RE: ugnet_: Uganda's "Benevolent" Dictatorship -J.OLOKA-ONYANGO
I don't know what to make of this article by Professor J Oloka-Onyango, with a Doctorate in Law from Harvard morever. It reads like an essay by a school boy, and is riddled with contradictions. Certainly it inspires no confidence in this Budo OB. Mitayo Potosi From: "gook makanga" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: ugnet_: Uganda's "Benevolent" Dictatorship -J.OLOKA-ONYANGO Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 23:00:52 + Uganda's "Benevolent" Dictatorship J. OLOKA-ONYANGO J. OLOKA-ONYANGO teaches at Makerere University in Uganda and was recently a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. His latest book is The Dynamics of Constitutional Politics in Uganda (Dakar, Senegal: CODESRIA, 1997). Few contemporary political and socioeconomic transitions on the African continent have been as dramatic or contradictory as Uganda's. Just over a decade ago, the National Resistance Movement-Army (NRM-A) became the second guerrilla organization to assume power in independent Africa (the first happened in Chad). After being sworn in as president of Uganda in January 1986, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni proclaimed the era he was ushering in was more than the usual "changing of the guard" to which the people of Uganda had become accustomed. It was, he declared, nothing short of "Fundamental Change!" Many who heard Museveni hoped his words were true, having experienced a series of violent political shifts since independence from Britain in October 1962 Against the backdrop of vicious military dictatorships such as that led by the cantankerous Field Marshal Idi Amin throughout the 1970s, civilian autocracy under Apollo Milton Obote in the early to mid-1980s, and a period of anarchy instituted by the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) intermediately preceding the NRM-A takeover, Ugandans had grown weary of conflict and incessant, extraconstitutional changes in government. FROM BREADBASKET TO BASKET CASE The turmoil in Uganda in the 1970s and 1980s yielded human rights violations on a scale nearly unmatched in postcolonial Africa: moreover, civil war and social strife left orphans and widows in their wake, and economic dislocation removed essentials like sugar, soap, and wheat flour from the market stalls. Uganda became an economic basket case. Smuggling and magendo (black marketeering) replaced normal trade, and inflation soared into the triple digits. Given the people's experience Of marauding government armies that were more likely to loot, rape, and intimidate the local populace than to engage "the enemy," reports of Museveni's disciplined guerrilla band heightened hopes that the change he promised would indeed he genuine and fundamental. The NRM-A was created following elections in December 1980 that were widely believed to have been rigged by Obote's Uganda People's Congress (UPC). Museveni decided to take the fight against the electoral fraud to the bush, where he crafted the guiding philosophy of the NRM-A into a 10-point program that emphasized participatory democracy, the elimination of sectarianism , and respect for human rights. Beginning with only a handful of supporters, the insurgency grew until it came to occupy the Luwero Triangle, a wide swath of territory in the central region of Buganda. A combination of internal wrangling and battle fatigue eventually led the UNLA to turn against Obote in a military coup, paving the way for NRM-A victory in the war in l986 and Museveni's accession to power. Today Museveni's slogan has become "No Change!" a campaign chant employed by the NRM to great effect in the May 1996 presidential elections. The elections marked the coming of age for the NRM and the Uganda People's Defense Forces (UPDF), the renamed military wing of the NRM. "No Change!" was used as a battle cry for the continued endorsement of the NRM regime, which, according to Museveni, had achieved its goal of fundamental change by in introducing a lasting sense of peace and security. In the event that some might have forgotten this, the NRM used the image of sculls from the Luwero Triangle and the sound of gunshots in its electoral campaign advertising. The message was simple: a vote against Museveni was a vote for a reversion to the chaos of the past. No PARTY, NO CHANGE The 1996 elections were significant for a variety of other reasons. Not only were they Uganda's first direct presidential elections, they were also a test of the various experiments in governance that had been introduced by the NRM since 1986. Among the most Significant of these experiments is the "noparty" or movement system of government Against the return of multiparty political systems that has swept the continent since the late 1980s, the NRM has held out the alternative of a no-party system Ar
ugnet_: "Kasita ffe twebaka ku tulo"
"Kasita ffe twebaka ku tulo" 18 years of Movt rule By Mercy Nalugo and Patrick Onyango Jan 27, 2004 As Uganda celebrated 18 years under the rule of President Museveni and his Movement group yesterday, The Monitors Mercy Nalugo and Patrick Onyango went around Kampala streets asking about the best and worst of this government: - Mr Godfrey Kayongo, boda boda cyclist Best: We can work the whole night without anybody disturbing; soldiers who used to disturb us no longer do that. Worst: There are no jobs; even those who went to school are like us. We didnt go to school and everybody is crying no jobs, no jobs. Industries that used to offer employment to people have all closed down and the few that are remaining cannot accommodate everybody. Even coffee factories have all been closed and yet coffee is the major cash crop in Uganda. Now where do you expect people to get jobs? Mr Deo Ssengooba, trader Best: We have peace and there is nobody harassing us like in the past. Worst: High taxes have made matters worse for poor Ugandans. The little we get goes to government in form of taxes. We are only praying that government should either remove or reduce some of these taxes. Mr Derek Nkata, accountant Best: Museveni has stabilised the economy and brought peace in some parts of the country. Worst: What we earn is from hand to mouth; you cant save say Shs 5,000. If you try to save it, it will be in the bank for just three days then you go and you withdraw it. People came from the village thinking that they would make a better living in Kampala but all have gone back. Things are really bad for a poor man but there are those, of course, who are enjoying themselves to the maximum. Ms Zabeth Nansubuga, trader Best: During Musevenis regime, I have managed to build a house that means there are a lot of developments going on in the country. Soldiers no longer take our properties by force. UPE [Universal Primary Education] has made all our children to go to school. Worst: I dont have any problem with the regime. Mr Tom Kyeyune, spare parts dealer Best: President Museveni has achieved in restoring peace in the country and checking on the armys discipline unlike in the past. Here we should really thank him. Worst: He has not invested much in agriculture yet the cost of living is high. Farmers now produce in plenty but without markets and this is still a challenge. Mr Edward Sserunjogi, market trader Best: Government has not done much but the country is peaceful. [Museveni] should in fact be given a third term for that. Worst: On the other hand, poverty is on the increase and he should find ways of getting people out of it. Let him also throw out corrupt ministers and officials starting from local councils. They are to blame for the increasing poverty because they divert money meant for districts. Mr James Kalifa, newspaper vendor Best: There is peace in the country and we are getting on well with our work much as we are getting little money. People didnt have good houses but many have now constructed wonderful buildings. Worst: He still has a challenge to end the war in northern Uganda because it has persisted for the last 18 years. Hajji Ssaka Kagimu, salesman Best: The NRM government has brought about peace in the country and development. I have constructed my own house and it looks like that of a minister. President Museveni has fought for peoples rights and also headed the crusade for the fight against HIV/Aids. Worst: Museveni has not invested in sports. He should also improve on services in hospitals. Aisha Nansubuga, food seller Best: We, as women, have achieved much in the last 18 years because we can work and earn a living. Even if we are not earning much but there is peace. Worst: Museveni has failed to improve the infrastructure especially upcountry. Mr Kojja, self-employed Best: Museveni has handled the economy so well in the last 18 years. He has improved the infrastructure and offered free education in primary schools. Worst: Those are many including the war in northern Uganda. He has also failed to unite people along political lines. Mr Deo Ssimbwa, teacher Best: The NRM government deserves a credit in as far as bringing about peace and security are concerned. People can now walk freely even at night. Worst: Poverty is on the increase and the President should not ban second hand clothes. © 2004 The Monitor Publications Mitayo Potosi _ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
Re: ugnet_: Fifth Columnist Their false witness to Freemasons
On Sunday, I posted a few articles with which I don't necessarily agree. But these Kenyans sometimes make an effort to reply to peoples' mail. Maybe one should bring [EMAIL PROTECTED] into the discussion. I don't feel competent enough for this topic. May be you, comrade, have an angle on it to share with us. i.e. the spiritual dimension of 'Freemasonary'. Mitayo Potosi From: "Robert Owor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: ugnet_: Fifth Columnist Their false witness to Freemasons Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 12:14:07 -0600 Phillip Ochieng does not have a clue what he is talking about. Be a journalist and leave religion alone. If you must write about religion tell us what you believe or go properly study the damn thing before giving us de-constructionist mumbo-jumbo! Steven Owor waits for your reply. >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 01/25/04 4:53 PM >>> Comment ; sundaynation kenya Sunday, January 25, 2004 PHILIP OCHIENG / Fifth Columnist Their false witness to Freemasons As Chronicles would say, Mzee Kimani Maruge will soon "lie with his fathers". But he is completely illiterate and cannot read Chronicles. So, at 84, he has decided to learn the Three Rs. I cannot sneer at that motivation. I know, from my own reading, that the pursuit after god can be a major spur to worldly knowledge. You wouldn't know it from the bloodthirst with which the Vatican has pursued scientists. But even Christianity began as a "knowledge cult". Techno-scientific knowledge * though steeped in magico-sexual ritual and abracadabra * was the only path to god. Thus the original Christians are called Gnostics (from gnosis, Greek for "knowledge"). We see it in Carl Sagan's remark in the introduction to A Brief History of Time that, by subjecting the physical universe to minute inspection, Stephen Hawking is eavesdropping on "god's mind". In the days of Giordano Bruno, Hawking would have roasted at the stake. Today even John Paul II apologises for what the "Holy Office" did to Galileo Galilei. The Pope asserts that the Big Bang of quantum mechanics was the same event that Genesis calls "the beginning". Many powerful Jewish minds * Spinoza, Freud, Marx, Trotsky, Einstein * would have no quarrel with that. When they call themselves atheists, what they are rejecting is only the god of Deuteronomy. Einstein once told some rabbinical opponents of his General Relativity that what he objected to was only the whimsical, stormy and salacious god of Joshua, with a people "chosen" by a moral criterion which is most impugnable. In its search for a Grand Unified Theory * a single formula to explain everything in the universe * what modern physics is seeking is a divinity who manifests herself through the governability of her creation. Before the rise of the rigidly androcentric monotheon, this was the case throughout the world. Self-created and then fertilised by the Serpent * her own begotten son-husband * Mother Earth was the only Creator that humanity knew. It was only in the second millennium BC, when Semito-Aryan patriarchy invaded Hamitic motherland, that she (as Tiamat) fell to Marduk, as Hera to Zeus, as Minerva to Jupiter, as Isis to Osiris, as Rahab (or Tehom or Leviathan) to Yahweh. Elsewhere she was known as Athene, Cybele, Diana, Oestre, Anath, Hawwa, Eve, Hebe, Kali, Ngame. But, along the Nile, she was focused on Maat, the Goddess who personified cosmic and social order, symmetry, harmony, unity, justice, beauty, love and peace. Even after the Nile itself had been "patronised", pursuit of knowledge remained its idea of worship. It was Thoth, Cush's god of science and magic * adopted by Greece as Hermes and by Rome as Mercury * who introduced Hermeticism in Europe, whose preoccupation with astrology, alchemy and the elixir that so appalled the Vatican. Yet, in the hands of the Knights-Templar, the Priory of Zion, the Rosicrucians, the Freemasons and other anti-Church movements, this "black magic" was what created the modern West. They went underground first because they were part of the ancient Egyptian tradition in which knowledge was always arcane and could be accessed only by the initiated and, secondly, to escape the murderous hands of the Inquisitors. But, despite the persecution, it was they who created the modern university, the Gothic cathedrals, the Renaissance, the voyages of discovery, the Enlightenment, the American War of Independence, the Industrial Revolution, the Information Age. Both the Anglican Church and the Church of Scotland are vitally linked to Freemasonry. The royal families have always been Freemasons and yet the monarch has always been the head of the national church. That was why I was surprised when a newspaper reported that Kenya's chapter of the Anglican Chur
ugnet_: The Dark Side of the Outsourcing Revolution
The Outsourcing Revolution. India now produces 60% more engineers and scientists than the USA. And what scares the shit out of the USA is that they are even smarter. Over 7 years ago we were crying here on this net, to Hon J NKuuhe and our very beloved Higher Education Minister, Hon Dr Abel Rwendeire, to change/overhaul Uganda's curricula. i.e. 1. Introduce Triple Maths in all schools - including 'Discrete Maths'. 2. Throw away the old crazy Biology where teaching was that "a tree consists of three parts: the leaves, the stem and the roots", and replace it with a new Biology that prepares students for the new world of molecular Biology. 3. Introduce basic computer science. 4. Get the whole country, from m7 downwards to zero in on this National effort. I sent them Canadian up-to-date syllabi for Maths, Bio, Comp Sc, etc to compare with. I even sent some to Teachers' college - Kyambogo. But the Church/Mosque wanted more timetable slots for religion instead. They made Hon Rwendeire a political liability to m7, and he was moved from Education to Industry. Now we hear Uganda is banking on sending all her children to go abroad to wash latrines - 'kyeyo'. As was mentioned then, with an exceptionally trained workforce, tons of jobs and billions of $ will always flow to Uganda. It is still true today. Maybe it is time to take stock and see how we are doing!! Mitayo Potosi AlterNet headlines. Share them. Forward them to your family, friends and co-workers, or sign them up for a free subscription: http://lists.alternet.org/headlines The Dark Side of the Outsourcing Revolution By Naeem Mohaiemen, AlterNet January 25, 2004 Two years ago, I lost my credit card on a trip. Dialing the American Express 800 number, I asked the polite customer rep to read the list of recent charges. As she went through each charge, I noticed something familiar about the way she said words like "Duane Reade" and "Blockbuster." "Excuse me," I interrupted. "Where are you?" "Oh, we're the American Express Call Center in Bangalore, India," she replied. Over the coming months, I started noticing this phenomenon more often. When I called AOL trying to cancel my account for the fifth time, the helpful woman giving instructions was in India. Palm Pilot's "Level 1" help desk seemed to be in America, but when they were stymied and bumped me to "Level 2," an unmistakably Indian voice came on. Recently, I even started getting sales calls hawking credit cards from India. A few months back, a new pattern began to emerge. Suddenly, the customer service reps weren't eager to divulge where they were from. "Oh, we're not allowed to disclose location," said one nervous voice. It was very cloak and dagger. Maybe it's some new security measure, I thought to myself. Then the New York Times article, titled "We're From Bangalore (But We're Not Allowed To Tell You)" revealed all. Indian call centers now had to acquire American accents and generic Anglo names, displaying a new-found nervousness in the face of an incipient backlash: Dell was closing its Indian call center in the face of protests; New Jersey was trying to pass a bill blocking outsourcing to India; and an angry Indiana politician huffed, "I represent Indiana, not India!" All Roads Lead to India India is at the red-hot center of the Outsourcing Revolution. Thirty percent of all new Information Technology (IT) work for U.S. companies is now done abroad, mostly in India. McKinsey Consulting estimated that three countries received $20 billion in outsourcing revenue from the U.S. in 2002: Ireland ($8.3 billion), India ($7.7 billion) and Canada ($3.7 billion). Analysts forecast that by 2008 Indian IT services and back-office support will grow to a $57 billion a year industry with four million workers. International multinationals have had offices in India for almost a decade, and they include Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Intel, IBM, Cisco, Motorola, HP, Oracle, Yahoo, Ernst & Young, HSBC, and, of course, the trailblazer in "discovering" India, Microsoft. But Indian offices whose main business is outsourced work from the U.S. are a relatively new phenomenon. Recent high profile firms include MphasiS, which processed tax returns of 20,000 Americans this year (analysts predict that 200,000 U.S. tax returns will be processed in India next year). Then there is OfficeTiger, which employs 1,200 people to do research and analysis for eight Wall Street firms. Finally, GE Capital's four Indian centers design statistical models, prepare data for GE annual reports, write software, and process $35 billion of global invoices Ind
ugnet_: Global Chilling
Global Chilling By Paul Epstein The New York Times Wednesday 28 January 2004 BOSTON It seemed incongruous when former Vice President Al Gore gave a speech on global warming on a bitterly cold day in New York City this month. But in fact it was an appropriate topic: New Yorkers may be able to blame the city's current cold spell the most severe in nearly a decade on global warming. Global warming doesn't mean that every place on the globe gets warmer. The weather history that can be read in polar ice-core samples indicates that previous periods of warming affected North America and Europe far differently than they did the tropics the Northern Hemisphere got a lot colder. It's far too early to say for sure, but the same processes may be at work today. In the past 50 years, the top two miles of the world's oceans have warmed significantly, and that warming is melting sea ice. In just four decades, the thickness of summer North Polar floating ice shrank 44 percent. In addition, warming makes droughts drier and longer, and when the evaporated water returns to earth it does so in heavier downpours. Normally, water circulates in the North Atlantic like this: Cold, salty water at the top sinks; that sinking water acts as a pump, pulling warm Gulf Stream water north and thus moderating winter weather. But now, fresh water from the thawing ice and heavier rain is accumulating near the ocean's surface; it's not sinking as quickly. (The tropics are faced with the opposite phenomenon. According to Dr. Ruth Curry and her colleagues at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the tropical Atlantic is becoming saltier; as warming increases, so does evaporation, which leaves behind salt.) The "freshening" in the North Atlantic may be contributing to a high-pressure system that is accelerating trans-Atlantic winds and deflecting the jet stream changes that may be driving frigid fronts down the Eastern Seaboard. The ice-core records demonstrate that the North Atlantic can freshen to a point where the deep-water pump fails, warm water stops coming north, and the northern ocean suddenly freezes, as it did in the last Ice Age. No one can say if that is what will happen next. But since the 1950's, the best documented deep-water pump, between Iceland and Scotland, has slowed 20 percent. Why now? After all, the planet's previous periods of global warming resulted from changes in the earth's tilt toward the sun, and recent calculations of these cycles indicate that our hospitable climate was not due to have ended any time soon. But because of the warming brought by the buildup of carbon dioxide, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, the equations have changed. We are entering uncharted waters. It's something for New Yorkers to ponder as they bundle up. --- Mitayo Potosi _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Poor Little Rich Kids
rich to spend their wealth on good works during their lifetimes, rather than lose it to the government. Uninterested in lives of noblesse oblige, unwilling to compete in the meritocracy, and unable to find satisfaction in merely spending their bequests, rich kids today seem to want nothing more than to escape the bounds of their privilege. This explains, I think, the mass class-mixing that we're seeing on TV a phenomenon playing out in both good and bad ways. Some rich kids, convinced that they can't break out of the stereotype of decadent decline, are simply trying to live that decline to the fullest, more or less slumming. (Some, like Paris Hilton, take it a half step further, using the public image of the morally lapsed wealthy to leverage a crass and grimy half-fame, living archetypes of rich kids gone to seed.) For others, class-mixing is a real form of education, one that both toughens and tenderizes the world-view of these heirs, who, because of their wealth, have enormous potential for influence. Watching Josiah Hornblower struggle gamely to figure out how to use his wealth for good, you have the distinct sense that his two years in an oil field will prompt him to some sort of socially beneficial action. And that sense that a well-lived life must include attempts to understand how most people experience the world is one of the heartening themes to emerge from these programs: Whatever else they are, most of these kids have at least the ambition to be in touch with common people. The protagonists in these programs, like my friend, profess a need to be useful as Ally Hilfiger says, "to do something." They feel like their wealth keeps them locked up and artificially divorced from middle-class people with whom they have a lot values and ambitions in common. Benjamin Wallace-Wells is an editor of The Washington Monthly Mitayo Potosi _ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/photos&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Haiti makes its case for reparations, The meter is running at $34 per second
years of revenue for Haiti. One study estimates the indemnity was 55 million more francs than was needed to restore the 793 sugar plantations, 3,117 coffee estates and 3,906 indigo, cotton and other crop plantations destroyed during the war for independence. By contrast, when it became clear France would no longer be in a position to capitalize on further westward expansion in the Western hemisphere, they agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory, an area 74 times the surface area of Haiti, to the U.S. for just 60 million francs, less than half the Haitian indemnity. Even though France later lowered the indemnity payment to 90 million francs, the cycle of forcing Haiti to borrow from French banks to make the payments chained the Black nation to perpetual poverty. Haiti did not finish paying her indemnity debt until 1947! According to the Haitian governments reparations booklet, the immediate consequence of the debt payment on the Haitian population was greater misery. The first thing President Boyer did to help pay the debt was to increase from 12 to 16 percent all tariffs on imports to offset the French discount. The next step Boyer took was to declare the indemnity to be a national debt to be paid by all the citizens of Haiti. Then he immediately brought into being the Rural Code. By Haitian First Lady Mildred Aristides account in her book, Child Domestic Service in Haiti and its Historical Underpinnings, the Rural Code laid the basis for the legal apartheid between rural and urban society in Haiti. With the Rural Code, the economically dominant class of merchants, government officials and military officers who lived in the cities legally established themselves as Haitis ruling class. Under the Rural Code agricultural workers were chained to the land and allowed little or no opportunity to move from place to place. Socializing was made illegal after midnight, and the Haitian farmer who did not own property was obligated to sign a three-, six- or nine-year labor contract with a large property own er. The code also banned small-scale commerce, so that agricultural workers would produce crops strictly for export. The Haitian Rural Code was all embracing, governing the lives not only of farmers but of children as well. The Rural Code was specifically designed to regulate rural life in order to more efficiently produce export crops with which to pay the indemnity. The taxes levied on production were also used predominantly to pay the indemnity and not to build schools nor to provide other social services to the generators of this great wealth, the peasants. Leading Haitian activists in the U.S. claim that between 1804 and 1990, when President Aristide was first elected, a grand total of 32 h igh schools were built in Haiti, all within urban settings. Since then, more than 200 have been built, they say, most in the countryside. To this day, the discrimination between rural and urban areas takes the form of color discrimination by light-skinned Blacks toward darker-skinned Blacks, and it remains intense. St. Hubert and the national bank compute the exact amount Haiti is demanding from France as $21,685,135,571.48, at 5 percent annual interest. France is getting off easy, St. Hubert told a U.S. newspaper. If Haiti charged 7.5 percent interest on the money, France would owe $4 trillion today and much more tomorrow. The French can debate whether they want to pay as long as they like, he said, but at 5 percent interest, it will cost them $34 per second. For more information about Haiti or to learn what you can do to support Haiti, call the Haiti Action Committee at (510) 483-7481, write them at HAC, P.O. Box 2218, Berkeley CA 94702 or visit their website at www.haitiaction.org. Mitayo Potosi _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: India's slow trek to an economic powerhouse
early 1,600 engineering colleges. Elite institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) provide an education that is the envy of the world. India today sits on a deep source of brainpower: low on cost, high on IQ. Indian research and development activity employs the best brains in the world, but costs as little as a tenth of equivalent western programmes. What kind of killer competitive advantage is that? The ideas developed by these scientific minds are then given to management professionals to turn into cutting-edge products and services. Indian companies have won no fewer than six prestigious Deming global quality awards in the past two years. Indeed Businessweek, in a recent cover story, stated: "If India can turn into a fast-growth economy, it will be the first developing nation that used its brainpower, not natural resources or the raw muscle of factory labour, as the catalyst." Of course, India still has entrenched problems to deal with. It may have made dramatic inroads into the problem of poverty, but it still has over 300 million people living on less than a dollar a day. Visibly, India is still a Third World country. Mumbai is still lined with slums choking with human detritus. The civil service, despite valiant modernisation efforts, is still bloated and dysfunctional, much like ours. And only the burgeoning middle class has so far seen the real benefits of the economic revolution. Nevertheless, India is growing, and growing fast. It knows, very clearly, the source of its present and future wealth. Its makeover may still be work in progress, but young Indians today have a newfound confidence about their place in the world. At the end of the day, however, we must take a hard look at our own country. What have we to learn from the experience of India? What is it that we must do in our own economy, companies and homes to haul ourselves out of the economic backwater? Where should we start? For a look at the possible answers to these burning questions, see you here next week. Mr Bindra is a writer and management consultant in Nairobi. Comments\Views about this article Mitayo Potosi _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: How Global Warming May Cause the Next Ice Age...
