ___Ugandanet mailing listUgandanet@kym.nethttp://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.--- ___Ugandanet mailing listUgandanet@kym.nethttp://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.--- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
Re: [Ugnet] Kaguta's Nyoko Nyoko talk
MK, Give the devil his due. The man is making sense, although he is saying inelegantly what Kwame Nkrumah and his generation of African statesmen put forth so eloquently. V Matek Opoko wrote: /The man is obsessed with this notion of the ARMY thing. He excels best in field of killing...deroying heavily. Attack, shoot e.t.c .. the fact is that most African countries cannot even feed their own citizens,.. meanwhile the son of Kaguta is calling upon African nations to build armies to fight God knows WHO?/ // /Mk/ Africa: Museveni Urges Africa to Assert Military Supremacy The New Times http://www.newtimes.co.rw/ _Email_ http://allafrica.com/sendpage.html?ref=http://allafrica.com/stories/200610170295.html This Page _Print_ http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200610170295.html This Page The New Times http://allafrica.com/publishers.html?passed_name=The%20New%20Timespassed_location=Kigali (Kigali) October 17, 2006 Posted to the web October 17, 2006 Charles Kazooba Kampala Decades of Africa's military inferiority should end, President Yoweri Museveni has urged. The Ugandan leader has asked the 53 African states to integrate and engineer military supremacy to encounter threats by world super powers. Inability to build credible military forces that can guarantee the future of the African race. I have been reading American documents. They are now talking about four-dimensional superiority. They want to be superior on land, in air, at sea and also be superior in space. When we were guerillas, we would hide in the bush but now when somebody is in space even when you are in the bush, he is looking at you. So how do we survive? Museveni, who captured power in 1986 after leading a five-year guerilla war, said He added: Can Uganda conduct space research? Can Kenya conduct space research? We are just here sitting. Aren't the Europeans going to the moon again? Why are they going there? You are thinking they are going for a holiday? Relevant Links *Central Africa* http://allafrica.com/centralafrica/ *East Africa* http://allafrica.com/eastafrica/ *Uganda* http://allafrica.com/uganda/ *Arms and Military Affairs* http://allafrica.com/armsandarmies/ *Rwanda* http://allafrica.com/rwanda/ They are going to get resources as a basis for them to come and control us here. Why don't Africans ask themselves why these people going to the moon. Why are they going there without telling us what they are doing there? This is a common property. It is very dangerous. Yes! Let them go and we also go. If we all go we shall get peace in the world. But if only one group goes to the moon and the others stay here, there shall be trouble. But Uganda cannot go to the moon alone. We do not have the potential to do it. Museveni was launching consultations on the East African Federation last week. The consultations were simultaneously launched in the three partner States of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The EAC Secretary General, Jumah Mwapachu, attended the Kampala event. The federation, according to the secretariat's time table is expected to start in 2011 with a one rotational leadership among the bloc partners and thereafter elections of a regional president would be effected after three years. We occupy one of the biggest land masses (11million square miles) with considerable natural resources. Why can we not turn part of this landmass into a powerful and secure base for the black race? That powerful base will ensure the future of the blackman. Besides, the blackman be able to go to the moon. They (whites) are looking for more natural resources as well as new bases for military supremacy. The black race is just sitting in these micro-political units created by colonialism completely oblivious of what is going on in this world, the president said. Get your email and more, right on the new Yahoo.com http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=42973/*http://www.yahoo.com/preview ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. --- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Skin color and economic inequality in the United States: Newest Study
Immigrants and the Whiter-Shade-of-Pale Bonus * By Richard Morin Wednesday, October 18, 2006; A02 When it comes to immigrants, apparently you can't be too tall or too white. Vanderbilt University economist Joni Hersch found that legal immigrants to the United States who had darker complexions or were shorter earned less money than their fair-skinned or taller counterparts with similar jobs, training and backgrounds. Even swarthy whites from abroad earned less than those with lighter skin. Immigrants with the lightest complexions earned, on average, about 8 to 15 percent more than those with the darkest skin tone after controlling for race and country of origin as well as for other factors related to earnings, including occupation, education, language skills, work history, type of visa and whether they were married to a U.S. citizen. In fact, Hersch estimated that the negative impact of skin tone on earnings was equal to the benefit of education, with a particularly dark complexion virtually wiping out the advantage of education on earnings. Taller immigrants also earned more, she found, with every extra inch worth about 1 percent in earnings. Hersch based her results on 2,084 men and women who participated in face-to-face interviews for the federally funded 2003 New Immigrant Survey. All of the respondents had been admitted to lawful permanent resident status during the seven-month period, May to November 2003. As part of the survey, interviewers also rated the skin tone of each individual on an 11-point scale ranging from zero to 10, with 10 representing the darkest possible skin color and zero the absence of color, or albinism. Why should pale people earn more? I don't think that any explanation other than discrimination is possible -- and I am not one to draw such inferences lightly, Hersch said in an e-mail. I am stunned by the strength and consistency of the findings, even controlling for race, even controlling for nationality, and . . . everything that could possibly matter. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
Re: [Ugnet] Learn Luganda, and other languages, on your computer
Ssemakula, Are there perhaps some Ugandans in Australia who could test the software for us? Thanks. Vukoni ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Ideas, Not Money, Alleviate Poverty
Ideas, Not Money, Alleviate Poverty By Philip Emeagwali (Speech delivered at the University of Alberta, Canada, September 23, 2006) I once believed that capital was another word for money, the accumulated wealth of a country or its people. Surely, I thought, wealth is determined by the money or property in one's possession. Then I saw a Deutsche Bank advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that proclaimed: Ideas are capital. The rest is just money. I was struck by the simplicity of such an eloquent and forceful idea. I started imagining what such power meant for Africa. The potential for progress and poverty alleviation in Africa relies on capital generated from the power within our minds, not from our ability to pick minerals from the ground or seek debt relief and foreign assistance. If ideas are capital, why is Africa investing more on things than on information, and more on the military than on education? Suddenly, I realized what this idea could mean for Africa. If the pen is mightier than the sword, why does a general earn more than the work of a hundred writers combined? If ideas are indeed capital, then Africa should stem its brain drain and promote the African Renaissance, which will lead to the rebirth of the continent. After all, a renaissance is a rebirth of ideas. And knowledge and ideas are the engines that drive economic growth. When African men and women of ideas, who will give birth to new ideas, have fled to Europe and the United States, then the so-called African Renaissance cannot occur in Africa. It can only occur in Paris, London and New York. There are more Soukous musicians in Paris, than in Kinshasha; more African professional soccer players in Europe, than in Africa. African literature is more at home abroad than it is in Africa. In other words, Africans in Europe are alleviating poverty in Europe, not in Africa. Until the men and women of ideas - the true healers of Africa - start returning home, the African Renaissance and poverty alleviation will remain empty slogans. After all, the brightest ideas are generated and harnessed by men of ideas. The first annual report by J.P. Morgan Chase, a firm with assets of 1.3 trillion dollars, reads: The power of intellectual capital is the ability to breed ideas that ignite value. This quote is a clarion call to African leaders to shift purposefully and deliberately from a focus on things to a focus on information; from exporting natural resources to exporting knowledge and ideas; and from being a consumer of technology to becoming a producer of technology. For Africa, poverty will be reduced when intellectual capital is increased and leveraged to export knowledge and ideas. Africa's primary strategy for poverty alleviation is to gain debt relief, foreign assistance, and investments from western nations. Poverty alleviation means looking beyond 100 percent literacy and aiming for 100 percent numeracy, the prerequisite for increasing our technological intellectual capital. Yet, in this age of information and globalization when poverty alleviation should result in producing valuable products for the global market and competing with Asia, the United States, and Europe - shamefully, diamonds found in Africa are polished in Europe and re-sold to Africans. The intellectual capital needed to produce products and services will lead to the path of poverty alleviation. Intellectual capital, defined as the collective knowledge of the people, increases productivity. The latter - by driving economic growth - alleviates poverty, always and everywhere, even in Africa. Productivity is the engine that drives global economic growth. Those who create new knowledge are producing wealth, while those who consume it are producing poverty. If you attend a Wole Soyinka's production of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, you consume the knowledge produced by Soyinka and Achebe as well as the actor's production, much like I consume the knowledge and production of Bob Marley's through his songs. We will need wisdom, that which turns too much information - or information overload - into focused power, not only to process, but also to evaluate the overwhelming amount of information available on the Internet. This wisdom will give us the competitive edge and enable us to find creative solutions. The following story illustrates the difference between information and wisdom. Twelve hundred years ago, in the city of Baghdad, lived a genius named Al-Khwarizmi, who was one of the fathers of algebra. In fact, the word algebra comes from the title of his book Al-jabr, which for centuries was the standard mathematics textbook. Al- Khwarizmi taught in an institution of learning called the House of Wisdom, which was the center of new ideas during Islam's golden age of science. To this day we computer scientists honor Al-Khwarizmi when we use the word algorithm, which is our attempt to pronounce his name. One day, Al-Khwarizmi was riding a camel laden down with
[Ugnet] Documents: CIA warned of plane bomb plot
Documents: CIA warned of plane bomb plot By ANDREW O. SELSKY, Associated Press Writer/ 13 minutes ago/ An anti-Castro militant now in a Texas jail warned the CIA months before the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that fellow exiles were planning such an attack, according to a newly released U.S. government document. The document shows that Luis Posada Carriles — who had worked for the CIA but was cut off by the agency earlier that year — was secretly telling the CIA that his fellow far-right Cuban exiles opposed to Fidel Castro's communist government were plotting to bring down a commercial jet. The document does not say what the CIA did with Posada's tip. A CIA spokesman said he had no comment on Monday, a federal holiday. The CIA had extensive contacts with anti-Castro militants and trained some of them, but has denied involvement in the bombing. The documents were posted online Thursday by the National Security Archive, an independent research institute at George Washington University that seeks to declassify government files through the Freedom of Information Act. The Cubana Airlines plane, on a flight from Venezuela to Cuba, blew up shortly after taking off from a stopover in Barbados on Oct. 6, 1976, killing all 73 aboard, including Cuba's Olympic fencing team. The bombing remains an open wound in Cuba. Weeping relatives of the victims met in a Havana cemetery on Friday, the 30th anniversary of the bombing. They demanded that Posada — who is now 78 and in a Texas detention center on an immigration violation — be put on trial. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is seeking the extradition of Posada, a naturalized Venezuelan who served as the country's counterintelligence chief. He accuses the U.S. government of protecting a terrorist. The National Security Archive's Peter Kornbluh urged the U.S. government to tell everything it knows about Posada. Now is the time for the government to come clean on Posada's covert past and his involvement in international terrorism, Kornbluh said. His victims, the public, and the courts have a right to know. Separating deception from truth in the intelligence world is notoriously difficult, and the newly released documents contain mixed messages about Posada. Much remains murky. In a report dated a month after the bombing, then FBI Director Clarence Kelly told Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that a confidential FBI source ascertained the bombing had been planned in Caracas by Posada, Venezuelan intelligence agency official Ricardo Morales Navarrete and Cuban exile Frank Castro, who is not related to the Cuban leader. Two Venezuelan employees of Posada's private security agency were arrested in Trinidad the day after the bombing, and one of them — who said he had worked for the CIA — admitted the two had planted the bomb, documents posted by the National Security Archive show. Posada trained with the CIA for the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and served in the U.S. Army in the early 1960s. In 1965, he allegedly plotted to overthrow the Guatemalan government and blow up a Soviet or Cuban freighter in Mexico, according to the FBI. In 1967, he moved to Venezuela, eventually leading its counterintelligence agency, and was running his own security firm in the mid-1970s. In 1973, Posada was investigated by the CIA for allegedly smuggling cocaine, but was cleared after he convinced interrogators he was guilty of only having the wrong kind of friends, a declassified document says. The same document says the CIA formally terminated its relationship with him on Feb. 13, 1976. Yet Posada still contacted the agency. After 2/76 contacts with (deleted by censors) were at Posada's own initiative to volunteer information in exchange for assistance U.S. visa for self and family, said the document, an annotated list of still-secret records on Posada's CIA career that was marked sanitized. It tells how Posada contacted the CIA in February 1976 to describe an assassination plot by Orlando Bosch and Frank Castro, two fellow right-wing Cuban exiles, against leftist Andres Pascal Allende, the nephew of slain Chilean President Salvador Allende. Posada worried that his allies would discover he was giving up their secrets. Posada concerned that Bosch will blame Posada for leak of plans, the report says. Andres Allende was not assassinated, and it is unclear whether the Cuban exiles ever made an attempt on his life. Then, four months later, Posada came back to tell of a sinister plot to blow up an airliner. On June 22, 1976, Posada again contacts (deleted by censor) reptd info concerning possible exile plans to blow up Cubana Airliner leaving Panama and requested visa assistacne, read the document, filled with typographical errors. Shortly after, a bomb aboard a Cubana Airlines plane leaving Panama failed to detonate, and the following month, a bomb in a suitcase exploded before being loaded onto a Cubana plane leaving Jamaica, according to a confidential State Department
[Ugnet] Why Cuba Matters: Post-Castro Cuba
/Why Cuba Matters/ Post-Castro Cuba By SAUL LANDAU Reporters and friends keep asking: so what'll happen when Castro dies? A big funeral in Havana, I reply with certainty. One other sure thing: anti-Castro exiles in south Florida will throw a mammoth party. On July 31, Fidel revealed he would have surgery and ceded temporarily responsibilities to his brother Raul. Little Havana's streets erupted in celebration. Politically, Fidel again showed he has ability to induce obsession in his enemies, thus making it difficult for them to think clearly--apart from questions of bad taste. Fidel's stature will continue to cloud south Florida's political reality. The Cuban American National Foundation appealed to Cuba's civilian population and military forces to rise up and overthrow the tyrannical regime. Today Iraq; tomorrow Cuba! No uprising occurred. Indeed, despite loud headlines and lead stories in the U.S. mainstream media of impending crisis, Cubans behaved with calm when the man who has presided over their destiny for 47 and a half years went under the knife. NPR reporter Tom Gjelten, in Cuba during the Non Aligned Movement meeting, predicted the next Cuban leader would have to fulfill the Cubans' demand for more consumer goods. Did he take a poll and forget to mention it? How did he determine how the population would react to the post-Fidel government? The CIA shared the media's vapid ignorance on Cuba. Former Agency Cuba expert Brian Latell opined: It cannot even be said with confidence that Raul [Castro] will want to be more than a transitional leader. Raul will not enjoy the pounding pressures and crises that make Fidel's adrenaline surge and typically induce his best thinking. Latell never met Raul, or Fidel; nor has he visited Cuba. Rumors lead him to conclude that Raul has less intelligence than Fidel, lacks his charisma and has drinking problems. Raul has supposedly expressed preferences for reform policies. More rumors? Raul, who has commanded Cuba's military for nearly five decades, lacks the confidence of the military that he commands, which is perhaps the most respected institution in Cuba, averred a Washington Times editorial. Should Raul face resistance from the military all bets are off. (August 2, 2006) Who's betting? The key political fact is that organized opposition to Cuba's government exists in Florida, not on the island. With all the money Washington spent on dissidents and on Radio and TV Marti, it has not spawned a civil society equivalent to Solidarity in Poland, which led the movement to overthrow the government. Nor has the Cuban Catholic Church played the kind of militant political role on the island that it did in Poland. Castro, the once-in-a-Century figure has not yet passed from the stage, and may live for years longer. But the media craves the answer to what comes after him, while it ignores the obvious clues to its answer: Cuba's institutions and its colonial and revolutionary antecedents. After Fidel successfully underwent surgery on August 2, Bush promised he would export democracy to Cubans. Did he envision Cuba's masses rebelling and demanding the kind of freedom he delivered to Iraq? Instead, after Fidel's surgery, Cuba's overcrowded buses ran. Shops, factories and offices opened. But why hasn't Raul [Castro] appeared? demanded the U.S. media. To piss off the U.S. press, I responded to one ignorant reporter. Raul rarely makes public appearances. If he did, with Fidel hospitalized, Cubans might think something had gone awry. The issue of transition is not easy anywhere. Cuba will probably move from a government headed by the world's most charismatic leader who micromanaged parts of Cuba for decades to a government in which his replacement, whether individual or committee, will not have that kind of stature. But they will share his political philosophy. Before his operation Fidel on TV promoted the battle of ideas. But his urging failed to produce immediate creativity. Indeed, widespread dissatisfaction and cynicism prevail. And each month a sizeable number of Cubans get smuggled or hop on rafts to go to Florida. Don't misinterpret. Discontent in Cuba does not translate into counterrevolutionary behavior. Even before the Soviet collapse, my Cuban friends had begun to spend hours each day resolviendo problems (solving problems) related to daily needs. This usually involves buying goods on the black market. One Cuban sells people's property to other Cubans for his profit. All Cubans understand they live under a virtual state of siege, but to attribute lack of free speech, assembly and press to the U.S. blockade trivializes Fidel's battle for ideas. How to coincide a campaign to promote critical thinking if the state threatens to jail or punish some of those who ask critical questions? In films like Strawberry and Chocolate or Guantanamera Cuban cinema raised profound questions about the course of their society. Such critiques do not appear, however,
Re: [Ugnet] Enough With the 'One God' Stuff
Ndugu Mitayo,
Interesting stuff. I applaud your assertion that there is No need to
abandon our African spirituality! We are the worse for embracing
totalitarian religions that set brother against brother, etc, leading to
the absurdity of an all-powerful deity requiring that feeble men fight
his wars.
But I must say that you're wrong to trace the origin of monotheism to
Constantine the Great, who became emperor in 306 C.E. (or A.D. for the
devout Christians). No, Constantine didn't come up with monotheism. He
converted to the already existing monotheistic cult of Christianity,
then one of several religions in the Roman empire, and imposed it as a
state religion.
The earliest recorded evidence of the practice of monotheism goes back
to Kamitic (ancient Egyptian) times. Pharaoh Akhenaten (also known as
Amenhotep IV), who ruled Kamit in 1364-1347 B.C.E. (or B.C. for the
devout Christians), imposed a monotheistic version of the cult of Ra,
the sun god on the Kamau. But it was shortlived. But the Hebrews, who
were nomadic interlopers in Kamit at various times, adopted Akhenaten's
ideas and gradually developed it into the monotheistic cult of Yahweh or
Jehovah as they wandered through Africa and the Middle East.
Abraham, the mythical ancestor of the Arabs and Jews, supposedly
embraced the monotheistic El (or Yahweh/Jehovah) as a family or clan
god. And the world has not known any peace ever since the intolerant
spiritual heirs of Abraham (Jews, Christians, and Muslims) have sought
to impose their idea of one god on all of humanity.
Otherwise thanks brother for the courage to speak for those of us
Africans who refuse to submit to the will of the god made in the image
of an Oriental despot (as philosopher Antony Flew beautifuly puts it in
the signature quote after your name).
Mitayo Potosi wrote:
**
*_Enough With the 'One God' Stuff_*
*The author below is superficial, as he does not go into history to
show that it was Emperor Constantine of Rome, in the third century AD,
who wanting to be the only one to be obeyed by the citizens of the
Roman Empire, came up with monotheism. i.e. that if the idea of one
God is forced down the throats of the citizenery then it becomes
easier to have them obey just only one Emperor.*
*All these Arab religions i.e. Abrahamic faiths -- Christianity,
Islam, Judaism are all just nonsensical.*
*No need to abandon our African spirituality !!*
*_Enough With the 'One God' Stuff_*
**By James Foley
javascript:ol('http://www.alternet.org/authors/7991/');*
*
*Sam Harris's book The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future
of Reason
javascript:ol('http://alternet.bookswelike.net/isbn/0393327655');,
which won the 2005 Pen Award for nonfiction, develops a smart,
knowledgeable polemic about the growing dangers of all religious
ideologies. Although I love Harris' rant, my personal obsession has
long been with how weird monotheism is. Monotheism insists there is
but one god, a man of course, alone in the universe for all eternity.
Even as a child, I found this to be a crazy idea.*
*The Greeks and Romans, the Hindus, and the Egyptians all imagined
many different gods who hang out together, the way people throughout
the world do. These cultures envisioned social gods with busy
existences who like pleasure, food, sex, art and other good things of
life. As with people, the social ties among the gods loosely constrain
their destructive impulses. Mostly these gods are so involved with
each other they only sometimes notice the lesser beings, just as
people only sometimes notice their household animals. The multiple
gods of great cultural systems, and the gods and spirits of many
tribal cultures as well, are familiar, understandable. They project
the human world into the sky, the same way science fiction does
(except, of course, science fiction understands it is offering
/fiction/).*
*But monotheism posits one omnipotent, lonely sucker all by himself --
the sky god as Gore Vidal once called him. The first five books of
the Hebrews' Bible reveal, not surprisingly, that the sky god is often
angry, jealous, vengeful, and even murderous -- regularly toying with,
manipulating and punishing the puny beings he creates to worship and
amuse him. Not surprisingly, he's a self-absorbed ascetic who invents
for his children bizarre, impossible-to-comply-with rules governing
a multitude of tiny details of daily life. Sometimes he goes berserk
about minor infractions; frequently he ignores major violations of his
own rules. He's the original bad father, threatening awful
punishments, with no wife, lover, siblings, friends, co-workers,
neighbors or relatives to reign him in.*
*Early Christians and then Muslims added to monotheism the great
creative innovation of the promise of eternal life. A person gets to
live forever if, and only if, that person closely follows the sky
god's rules. This made monotheism
Re: [Ugnet] Fwd: Tanzanian President Visits Los Angeles
Ndugu Msia, Umekaribishwa humu ukumbi huu. Maoni yako ni muhimu hata wanaukumbi wengine hawataki kusema au kusikia haki ya kihistoria. Don't worry. I don't think anything worse than harsh words will ever be exchanged on Ugandanet. Vukoni Msia Kibona Clark wrote: Vukoni, I must speak up for the Tanzanians. We're already in trouble with the Kenyans. We don't also need problems with the Ugandans. What you say about Obote is true. That was a mistake on our part. But don't forget my brother, we also helped you get rid of Idi Amin. As for Museveni, what you say is also true. Many Tanzanians ( Kenyans) feel Museveni wants to be the King of East Africa. Is it not true?? And I have it from a good source that the EAC is how Museveni is planning to acheive his status. I can't comment on how Kikwete feels but Tanzanians were not happy when Museveni changed the constitution. These are all sources of our distrust. Please don't exile me from the list. I must represent the TZ view from time to time. Msia Date: Sep 23, 2006 2:16 am To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda From: Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga Subj: Re: [Ugnet] Fwd: Tanzanian President Visits Los Angeles MK, You seem to remember only those parts of our history that speak to your sense of loss. If it wasn't for Nyerere and TPDF, Obote and UPC would have found it much harder if at all to return to power in 1980. It was an open secret then who the annointed presidential candidate was. If you don't trust the Waswahili as you put it, we must ask ourselves what changed between 1980 and 1985 for Dr. Obote to fall from grace as a favored personal friend of Nyerere onto the plebeian floor as an expendable political potato. And I have it from an impeccable source that Jakaya Kikwete doesn't like your nemesis. This source, who had several conversations on the Great Lakes crisis with Kikwete while he was still minister of foreign affairs told me that Kikwete was quite disparaging of Museveni. For example, Kikwete reportedly thinks Museveni is a loudmouth and a megalomaniac who exaggerates his role in history. For example, in African liberation struggles. Of course of course, I don't want to cause a diplomatic row between Uganda and Tanzania, so I will say no more. Vukoni ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. --- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
Re: [Ugnet] FW: Kiiza Besigye Trying to Use Basiita as a Steping Stone, but the Basiita Intend to Carry on After Museveni's Death!