longer flowing, it only took a year or three for the last of
the residual heat held in the North Atlantic Ocean to dissipate into the air
over Europe, and then there was no more warmth to moderate the northern
latitudes. When the summer stopped in the north, the rains stopped around
the equator: At the same time Europe was plunged into an Ice Age, the Middle
East and Africa were ravaged by drought and wind-driven firestorms. .
If the Great Conveyor Belt, which includes the Gulf Stream, were to stop
flowing today, the result would be sudden and dramatic. Winter would set in
for the eastern half of North America and all of Europe and Siberia, and
never go away. Within three years, those regions would become uninhabitable
and nearly two billion humans would starve, freeze to death, or have to
relocate. Civilization as we know it probably couldn't withstand the impact
of such a crushing blow.
And, incredibly, the Great Conveyor Belt has hesitated a few times in the
past decade. As William H. Calvin points out in one of the best books
available on this topic ("A Brain For All Seasons: human evolution & abrupt
climate change"): ".the abrupt cooling in the last warm period shows that a
flip can occur in situations much like the present one. What could possibly
halt the salt-conveyor belt that brings tropical heat so much farther north
and limits the formation of ice sheets? Oceanographers are busy studying
present-day failures of annual flushing, which give some perspective on the
catastrophic failures of the past. "In the Labrador Sea, flushing failed
during the 1970s, was strong again by 1990, and is now declining. In the
Greenland Sea over the 1980s salt sinking declined by 80 percent. Obviously,
local failures can occur without catastrophe - it's a question of how often
and how widespread the failures are - but the present state of decline is
not very reassuring."
Most scientists involved in research on this topic agree that the culprit is
global warming, melting the icebergs on Greenland and the Arctic icepack and
thus flushing cold, fresh water down into the Greenland Sea from the north.
When a critical threshold is reached, the climate will suddenly switch to an
ice age that could last minimally 700 or so years, and maximally over
100,000 years.
And when might that threshold be reached? Nobody knows - the action of the
Great Conveyor Belt in defining ice ages was discovered only in the last
decade. Preliminary computer models and scientists willing to speculate
suggest the switch could flip as early as next year, or it may be
generations from now. It may be wobbling right now, producing the extremes
of weather we've seen in the past few years.
What's almost certain is that if nothing is done about global warming, it
will happen sooner rather than later.
This article was adapted from the new, updated edition of "The Last Hours of
Ancient Sunlight" by Thom Hartmann (thom at thomhartmann.com), due out from
Random House/Three Rivers Press in March. www.thomhartmann.com
Copyright 2004 by Thom Hartmann.
###
Mitayo Potosi
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ugnet_: Seeking help
I need to communicate with Hon Dr Edward K. Makubuya, Minister of Education. If anyone out there has his email, do me a favour and pass it on to me, please. Mitayo Potosi _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
RE: ugnet_: RE: [FedsNet] Ssemakula Kiwanuka in New Vision-Prof Semakula Kiwanuk
I seem to remember reading in the Monitor Mr Lugemwa's article; maybe I am wrong and, I stand to be corrected. Mitayo Potosi From: "J Ssemakula" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: ugnet_: RE: [FedsNet] Ssemakula Kiwanuka in New Vision-Prof Semakula Kiwanuka Speaks Out On The Presidential Third Term Issue Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2004 19:32:04 + _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 Folks, I thought it was only I, who felt censored by the press back home, but now I get the feeling I am not alone! For example, during the last presidential elections, I sat down and composed an article, in plain language and with concrete arguments, on why the Electoral Commission's (EC) numbers of voters in the then upcoming election simply could not be correct. I sent faxed, and emailed, the article to the Monitor. I did not hear didly from the Monitor. They did not publish my article, but the EC later revised their numbers to nearly the numbers I had arrived at using simple arithmetic and logic. (I circulated the article on the net after failing to ellicit a response from the Monitor.) Another example is Mr. Lugemwa's article to the Monitor calling for Federo for Uganda. I doubt it ever so light of day in Uganda. Yet, this is an important issue that will not go away simply because editor of newspapers choose to hide their heads in sand! Why does the press feel the need to supress and/or distort views of Ugandans in the "diaspora", who after all contribute some U.S. $600 million annually to Uganda's coffers? Yet, they have time and space to publish junk stuff, complete with photos! New Vision has now outdone themselves: they have instituted a system that makes it difficult for a good number in the diaspora from accessing their (partly?) government-sponsored website to reads news of the motherland. Who benefits form this situation? I hope the Monitor will continue to be easily available to us. Ssemakula Original Message Follows From: "WB Kyijomanyi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [FedsNet] Ssemakula Kiwanuka in New Vision-Prof Semakula Kiwanuka Speaks Out On The Presidential Third Term Issue Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2004 18:54:25 + << message3.txt >> Check out the great features of the new MSN 9 Dial-up, with the MSN Dial-up Accelerator. Listers: Not long ago, I sent a point by point rebuttal to Professor Ssemakula-Kiwanuka's articles on the 'sad term'. Even after being asked by one Editor to narrow down the article to 800 words or less, which I did; my piece was not published. Efforts to find out why have not been responded too. Now Professor SsemakulaKiwanuka is at it again peddling the same lies.Hopefully those with good connections or in good standing with the Print media will take him on. I understand a new national Newspaper is about to hit the stands in Uganda. We hope it will be more tolerant of diverse opinions than the existing tabloids. WBK The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FedsNet/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
ugnet_: Transition in Ivory Coast, Senegal Coast a lesson to Uganda
rstand where the presidential term limit came from. There have been seven changes of government in Uganda since independence and all of them have been through violence. There is no greater legacy, tradition and symbol of our political evolution as a nation that Museveni will bestow upon us than a peaceful change of government. There is not any number of industries, schools, hospitals and kilometres of tarmac, etc that he will built that will be more appreciated, and also more enduring than a peaceful transition. If history is not important, then Museveni and his supporters need to evaluate the national mood today and weigh its support of unlimited presidential terms. There is overwhelming evidence that current attempts to amend the constitution to remove term limits carry a potential to return Uganda to 1979 or 1985 or into a Somalia or Liberia. While pro third term advocates carry an air of confidence about their possible success, it seems to me that the anti third term agitators (as the president calls them) feel confident about their potential. President Museveni is very weak politically and he can hardly win a third term through parliament or a referendum. However, even if he gets the amendment, he would find it even more difficult to win an election in 2006 except through brutal repression - with the only outcome of the election being civil war. In the next article, I will lay out President Museveni's numbers on the third term. © 2004 The Monitor Publications Mitayo Potosi _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: We must stress skills, knowledge, above all
excellence in knowledge, and towards the get-rich-quick economy of hucksters and wastrels. A task force of the best minds is needed: To address the issue of building institutions that can raise the bar of academic standards over the coming years; to investigate the ways of involving the corporate sector in providing funding, endowments and sponsorships; and to revitalise our research efforts so that we produce ideas and patents that are born of Africa and work here, and carry an economic value. Without this investment in the skills of tomorrow, we will remain the also-rans of the world economy. The second opportunity relates to the globalisation of skills. Today Indias skilled minds are scattered all over the world. The Indian Diaspora is an "economy'' with a GNP of US$160 billion. So is the investment in skills lost to India? Not at all. India has slowly come round to the enlightened view: That its Diaspora is a "brain gain'', not a "brain drain''. It has granted dual nationality to persons of Indian origin living in 16 countries, and is facilitating the return of capital and skills to the country. In Kenya, the evidence so far is that our minds remain closed. We regard our Diaspora as sell-outs who belong to others. We think dual nationality is a security issue, not an economic one. We cannot see the treasure trove we are sitting on: Of business and technical skills, of experience of working in advanced economies, and of financial capital. Our Diaspora offers all this and more to us. We are happy to remain dependent on foreign donors, but cannot see the helping hand that our own sons and daughters could extend to us. It is time to think ahead and to think big. Whether it is done at Bomas III or in Parliament, the issue of dual nationality must be addressed intelligently. Let us pray that those who are designing our constitution can rise to the challenge. The formula is simple. Develop the institutions that produce the skills, and nurture the environment that attracts and retains them. Therein lie the seeds of economic transformation. Mr Bindra is a writer and management consultant in Nairobi. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mitayo Potosi _ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Museveni and Kony should face war tribunal
For the time being and for some strange reasons , the international community has not fingered some of those who have commited the most heinous crimes against the people of the Great Lakes region of Central Africa. We are grateful to the relentless voices of American Human Rights Watch and other Organizations who have stood with us, the victims and survivors. We hope that one day there will a redress with truth and justice. http://www.blackstarnews.com/musev.html Recently, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni asked the International Criminal Court at The Hague to investigate and prosecute rebels and rebel leader Joseph Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army, LRA..... Mitayo Potosi _ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Hullo there
For the last two weeks or so the net seems to have gone into some convulsion. For a while, there were whole areas in my part of the city that could not access hotmail. My suspicion is either a serious virus, some intelligence agency (m7 was recently complaining of the abuse he is getting from Canada) or even the snow storms. But I have seen mail on ugandanet from the West Coast that consistently appears in duplicate. Not only that. I also have seen this happen to my mail sent on ugandanet. Meanwhile I have lost access to dp-net. For now it is very frustrating, but all should eventually turn out OK. All the best to all of you comrades out there. Mitayo Potosi _ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/photos&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: State House dragged into coltan saga
j. Gen. Katumba Wamala and to the External Security Organisation (ESO) boss. Rwema was arrested but officers at the Central Police Station (CPS) refused to detain him, saying the matter was before court. Odoi defended his action when Sunday Monitor contacted him, Friday afternoon. "I wrote that letter to have him arrested. He is the biggest thug in town. He has conned people of huge sums of money, promising to sell to them coltan. He even threatened to kill one Joy. He promises people that if they give him money he would take them to the DRC President, Joseph Kabila," said Odoi. "But why should State House get involved in a case before court?" Sunday Monitor asked - to which Odoi said; "He has very many different cases. Right now he has several new cases." But Rwema insists he is no criminal but a victim of security agencies in Uganda. Rwema says that because of torture and harassment he was on January 14 made to sign a document committing himself that he owed Basigaga money. The memorandum of acknowledgement and undertaking to pay, seen by Sunday Monitor shows that Rwema is to pay US 50,000 to Basigaga not later than February 15. "The borrower has provided the following properties as security- House No 22C, Lubowa Estate, presently registered in the names of National Housing and Construction Corporation. Motor vehicle Reg. NK 0209 A whose particulars are chassis No; MCU 1309; Engine no. IMZ EO533668; Make Toyota Harrier jeep," reads the agreement. However Rwema says he was forced to sign the agreement. "I have been tortured for long. This woman Basigaga is a bad woman. I even gave her five thousand dollars when she told me she had problems, now she turns around and says I owe her money," Rwema said. He says he has been threatened with deportation. On February 5 the minister of Internal Affairs, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, convened a one-and-half-hour crisis meeting over the scandal. Maj. Gen. Katumba Wamala, ISO deputy chief Lt. Mukumbi, Fox Odoi, and the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Dr Kagoda, attended it. The closed meeting, according to sources, resolved that no one was supposed to arrest Rwema since the matter was before court. Later the resolutions were communicated to Rwema and Basigaga in the presence of the former's lawyer, Abdu Katuntu. On January 31 when this reporter called Basigaga, she made an appointment saying she wanted to give her side of the story. However, she never turned up. On Friday this reporter insisted that it would be fair if she gave her side of the story. Again she made an appointment, but which she never honoured. Uganda has been accused by the United Nations of plundering DRC minerals. Uganda is now considered the transit hub for minerals from DRC enroute to Europe. © 2004 The Monitor Publications Mitayo Potosi _ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/features&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_:
Commissioner was none other than Eriya Kategaya. With due respect to my friend Kategaya, we have never read his report. What I have said so far should indicate that Fronansa died in 1974, the year Museveni claims Ruzindanas contribution ended. Sometime after that, Kategaya and his family left for Zambia. Ruzindana got a job with the government. Museveni too went to teach at the Cooperative College in Moshi. Later when Amin invaded Tanzania, Museveni dusted the name Fronasa and put up something. This is the basis of his claims to liberation in 1979. Secondly, to beef up the credentials of Museveni, his hirelings have often claimed that Fronasa fought in the Mozambican war of liberation. But logic should tell us that an army which had been dispersed could not exist to fight wars; whether in Uganda or Mozambique. Bayaye In his attack on Ruzindana, President Museveni alleged that Ruzindana failed to control the combatants at Nachingweya. While in these attacks he is seeking to blame Ruzindana for the failure of the Nachingweya project, Museveni forgets that he has himself given, and in writing, another explanation of what happened in Nachingweya. On page 85 of The Sowing of the Mustard Seed, President Museveni writes: We recruited 54 boys, mostly from Bugisu, and started training them at Nachingweya. Unfortunately, once again, these boys had not been well selected. They had mostly been working in towns such as Nairobi and had a kiyaye (lumpen proletariat) culture. They began misbehaving in the Frelimo camp and soon after their training, the Tanzania government dispersed them. I would like to ask the reader: which version should we believe? I would also like to advance another reason for the conduct of the combatants. Some of them had been recruited with promises of money, clothing etc. Others had been given promises of jobs. Instead of these rosy promises they found themselves sent to prepare for war. In conclusion, I would like to apologise to the reader for whetting his/her appetite. There is a lot more to be said which I could not give in the brevity of newspaper articles. I have desire to write a full-length book on the NRM, treating it as an infantile disorder. It is my hope to have a chapter on Fronasa. Let us hope I somehow manage to live up to that desire. © 2004 The Monitor Publications Mitayo Potosi _ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: The rise, fall and rise of Ugandas rich
no pun intended). Mr Andrew Kassaga Zzimwe Andrew Kassaga Zzimwe. It is rumoured that Kassaga, popularly known as Zzimwe, started off in the fish industry in Kibuye. In the late 80s, he graduated to a hardware company, along Market Street, and later set up Zzimwe Hardware and later Zzimwe Construction Company. But those in the know claim that Zzimwe has scores of godfathers in the political establishment - who continue to help him secure plenty of lucrative contracts. Lawrence Mukibi Everyone in the education circles has heard of Mukiibi - of the St. Lawrence schools. The schools have become an empire in their own right, and today attract a huge number of foreign and local students. In 1992, Mukiibi started out with one branch, Progressive Citizens High School located near the Kabakas lake in Mengo. It has since expanded to four campuses at different locations. They are flourishing and making pots of money for Mukibi. He is not just an excellent headmaster, but he is also a smart businessman. David Katumwa His wealth remains a mystery. From vending old sports shoes, he now owns one of the biggest sports shops in Kampala. Mr David Katumwa He is into sponsoring sports events and is now building a sports complex in Kampala. Moses Kalungi His luck has been in owning property; the most famous being Kalungi Plaza, in the city centre. If he owns any other big business complexes, then he has kept them a secret. Dick Kizito He owns Kizito Towers, one of the citys premier shopping centres and a host of other businesses. Mutaasa Kafeero He is also a property mogul like Kalungi and Kizito and owns Mutaasa Kafeero shopping centre in the heart of the city. Haji Yusufu Matovu Proprietor of YOUMA tiles. Henry Bugembe Owns Big Ways and prime property in the city. Omar Mandela, His City Tyres is one of the biggest and most successful tyre outlets in the country. But he is mostly famous for his undisputed loyalty and financial support to Sports Club Villa. Brahimu Muwanga Kibirige - BMK He owns Hotel Africana, BMK Health club, BMK Heavy Machinery, BMK Industries (manufacturers of polythene bags), BMK Nairobi, BMK Tanzania, BMK Zambia and other prime property in Uganda. He made his money from selling auto parts and motorcycles. Otto Before he faded off the scene, his Vita foam company was the biggest manufacturer of mattresses in Uganda. He also co-owned COVMO motors, an importer of spare parts and cars. But now, he has made a comeback and has reversed his fortunes. © 2004 The Monitor Publications Mitayo Potosi _ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Brave face wont resolve new crisis
addendum to the president to my Open Letter of 2000: Mr. President, you cannot this time pretend that there is no political and constitutional crisis in our country. The problem is real. Since you symbolically took off your military uniforms and assured the people of Uganda that you had now put on a kanzu and given olubengo to carry on behalf of the people, you have been operating under the claim that you are a democratically elected leader. Now the basis of that claim has been blown openly apart. The very laws upon which your political system was selected in a referendum have been exposed to have no constitutional basis. Your election as President in 2001 is therefore null and void. Therefore, at this moment, if you want to demonstrate your democratic credentials, you, more than any one else, need the political parties to give you support? It is not the 50 odd parties you recently helped to create in order to frustrate the dialogue the country needs critically at this moment who will help you. They do not have any democratic and political credentials, except their merit. You need the real political parties that have been tested countrywide, especially the DP and the UPC, to come to your rescue. You can only do that if you can demonstrate openly that this time you seek reconciliation for the good of our country. Then it will be possible to organize a Sovereign National Conference to discuss all the pending national issues that you have avoided to discuss openly and genuinely with the other political forces in the country. One of the most important issues you will have to put on the table as part of the agenda will be a discussion on how to end the Northern war. You should not think that the International Criminal Court, whose authority you had not so a long time ago tried to undermine with unilateral agreements with the United States, could help you solve that problem. You know how that war begun because you started it in the Luwero Triangle in 1980 for the purposes of getting rid of the northerners from dominating the Uganda government. It turned into an ethnic cleansing. You have fought the northerners for the last eighteen years but victory has eluded you. Now is the time to atone the people of Acholi in particular, and seek their forgiveness and not turn Joseph Kony into an international criminal as if this war is about international legal niceties. It is a local war that has to be solved internally and this is the only chance you have to do so. For this reason, I advise you to embark on consultations with the political parties, the religious leaders, traditional leaders and Parliament to agree to the convening of the Sovereign National Conference, which will have the power to make binding resolutions, including the validation of the constitutional situation since 1999. You need to do this in haste since the legality, legitimacy and cohesion of your government is in serious trouble. Abandon the old gimmicks of putting on a brave face. The issue we are facing is a serious one. You now need the help of the people to demonstrate that you can listen to their advice and for the first time proceed along a democratic path. © 2004 The Monitor Publications Mitayo Potosi _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Bush Family Values: War, Wealth, Oil
's Kenneth L. Lay made his first connections with George H.W. Bush in the early 1980s when the latter was working on energy deregulation. When Bush became president in 1989, he gave Lay two prominent international roles: membership on the President's Export Council and the task of planning for a G-7 summit in Houston. Lay parlayed that exposure into new business overseas and clout with Washington agencies. Family favoritism soon followed. When Bush senior lost the 1992 election, Lay picked up with son George W., first in Texas and then as a top contributor to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. Before Enron imploded in late 2001, it had more influence in a new administration than any other corporation in memory. The intelligence community: Bushes and Walkers have been involved with the intelligence community since World War I. The importance of Sam Bush's wartime munitions-regulating role was obvious. During the 1920s, when George H. Walker was doing a lot of business in Russia and Germany, he became a director of the American International Corporation, formed during the war for purposes of overseas investment and intelligence-gathering. Prescott Bush's pre-1941 corporate and banking contacts with Germany, sensationalized on many Internet sites, appear to have been passed along to officials in government and intelligence circles. George H.W. Bush may have had CIA connections before the agency's unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961. A number of published sources suggest that Zapata Offshore was a CIA front long before he went on to become director of Central Intelligence in 1976. As for George W. Bush, his limited ties are said to have come through investments in, and buyouts of, several of his oil businesses by CIA- and BCCI-connected firms and individuals. Top 1% economics: Over four generations, the Bush family has been involved with more than 20 securities firms, banks, brokerage houses and investment management firms, ranging from Wall Street giants like Brown Brothers Harriman and E.F. Hutton to small firms like J. Bush & Co. and Riggs Investment Management Corp. This relentless record of handling money for rich people has bred a vocational hauteur. In their eyes, the economic top 1% of Americans are the ones who count. Investors and their inheritors are favored a good explanation of why George W. Bush has cut taxes on both dividends and estates, where most of the benefit goes to the top 1%. Over the course of George H.W. Bush's career, he was close to a number of the merger kings and leveraged-buyout specialists of the 1980s who came from Oklahoma and Texas: T. Boone Pickens, Henry Kravis and Hugh Liedtke. "Little guy" economics has almost no niche in the Bush economic worldview. Debt and deficits: Whenever a Bush is president, private debt and government deficits seem to grow. Middle- and low-income Americans borrow to offset the income squeeze of recessions. The hallmark of Bush economics during both presidencies has been favoritism toward capital over workers. Federal budget deficits have soared because of a combination of upper-bracket tax favors, middle-income job shrinkage, big federal spending to hype election-year economic growth, huge defense outlays and overseas military spending for the wars in Iraq and elsewhere. Imperial hubris costs a lot of money. Politically, over four generations the Bush past has been prologue. Despite George W. Bush's new good ol' boy image cowboy boots and born-again ties to the religious right his basic tendencies go in the same directions oil, crony capitalism, top 1% economics and military-industrial-establishment loyalties that the previous Bush and Walker generations have traveled. The old biases and loyalties seem ineradicable; so, too, for old grudges, like the two-generation fixation on Saddam Hussein. The presidency is an old Bush ambition. As early as the 1940s, Barbara Bush talked to friends about becoming first lady. The current president's grandfather, Prescott Bush, told his wife before he retired in 1962 that he wished he'd been president. By 1963, George W. Bush, a student at Andover Academy, was talking about his own father's desire to be president. In short, the word "dynasty" fits the Bushes all too well. They have had plenty of time to sort out their ambitions, loyalties and intentions. They know what they're in politics for although this year may pose a new problem. The American people are also starting to find out. --- Mitayo Potosi _ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/features&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Nigeria Orders an Investigation of Halliburton Gas Payments
Nigeria Orders an Investigation of Halliburton Gas Payments ___ It is a cruel circus that Obasanjo talks of investigating Halliburton. This same criminal Obasanjo is said to be part of a gang that purposefully run Nigeria's oil refineries into the ground, and then they proceeded to construct their own refineries in Sao Tome. They intend to control Nigeria's domestic fuel market forever. The never ending fuel shortages in Nigeria are just a ruse to always maximise profits to this gang. There is only one course of action fit for Obasanjo and his gang. To be lined up and shot!! Nigeria Orders an Investigation of Halliburton Gas Payments February 7, 2004 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ABUJA, Nigeria, Feb. 6 - Nigeria on Friday ordered an investigation into allegations that a Halliburton subsidiary paid $180 million in bribes to land a natural gas project contract here. Vice President Dick Cheney was head of Halliburton at the time. The allegations are already under scrutiny in the United States and France. Inquiries by the United States Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission were disclosed this week. President Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered a "high-level investigation" into the allegations, a presidential spokeswoman, Remi Oyo, said here in the capital. Ms. Oyo said the investigation was being led by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, a body Mr. Obasanjo set up to fight rampant breaches of financial law. The $4 billion Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Plant was built in the 1990's by a consortium that included Kellogg Brown & Root, a unit of Halliburton. Cathy Gist, a spokeswoman for Halliburton, which is based in Houston, said that the Nigerian government had not notified the company of the investigation and that Halliburton did not have reason to assume any of its employees or those employed by the joint venture had violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The act bars American businesses and individuals from bribing foreign officials. Ms. Gist said the company would cooperate with investigations by United States officials. Justice Department officials disclosed Wednesday that the department was reviewing documents voluntarily provided by Halliburton to determine whether to begin a full investigation. Halliburton, already under fire for what the Pentagon says are overcharges in contracts related to the war in Iraq, revealed the Justice Department request in a filing on Jan. 21 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Management made the decision to include these statements because of the politically charged environment in which we now operate," Ms. Gist said. "We are trying to keep the investment community informed of the accurate facts about the company's business." According to Halliburton's filing, the illegal payment allegations involve a joint venture of which K.B.R. was a 25 percent owner. The other partners were Technip of France, ENI of Italy and Japan Gasoline. The filing says the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are reviewing the allegations. The payments for the gas plant contract were said to have been made to Nigerian officials. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/07/international/africa/07NIGE.html?ex=1077361824&ei=1&en=bab6e0ecb3fc5fed Mitayo Potosi _ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/features&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
RE: ugnet_: The Problem with Al Sharpton
How much is Al Sharpton an abberation?
Could it be true that he is representative of the whole rotten class of
Black leaders - the empty Mandela, thieving Obasanjo, house nigger Kofi
Annan, Jamaica's Prime Minister Patterson, Andrew Young etc... ?
Mitayo Potosi
From: Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: ugnet_: The Problem with Al Sharpton
Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2004 19:24:31 -0600
The Problem with Al Sharpton
By Glen Ford and Peter Gamble,
The Black Commentator
February 5, 2004
Rev. Al Sharpton's race for the Democratic presidential nomination should
be considered a resounding success for just about everyone except the
candidate himself.
By sheer dint of will and force of personality, Sharpton imposed a vibrant
black presence on the party's primary process. (Had Sharpton not run, Carol
Moseley-Braun would not have been drawn into the race ironically, as a
counterweight to Sharpton.) "Big Al" was truly large on the stage, a
daunting deterrent to the intrusion of the usual coded racial rhetoric into
the Democratic debates or on the stump: Don't even think about it, said Al,
without having to move his lips. Sharpton gave voice at times,
brilliantly to the core progressive principles of the black political
consensus, causing big-footed white men to step lightly and in the right
general direction.
Sharpton's candidacy has had a magical effect on the racial chemistry of
the Democratic dialogue, in starkest contrast to the White Citizens
Council-type language of the GOP. He caused the white candidates to
repeatedly demonstrate, through their words and campaign schedules, that
they valued black voters.
In that sense, Sharpton's very success detracted from his appeal. It was
not fear of George Bush that caused four of five black voters in South
Carolina to opt for a white candidate. There was never any possibility of
Sharpton being the nominee, so "electability" was not a consideration. From
the beginning, his candidacy promised African Americans the opportunity to
send a message to the Democratic Party: you'd better pay attention to us.
The frontrunners and it seems that every white candidate but Dennis
Kucinich has been a frontrunner at some point had already gotten the
message long before last Tuesday. They embraced black South Carolina.
Unlike whites, who are the ultimate bloc voters, African Americans have
always responded across racial lines to direct, respectful appeals for
their votes. Sharpton worked a civilizing mojo on the white contenders this
season. (Even Democratic Leadership Council favorite Sen. Joseph Lieberman
now, thankfully, gone from the race dropped his references to the red
herring, "quotas.") Call it nine months of behavior modification therapy,
courtesy of Rev. Al. Thanks to Sharpton, others in the Democratic field
struggled to make themselves worthy of black votes. They were rewarded and
are, presumably, grateful.
The Debacle
Sharpton may or may not appreciate the effect he has had on the behavior
and marketability of his white opponents. However, he has much more to
worry about than whether he gets to speak at the Democratic convention in
Boston. The growing storm over his covert alliance with rightwing
Republicans probably came too late to have any measurable impact on
Tuesday's elections, but the revelations are a deathblow to his actual
goal: to become the recognized leader of African Americans. Although the
story has been framed in terms of treachery to the Democratic Party, or as
evidence of Sharpton's visceral disdain for white "liberals," the tale will
resonate somewhat differently among African Americans. Sharpton comes
across as a hapless stooge of the worst elements of the GOP.
Roger Stone, a millionaire political consultant who began his career as a
19-year-old Watergate dirty trickster, virtually took over the Sharpton
campaign in the last quarter of 2003, according to reports in the New York
Times (January 25), Salon.com ("A GOP Trickster Rents Sharpton," February
3) and New York's Village Voice ("Sleeping with the GOP," February 3).
Stone and Sharpton were introduced two years ago by Donald Trump, the
celebrity millionaire, said the Times. Stone brought in Charles Halloran to
replace Sharpton campaign manager Frank Watkins, a longtime advisor to the
Jesse Jacksons, Junior and Senior, who resigned in late September. (In the
Village Voice article, Sharpton says Watkins was fired.) Halloran
previously managed the New York gubernatorial campaign of far-right
billionaire Tom Golisano, on the Independence Party line. He also managed a
mostly white, conservative party's attempt to unseat the first black-led
government of Bermuda.
Stone provides "ideas and direction, while Mr. Halloran...does the
front-li
ugnet_: Climate Collapse
ld: * Speed research on the forces that can trigger abrupt climate change, how it unfolds, and how we'll know it's occurring. * Sponsor studies on the scenarios that might play out, including ecological, social, economic, and political fallout on key food-producing regions. * Identify "no regrets" strategies to ensure reliable access to food and water and to ensure our national security. * Form teams to prepare responses to possible massive migration, and food and water shortages. * Explore ways to offset abrupt coolingtoday it appears easier to warm than to cool the climate via human activities, so there may be "geo-engineering" options available to prevent a catastrophic temperature drop. In sum, the risk of abrupt climate change remains uncertain, and it is quite possibly small. But given its dire consequences, it should be elevated beyond a scientific debate. Action now matters, because we may be able to reduce its likelihood of happening, and we can certainly be better prepared if it does. It is time to recognize it as a national security concern. The Pentagon's reaction to this sobering report isn't knownin keeping with his reputation for reticence, Andy Marshall declined to be interviewed. But the fact that he's concerned may signal a sea change in the debate about global warming. At least some federal thought leaders may be starting to perceive climate change less as a political annoyance and more as an issue demanding action. If so, the case for acting now to address climate change, long a hard sell in Washington, may be gaining influential support, if only behind the scenes. Policymakers may even be emboldened to take steps such as tightening fuel-economy standards for new passenger vehicles, a measure that would simultaneously lower emissions of greenhouse gases, reduce America's perilous reliance on OPEC oil, cut its trade deficit, and put money in consumers' pockets. Oh, yesand give the Pentagon's fretful Yoda a little less to worry about. --- Mitayo Potosi _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Our country is full of nonsense
Letter/Daily Nation Kenya Friday, February 13, 2004 Our country is full of nonsense Going by recent events, I find Kenyans full of nonsense. President Kibaki has failed to provide leadership. He is ridiculed left and right, yet people say it is democracy at work. This is nonsense. His kind of leadership style is a recipe for civil war. How can the constitution review be left to the likes of Orie Rogo-Manduli, Martin Shikuku and Otieno Kajwang' since they are the ones who seem to be calling the shots? This is dangerous nonsense, yet people don't see the gravity of the matter - turning an elected President into a ceremonial Head of State and an appointed Prime Minister as the chief executive. Why would an MP earn over Sh500,000 for talking three days a week while those in the civil service who produce and protect wealth don't earn such amounts in a year? This is nonsense. Why on earth does a time keeper (Speaker) earn Sh1.2 million every month? What contribution does he make? We wouldn't mind if it was Kenya Airways, KRA, or KPA boss earning such amounts, but not a Speaker or an MP for that matter. Take another nonsense of the Kaca boss earning Sh2.5 million per month. Why on earth should he earn such colossal sums? Is Kenya going to witness high levels of corruption perennially to warrant such an establishment? The police force should take care of that because they are trained to fight any crime, corruption being one of them. After all the Ethics Bill should curb or reduce the level of corruption. Another nonsense is from our so called leaders. They are supposed to serve us, not to be our bosses. But once we elect them, they award themselves big packages and get duty-free vehicles. One wonders why they shouldn't pay tax yet they earn such hefty sums. But nobody says a thing because Kenya is full of nonsense. Kenya lacks an identity. We teach our children English, yet we the parents like conversing in our mother tongue. During his visit, German Chancellor G. Schroeder addressed us in his native tongue and took a lot of pride in it. We should learn from the Far East Asian countries, who have always resisted Western influence but this has not stopped them becoming industrialised. When I listen to FM radio stations, I feel sick. The advice they give on issues of love is pathetic. Some are young and unmarried, yet they will feed you with their nonsensical "expertise." After 40 years of independence, Harambee Stars is yet to come up with National uniform because our country is full of nonsense. PETER KAMAU, Mombasa. Comments\Views about this article Mitayo Potosi _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Prostitutes Are Easy Prey in Iraq
s as womens slavery. --- Mitayo Potosi _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: The Family Steering Committee Statement and Questions
therefore the children in the classroom, might have been a target for the terrorists on 9/11. What was the intention of the Secret Service in allowing you to remain in the Emma E. Booker Elementary School, even though they were aware America was under attack? 15. Please explain why you remained at the Sarasota, Florida, Elementary School for a press conference after you had finished listening to the children read, when as a terrorist target, your presence potentially jeopardized the lives of the children? 16. What was the purpose of the several stops of Air Force One on September 11th? Was Air Force One at any time during the day of September 11th a target of the terrorists? Was Air Force Ones code ever breached on September 11th? 17. Was there a reason for Air Force One lifting off without a military escort, even after ample time had elapsed to allow military jets to arrive? 18. What prompted your refusal to release the information regarding foreign sponsorship of the terrorists, as illustrated in the inaccessible 28 redacted pages in the Joint Intelligence Committee Inquiry Report? What actions have you personally taken since 9/11 to thwart foreign sponsorship of terrorism? 19. Who approved the flight of the bin Laden family out of the United States when all commercial flights were grounded, when there was time for only minimal questioning by the FBI, and especially, when two of those same individuals had links to WAMY, a charity suspected of funding terrorism? Why were bin Laden family members granted that special privilegea privilege not available to American families whose loved ones were killed on 9/11? 20. Please explain why no one in any level of our government has yet been held accountable for the countless failures leading up to and on 9/11? 21. Please comment on the fact that UBLs profile on the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives poster does not include the 9/11 attacks. To your knowledge, when was the last time any agent of our government had contact with UBL? If prior to 9/11, specifically what was the date of that contact and what was the context of said meeting. 22. Do you continue to maintain that Saddam Hussein was linked to al Qaeda? What proof do you have of any connection between al-Qaeda and the Hussein regime? 23. Which individuals, governments, agencies, institutions, or groups may have benefited from the attacks of 9/11? Please state specifically how you think they have benefited. --- Mitayo Potosi _ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Mulattos and America's right wing out to wipe the blackman off the face of ...