Aha, another conspiracy revealed! EM, I do not know if Mr. Martin Rwaheru who dropped this bombshell is a list member. If he isn't, please help forward this e-mail to him: 1: After the military coup in 1971, Uganda was treated to another extraordinary disclosure, that Dr. Obote and the Langi had a master plan to rule our country forever. The Lango Master Plan was read/published in the media, but not a shred of evidence was presented to prove this charge by the coup makers who presented it as one of the reasons they overthrew Obote. How different in motivation and truthfulness is this Basiita Clan conspiracy allegation from its distant cousin, the Lango Master Plan? 2. Following from our experience of how conspiracy theories are spun and deployed to justify an action or manipulate public opinion, I suggest that fairminded leaders or followers of political parties would do well to treat them with extreme skepticism. The fact that a rumor is floating out there doesn't prove anything; neither on the side of truth or falsehood. The more ominous the conspirary allegation, the more questions we should ask those who plucked it from the grapevine or channeled it to us from the Radio Katwe mill. 3. Although this rumor is presented as if it is widely known, it's news to me. Yeah, I've probably been living under a rock, but well, that doesn't disqualify me from asking any questions. My big one is, how do we know that Kizza Besigye is the source of the earthshaking news (about the Basiita clan that is) I never heard of? Back in the 1990's when I worked as a journalist and editor for various media in Kampala and beyond, many bearers of news of political conspiracies walked through the door of our office. Ninety-nine percent of those theories -- a good deal of them brought in by respectable politicians and their children or henchmen -- turned out to be unprovable or flaming suspicious. To believe those suspicious theories, we had to take the allegations at face value, weight them with the credibility of the politicians purveying them, or ascertain that those who brought the news had nothing personal to gain, directly or indirectly from spreading the rumor. None of those were good options. At such times, it's good to use the waste basket, because I have never found a politician who doesn't tell or use a lie he/she knows to be so to gain an advantage. Vukoni Daudi Kiribedda wrote: Something brewing in Kaguta's Uganda! From: /Martin Rwaheru [EMAIL PROTECTED]/ Reply-To: /Martin Rwaheru [EMAIL PROTECTED]/ To: /[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ Subject: /Kiiza Besigye Trying to Use Basiita as a Steping Stone, but the Basiita Intend to Carry on After Museveni's Death!/ Date: /Sun, 24 Sep 2006 01:01:29 + (GMT)/ *Is Kiiza Besigye Trying to Use Basiita as a Steping Stone, but the Basiita Intend to Carry on After Museveni's Death!* Warren Kiiza Besigye Kifefe is known to his family and close friends as a very articulate and ambitious person. This drive and ambition within KB as he is fondly referred to by friends was detected early on by Yoweri Museveni while still fighting in the bushes of Luweero. To put his ambition in check Museveni decided to deploy another medical Doctor within the NRA high command fearing what KB could do on his own as the only authoritative medical officer in the jungle. KB was appointed Minister of State for Internal Affairs at the age of 29 in 1986. To quench KB's thirst for power, Museveni appointed him within two years to the powerful position of National Political Commissar and Minister in the President's office. It was at this time that KB decided he wanted to be president of Uganda. He knew all the players in the NRM political hierarchy and he felt confident. An opportunity came to him after the Basiita clan meeting of 1992. The Basiita clan meeting was a closely guarded secret within a circle of about 100 people. President Museveni hosted and chaired the meeting of about 80 Basiita clan members and other specifically invited guests at his home in Rwakituura around March of 1992. The essence of the meeting was to develop a strategy and an action plan that would allow the Basiita clan and a few friends hold both political and economic power in Uganda for a minimum of fifty years. The meeting and its deliberations remained a secret to the majority of Ugandans until shortly before the 2001 presidential elections. To discredit president Museveni and the National Resistance Movement, while paving his own political path to lead Uganda; KB went against the grain and secretly leaked the minutes and the list of attendees to the Basiita master plan meeting in Rwakituura. There has been a big debate within Uganda as to who may
Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Ugandacom] IS THIS OUR GODFREY AYOO?
EM, Not so fast. We still need you here on earth. Vukoni Edward Mulindwa wrote: Gook For some reason I thought I would have been surprised until when this Juba peace talks took place. As it is I do not think I know who is who among my friends. May be it is time I ask my maker to call me. Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - From: gook makanga [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 10:50 AM Subject: Re: [Ugandacom] IS THIS OUR GODFREY AYOO? EM, Don't ask me. strange things happen in that country man. would u be less surprised if he were to represent m7? Gook Original Message Follows From: Edward Mulindwa [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],ugandanet@kym.net CC: Florence Namutebi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Ugandacom] IS THIS OUR GODFREY AYOO? Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 07:27:54 -0400 Gook If this is the Godfrey Ayoo I know, just how did he end up representing Konny? Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - From: gook makanga [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 6:38 AM Subject: RE: [Ugandacom] IS THIS OUR GODFREY AYOO? EM, Yap that is him. Gook Yahoo! Groups Links Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ugandacom/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ugandacom/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. --- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
Re: [Ugnet] FW: Kiiza Besigye Trying to Use Basiita as a StepingStone, but the Basiita Intend to Carry on After Museveni's Death!
Hi Listers, I've reread the posting alleging a Basiita clan conspiracy that Kizza Besigye is/was supposedly involved in. So, more questions aned comments: 1. Why on earth would a clan conspiracy involve those who are not part of that clan? 2. Does a serious clan conspiracy really deserve the name if the conspiracists or conspirators reach outside the membership of their clan to hatch the conspiracy they are accused of? 3. Is it possible that such a clan conspiracy, if it exists/existed at all, is quite something else (regional or ethnic for example) other than what it is being called? 4. The posting says that Museveni is terminally ill, suffering from (and I quote) chronic granulomatous disease (Hansen's disease). In fact, chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) and Hansen's disease are two very different diseases. CGD is a hereditary disease. Hansen's disease is a politically correct name for leprosy. Those who wish to read more about these diseases are welcome to check out http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001239.htm and http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001347.htm. Or for those who aboslutely hate to use a U.S. government source for electronic info in the public domain, I recommend searching the WHO Web site. Vukoni : Daudi Kiribedda wrote: Something brewing in Kaguta's Uganda! From: /Martin Rwaheru [EMAIL PROTECTED]/ Reply-To: /Martin Rwaheru [EMAIL PROTECTED]/ To: /[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ Subject: /Kiiza Besigye Trying to Use Basiita as a Steping Stone, but the Basiita Intend to Carry on After Museveni's Death!/ Date: /Sun, 24 Sep 2006 01:01:29 + (GMT)/ *Is Kiiza Besigye Trying to Use Basiita as a Steping Stone, but the Basiita Intend to Carry on After Museveni's Death!* Warren Kiiza Besigye Kifefe is known to his family and close friends as a very articulate and ambitious person. This drive and ambition within KB as he is fondly referred to by friends was detected early on by Yoweri Museveni while still fighting in the bushes of Luweero. To put his ambition in check Museveni decided to deploy another medical Doctor within the NRA high command fearing what KB could do on his own as the only authoritative medical officer in the jungle. KB was appointed Minister of State for Internal Affairs at the age of 29 in 1986. To quench KB's thirst for power, Museveni appointed him within two years to the powerful position of National Political Commissar and Minister in the President's office. It was at this time that KB decided he wanted to be president of Uganda. He knew all the players in the NRM political hierarchy and he felt confident. An opportunity came to him after the Basiita clan meeting of 1992. The Basiita clan meeting was a closely guarded secret within a circle of about 100 people. President Museveni hosted and chaired the meeting of about 80 Basiita clan members and other specifically invited guests at his home in Rwakituura around March of 1992. The essence of the meeting was to develop a strategy and an action plan that would allow the Basiita clan and a few friends hold both political and economic power in Uganda for a minimum of fifty years. The meeting and its deliberations remained a secret to the majority of Ugandans until shortly before the 2001 presidential elections. To discredit president Museveni and the National Resistance Movement, while paving his own political path to lead Uganda; KB went against the grain and secretly leaked the minutes and the list of attendees to the Basiita master plan meeting in Rwakituura. There has been a big debate within Uganda as to who may have leaked the minutes. Museveni and many of those in attendance have gone to great lengths to try to deny the meeting ever took place or the existence of any such list. The person that leaked the document erred in his effort when he left a gaping hole on the list where his name had been. Speaking to people that attended the Basiita clan meeting on condition of anonymity, they concurred that, the only person in attendance missing on the list is number 23. The only person in attendance and not on the list is KB. KB has all along denied knowledge of the Basiita clan meeting. However, his continued denial brings to question the credibility and motives of the leader of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). He double crossed colleagues to get to where he is today. His sole objective is to get to state house at any price . Many Ugandans will be surprised if they were to know the truth about KB, just as they were surprised when Museveni's true colours surfaced around 1994. At the moment KB is in a dilemma. He is one of the few people who are aware that president Museveni
Re: [Ugnet] Fwd: Tanzanian President Visits Los Angeles
MK, You seem to remember only those parts of our history that speak to your sense of loss. If it wasn't for Nyerere and TPDF, Obote and UPC would have found it much harder if at all to return to power in 1980. It was an open secret then who the annointed presidential candidate was. If you don't trust the Waswahili as you put it, we must ask ourselves what changed between 1980 and 1985 for Dr. Obote to fall from grace as a favored personal friend of Nyerere onto the plebeian floor as an expendable political potato. And I have it from an impeccable source that Jakaya Kikwete doesn't like your nemesis. This source, who had several conversations on the Great Lakes crisis with Kikwete while he was still minister of foreign affairs told me that Kikwete was quite disparaging of Museveni. For example, Kikwete reportedly thinks Museveni is a loudmouth and a megalomaniac who exaggerates his role in history. For example, in African liberation struggles. Of course of course, I don't want to cause a diplomatic row between Uganda and Tanzania, so I will say no more. Vukoni Matek Opoko wrote: /Those Tanzanian Washwahili brought us Dictator Yoweri Museveni Kaguta. Insider information has it that there were some prominent high ranking Washwahili Generals within TPDF ( Tanzania Peoples Defense Forces) who were very sympathetic to the then Guerrilla Leader Yoweri Museveni Kaguta during the days of Uganda's liberation war and struggle in 1979I personally do not trust these washwahilis. as the luo would say ...We mando me IKULU ! trust these washwahilis... you end up with a six inch digger knife embedded deep into your back! That is my opinion!!/ // /MK/ */Ntege Kigozi [EMAIL PROTECTED]/* wrote: */[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/* wrote: A SPECIAL INVITATION His Excellency Jakaya M. Kikwete President of the Republic of Tanzania and his delegation Tuesday, September 26, 2006 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm Marina del Rey, California The discussion will focus on: 1) Trade, Marketing, Import/Export, and Textile Manufacturing; 2) Tourism, Travel Agents and Hotels; 3) Ports, Harbors, Airports, Transportation; 4) Gemstones and Mining; 5) Agri-business and Fisheries (coffee, cotton, cashews, sisal); 6) Energy, Natural Gas and Oil (Exploration and Development); 7) Finance, Investment and Joint Ventures To be admitted to this exceptional meeting you must RSVP and submit your brief biographical statement and company profile by Friday, September 15, 2006 at 3pm PDT. Meeting details will be forwarded when your response is received. This program is under the auspices of “Friends of Tanzania�. For information on Tanzania visit: www.tanzania.go.tz Abbey Walusimbi President United African Federation 3700 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 1010 Los Angeles, California 90010 USA Tel: 1-213-840-9600 Do you Yahoo!? Get on board. You're invited http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=40791/*http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta to try the new Yahoo! Mail.___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. --- Stay in the know. Pulse on the new Yahoo.com. Check it out. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=42974/*http://www.yahoo.com/preview ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. --- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
Re: [Ugnet] Hugo Chaves Calls World to Rise Up Against the Empire
EM, Yeah man. Chomsky should give Chavez a cut of the royalties. V Edward Mulindwa wrote: Vukoni After Chavez's speech this book's sales jumped from about 170,000th position to 169th so you might have a problem even getting it as we speak. Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - From: Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda ugandanet@kym.net Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 9:23 PM Subject: [Ugnet] Hugo Chaves Calls World to Rise Up Against the Empire *September 20, 2006* /Address to the United Nations/ Rise Up Against the Empire By HUGO CHAVEZ Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it. Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, 'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States. http://www.amazon.com/Hegemony-Survival-Americas-Dominance-American/dp/0805076883/counterpunchmaga' [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.] It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet. The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time, [flips through the pages, which are numerous] I will just leave it as a recommendation. It reads easily, it is a very good book, I'm sure Madame [President] you are familiar with it. It appears in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German. I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house. The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house. And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here. [crosses himself] And it smells of sulfur still today. Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world. I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday's statement made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: The Devil's Recipe. As Chomsky says here, clearly and in depth, the American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its system of domination. And we cannot allow them to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated. The world parent's statement -- cynical, hypocritical, full of this imperial hypocrisy from the need they have to control everything. They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons. What a strange democracy. Aristotle might not recognize it or others who are at the root of democracy. What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs? The president of the United States, yesterday, said to us, right here, in this room, and I'm quoting, Anywhere you look, you hear extremists telling you can escape from poverty and recover your dignity through violence, terror and martyrdom. Wherever he looks, he sees extremists. And you, my brother -- he looks at your color, and he says, oh, there's an extremist. Evo Morales, the worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him. The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all over. And people are standing up. I have the feeling, dear world dictator, that you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare because the rest of us are standing up, all those who are rising up against American imperialism, who are shouting for equality, for respect, for the sovereignty of nations. Yes, you can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the empire, against the model of domination. The president then -- and this he said himself, he said: I have come to speak directly to the populations in the Middle East, to tell them that my
[Ugnet] Hugo Chaves Calls World to Rise Up Against the Empire
*September 20, 2006* /Address to the United Nations/ Rise Up Against the Empire By HUGO CHAVEZ Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it. Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, 'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States. http://www.amazon.com/Hegemony-Survival-Americas-Dominance-American/dp/0805076883/counterpunchmaga' [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.] It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet. The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time, [flips through the pages, which are numerous] I will just leave it as a recommendation. It reads easily, it is a very good book, I'm sure Madame [President] you are familiar with it. It appears in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German. I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house. The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house. And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here. [crosses himself] And it smells of sulfur still today. Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world. I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday's statement made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: The Devil's Recipe. As Chomsky says here, clearly and in depth, the American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its system of domination. And we cannot allow them to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated. The world parent's statement -- cynical, hypocritical, full of this imperial hypocrisy from the need they have to control everything. They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons. What a strange democracy. Aristotle might not recognize it or others who are at the root of democracy. What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs? The president of the United States, yesterday, said to us, right here, in this room, and I'm quoting, Anywhere you look, you hear extremists telling you can escape from poverty and recover your dignity through violence, terror and martyrdom. Wherever he looks, he sees extremists. And you, my brother -- he looks at your color, and he says, oh, there's an extremist. Evo Morales, the worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him. The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all over. And people are standing up. I have the feeling, dear world dictator, that you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare because the rest of us are standing up, all those who are rising up against American imperialism, who are shouting for equality, for respect, for the sovereignty of nations. Yes, you can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the empire, against the model of domination. The president then -- and this he said himself, he said: I have come to speak directly to the populations in the Middle East, to tell them that my country wants peace. That's true. If we walk in the streets of the Bronx, if we walk around New York, Washington, San Diego, in any city, San Antonio, San Francisco, and we ask individuals, the citizens of the United States, what does this country want? Does it want peace? They'll say yes. But the government doesn't want peace. The government of the United States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war. It wants peace. But what's happening in Iraq? What happened in Lebanon? In Palestine? What's happening? What's happened over the last 100 years in Latin America and in the world? And now threatening Venezuela -- new threats
Re: [Ugnet] The Zionists are at it again in Darfur
Khartoum's discriminatory policies, during the 1980s and 1990s, they overwhelmingly (Muslim, Christian, and animist) under the charismatic leadership of Yusuf Kuwa, made common cause with the southern Sudanese. Meanwhile, Darfurians were again hoodwinked and pressed into joining the Arab-supremacist military juntas in fighting another fratricidal war against fellow marginalized non-Arabized indigenous Sudanese in the south. But something funny different happened during the 1983-2004 civil war. The SPLA fought a non-secessionist war, claiming as its aim, the liberation of the entire country. Remarkably through its socialist/pro-Soviet and capitalist/Christian and pro-US phases, the SPLA maintained its core objective to liberate the whole of Sudan. So, Col John Garang's guerrilla movement, which overall had a more educated and ideologically more sophisticated cadreship than the rebels under Gen Joseph Lagu (during Anyanya I), was more inclusive. So, disenchanted members of the elite from the north, east, and west joined the SPLA. Among them was Dr Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani, an Arab and a scion of the founder of the Democratic Unionist Party, which is part of the ruling cliques. Even Sadiq el Mahdi, another Arab leader and grandson of the Mahdi who led a successful rebellion against the British-Egyptian condominium, for almost a decade allied his Umma Party with the SPLA. Once again, the Darfurians, who made the bulk of Khartoum's army fought and died for Arab supremacy. Since man cannot feed on ideology, at least not for too long, the people of Darfur, after realizing that they were not gaining anything economically and political from the jihads that Khartoum made them fight for almost 40 years started asking questions. Environmental degradation and attendant conflicts over pastureland provided the spark that ignited the rebellion in Darfur. As always, extraneous geopolitical interests impose themselves on essentially local conflicts. And Darfur's case is no different. But it would be wrong-headed and simplistic to conclude that the fighting in western Sudan is instigated by Zionists. I have said elsewhere that what's happening in Sudan is the slow but painful death of a crypto-apartheid, racist, and supremacist fiction: that Sudan is an Arab country. According to the only census carried out in Sudan outside of a period of war, only 30 percent of the population of the country claims Arab descent. This odious reality of an oppresive and supremacist minory clinging to power with the support of Arab countries in north Africa and beyond is what fuels rebellion against the Sudanese state. The statist ideology under which Sudan is currently organized can claim as much nationalist legitimacy as the Boers and Anglos in South Africa did under apartheid. In like vein, for the evolue or assimilated Arabs of Sudan to claim that the country is part of the Arab world is as absurd as the whites in Rhodesia and South Africa claiming that their countries were part of Europe. Despite having been sacrificed long ago by African progressives like yourself on the altar of unexamined Third World solidarity, the non-Arabized people of Sudan are grabbing whatever help they can (sometimes unfortunately from Zionists) to fight a racist and supremacist state. And guess what? They are winning. Very soon Sudan will emerge from the nightmare created by the minority ruling cliques in Khartoum with the support of the entire Arab world. All of us Black people whose first allegiance is to Africa should be ashamed that we have allowed this intolerable situation to go on with our connivance for the last 50 years. Vukoni Mitayo Potosi wrote: *I have always maintained that what is taking place in Darfur has been manufactured and financed by Zionists. It is they who are arming the so called rebels there. Their weapons are sent through Eriterea.* *They confine the Palestinians in a cage that is Gaza, **and then tell you that they love the black man so much !!* *Let me again paraphrase the wisest words Museveni has ever told us: If we are stupid (to naively swallow the Zionist Darfur hoax) then we deserve to be enslaved* ** *Read on..* Go to Original http://www.blackcommentator.com/197/197_a_tale_of_two_genocides_africa_action.html *The Tale of Two Genocides: The Failed US Response to Rwanda and Darfur* By Africa Action The Black Commentator Wednesday 11 August 2006 Africa Action is the oldest Africa advocacy organization in the U.S. Its mission is to change U.S. Africa relations to promote political, economic and social justice in Africa. Africa Action provides accessible information and analysis, and mobilizes popular support for campaigns to achieve this mission. On September 9, the two-year anniversary of the Bush Administration's recognition that genocide is occurring in Darfur, Africa Action joined with hundreds
Re: [Ugnet] Bum Rap at O'Hare Security Check-In
I speak some Arabic. So it was obvious to me from the get go that Amin was a victim of paranoia and his accent. He is lucky he didn't end up in Guantanamo. Semei Zake wrote: Yesterday, September 13, 2006 the charges against Amin were dropped. But Amin swears he is not going to be traveling with the pump any more because it gives him a lot of trouble. Stated hereunder is how Amin got into trouble with TSA – U.S. Transportation and Security Administration. His attorney claimed that from right from the get-go, it made no sense that a guy who had worked as a translator for the U.S. Army in Iraq wouldn't know the consquences of saying, 'I have a bomb'. Apparently the misunderstandings were brought about by his accent coupled with the fact that he didn’t want to be embarrassed in the presence of his mother by explaining what he was actually carrying. Unwilling to openly say the words “penis pump” while his mother stood nearby, Amin twice whispered something that, according to Amin, the guard misinterpreted as ‘bomb'. Semei == Bum Rap at O'Hare Security Check-In Penis Pump or Bomb? By Counter Punch News Service Mardin Amin, an Iraqi arrested at O'Hare airport now faces serious felony charges of disorderly conduct. He could get three years in prison. A female security guard claims Amin uttered the word bomb when she was examining a small black squeezable object she'd taken from his bag. For his part, Amin, on his way to Turkey with his mother and his children, claims he was whispering to his mother that it was a pump in fact a penis pump. The judge believed the security guard and now Amin faces the felony charges. Counter Puncher and Arabic-speaker David Price clarifies the affair. *As an anthropologist and Arabic speaker, Price tells Counterpunch, let me call attention to a vital aspect of this story. Simply put, Arabic has no 'Ps' and all native Arabic speakers voice their bilabials as 'Bs', thus it is pretty obvious that any native Arabic speaker with an accent would say the word 'pump' as the word 'bumb' --which the poorly-trained and overly paranoid airport security worker mis-heard as 'bomb.' * As has happened here, with newspapers such as the Chicago Sun Times, news pieces with the words 'penis pump' will generate guffaws from sea to shinning sea, but by not stating what the obvious context of this misunderstanding is, the Sun Times is adding to a dangerous climate of American anti-Arab sentiment. Professor Price urges the chortling scriveners and newsreaders of Chicago's entertainment industry to do what they can to reduce climate of hysteria by shedding some public light on what actually happened in this case. After Wednesday's hearing, Amin said airport security officials never gave him an opportunity to explain the misunderstanding. And he said he would never utter the word bomb while going through security Come on -- what do you think? said Amin, who lives in Skokie and works for a janitorial service. Amin does not consider the pump unusual. It's normal, he said. Half of America they use it. Do you Yahoo!? Get on board. You're invited http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=40791/*http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta to try the new Yahoo! Mail. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. --- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] The Struggle for Somali: Warlords, Islamists, US Global Militarism and Women
A Somali Woman Discusses the Sharia Court and Her Cousin Who Leads It The Struggle for Somali: Warlords, Islamists, US Global Militarism and Women By AMINA MIRE I will try to spare the readers from 'famine stories,' or the downing of American Blackhawk war planes or the killing and dismemberment of 18 American soldiers in that 1993 mission, or the American military killing of a thousand or so Somalis in retaliation of the killing of 18 American Marines. I am saying this partly because the American people are being fed by one sided tragic saga about US involvement in Somalia. Hence, the 2001 Ridley Scott's Hollywood's film 'Blackhawk Down' based on Mark Bodwen's Memoir of the same name had played up the Hollywood formula: 'good guys' -- usually, white, heterosexual, viral and militaristic- fighting the 'bad guys' -- weak, black, feminized, liars and cowards. In the case of Canada, the shameful episode of the torture of Shidane Arone was quickly resolved by disbanding the airborne regiment whose members were found to be responsible the torture and killing of the Somali teenage boy in the city of Beletwn (Beletuen) . After a quick Royal Commission national prestige was affirmed and this sad episode quickly forgotten. Three simple points: First, that Somalia, similar to Lebanon has been, and still is, a victim of its highly strategic geograp wrapped around the Horn of Africa, jutting out into the Indian ocean. The French, The British and the Italians all received their slice of Somalia in order to use it to suite their global strategic needs. The history of Somalia's struggle against colonial imposition is long and rich. It is worth mentioning that before the aerial bombing of cities, civilians and military installations in Iraq, Afghanistan and now in Lebanon, as part of new total war regime, at the turn of the last century, it was the British who used aerial bombing of northern Somalia, after suffering a humiliating defeat in the hands of poorly armed Somali guerrilla resistance against British occupation of Somalia, a central component to British colonial rule of Somalia. The British, making of ample use of recent technological advices in modern warfare, mounted a swift and well-coordinated aerial, ground and naval assault on Dervish positions in the early morning of January 21, 1920, with 12 warplanes taking part in the attack, perhaps the first such weapons ever used against Africans. The British also had their own 'Islamist bad guys.' In the case of Somalia, it was Sayyid Muhammed Abdulla Hassan --a master military strategist and the greatest poet Somalia had every produced. He was also enemy number one for the British who called him the 'Mad Mullah. The British had no compunction in unleashing brute force against civilians who were suspected of supporting or sympathizing with anti-colonial guerilla fighters. We can also speak about the use of 'famine' as a powerful instrument of humiliation. This was particularly evident in United State's slow response to the 1991 collapse of central authority in Somalia and the ensuing civil war and mass starvation. When the US finally decided to get involved, rather than engaging in the difficult task of disarming the warlords and their armed gangs who were terrorizing the civilian population, Bush Sr 'sadministration had chosen to sent the US Marines in 'Operation Restore Hope' to deliver food to the starving population of Somalia without offering them hope of long term peace or security. In this way, Operation Restore Hope was a cynical PR mission designed to promote US hyper-militarism as a new means to deliver humanitarian aid. The PR nature of this mission was clear from the fact the US had refused to work under the United Nations peacekeeping forces who where already operating in Somalia. More importantly, Operation Restore Hope and its subsequent utter failure, also registers the history of US complicity in the ultimate destruction of Somalia by propping up, militarily and economically, the ruthless regime of Siyad Barre. This connection is important because Barre's regime was responsible for much of the violence which led to the 1991 collapse of centralized authority in Somalia, the subsequent mass starvation and the deaths of more than a million Somalis and the mass displacement of millions more Somalis. The second point I want to briefly touch on is the Cold War Connection to the current crisis in Somalia. From 1969 to 1977 Somalia was a part of the USSR bloc. This historic partnership had ended in 1977 after Somalia suddenly invaded Ethiopia and took over Ogaden- a disputed region occupied for centuries by Somali nomads. A year later, with a tacit support of Jimmy Carter administration, the Ethiopian army, backed by the forces of the USSR's proxy states of northern Yemen, Libya, and Cuban forces- attacked the occupying Somali forces. The occupying Somali army was pushed back across the 1960 border between Somalia and Ethiopia, which had been