A Mulatto steeped in supremacy and America's right-wing-enslavers are out to wipe the blackman off the face of the earth in Haiti. __ I would like to thank Compatriot Vukoni for the very high quality articles he periodically avails to us. Asante sana, Ndugu Vukoni. __ Read on. http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2004/febrero/vier13/8haiti.html Mitayo Potosi MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
RE: ugnet_: AFRICAN ECONOMIC WEB DOCTRINE
GR, me I find this article troubling. I think it is stupid. What do you think? Mitayo Potosi >From: "gook makanga" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] >CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: ugnet_: AFRICAN ECONOMIC WEB DOCTRINE >Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 16:20:27 + > The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* --- Begin Message --- AFRICAN ECONOMIC WEB DOCTRINE KEYNOTE SPEECH BY DR. CHIKA A. ONYEANI AT THE MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY'S BILL OF RIGHTS/TRANSAFRICA CONVOCATION. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2000. 11:00 A.M. CARL MURPHY FINE ARTS AUDITORIUM TOPIC: TRUTH, HONESTY AND FRANKNESS Good morning. President Earl Richardson, Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters. I feel especially honored to be here today, in this great institution. I must thank Dean Hollis, for inviting me to come here today. In fact, the last time I was in Baltimore was at the Mid-Atlantic Writers Association conference, and I had been invited by Prof. Grace Coffey to speak about my book. My African sister, Yahne Sangarey, a member of the African Sun Times staff as well as Curator, the African Museum in Baltimore here, had arranged for me to participate in the "Global African Writers: The Ties that Bind" of the United Nations African Project. The book was well received, and when Dean Hollis offered to bring me here to speak with you, I wasn't sure that his colleagues would I have the courage to agree with his selection of an author of such a controversial book and viewpoint. The fact that I am here today is a testimony to the courage and progressive thinking of the members of this institution. I thank you all and especially Dean Hollis for his bold initiative. A lot of times when most of us present our polished resume, we forget to mention the humble environment where we come from. Of course, I am no exception. But I would be remiss if I didn't tell you a Little bit about myself other than what is in my resume I come from Ohafia, a warrior group of the Igbo national group in Nigeria. It is in a very remote area of the country. When I was growing up, we attended School in make shift mud and hut houses. Then, as it is still now today, we didn't have running water, and now the electricity we have today hardly works one day in a month. For most of us, books were a luxury, but when we got hold of one, we made sure that we knew what was in it to pass our exams and move to the next class. In fact, I am exceptionally lucky because I was one of those who hardly had books, even exercise books, what you call notebooks here, not due to my parents not providing the money for them, but due to my u ncle's partiality to my cousin who started school with me. Needless to say my cousin was three classes behind me when we finished, and even then I had set a goal of becoming somebody. I gave you that very short resume just to say that no matter wherever you come from or from whatever circumstances, you can achieve whatever goal you set your mind on. And looking at you all, I know you are all very special and goal oriented, otherwise you would not be sitting where you are now. Thousands of others have abandoned their goals even before they started. I applaud you all. My topic today is the Black Race - it is not about Africans from the continent, or Africans in the Diaspora, or African West Indians, but about the Black Race. My discussion is about truth, it is about honesty and frankness. It is about no more lies, no more hiding the truth, and no more blaming others for what is happening to the Black Race. It is about accepting responsibility for our actions; it is about playing the same games that others are playing and becoming very successful. It is about being intelligent on how we make decisions where to spend our hard earned money. It is about no more playing the blame game, and the victim-mentality game. In this 21st century, we have to accept the truth of our situation, and nothing but the truth, so help us God. There is nobody more qualified to debate the state of the Black Race versus others, other than you and I. We cannot, as usual, in our lackadaisical manner abandon this debate to others with better access to the media. In Africa, we have a saying that when a child grows up, and he is able to wash his hands, he should sit at the same table and eat with his elders. The Black Race has grown up, we have washed our hands, but the question is why are we not sitting at the same table to eat with our elders, in this case, why are we not sitting at the same table with
ugnet_: History Lesions
in perpetrating horrors in the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai and who served only four and a half months of his life sentence behind bars after which he was pardoned by Richard Nixon, Gen. Smith was court-martialed for issuing his barbaric orders, found guilty, and sentenced to an admonition. Explaining the brutality meted out by American soldiers to Filipinos, a Boston Herald correspondent covering the war commented, "Our troops in the Philippines look upon all Filipinos as of one race and condition, and being dark men, they are therefore 'niggers,' and entitled to all the contempt and harsh treatment administered by white overlords to the most inferior races." As early as April 1899, a US commander was already predicting, "It may be necessary to kill half the Filipinos in order that the remaining half of the population may be advanced to a higher place of life than their present semi-barbarous state affords." As it turned out, however, not that many died. As early as 1901, the number of Filipinos who had been killed or had died of disease as a result of America's vile occupation was pegged by a U.S. general at a "mere" 600,000 a horrific figure considering that it took the United States another decade to literally wipe out Filipino resistance. And America keeps asking itself, "Why do they hate us so?" "We're going to become guilty, in my judgment, of being the greatest threat to the peace of world," said Senator Wayne Morse, who voted against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in the U.S. Senate. "It's an ugly reality, and we Americans don't like to face up to it. I hate to think of the chapter of American history that's going to be written in the future in connection with our outlawry in Southeast Asia." When Americans are ready to ask the question, "Why have we learned so little?" they will see hands extended to them waiting to be grasped; people elsewhere eager to tell them, in Arundhati Roy's words, "how beautiful it is to be gentle instead of brutal, safe instead of scared. Befriended instead of isolated. Loved instead of hated." Folks waiting to whisper in their ears, "Yours is by no means a great nation, but you could be a great people." Renato Redentor Constantino is a writer and painter based in the Philippines. He writes a weekly column for the Philippine national daily, TODAY (whose online partner is abs-cbnnews.com). Mitayo Potosi _ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/features&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Are You Optimistic?
rs change, but nobody's claiming that the Bush people would be happy to see the attractive, articulate moderate with a social conscience at the top of the ticket, or in second place, which is increasingly likely. ABBA's Chances The ascension of Kerry signifies that there are clear splits in the establishment that go beyond the normally liberal sectors, such as Hollywood and technology. The parts of the corporate sector making the big bucks on Iraq and heavy military spending (Halliburton, Bechtel, defense contractors, big oil and gas interests) will be die-hard Bushies. That is where their bread is buttered. But for much of corporate America, there's more to life than big tax cuts. There are many blends of capitalism, and the ideology-driven White House brand with reckless spending, out-of-whack priorities, rampant environmental degradation, preemptive war and gigantic deficits does not sit well with many smart, rich, powerful people in America. Just read some of the editorials and review the coverage in Conde Nast 's Vanity Fair an establishment icon and you get a hint of the contempt percolating at the higher levels of society. No one is saying the election is a lock for the Democrats. A lot can happen between now and November, and no doubt will. Dick Cheney may be dumped for Rudy Giuliani or even Condoleezza Rice; Osama bin Laden may be plucked from a cave or evidence of his death discovered. There could even be some kind of domestic terrorist attack. A few months ago, any of these events would have sent shudders up the spine of regime change adherents, but today, there is a sense that even major obstacles can be handled. Slowly and steadily the Anybody But Bush Again team is growing in size and confidence, crossing lines of class and race, and potentially setting the stage for a restoration of balance to the American system of democracy. Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet, currently on leave. Mitayo Potosi _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Haiti Q & A
itical base, and his reluctant acquiescence in them has alienated some of that base. Haiti remains divided between the desperately poor farmers and slum-dwellers and a small elite running export-import businesses and light industry. Who are the police and who are the "thugs"? After 1994, the Haitian military was disbanded, but not disarmed. A small police force5,000 officers for a country of eight million was trained with U.S. and international assistance. They are outgunned by criminal gangs and underpaid by the government. Today they are a prime target of the rebels. In Hinche, as in other towns, the rebels' first move was to attack the police station, kill the police, and open the jail. The opposition speaks repeatedly of "Aristide's thugs" or the chiméres. It is true that Aristide supporters, including "thugs" recruited from the slums, have targeted opposition demonstrators and organizations that have taken anti-Aristide positions, including unions and students. The opposition also claims that the rebels are former Aristide supporters, including members of the "Cannibal Army." This claim is, at best, a misrepresentation and a half-truth, based on the strange saga of the Metayer brothers. Amiot Metayer was the leader of a criminal gang that called itself the "Cannibal Army." Amiot Metayer and his gang supported the military from 1991-94, but his allegiance was based on profit rather than principle. For a time during Aristide's second term, he professed allegiance to Lavalas. That allegiance ended when the Aristide government jailed Amiot Metayer for arson in July 2002. His gang broke into the jail and released him and 158 other prisoners in August 2002. After the jailbreak, Metayer and his gang first opposed the government, then supported it again. Last September, Amiot Metayer was murdered. The gang, now led by Amiot's brother, Butter Metayer, blamed the Aristide government for Amiot's killing, and again threw its lot in with Aristide's opponents. Now the gang has changed its name from "Cannibal Army" to the "Gonaives Resistance Front." This is the gang that took over Gonaives and that now, in cooperation with the former military, is attempting to oust Aristide and take control of all Haiti. Where is the United States government in all of this? The United States government has never been comfortable with the leftist, populist platform of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The U.S. National Endowment for Democracy has consistently funded opposition groups in Haiti, including many members of the Democratic Convergence. During the current violence, the U.S. position has fluctuated from day to day, and from official to official. Donald Rumsfeld, quoted on PBS News Hour February 16, gave perhaps the most accurate view of the currently unclear U.S. position: "Needless to say, everyone is hopeful that the situation, which tends to ebb and flow down there, will stay below a certain threshold, and that there'swe have no plans to do anything. By that, I don't mean we have no plans. Obviously, we have plans to do everything in the world that we can think of. But wethere's no intention at the present time, or no reason to believe, that any of the thinking that goes into these things year in and year out would have to be utilized." Home | About Us | Donate | Contact Us © 1995-2004 Resource Center of the Americas Mitayo Potosi _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: In South Africa, the Poor Could Win the Water Battle
In South Africa, the Poor Could Win the Water Battle By Fabienne Pompey Le Monde FR Tuesday 24 February 2004 South African anti-privatization movements are poised to win the water battle. Ever since the government adopted the World Bank-imposed "total cost recovery" principle, the cost of water has become inaccessible for the poorest sectors of the population. Private companies, which had rushed into these new markets, begin to become disillusioned. In order to forestall uprisings in the townships the black ghettos, the Apartheid government determined to supply water for practically free, charging a modest fixed sum to each home. After 1994, the municipal services applied the "World Bank doctrine" and imposed water payments at their "correct price". In rural areas, the vast majority of blacks had no access to running water. The state undertook to make good on this delay. However, once households were connected, residents found themselves unable to pay. According to the municipal employees' union, very much in the forefront of the anti-privatization battle, prices went up by as much as 400%. The result is that 10 million water supply cuts have been effected since 1994. The townships began to rebel. When the Nelspruit commune, in Mpumalanga, signed a thirty-year contract with the British company Bi-Water, tens of thousands of households organized a boycott. The revolt cost millions of rands in unpaid bills to Bi-Water, which is now demanding state support to continue its operations. FREE MINIMUM SERVICE The French company, Suez, which obtained a contract for "greater Johannesburg", is also incurring the anger of the poorest people. Unpaid bills accumulate and the revolt intensifies. The slogan "Destroy the meter, enjoy the water", launched by the Anti-privatization Forum (APF), which regroups dozens of neighborhood organizations, is realizing a growing success. Confronted with insurrection, the government has established a free minimum service. Since 2001, poor households enjoy 6,000 free liters of water a month. That's not enough for most township households, where up to twenty people may be piled in together. "Half the people in these neighborhoods are unemployed, how do you expect them to manage?" asks Dale MacKinley, APF spokesperson. "The companies have accepted the principle of the first 6,000 liters free, but make up the cost on the next cubic meters. That's how we get paradoxes: the cubic liter is more expensive in Soweto Johannesburg's poorest neighborhood than in the upscale neighborhoods in the north of the city," explains Lance Veotte, who's responsible for water questions at the municipal employees' union. To combat unpaid bills, Suez has experimented with a system of prepaid meters. "Residents have taken it very badly," opines Dale MacKinley. The company, which is trying to extend the system into the huge Soweto Township, is encountering serious resistance. During the years 1997-1998, all the big French companies had prosperous businesses in South Africa. Now they tend to scale back. "In July 2003, one of them even repatriated some salespeople," explains a French economist based in South Africa. "The companies had to confront popular resistance to privatization. With regard to water, the public sector-private sector partnership didn't work well," he adds under cover of anonymity. With general elections looming, the government seems ready to moderate its privatization ambitions, at least provisionally. "The government has not abandoned the idea, but it is more cautious," is Lance Veotte's analysis. "Access to potable water is a human right. We'll continue to fight so that water doesn't become a consumer good like any other," he promises. --- Translation: Truthout French language correspondent Leslie Thatcher. Mitayo Potosi _ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: WHO Suppressed' Scientific Study into Depleted Uranium Cancer Fears in Iraq?
tonnes of DU was fired from tanks around Basra, but has no information from US forces, which are bound to have used a lot more. Haavisto's greatest worry is when buildings hit by DU shells have been repaired and reoccupied without having been properly cleaned up. Photographic evidence suggests that this is exactly what has happened to the ministry of planning building in Baghdad. He also highlighted evidence that DU from weapons had been collected and recycled as scrap in Iraq. "It could end up in a fork or a knife," he warned. "It is ridiculous to leave the material lying around and not to clear it up where adults are working and children are playing. If DU is not taken care of, instead of decreasing the risk you are increasing it. It is absolutely wrong." --- Mitayo Potosi _ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
Re: ugnet_: Intro
Hey James Muna, We were missing you so much. I just finished a dinner of posho/kawunga and was feeling homesick. Nice to hear from the brother !!! Very sad our people in the northern half of the country continue to die like flies... with no end in sight!! Mitayo Potosi From: Assumpta Kintu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: ugnet_: Intro Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 22:23:11 -0800 (PST) Hello James! Hello My Son! Welcome back aboard Ugandanet! I trust you brought back alot of wisdom and humour, right? Looking forward to your participation. May the new year be all you expect for You and your family. amkintu --- Lunghabo James <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi all > > I am back to Ugandanet after a 2 year sabbatical. I > look forward to > re-integrating in this community once again. > > regards > > Wire Lunghabo James > Linux Solutions > Kampala, Uganda > > > > > > This service is hosted on the Infocom network > http://www.infocom.co.ug __ Do you Yahoo!? Get better spam protection with Yahoo! Mail. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
RE: ugnet_: Intro
James how is linux getting along down there. I envy you guys!! You must all be living like kings. Has it (linux) taken off in schools and colleges? If you guys have any training you are offering in linux, let me know so that I could send you some college-linux-syllabus for comparision. Mitayo Potosi From: Lunghabo James <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: ugnet_: Intro Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 21:51:14 -0800 (PST) Hi all I am back to Ugandanet after a 2 year sabbatical. I look forward to re-integrating in this community once again. regards Wire Lunghabo James Linux Solutions Kampala, Uganda This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug _ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: EU Envoy was very much out of order ?
Dear Kintu-Nyago of The Monitor Publications, I agree with you that we Ugandans resolve to bring the thugs of LRA to justice, no matter when that will be. No statute of limitations. But I would demand this for all criminal thugs that have/still commit murder against Ugandans and fellow Africans. Your call, though, on the EU representative to stop "interfering in our internal affairs" is laughble sinse these are the guys that fund the military hunta in Uganda. You should know this!! TUESDAY REFLECTIONS With Kintu Nyago EU Envoy was very much out of order March 2, 2004 Let us imagine that about 30 years ago, at the height of the conflicts between the Irish Republican Army and Britain on the one hand, and the Basque separatists and Spain on the other, Ugandas diplomatic envoys in these countries had publicly commented on these conflicts. Say in the case of Britain, Uganda had called for the removal from Northern Ireland of any sectarian barriers favouring the Unionists at the direct expense of their Catholic cousins. Or Uganda strongly advised Spain to offer the Basques independence. Imagine also that our envoys initiated clandestine communication with these rebels either in solidarity with their cause or to encourage them to dialogue with their adversaries in Madrid and London. In all certainty, would the concerned countries have merely looked by in appreciation of the good sense of our diplomats? Even without being an Einstein, you should have guessed that the respective Foreign Affairs offices would have summarily summoned our envoys and informed them that both Britain and Spain were sovereign countries. In addition, our envoys would have been informed that their activities are incompatible with their diplomatic status. Further, they would have been told to park their bags and leave for Entebbe within 24, or less, hours! Given that Uganda is also a sovereign country, its against this background that we need to appreciate the gravity of the public statements attributed to the European Unions ambassador to Uganda, Sigurd Illing. The EU Head of Delegation publicly advised the Government of Uganda to negotiate with the war criminals heading the bizarre named Lords Resistance Army. Furthermore, based on his letter, shown on TV and cited in the print media, referenced D (03)-502/S1, he was in secret communication with the same murderous gang! In my opinion, foreign envoys, regardless of their foreign aid largess to this country, should reserve their subjective political sentiments on our domestic politics to the official communications that they regularly offer our Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the same vein, foreign envoys should not be allowed to use their diplomatic immunity to clandestinely communicate with the enemies of the Ugandan state. For this should clearly be incompatible with their diplomatic status. Ugandans have the capacity to decide how to resolve their political challenges, including those concerned with the war in the North. Fortunately, our Constitution empowers us in this regard. In my view, Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Odiambo, Raska Okwiya, Ocan Bunia and other members of the LRA High Command are defilers, rapists and war criminals who rightfully deserve to be tried for the crimes against humanity they are committing against the people of Acholiland in particular and other Ugandans in general. However, I also do recognise the views of Bishop Odama and other members of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative who instead call for peace talks. This is their democratic right and Ugandans as a nation should soberly decide on the right way forward. I will conclude by criticising the strong arm tactics used by the state last weekend at Nakulabye against Uganda Young Democrats councilors Henry Lubowa and Sula Mawanda who represent Nakulabye and Mengo Bakuli respectively, together with their supporters. These were tear-gassed by the Police, forcefully dispersed, then briefly detained. Their offence? To rightfully consult with their constituents. Surely, as we approach the referendum on term limits and the 2006 elections, what we need more than anything else, as a country with diverse political views, is a level playing field for all political actors. But not a lopsided environment which favors the already state-funded NRM. [EMAIL PROTECTED] © 2004 The Monitor Publications Mitayo Potosi _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
[Ugnet] test
" I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins." Philosopher Antony Flew 1922 - . ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Congratulations, Gook
Dear Gook, I heard the fantastic news that you have decided to join our brothers and sisters in FDC in the struggle to take back our country. As Uganda stands today Dr Kizza Besigye is without equal. Still, we have the challenge of the misguided ones like Dr Fr Larry Kanyike of St Augustine's Makererere who without shame stand and sing praise to colonialism, or journalists like Ms Kiapi who spend a week in the new white-washed apartheid SA and come away excited that apartheid was the best thing that ever happened on the African continent. The struggle is not going to be easy, but thanks for this stand. Mitayo Potosi ___ 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] UNSUBSCRIBE
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. - Hey Dave, Thank you for the link below. Very interesting summary of non-classical mechanics; with some links to John von Neumann, father of modern computing; and chaos. I have not checked to see whether this is extended as far as ... conservation of energy-momentum i.e. solutions to "Nervier-Stokes" in its majestic Tensor non-linear formulation... and all the zillion applications/inerpretations. I wish there were links to the New Biology too!! Thank you, and sad to see you go. While on this forum why did you hide only to share beauty when leaving. Is it the blah blah on this forum that is driving you away? I want to assure you that it started off with very vibrant substantive discussions, though now it has degenerated to gossip, insults and infantile grandstanding. All the best brother man. Mitayo Potosi From: DBWHITCON <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], ugandanet@kym.netTo: Ugandanet@kym.netSubject: [Ugnet] UNSUBSCRIBEDate: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 05:02:09 -0700 (PDT) PLEASE DELETE ME FROM YOUR EMAIL LIST TAKE A TRIP LOG ON TO; www.volareilmondo.blog.com Dave __Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com >___>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] Kampala Summit to Combat Illicit Small Arms And Light Arms
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. - Nobody is seriously saying that they are out to control gun-flow into our area. You have all read here that the so-called relief supplies Rev Pat Robertson has been delivering to Ituri were all along mining equipment (and weapons too). Ever since the 1960's these guys' goal has been to reduce world population to 500 million. They don't even need guns when they are wiping us out with AIDS. From: Simon Nume <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Reply-To: ugandanet@kym.netTo: ugandanet@kym.netSubject: Re: [Ugnet] Kampala Summit to Combat Illicit Small Arms And Light ArmsDate: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 02:32:49 -0700 (PDT) Matek All this is play-acting. NumeMatek Opoko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Citizens... this people have refused to acknowledged a very simply : which is that Yoweri Museveni's NRM military dictatorship is the biggest gun dealer around the block. The guns which are falling on wrong hands, were legally..repeat legally imported by Yoweri Museveni's dictatorship. Get this through your thick dodo heads. Now if you are really very serious about dealing or rather controaling the gun folws to so called "non state actor" then you need to deal with Kaguta. Leave Kaguta in charge , then I can prety much predict that your so called "efforts" to control illicit guns in the great lakes region will , I am affraid, amount to nothing zero zap!!! Ugandans I give up on this dodo heads! No wonder africa is backward..with leaders who cannot even realize that 2+2=4,..and instead insist that it is 5 wohat would you expect??? Matek Kampala Summit to Combat Illicit Small Arms And Light Arms Email This Page Print This Page Visit The Publisher's Site The East African (Nairobi) September 7, 2005 Posted to the web September 7, 2005 Wairagala WakabiNairobi Officials from the African Union, International Police (Interpol) and regional economic communities in West, South and East Africa are set to meet in Kampala this week to devise strategies to strengthen the fight against the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW). Francis Sang, Director of the Regional Centre on Small Arms (Recsa) based in Nairobi, Kenya, said the meeting would provide an opportunity for exchange of information and sharing the experiences and hopefully come up with common strategies for fighting the problem of trade and use of illicit small arms. Recsa and the pan-African non-governmental agency Safer Africa, are jointly hosting the regional workshop. Recsa, which was born out of the Nairobi Declaration of March 15, 2000, is mandated to co-ordinate action against proliferation of small arms so as to make the Great Lakes Region, the Horn of Africa and surrounding member states safer. Known until two months ago, as the Nairobi Secretariat on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Recsa groups Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya, the Seychelles, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The meeting will be addressed by the heads of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Economic Community for West Africa (Ecowas), Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC) and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad). On June 21, foreign ministers from these states signed an agreement creating Recsa as an inter-governmental institution with the international juridical personality to effectively implement the Nairobi Declaration and the Nairobi Protocol on Small Arms and Light Weapons. The proposal to establish the Regional Centre was adopted during a ministerial conference in April 2004 following a proposal by the Kenyan government. Quirinus Oyugi Onono, planning officer at Recsa, said the ministers mandated the regional centre to develop region-to-region interaction for information exchange and the development of common responses to sub-regional, regional and international initiatives on the management of the proliferation of small arms. "One of the key areas of focus for Recsa in the implementation of the co-ordinated agenda of action is to facilitate regional co-operation and co-ordination in the complex struggle against illicit SALW," said Mr Onono. "Therefore, the meeting will provide opportunities for various stakeholders to enhance their primary responsibilities and primary roles." He said there was need for co-operation and harmonisation of various initiatives and agreements on combating illegal arms. These include the Nairobi protocol, the SADC protocol and Ecowas Moratorium on Export and Import of SALW. There were also the UN Programme of Action and UN Firearms Control initiatives. Chirau Ali Mwakwere, the Kenyan Minister for Foreign Affairs said at the June meeting that the flow of small arms and light weapons to non-state actors such as armed rebel groups, warlords, vigi
[Ugnet] Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. - Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New OrleansBy Jeremy Scahill and Daniela Crespo Saturday 10 September 2005 New Orleans - Heavily armed paramilitary mercenaries from the Blackwater private security firm, infamous for their work in Iraq, are openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans. Some of the mercenaries say they have been "deputized" by the Louisiana governor; indeed some are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their arms. They say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force. Several mercenaries we spoke with said they had served in Iraq on the personal security details of the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer and the former US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte. "This is a totally new thing to have guys like us working CONUS (Continental United States)," a heavily armed Blackwater mercenary told us as we stood on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. "We're much better equipped to deal with the situation in Iraq." Blackwater mercenaries are some of the most feared professional killers in the world and they are accustomed to operating without worry of legal consequences. Their presence on the streets of New Orleans should be a cause for serious concern for the remaining residents of the city and raises alarming questions about why the government would allow men trained to kill with impunity in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to operate here. Some of the men now patrolling the streets of New Orleans returned from Iraq as recently as 2 weeks ago. What is most disturbing is the claim of several Blackwater mercenaries we spoke with that they are here under contract from the federal and Louisiana state governments. Blackwater is one of the leading private "security" firms servicing the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It has several US government contracts and has provided security for many senior US diplomats, foreign dignitaries and corporations. The company rose to international prominence after 4 of its men were killed in Fallujah and two of their charred bodies were hung from a bridge in March 2004. Those killings sparked the massive US retaliation against the civilian population of Fallujah that resulted in scores of deaths and tens of thousands of refugees. As the threat of forced evictions now looms in New Orleans and the city confiscates even legally registered weapons from civilians, the private mercenaries of Blackwater patrol the streets openly wielding M-16s and other assault weapons. This despite Police Commissioner Eddie Compass' claim that "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons." Officially, Blackwater says it forces are in New Orleans to "join the Hurricane Relief Effort." A statement on the company's website, dated September 1, advertises airlift services, security services and crowd control. The company, according to news reports, has since begun taking private contracts to guard hotels, businesses and other properties. But what has not been publicly acknowledged is the claim, made to us by 2 Blackwater mercenaries, that they are actually engaged in general law enforcement activities including "securing neighborhoods" and "confronting criminals." That raises a key question: under what authority are Blackwater's men operating? A spokesperson for the Homeland Security Department, Russ Knocke, told the Washington Post he knows of no federal plans to hire Blackwater or other private security. "We believe we've got the right mix of personnel in law enforcement for the federal government to meet the demands of public safety." he said. But in an hour-long conversation with several Blackwater mercenaries, we heard a different story. The men we spoke with said they are indeed on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and the Louisiana governor's office and that some of them are sleeping in camps organized by Homeland Security in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. One of them wore a gold Louisiana state law enforcement badge and said he had been "deputized" by the governor. They told us they not only had authority to make arrests but also to use lethal force. We encountered the Blackwater forces as we walked through the streets of the largely deserted French Quarter. We were talking with 2 New York Police officers when an unmarked car without license plates sped up next to us and stopped. Inside were 3 men, dressed in khaki uniforms, flak jackets and wielding automatic weapons. "Y'all know where the Blackwater guys are?" they asked. One of the police officers responded, "There are a bunch of them around here," and pointed down the road. "Blackwater?" we asked. "The guys who are in Iraq?" "Yeah," said the offi
[Ugnet] 'It Was as if All of Us Were Already Pronounced Dead'
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. The List's Host is not
responsible for them in any way. -
'It Was as if All of Us Were Already Pronounced Dead'By Wil Haygood and Ann Scott TysonThe Washington Post
Thursday 15 September 2005
Convention Center left a five-day legacy of chaos and violence.
New Orleans - For five eternal-seeming days, as many as 20,000 people, most of them black, waited to be rescued, not just from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina but from the nightmarish place where they had sought refuge.
During that time, the moon that hovered over the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center seemed closer than anyone who could provide those inside the center with any help.
On the fourth day, after TV had been filled with live reports from the center describing sexual assaults, robberies and gunfire, single mothers desperately seeking help for their children and fathers doing their best to protect them, the federal official charged with leading the hurricane response, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, responded to an interviewer's question by saying it was the first he had heard that people "don't have food and water in there."
"It was as if all of us were already pronounced dead," said Tony Cash, 25, who endured three nights of hunger, violence and darkness at the convention center. "As if somebody already had the body bags. Wasn't nobody coming to get us."
No one has been able to say how many people died inside the convention center; police, military and center officials estimate the number is about 10. Nor has there been any attempt to document the number of assaults, robberies and rapes that eyewitnesses said occurred from the time the first people broke into the convention center seeking shelter on the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 29, and when units of the Arkansas National Guard moved into the center on Friday, Sept. 2.
But even without those numbers, what happened in the convention center stands as a harsh indictment of government's failure to help its citizens when they needed it most. That futility was symbolized by the presence in the convention center for three of the most chaotic days of at least 250 armed troops from the Louisiana National Guard. They were camped out in a huge exhibition hall separated from the crowd by a wall, and used their trucks as a barricade when they were afraid the crowd would break in.
The troops were never deployed to restore order and eventually withdrew, despite the pleas of the convention center's management. Louisiana Guard commanders said their units' mission was not to secure the facility, and soldiers on the scene feared inciting further bloodshed if they had intervened. "We didn't want another Kent State," said Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, commander of the active-duty military forces responding to Katrina. "They weren't trained for crowd control."
In more than 70 interviews, with both military and law enforcement officials - who were themselves sometimes inside the center - and with many of the survivors who suffered over the course of several nights, a chilling portrait emerges of anarchy and violence, exacerbated by young men from rival housing projects - Magnolia, St. Bernard, Iberville, Calliope.
"Everywhere I went, I saw people with guns in their hands," said Troy Harris, 18. "They were putting guns to people's heads."
Recounting their pleas for milk for their babies, for food, for protection, many survivors described the same sense of bewilderment and anger - broadcast, surreally, on live television. "This is America," one woman shouted into the TV cameras. What she meant was, this is not supposed to happen here.
Too Late to Leave
It was Saturday, Aug. 27, when New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin pleaded with city residents to leave. Katrina would be on land in less than two days. A day earlier, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco had declared a state of emergency, prompting heightened preparation by the Louisiana National Guard.
But by this point, the appeals from Blanco and Nagin were aimed at one group in particular - the poor. Those with resources had already bolted.
Many simply had no way of leaving on their own. Many who had survived hurricanes figured this wouldn't get them, either. "They tend to look at evacuation orders as scare tactics," said Troy Jarreau, a New Orleans schoolteacher who has taught many children from impoverished households.
But by Monday, after Katrina hit New Orleans and the levees had broken, a different reality was clear. "Get out! Get out now!" was the message on WYLD ("Wild for Jesus"), a popular black radio station. It was repeated on Q93-FM, heavy with rhythm and blues and rap music.
This time, those who stayed behind found themselves wading, or swimming, using every ounce of energy to get themselves to the Louisiana Superdome, which had served as a refuge in previous hurrica
[Ugnet] How foreign aid promotes corruption and tribalism
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. - Andrew Mwenda is a very sober analyst and journalist. "Thank you brother Mwenda" And the leader to save Uganda from all this rot is Dr Kizza-Besigye. We are lucky to have him. He is going to need all progressives lined up behind him. Rise to this hour of call by your country. OPINIONS & COMMENTARIES WITHOUT MINCING WORDS | Andrew M. Mwenda ... How foreign aid promotes corruption and tribalism I argued in this column last week that the depredations of the HIV/Aids pandemic have generated a commendable response by the aid industry - a massive injection of funds to contain the pandemic. However, because their money is channeled through the state to non-government organisations (NGOs), it has attracted the creation of well over 2,500 NGOs in Uganda - to "fight the HIV/Aids pandemic". This opportunistic response has led to bitter contestation to access aid funds from the state, making corruption and favouritism an inevitable outcome. Why such a perverse form of civil society? The structure of the aid industry actually undermines issue-based civic associations. For example, my friends formed a think tank to do public policy research. They felt that the current policy consensus on free market reforms with their accompanying welfare "bribe" of Universal free Primary Education and basic health care are necessary but inadequate to answer the pressing economic problems of poor nations. It has been difficult for the think tank to get funding from abroad to build its research capabilities because foreign donors prefer to put their money into "projects". Somehow, international donors have a self-serving approach to the problems of poor countries, i.e. of trying to "do things" for the poor - build a borehole here or a clinic there and call this "development". Five decades later, millions remain without access to safe drinking water or basic health care. BlackmailTo survive, NGOs (like this think tank) need money, the only reliable source being the international aid industry. However, aid comes when it is already earmarked by its donors for pre-conceived projects. The local beneficiaries can only adjust their agenda to the demands of the aid industry, but cannot shape aid money to respond to local needs. In the process, NGOs face a choice to stick to their original mission and fail to do anything because of lack of funding or opportunistically jump onto the agenda of the aid industry and thereby abandon or adulterate their stated objectives. Many, if not all go for the second option. The political opposition has fallen victim of this trend. Over the last 15 years, the aid industry has created a policy consensus in favour of free market economic reforms. This consensus, sometimes called globalisation, denies the existence of peculiar social and economic conditions in poor countries that may call for specific responses. It presents unrestrained liberalisation, deregulation and liberalisation as the answer to the economic dilemma of every country - rich or poor. In the process, it has denied the legitimacy of local organisations that may seek non-market, or market-distorting solutions to their economic problems. For example, local traders cannot organise politically to defend themselves against being pushed out of business by Asian and multi national capital - because the current policy consensus argues that to be a function of the "free market". Farmers cannot seek better prices for their crops through collective bargaining via the agency of cooperatives, because the "free market" should decide that. Workers cannot seek a minimum wage through trade unions - that should be left to the forces of demand and supply for labour. "Seek ye first thy free market," the dictum seems to say, "and the rest will be added unto you." Disappointing opposition Of course international and local NGOs, supported by many in academia exposed the harmful effects free market driven structural adjustment reforms inflicted on the very poor. The response of the aid industry was not to change its policy thrust but to give welfare "bribes" through Universal free Primary Education and basic health care. The political opposition in Uganda has failed to transcend this policy consensus, hence its failure to organise an issues-based response, and its tendency to jump unto news events to score political goals.In fact the only issue the opposition has found meaningful to articulate is President Yoweri Museveni's attempt to crown himself a presidential monarch. But this is also its weakness because it comes across as a "one issue" opposition. I admit that it is difficult to build an issues-based opposition when there are no organised social groups seeking to advance particular interests like labour unions, professional an
[Ugnet] Oil drives the genocide in Darfur.