[Ugnet] The Lies Israel Tells Itself (And We Tell On Its Behalf)
How the Deliberate Became Only Apparent The Lies Israel Tells Itself (And We Tell On Its Behalf) By JONATHAN COOK Nazareth. When journalists use the word apparently, or another favorite reportedly, they are usually distancing themselves from an event or an interpretation in the supposed interests of balance. But I think we should read the apparently contained in a statement from the head of the United Nations, Kofi Annan -- relating to the killing this week of four unarmed UN monitors by the Israeli army -- in its other sense. When Annan says that those four deaths were apparently deliberate, I take him to mean that the evidence shows that the killings were deliberate. And who can disagree with him? At least 10 phone calls were made to Israeli commanders over a period of six hours warning that artillery and aerial bombardments were either dangerously close to or hitting the monitors' building. The UN post, in Khiam just inside south Lebanon, was clearly marked and well-known to the army, but nonetheless it was hit directly four times in the last hour before an Israeli helicopter fired a precision-guided missile that tore through the roof of an underground shelter, killing the monitors inside. A UN convoy that arrived too late to rescue the peacekeepers was also fired on. From the evidence, it does not get much more deliberate than that. The problem, however, is that western leaders, diplomats and the media take the apparently in its first sense -- as a way to avoid holding Israel to account for its actions. For apparently deliberate, read almost certainly accidental. That was why the best the UN Security Council could manage after a day and a half of deliberation was a weasely statement of shock and distress at the killings, as though they were an act of God. Our media are no less responsible for this evasiveness. They make sure we -- the publics of the West -- never countenance the thought that a society like our own, one we are always being reminded is a democracy, could sink to the depths of inhumanity required to murder unarmed peacekeepers. Who can be taken seriously challenging the Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni's assertion that There will never be an [Israeli] army commander that will intentionally aim at civilians or UN soldiers [sic]? Even the minority in the West who have started to fear that Israel is apparently slaughtering civilians across Lebanon or that it is apparently intending to make refugees of a million Lebanese must presumably shrink from the idea that Israel is also capable of killing unarmed UN monitors. After all, our media insinuate, the two cases are not comparable. There may be good reasons why Lebanese civilians need to suffer. Let's not forget that they belong to a people (or is it a race or, maybe, a religion?) that gave birth to Hizbullah. We can cast aside our concerns for the moment and take it on trust that Israel has cause to kill the Lebanese or make them homeless. Doubtless the justifications will emerge later, when we have lost interest in the Lebanon crisis. We may never hear what those reasons were, but who can doubt that they exist? The apparent murder of four UN monitors, however, is a deeper challenge to our faith in our moral superiority, which is why that apparently is held on to as desperately as a talisman. No civilized country could kill peacekeepers, especially ones drawn from our own societies, from Canada, Finland and Austria? That is the moral separation line that divides us from the terrorists. Were that line to be erased, we would be no different from those whom we must fight. An iconic image of this war that our media have managed to expunge from the official record but which keeps popping up in email inboxes like a guilty secret is of young Israeli girls, lipsticked and nailpolished as if on their way to a party, drawing messages of death and hatred on the sides of the missiles about to be loaded on to army trucks and tanks. In one, an out-of-focus soldier stands on a tank paternally watching over the girls as they address another death threat to Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Is this the truer face of Israeli society, even if it is the one we are never shown and refuse to believe in. And are we in the West hurtling down the same path? Driving through the Jewish city of Upper Nazareth this week, I realised how inured I am becoming to this triumphal militarism -- and the racism that feeds it. Nothing surprising about the posters of We will win on every hoarding. But it takes me more than a few seconds to notice that the Magen David ambulance in front of me is flying a little national flag, the blue Star of David, from its window. I have heard that American fire engines flew US flags after 9/11, but this somehow seems worse. How is it possible for an ambulance, the embodiment of our neutral, civilized, universal, Western, humanitarian values, to fly a national flag, I think to myself? And does it make a difference that only
[Ugnet] QA: The Invasion of Lebanon
Questions and Answers The Invasion of Lebanon By URI AVNERY Q. Who is winning this war? On the 15th day of the war, Hizbullah is functioning and fighting. That by itself will go down in the annals of the Arab peoples as a shining victory. When a featherweight boxer faces a heavyweight and is still standing in the 15th round--that is a victory, whatever the final outcome. Q. Can Hizbullah be pushed out of the border area? The question is based on a misunderstanding of the essence of Hizbullah. Not by accident is the organization call Hizb-Allah (Party of Allah) and not Jeish-Allah (Army of Allah). It is a political organization, with deep roots in the Shiite population of South Lebanon. For all practical purposes, it represents this community. The Shiites are 40% of the Lebanese population, and together with the other Muslims they form the majority. Hizbullah can be moved only if the whole Shiite population is moved--an ethnic cleansing that (I hope) no one is thinking about. After the war the population will return to their towns and villages, and Hizbullah will continue to flourish. Q. What would happen if the Lebanese Army were deployed along the border? That has been one of the slogans of the Israeli government from the first moment. They will announce this as the main victory. That is very convincing--for anyone who has no idea about the complexities of Lebanon. Anyone who was in Lebanon in 1982 and saw the Lebanese Army in action knows that it is not a serious army. Furthermore, many of its officers and soldiers are Shiites. Such a force will not fight Hizbullah. Its deployment in the South would depend entirely on the agreement of Hizbullah--and that also applies to every day it stays there. Q. Would an international force help? Ditto. That is a slogan especially tailored for diplomats, who look for an idea they can easily agree on. It sounds nice, especially if one adds the word robust. What exactly is the robust international force supposed to do? It is proposed that it will remove Hizbullah from the border area. Not by words--like the hapless UNIFIL, that everyone ignored right from the beginning--but by force. If the deployment of this force were to take place with the agreement of both sides--Israel and Hizbullah--alright. It may serve as a ladder for the Israeli government to climb down from the tree it has climbed up. But if the force is placed there contrary to the will of Hizbullah, a guerilla war against it will start. Will the international force stand up and fight in a place which the mighty Israeli army fled with its tail between its legs? For Israel, there will be a special dilemma: what will happen if Hizbullah attacks Israel in spite of the force? Will the Israeli army enter the area, risking a clash with the international force? With German soldiers, for example? Q. Olmert has said that we will not negotiate with Syria. Is that practical? So he said. He has said a lot of things, and his tongue is still wagging. Syria is a central player in this field. No real settlement in Lebanon will succeed without the participation--direct or indirect- of Syria. True, Hizbullah was created by us. When the Israeli army invaded Lebanon in 1982, the Shiites received the soldiers with rice and sweets. They hoped that we would evict the PLO forces, who were in control of the area. But when they realized that our army was there to stay, they started a guerilla war that lasted for 18 years. In this war, Hizbullah was born and grew, until it became the strongest organization in all Lebanon. But this would not have happened without massive Syrian support. Syria wants to get back the Golan heights, which have been officially annexed to Israel. Therefore, it is important for the Syrians not to allow the Israelis any quiet. Since they do not want to risk trouble on their own borders with Israel, they use Hizbullah to cause trouble on Israel's border with Lebanon. The Lebanese border will not become quiet until we reach an agreement with Syria. That is to say: until we give the Golan back.The alternativeis to start a war with Syria, with its ballistic missiles, chemical and biological weapons and an army that has proved itself. President Bush is pushing Israel to do this, perhaps in order to divert attention from his fiascoes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Q. How can one evaluate the conduct of the military campaign? Dan Halutz will not enter the history books as one of the greatest captains of all time. He pushed the government into this war, partly in order to cover up two embarrassing military failures: the Palestinian commando action in Kerem Shalom and the Hizbullah action on the Lebanese border. No officer has been called to bear responsibility for them. The ultimate responsibility rests, of course, with the chief-of-Staff. Halutz, the first Chief-of-Staff who rose through the ranks of the Air Force, was convinced that he could finish it off by aerial bombardment, with the
[Ugnet] Re: Civil society?s role is key in the success of Juba talks
Ndugu Mitayo, I understand your concerns. But I think they are misplaced in the context of my latest article, whose subject is how the people of northern Uganda, with the support of the rest of the country, said enough is enough. My article doesn't suggest, even remotely, that Museveni's and the NRM's win in southern, eastern, or western Uganda was the outcome of a free and fair electoral process. If you've been reading my column, I've mentioned several times in the past that the 2006 general elections were massively rigged. It was obvious, and I pointed this out repeatedly before the polls, that the elections were being stolen even before people voted. Election rigging in Uganda is a phenomenon that many other writers have exahustively addressed in the correct contexts. Short of writing meandering, unfocused jeremiads there is no way I can squeeze in a full catalog of the NRM's sins each time I pick up my pen. There just is no way I can change the thought processes of people who jump to unwarranted conclusions. So, I guess, you and I must suffer them with patience as we chip away at this monolith casting a pall on us all. Thanks. V Mitayo Potosi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Comrade Vukoni, You say that The people in the marginalised areas of Uganda, including the long-suffering Acholi, showed their anger against Museveni's stone-deaf government with a stunning vote for the opposition during elections this year. Yes but there is this notion, peddled sometimes with undercurrents of tribal animosity, that while the North voted against m7 the South voted for him. In my home area, you may not believe this but, Speaker Edward Ssekandi of the NRM lost the vote. DP and a Mr Mbabali clearly were the choice of this Masaka area. M7 and the electoral commission rigged Ssekandi in. The strange part is that DP itself dissuaded Mr Mbabali from contesting the unfortunate theft of the people's vote. Their motivation was the usual cant. That Ssekandi is their buddy. A good man. A Catholic. etc. I am sure there are other areas in the South where votes were robbed. The pattern of stealing was designed to indicate that while the North rejected m7 at least he obtained his majority, and mandate, from the South. It would be tragic for us to swallow this lie. Comrade Vukoni we rely on patriots like you to use your column to keep truth in the face of Ugandans. Lest they drift off into the tribal bickering trap that m7 so clearly set. Mitayo Potosi === OPINIONS COMMENTARIES THIRD EYE OPEN | Vukoni Lupa Lasaga ... Civil society?s role is key in the success of Juba talks July 25, 2006 The peace talks went into recess without any significant breakthough. No, the photo op between Chief of Military Intelligence Col. Leopold Kyanda and LRA commander Lernard Bwone Lubwa at the Saturday cocktail party at Juba?s Raha Hotels doesn?t count. If history is anything to go by, our self-serving politicians and the soldiers who for one reason or the other continue to kill and die for them have a disquieting penchant for eating from the same bowl on one day and massacring each other and luckless civilians on the next. So, the jury is still out on how the worm will turn. But this isn't to say that no progress is being made. The interesting thing is that unlike in past peace talks, civil society, represented by religious and traditional leaders, is playing a more prominent role. To a certain extent, the initiator of the peace effort, Dr Riek Machar, vice president of the southern Sudanese government, was responding to pressure from wananchi in his own backyard when he convened the talks in Juba. Not much is known in Uganda about how religious and community leaders in southern Sudan have, in the course of over 20 years of enduring war, repeatedly confronted the SPLA/M leadership over human rights violations. That same spirit of courage apparently came into play when local leaders made it known to the southern Sudanese government that they did not want to see Joseph Kony and Yoweri Museveni?s fighters continuing to kill, loot, rape and maim their people in a senseless war.. Quite independent of the southern Sudanese development, a similar groundswell of revulsion has built up among the civilian population in northern Uganda and the rest of the country against the human cost of a war in which more non-combatants are dying than the belligerents. The result has been the extraordinary mobilisation of the residents of the internally displaced peoples camps and other concerned Ugandans. The unflinching leadership of Catholic Archbishop John Bosco Odama of Gulu and retired Anglican Bishop Macleod Baker Ochola and traditional chiefs and politicians from the war ravaged areas eventually managed to pierce national and international apathy
RE: [Ugnet] AND AFRICANS DO WHAT THEY KNOW BEST
Stop yourspecious and racistgeneralizations. Scalping and forgery aren't what Africa knows best. Original Message Subject: [Ugnet] AND AFRICANS DO WHAT THEY KNOW BESTFrom: "Edward Mulindwa" [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: Wed, June 21, 2006 8:32 pmTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED], ugandanet@kym.netCc: Florence Namutebi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ex-Ferwafa official jailed over WC tickets By Emma Nsekanabo Wednesday, 21 June 2006 Former local soccer governing body vice-president Celestin Musabyimana has landed in prison on charges of forging Federation documents to secure 200 Fifa World Cup tickets worth 29,000 Euros from the international soccer governing body, FIFA. According to sources within the Federation of Rwanda Football Associations (Ferwafa), Musabyimana, who was a member of the old executive that left office after the January 12 Ferwafa elections, back-dated and submitted documents to Fifa indicating that he was still mandated to represent the Federation, yet he was not. Subsequently, reliable sources from the federation told The New Times, that Musabyimana connived with one Vogt Armin, residing in Switzerland (Fifa headquarters), to secure and sell the tickets on the black market in Europe, but that the deal backfired when Fifa told Ferwafa that Musabyimana had collected the tickets on Rwandas behalf.The tickets are availed to all national associations, to be sold on behalf of Fifa and no individual can easily secure rights to acquire tickets from Fifa for reselling. Following the recent saga, other sources said that Musabyimana could have pocketed millions from the past two World Cups, in his capacity as Ferwafa vice-president.Musabyimana, who has been denied bail, is locked up at the Kigali Central Prison famously known as 1930 and the former Ferwafa VP, who will soon appear in court, risks losing his position as an executive member representing the Council of East and Central African Football Association (Cecafa) on the Confederation African Football (Caf) Board. Musabyimana becomes the second African soccer official to get involved in the World Cup ticket saga, after Botswanas Ismail Bhamjee, who sold tickets for a World Cup match involving England three times their face value.Bhamjee is a member of the powerful 25-member FIFA Executive Committee and he admitted selling 12 Category One tickets for last Thursdays England v Trinidad and Tobago match for 300 euros (380 dollars) each. They tickets had a face value of 100 euros.Bhamjee was forced to resign immediately from all World Cup-related duties and ordered to leave Germany immediately. The Mulindwas Communication Group"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Mr. Obama Goes to Washington
Mr. Obama Goes to Washington by DAVID SIROTA posted on thenation.com on 8 June [from the June 26, 2006 issue] It's not every day that God calls your cell phone. But that's exactly what happened to me on an overcast afternoon last November. Is this David? asked the deep, vaguely familiar voice on the other end. When I told him it was, he said, This is Barack Obama. Thinking it was a good friend playing a joke, I said I didn't believe him. But no, the voice insisted with a laugh, it was Illinois Senator Barack Obama, otherwise known in cult-of-personality political circles as a deity, a rising Democratic star or, as George W. Bush recently called him, the pope. Obama was calling because he was bothered that I had written a few blog posts questioning positions he'd taken that appeared to belie his progressive image, most prominently his vote for a corporate-written reform of class-action lawsuits, his refusal to frontally challenge the Iraq War after running as an antiwar candidate and his vote to confirm Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State. One by one, Obama methodically answered each criticism. And when the call ended with his telling me he was committed to working with progressives, I was perplexed. Obama certainly talks a great game--but then, so have many false prophets over the years. I requested a formal interview, and to my surprise, Obama readily agreed. By the end of a day in Washington with him, I had the answers to two key questions: What can progressives expect from Barack Obama, and what does he really aspire to be? I first met the Illinois senator in his Capitol Hill office, where he introduced me to his staff, all of whom seemed totally at ease with him. Unlike in many Congressional offices, there was no overuse of the words senator or yes, sir. In separate conversations I had with many staffers, he was referred to as just Barack. I was given a packet documenting Obama's accomplishments since his 2004 election, and it was hard not to be simultaneously impressed and underwhelmed. Given that he's one of the most junior members of the Senate, his successful efforts to secure additional funding for veterans' medical care and energy development in Illinois are no small feats. But considering that he's one of the most famous politicians in America, the accomplishments are fairly mundane. That's the constraints of being in the minority, Obama said, when asked why he hadn't used his media megaphone to push for more systemic changes. Then he adopted a signature Obama move: downplaying expectations. What has probably been strategic was in the first year, my thinking was not to do a lot of message bills, in part because I've got a lot of colleagues here who do message bills, he said. A lot of what I think is interpreted as caution is just a function of my institutional role as a freshman in the minority party and the limits that places on me in terms of being able to move legislation out of committee. In a speech later that day, this theme came out again as he told the audience, Remember, I've got a lot of clout--I went from 99th to 98th in seniority this year. His sarcastic point has some merit--but only some. After all, legislation is just one measure of success. Another is how big an impact a politician has on the public debate. Most members of Congress have to scratch and claw to get attention even on pressing issues. Obama, by contrast, can put whatever's on his mind on the front page of major newspapers. Does he want a public image as a low-key legislative technocrat with a nice packet of accomplishments? Or does he want to be someone who uses the Senate platform to move the national political debate? Obama carefully answered the question about how he wants to define himself: The amount of publicity I have received...means that I've got to be more sensitive in some ways to not step on my colleagues. For those who see him as a bold challenger of the system, this may be disappointing. After all, it oozes deference to the Senate clubbiness that has killed many a populist cause. And Obama has defended that club from outside pressure not only in his rhetoric but in his actions. For instance, last year he posted a long article on the blog Daily Kos criticizing attacks against lawmakers who voted for right-wing Supreme Court nominee John Roberts--even though Obama himself voted against Roberts. And in January Obama publicly criticized a fledgling effort to filibuster nominee Samuel Alito. Obama actually voted for the filibuster, but his statements helped take the steam out of that effort. True, Obama did show a rare flash of defiance when he unsuccessfully pushed legislation this year to create an Office of Public Integrity, which would have enforced anti-corruption laws. But that kind of power-challenging move, which was met with strong resistance from both parties, was an exception. At the same time that he was ruffling feathers
[Ugnet] The Missionary Position
The Missionary Position by LAILA LALAMI from thenation.com [from the June 19, 2006 issue] These days, being a Muslim woman means being saddled with what can only be referred to as the burden of pity. The feelings of compassion that we Muslim women seem to inspire emanate from very distinct and radically opposed currents: religious extremists of our own faith, and evangelical and secular supporters of empire in the West. Radical Islamist parties claim that the family is the cornerstone of society and that women, by virtue of their reproductive powers, are its builders. An overhaul of society must therefore begin with reforming the status of women, and in particular with distinguishing clearly their roles from those of men. Guided by their true interpretations of the faith, these radicals want women to resume their traditional roles of nurturers and men to be empowered to lead the family. If we protect women's rights in Islam, they assure us, the umma, the community of believers, will be lifted from its general state of poverty and backwardness. Sayyid Qutb (1906-66), the Egyptian writer and activist who has exerted such a powerful influence over the radical Islamist movement, fervently believed that Muslim women belonged in the home. In his 1964 book Ma'alim fi al-Tariq (Milestones), Qutb wrote that if woman is freed from her basic responsibility of bringing up children and, whether on her own or by pressure from society, seeks to work in jobs such as a hostess or a stewardess in a hotel or ship or air company, she will be using her ability for material productivity rather than the training of human beings. This, he claimed, would make the entire civilization backward. The misogynistic philosophy has proved enticing, finding advocates among Muslims throughout the world. Between 1989 and 1991, for instance, Abbassi Madani, the red-bearded founder of the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front Party (FIS), often referred to women who refused to cover themselves with a hijab as sparrow hawks of neocolonialism. His c o-founder, Ali Belhadj, claimed that there was a simple solution to the country's high unemployment rate: turn over the jobs of working women to idle men. Madani summarized his program: The system is sick; the doctor is FIS; and the medicine has existed for fourteen centuries. It is Islam. Reducing Algerian women to birds of prey, and their faith to a pill: These are good indicators of the depth of intellect within the leadership of the FIS. Meanwhile, the abundant pity that Muslim women inspire in the West largely takes the form of impassioned declarations about our plight--reserved, it would seem, for us, as Christian and Jewish women living in similarly constricting fundamentalist settings never seem to attract the same concern. The veil, illiteracy, domestic violence, gender apartheid and genital mutilation have become so many hot-button issues that symbolize our status as second-class citizens in our societies. These expressions of compassion are often met with cynical responses in the Muslim world, which further enrages the missionaries of women's liberation. Why, they wonder, do Muslim women not seek out the West's help in freeing themselves from their societies' retrograde thinking? The poor things, they are so oppressed they do not even know they are oppressed. The sympathy extended to us by Western supporters of empire is nothing new. In 1908 Lord Cromer, the British consul general in Egypt, declared that the fatal obstacle to the country's attainment of that elevation of thought and character which should accompany the introduction of Western civilization was Islam's degradation of women. The fact that Cromer raised school fees and discouraged the training of women doctors in Egypt, and in England founded an organization that opposed the right of British women to suffrage, should give us a hint of what his views on gender roles were really like. Little seems to have changed in the past century, for now we have George W. Bush, leader of the free world, telling us, before invading Afghanistan in 2001, that he was doing it as much to free the country's women as to hunt down Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar. Five years later, the Taliban is making a serious comeback, and the country's new Constitution prohibits any laws that are co ntrary to an austere interpretation of Sharia. Furthermore, among the twenty-odd reasons that were foisted on the American public to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was, of course, the subjugation of women; this, despite the fact that the majority of Iraqi women were educated and active in nearly all sectors of a secular public life. Three years into the occupation, the only enlightened aspect of Saddam's despotic rule has been dismantled: Facing threats from a resurgent fundamentalism, both Sunni and Shiite, many women have been forced to quit their jobs and to cover because not to do so puts them
[Ugnet] Hotel Rwanda: Setting the Record Straight