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. - War of the Future By David Morse TomDispatch Friday 19 August 2005 Oil drives the genocide in Darfur. A war of the future is being waged right now in the sprawling desert region of northeastern Africa known as Sudan. The weapons themselves are not futuristic. None of the ray-guns, force-fields, or robotic storm troopers that are the stuff of science fiction; nor, for that matter, the satellite-guided Predator drones or other high-tech weapon systems at the cutting edge of today's arsenal. No, this war is being fought with Kalashnikovs, clubs and knives. In the western region of Sudan known as Darfur, the preferred tactics are burning and pillaging, castration and rape - carried out by Arab militias riding on camels and horses. The most sophisticated technologies deployed are, on the one hand, the helicopters used by the Sudanese government to support the militias when they attack black African villages, and on the other hand, quite a different weapon: the seismographs used by foreign oil companies to map oil deposits hundreds of feet below the surface. This is what makes it a war of the future: not the slick PowerPoint presentations you can imagine in boardrooms in Dallas and Beijing showing proven reserves in one color, estimated reserves in another, vast subterranean puddles that stretch west into Chad, and south to Nigeria and Uganda; not the technology; just the simple fact of the oil. This is a resource war, fought by surrogates, involving great powers whose economies are predicated on growth, contending for a finite pool of resources. It is a war straight out of the pages of Michael Klare's book, Blood and Oil; and it would be a glaring example of the consequences of our addiction to oil, if it were not also an invisible war. Invisible? Invisible because it is happening in Africa. Invisible because our mainstream media are subsidized by the petroleum industry. Think of all the car ads you see on television, in newspapers and magazines. Think of the narcissism implicit in our automobile culture, our suburban sprawl, our obsessive focus on the rich and famous, the giddy assumption that all this can continue indefinitely when we know it can't - and you see why Darfur slips into darkness. And Darfur is only the tip of the sprawling, scarred state known as Sudan. Nicholas Kristof pointed out in a New York Times column that ABC News had a total of 18 minutes of Darfur coverage in its nightly newscasts all last year, and that was to the credit of Peter Jennings; NBC had only 5 minutes, CBS only 3 minutes. This is, of course, a micro-fraction of the time devoted to Michael Jackson. Why is it, I wonder, that when a genocide takes place in Africa, our attention is always riveted on some black American miscreant superstar? During the genocide in Rwanda ten years ago, when 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered in 100 days, it was the trial of O.J. Simpson that had our attention. Yes, racism enters into our refusal to even try to understand Africa, let alone value African lives. And yes, surely we're witnessing the kind of denial that Samantha Power documents in A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide; the sheer difficulty we have acknowledging genocide. Once we acknowledge it, she observes, we pay lip-service to humanitarian ideals, but stand idly by. And yes, turmoil in Africa may evoke our experience in Somalia, with its graphic images of American soldiers being dragged through the streets by their heels. But all of this is trumped, I believe, by something just as deep: an unwritten conspiracy of silence that prevents the media from making the connections that would threaten our petroleum-dependent lifestyle, that would lead us to acknowledge the fact that the industrial world's addiction to oil is laying waste to Africa. When Darfur does occasionally make the news - photographs of burned villages, charred corpses, malnourished children - it is presented without context. In truth, Darfur is part of a broader oil-driven crisis in northern Africa. An estimated 300 to 400 Darfurians are dying every day. Yet the message from our media is that we Americans are "helpless" to prevent this humanitarian tragedy, even as we gas up our SUVs with these people's lives. Even Kristof - whose efforts as a mainstream journalist to keep Darfur in the spotlight are worthy of a Pulitzer - fails to make the connection to oil; and yet oil was the driving force behind Sudan's civil war. Oil is driving the genocide in Darfur. Oil drives the Bush administration's policy toward Sudan and the rest of Africa. And oil is likely to topple Sudan and its neighbors into chaos. The Context for Genocide I will support these assertions with fact. But first, let's give Sudanese government officials in Khartoum their due. The
[Ugnet] The Blood of the Righteous
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. - The Blood of the Righteous By William Rivers Pitt Monday 19 September 2005 During the Vietnam war, a number of anti-war activists were prosecuted and jailed for taking direct action against recruiting stations and draft board offices. Files were burned and blood was poured on records. Few activists during this time were as dedicated, or as prosecuted, as the brothers Daniel and Philip Berrigan. In 1967, Philip Berrigan poured his own blood on Selective Service records in Baltimore, and handed out Bibles while waiting to be arrested. In 1969, Berrigan used home-made napalm to incinerate 378 draft files in Catsonville, Maryland. In 1980, the Berrigan brothers entered a General Electric nuclear missile factory in Pennsylvania, hammered on the nose cones, again poured their own blood, and again were arrested. In every instance, the Berrigan protest actions were grounded in their Christian beliefs. Both brothers were Roman Catholic priests. After the 1969 Catsonville action, Philip Berrigan said, "We confront the Catholic Church, other Christian bodies, and the synagogues of America with their silence and cowardice in the face of our country's crimes. We are convinced that the religious bureaucracy in this country is racist, is an accomplice in this war, and is hostile to the poor." As the American people grew more and more hostile towards the Vietnam war, actions of conscience taken by people like the Berrigan brothers became more and more threatening to those in government who wished to see the war continue. Punishments became harsher, threats became more dire, all in an effort to derail a popular wave of resistance against the war, and against those who pushed the war. The wheel has come around again. Today in New York, a Federal trial has begun against four anti-war activists who went into an Ithaca recruiting office on St. Patrick's Day in 2003 and poured their own blood on the walls, windows and the American flag. The protesters - Daniel J. Burns, 45; Clare T. Grady, 46; her sister, Teresa B. Grady, 40; and Peter J. De Mott, 58 - believed the young would-be recruits in the office had been seduced by video games and government propaganda videos, and wanted to remind them what war was really about. All four opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq. All four are members of the Catholic Worker movement, and model their activism after their heroes, the Berrigan brothers. "War is bloody," said the four protesters in a statement they read after their action in Ithaca. "The blood we brought to the recruiting station was a sign of the blood inherent in the business of the recruiting station. Blood is a sign of life, which we hold to be precious, and a sign of redemption and conversion, which we seek as people of this nation. The young men and women who join the military, via that recruiting station, are people whose lives are precious. We are obligated, as citizens of a democracy, to sound an alarm when we see our young people being sent into harm's way for a cause that is wholly unjust and criminal. Blood is a potent symbol of life and death." "Blood is the sacred substance of life," they continued, "yet it is shed wantonly in war. As Catholics, when we receive the Eucharist, we acknowledge our oneness with God and the entire human family. We went to the recruiting center using what we have - our bodies, our blood, our words, and our spirits - to implore, beg, and order our country away from the tragedy of war and toward God's reign of peace and justice." This trial is not the first time the St. Patrick's Four have faced prosecution for their 2003 action. Initially, they were tried in Tompkins County for felony criminal mischief in April of 2004. All four were offered a plea bargain to avoid trial, and all four refused. The trial itself, to the dismay of the local prosecutor, became a forum on the Iraq war. The four plaintiffs represented themselves. After hearing at length the motivations and life stories of the protesters, the jury in the trial deadlocked, with nine members voting for acquittal. The prosecutor knew he could not win a re-trial, and referred the case to Federal authorities. Today, the protesters face a variety of serious charges including damaging government property and conspiracy to impede an officer of the United States. If convicted, the four face up to six years in prison and fines of $250,000. Many fear that if the St. Patrick's Four are successfully prosecuted, it will set a national precedent which would allow non-violent protesters to be charged with conspiracy in Federal courts. So many aspects of this situation are compelling. One cannot help but be moved by four people who went beyond protest marches, pamphleteering and writing letters to the editor, and decided to
[Ugnet] UK soldiers 'storm' Basra prison
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. - UK soldiers 'storm' Basra prison Some soldiers were forced to flee after their tanks caught fire Enlarge ImageBritish forces have rescued two UK servicemen who were arrested by Iraqi police in the southern city of Basra. Official Iraqi sources say British tanks stormed the city's jail, but the Ministry of Defence says the men's release was negotiated. Basra governor Mohammed al-Waili said it was a "barbaric act of aggression". The arrests sparked clashes in which UK tanks came under attack. Two civilians were reportedly killed and three UK soldiers were injured. MoD officials insist they have been talking to the Iraqi authorities to secure the release of the men - who were reported to be working undercover. British servicemen who were seen being injured in the graphic photographs are being treated for minor injuries only Defence SecretaryJohn Reid What effect will unrest have? But they do acknowledge a wall was demolished as UK forces tried to "collect" the men Iraqi police accused of firing on them. However, sources in the Iraqi Interior Ministry say six tanks were used to smash down the wall in a daring rescue operation. Witnesses told the Associated Press around 150 prisoners escaped during the operation but Iraqi officials later denied any prisoners had escaped. Earlier, two British tanks, sent to the police station where the soldiers were being held, were set alight in clashes. British officials would not say if the two men were working undercover Crowds of angry protesters hurled petrol bombs and stones injuring three servicemen and several civilians. TV pictures showed soldiers in combat gear, clambering from one of the flaming tanks and making their escape. In a statement, Defence Secretary John Reid said the soldiers who fled from the tanks were being treated for minor injuries. Mr Reid added that he was not certain what had caused the disturbances. "We remain committed to helping the Iraqi government for as long as they judge that a coalition presence is necessary to provide security," the statement said. Law and order Tensions have been running high in the city since the arrest of a senior figure in the Shia Mehdi Army by UK troops. But Colonel Tim Collins, the former commander of British troops in Iraq, described the Basra unrest as like a "busy night in Belfast". Col Collins said it did not represent a breakdown of law and order in Basra, which was still a safer city than Baghdad. In other developments: Nine Iraqi police and a civilian have died in suicide bombings between Baghdad and Karbala, where Shias are attending a major religious festival The Iraqi government says a nephew of Saddam Hussein, Ayman Sabawi, has been sentenced to life in prison for funding Iraq's insurgency An Iraqi reporter working for the New York Times, Fakher Haider, has been found dead in Basra Iraq's Finance Minister, Ali Allawi, tells the UK's Independent newspaper that large-scale corruption in Iraq's ministries, particularly the defence ministry, has led to the theft of more than $1bn. ___ 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: [Fwd: [AcoliForum] Acoli makes a clearstatement-again!]
Greetings to you my dear sister Nansikombi, Ocii is a Ugandan and is frustrated like a lot of other Ugandans. He however makes the mistake of looking for the enemy from among his neighbours, allies and compatriots. Narrow tribal sentiment has been a bane of our public affairs for too long. That, partly, is why we are paying this incalculable cost in tears and blood. It is always a pleasure to hear from you dear friend, and take care. Mitayo Potosi == " I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins." Philosopher Antony Flew 1922 - . From: Joicye nansikombi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Reply-To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Fwd: [AcoliForum] Acoli makes a clearstatement-again!]Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 12:03:20 -0800 (PST) Dear Coffin Noc'l: Ocii Oruk: I call you coffin because you are an empty coffin box. I do not think you are a human person.You have no feelings at all, and you are a dead wood. I do not think you are from Uganda for that matter or from Northern/Eastern Uganda. You are definitely A Rwandie under the name Occi Oruk. I will ask you one Question: 20 Years of Museveni what have you achieved for the Nation other than killing/Steaing Uganda Money which you are enjoying wright now as you write these stupid e-mails. Please, leave Ugandans alone. I come from Luwero I know what your government did to our place. So it might not be now, tomorrow, but I have faith in God it will come to an end. Your Museveni Family Tree one day will come to and end. Mr. Ocii Enjoy the bloody money.OK. We do not like to see your agly name on any of internate. Please, be decent while enjoying your blood money. It might not be you but what I know God will pay back to you or our children. That is exactly what you Rwandies/Ugandans tortured the Hutus in 1940s Before you ran to Uganda where we gave you all the kindly help/assistance, educating your children who have come to kill and eat our children in our motherland. No tribe has accepted the Government. They are forcing us. as for Kiggundu Muganda munnange, he ate too much money that His big head and nose could not even think of taking care of elections. Juses. Help us Ugandans. Disturbted Ugandan. JN "How / why should we protest vo te where all the other tribes do not? " Laduma, You mean you have no idea the suffering in Acholi? The deaths, the IDP, the rapes, the hopelessness, alcoholism, etc? The fights due to frustrations in IDP? Laduma you are deluding yourself too much! You simply cannot vote for someone who has declared his philosophy against you and expect to be sitting up there on the table and eating. Either way you are under the heavy boot! See, we have always failed because we read nothing; always we read nothing! At the end of the day, all we want and look for is eating!, like you seem to want, Mu7 claims the FDC is "hon-nobbing" with terrorists to quote Matek. A whooping 37% percent of Ugandans voted for the FDC. Are all these Ugandans terrorists, if this is not just plain trumped-up charges?! I am very sure all Ugandans want genuine and responsible politics. Sometime it is hard to reply you. Ocii OrukOkuto del Coli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I agree with you. And, for Acoli it is catastrophe!! We are not where the talks will be. Where decision of implementation will be made. Where the executive power will be. I hear protest voting! How / why should we protest vote where all the other tribes do not? We should protest where all Ugandan (majority) are protesting AND, eat where every body else is eating. Why should we shoulder the burden of Ugandas political dilemma to the detriment of a whole tribe? Even more so, why should we do it at a time when we are TWENTY YEARS BEHIND the rest of Ugandan tribes who are already on the verge of voting according to personal conviction?!?!?!? Ed and Ed, have you realised the hypocrisy of the West and FDC?! They are talking about intimidation. INTIMIDATION is what happened in Acoli. The RESULT SHOWS CLEARLY THAT THE ACOLI FELL FOR LRA THREAT . It is known that the LRA threatened voters. But no one is talking about that reciprocal intimidation. Uganda is fantastic!! Rgds Nocl --- On Mon 02/27, Edward Mulindwa < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote: From: Edward Mulindwa [mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: ugandanet@kym.netCc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 19:41:05 -0500Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Fwd: [AcoliForum] Acoli makes a clear statement-again!]This is going to be the worst parliament in Uganda history. And my heart goes to the wasted million votes.EmTorontoThe Mulindwas Communication Group"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"Groupe
Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Fwd: [AcoliForum] Acoli makes aclearstatement-again!]
Friend, In this case, your neighbors are all the other tribespersons many of whom are suffering, though not to the same degree like our people in Acholi, Lango, Teso etc Some have wondered as to what really goes on in the minds of 'Westerners' , Banyoro, Batoro, etc concerning the plidght of fellow Ugandans. Is it possible that all are in solidarity with the rest for a better Uganda except that their opinion/vote was rigged for a different outcome? May be !! Let us seek and work for the unity. There is no other option !! I hope that clarifies things, brother Ocii. At times Nansikombi has been unfairly insulted. I try to extend support in such cases: i.e. to Sofia Anyomokolo (sorry bad spelling ? ) when she also was under a barrage of insults. And if Nansikombi tells us that the spelling of her name is: "Joicye". Please, don't disrespect her by telling her othewise!! And why do you say she is confused ? And who is not ? From: ocii <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Reply-To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Fwd: [AcoliForum] Acoli makes aclearstatement-again!]Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 20:36:49 -0500 (EST) Mitayo, Who might those "enemies" from my "neighbours" I look for be? The Nansikombi is plainly confused. That is my first assessment of her. I won't react therefore for now. But she will need MUST pay attention. Ocii OrukMitayo Potosi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Greetings to you my dear sister Nansikombi, Ocii is a Ugandan and is frustrated like a lot of other Ugandans. He however makes the mistake of looking for the enemy from among his neighbours, allies and compatriots. Narrow tribal sentiment has been a bane of our public affairs for too long. That, partly, is why we are paying this incalculable cost in tears and blood. It is always a pleasure to hear from you dear friend, and take care. Mitayo Potosi == " I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins." Philosopher Antony Flew 1922 - . From: Joicye nansikombi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Reply-To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Fwd: [AcoliForum] Acoli makes a clearstatement-again!]Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 12:03:20 -0800 (PST) Dear Coffin Noc'l: Ocii Oruk: I call you coffin because you are an empty coffin box. I do not think you are a human person.You have no feelings at all, and you are a dead wood. I do not think you are from Uganda for that matter or from Northern/Eastern Uganda. You are definitely A Rwandie under the name Occi Oruk. I will ask you one Question: 20 Years of Museveni what have you achieved for the Nation other than killing/Steaing Uganda Money which you are enjoying wrig ht now as you write these stupid e-mails. Please, leave Ugandans alone. I come from Luwero I know what your government did to our place. So it might not be now, tomorrow, but I have faith in God it will come to an end. Your Museveni Family Tree one day will come to and end. Mr. Ocii Enjoy the bloody money.OK. We do not like to see your agly name on any of internate. Please, be decent while enjoying your blood money. It might not be you but what I know God will pay back to you or our children. That is exactly what you Rwandies/Ugandans tortured the Hutus in 1940s Before you ran to Uganda where we gave you all the kindly help/assistance, educating your children who have come to kill and eat our children in our motherland. No tribe has accepted the Government. They are forcing us. as for Kiggundu Muganda munnange, he ate too much money th at His big head and nose could not even think of taking care of elections. Juses. Help us Ugandans. Disturbted Ugandan. JN "How / why should we protest vo te where all the other tribes do not? " Laduma, You mean you have no idea the suffering in Acholi? The deaths, the IDP, the rapes, the hopelessness, alcoholism, etc? The fights due to frustrations in IDP? Laduma you are deluding yourself too much! You simply cannot vote for someone who has declared his philosophy against you and expect to be sitting up there on the table and eating. Either way you are under the heavy boot! See, we have always failed because we read nothing; always we read nothing! At the end of the day, all we want and look for is eating!, like you seem to want, Mu7 claims the FDC is "hon-nobbing" with terrorists to quote Matek. A whooping 37% percent of Ugandans voted for the FDC. Are all these Ugandans terrorists, if this is not just plain trumped-up charges?! I am very sure all Ugandans want genuine and responsible politics. Sometime it is hard to reply you. Ocii Or
Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Fwd: [AcoliForum] Acoli makes aclearstatement-again!]