This is from counterpunch.org April 24, 2006 Setting the Record Straight Hotel Rwanda By AMADOU DEME A small convoy of refugees is confronted by a murderous mob at a roadblock in the widely praised film Hotel Rwanda. The UN troops protecting the convoy, led by a bold white commander, brandish their weapons. After some scuffling, threats and a few shots being fired, the refugee trucks are turned around and the passengers safely returned to the Hotel Rwanda. The hero upon whom the film is based has now written a book, An Ordinary Man, in which he describes that terrible incident in much the same way as the film. But in fact the crisis did not happen as depicted in the film and book. And that troubles me because I was one of the UN soldiers with the convoy. Mr. Rusesabagina, as he acknowledges, was not there, though his wife and children were among the refugees. The convoy was saved through tense but patient dialogue with leaders of the unruly roadblock. There is no question in my mind, or in the minds of those who served with me, that many could have died if anyone had fired a shot or said the wrong thing. At one point I said to a Tunisian sergeant manning a 50mm machine gun, Don't start firing and he answered Don't worry captain; we're not crazy. The talking went on, the armed crowd calmed down, and the refugees were safely returned to the hotel from whence they had come. No fighting took place between army and militias to provide diversion as mentioned in Rusesabagina's book and the movie. I wonder why the story has been changed and the truth hidden. A possible answer occurs to me: The man who confronted the angry crowd and did the most to save all our lives is known to Mr. Rusesabigina. His name is Georges Rutaganda. He is an old friend of Paul Rusesabagina and is portrayed as a villain in the film Hotel Rwanda. Sometimes the truth can be very awkward. I know that Mr. Rutaganda came to that roadblock because I am the one who brought him there. The UN and Rwandan leaders had agreed that refugees from the hotel should be transferred to the rebel side of the battlefront. Many in the convoy were prominent individuals opposed to the government. The crowd at the roadblock were very close to the front lines and very agitated. When the mayor tried to speak to them they slashed tires on the trucks. In this atmosphere of confrontation I made the decision to try to locate Rutaganda, who I knew ran a business nearby and was the 2nd Vice President of the Interahamwe. As we raced back to the roadblock I told him what the situation was. Then he joined with me in trying to convince the angry crowd to let us pass and not to harm anyone. Rutaganda met the same rage we had encountered, but he persisted and eventually got some of the apparent leaders to enter into a grudging dialogue. That crowd did not know or like Mr. Rutaganda. They saw him as traitor trying to help their enemies. What he did was very dangerous. The afternoon was growing dark, soon killers and looters would be in charge. Had he been the cynical brute as depicted in the film he would have turned away. Fortunately, for our UN mission and everybody at that barricade, Rutaganda is in fact a large, friendly, soft-spoken and intelligent man who saved the day. It is interesting to me that establishing a dialogue and listening even to angry armed people is one of the ideas stressed in Rusesabagina's story as portrayed in the movie and the book. Paul should know and should respect that it was his old friend Georges who showed that skill on that afternoon in Kigali. Maybe it is possible they learned this together in the schools of the Seventh Day Adventists. Paul's wife and children were in our trucks. Paul was back at the Mille Collines Hotel and Georges was the one without a weapon facing the machetes and guns at the barricade. By listening and reasoning, he found among them the cooler heads and got the convoy released. There are other details wrong in the Rusesabagina account. No Bangladeshi UN soldiers stood with their hands up. There were no Bangladeshi soldiers on that mission. The soldiers were Tunisians and Ghanaians, all under a Ghanaian commander and they behaved professionally. Truth and Reconciliation is said to be part of the mandate of international justice. Averting our eyes from the truth because it is personally or politically awkward is bad for our collective conscience. Georges Rutaganda is today serving a life term for crimes against humanity. I would like to hope that Paul Rusesabagina would join me in acknowledging that on May 3rd, 1994, Georges Rutaganda risked his life to save refugees, including Paul's wife, at a roadblock in Kigali. In the film, a UN officer resembling General Dallaire takes Georges' place as saviour ... using a gun. In fact, there were no white commanders there that day and General Dallaire was not even in Kigali but in Rwamagana. If this can be done to
[Ugnet] Tackle land rights to reduce conflicts - experts
This is from the April 10th EastAfrican Tackle land rights to reduce conflicts - experts By FRANCIS AYIEKO Special Correspondent What has the management of land and other natural resources got to do with conflicts in Africa? This question was one of the pertinent issues discussed during a continental consultative workshop on Land Policy in Africa held recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The workshop marked the beginning of a continental initiative to come up with principles and best practices essential for the development of a framework to help African countries deal comprehensively with land and land issues. Participants noted that poor governance, control and use of land was, to a great extent, to blame for the many conflicts in the continent. The majority of conflicts in Africa, such as the recent wars in Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cote d'Ivoire, are related to failures in systems related to the governance, control and use of land and natural resources, said United Nations Under Secretary General Abdoulie Janneh, who is also the Economic Commission for Africa secretary. The workshop, which ran from March 27-29, was co-sponsored by the African Union, the African Development Bank and the Economic Commission for Africa. It brought together African regional organisations and delegates from civil society, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholder groups, to kick off the initiative to develop a framework and guidelines for land policy and reforms in Africa. The process, to be completed in July next year, will formulate modalities for the implementation of the resultant land policy framework and guidelines at country, regional and continental levels. According to Mr Janneh, any post-war recovery and peace-building efforts in Africa must focus on how land and other natural resources are managed. In many parts of Africa, conflicts sparked off by a clamour for natural resources such as land have not only affected economic development, they have also greatly contributed to human-rights violations, with women, children, the disabled and the poor bearing the brunt. For instance, in some parts of southern Africa, the inability to address a long-running history of unequal land distribution has led to racial and political tensions, thus hampering development. In South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, a minority of the population still owns a disproportionately huge chunk of the land. According to the participants, the way out of such conflicts is to address their underlying causes such as insecurity of land rights, bad governance and bad managment of land to ensure equal access. Rosebud Kurwijila, the African Union's Commissioner for Rural Economy, underscored the importance of land in addressing poverty, food security and the general economic growth in Africa. The African Development Bank's director of agriculture and rural development, Chuku Dinka Spencer, was even more blunt on how land management systems impact of the stability of Africa. Equitable access to land lies at the heart of democracy and sustainable development, he said. The workshop agreed on the critical pillars upon which to build a framework of action, such as reducing poverty, food security, good governance and transparent public administration, gender equity, conflict prevention, peace and security, secure shelter for urban and rural settlements, sustainable land use and ecosystem management and transformation of African economies to recognise the centrality of agriculture. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Sudan peace agreement may collapse, warns Crisis Group
This is from the April 10 EastAfrican Sudan peace agreement may collapse, warns Crisis Group By FRED OLUOCH Special Correspondent Sudan's historic peace agreement may collapse if the principle parties do not move fast to start implementing specific aspects of the deal, a study by the International Crisis Group (ICG) has concluded. ICG, an international not-for- profit-body, has stationed analysts in both Khartoum and Juba to monitor the situation in the country. The report attributes the delays in the implementation of the peace deal to the death last July of former vice-president, John Garang, which it says has not only allowed Khartoum to procrastinate but also seriously weakened the bargaining capacity of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM). The report decries the fact that the international community, which played a crucial role in the success of the peace deal, is merely watching as the situation deteriorates. It says that the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has the capacity to implement the peace deal but lacks the political will, whereas the SPLM has the commitment but is weak and disorganised. There is a real risk of renewed conflict down the road unless the NCP begins to implement the CPA in good faith, and the SPLM becomes a stronger and more effective implementing partner, says the report. The report accuses Khartoum of striving to hold on to power by selectively implementing elements of the peace deal without allowing for any fundamental change in the way the country is governed. It says that without a functioning and effective SPLM, there is little chance that the the peace deal will hold. The report also says that the ongoing conflict in Darfur has distracted both international attention and the parties from the peace deal. Despite the formation of the government of national unity last year, several key commissions and committees and other bodies which were supposed to implement the agreement are yet to be established. They include the Human Rights Commission, the Land Commission, the National Electoral Commission, the Commission on the Rights of non-Muslims in the National Capital and the National Civil Service Commission. The report says that delays in establishing the civil service commission means that there has not yet been any SPLM integration into the national institutions or civil service, beyond those appointed to ministerial or state ministerial positions. While many of these bodies have been created by presidential decree, the legality of some of them is questionable, whereas most of those legally established are not yet functional. The report says that tensions had emerged over the management of oil resources especially after the SPLM lost their bargain for the Ministry of Energy that manages the petroleum sector. Apparently, Garang had bargained to have the ministry controlled by the SPLM. The report says that Khartoum refused to heed the pleas by his successor Salva Kiir to have the docket headed by SPLM. Khartoum's position was that southerners were going to vote for separation irrespective of whether they had the ministry. Kiir and the SPLM, according to the report, ultimately backed down from their demand for the ministry, anticipating that the National Petroleum Commission (NCP) would still provide the SPLM with a direct role in overseeing the petroleum sector. Apart from the decision causing disappointment among southerners, many of whom blamed Kiir for giving up where Garang would have succeeded, the SPLM does not yet have access to any of the information relating to oil production figures and existing contracts. Thus, the main revenue stream of the Government of the South (GOSS) remains at the mercy of Khartoum. For 2005, Khartoum maintains that the share for the South was $798.4 million, of which it spent $194.5 million on administrative costs for the now defunct South Sudan Co-ordinating Council from January 9 to July 9. The GOSS received $523.3 of the remaining $603.9 million. In late January, Kiir publicly complained that the GOSS was not receiving its rightful share of the oil revenue. The wealth sharing agreement in the peace deal stated that all existing oil agreements would remain valid, thereby further undermining the right of the SPLM to have signed these agreements. As a result, the oil sector continues to be a high-risk area for conflict. Under the terms of the peace deal, the GOSS is to receive 50 per cent of all revenue from oil produced in southern Sudan, after two per cent is set aside for the relevant oil producing state government. However, the parties have not yet agreed on the parameters for calculating the oil wealth, or which oil fields lie in the South. There has not yet been any progress on ascertaining the North-South borders, which will determine the division of the oilfields. Though the peace deal granted a small SPLM technical team the right to
[Ugnet] 75pc of Tanzanians trust their govt, survey shows
This is from the April 10th EastAfrican 75pc of Tanzanians trust their govt, survey shows By WILFRED EDWIN Special Correspondent Tanzanians are greatly satisfied with the way the country is managed politically, economically and socially, unlike other citizens in 18 countries surveyed in East, Central, and southwestern Africa. Citizens in the rest of the surveyed countries, including Kenya and Uganda, are still doubtful of their ruling governments capabilities to solve their problems such as crime, health, infrastructure and poverty. Because of Tanzanians positive nod to their governments conduct, their country tops in a list of the survey that generally checked the citizens' perception of economic performance and the standard of living. The results of the Afro-Barometer survey conducted between July and August 2005 and announced early last week further show that Tanzanians were happy even before the current government came to power in December, 2005. Data collection, samples and interviews were done through research agencies in the respective countries. Presenting the results, Prof Amon Challiga of the University of Dar es Salaam and Robert Sentamu from Uganda said it was interesting to note that Tanzanians had great faith in the government even at a time when they didnt know who the next president would be. The dons noted that Zambia was the last country in the list, hence a clear indication that the citizenry had somehow lost trust in the way their government manages economic performance and the standard of living. On his account, Prof Challiga, who chaired the Tanzanian research team that was facilitated by a non-governmental organisation Research on Poverty Alleviation said 75 per of Tanzanians believe that their government is still capable of solving their problems. On the contrary, only 51 per cent of Ugandans have faith in President Yoweri Musevenis government, whereas only 41 per cent of Kenyans trust in the capability of President Mwai Kibaki's government to solve their problems. Prof Challiga said that despite the fact that the citizenry in the East African countries faces overlapping problems, with health being the common denominator, the way in which the problems are tackled differs from one country to another. Prof Challiga, who is also a commissioner in the Tanzania National Electoral Commission, observed that Tanzanians might have developed a positive thinking towards their government due to the fact that their country had posted sound economic achievements, especially during the past five years. He said in 2004, Tanzania recorded a growth in its gross domestic product of up to 6.7 per cent, the average inflation rate declined from 27.4 per cent in 1995 to 4.2 per cent, while domestic revenue collection increased from Tsh448.4 billion ($408 million) in 1995 to Tsh1.459 trillion ($1.3 billion). He said the value of exports also increased tremendously, with the balance of payments having greatly improved. Prof Challiga noted that the country now has foreign-exchange reserves sufficient to cover seven months worth of imports of goods and services. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] SPLM is too weak to consolidate its role in national government
This is from the April 10 EastAfrican SPLM is too weak to consolidate its role in national government For many southerners both inside and outside the SPLM, the peace deal is ultimately about the southern self-determination By FRED OLUOCH Special Correspondent While Khartoum is often blamed for the slow implementation of the January 2005 agreement, the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) is facing enormous challenges that undermine its ability to function as an effective partner in government. Smarting from the death of Dr John Garang, coupled with the challenges of the transition from a rebel movement to a government, the SPLM is currently grappling with the unmet expectations throughout the South, 15 months since the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement . The International Crisis Group report argues that without a functioning and effective SPLM, there is little chance that the peace deal will hold. SPLM, led by first vice-president Salva Kiir, is facing the dual challenge as the lead party in the new autonomous Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), and the minority partner in the new Government of National Unity (GNU). Yet the study shows that SPLM, weighed down by internal divisions and with no functional party structures or party decision-making mechanisms, has been overwhelmed and unable to successfully or consistently challenge Khartoum on most issues relating to implementation of the peace deal. As a result, observers say, SPLM currently lacks the strategic vision to consolidate its place in the national scene as the natural umbrella for all the marginalised and the oppressed and as the guardian of the democratisation project that the peace deal envisions. For instance, despite faring well in the south by establishing governance structures, the SPLM apart from controlling a handful of state ministry positions does not yet have any members integrated into the national civil service or other national institutions. According to the peace deal, the SPLM controls 70 per cent of the appointed positions in the GOSS until elections, the National Congress Party 10 per cent, and other southern parties the remaining 20 per cent. At the level of the GNU, the NCP maintains 52 per cent of the appointed positions, the SPLM 28 per cent, other northern parties 14 per cent and other southern parties 6 per cent. The SPLM must also establish 10 new state governments in the South (where it will maintain its 70 per cent control, with 20 per cent going to the NCP and 10 per cent to other parties), and fill 45 per cent of the positions in the state governments of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan, and 20 per cent in all other northern state governments. Without functioning party structures and party policies on many of these issues, many people see Salva Kiir and the southern SPLM leadership focusing increasingly on the South, at the expense of the SPLM in the North, the New Sudan, and serious engagement in the GNU. Since his swearing in last August as the new first vice-president of the GNU , Kiir had been critical of Garangs exclusive decision making and overly centralised leadership style, and there was initially optimism that a more democratic movement would emerge under his watch. But old differences within SPLM persist. For many southerners both inside and outside the SPLM, the peace deal is ultimately about the southern self-determination in the referendum. A second group includes both northerners and southerners committed to the New Sudan ideology, who view the peace deal as a vehicle to ultimately change the system of government, spread national power and wealth more evenly throughout the country and ultimately remove the NCP from power while retaining a united Sudan. Attached to this school are some southern secessionists who recognise the importance of engaging fully in the central government and challenging Khartoum to implement every aspect of the peace deal, as a strategy to safeguard the referendum and the South. However, there are early signs that the SPLM is beginning to overcome some of its internal challenges and focus its efforts on implementation of the peace deal. The January 8 Juba Declaration to integrate the bulk of the government-aligned southern armed groups operating within the umbrella South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF) into the SPLA will help consolidate peace in the South, though implementation of the agreement will be difficult. Though the challenges are enormous and the slow pace of progress understandable, the report notes that GOSS is running up against increasing frustration and unmet expectations throughout the South, and is experiencing a rise in insecurity. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and
[Ugnet] Everyone can do with a big pay increase
This is from the April 16th Sunday Nation Everyone can do with a big pay increase Story by SIMWOGERERE KYAZZE /Talking Point Publication Date: 4/16/2006 The news that Ugandas Auditor General has resigned is hardly the kind that would cause a stock market crash or a sudden appreciation of the dollar as nervous foreigners prepare for flight of self and capital. The AG is one of the least regarded public officials in Uganda, even as (s)he is the governments Accountant-in-Chief who maintains a watchdogs wary eye over the profligate ways of all statutory bodies (ministries, self-accounting institutions, etc). But its news all the same. Obscure piece of legislation According to an obscure piece of legislation passed seven years ago, officers of the state whose roles are spelt out in the constitution like the AG, the Director of Public Prosecutions as well as the entire judiciary cannot have salary adjustments until and unless Parliament passes an amendment to the enabling law. So this week, an exhausted Mr John Muwanga he has apparently been begging for a pay raise for the last fives wrote to the Minister for Public Service with a notice of his intentions. Three square meals The good man earns USh 2.9 million (KSh116,000) per month before tax. Millions of Ugandans live on less than a dollar a day and would gladly swap places with him, of course, but never mind. What galls Mr Muwanga (as it would any sane person who aced university accounts before rising to Partner in PwC, arguably the worlds largest financial services firm), is the fact that government officers of equal or lesser rank are raking in millions elsewhere. Some examples: The Commissioner General of the Uganda Revenue Authority (USh28 million; KSh 1.12 million), the Managing Director of the National Social Security Fund (USh14.5 million; KSh 580,000), the head of Civil Aviation Authority (USh7.1 million; Sh284,000), the Executive Director of the Uganda Investment Authority (USh9.1 million; KSh364,000), and the Executive Director of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (USh8 million; KSh320,000). Some of these men and women actually do some work too. But then there are Members of Parliament. All over the world, this bunch of talking heads is known to work for only a few weeks every five years, and Ugandas are no different. They have just recently been through a gruelling'' campaign season, which lasted about 10 weeks. From next month, when new MPs are sworn in, they will sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labour''. Each MP earns about USh 5 million (KSh200,000) per month in subsistence allowance, in addition to flat salary, a free vehicle, fuel, security, free medical care and one of the most elaborate pension schemes ever devised in Ugandas history. They dont even pay tax! Mr Muwanga must have wanted to be anyone of these guys over the last five years. Or he might have wondered what he would have to do to get his amendment. Or he must have longed for a return to private practice where the future is littered with prizes for such an experienced accountant as himself. Thing is, some people actually join government to do some good. Still, its really hard to see how someone who earns more than $15,000 a month as the URA boss does, can fail to be motivated to wake up everyday and head for office. Not many people earn that kind of money in any government job anywhere in the world. Consider that US President George W. Bush earns $33,000 per month, while British Premier Tony Blair gets just'' $23,000 before tax! Moreover, while Dubya and Tony have to spend their dollars and sterling in their natural habitats, all the highly-paid Ugandans spend their dollar-denominated salaries in Kampala, where the rate of the shilling to the green buck has depreciated from $1 - Sh60 in 1987 to around $1 - Sh1.850 today. So we can all now understand Mr John Muwangas situation? In this chaos of the enormous compensation packages, most Ugandans face an uphill task even to have the three square meals a day that the World Health Organisation recommends. Ive recently become privy to a story of a young woman (well call her Mary), who recently got a job as a nurse (sort of) at a government hospital. Mary has two very young children, whose father went for kyeyo (menial job) in Europe early last year, and is unlikely to return, despite his protestations to the contrary. After months of begging for money from a well-connected relative at one of the government hospitals, the man got fed up and got the young woman a job. She now runs around helping the nurses who help the doctors. Mary employs'' a middle-aged neighbour to look after her young children while she slaves at hospital. She pays the woman USh500 (Sh20), plus another USh500 to feed the children. The older child gets a USh100 (Sh 4) chapati, while the balance buys milk which is diluted several times over to make
[Ugnet] Kenyan Sees Natural Link of Environment, Women's Rights
Kenyan Sees Natural Link of Environment, Women's Rights By Allan Brettman Knight Ridder Monday 20 March 2006 For Wangari Maathai, a life of curiosity and activism began by stirring up mysterious tiny orbs in a stream near her childhood home in Kenya. The orbs fascinated her. One day they were gone. Instead, she saw wriggling forms that she later knew to be tadpoles. Later still, she knew those future frogs needed clean water. They had it in abundance in the early 1950s. But by the time Maathai returned home from college, the clean water was gone. Maathai knew she had to do something. That was one of the seeds for her creation of the Green Belt Movement in 1977, she told an audience Thursday night at Portland, Oregon's Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Maathai, who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work on environmental and social change, was in Portland as part of the International Speaker Series, presented by the World Affairs Council of Oregon. The Green Belt Movement's main activity involves women's groups planting trees - more than 30 million across Kenya - to conserve the environment and empower them toward a better life. The movement later expanded to improving human rights and women's rights. Maathai said her interest in the environment started with her mother. Just working with the land, appreciating the rain, appreciating the germinating seeds, she said. Maathai, taking part in an education program created under the administration of President Kennedy, earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kan. I was taught by Benedictine sisters, she said. Eventually (I) began to practice some of those values that some of those nuns I'm sure were teaching us ... the value of service, providing support, providing help, be available. Maathai later earned a master of science degree in biology from the University of Pittsburgh. She obtained a doctorate in anatomy from the University of Nairobi in 1971. In starting the Green Belt Movement, I was responding to women from the countryside who expressed they needed firewood, they needed food, they needed clean drinking water, she said. They need to improve their quality of life in other words. Maathai was elected to Kenya's parliament in December 2002. In January 2003, she was appointed assistant minister for environment and natural resources and wildlife. Women in Africa are gaining appointments to government posts in several African nations, but Maathai said she is not encouraged by the trend. Women have not been given adequate opportunity to hold leadership positions and to demonstrate that they can do differently and they can do better than what men are doing, she said. Quite often, when we have a woman minister - in Kenya for example, it's two (women) out of a Cabinet of about 35 ministers. So quite often, it's a token. Besides urging her audience Thursday night to reduce, reuse and recycle, Maathai said three other rules accompanied her success: Be determined, be patient, be persistent. --- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Regional Partners Join Efforts in West and Central Africa to Increase Access to Quality Education for Girls
Regional Partners Join Efforts in West and Central Africa to Increase Access to Quality Education for Girls UNICEF | Press Release Thursday 13 April 2006 Dakar - The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI) Regional Network for West Central Africa was launched today in Dakar, Senegal by a wide partnership of UN agencies, national and local governments and non-governmental organizations. UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Yvonne Chaka- Chaka, participated in the launch of the network. The challenges we face in terms of access to education for girls in this region are enormous, but they are achievable when we join all our efforts, she said at the launch. Girls' education and quality education in West Central Africa face many challenges, from emergencies and HIV/AIDS, to deepening poverty and persistent gender disparities. The result is that approximately 1 child out of 2 is out of school - most of these are girls from poor, rural areas. 81% of children out of school have mothers with no formal education, and region-wide only 86 girls are in school for every 100 boys. For countries in the region to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), MDG 2: to achieve universal primary education and MDG 3: to promote gender equality and empower women, there is a need for increased attention and programs to promote girls education. The launch of the regional UNGEI network is an important step in making that happen. The complexity of the issues preventing girls from accessing school requires a diverse group of partners to address them with the goal of moving girls' education forward at every level and in every setting. To reach the 2015 MDGs related to girls' education, countries in the region must increase the enrolment rate by 3.5% per year. However, the annual increase observed between 1980 and 2001 has been only 1%. Oxfam predicts that at the current rate of progress, gender parity will not be reached until 2038. The launch of the regional network United Nations Girls' Education Initiative is an important tool to help government to keep their promises in achieving the MDGs. The Regional Director, (acting interim), for UNICEF in West Central Africa, Mr Theophane Nikyema, stressed the significance of girls' education in the region: There is so much at stake, economically and politically for this region, that we simply cannot trifle with the contribution of women and girls. The sooner we give more attention to gender equality and equity, to prepare the foundation for girls through a quality, empowering education, the better for both the region and the continent as a whole. The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI) partnership comprises UNICEF, ILO, World Bank, UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNDESA, UNESCO, UNPF, UNHCR, UNIFEM, WFP, WHO and UNDG, along with other key partners including national and local governments, ministries of education, grass-roots organizations, local and international NGOs and donor governments. Partnerships already struck with the African Union (AU) and the Economic Commission for West African States (ECOWAS) are critical in mobilizing country ownership for the UNGEI objectives and outcomes so that girls' education programs can be scaled up and gender gaps reduced. These are prerequisite conditions for attaining the MDGs. At a regional consultation in Dakar with participation of 30 regional partners in education in November 2005, a regional action plan and strategy for girls' education in West Central Africa was developed. The guiding documents were endorsed today April 13 at the official launch of the regional network. All partners agreed to join their efforts in a biennial plan (2006-2007) to scale up access to quality education for girls in the region. The partnership will work to increase systematic interventions in education through advocacy, research, monitoring of progress, developing norms for intervention in girls' education and mobilization of funds. --- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] Cynthia McKinney Case: Democracy Now's Take
Cynthia McKinney Accuses Capitol Police of Racial Profiling Tuesday, April 4th, 2006 Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3 Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript Help Printer-friendly version Email to a friend Purchase Video/CD Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) has complained she was the victim of racial profiling that led to a run-in with a Capitol police officer last week. Prosecutors are now reviewing whether to bring charges against her. We speak with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee about the incident and we look at when several members of the Georgia General Assembly were denied entry to Coretta Scott King's funeral in February. [includes rush transcript] Prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney's Office are reviewing whether to bring charges against a member of Congress as a result of a reported scuffle with a Capitol police officer last week. Possible charges include assault or obstructing a police officer. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) has complained she was the victim of racial profiling when confronted by the officer last Wednesday in a House office building. The incident occurred when McKinney went around a metal detector -- as lawmakers are permitted to do -- while not wearing her congressional lapel pin. McKinney said she was rushing to a meeting and that most members of Congress expect Capitol police to recognize them. She reportedly poked the officer with her cell phone when he stopped her. We speak with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) about the case. * Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D - TX) Cynthia McKinney's run-in with a Capitol police officer isn't the only recent case where an African-American lawmaker has accused government officials of racial profiling. In February, several members of the Georgia General Assembly were denied entry to the main area where Coretta Scott King's body was on public view. Congressmember McKinney addressed the incident in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday. * Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN, April 3, 2006. Today is the 38th anniversary of the assassination of Coretta Scott King's husband, Dr. Martin Luther King. We speak with one of those State Legislators denied entry to see the body of Coretta Scott King at the Georgia Capital. Able Mable Thomas is a Georgia State Representative. * Rep. Able Mable Thomas, Georgia State Representative. RUSH TRANSCRIPT This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution. Donate - $25, $50, $100, more... AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Jackson Lee, I know you have to leave soon to catch a plane. This is also the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, and I wanted to ask you about this controversy that is brewing in Washington with the Capitol police saying they were seeking a warrant to arrest your fellow congress member, Cynthia McKinney, for an altercation with a police officer last week. Congressmember McKinney spoke on CNN with Wolf Blitzer yesterday. And I wanted to get your response. This is Congressmember Cynthia McKinney REP. CYNTHIA McKINNEY: There are only 14 African American women members of Congress. So I don't understand what it is about my face that certain members of the Capitol Hill Police Department can't remember. AMY GOODMAN: Your response, Congressmember Jackson Lee, to what has happened to her? REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE: First of all, I think all of us, including Congresswoman McKinney, respects the Capitol police and respects them for their responsibility and their job. But I believe that she is quite accurate in the fact that there are very few of us who happen to be African American women, and there are very few of us who would be so, if you will, difficult to be remembered, if you will, or to be able to be noticed. And frankly, many of us get either confused or asked for our I.D. or treated in a manner that is not necessarily accepting. And in this incident it was unfortunate. But it is the role of the Capitol police, of whom we respect, to basically know the members of the United States Congress. And if you are rushing toward a vote, a House vote -- and I think people should understand we have 15 minutes to cast a vote no matter where you might be in the entire capital of Washington, D.C. You might be in meetings off the Hill. You still have 15 minutes to vote. It's very difficult then to be stopped, while the clock is ticking, for to you cast your vote. So I think this is a question, first of all, where it should be resolved away from the cameras. I certainly don't think an arrest warrant is appropriate. I hope that the arrest warrant is not issued so that there can be an issue on the Democratic side of the aisle, while there is an issue now with Tom DeLay on the Republican side of the aisle. And I hope that this can be resolved, respecting the
[Ugnet] How the Media Uses Blacks to Chastize Blacks
April 14, 2006 How the Media Uses Blacks to Chastize Blacks The Colored Mind Doubles By ISHMAEL REED ITivo Don Imus as much as I can because his putrid racist offerings are said to represent the secret thinking of the Cognoscenti. Maybe that's why journalists like Jeff Greenfield and others admire him so much. He says what they think in private. On any day, you might find Bernard McGirk, the man, who, according to 60 Minutes, Imus hired to do nigger jokes, doing a lame imitation of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, using a plantation type dialect. The blacks who are satirized by McGirk and others are usually displayed as committing malaprops, but, though white writers appear daily on the show, I've rarely seen a black author. In the last twenty years, black authors have received every prize available to authors. His idea of a black author must be the same as the producers of the movie, The Tenants: Snoop Dogg. Recently, McGirk referred to Rev. Joesph Lowery as a shameless skunk, and a joke was made about the manner in which Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X's window, was murdered. Black athletes are referred to as knuckle draggers, which, the Irish and and Scotts Irish members of Imus's crew--they discussed their ethnic heritage on C-Span--might be surprised to learn, was the way that the British referred to their groups. When an exhibition of great apes was presented in London, the British commentators said that the exhibition showed the Irish to be the link between ape and man. But their being Irish and Scots-Irish makes sense because it was members of these groups who used to entertain the Anglos by blackening up. Maybe that's why Imus has listeners in Kennebunkport. Bush I is a fan. Another fan is Congressman Harold Ford (D-TN), whom Imus endorses so as to deflect attention from the show's lowbrow racism. I'm sure that Ford understands what Imus is all about, but he needs the country and western vote in rural Tennessee in order to gain a senate seat. Imus has a big following among this constituency. So did James Earl Ray. But why pick on Imus? His approach to the treatment of black issues and personalities has become mainstream, the only difference being that instead of using the Irish and Scot-Irish, the traditional white-trash mercenaries, who stand between the Other and the Anglos, when, given their social and economic position, they should strike common cause with blacks, the network and newspaper executives use people who resemble blacks to chastise blacks. This colored auxiliary function as their mind doubles and iPod people. I'll bet the executives got the idea from the cynical packagers of President Bush's political strategies. The administration's advocates of torture for example are Vietnamese, Chinese and Mexican Americans. The former domestic policy advisor who was recently arrested for scamming a department store is black, and the secretary of state is black. When they come before congressional committees, the idea is that congressmen would be reluctant to submit them to harsh questioning for fear of being called racist. That way, they can promote the administration's megalomaniac foreign policy with very little criticism. I'm sure that's Karl Rove's thinking. Unlike Ms. Rice, who I, in a heated public exchange with her, dubbed the Manchurian Candidate about a year before she joined the Bush campaign, journalist Barbara Reynolds is a progressive. She said that she was fired from USA Today because she didn't appeal to the demographic group from which the paper gets its sales: Angry White Men. Those black syndicated columnists who have remained must fit the bill. They have become the go-fers for backlash journalism, all of them competing with each other to blame the country's social problems on black behavior. Clarence Page and others are regularly blaming the victim. Harvard's Orlando Patterson is also brought in by the Neo Con op-ed editors at the Times to characterize the problems of African-Americans as self-inflicted, using the kind of argument that would be ripped to shreds in a freshman class room. Even Bob Herbert, a liberal and the token black on the New York Times' Neo Con editorial page, has to take the brothers and sisters to the woodshed from time to time in order to maintain credibility with his employers. He too says that Gangsta Rap is the cause of society's woes. (David Brooks, who promotes some of the same ideas as David Duke, but has a more opaque writing style, even blamed the riots in France on Gangsta Rap). For these writers, black peoples' style is the irritant. If we could only get Rep. Cynthia McKinney to a new hair stylist. Michelle Martin, who was assigned to beat up on Ms. Mckinney by the producers of Nightline, spent half the interview on Ms.McKinney's hair even though Ms.McKinney has been outspoken on a number of serious issues. Can you imagine Ms. Martin conducting an interview with Trent Lott, the last person on the planet to use Wild Root Cream Oil, or Joe
[Ugnet] Blood Money? As Divestiture Movement Heats Up, Sudan Government Pays Close to $1 Million for New York Times Supplement Advocating Investment and Praising Peaceful, Prosperous and Democratic F
Blood Money? As Divestiture Movement Heats Up, Sudan Government Pays Close to $1 Million for New York Times Supplement Advocating Investment and Praising Peaceful, Prosperous and Democratic Future Monday, March 27th, 2006 Blood Money? As Divestiture Movement Heats Up, Sudan Government Pays Close to $1 Million for New York Times Supplement Advocating Investment and Praising Peaceful, Prosperous and Democratic Future Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3 Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript Help Printer-friendly version Email to a friend Purchase Video/CD As a student-led campaign urging divestment from companies doing business in Sudan gains momentum in the U.S., the Sudanese government pays close to $1 million for an eight-page supplement in the paper. The ad advocates investing in companies operating in Sudan. In response, Sudan activists flooded the New York Times with demands for an apology. [includes rush transcript] On Saturday, the government of Sudan urged the United Nations to stop sending what they called negative signals to rebel groups in the country's Darfur region. While anti-Khartoum rebels have long urged UN involvement to counter what many consider state-sponsored genocide, the Sudanese government has claimed a UN presence would only worsen the conflict. Over the past three years tens of thousands of people have been killed in the region and over two million displaced. The violence in Darfur has worsened in recent months, and has now crossed into the neighboring country of Chad. While the international response has been criticized as lethargic, it was recently exposed that a man accused of being a key architect of the Darfur genocide met secretly with senior British and American officials in London earlier this month. Major-General Salah Abdullah Gosh was granted a British visa to receive medical treatment but it was later acknowledged that while in London Gosh met with U.S. and British officials. Meanwhile, a largely student-run divestment campaign is gaining significant momentum. The mutual fund Citizens Advisers recently became the first US fund to back a growing campaign urging divestment from companies doing business in Sudan. The decision followed the University of California's decision two weeks ago to divest from all companies working with the Sudanese government. * Iain Levine, program director of Human Rights Watch. * Jason Miller, a graduate student at the University of California San Francisco and co-director of the UC Sudan Divestment Taskforce. There's at least one company that apparently has not joined the Sudan divestment campaign. Last week, the New York Times ran an eight-page advertisement taken out by the Sudanese government. The ad advocates investing in companies operating in Sudan. It appears as a news article with a small disclaimer across the top of the page. It praises Sudan's peaceful, prosperous and democratic future and complains about international media coverage that is focused almost exclusively on the fighting between rebels and Arab militias in Darfur. In response, Sudan activists flooded the New York Times with demands for an apology. They have so far refused. The New York Times also declined to appear on Democracy Now!, but did give us this statement: The Times has vigorously reported on the Sudan and our editorials have condemned the actions the Sudanese government has taken against its citizens. We accepted this special advertising section, however, in our strong belief that all pages of the paper's news, editorial and advertising must remain open to the free flow of ideas. In accepting it, we do not endorse the politics, trade practices or actions of the country or the character of its leaders. Just as we print advertisements that rebut New York Times editorials, news articles or critical reviews, we print ads that differ from our editorial position. We do so in the belief that it is in the best interests of our readers for our pages to be as open as possible. The ad cost close to a million dollars, and was produced by the PR company Summit Communications. Summit claims to hold an exclusive agreement with the Times, where it has ran ads for several foreign governments. * Felix Salmon, writer and media critic. Covered the relationship between the New York Times and Summit Communications on his weblog, www.FelixSalmon.Com. RUSH TRANSCRIPT This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution. Donate - $25, $50, $100, more... AMY GOODMAN: Joining us to discuss the situation in Sudan and the response here in the U.S. is Iain Levine, program director for Human Rights Watch. Joining us on the phone from San Francisco, Jason Miller, a graduate student at the University of California and co-director of the U.C. Sudan Divestment Task Force. We
[Ugnet] Ghanaian developers push Semacode tags
Ghanaian developers push Semacode tags By Alastair Otter 13 April, 2006 If you've surfed the Internet you probably know what Wikipedia is. For those that don't it is an online, community driven and edited encyclopedia with more than three million articles in a range of languages that has, since its launch in 2001, become one of the most comprehensive sources of information on the Internet. Which is is all well and good when you're sitting at work behind a PC with an Internet connection. But what if you're away from your PC? For example, as a tourist in another country? Wouldn't it be great to access Wikipedia to read up on the historic buildings you find in your travels? Developers at Semacode have a plan to do exactly this: link the physical world with appropriate online information sources including Wikipedia -- or what in this case is called Semapedia. In its simplest form Semacodes are URLs (website addresses) encoded into a two dimensional barcode that can be attached to any physical object. Users with mobile phones equipped with a semacode reader are then able to snap a picture of the barcode with their camera and retrieve the URL and website on their mobile browser. And a group of Ghanaian developers have been quick to embrace the technology and have contributed to developing the underlying code for Semacodes as well as developing applications to build codes. Earlier this week they introduced the new technology to fellow Ghanaians. Guido Sohne, developer-in-residence at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre for Excellence and chief software architect at CoreNett, a Ghanaian electronic transaction processing company, said during his presentation that it was encouraging to find African developers providing code that is being used globally. If it can be done in Ghana, then it can easily be done elsewhere in Africa and even in Asia, Europe and North America too. It is rare to find African-created technology being used today in Western cyberspace so this event is indeed a step forward for African technology as well as an indication of the benefits of collaborative development based on liberal software licencing such as open source software. Semacode was conceived in Canada and includes code that was originally developed in Ghana by local software developers. Simon Woodside, the founder of the Semacode Corporation and the Semacode Organisation contacted Sohne for assistance in developing an early version of Semacode and Sohne in turn recommended Francois Bonin, another developer at the Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence, to develop the software. The significance of Semacode is that one can now link a real world, physical object to arbitrary data. Before there had been no link and traditional barcodes such as those used in stores to label products have limited storage for information and require custom hardware and software to create and read barcodes. Semacode barcodes can be generated with a range of software tools including online ones (http://semapedia.org/, http://sohne.net/semafox/) and are readable with most modern phones using free reader software. An ordinary camera phone, equipped with a Semacode reader software package decodes the semacodes into a URL which can be accessed by the mobile's browser. Semacodes, by embedding a URL into a barcode, enable any portion of the Internet to be 'attached' to any object. Semapedia Although Semacodes can be made of any URL, one of the first real applications of the barcodes has been the creation of Semapedia -- or the physical Wikipedia. Founded by Stan Wiechers and Alexis Rondeau Semapedia is a non-profit project that aims to bring the amazing knowledge from the Wikipedia to places in the 'real' world where it matters. Being able to stand in front of a building and dive into its history right on the spot is something incredible useful to anybody. Doing that by just taking a picture with your mobile phone of a semacode is a very simple interaction that is understandable to everybody. We have been explaining and showcasing the idea to people with no technical background at all and they still immediately understand the use and value of our project. As a community project anyone can go to the Semapedia site and create barcodes that can be printed out and attached to objects and places. Back in Ghana Sohne has continued with Semacode technology by developing free software, licenced under the GNU General Public Licence, to create Semacodes. The time has come for African content to take its place in the global constellation. We need more African content, and anybody can help add more content to the Wikipedia. So tag something today. It's really easy to do and the software is free, said Sohne. http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?src=rssid=965 Dig Africa site welcomes you to join us at ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by
[Ugnet] The Moussaoui Trial: What Kind of Justice is This?
This is from www.counterpunch.org Weekend Edition April 7--9, 2006 What Kind of Justice is This? The Moussaoui Trial By ELAINE CASSEL On April 3, after four days of deliberation, an Alexandria, Virginia federal court jury found Zacarias Moussaoui eligible for the death penalty -- on the ground that he had conspired to use airplanes as weapons of mass destruction, resulting in the deaths of Americans on September 11. (The jury still must decide whether to impose the death penalty.) Prior to its finding, the jury heard some surprising in-court testimony: Moussaoui claimed for the first time that he and shoe bomber Richard Reid had planned to fly a plane into the White House, as a part of a plan that culminated in the September 11 attacks. He also led the jury to believe that he knew more about the planned attacks than anyone had imagined. Does that mean the case is now neatly tied up? Hardly. These admissions suffer from a dramatic lack of credibility, in the face of the rest of the evidence in the case (including doubts about Moussaoui's competence). As a result, Moussaoui may be sentenced to death not for what he did or did not do, but for his lies about what he did or did not do or know. What the Evidence Against Moussaoui Truly Does Establish Here is what the evidence does show that Moussaoui did, and knew: He was a supporter of al Qaeda. He traveled to the United States in an attempt to learn to fly an airplane, so that he might be a part of some scheme (the details of which he was not sure) to take place after a major attack (the date of which he did not know). Accordingly, prior to this sentencing trial, Moussaoui pled guilty in this proceeding to broad conspiracy charges--not to involvement in the September 11 attacks. Did that plea merit the death penalty? The government argued that it did because, while in immigration detention prior to September 11, under government questioning, Moussaoui failed to reveal what he knew about the plot--and thus, the government contended, he failed to prevent the September 11 attacks. They allege that before he invoked his right not to answer government questions, he lied when he said he knew nothing about any pending terrorism schemes. The problem with this argument, though, is that like all those facing custodial government questioning, Moussaoui had the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. Thus, had Moussaoui not made his startling in-court admissions, the jury would have been left with the difficult question of whether Moussaoui ought to face death not for the acts to which he pled guilty, but for his silence, through which he exercised a constitutional right. Testimony Without Corroboration From Any Other Evidence No wonder, then, that the government was elated by Moussaoui's startling new admissions. But viewed in the light of the rest of the evidence, these supposed admissions are extremely hard to believe. Indeed, they are totally uncorroborated. Here's the evidence: In videotaped testimony, other al Qaeda members said Moussaoui was so bumbling and incompetent, bin Laden would have never trusted him with anything. Similarly, Moussaoui was brought to the attention of the FBI because his flight school instructor was alarmed at how poorly he was doing--and in particular, because he openly said that he wanted to learn to fly large jets but had no interest in obtaining a pilot's license. The FBI never searched Moussaoui's laptop computer for evidence of a potential hijacking conspiracy. If Moussaoui had indeed been directly involved in September 11, it seems very likely that the evidence surrounding him would have led the government to do such a search. Imagine, for instance, if it had been Mohammed Atta who had been cast under suspicion by his flight instructor instead. It seems impossible to believe that the government could not have gotten into Atta's laptop based on evidence about Atta. But Moussaoui was not Atta--and, as the September 11 Commission report explains, even when the FBI took information about Moussaoui to then-CIA head George Tenet, he was unimpressed. The September 11 commission report concluded that Moussaoui had no direct involvement in September 11. Why would Moussaoui lie? First, he is psychologically unbalanced--perhaps even schizophrenic. Second, if he perceives that a death sentence is inevitable anyway, he may want to taunt and anger the jurors and public as much as possible, by claiming far greater responsibility than, in fact, he had. The Jury's Next Decision: Death, or Life Without Parole? After Moussaoui's surprising testimony, will the jury sentence him to death? It seems certain they will. These jurors are death-qualified: Each said he or she was willing to inflict the death penalty. (Though the Sixth Amendment guarantees an impartial jury, the Supreme Court has sanctioned death qualification.) Unsurprisingly, studies have shown that death-qualified jurors are far more likely to convict a defendant
[Ugnet] The Rebuking and Scorning of Cynthia McKinney
This is from www.counterpunch.org Weekend Edition April 7--9, 2006 Invisibility Looks Good on You The Rebuking and Scorning of Cynthia McKinney By DAVID VEST A Washington press corps that stood idly by while Bush and Cheney plundered the country, wrecked the environment, spied on Americans without a warrant, tortured civilians and lied the country into a war that will only get worse, woke up one morning and collectively decided: Let's all play Get Cynthia! Let's get her for being too outspoken, bringing up the wrong issue at the wrong time, failing to get with the program, becoming a distraction, leaving House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi beside herself with rage. Let's get her because, hell, she practically volunteered for it, and besides, she's an easy target, standing practically alone, fired upon at will by Republicans -- who seem to think her story cancels out DeLay, Abramoff, Katrina and Iraq -- and virtually undefended by Democrats, except by the rolling of eyes heavenward, as though to say, Oh, please! We're not responsible for HER! Rep. Cynthia McKinney has now apologized for her part in the face-off at Checkpoint Cynthia. It was not enough to stop the cartooning of the coverage. Already the news wires are spinning her statement as a complete about-face, an abandonment of everything else she has said about the incident. Look, she said there was racial profiling in Washington! Look, now she's apologizing! Journalists are reporting this story as though it were their job to get her, breathlessly revealing that the woman who receives more hate mail than Teddy Kennedy employs a part-time bodyguard, as though it proved something about her mental state. But note, please, Rep. McKinney did not take back anything she has said about racial profiling in the nation's capitol. And the fact remains that, while each day's mail brings a new wave of personal threats, some of the people charged with protecting her affect not to recognize her. A Republican colleague offered the suggestion that she could announce I am a Member of Congress each time she passes a security checkpoint. But McKinney has served for eleven years, not eleven minutes. Here's a test of media fairness: how many times, over those eleven years, have you seen Rep. McKinney on CNN, NBC, ABC, or CBS, asked to explain her views on Iraq and the Middle East? Not once, you say? Read on for the why come of it all. The leaders of her own party turn their backs while she endures the most vicious racial stereotyping I've seen, since the last time I looked at that old KKK rag called the Thunderbolt when a fellow college student stuck a copy in my face back around 1963. I know it's probably racist, he said, but it's funny, as if that would have made it all right. It wasn't funny, it was disgusting, and I don't think what's happening to Rep. Cynthia McKinney is funny now. Much of the commentary seems to have been written by the same sort of people who say they don't agree with Rush Limbaugh, they just listen to him for entertainment. (Anybody out there who listens to Rush for entertainment, please get your eyes off of my words, I've got nothing to say to you and I sure as hell don't want to amuse you.) Two-party collusion in the destruction of a reputation is the story here, folks. For Pelosi, the affair is not something we need to focus on. Judging by Dennis Hastert's comments, Checkpoint Cynthia was the biggest national security event since 9/11. Rep. Tom DeLay called McKinney a racist. Nothing DeLay said would surprise me, and that comment was no exception. What did surprise me was that I couldn't find any stories quoting any Democrats saying, Tom DeLay called somebody a racist? Tom DeLay?! Oh, I know. They didn't want to take the bait, fall into the trap, keep the ball in the air for another news cycle. But really, how can they stand this? How can anybody? Right wingers, aided by Democrats, are spinning McKinney as arrogant, haughty, a nut-case, even the madwoman McKinney -- a woman who, just between us pros, wink wink, doesn't understand how the game is played. She understands the game all right. She just refuses to play it. When CNN's Soledad O'Brien, trying to take control of an interview, said to McKinney, Let me stop you there, what came back on her was something spoken in a tone rarely used toward a TV personality: You can't stop me, Soledad. And you can't control me, she might have added, and you can't dictate your own framing of the issues with me. How easy it is for people who don't have a history of having their right to be present challenged, to counsel others to be more calm and sensible when provoked. How easy it is to imagine a senior party member sitting down with Rep. McKinney, patiently and paternalistically explaining that politics is the art of compromise, sweetie. We all know what's supposed to be meant by that, but what kind of compromise do we really want our elected representatives to make with racial profiling,
[Ugnet] McKinney Abandoned
This is from www.counterpunch.org McKinney Abandoned By Alexander Cockburn Not one Democrat in Congress (and few outside it) would stand up for Cynthia McKinney, victim of racial profiling right in their own hallway. Eventually the Democratic leadership forced her to apologize. It's not the first time they've thrown her to the wolves. The first time was when they backed Majette against her in her own district. Majette repaid the Democrats' favor by eventually converting to the Republican Party, allowing McKinney to recapture her seat. Then, when she was back in the House, her fellow Dems denied her the appropriate seniority from her previous five terms. The uproar over McKinney's swat of the Capitol Hill cop with her cell phone after he's manhandled her was grotesque. Tot up the hours devoted to McKinney, as opposed to the fleeting attention to Republican Rep Duke Cunningham, finally sent to the Joint for taking upwards of $2 million in bribes; or to David Savafian, Bush's man in charge of procurement at OMB, arrested for corruption as a spin-off of the Abramoff scandal. CounterPuncher Fred Gardner used to work as San Francisco DA Terrence Hallinan's press secretary, and had plenty of time at the S.F. Hall of Justice to observe security gates and how they should be supervised. Here's a letter he sent to the S.F. Chronicle: The Washington, D.C. cop who grabbed Cynthia McKinney's arm should not have been assigned to his checkpoint job in the first place. The basic situation is familiar to millions of American workers -metal detectors and i.d. checks for the masses, easy entrée for the regular employees. At the San Francisco Hall of Justice one or, at peak hours, two cops from Southern Station handle the handbag and knapsack inspections while casting an eye over who is whisking in. The job calls for not just a good memory but good judgment, because the regular employees often are accompanied by guests, some of whom are not what you'd call classy-looking. It is INCONCEIVABLE that any of the three SFPD regulars (RIP, Eric R.) would ever come up behind and grab the arm of a woman who had passed through the checkpoint without apparent authorization. Inconceivable because righteous men don't grab women. Inconceivable because it would only take three quick strides to confront the possible interloper from in front. Blame should go not only to the D.C. cop who failed to recognize Rep. McKinney and then manhandled her, but to the captain who assigned him a job he obviously wasn't fit to handle. PS: There's another respect in which the officers stationed at the entrance to 850 are well suited to the job. They don't glare. Their demeanor is neither friendly nor unfriendly, it's neutral. They obviously don't pump iron, either. They are in no way intimidating. They don't add to the inherent unpleasantness of the experience (getting searched and entering that dismal building). Here at CounterPunch we don't think McKinney handled the affair deftly. Why did she have to appear on talk shows with lawyers? Tom DeLay, who's got a lot to answer for, confronted the press alone, and never stopped smiling. And why, oh why did McKinney apologize? As Jesse Jackson learned, it doesn't do any good. You've copped a guilty plea and then they say, You didn't apologize enough! You have to go on apologizing for the rest of your life. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