Indeed there is confusion here. Plenty of it. I am sorry for my lack of clarity !! How can I have accused you of looking for enemies among Langis, Etesots, . ? Instead of dwelling on this issue allow me, in good spirit, to move on From: ocii <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Reply-To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Fwd: [AcoliForum] Acoli makes aclearstatement-again!]Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2006 20:56:19 -0500 (EST) No, it did not clarify anything; and I am positive I am even more confuse now. But let me ask you this: How am I exactly looking for the suppose "enemies" among the Langis, Etesots, et al? I will love to hear that. As for Nansikombi, I think you should too have realised that Ocii Oruk is NOT Noc'l.; including the variants in our views. Very simple. Ocii OrukMitayo Potosi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Friend, In this case, your neighbors are all the other tribespersons many of whom are suffering, though not to the same degree like our people in Acholi, Lango, Teso etc Some have wondered as to what really goes on in the minds of 'Westerners' , Banyoro, Batoro, etc concerning the plidght of fellow Ugandans. Is it possible that all are in solidarity with the rest for a better Uganda except that their opinion/vote was rigged for a different outcome? May be !! Let us seek and work for the unity. There is no other option !! I hope that clarifies things, brother Ocii. At times Nansikombi has been unfairly insulted. I try to extend support in such cases: i.e. to Sofia Anyomokolo (sorry bad spelling ? ) when she also was under a barrage of insults. And if Nansikombi tells us that the spelling of her name is: "Joicye". Please, don't disrespect her by telling her othewise!! And why do you say she is confused ? And who is not ? From: ocii <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Reply-To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Fwd: [AcoliForum] Acoli makes aclearstatement-again!]Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 20:36:49 -0500 (EST) Mitayo, Who might those "enemies" from my "neighbours" I look for be? The Nansikombi is plainly confused. That is my first assessment of her. I won't react therefore for now. < /DIV> But she will need MUST pay attention. Ocii OrukMitayo Potosi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Greetings to you my dear sister Nansikombi, Ocii is a Ugandan and is frustrated like a lot of other Ugandans. He however makes the mistake of looking for the enemy from among his neighbours, allies and compatriots. Narrow tribal sentiment has been a bane of our public affairs for too long. That, partly, is why we are paying this incalculable cost in tears and blood. It is always a pleasure to hear from you dear friend, and take care. Mitayo Potosi == " I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins." Philosopher Antony Flew 1922 - . From: Joicye nansikombi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Reply-To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Re: [Fwd: [AcoliForum] Acoli makes a clearstatement-again!]Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 12:03:20 -0800 (PST) Dear Coffin Noc'l: Ocii Oruk: I call you coffin because you are an empty coffin box. I do not think you are a human person.You have no feelings at all, and you are a dead wood. I do not think you are from Uganda for that matter or from Northern/Eastern Uganda. You are definitely A Rwandie under the name Occi Oruk. I will ask you one Question: 20 Years of Museveni what have you achieved for the Nation other than killing/Steaing Uganda Money which you are enjoying wrig ht now as you write these stupid e-mails. Please, leave Ugandans alone. I come from Luwero I know what your government did to our place. So it might not be now, tomorrow, but I have faith in God it will come to an end. Your Museveni Fa mily Tree one day will come to and end. Mr. Ocii Enjoy the bloody money.OK. We do not like to see your agly name on any of internate. Please, be decent while enjoying your blood money. It might not be you but what I know God will pay back to you or our children. That is exactly what you Rwandies/Ugandans tortured the Hutus in 1940s Before you ran to Uganda where we gave you all the kindly help/assistance, educating your children who have come to kill and eat our children in our motherland. No tribe has accepted the Government. They are forcing us. as for Kiggundu Muganda munnange, he ate too much money th at His big head and nose could not even think of taking care of elections. Juses. Help us Ugandans. Disturbted Ugandan. JN "
[Ugnet] Zimbabwe's 'outsider' faction leader
Zimbabwe's 'outsider' faction leader Arthur Mutambara vowed to work for party unityArthur Mutambara, the new leader of one faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, has stepped into the furnace of Zimbabwean opposition politics essentially as an outsider. That reality is being seen both as an advantage and as a disadvantage. He is untainted by the ugly row that split the MDC late last year, but he will also have to work hard to gain a public profile in his home country. Although he was a noted student leader in the late 1980s, his involvement in politics ended long before the MDC was founded. Accepting the position, Mr Mutambara, 40, hinted it was time to move beyond the disagreement over participation in national Senate elections that prompted a split in the MDC last year. [He is] an 'outsider' untainted by the struggles-within-the-struggle of opposition politics Eldred Masunungure, political scientistMr Mutambara now heads the faction, previously led by secretary general Welshman Ncube, that favoured participation. "My position was that the MDC should have boycotted those Senate elections," Mr Mutambara said. "I guess then that makes me the Anti-Senate leader of the Pro-Senate MDC faction. How ridiculous can we get? That debate is now in the past, let us move on and unite our people." He praised his rival-to-be - MDCs leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who was instrumental in setting up the party - as a national hero. But he criticised Mr Tsvangirai for seeking to impose his views on other party leaders during the senate debate, and vowed he would always accept the decision of the majority. While Mr Tsvangirai's supporters have claimed the faction now led by Mr Mutambara are being used by agents of President Mugabe, Mr Mutambara vowed to end the "misrule" of the ruling party. Strategic Mr Mutambara's appointment has been greeted as a move that will help quell the accusations that the party is riven by ethnicity. That view was given substance by last year's split, which set MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai - who comes from Zimbabwe's majority Shona group - against the rest of his party's top officials, from the Ndebele community. He has a good history as a student leader but will need time to grow into the position of national leader Brian Raftopoulos, political scientistPolitical scientist Eldred Masunungure suggested that strategic thinking by Welshman Ncube and his colleagues had led to the emergence of Mr Mutambara as the most widely acceptable candidate. "Both Ncube and [deputy chairman Gibson] Sibanda must have realised... that in Zimbabwe politics, and given the grip of ethnic consciousness, a Ndebele would have a very faint chance of making it to State House," Mr Masunungure wrote on the ZimOnline website. "Both Ncube and Sibanda also deferred to an 'outsider' untainted by the struggles-within-the-struggle of opposition politics." In Harare's extra-parliamentary political circles there has been a mixed reaction to the news of Mr Mutambara's arrival, Columbus Mavhunga of the National Constitutional Assembly told the BBC News website. "There is not much known about him, besides him leading demonstrations as a student," Mr Mavhunga said. "He has been out of Zimbabwe for virtually 10 years." "Some are happy since he's from the Shona tribe - but critics are saying he is just an academic." Robotics Mr Mutambara's academic record is something admired even by his political detractors. He holds a PhD from Oxford University in Robotics and Mechatronics, and held professorships in that field in several US institutions. He has published three books on engineering. Tsvangirai maintains he is the only MDC leaderHis CV is as impressive in the area of business as it is in science, including a post as professor of business strategy, and as a consultant with McKinsey and Company. In the late 1980s, he rose to prominence at the University of Zimbabwe, leading the first anti-government student protests since independence. The protests in 1988 and 1989 led to clashes with the police and Mr Mutambara's detention. "He has a good history as a student leader but will need time to grow into the position of national leader," political scientist Brian Raftopoulos, told the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper. But he added: "There is a lot of groundwork to be done to get him known after a long absence. Morgan [Tsvangirai] has an advantage because besides [President Robert] Mugabe, he is the only other leader with a national profile and appeal." Reconciliation? In contrast to the slanging-match that went on between the two MDC factions over participation in the Senate elections, Mr Tsvangirai has extended at least a cautious hand of friendship to Mr Mutambara. "Prof Mutambara's comments are quite welcome and in sync with the aspirations of Mr Tsvangirai of bringing a new dispensation to the struggle for democracy," said Mr Tsvangirai's spokesman Nelson Chamisa. But he also made it clear that Mr Tsv
[Ugnet] FW: [radiokatwe2006] Democracy is the loser
From: "radiokatwe2006" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: [radiokatwe2006] Democracy is the loserDate: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:36:32 - David Blair has been the Daily Telegraph's Africa Correspondent since June 2004. When not touring the continent, he lives in Johannesburg. He was previously based in the Middle East, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. Monday, February 27, 2006 Democracy is the loser Posted at: 13:06 The Ugandan electorate have spoken and almost 60 per cent of them want President Yoweri Museveni for another five years. That, at least, is the theory. Whether last week's election provided a genuine opportunity for 26 million Ugandans to express their opinion on Museveni is another matter. Now that I am back in Johannesburg, I've had time to reflect on this election. There is much that I find troubling. First of all, the European Union observer mission stated unequivocally that a "level playing field was not in place for these elections". This was largely because Museveni was the only presidential candidate able to run a taxpayer funded campaign, using every arm of the state for his political advantage. But the EU team did not follow their argument to its logical conclusion. If the election campaign was unfair, surely the result cannot be considered legitimate. Yet the EU observers stopped short of saying this and, in effect, gave the contest a clean bill of health. This approach defies reason. By reaching this quixotic conclusion, the EU team are committed to one of two dodgy arguments. They must believe either that a wholly unfair campaign is capable of producing a valid election result. Or they must adopt the faintly patronising argument that you cannot expect proper elections in Africa and the threshold of acceptability must be set at a lower level than elsewhere. In other words, Africans should accept lower standards than we do in Europe. Either way, their argument is unsustainable and they have done the people of Uganda a disservice. Here's the second thing I find troubling. Immediately after the result was known, Museveni's media adviser, a faintly ridiculous man called John Nagenda, wrote a column in the state press hailing his master's victory. Nothing wrong with that, except that Nagenda singled out the people of Northern Uganda for failing to vote for the President. "Almost the entire North is still deeply antagonistic to Museveni," he wrote. "Museveni must have been greatly disappointed because he has sincerely given of himself to this region and not just at these elections. He has freely travelled there, far more than any previous leader, including Northerners. He will not turn his back on these people, who remain part and parcel of Uganda, but in the human way, they should not pretend to huge surprise if his warmth wanes." These words are disgraceful. The people of northern Uganda have a perfect right to vote against Museveni. He, on the other hand, is a head of state with a sworn duty to serve every Ugandan - with equal "warmth" - whether they voted for him or not. Nagenda's implicit threat that Northerners will be left to suffer because they dared reject Museveni shows that he has no understanding of how democracy works. Comments I agree wholly with what David Blair says in his article published on the net dated 28th February 2006. I have worked in Northern Ugdada for 11 years, and in particular in IDP camps, and with local leaders. I am founder of a UK registered charity called Philadelphia Mission and I am unpaid. I work for the freedom and justice of the people in Northern Uganda who either have no voice, or it is muffled becasue of fear. The winner of the Ugandan elections was decided many months ago by President Yoweri Museveni. He knew only to well that the 1.54 million in IDP camps would never vote for him, as he, his government and military have allowed them to die at the current rate of 1,160 per week in IDP camps. The reason why i say this is that I and many others who live and work inside the camps know only to well, that the Government of Uganda have not honoured their constitution in providing food, medicine, security and clean water to almost all the 200 camps. Secondly, he has never truly made any real effort to stop the LRA [Lords Resistance Army] terrorists from the killings, rapings, amputations and abductions of the people of the north. His military has also committed brutal killings and rapes upon the innocent and defenceless. Many Ungandan soldiers are poorly trained,and not paid regularly. I personally have many witness accounts of the brutality of both the Ugandan military and the LRA rebels. NGOs have been denied proper security going to and from the camps. Some have been killed. WHO, Oxfam, Msf, Save the children fund and other NGOs struggle with providing sufficient aid to these precious people. I would also like to remind readers that the Ugandan government has squandered donations from the UN and oth
[Ugnet] 1957: Ghana celebrates independence
1957: Ghana celebrates independenceThe people of Ghana have been celebrating the end of colonial rule and the dawn of their independence. Most workers have been given the day off - tens of thousands have gathered in the capital, Accra, to greet the independent country's first prime minister, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The Duchess of Kent has been attending the celebrations. Last night, she opened the Independence Monument, erected near the spot where in 1948 members of the Ghanaian ex-servicemen's union were shot when marching to present a petition to the British Governor. The Gold Coast Legislative Assembly was prorogued at midnight to cheers from the waiting crowd outside. This morning the Legislative Assembly building, now the building of the Ghana parliament was packed with members dressed in their national costumes. The first Governor-General of Ghana, Sir Charles Arden-Clarke has been sworn in. Message from the Queen The Duchess gave a speech, setting out the Ghana Government policy. She also read out a personal message from the Queen to the people of Ghana. In it she said: "The hopes of many, especially in Africa, hang on your endeavours. It is my earnest and confident belief that my people in Ghana will go forward in freedom and justice." In reply, Dr Nkrumah said: "My government fully realises both the advantages and the responsibilities involved in the achievement of independence. It intends to make full use of these advantages to increase the prosperity of the country." Earlier, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, made a speech welcoming Ghana's move to independence. "The government and people of Ghana have set their hands to a great task. We are confident whatever may be the difficulties which will face them they will maintain and develop the principles of tolerance and freedom which are inherent in our parliamentary system. We shall give them all the help we can." Your Memories?Write your account of the events. E-mail this story to a friend Watch/Listen Dr Kwame Nkrumah was independent Ghana's first leader ___ 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] Rated Exxxtreme..
He is the best President Uganda has ever had !! From: PETER GWOKTO <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Reply-To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda To: Acolinet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Ugnet Subject: [Ugnet] Rated Exxxtreme..Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2006 08:15:30 -0500 (EST) Watch at your own peril. Not suitable for viewers born on or after Jan 25, 1971 http://www.zippyvideos.com/3980644693317086/idicabinet1 GPR >___>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] NRM to scrap 75-year age limit for president soon
NRM to scrap 75-year age limit for president soon. It would be nice to hear what our young lawyers like Karooli Ssemogerere have to say about this likely outcome. He is the one who gave the impression of being in love with this 'kikwangala' constitution. But remember that without the age limit in DP a third-rate fellow like Kawanga-Ssemogerere stood no chance against a giant like our beloved Prof Ssenteza-Kajubi. Eventually it is Ugandans who pay so dearly for the aggrandizement of the likes of Kawanga-Ssemogerere, like the 20-year holocaust we are seeing in Northern Uganda.== NRM to scrap 75-year age limit for president soon March 8, 2006 When in 1998 this column argued that based on the logic of President Yoweri Museveni¡¯s behaviour at that point, he would amend the constitution in 2005 to get rid of term limits (in exchange for a return to multiparty politics) and open the door for him to run again for office in 2006, the author escaped being pelted with rotten eggs and tomatoes.Mr Wafula Oguttu, then Managing Director of Monitor Publications, asked in jest whether your columnist, who is a teetotaller, had ¡°accidentally drunk something¡± that had driven him to make such an unlikely forecast. My good friend Winnie Byanyima was gently dismissive, telling me that both international and external pressure would be so much, that wouldn¡¯t happen. The son of Kaguta would stand in 2001, she said, but would have no choice but to go back to Rwakitura in 2006.Your columnist can only say that let¡¯s not dwell on the past now, and look to the future. We all ¡°saw with our own eyes¡±, as Ugandans say, what happened.Fresh from his disputed win, Museveni was in triumphant mood at Kololo Airstrip on Saturday for his victory parade. The most telling thing he said was that now that NRM has the all-important two-thirds majority in Parliament, nothing would stop him achieving whatever he wants. ¡°We shall pass all the amendments in Parliament that we want. The period of beseeching is over¡±, he said.There is one ¡°amendment¡± that we should expect in the next five years. When term limits were removed, the upper age limit of 75 for president was preserved. Museveni argued that term limits were inappropriate because they didn¡¯t allow for the ¡°flexibility¡± that is required in backward places like Africa. Also, that term limits denied the people the opportunity to choose the leader they want, by removing him or her from the race through a contrived technicality. SET FOR ONE LAST 'PRESENT' FROM PARLIAMENT? MuseveniParliament could have easily removed the upper age limit when it scrapped term limits. But Museveni was smart enough to realise that that would have increased the opposition to the presidency-for-life project. Removing only the term limits, left a window of expectation open ¨C that Museveni surely would be reasonable enough to leave when he hits his late 60s.But the logic on which term limits was based, makes a mockery of having an upper age limit for a president. Because it also denies the people the right to choose a man of 80 to lead them.Therefore watch out for two events. One, it¡¯s clear that with every election, opposition to Museveni grows. In this his fifth term, Museveni will still have enough authority inside the NRM to stem internal dissent and have his way.However, no one can be sure that the NRM will again have a two-thirds majority in Parliament. My view is that in 2011, the NRM could still be the majority party in Parliament, but its share of the seats will most likely be down to between 45 and 55 per cent. Therefore because of these factors, the last sure opportunity Museveni has to get rid of the 75-year age limit with an easy 75 per cent of the vote is between now and mid-2011.For that Kisanja II project to happen, the president needs to stem the growth of opposition. The one man who has done most to embolden people in their opposition to Museveni is Dr Kizza Besigye.For that reason, a lesson will be made of Besigye. This will make the price of entry into any competition against Museveni very high. With the cases of treason and terrorism hanging over his head, everything will be done, particularly in the Military Court, to teach Besigye a lesson. By 2011, Besigye will either be in jail, or if he is a free man, he will be a shadow of himself, his spirit broken.It will be enough to discourage serious contenders who have a chance of beating Museveni, and open the way for all sorts of jokers to come in the race hoping to make a quick buck for themselves.But NRM strategists know that will not necessarily work, we should be prepared for an amendment of the electoral law. One change will be that someone who has been charged with a crime, cannot be nominated until the case is resolved. The present law that provides only that you don¡¯t qualify to be president if you have been convicted of a crime, which allowed the nomin
[Ugnet] Interview with Michelle Bachelet
Even in Chile the wish is for 'federo' . Interview with Michelle Bachelet: "Only Cleaned Wounds Can Heal" Spiegel Thursday 09 March 2006 Michelle Bachelet, 54, who will be sworn in as Chile's next president this Saturday, discusses efforts to deal with her country's difficult Pinochet legacy, Chile's dramatic economic growth and Latin America's leftward swing. Spiegel: Ms. Bachelet, your country is experiencing growth rates most Europeans can only dream about and you're being celebrated as the symbol of Chile's transformation from dictatorship to democracy. Besides, you're also a socialist even (US President) George W. Bush can tolerate. Under these circumstances, governing must a lot of fun. Bachelet: What's most important to me is to be able to fulfill the hopes of as many citizens as possible. You're right, I am South America's first democratically elected female president. I perceive running the government as an honorable task, but also one that comes with a great deal of responsibility. That's because the Chileans expect me to pay more attention to social justice and bring more democracy to the country. Spiegel: You are a single mother, a physician and an agnostic. You have appointed ten women to your cabinet, and as many men. That's the equivalent of a small revolution in a country marked by such strong Catholic and male-dominated traditions. Has Chile changed that much? Bachelet: Women are the heads of one-third of Chilean households. In other words, I'm a completely normal woman in Chile. In fact, we have experienced a cultural shift in the last 30 years. Many women run social organizations, are union leaders and play important roles in their children's schools. The only place where women were still absent was at the higher levels of government. My predecessor Ricardo Lagos's decision to place women in powerful positions in the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry was ground-breaking. Spiegel: On Sept. 11, 1973, you watched - from the roof of the medical school - the bombing, ordered by General Pinochet, of the building that housed the offices of President Allende, the Moneda. Now you'll be moving into that building. What does that dark chapter in history mean for Chileans today? Bachelet: It's part of our history. We must take pains to process the things that happened to us, in the interest of truth, justice and providing compensation for all victims of political violence, regardless of their political affiliations. Full respect for human rights, not just civil liberties, will play a very important role in my administration. Spiegel: Are the recently begun trials of former military leaders splitting Chileans into two camps? Pinochet and his family are under investigation for tax evasion. Bachelet: A country that has experienced such deep trauma as Chile can never be completely healed. I'm a doctor, so allow me to use a medical analogy to explain the problem: Only cleaned wounds can heal, otherwise they'll keep opening up again, and will likely become infected and begin to fester. It's clear to me that the truth must be brought to light. Of course, there are those - but they're a minority today - who just want to sweep everything under the rug. In a constitutional state, the government must take steps to ensure that the judiciary can operate without obstruction. The fact that I was elected shows that Chile has a mature society. And that's why most citizens insist that no one should be allowed to place themselves above the law and escape punishment. Spiegel: Your father, a general loyal to Allende, was arrested, tortured and died as a result. As a politician, you have avoided talking about reconciliation with past adversaries. Instead, you've referred to the process as a "reencounter." Why? Bachelet: Reconciliation also means that the victim must forgive the perpetrator. But not everyone is capable of forgiving. It depends on the experiences of the individual, on that person's ability to overcome them, and that's not something that you can order everyone to do. But the government can establish the conditions under which the different camps can encounter one another in joint projects. Spiegel: You and your mother were also arrested, and you were tortured at the intelligence agency's notorious Villa Grimaldi prison. Years later, you encountered one of your tormentors in an elevator. Your eyes were bound when you were in prison, but you recognized the man by his odor. How did the two of you react to the encounter? Bachelet: It just so happens that this man lived in our building and used the same elevator, quite a coincidence in such a large city as Santiago. It wasn't easy for me at first. I found it deeply disturbing. It was also difficult for him, because we ran into each other at a time when he was facing various charges in court, charges for which he was eventually sentenced. Perhaps it was even more difficult for him th
[Ugnet] Che Rides Again (On a Mountain Bike)
Che Rides Again (On a Mountain Bike)By Nick MiroffTomDispatch.com Saturday 25 March 2006 Has Latin America ever had such a unifying figure? At political rallies, his visage is held aloft as a beacon to regional independence and self-determination. He's helped forge new trade partnerships to spur economic growth and alleviate poverty. And his leadership has fanned a gale-force electoral trend that's sweeping the hemisphere to topple one pro-Washington government after the next. Who is this grand inductor of Latin American leftism? Venezuelan fireball Hugo Chavez? Blue-collar Brazilian Lula Ignacio da Silva? Bolivia's coca-farmer-cum-president, Evo Morales? ¡Epa! It's George W. Bush, the accidental revolutionary. In the past five years, the swaggering Texan has inspired a leftward surge that is uniting Latin America and threatening to knock Che Guevara right off all those natty t-shirts. When Che's ill-fated insurgency ended in the jungles of Bolivia with his death in 1967, his vision of a single, unified, socialist continent remained utterly unfulfilled. U.S.-backed right-wing military dictators would rule much of Latin America over the ensuing two decades, and many of Che's followers would be tortured and killed in efforts to overthrow them. As democracy returned to the region at the end of the Cold War, most Latin American governments rushed to embrace the "Washington consensus" - market-oriented liberalization policies that cut social spending and privatized national industries in order to pay down national debts. But the formula, pushed on the region by successive American presidents, largely failed to deliver the goods and left entire governments bankrupt and beholden to foreign lenders. For Latin America's angry, marginalized, impoverished masses, already-threadbare social safety nets only unraveled further. "The macroeconomic proposals of the Washington consensus have not been working," says Guillermo Delgado, professor of Latin American Studies at UC Santa Cruz. "That model was supposed to create prosperity and, after so many years, such prosperity has not been seen and class polarization has grown deeper." Sensing an opportunity, new social and political movements in the region began marshalling their forces. Then George W. Bush came along, combining Yankee hubris with a Che-worthy radicalizing touch. Bush has since presided over one of the most significant political re-alignments in the history of the Western Hemisphere. By this summer, every major Latin American nation but Colombia is likely to be run by elected leaders with stronger backgrounds in Marx than free markets. If Cold War-era "domino theory" has been a bust in the Middle East, it's working with textbook precision in Latin America. Late last year, voters overwhelmingly elected former coca-grower Evo Morales, the founder of Bolivia's "Movement Toward Socialism" party, who fancies himself a "nightmare" for the Bush administration. Then, in January, Chilean voters chose socialist candidate Michele Bachelet, a torture victim of the Pinochet regime, as the nation's first woman president. Leftists now rule as well in Venezuela, Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina, and are leading in upcoming elections in both Peru and Mexico, the region's electoral grand prize. Even recycled Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega - "a hoodlum," according to Roger Noriega, formerly the U.S.'s top Latin America official - appears poised for a comeback when Nicaraguan voters go to the polls in November. Though Latin America's national borders won't melt away anytime soon, Che's vision of pan-Latin cooperation has already begun to materialize. Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina recently announced a $20 billion plan to build a trans-national gas pipeline through the Amazon. Chile has opened dialogue with landlocked Bolivia, easing a long-simmering feud over seaport access that stretches back more than a century. Cuba, that tropical bête noire of the White House, still uses doctor diplomacy and sends physicians all over the region - only now, it receives billions of dollars worth of Venezuelan oil in return. And Mercosur, a South American common market dominated by Brazil, has emerged as a rival to the faltering U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Mercosur member states blocked ratification of the FTAA at the 2005 Summit of the Americas in Argentina. When Bush arrived to deliver a speech at the conference, he was greeted by mobs of angry street protestors who burned American flags, a Burger King, and unflattering effigies in his likeness. "Fascist Bush!" they chanted, "you are the terrorist!" Fencing Off the "Backyard"? Bush's overwhelming unpopularity in Latin America is especially disappointing given that he put Latin American relations at the top of his foreign-policy agenda after taking office. No other U.S. president had gone to Latin America for his first visit abroad, and
[Ugnet] http://musege.blogspot.com/
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[Ugnet] Pressure on Mutambara to prove policy intentions
Pressure on Mutambara to prove policy intentions The Flip Side with Kuthula Matshaziissue date: 2006-Mar-31 THE President of the other faction of the main opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change Arthur Mutambara continues to preach ideals identified with nationalist convictions. He is on a campaign to spell out his credo. His main message is anchored on his supposedly unwavering support for the land reform and of course the acknowledgement of our precious past. It is interesting to see whether his message would appeal to the voters. Apparently, it could appeal if Mutambara sticks to it and then demonstrates through his policies and deeds that he truly desires land to be redistributed equitably among all Zimbabweans both black and white. As for the liberation war rhetoric, Mutambara could easily get away with it by singing along slogans and then attending functions that commemorate these august events. This is not to suggest that Mutambara is not patriotic and that patriotism is only the preserve of nationalists. Rather, this is a suggestion that the ideological inclination that informs his viewpoint undercuts his supposed patriotism. Mutambara is a confirmed neo-liberal who believes in the myths of the global economy. This position, Mutambara assumes, is very critical for the economics debate that currently dominates Zimbabwe and that in turn informs the citizenry of their viewpoints on these matters and serves to guide us in choosing our developmental strategies.As this column has always argued, one would be hard pressed to identify a socially progressive land reform programme around the world that was supported by the neo-liberal forces. On the contrary, these forces have marshalled enormous violence to fight against land reforms. On this matter, Mutambara seems to be wearing a turncoat.Mutambaras turncoat character resembles that of former Brazilian President (1994-2002) Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a highly respected Marxist sociologist who championed the cause of social justice and yet upon assuming presidency became a champion of expansion of entrepreneurship, free enterprise and the integration of Brazil into the neo-liberal capitalist global economy. He was reported in one of Brazils daily newspaper in 1993 that while still finance minister he told an audience of businessmen that they should forget that he ever wrote as a sociologist. Likewise, Mutambara is going to say all the right things to the people about social justice in order to win their confidence not because he wants to achieve social justice on their behalf. Rather, his ultimate aim seems to be wrestling the country and integrating it fully into the global economy for the benefit of neo-liberal capitalists as outlined in his economic policy statement. The mistaken arguments that people like Mutambara and Cordoso always put forward is that the global economy would bring prosperity. However, this kind of development has produced monumental crises after crises and continues to do so at alarming levels. Another interesting observation is that the so-called leftists, and mostly those who profess to be educated and dynamic are the ones who buy into this hoax of neo-liberal economics. Mutambara has a history of pushing the agenda of the left forces while he was still a student at the University of Zimbabwe. The greatest tragedy of such leftists like Mutambara and Cardoso is that they become incorporated into the neo-liberal system. And once in it they feel good about themselves!It is arguable that the mere fact that Mutambara was a Rhodes Scholarship recipient and a National Aeronautics and Space Administration insider makes him part of the neo-imperialist cohort. However, it is his belief in neo-liberal economics after his attachment to these institutions that is of great concern. It is like the still-puzzling relationship that was pursued by a so-called workers party, the MDC when they went to bed with capitalists to advance their (capitalists) interests of reversing the land reforms. The moment that happened, we have seen non capitalists being socially progressive but workers assuming the colours of capitalists. It is upon these weaknesses that we have seen labour movements across the world hopelessly neutralised by the capitalists and then viciously used against their constituencies to push the agenda of these capitalists. Mutambara is not alone in this kind of rhetorical position. British Prime Minister Tony Blair hijacked Labour, a workers party and turned it to a party that fosters the interests of neo-liberals. He renamed it New Labour to reflect its new compromised thrust of pandering to the interests of neo-liberal forces. Upon winning his first elections and still conveniently speaking the workers language, Blair flew to Australia to pledge his commitment to pursuing a neo-liberal agenda to Rupert Murdoch whose largest circulating daily newspaper in Britain, The Sun gave its support to New Labour. Such positions in
[Ugnet] Museveni has spoilt this country....Mzee Beneface Byanyima.