RE: [Ugnet] Re: [Ugandacom] What is our mouth (attn. Matek co)
Ladit Matek, Noc'la does sound as if he is under the influence these days. I wonder what's messing up his head. The Acoli people would have to be morons or zombies to vote for a man who sees their sufferingas an acceptable cost of his megalomaniacal projects. That really is one ofthe most frightening things about Museveni. No price is too high, no ambitiontoo costly for Ugandans and their neighbors to pay for his political (mis)adventures. vukoni Original Message Subject: [Ugnet] Re: [Ugandacom] What is our mouth (attn. Matek co)From: Matek Opoko [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: Fri, March 03, 2006 6:35 pmTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED], ugandanet@kym.net To Mr. so called Noc Lodume! It does appear the swiss Government has granted you your weekly wellfare check..such that you are now able to afford a few tot of Whiskey.!!oluma dong Omade KunBONGO NGUNYE!!!)..the now you decided to "charge", so to say here on Ugandanet/Ugandacom. I am not interested in your nonsensical Mambo Jambo! To each his own My friend. NRM/O has rigged the elections of 2006. They will face the consequencies of their rigging, once the people of Uganda decide enough is enough!! Peace brother man!! MatekOkuto del Coli [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Ladit Matek, It seems to me like you do not quite understand me when I say" PUT YOUR VOTES WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS". You do not understand me when I say "EAT WHERE EVERY OTHER UGANDAN TRIBE IS EATING". Perhaps I should elucidate better by clearly defining some of the"mouths"(these days we can have more than one mouth, aha aha): 1) Freedom, Liberty, Justice and democracy is our mouth. 2) Prosperity and well being is our mouth (equilibrated / normative Social, Cultural and Economic). 3) Security is our mouth. 4) REPATRIATION of IDP-Camp confined Ugandan to their respective homes is our mouth. 5) The MILLENNIUM GOAL is our mouth. FONT face="Times New Roman"6) Fair distribution and share of the national cake is our mouth etc. Take for example, the Millennium Goal. As you may by now be aware of, the UN- convention clearly articulates the provisions of the Millennium Goal (QUALITATIVE EDUCATION for all). Accomplishment of the Goal is set for year 2015 (!?), in 2006 we still do not even have basic conducive conditions for establishing a fairly functioning rural school. Our collective 'MOUTHS" (under the same "More than onemouthism) are exactly the six listed above. Because, QUALITATIVE EDUCATION entails qualitative social and cultural milieu. I hope now you understand me better when I say,"EAT." So, 'Eating" as I used it means halting the disaster demographic development not the kind of normati ve 'Dinner tables" you so eagerly will associate me with. Are we in tune? Rgds Noc'la gaumoy No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding.Make My Way your home on the Web - http://www.myway.com SPONSORED LINKS Holding tanks Sake set Running shoes Running shoes Running Holding cabinet YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "Ugandacom" on the web. To unsu bscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. Yahoo! MailUse Photomail to share photos without annoying attachments. ___Ugandanet mailing listUgandanet@kym.nethttp://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.--- ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---
[Ugnet] The Consultant (Joke)
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. - A shepherd is herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advances out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray-Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out of the window and says to the shepherd: If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one? The shepherd looks at the man, who is obviously a yuppie, then turns to his peaceful, grazing flock and calmly answers, OK, why not? So the yuppie parks his car, whips out his IBM Thinkpad, connects it to his mobile phone, surfs the Internet and finds a NASA site. Then, using the Web site, he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system and scans the area. Next he opens up a database and an Excel spreadsheet with complex formulas and after a few minutes he prints out a 150-page report on his high-tech, miniaturised printer. Eventually he turns to the shepherd and says, You have exactly 1,586 sheep. That's correct, says the shepherd. You can take one of the sheep. He watches as the young man selects one of the animals and bundles it into his car, then says: Hold on a minute, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep? OK, why not? answers the young man. That's easy, says the shepherd, You're a consultant. That's spot on, says the yuppie, clearly amazed, but how did you guess that? There was no guessing required, answers the shepherd. You turned up here, even though nobody called you. You expect to get paid to give me an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked, and you don't even know a thing about my business. Now give me back my dog. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Thabo Mbeki: The shared pain of New Orleans
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. - The shared pain of New Orleans During the dying days of the month of August we followed with concern the news that yet another hurricane was approaching the Atlantic coast of the Southern United States. This was Hurricane Katrina which finally devastated the US Gulf Coast on August 29, leaving a catastrophic human tragedy in its wake, especially in the historic city of New Orleans, Louisiana, which one commentator described as being “87 percent black and 30 percent poor”. Day after day since the defences of the city against destructive floods collapsed, we have followed with deepening despair the suffering visited on the sister people of the United States by Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately, it is clear that the dismal news will get worse with each passing day. Already it has been reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, has stocked 25 000 body bags, fearing that as the search for missing people continues, thousands of corpses will be found. Long distances separate us from the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that bore the brunt of the destructive fury of Hurricane Katrina. But as human beings, and given our historic links with the American people, we cannot but share their pain at this moment of a degree of suffering that no human beings should be asked to endure. At this moment of great tragedy for the American people, we cannot but recall that they helped to prepare some of our greatest liberators for the work they did to establish and lead our movement, the ANC. I refer here to the fact that Pixley ka Izaka Seme, John Langalibalele Dube and Charlotte Maxeke were all educated in the United States. Neither can we forget the intense and sustained struggle they waged as an important part of the world anti-apartheid movement, which played such a vital role in helping us to achieve our freedom. With great foresight, shortly before our liberation, they helped us to impart skills to people from among the oppressed, to increase our capacity successfully to manage and develop a liberated South Africa. It is therefore both natural and inevitable that we too should grieve with the American people as they strive to cope with the catastrophe imposed on them by the ferocious Hurricane Katrina. As an expression of that grief, we have conveyed our sincere feelings of sympathy and solidarity to President Bush, the government and people of the United States. We did this hoping that the knowledge of our sentiment would, at least, help to assuage their pain and strengthen them in their efforts to rebuild the lives of the living, who have lost everything, including their loved ones, their homes and possessions, and their means of livelihood. The scale of the tragedy was described in a few cryptic words by the on-line “Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia”, which says: “Hurricane Katrina was one of the most destructive tropical cyclones ever to hit the United States. It caused extensive damage to the coastal regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The storm caused several sections of the levee system in New Orleans, Louisiana to fail, flooding most of the city (most of which lies below sea level) and resulting in widespread damage and many deaths. Current estimates place the death toll place in the thousands, and the damage is expected to surpass Hurricane Andrew as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Over a million people are known to have been displaced — a humanitarian crisis on a scale unseen in the U.S. since the Great Depression.” But perhaps we would understand the tragedy brought about by Hurricane Katrina better, if we see it through the eyes of other US citizens who know through their own experience, what it means to be caught in the jaws of a natural or human machine that knows nothing about the quality of mercy. The September 8, 2005 edition of a publication of the Native American (Indian) people, “Indian Country Today”, carries an ‘Editors Report’ entitled, “Hurricane Katrina uncovers a tale of two Americas.” Here is what “Indian Country Today” says about the tale of two Americas. “Almost all of the white folks got out. Many people of colour, it would seem, did not. This is the unavoidable and indelible reality confronting anyone and everyone who watched on television the horrific series of events that has unfolded in the city of New Orleans. ”In the face of an impending and overwhelming catastrophe, as Hurricane Katrina increased to Category 5, then dropped to 4 and set its sights on the Gulf Coast communities of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, evacuation orders went out. Yet, as is now evident, many in Katrina's path did not have the means to evacuate. ”For middle-class and wealthy Americans, months of survival at a
[Ugnet] Prof. Cornel West Comments on Exiles from a city and from a nation
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. - * Exiles from a city and from a nation * *Cornel West Sunday September 11, 2005 The Observer http://www.observer.co.uk/* It takes something as big as Hurricane Katrina and the misery we saw among the poor black people of New Orleans to get America to focus on race and poverty. It happens about once every 30 or 40 years. What we saw unfold in the days after the hurricane was the most naked manifestation of conservative social policy towards the poor, where the message for decades has been: 'You are on your own'. Well, they really were on their own for five days in that Superdome, and it was Darwinism in action - the survival of the fittest. People said: 'It looks like something out of the Third World.' Well, New Orleans was Third World long before the hurricane. It's not just Katrina, it's povertina. People were quick to call them refugees because they looked as if they were from another country. They are. Exiles in America. Their humanity had been rendered invisible so they were never given high priority when the well-to-do got out and the helicopters came for the few. Almost everyone stuck on rooftops, in the shelters, and dying by the side of the road was poor black. In the end George Bush has to take responsibility. When [the rapper] Kanye West said the President does not care about black people, he was right, although the effects of his policies are different from what goes on in his soul. You have to distinguish between a racist intent and the racist consequences of his policies. Bush is still a 'frat boy', making jokes and trying to please everyone while the Neanderthals behind him push him more to the right. Poverty has increased for the last four or five years. A million more Americans became poor last year, even as the super-wealthy became much richer. So where is the trickle-down, the equality of opportunity? Healthcare and education and the social safety net being ripped away - and that flawed structure was nowhere more evident than in a place such as New Orleans, 68 per cent black. The average adult income in some parishes of the city is under $8,000 (£4,350) a year. The average national income is $33,000, though for African-Americans it is about $24,000. It has one of the highest city murder rates in the US. From slave ships to the Superdome was not that big a journey. New Orleans has always been a city that lived on the edge. The white blues man himself, Tennessee Williams, had it down in A Streetcar Named Desire - with Elysian Fields and cemeteries and the quest for paradise. When you live so close to death, behind the levees, you live more intensely, sexually, gastronomically, psychologically. Louis Armstrong came out of that unbelievable cultural breakthrough unprecedented in the history of American civilisation. The rural blues, the urban jazz. It is the tragi-comic lyricism that gives you the courage to get through the darkest storm. Charlie Parker would have killed somebody if he had not blown his horn. The history of black people in America is one of unbelievable resilience in the face of crushing white supremacist powers. This kind of dignity in your struggle cuts both ways, though, because it does not mobilise a collective uprising against the elites. That was the Black Panther movement. You probably need both. There would have been no Panthers without jazz. If I had been of Martin Luther King's generation I would never have gone to Harvard or Princeton. They shot brother Martin dead like a dog in 1968 when the mobilisation of the black poor was just getting started. At least one of his surviving legacies was the quadrupling in the size of the black middle class. But Oprah [Winfrey] the billionaire and the black judges and chief executives and movie stars do not mean equality, or even equality of opportunity yet. Black faces in high places does not mean racism is over. Condoleezza Rice has sold her soul. Now the black bourgeoisie have an even heavier obligation to fight for the 33 per cent of black children living in poverty - and to alleviate the spiritual crisis of hopelessness among young black men. Bush talks about God, but he has forgotten the point of prophetic Christianity is compassion and justice for those who have least. Hip-hop has the anger that comes out of post-industrial, free-market America, but it lacks the progressiveness that produces organisations that will threaten the status quo. There has not been a giant since King, someone prepared to die and create an insurgency where many are prepared to die to upset the corporate elite. The Democrats are spineless. There is the danger of nihilism and in the Superdome around the fourth day, there it was - husbands held at gunpoint while their wives were raped, someone stomped to death,
Re: [Ugnet] GOOK FLIES OUT OF UPC AND JOINS FDC
EM, You don't get it. If it is true that Gook left UPC to join FDC, he must have seen something in FDC that UPC doesn't have. Whether FDC is NRM or not doesn't change the fact that he left or why. And I don't have to have any hand or opinion in the matter or to buy into anything (as Owor Kipenji thinks). I'm just noting the political reality of somebody trading horses. vukoni Edward Mulindwa wrote: Vukoni That is true but FDC is still NRM man give me a break. Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - *From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *To:* ugandanet@kym.net mailto:ugandanet@kym.net *Cc:* ugandanet@kym.net mailto:ugandanet@kym.net *Sent:* Tuesday, September 06, 2005 4:08 PM *Subject:* RE: [Ugnet] GOOK FLIES OUT OF UPC AND JOINS FDC Any political orgnization that hemorrhages members has to ask itself why. It can't be the same reason each time someone leaves. Original Message Subject: Re: [Ugnet] GOOK FLIES OUT OF UPC AND JOINS FDC From: Owor Kipenji [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, September 06, 2005 7:06 am To: ugandanet@kym.net mailto:ugandanet@kym.net Good riddance! Kipenji */David Nyende [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/* wrote: Gook has seen LIGHT. David M. Nyende PARTNER Johnson Nyende Certified Public Accountants 3rd Floor Crusader House Portal Avenue P. O. Box 6164, Kampala, Uganda. Tel. 256-41-235881/3; 256-31-262298/9 Mobile: 256-71-444586 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]. - Original Message - *From:* Edward Mulindwa mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *To:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *Cc:* gook makanga mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; Florence Namutebi mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; ugandanet@kym.net mailto:ugandanet@kym.net *Sent:* Tuesday, September 06, 2005 7:07 AM *Subject:* [Ugnet] GOOK FLIES OUT OF UPC AND JOINS FDC Ugandans Reliable sources are informing The Communication Group that Godfrey Akanga Gook, My fellow Luwerorian has deserted UPC to FDC with a high post too. Yea as the jaw is dropping it is true to the dot. For the record, the elections going to happen in Uganda is a fracas, I know that and you know that, and Gook my best friend knows it. We have allot of stress on our population especially those in exile. But we have even the Kibuuka's who swear on the bible that Federalism in Uganda is not going to happen so it is better they drop it and go to join NRM government so that they can fight it from the inside. I have been in this struggle a very long time, it is more than 19 years now, but I prefer to make a statement that I will back up tomorrow, and that statement might as well be wrong. But I will not join NRM or any dying political party in this life time. For the lives of Ugandans involved in this gamble mean more to me than personal gains. But that is me and not Gook or Mukulu Kibuuka. We were born in very strange days indeed, that is why I should sleep tonight this offended Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug
Re: [Ugnet] GOOK FLIES OUT OF UPC AND JOINS FDC
Obviously you can bloviate all you want. It's your right. But remember, we are having this conversation only because you attempted to cast aspersions on my original remark. Edward Mulindwa wrote: Vukoni And since you have that right, what is so complex in allowing me to have a right to be offended? Just curious !!! Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - From: Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: ugandanet@kym.net Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 2:29 AM Subject: Re: [Ugnet] GOOK FLIES OUT OF UPC AND JOINS FDC EM, You don't get it. If it is true that Gook left UPC to join FDC, he must have seen something in FDC that UPC doesn't have. Whether FDC is NRM or not doesn't change the fact that he left or why. And I don't have to have any hand or opinion in the matter or to buy into anything (as Owor Kipenji thinks). I'm just noting the political reality of somebody trading horses. vukoni Edward Mulindwa wrote: Vukoni That is true but FDC is still NRM man give me a break. Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - *From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *To:* ugandanet@kym.net mailto:ugandanet@kym.net *Cc:* ugandanet@kym.net mailto:ugandanet@kym.net *Sent:* Tuesday, September 06, 2005 4:08 PM *Subject:* RE: [Ugnet] GOOK FLIES OUT OF UPC AND JOINS FDC Any political orgnization that hemorrhages members has to ask itself why. It can't be the same reason each time someone leaves. Original Message Subject: Re: [Ugnet] GOOK FLIES OUT OF UPC AND JOINS FDC From: Owor Kipenji [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, September 06, 2005 7:06 am To: ugandanet@kym.net mailto:ugandanet@kym.net Good riddance! Kipenji */David Nyende [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/* wrote: Gook has seen LIGHT. David M. Nyende PARTNER Johnson Nyende Certified Public Accountants 3rd Floor Crusader House Portal Avenue P. O. Box 6164, Kampala, Uganda. Tel. 256-41-235881/3; 256-31-262298/9 Mobile: 256-71-444586 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]. - Original Message - *From:* Edward Mulindwa mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *To:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *Cc:* gook makanga mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; Florence Namutebi mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; ugandanet@kym.net mailto:ugandanet@kym.net *Sent:* Tuesday, September 06, 2005 7:07 AM *Subject:* [Ugnet] GOOK FLIES OUT OF UPC AND JOINS FDC Ugandans Reliable sources are informing The Communication Group that Godfrey Akanga Gook, My fellow Luwerorian has deserted UPC to FDC with a high post too. Yea as the jaw is dropping it is true to the dot. For the record, the elections going to happen in Uganda is a fracas, I know that and you know that, and Gook my best friend knows it. We have allot of stress on our population especially those in exile. But we have even the Kibuuka's who swear on the bible that Federalism in Uganda is not going to happen so it is better they drop it and go to join NRM government so that they can fight it from the inside. I have been in this struggle a very long time, it is more than 19 years now, but I prefer to make a statement that I will back up tomorrow, and that statement might as well be wrong. But I will not join NRM or any dying political party in this life time. For the lives of Ugandans involved in this gamble mean more to me than personal gains. But that is me and not Gook or Mukulu Kibuuka. We were born in very strange days indeed, that is why I should sleep tonight this offended Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy
RE: [Ugnet] GOOK FLIES OUT OF UPC AND JOINS FDC
Any political orgnization that hemorrhages members has to ask itself why. It can't be the same reason each time someone leaves. Original Message Subject: Re: [Ugnet] GOOK FLIES OUT OF UPC AND JOINS FDCFrom: Owor Kipenji [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: Tue, September 06, 2005 7:06 amTo: ugandanet@kym.net Good riddance! KipenjiDavid Nyende [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Gook has seen LIGHT. David M. NyendePARTNERJohnson NyendeCertified Public Accountants3rd Floor Crusader HousePortal AvenueP. O. Box 6164, Kampala, Uganda.Tel. 256-41-235881/3; 256-31-262298/9Mobile: 256-71-444586e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]. - Original Message - From: Edward Mulindwa To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: gook makanga ; Florence Namutebi ; ugandanet@kym.net Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 7:07 AM Subject: [Ugnet] GOOK FLIES OUT OF UPC AND JOINS FDC Ugandans Reliable sources are informing The Communication Group that Godfrey Akanga "Gook", My fellow Luwerorian has deserted UPC to FDC with a highpost too. Yea as the jaw is dropping it is true to the dot. For the record, the elections going to happen in Uganda is a fracas, I know that and you know that, and Gook my best friend knows it. We have allot of stress on our population especially those in exile. But we have even the Kibuuka's who swear on the bible that Federalism in Uganda is not going to happen so it is better they drop it and goto join NRM government so that they can fight it from the inside. I have been in this struggle a very long time, it is more than 19 years now, but I prefer to make a statement that I will back up tomorrow, and that statement might as well be wrong. But I will not join NRM or any dying political party in this life time. For the lives of Ugandans involved in this gamble mean more to me than personal gains. But that is me and not Gook or Mukulu Kibuuka. We were born in very strange days indeed, that is why I should sleep tonight this offended Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" ___Ugandanet mailing listUgandanet@kym.nethttp://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/___Ugandanet mailing listUgandanet@kym.nethttp://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ Yahoo! Messenger NEW - crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail ___Ugandanet mailing listUgandanet@kym.nethttp://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] How to be a Good Victim
/The Silence of Elie Wiesel/ How to be a /Good/ Victim By M. SHAHID ALAM (www.counterpunch.org) Captain Gordon Pim stated in his speech that it was a philanthropic principle to kill natives; there was, he said, mercy in a massacre. Sven Lindqvist, Exterminate the Brutes (1996) At last Mr. Elie Wiesel has spoken of the 'dispossessed' in Palestine. It is ap-propriate that he should do so; that is what the world has long come to expect of him. A holocaust survivor and Peace Laureate, Mr. Wiesel has dedicated his life to preventing another holocaust, acting on the conviction that ...to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all... And so Mr. Wiesel speaks of the grief of dispossession in words that convey his deep empathy for the victims. In a /NYT/ column of August 21, 2005, he writes about the heart-rending images of dispossession. Some of them are unbearable. Angry men, crying women. Children led away on foot . The victims are obliged to uproot themselves, to take their holy and precious belongings, their memories and their prayers, their dreams and their dead, to go off in search of a bed to sleep in, a table to eat on, a new home, a future among strangers. Some of you may be surprised at Mr. Wiesel's grief for the victims /in/ Pal-estine. It appears uncharacteristic. Now, no one would accuse Mr. Wiesel of reserving his humanitarian work only for Jews. Indeed, according to his own testimony, he is not only a devoted supporter of Israel, he has also defended the cause of Soviet Jews, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Argentina's Desaparecidos, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of famine and genocide in Africa, of apartheid in South Africa, and victims of war in the former Yugoslavia. In Mr. Wiesel's world, however, the Palestinians do not qualify as victims. Rightly, Mr. Wiesel accuses the world of indifference and silence as the Nazis worked to exterminate the Jews. Yet, he too has chosen and as a matter of principle to maintain a deafening silence about the suffering of Palestinians. This is how he enunciated this principle many years ago: I support Israel period. I identify with Israel period. I never attack, I http://www.islamicity.com/rd.asp?s=03046-4764never criticize Israel when I am not in Israel. Those words might suggest that the commitment to Israel is visceral; it is a strictly monogamous relationship. It is not only that Mr. Wiesel will not criticize Israel when he is not in Israel. Israel can never do anything that could merit his criticism. Israel didn't do anything except it reacted Whatever Israel has done is the only thing that Israel could have done I don't think Israel is violating the human rights charter. War has its own rules. Israel is not only above criticism: it has always been the victim of Arab and Palestinian wars. Israel is utterly innocent. Sadly, there is no surprise in Mr. Wiesel's column; nothing to celebrate here. Mr. Wiesel has not renounced his high principle. The 'dispossessed' people in his column are not Palestinians: they are the illegal Jewish settlers in Gaza. Instead of commiserating with the Palestinians, Mr. Wiesel is engaging in a new game of blaming the victims and calling attention to a new form of Jewish victimization. Implicitly, this is his message: 'There never was any ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948, 1967 or later. All this is a lie, an anti-Semitic slur. But look at what is real. It's happening right before your eyes: the ethnic cleansing of Jews in Palestine. You can see it everywhere, on /Fox/, /CNN/, /CBS/, the /Washington Post/ and the /NYT/.' This is merely the latest, most ingenious move in the splendid Zionist strategy to paint Israel and Israelis as victims. Israelis never dispossessed anyone. But Israelis are being 'dispossessed' today in their promised land, in their own country. How tragic: they are the only Jews to be ever dispossessed by their own army. If there were ever any misgivings about Israeli intentions towards Palestinians: the expulsion of Jews from Gaza should dispel them. Look, the Israeli government will even dispossess Israeli Jews to accommodate Palestinians. In this new role as the 'dispossessed,' the Israelis have new opportunities too for blaming the real victims the Palestinians. What is the Palestinian crime now? Faced with the tears and suffering of the [Israeli] evacuees, the Palestinians have chosen /not/ to silence their joy and pride Instead, they have organized military parades with masked fighters, machine guns in hand, shooting in the air as though celebrating a great battlefield victory. Mr. Wiesel is telling the Palestinians that they cannot enjoy even their hard-won little victories for which they have paid over the last eighty years in blood and tears. The logic by which the Zionists have blamed the Palestinians is quite extraordinary. They demand that the victim
Re: [Ugnet] The demise of Dr. Kazigo
This is so sad. My condolences to the family and all who knew Dr. kazigo. musamize wrote: *Newsday Coverage* *Long Island* Son planned father's murder Email this story http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-limurd0829,0,2464288,email.story?coll=ny-top-headlines Printer friendly format http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-limurd0829,0,2132044,print.story?coll=ny-top-headlines *Photo* Mulumba Kazigo http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-limurd0829a,0,7915138.photo?coll=ny-top-headlines Mulumba Kazigo http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-limurd0829a,0,7915138.photo?coll=ny-top-headlines (Photo by Howard Schnapp) Joseph Kazigo, 67 http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lidoc0827a,0,6512379.photo?coll=ny-top-headlines Joseph Kazigo, 67 http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lidoc0827a,0,6512379.photo?coll=ny-top-headlines (Handout) Aug 27, 2005 *More Coverage* Doctor recalled as strict, and a good father http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-likaz0829,0,5348812.story?coll=ny-top-headlines Aug 29, 2005 *Photo* Muscoot reservoir and Dr. Joseph Kazigo http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-kazigo-comp-pic,0,5451436.photo?coll=ny-top-headlines Muscoot reservoir and Dr. Joseph Kazigo http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-kazigo-comp-pic,0,5451436.photo?coll=ny-top-headlines (Photo by Mitch Jacobson; Handout) *More Coverage* Grim end in search for missing NUMC doctor http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lidoc0828,0,40379.story?coll=ny-top-headlines Aug 27, 2005 Doctor was ‘pillar in the community’ http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-likazi0828,0,3221801.story?coll=ny-top-headlines Doctor was ‘pillar in the community’ http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-likazi0828,0,3221801.story?coll=ny-top-headlines Aug 28, 2005 BY CHRISTINE ARMARIO, KARLA SCHUSTER AND JENNIFER SMITH STAFF WRITERS Newsday, August 29, 2005 The bludgeoning death of a Nassau University Medical Center emergency room surgeon was the culmination of longstanding tension with the son charged with his murder, Nassau police said yesterday. Mulumba Kazigo, 26, of Lincolndale, planned the death of Dr. Joseph Kazigo several days in advance, authorities said yesterday, purchasing weapons, plastic and tape to wrap the body, and using a family car to dispose of the corpse within 10 minutes of the family's Westchester home. The elder Kazigo, 67, lived with his family in Westchester but often stayed at a Westbury apartment due to a long commute from the East Meadow hospital. Authorities said Mulumba Kazigo broke into the Westbury residence, repeatedly beat his father with a bat and then cut his father's throat with a knife while he slept Wednesday morning. Kazigo was reported missing on Thursday when he did not show up for his shift at the hospital. Police said yesterday that he also did not respond to a page from the hospital Wednesday evening, but that this was not uncommon for on-call surgeons. Mulumba Kazigo was arrested Friday on second-degree attempted murder and assault charges after neighbors reported seeing a man fitting his description driving one of the family's cars from his father's Westbury home on Wednesday, police said. After talking with his family, Kazigo led police to his father's unburied remai ns in a wooded area near the Muscoot reservoir Saturday between 4 and 5 a.m., and confessed in writing and video to the murder, Det. Lt. Dennis Farrell of the Nassau Homicide Squad said. The younger Kazigo was a graduate student in history at the University at Albany, according to attorney Francis Ssekandi, a family friend who grew up in Uganda with Joseph Kazigo and represented the son at his arraignment yesterday. At the time of his arrest, Kazigo was living at his parents' home and working as an assistant at a nearby summer camp, Ssekandi said. There may have been an argument recently, Farrell said, adding that tensions between father and son had been building for a number of years. He declined to say what had spurred the son's problems with his father, who was known as a strict man devoted to traditional values of his native Uganda. Eyes drooping, Mulumba Kazigo stared stoicly ahead as he was escorted yesterday from Nassau police headquarters. He paused briefly before entering a police vehicle and looked at the swarm of reporters. I have no comment, he said in a quiet voice. At First District Court in Hempstead, Kazigo pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail. Karoli Ssemogerere, one of Mulumba Kazigo's attorneys, described
RE: [Ugnet] Re: [Ugandacom] President Museveni's time is nigh
That's a non-answer, my friend. But it's so typical of you. So, I'm not surprised at all. Original Message Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Ugandacom] President Museveni's time is nigh From: Edward Mulindwa [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sat, August 27, 2005 4:29 am To: ugandanet@kym.net You have no idea Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: ugandanet@kym.net Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 9:23 PM Subject: RE: [Ugnet] Re: [Ugandacom] President Museveni's time is nigh Mulindwa, What do I have to do with this? vukoni Original Message Subject: [Ugnet] Re: [Ugandacom] President Museveni's time is nigh From: Edward Mulindwa [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sat, August 20, 2005 8:01 pm To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: ugandanet@kym.net Andrew Mwenda Yea and we need you as a journalist after Museveni, so forget the Vukoni's who are using your case for cheap shots at the movement clean up or you are not a journalist. Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - From: gook makanga To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 8:44 PM Subject: [Ugandacom] President Museveni's time is nigh August 21 - 27, 2005 Every now and then a time of reckoning comes, and President Museveni's is nigh ANDREW M. MWENDA President Museveni's decision to close KFM radio station on August 11 because of my radio show of the previous day and throw me in jail came exactly as expected. Strategically, this is a sign of political weakness not strength. This strategy is not new. After the 2001 presidential elections, Mr Museveni meted out unmitigated harassment against his opponent Kizza Besigye and wife Winnie Byanyima leading to their escape from the country. I wrote a three-part article in Sunday Monitor in October 2001 arguing that this harassment was not aimed at Dr Besigye and Ms Byanyima although they were the victims of it. Rather Museveni was using it to demonstrate to other historical pillars of the NRM the costs of taking Besigye's path. In colonial parlance, this was called gunboat diplomacy. TACTICAL MANOEUVRES: Gen. Museveni. File photo As with Besigye and Byanyima, the President did not aim at KFM or Monitor Publications Limited. His target goes beyond the media and independent private enterprises to threaten freedom of expression generally. Much more broadly, the target of Museveni in this action is the wider Ugandan society, which he wants to subdue on his path to consolidate a one-man totalitarian regime. Over the last 20 years, Museveni has sustained his strategy of neutralising and destroying every organisation or institution that stands independent of him. Background In 1986 when he was politically weak, he consolidated his position through an inclusive strategy that brought other political parties, especially the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) and the Democratic Party (DP) into a broad-based government. But this was only a tactical manoeuvre to win a strategic objective - consolidating his power. Museveni then used the gentleman's agreement with these parties to keep them in a cooler while using resistance councils to consolidate the NRM at the grassroots. By 1994, the parties had been weakened by co-optation, legal restrictions and eight years of hate propaganda to suffer a resounding defeat in the Constituent Assembly elections, a defeat that was consolidated by the 1996 presidential and parliamentary elections. However, Museveni's strategy of political consolidation was heavily reliant on financial aid from international creditors. This made it difficult for him to consolidate one party rule in the post-Cold War world unless he demonstrated some commitment to democratic values, hence press freedom, some judicial independence and other democratic safeguards under the 1995 Constitution. Museveni also exploited donor-sponsored economic reforms to destroy other forms of civic organisation independent of him such as trade unions and co-operatives. In their wake, what emerged was a civil society dominated by foreign aid-funded local and international NGOs who - except for a few - are merely vehicles of income for their employees than representatives of a vibrant civic life. Although the Sixth Parliament was actually a one-party Parliament dominated by NRM members, it sought to impose checks on how Museveni managed (or should we
RE: [Ugnet] NOW WE ARE WAITTING ON VUKONI'S APOLOGY
What apology, EM? Original Message Subject: [Ugnet] NOW WE ARE WAITTING ON VUKONI'S APOLOGYFrom: "Edward Mulindwa" [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: Mon, August 22, 2005 5:00 amTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Cc: Florence Namutebi [EMAIL PROTECTED], ugandanet@kym.net___Ugandanet mailing listUgandanet@kym.nethttp://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
RE: [Ugnet] Re: [Ugandacom] President Museveni's time is nigh
Mulindwa, What do I have to do with this? vukoni Original Message Subject: [Ugnet] Re: [Ugandacom] President Museveni's time is nigh From: Edward Mulindwa [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sat, August 20, 2005 8:01 pm To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: ugandanet@kym.net Andrew Mwenda Yea and we need you as a journalist after Museveni, so forget the Vukoni's who are using your case for cheap shots at the movement clean up or you are not a journalist. Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - From: gook makanga To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 8:44 PM Subject: [Ugandacom] President Museveni's time is nigh August 21 - 27, 2005 Every now and then a time of reckoning comes, and President Museveni's is nigh ANDREW M. MWENDA President Museveni's decision to close KFM radio station on August 11 because of my radio show of the previous day and throw me in jail came exactly as expected. Strategically, this is a sign of political weakness not strength. This strategy is not new. After the 2001 presidential elections, Mr Museveni meted out unmitigated harassment against his opponent Kizza Besigye and wife Winnie Byanyima leading to their escape from the country. I wrote a three-part article in Sunday Monitor in October 2001 arguing that this harassment was not aimed at Dr Besigye and Ms Byanyima although they were the victims of it. Rather Museveni was using it to demonstrate to other historical pillars of the NRM the costs of taking Besigye's path. In colonial parlance, this was called gunboat diplomacy. TACTICAL MANOEUVRES: Gen. Museveni. File photo As with Besigye and Byanyima, the President did not aim at KFM or Monitor Publications Limited. His target goes beyond the media and independent private enterprises to threaten freedom of expression generally. Much more broadly, the target of Museveni in this action is the wider Ugandan society, which he wants to subdue on his path to consolidate a one-man totalitarian regime. Over the last 20 years, Museveni has sustained his strategy of neutralising and destroying every organisation or institution that stands independent of him. Background In 1986 when he was politically weak, he consolidated his position through an inclusive strategy that brought other political parties, especially the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) and the Democratic Party (DP) into a broad-based government. But this was only a tactical manoeuvre to win a strategic objective consolidating his power. Museveni then used the gentleman's agreement with these parties to keep them in a cooler while using resistance councils to consolidate the NRM at the grassroots. By 1994, the parties had been weakened by co-optation, legal restrictions and eight years of hate propaganda to suffer a resounding defeat in the Constituent Assembly elections, a defeat that was consolidated by the 1996 presidential and parliamentary elections. However, Museveni's strategy of political consolidation was heavily reliant on financial aid from international creditors. This made it difficult for him to consolidate one party rule in the post-Cold War world unless he demonstrated some commitment to democratic values, hence press freedom, some judicial independence and other democratic safeguards under the 1995 Constitution. Museveni also exploited donor-sponsored economic reforms to destroy other forms of civic organisation independent of him such as trade unions and co-operatives. In their wake, what emerged was a civil society dominated by foreign aid-funded local and international NGOs who except for a few are merely vehicles of income for their employees than representatives of a vibrant civic life. Although the Sixth Parliament was actually a one-party Parliament dominated by NRM members, it sought to impose checks on how Museveni managed (or should we say mismanaged) state affairs. By weakening external opposition to him in form of DP and UPC, Museveni had inadvertently allowed submerged tensions within NRM to take centre stage. As a result, a new opposition now formed around the moderate and progressive wing within the NRM itself against its more extremist and anti-democratic elements. The progressives inside the NRM united with the opposition in the old political parties around the Young Parliamentarians Association and formed a vibrant political force. The new opposition As battles raged between the two sides, Museveni sought to remove this alternative platform taking shape inside the NRM but more reflected in the institution of Parliament. Between
Re: [Ugnet] Attn Sharangabo: NEUTRALISING THE VOICES OF HATE: BROADCASTING AND GENOCIDE
Mr. Sharangabo, You had better read Richard Carver's article again, m-o-r-e s-l-o-w-l-y this time. It doesn't support your thesis at all. For radios and machetes to become tools of genocide, they need the coercive power of the state or of a constituency with the motives, the will, and the ability to commit mass murder. In Uganda, the one can only come about if Museveni takes abuse of power to the next level. The other will also require him to push that alternative power constituency against the wall. Either way, our president's abuse of power will be the impetus for a genocide in Uganda. But this is a purely hypothetical situation. I do not think we will have genocide in Uganda. Not least one caused by the media. Hence your thesis can only serve as a gift to dictators. Thanks. vukoni NDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Mwananchi] Sudan's Vice President John Garang maybe dead
Hold the obituaries and speculations. I just got off the phone talking with the members of a well-connected southern Sudanese family. Garang is alive. The helicopter landed safely, although in an unscheduled location. vukoni ___ Edward Mulindwa wrote: Netters This is a true example of how African nations are controlled by the Americans. We do not know if Garanga is dead but if he is alive I will be surprised, but where have we been before? Garanga fought a very long war in South Sudan, this part of Sudan has an enormous number of oil reserves. The Americans tried to drill it out and Garanga refused. He wanted those reserves to be used by the population of Southern Sudan by creating an independent state. Stupidly he agreed to join the government of Sudan, a government that has been working very closely with the Americans including flying the chief of defense to Washington few days ago. The moment John Garanga joined the Sudanese government, he became useless and a nuisance to the whole plan. Let us remember Kabila as well, a man who fought on a promise of stopping foreign mining in Congo. I am not surprised a single bit if this man is dead. Now watch how oil flies out of Sudan and the lives of the Sudanese people is going to be forgotten so will the ones of Dafur. Who is controlling Africa, is it Africans or United States? Em Toronto ' The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - *From:* James Ololo mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *To:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; AbujaNig mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; Naijanet mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; Pan-Africanist Forum mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; TalkNigeria mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; TheBlacklist mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *Sent:* Sunday, July 31, 2005 2:12 PM *Subject:* [Mwananchi] Sudan's Vice President John Garang maybe dead Breaking News !!! Sudan's John Garang 'is missing' The whereabouts are unclear of Sudan's first Vice-President John Garang after a military helicopter taking him back from Uganda failed to arrive. Mr Garang flew out on Saturday night but did not reach the destination in Sudan's border with Kenya, the United Nations in Sudan said. There were reports of bad weather in northern Uganda at the time. The former southern Sudanese leader was sworn in three weeks ago as part of a peace deal ending a long civil war. Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs Mwananchi is an open forum that discusses/updates you on the latest news in Africa. It is a group that is made up of 900 members worldwide. To join it simply go to http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/mwananchi YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS * Visit your group Mwananchi http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mwananchi on the web. * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Mwananchi] Sudan's Vice President John Garang maybedead
My pleasure, EM. Thanks for sending out the word about the missing story in the first place. All the best. v Edward Mulindwa wrote: Vukoni Thank you I am also on that one we have just retracted the missing part of the story. One wonders what is going on here or what was intended to be going on here with Uganda government announcing him missing too? Let us hope that Monday when people are back in offices we will know more. But thanks for letting us know. Em Toronto The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - From: Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: ugandanet@kym.net Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 6:18 PM Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Mwananchi] Sudan's Vice President John Garang maybedead Hold the obituaries and speculations. I just got off the phone talking with the members of a well-connected southern Sudanese family. Garang is alive. The helicopter landed safely, although in an unscheduled location. vukoni ___ Edward Mulindwa wrote: Netters This is a true example of how African nations are controlled by the Americans. We do not know if Garanga is dead but if he is alive I will be surprised, but where have we been before? Garanga fought a very long war in South Sudan, this part of Sudan has an enormous number of oil reserves. The Americans tried to drill it out and Garanga refused. He wanted those reserves to be used by the population of Southern Sudan by creating an independent state. Stupidly he agreed to join the government of Sudan, a government that has been working very closely with the Americans including flying the chief of defense to Washington few days ago. The moment John Garanga joined the Sudanese government, he became useless and a nuisance to the whole plan. Let us remember Kabila as well, a man who fought on a promise of stopping foreign mining in Congo. I am not surprised a single bit if this man is dead. Now watch how oil flies out of Sudan and the lives of the Sudanese people is going to be forgotten so will the ones of Dafur. Who is controlling Africa, is it Africans or United States? Em Toronto ' The Mulindwas Communication Group With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy Groupe de communication Mulindwas avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie - Original Message - *From:* James Ololo mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *To:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; AbujaNig mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; Naijanet mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; Pan-Africanist Forum mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; TalkNigeria mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; TheBlacklist mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *Sent:* Sunday, July 31, 2005 2:12 PM *Subject:* [Mwananchi] Sudan's Vice President John Garang maybe dead Breaking News !!! Sudan's John Garang 'is missing' The whereabouts are unclear of Sudan's first Vice-President John Garang after a military helicopter taking him back from Uganda failed to arrive. Mr Garang flew out on Saturday night but did not reach the destination in Sudan's border with Kenya, the United Nations in Sudan said. There were reports of bad weather in northern Uganda at the time. The former southern Sudanese leader was sworn in three weeks ago as part of a peace deal ending a long civil war. Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs Mwananchi is an open forum that discusses/updates you on the latest news in Africa. It is a group that is made up of 900 members worldwide. To join it simply go to http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/mwananchi YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS * Visit your group Mwananchi http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mwananchi on the web. * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http
[Ugnet] More Trees Can Mean Less Water, Says Report
*More Trees Can Mean Less Water, Says Report* *SciDev.Net* (London) NEWS July 29, 2005 Posted to the web July 29, 2005 By Sonja Van Renssen Water management programmes across the developing world are based on the mistaken belief that trees increase the available water in an area, says a report published today (29 July). From the Mountain to the Tap summarises four years of research led by the Centre for Land Use and Water Resources Research at the University of Newcastle, United Kingdom, and the Free University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, into water management programmes. Although the report does not advocate an end to tree planting -- which can help limit soil erosion and preserve biodiversity -- it does challenge the widely-held view that forested land always conserves and supplies more water than grassland or other treeless areas. Contrary to popular opinion, we found that trees usually reduce the amount of available water, says Ian Calder, director of the Centre for Land Use and Water Resources Research. Forests tend to diminish water supplies because they lose more water through evaporation than other vegetation, say the researchers. Calder told SciDev.Net that evaporation from forests can be twice that from grasslands. In wet climates, this is because of the 'clothesline' effect: just as wet clothes hanging on a line will dry faster than those laid on the ground, tall trees lose more water than small shrubs. In dry conditions, trees evaporate more than other plants because their deeper roots take up more water to evaporate. Forestry programmes sometimes also receive far more attention than water-intensive activities such as irrigation, which if better regulated could contribute to water conservation, adds Calder. Calder and colleagues predict that efforts to convert agricultural land to forest in the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh could reduce their water supplies by up to a quarter. Previous research in South Africa, for instance, found that timber plantations reduced local water levels. South Africa now requires all farmers whose crops use more water than the area's natural vegetation to pay a tax. In future, some of this money could go to farmers whose crops use less water than native plants, says Calder. Frank Rijsberman, director-general of the International Water Management Institute, based in Sri Lanka, believes the report's findings are of most value to areas, such as South Africa, where water is scarce. The report makes a very important point: that forests are users, not producers, of water, he explains. But in the Upper Yangtze region of China, for example, they are planting trees to reduce flooding, not to conserve water. Without trees, soils can become degraded and less able to absorb water. This can lead to sudden floods during the rainy season and inadequate replenishment of groundwater supplies to sustain livelihoods during the dry season. Sampurno Bruijnzeel, of the Free University of Amsterdam and one of the world's leading experts on how forests affect water supply, says the report's findings must be implemented with care because they do not take into account the role trees play in ensuring soil quality. Bruijnzeel, who contributed to the study, adds that forests also play a role in climate change because they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They are often havens of biodiversity, and can be an important contributor to rural livelihoods, for example by providing timber. There are fears that the report could lead forestry programmes to be discarded. I am very, very concerned it could lead to a ban on tree planting, Bruijnzeel told SciDev.Net But Calder stresses the report's conclusions do not advocate this. There is no doubt that trees provide a multitude of benefits, says Calder, but we should promote them on the basis of real benefits, not on the basis of myths. Forestry decisions need to take into account the different effects of alternatives like crops, settlements and grasslands, on soil quality and water availability. Further reseach needs to investigate whether forests can increase rainfall and, if so, to what extent this is compensated for by extra evaporation, says Bruijnzeel. The report was funded by the UK Department for International Development's Forestry Research Programme. The World Commission on Water forecasts that demand for water will increase by about 50 per cent in the next 30 years, and that around four billion people -- half of the world's population -- will live in conditions of severe water stress by 2025. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
Re: [Ugnet] A garbled Luganda glossary\ Semakula
Mw. Ssenyange, Thanks for the info. Please keep us posted of any further developments. vukoni ssenya nyange wrote: Mw. Semakula, What I know is that the printers, the author ( Kiingi) and Makerere University were supporsed to seal the agreement this month, and expect it on the market at the beginning of next year. Ssenyange - From: musamize [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: ugandanet@kym.net To: ugandanet@kym.net Subject: Re: [Ugnet] A garbled Luganda glossary Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 16:08:56 -0700 (PDT) Mw. Ssenyange, That will be a welcome addition! Do you know when we can expect it in stores? I'd like to pre-order it. I regret that in the previous list I forgot to include a special dictionary by Prof. Daniel Ntanda Nsereko at the University of Botswana. The title is something like Luganda English Law Dictionary. It explains legal terminologies in Luganda. ssenya nyange [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Musamize Vokoni The first Luganda - Luganda dictionary by Kibuuka Kiingi and the Makerere Institute of Languages is being printed at this time. It will be the official dictionary to be used in schools especially the lower grades ( 1-4). During last month's African linguists\ lexicologists meeting in Nairobi, Makerere University emerged as the leeding research university on the Lexicology of African languages. A number of research ( phd) candidates from Makerere were being enticed to complete their PHDs in South African and Tanzanian Universities ( e.g one of Lusoga). James Ssenyange - From: musamize Reply-To: ugandanet@kym.net To: ugandanet@kym.net CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Ugnet] A garbled Luganda glossary Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 13:14:13 -0700 (PDT) Mr. Vukoni, The link you chanced upon is part of the UC Berkeley’s Comparative Bantu Online Dictionary (CBOLD). It has several Bantu language dictionaries. See www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/~jblowe/CBOLD/info.html. The one on Luganda is from Luganda-English Dictionary by the linguist Ronald Albert Snoxall (1967). This dictionary includes tonal marks to help a linguistically sophisticated foreigner produce the correct pronunciation. These marks are what make the glossary look 'garbled' can be somewhat distracting even to a native Luganda, who is linguistically illiterate, such as me. An earlier Luganda dictionary is A LUGANDA-ENGLISH AND ENGLISH-LUGANDA DICTIONARY by Ven. A.L. Kitching, , Rev. G.R. Blackledge (1925?), later revised by E.M.K. Mulira E.G.M. Ndawula in 1952. Rev. Blackledge was building on Pilkington’s earlier A Handbook of Luganda, which appeared in 1897. Pilkington also produced the first Luganda bible, aided by a team led by Rev. Duta (His real name was Luttamaguzi). The book was reprinted, and improved upon several times, long after Pilkington had died in Uganda. A bit earlier, in 1914 1917, the French White fathers had produced a Luganda-French manual and dictionary, respectively: P. Le Veux 1914 Manuel de Langue Luganda P. Le Veux 1917 Vocabulaire Luganda – Francais. The Russians, too, got in the act in 1969 when Olga Petrovna Nosova produced the Luganda –Russian dictionary: Kratki#301; luganda-russki#301; i russko-luganda slovar, published in Moscow. Not to be outdone, in 1970 the US State Department countered with Luganda, pretraining program by Earl W. Stevick Frederick Katabazi Kamoga, which was published in Washington by the Foreign Service Institute, complete with cassette tapes. The book has tonal marks. This was followed by LUGANDA-ENGLISH DICTIONARY by a team of Baganda led by John D. Murphy in 1972 at the Catholic University of America, Washington DC. Lately, Margaret Nanfuka’s 1996 Luganda-English phrase book, published in Kampala by Fountain Publishers, and aimed at tourists and expats has been doing well. The latter group of people probably stimulated the re-issuing of Elementary Luganda, by B. E. R. Kirwan P. A. Gore, last printed in 1961; and The essentials of Luganda, by J. D. Chesswas first published in 1963. The current generation has not been idle either. A Luganda-English Dictionary on a CD was released this year. Also, a Luganda-English dictionary was produced by a Muganda in one of the Nordic countries (Sweden?), but the details escape me now. On the web there is a Luganda-English English-Luganda translator under construction at www.gandaancestry.com, but that portion may not be open to the public yet. In Buganda, Ekibiina Ky’olulimi Oluganda is putting together a Luganda-Luganda dictionary, which will be a first. I’d think that among all these resources, and others not listed, you should easily be able to locate something to suit your needs. Musamize Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga wrote: Quite by accident, I discovered the following link: http://www.cbold.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/CBOLD_Lexicons/Ganda.Snoxall1967/Non-distributed_files/Luganda%20Parsed
Re: [Ugnet] A garbled Luganda glossary
Mr. Musamize, Thanks for your very generous referencing. vukoni ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Ssemakula: NRM USA PRESS RELEASE
James Ssemakula ?a U.P.C stalwart, who labored to discourage the Uganda American community in California from attending the NRM event. Sseruganda Ssemakula, I must have missed the news of your crossing over to the party of ideas. From: To: Edward Mulindwa [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 10:43 AM Subject: Re: Fw: [Ugnet] NRM USA PRESS RELEASE You have got to be kidding me.. :D holla back, Judy these people didn't even begin to arrive until way after 8:00. I can't imagine what time this thing actually got started... I left well after 8:00 probably closer to 9:00..lol. promptly @ 7??? i don't think so -- Original Message - Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 17:16:03 -0654 From: Edward Mulindwa [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Subject: Fw: [Ugnet] NRM USA PRESS RELEASE LAUNCHING OF NRM USA CALIFORNIA LOCAL CHAPTER JULY 17TH 2005 NRM USA launched its California branch over the weekend on Saturday July 16th. The NRM event was an overwhelming success. By 4.00 p.m. enthusiastic delegates had began to arrive, each one proudly signing in at the reception desk with their names. The occasion was hosted by NRM USA at ABLE International in North Hollywood located in the heart of the entertainment capital of the world. The NRM function organizers deliberately designed it to attract potential partners of Development for Uganda who delivered keynotes on the importance of being organized in order to create an environment that can breed development. It was graced by a notable number of invited dignitaries including Her Excellency Ambassador Sempala, Congress Woman Diane Watson and Kenya?s General Council to California Ms. Nyambura Kamau. The event officially started promptly after dinner at 7.00 p.m. with a prayer led by Grace Lubwama, after which both the Ugandan and American National anthems were sang by Ms Rachael Kiwanuka, daughter to the renowned Ugandan singer and entrepreneur, Halima Namakula. She was followed by Mr. Robert Ssebugwawo, whose poetry has appeared in international media, who recited a composition in praise of the wise leadership of President Museve ni, after which the delightful Halima Namakula led the delegates in singing ?Kiboonge Kyanini? in a true Movement tradition. The NRM USA national executive was represented by the Secretary General Mr. Allan Katatumba, National Executive Secretary for Mobilization Mr. Kenneth Kanyike and Executive Committee Member, Mr. Edriss Kironde who is also the chairman of the NRM Colorado chapter all of whom spoke with passion for the Movement in their addresses to the delegates and the newly elected chapter members. They reiterated the need for a voice for the Movement in the Diaspora, especially in light of the incessant distortions being propagated by members of the opposition, mainly ?FDC? which was dubbed a ?Forum for Disgruntled Candidates?. The audience was reminded by the NRM Mobilization Secretary, Mr. Kanyike that NRM was waging a ?New Strugg le? just like the one waged by the founders in the bushes of Luweero. ?The war in the Diaspo ra is intended to resist the negative distortions propagated by certain sections of the media and numerous disgruntled and corrupt individuals, whose aims are to derail Uganda from the path of development?, he said. Mr. Kanyike in his speech also highlighted the history of the National Resistance Movement USA and detailed their achievements so far. Mr. Katatumba stressed the need for partnerships with other Africans and people of African decent in the war against neo-colonialism, backwardness and poverty. In her address to the delegates, Congresswoman Diane Watson, who is also on the US Foreign Relations Committee, said she was glad to see a nation on the move, and acknowledged that Uganda had indeed come a long way from ?the Uganda of Idi Amin? ? a notion that is shared by the NRM. She was encouraged to see Ugandans believing that they can achieve the desired transformation. She pledged to continue to be Uganda and Africa?s advocate on AGOA. She said that her office doors are open to help in any way to help add value to Uganda?s journey towards Democracy. She also emphasized that it was key for all Ugandans to work together on creating an environment that will breed peaceful coexistence and empower 20the citizens to utilize their own resources to develop their nation, rather than depend on handouts. Ambassador Sempala highlighted Uganda?s History and stressed the need for Ugandans everywhere to participate in the processes of democratizing Uganda. Madam Sempala stressed the need for Ugandans everywhere in the Diaspora to actively articulate Uganda?s progress and also encourage investors to partner with Uganda to improve her capacity to achieve the vision of transformation. She noted that Uganda in the next phase of development is looking to begin adding value to her products with a view of
[Ugnet] A garbled Luganda glossary
Quite by accident, I discovered the following link: http://www.cbold.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/CBOLD_Lexicons/Ganda.Snoxall1967/Non-distributed_files/Luganda%20Parsed. Does anybody know where I could get a clearer version of the Luganda glossary on that page? Thanks. v ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
Re: [Ugnet] Kalema
Hello Bro Djassi, The name William Kalema sounds faintly familiar but if you have time to spare, give me a day or two and you'll have the 411 on him. The personal Web site of George Monbiot, a British social justice activist is a good resource for progressive struggle in as much as he exposes the flanks of Anglo-American imperialism. Check it out if you have the time: www.monbiot.com. In a humble way, I have also resumed writing for The Monitor in Kampala. My column, Third Eye Open appears on Tuesdays. I have decided that the political and social transition in Uganda is too crucial for us to leave in the hands of opportunists and short-sighted fortune hunters. Take a look at my stuff and tell me what you think. All the best. vukoni Bandele Djassi wrote: Greetings Brother, Was wondering if you have any information or personal observations on William Kalema. I am working on something regarding this so called Debt Relief for Africa and part of what i'll looking at is the Commission on Africa, which includes a handful of Africans on it. Doing some scan on some of them predictably led to obvious conclusions but i still want to be as detailed as possible. Forward to Liberation, Djasi */Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga [EMAIL PROTECTED]/* wrote: Original Message Subject: [oaba-b] Luther Vandross dies at age 54 Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 21:00:56 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Luther Vandross dies at age 54 *Famed RB crooner faced setback after stroke in 2003* The Associated Press Updated: 7:53 p.m. ET July 1, 2005 Grammy award winner Luther Vandross, whose deep, lush voice on such hits as “Here and Now” and “Any Love” sold more than 25 million albums while providing the romantic backdrop for millions of couples worldwide, died Friday. He was 54. Vandross died at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, N.J., said hospital spokesman Rob Cavanaugh. He did not release the cause of death but said in a statement that Vandross “never really recovered from” a st roke two years ago. Since the stroke in his Manhattan home on April 16, 2003, the RB crooner stopped making public appearances — but amazingly managed to continue his recording career. In 2004, he captured four Grammys as a sentimental favorite, including best song for the bittersweet “Dance With My Father.” Vandross, who was still in a wheelchair at the time, delivered a videotaped thank you. “Remember, when I say goodbye it’s never for long,” said a weak-looking Vandross. “Because” — he broke into his familiar hit — “I believe in the power of love.” Vandross also battled weight problems for years while suffering from diabetes and hypertension. He was arguably the most celebrated RB balladeer of his generation. He made women swoon with his silky yet forceful tenor, which he often revved up like a motor engine before reaching his beautiful crescendos. *‘A huge loss’* Jeff O’Conner, Vandross ’ publicist, called his death “a huge loss in the RB industry. He was a close friend of mine and right now it’s shocking.” O’Conner said he received condolence calls Friday from music luminaries such as Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. Vandross was a four-time Grammy winner in the best male RB performance category, taking home the trophy in 1990 for the single “Here and Now,” in 1991 for his album “Power of Love,” in 1996 for the track “Your Secret Love” and a last time for “Dance With My Father.” The album, with its single of the same name, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts while Vandross remained hospitalized from his stroke. It was the first time a Vandross album had topped the charts in its first week of release. In 2005, he was nominated for a Soul Train Music Award for a duet with Beyonce on “The Closer I Get To You.” Vandross’ sound was so unusual few tried to copy it; even fewer could. “I’m proud of that — it’s one of the things that I’m most proud of,” he told The Associated Press in a 2001 interview. “I was never compared to anyone in terms of sound.” Vandross’ style harkened back to a more genteel era of crooning. While many of his contemporaries and successors belted out tunes that were sexually charged and explicit, Vandross preferred soft pillow talk and songs that spoke to heartfelt emotions. “I’m more into poetry and metaphor, and I would much rather imply something rather than to blatantly state it,” he said. “You blatantly state stuff sometimes when you can’t think of a a poetic way to say it.” A career in music seemed predestined for the New York native; both his parents were singers, and his sister
[Ugnet] [Fwd: [oaba-b] Luther Vandross dies at age 54]
Original Message Subject:[oaba-b] Luther Vandross dies at age 54 Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 21:00:56 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Luther Vandross dies at age 54 *Famed RB crooner faced setback after stroke in 2003* The Associated Press Updated: 7:53 p.m. ET July 1, 2005 Grammy award winner Luther Vandross, whose deep, lush voice on such hits as “Here and Now” and “Any Love” sold more than 25 million albums while providing the romantic backdrop for millions of couples worldwide, died Friday. He was 54. Vandross died at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, N.J., said hospital spokesman Rob Cavanaugh. He did not release the cause of death but said in a statement that Vandross “never really recovered from” a stroke two years ago. Since the stroke in his Manhattan home on April 16, 2003, the RB crooner stopped making public appearances — but amazingly managed to continue his recording career. In 2004, he captured four Grammys as a sentimental favorite, including best song for the bittersweet “Dance With My Father.” Vandross, who was still in a wheelchair at the time, delivered a videotaped thank you. “Remember, when I say goodbye it’s never for long,” said a weak-looking Vandross. “Because” — he broke into his familiar hit — “I believe in the power of love.” Vandross also battled weight problems for years while suffering from diabetes and hypertension. He was arguably the most celebrated RB balladeer of his generation. He made women swoon with his silky yet forceful tenor, which he often revved up like a motor engine before reaching his beautiful crescendos. *‘A huge loss’* Jeff O’Conner, Vandross’ publicist, called his death “a huge loss in the RB industry. He was a close friend of mine and right now it’s shocking.” O’Conner said he received condolence calls Friday from music luminaries such as Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. Vandross was a four-time Grammy winner in the best male RB performance category, taking home the trophy in 1990 for the single “Here and Now,” in 1991 for his album “Power of Love,” in 1996 for the track “Your Secret Love” and a last time for “Dance With My Father.” The album, with its single of the same name, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts while Vandross remained hospitalized from his stroke. It was the first time a Vandross album had topped the charts in its first week of release. In 2005, he was nominated for a Soul Train Music Award for a duet with Beyonce on “The Closer I Get To You.” Vandross’ sound was so unusual few tried to copy it; even fewer could. “I’m proud of that — it’s one of the things that I’m most proud of,” he told The Associated Press in a 2001 interview. “I was never compared to anyone in terms of sound.” Vandross’ style harkened back to a more genteel era of crooning. While many of his contemporaries and successors belted out tunes that were sexually charged and explicit, Vandross preferred soft pillow talk and songs that spoke to heartfelt emotions. “I’m more into poetry and metaphor, and I would much rather imply something rather than to blatantly state it,” he said. “You blatantly state stuff sometimes when you can’t think of a a poetic way to say it.” A career in music seemed predestined for the New York native; both his parents were singers, and his sister, Patricia, was part of a 1950s group called the Crests. But he happily toiled in the musical background for years before he would have his first hit. He wrote songs for projects as varied as a David Bowie album (“Fascination”) and the Broadway musical “The Wiz” (“Everybody Rejoice (Brand New Day)”), sang backup for acts such as Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand, and even became a leading commercial jingle singer. Vandross credited singer Roberta Flack for prodding him to move into the spotlight after listening to one of his future hits, “Never Too Much.” “She started crying,” he recalled. “She said, ‘No, you’re getting too comfortable (in the background). ... I’m going to introduce you to some people and get your career started.”’ Vandross’ first big hit came as the lead vocalist for the group Change, with their 1980 hit, “The Glow of Love.” That led to a recording contract with Epic Records, and in 1981, he made his solo recording debut with the disc “Never Too Much.” The album, which contained his aching rendition of “A House is Not a Home,” became an instant classic. Over the years, Vandross would emerge as the leading romantic singer of his generation, racking up one platinum album after another and charting several RB hits, such as “Superstar,” “Give Me The Reason” and “Love Won’t Let Me Wait.” *‘America, the world, has heard the voice’* Yet, while Vandross was a household name in the black community, he was frustrated by his failure to become a mainstream pop star. Indeed, it
[Ugnet] [Fwd: [oaba-b] Runaway Racism]
Original Message Subject:[oaba-b] Runaway Racism Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:29:58 -0700 From: Edward Thomas Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ad_icon washingtonpost.com Runaway Racism By Eugene Robinson Post Tuesday, June 28, 2005; A15 A man and a woman had me, a sobbing Runaway Bride, Jennifer Wilbanks, told her jilted fiance when she finally phoned home. But not just any man: It was specifically a Hispanic man -- abetted by a white woman -- who supposedly had snatched her from the mean streets of Duluth, Ga., on the eve of her wedding. She told police a graphic tale of horrifying sexual abuse at the hands of this Hispanic beast, whose mobile den of iniquity was a blue van. It was all a bunch of lies, of course. That Wilbanks and her patience-of-Job boyfriend will pocket a half-million dollars for her flakiness and mendacity (the poor guy has earned his share, in my view) would be a good subject for a future column. But this one has a different purpose: to welcome my Latino brethren into the fraternity of those eligible to be falsely accused of ravishing the delicate flower of white American womanhood. ( Bienvenidos , guys.) For the nation to become hooked on the story of a Damsel in Distress, certain ingredients are apparently essential -- the woman at the center of the story has to be young, white, attractive and preferably middle class or better. But another spice is often added to the stew -- not always, to be sure, but often -- to make it irresistible: the specter of a brutish, dark-skinned villain. When Wilbanks was reporting her imaginary crime, what made her pin the blame on a Hispanic man? Down in South Carolina a few years ago, when Susan Smith was trying to talk her way out of having murdered her two sons, why did she tell police that a black man had done it? Is it coincidence that the first suspects arrested in Natalee Holloway's disappearance in Aruba were two black hotel security guards, whose innocence is now believed to be as pure as the driven snow? One of the most notorious cases was that of Charles Stuart, the Boston man who killed his wife in 1989 and blamed it on a generic black man. Boston police rounded up the usual suspects, and when Stuart picked the assailant out of a lineup, the man was promptly arrested. Who knows what would have happened if Stuart's brother hadn't ratted him out? I have to think that there's something at work, perhaps at a subconscious level, that draws television cameras, baying legal analysts and rapt cable news viewers to the myth of the dark intruder and the innocent white female victim. I think liars resort to it because it feels credible to them, and so they believe it will be credible to others. But it is largely a myth. First, we're all safer than we used to be -- the overall violent crime rate has plunged by more than half over the past decade, according to Justice Department figures. And as a group, white women are much less likely to be victims of violent crime than black women (or men of any color); only Hispanic women are less likely to suffer, or report, violent crime. Black women are twice as likely, for example, to be victims of aggravated assault as white women. Some whites are victims, of course, and I don't mean to minimize those crimes. But whites who are victims of rape or other sexual assault are overwhelmingly likely to have been attacked by white assailants. In the 2002 Justice Department crime survey, only 13.1 percent of white victims identified their attackers as black. The vast majority of white victims of rape or sexual assault -- 76 percent -- reported that the attacker was white. Yes, I know that African Americans and Latinos are far overrepresented in this nation's prisons. And forget history and sociology for the moment: Violent, predatory criminals should be locked up. As Richard Pryor used to say, Thank God they got penitentiaries! This should be, for us, a source of individual and collective shame and a spur to action. But it's also true that the victims of the crimes those men committed are disproportionately African American and Hispanic. That's the real tragedy: Black and Latino criminals are victimizing black and Latino communities at rates that we should find horrific and unacceptable -- not that they are out prowling for Damsels in Distress. Fortunately, in Albuquerque, where Jennifer Wilbanks finally ran out of money in her desperate flight from matrimony, the police didn't waste a lot of time and effort looking for her phantom Hispanic rapist or his imaginary blue van. Before she even finished telling them her story, they had a pretty good idea she was making the whole thing up. Maybe they knew the odds. [EMAIL PROTECTED] © 2005 The Washington Post Company --oaba-b is a list of the Oregon Assembly for Black Affairs. To unsubscribe, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following: unsubscribe oaba-b your email address---
[Ugnet] A Kenyan's Awful Experience of British Airways
Paying heavily for courtesy gone awry Story by MWENDE MWINZI /Talking Point Publication Date: 6/26/2005 Her guest menu differs from Thailands but only in its details. Fly into Hawaii and you will be greeted by beautiful women with sweetly scented lays. Arrive in Punta Cana, a Dominican Republic beach resort area and you will be greeted by the same warmth beautiful women, some handsome dancers and a photo opportunity that marks the beginning of a memorable time. Two fairly simple, inexpensive ways to create a lasting good impression, right? One would think so but arrive in Nairobi and your experience will be shockingly different particularly if you are a visa bearer first greeted by an unbearably long and slow winding line. Though we export flowers, none adorn the airport and though we have great dancers, none entertain not even in the day. The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is cold, aesthetically boring, culturally inept and it lacks simplicities such as piped music and adequate seating. Yet we dont seem concerned at least not on an urgent basis because as some see it, Kenya continues to ride high on soaring tourist numbers. Why fix it if it aint broke? But we should fix it if only for one reason further damaging this first impression is the unacceptably high rate at which airline carriers are delaying luggage almost without apology or concern for individual itineraries. Having lost my luggage over six times including my last four trips, I speak from experience and with frustration. And I am not alone. There are many whose feet have worn these shoes and who out of principle will no longer fly this notorious airline carrier a carrier inefficient and disdainful of its African route despite its profitability. Wonder who I am referring to? A visit to the airport for a look at the carousels and long faces will answer that in no time. British Airways, it is reported, loses about 18 bags per 1,000 and it pays customers an average of about $100 per lost piece of luggage. Little amount considering a simple pair of jeans costs half of that but what about compensation for luggage delayed or items damaged and does one have to fight for compensation or does the airline of its own volition reimburse such claims? Therein lies the trick the decision on who gets the full amount or who deserves a compensatory perk. Once cocky enough to believe in its invincibility , British Airways is now rethinking things and its profit margin something slipping in the emergence of stiffer competition and dips in the airlines popularity. Challenged by an almost 60 per cent increase in fuel prices and further hurt by a baggage disaster that saw 11,000 bags lost following a strike last year, the airline is finally reacting by considering the adoption of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system. The technology hopes to circumvent baggage loss due to sticker bar code damage or misreading by inserting chips rather than bar code labels on luggage which occasionally come unattached in transit. But will the airline, which hopes to save an estimated $732 million from RFID recover lost customers? As an airplane stewardess rinsed out a used glass and poured me tap (not bottled) water last week, I couldnt help but wonder, do airline staff not realise that it is us, their passengers, that pay their salaries and that we have options? Oh I am sorry but this bottled water is for the Cabin Crew, she informed me when I challenged her. Ah such is life when riding in a coach! Sometimes. My connecting flight on Kenya Airways offered me a different experience. In what many would consider a refreshing approach to service, the airline took off without delay, offered a good meal, reasonable entertainment service and had very friendly and courteous staff. No rinsing out of dirty glasses here. No stressed out passengers. No I am sorry but we have no more vegetarian. It is no coincidence that Kenya Airways profitability is as high as it is. Owing not just to cost-cutting but also to an increase in passengers, the airlines equity over doubled its previous years profitability returning 37.4 per cent from 16.5 per cent. Its profit margin boasted 9.2 per cent compared to British Airways 3.2 per cent. Its revenues increased by 36 per cent to Sh42.2 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31. Having decided that I am no longer cargo, I am taking matters into my own hands by paying patronage to only those who benefit us through employment and philanthropic means among others. There is something nice about flying into Africa with an African accent coming from the cockpit and theres something pleasurable about being served by staff that understand what service crew means. Better yet, there is something right very right about being treated like a first class citizen without having a First Class ticket. It is called dignity and quite coincidentally, it is available on The Pride of Africa.
[Ugnet] [FWD: [DigAfrica] Fwd: Job opportunities - OneWorld Africa]
Original Message Subject: [DigAfrica] Fwd: Job opportunities - OneWorld AfricaFrom: "Donald Z. Osborn" [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: Tue, May 31, 2005 8:50 amTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]Passing on news of these openings ... DZO Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 14:59:33 +0100 From: Caroline Nenguke [EMAIL PROTECTED]Apologies for cross-posting. Due to poor response, we arere-advertising the jobs below. Please circulate widely.OneWorld Africa is seeking motivated, qualified and experienced individuals tofill in the vacancies of Web Development and Techinical Operations manager andDigital Opportunity Channel http://www.digitalopportunity.org Africa editor.OneWorld Africa (OWA) is part of the OneWorld network (www.oneworld.net) aninternational not-for-profit organisation founded to promote the effective useof ICT media for poverty alleviation, promotion of sustainable development andhuman rights. OWA works to bring an African perspective to a global audience by stimulatingdebate and facilitating discussions and analysis of African issues through outnetwork of over 250 partners across the continent. 1. Web Development and technical Operations Manager As part of our technical capacity enhancement plan, we are inviting applicationsfor the position of Web Development and Technical Operations Manager. Theposition holder will be expected to strategically plan, manage and develop webbased technical solutions for OWA and its stakeholders and will be responsiblefor IT operations within the organization. Generic Responsibilities Good oral and written communications abilities Exposure to multi-cultural clientele spread across geographic locations Team player with ability to grasp issues quickly Language proficiency in French and/or Portuguese will be an added advantage Specific Requirements -Computer science professional with 3-5 years experience; of which at least twoyears being devoted to the overall management of ICT projects and systems -Qualified with networking fundamentals and network security, RDBMStechnologies, programming and web based CMS fundamentals -High degree of comfort with UML and OOAD; and good understanding of PHP andother Object Oriented language -Ability to review, understand and optimize previously designed systemarchitecture and code -Basic Linux and Apache administration experience (comfortable with working in aLinux environment) -Experience with LAMP web application performance testing and tuning; practicalexperience of web application security -Aptitude for process documentation and technical writing -Exposure to CMM and quality processes are desirable but not mandatory 2. Africa Editor - Digital Opportunity Channel We are inviting applications for the position of Africa Editor for the DigitalOpportunity Channel (www.digitalopportunity.org), a global portal showcasingthe role of ICTs as a tool to encourage sustainable development and in thefight against poverty. Key Responsibilities -Responsible for editing content originating from Africa or otherwise related toAfrica -Work closely with the Asia Editor in the Channel's revamping process from aninformation channel to a lead knowledge Portal on ICTs for development issues,including Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -Collaboration with external and internal sources on the sharing of content forDOC Specific Requirements -To research and publish content in the Channel, reflecting the Africanperspective -Provide support and input to the implementation plan of the new structure ofthe Channel being adopted and make it a key space for mainstreaming of ICTsespecially in the context of MDGs -Help Develop a Governance structure of the Channel by setting up editorial andmanagement boards -Involve, coordinate and supervise the roles of the volunteer and part-timeeditors in the channel-Conceptualise, plan and implement offline and online activities aimed at ICTPolicy Advocacy -Project reporting including impact evaluation and assessment of the Channel -Take lead in building capacity among the Channel coordinators to mainstreamingICTs. Qualifications and skills -Postgraduate qualification preferably in information science, knowledgemanagement or related area -8 - 10 years relevant experience, including three years in portal management -Experience in managing content on ICTs for development issues, including MDGthemes -Exposure to ICT for development and impact on society -Strong editorial skills -Leadership and Team building skills -Language proficiency in French and/or Portuguese will be an added advantage Employment terms: Full Time, Contract Location: Lusaka, Zambia Closing date: 3rd June, 2005 To apply Applications with detailed curriculum vitae marked Web Development and TechnicalOperations Manager or Digital Opportunity Channel Africa Editor should be sentto [EMAIL PROTECTED] or by post to The Executive Director, OneWorld Africa,Plot 6499, Kasangula Road, Roma, P.O. Box 37011, Lusaka, Zambia. Only shortlisted candidates will be
[Ugnet] Nation Media News: Stop this blackmail, Kenyans tell Americans
[EMAIL PROTECTED] has sent you this article from Nationmedia.com with this message:Stop this blackmail, Kenyans tell Americans Published: 5/30/2005By: MUGO NJERU Kenyans yesterday reacted angrily to arm-twisting tactics adopted by the US government over the signing of an agreement meant to shield American soldiers from the international war crimes court. Mr Kulundu The US government's decision to suspend military aid unless Kenya signed the agreement was dictatorial and showed lack of respect to the country's sovereignty, they said. Others said the Americans could as well keep their money. "We should be principled and resist being held at ransom by the Americans," Cabinet minister Newton Kulundu and Kabete MP Paul Muite said separately. "They can keep their dollars as long as they respect our dignity. It is not only Americans who can train our military personnel and it is time we started looking at the European Union, China, South Africa or even Japan for such training," Mr Muite said. They were reacting to an exclusive story in the Sunday Nation yesterday about Washington's decision to suspend military aid over Kenya's reluctance to sign an agreement sheltering American soldiers from the international war crimes court. Already, a group of Kenyan military officers who were scheduled to leave for the US in July for an advanced military training have had their trip blocked. Threatened with cancellation is a Sh760 million military aid package, which includes equipment, unless Kenya agrees to sign what is referred to as bilateral non-surrender agreement. Under such an agreement, each country would agree not to surrender a citizen of the other country to the International Criminal Court, or any international tribunal, without the permission of the citizen's country. Mr Kulundu said that Americans had subjected prisoners from other nations to cruel treatment and they should be held accountable. "Iraqis and suspects held at the US base of Guantanamo Bay have been humiliated by the same soldiers the superpower wants to protect," Dr Kulundu, the minister for Labour, said. As a democracy, he said, America ought to follow international rules of justice and desist from applying double standards. Mr MuiteThe head of the Anglican Church in Kenya, Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, asked the Government to stand by its decision and refuse to be swayed for the sake of money. "It is all a question of ethics and if some people have done wrong things, it is only proper that they be surrendered to the organs, which can handle them," Archbishop Nzimbi said. The Government, he said, should stand morally upright and resist being forced by the US to act in the name of aid. "The bluff by these arrogant Americans must be called off," said Mr Muite. He said that apart from military aid, the US has also been demanding that Kenya fast-tracks the enactment of the Bill against terror. Mr Muite said although Kenyans do not support terrorism, the two recent cases in which the country has suffered terror attacks in Nairobi and in the Coast had to do with American and Israeli interests. "Although the Americans and Israelis injured or killed in the two attacks were adequately compensated by their governments, families of the affected Kenyans continued to wallow in abject poverty," he said. Mr Musila "The Israelis, for example, should be asked to adequately compensate families of dancers who died during the Kikambala bomb attack in the north Coast in November 2002." The Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights added their voices to the debate and advised the Kenya government not to bend to pressure to sign the agreement. Mr Khelef Khalifa of the human rights body said countries in the European Union and others had refused to sign the treaty, which has been described as a gross violation of human rights. "The stand of our commission is that the Government must not bend to pressure by the US to sign this treaty. In any case, military aid is not something we really need as a country as long as support for HIV/Aids and poverty are not affected; we do not care about military support," he said. Mr Khalifa said recent events in Guantanamo Bay and Baghdad do not allow the US to operate in other people's countries without control in the name of a bilateral non-surrender agreement. The council of imams secretary general, Sheikh Mohammed Dor, said the decision to suspend military aid to Kenya was a demonstration of the kind of democracy the US was promoting all over the world. "The US government is always bullying and threatening poor governments in the name of protecting its soldiers without regard to the interests of the host country," Sheikh Dor said. "We fully support the Government in this matter and it should never bow to pressure to sign this treaty that will protect criminals from prosecution," he said. Sheikh Dor said Kenya appeared to be falling out of
[Ugnet] Mail Guardian Online: 'Barclays financed the slave trade'
Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga thought you might be interested in this article on the Mail Guardian Online: Message: 'Barclays financed the slave trade' A group of protesters sang, danced and chanted anti-Barclays slogans in Johannesburg on Saturday morning against the British bank's takeover of Absa. The protesters, from the Jubilee South Africa group, wore anti-privatisation T-shirts and carried banners with slogans such as "Barclays economic terrorists". Read the story online: http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/=241921 ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Only in America
The following warning was posted on a cloth towel dispenser in the bathroom at Top Hat my favorite pub in Rogers Park, Chicago: Use only to dry hands and face. Do not hang from towel. Intentional misuse can be harmful or fatal. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