30th March - 5th April, 2006 Museveni vs Byanyimas; a love-hate relationship Long before Winnie Byanyima, wife to Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) leader Col. Kizza Besigye, threatened to reveal President Museveni's secrets, her father had already exposed many of the "secrets" to The Weekly Observer. On December 23, 2005, the Democratic Party (DP) veteran leader, MZEE BONIFACE BYANYIMA, bared all to BENON HERBERT OLUKA in a special interview for our series 'The Museveni I know'. Museveni spent a good part of his early life at Mzee Byanyima's home and the two remained close until mid-1990 when they fell out: First meeting I dont remember the year but he came to Mbarara High School when I was teaching. It was in 1950s I think. He came in [Senior] One. That is when I first met him.It took me time to understand him because Museveni is secretive. You cannot understand him at once. There is one side, which he shows you, and another side he keeps to himself. So it took me time to understand him. At first, he appeared to be friendly to me and my family. He visited us frequently. He liked me and my family my children. We treated him as our child. Those were the first impressions we got; he was a friendly person, a friendly young man. Even when he went to Ntare School, he used to come to my home. When he was staying in my home, he didnt appear to be political. But he was interested in learning like other students, like the [Eriya] Kategayas. He was an ordinary student. He was not actually one of the bright students, but he was trying to learn. When he was staying at my home, I would give him little pocket money like all the [needy] students. We stayed with him but it was on and off. He used to come for holidays. Even when he went to Dar es Salaam, he used to come here to our home and we stayed with him.First impressions He was a young man of ambition, always trying to show that he was better than other students. And he appeared to be ambitious in small things. Whenever he got a chance, he wanted to show that he was an important person. He wanted to be respected. For example, at one time when I was MP staying at Uganda Club, he came to see me. I had my nephew there and I wanted to give them lunch at Uganda Club where I was staying. I wanted to take them to the dinning room, but he said; No. Me I cant go there. I cant dine with this young man who is a son of Kanyamunyu. Kanyamunyu was the treasurer of Ankole Kingdom.He said, Me Museveni, you give me my small money, I will go and eat in Shauri Yako. I cant eat with big people. Small things like that. He wanted to show that he was different from others to be recognised. Signs of a politician When he was in Dar es Salaam, he started coming to my home with communism literature. He was talking of Russian-type communism. He was praising Lenin and other communist leaders. He was talking about communist slogans and phrases like proletariat, common man... He never told me of his political ambitions. He only told me that he was fighting for the common man. He was praising people like Che Guevara, a South American revolutionary. He was praising the [Julius] Nyerere leadership and talking of crushing capitalists. That kind of language. One day he came to my home and said he had been to Mozambique. He came towards the end of his holidays, and I asked him why he was late. He told me he was in Mozambique fighting the Europeans who were grabbing African land. And he was boasting that he killed a white man there. I said I dont want that sort of language here. He kept quiet but whenever he got a chance, he would boast of his activities against capitalists. First shot at politics When he came back from Dar es Salaam, he joined [Milton] Obotes government. He was in the intelligence section, and I interacted with him at that time very often. He was talking of overthrowing the Obote regime because Obote was a capitalist. Before [Idi] Amin overthrew Obote, there was talk of elections which Obote was proposing in 1970. They wanted a type of election where a candidate would have four constituencies it was called three plus one. He would have to stand in all regions of Uganda; his home constituency then plus three others in other regions. And Museveni took the opportunity to become a candidate, to stand against Vice President [John] Babiiha. He was trying to stand in North East Ankole against Babiiha because he was opposing Babiiha for establishing ranches in Ankole. Museveni said he did not want ranches because ranches were capitalist institutions. He was trying to show me that he was fighting for the common man. But I didnt believe him because I could see that he also wanted an opportunity to show that he was important. I thought that even if he took power, he wouldnt put into practice what he was talking about. I looked at him as the kind of person who wanted to promote himself rather than working for a principle because he would say one thing now, then
[Ugnet] Can someone stop these city cabals?
Dear comrade Mwesigwa, That one can be thrown into jail, in Uganda, for defaulting on any loan is a measure of how primitive and backward we still are. The protection we give to Finance Capital is there, in the rarefied atmosphere, next to God himself. It makes a mockery of the rights that should come with political independence. A civilized society only secures debts against collateral !! Further, a rubber-check is the business of only the issuer and his Bank, resulting in some Bank charges ( here it is $15). Can you imagine that in Uganda one goes to jail for passing a rubber-check ? The law in Uganda is the law of the jungle, I am afraid. We have to demand that Parliament ( or what passes for one) passes legislation to protect wananchi, and also to put a cap on interest charges as is the case in the West. It is the highest form of injustice to just abandon our people to dracula loan sharks !! Mitayo Potosi === Can someone stop these city cabals? TeddY Seezi Cheeye's narration of his experience in civil prison (Sunday Vision, March 26) offered very interesting reading. For one thing, he highlighted the fact that 'bigger mortals' like himself are also vulnerable to the corrupt sections of Uganda's legal framework. He mentioned the existence of a cartel of rogue lawyers, magistrates and court bailiffs who collaborate to extort big sums of money from legally naïve and un-suspecting Ugandans that have defaulted on loan repayments. These guys will work to expediently throw a loan defaulter into jail usually with no prior summoning at all, and by doing so put pressure on the defaulter's family into paying colossal amounts to get him or her out of jail. I would like to make known the existence of a particularly notorious ring of such lawyers and bailiffs operating around Kampala. Two brothers run this ring. One of the brothers is a court bailiff, while the other is a lawyer - who it is said can only realistically operate in the lower courts system due to his suspect morals and ethics. Hundreds of people, especially clients of Faulu and Finca Micro Finance institutions, have fallen victim to this cabal. A typical scenario is when one defaults on a loan of say Shs500,000 by failing to service the loan for two successive months. While the defaulter might then actually owe about Shs750,000 inclusive of interest, this lawyer will typically charge legal costs of not less than Shs800,000 and the bailiff about Shs350,000. Because of prior collaboration between this cabal of magistrates, lawyers and bailiffs, the loan defaulter will hastily be thrown into jail and his family will end up agreeing to pay close to Shs2 million in order to get him out of jail. I humbly ask the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, and its subordinate bodies to stem the operations of such cabals. I am not legal savvy, but Mr Cheeye also cited Uganda being a subscriber to an international legal instrument that forbids loan defaulters from being thrown into jail. If true, why hasn't this been made adequately known to the general public? Also, the ministry could help the general public by setting standard rates and ranges on legal fees and costs for such matters. James Mwesigwa,Kampala[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. ---
[Ugnet] Retiring from 20 years of Museveni commentary
Dear Dr Muniini and Ms Anne Mugisha, Please convey our appreciation and deep sense of gratitude to the leadership and all activists of the FDC, for the Herculean efforts, dedication and sacrifices in the last election. This was inspite of the constraints of funds, time, and the constant thuggish hurdles by the regime. And of course we refuse to accept the officially declared results. My greatest satisfaction came with the release of the tabulation by Prof Odwee of the Statistics Dept of Makerere University. Would it have made any difference if we had the Professor's numbers right at the very close of the voting ? This has made made dramatic differences in other countries. My suggestion is that next time around we shall commission an independent polling firm ( about US$50,000) to provide us with a tracking of opinion up to the election and, crucially, Exit polling during the voting. For as Stalin said, the key in elections is who is counting, regardless of the manner of voting. Vicente Fox of Mexico, fearing that the PRI would steal his election, commissioned not one but two polling firms. They announced his win within minutes of the close of the voting. The masses started jubilating and the PRI machinations were busted. The way Western interests found out that the vote for the so-called Ukrainian Orange Revolution was being stolen was by using Exit polling. And Germans announce only Exit polling results, and bureaucrats then take their time - weeks - to do the actual counting. For two generations they have had no discrepancies. In Bolivia Evo Morales' win was based on Exit polls. A week later the vote had not even been actually counted. Mr. Weah led the first round of the recent Liberia election. On losing the run-off it was claimed that all other contestants ( four or five ?) had lined up behind him, but that all the supporters of these five had, en masse, joined the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's camp, insread of following their leaders to join Mr Weah. This of course does not make any sense. But the saddest part was that Mr Weah himself could not say by what percentage he had been cheated. All he could show were a couple of ballots that had been snatched from some would be cheaters. We have to thank Prof Odwee and his team for saving us such an embarrassment by providing us with concrete numbers of the extent of the stealing !! (Even if our returning officers were brutalised, bribed etc ) It is in such cases as the Liberia one that one appreciates the immense power of Exit polls. Indeed, the UN uses Exit polling to check election results in 'third world' countries. The robustness and the beauty underlying its mathematical and philosophical foundations is just astounding !! It is a science that is a culminations of three centuries of effort that include, even, counting the number of stars in the universe !! That is power and reliability. You are talking about people like Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) of the 'bell curve' , one of the greatest minds of all time. The most curious discrepancies between Exit polls and actual tallies have raised their ugly head, get this, only in the last three USA elections. Funny eh ? And here I want to add to compatriot Anne Mugisha's Opinion article in the 'Uganda Weekly Observer' of March 19 to 25 titled "All eyes on the supreme court". It is curious why Sen John Kerry is only whispering that the last USA Presidential election was stolen but vehemently refuses to be quoted. Former Senate Minority leader, Democrat Tom Daschle on the other hand has stated it categorically that even elections for Senators were stolen, including his. In Uganda the fellow who has stolen our country has now become an emperor. Stealing elections has become globalized. A Ms Kawooya who was part of stealing our 2001 election is now with the UN. She was in the team that 'organized' Afghanistan's most recent election. She was involved in the most recent Iraq elections in which petrol tankers were rolling from Iran, but instead of being filled with petrol they were filled with fake ballots for Ayatollah Sistani's puppets. It is an incomprehensible world we now live in !! For three days in Uganda Museveni locked himself with his henchmen behind closed doors to 'count' the votes. Could anyone have expected him to announce that he had lost? And forget the protestations of British imperialism, for they are still fully behind him. The man has delivered for them, whether in Congo or reversing our small gains of Independence under Obote and Idi Amin ( see Mzee Boniface Byanyima's weekly observer interview) Meanwhile let us watch what will come out of the supreme court. Ugandans have been through a five year war over stolen elections. To where do we now turn ? Meanwhile we humbly send thanks to all in FDC
[Ugnet] Load -shedding causing deaths at Soroti Hospital
Load -shedding causing deaths at Soroti Hospital RICHARD EGADU SOROTI THE ongoing 24-hour electricity load shedding has paralysed work at Soroti Hospital leading to death. Patients have to wait for long hours to be attended to. Some times they die. The situation is alarming, said the Medical Superintendent, Dr Bernard Odu.Speaking to Daily Monitor on Friday, Odu said emergency cases are not attended to on time due to power cuts. He said doctors and nurses on night duty use candles while attending to patients. The power distributors, Umeme and Uganda Electricity Transmission Company, say they were forced to load-shed because of a drastic drop in the water levels on Lake Victoria. DeathOn March 28, Rev. Washington Otaala, died due to power failure that made it impossible for the doctors to assess his condition after an operation. Otaala, who was being operated on for a disease that Odu, refused to disclose died shortly after an operation. Odu said because of poor visibility, the nurses and doctors could not assess him properly as they were using lamps. As soon as the surgeons completed the operation, the power went off. The doctors and nurses on duty had to use lamps for observing his condition, Odu said. He said the hospital is a unique and sensitive institution that should not be subjected to power cuts by Umeme.The operating theatre and blood bank are the most affected by the power shortages. We have been forced to use candles at the theatre, Odu said.Odu said due to financial constraints, the hospital can't afford to buy fuel to run the two generators for 24 hours. Little fundingHe said the ministries of Finance and Health released Shs520 million to the hospital this year. Since the hospital was uplifted to a standard of a referral hospital, its funding has not been increased. We are still getting the same amount yet it's not enough to fund all the expenses, he said. Odu said the generators are switched on for few minutes if there is an emergency case to be attended to and some times they go off before a patient is treated. "The generators can't help the situation. We were taken unaware and we didn't budget for fuel to run the generators for 24 hours, Odu said. He said emergencies from the health centres in the district of Amuria, Katakwi, Kumi and Kaberamaido are referred to Soroti Hospital. Many patients The number of patients increases each day. The hospital size can't cope with the demand. The beds are occupied 110 per cent. Some patients and attendants are sleeping in the corridors, he said He said the Maternity Ward is the most congested, saying expectant mothers sleep on the floor. The ward has 36 beds only, but there are over 80 expectant mothers, he said.The problem is not management. We have kept reminding the Health Ministry to increasing funding to the hospital, but they have paid a deaf ear. Odu said they need 274 beds He appealed to the government to review the hospital budget. The budget should be double. What we get now is just for a district hospital. We use the Shs520m to buy drugs, fuel, stationery, pay support staff and many others on this small budget, Odu 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 them in any way. ---
RE: [Ugnet] How the GOP Became God's Own Party
Brother Owor, This is very interesting analysis, but today the evangelical xtian crowd is just a cover and not the base of USA electoral politics. It is claimed that over 2000 of the top USA numerical scientists are certain that USA elections, national and regional, are being stolen like never before. Opinion polls now show a slide in approval for Bush. But in this end-of-year Senate and House elections I bet that dark forces of the underworld may steal even more seats for Republicans. Not that it matters much for us who is rigged in. Wasn't the killing of 5 million Congolese under Clinton ? Mitayo Potosi From: Owor Kipenji <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Reply-To: The First Virtual Network for friends of Uganda To: ugandanet@kym.net, [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: [Ugnet] How the GOP Became God's Own PartyDate: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 03:10:51 +0100 (BST) How the GOP Became God's Own PartyBy Kevin Phillips04/02/06 "Washington Post" -- -- Now that the GOP has been transformed by the rise of the South, the trauma of terrorism and George W. Bush's conviction that God wanted him to be president, a deeper conclusion can be drawn: The Republican Party has become the first religious party in U.S. history.We have had small-scale theocracies in North America before -- in Puritan New England and later in Mormon Utah. Today, a leading power such as the United States approaches theocracy when it meets the conditions currently on display: an elected leader who believes himself to speak for the Almighty, a ruling political party that represents religious true believers, the certainty of many Republican voters that government should be guided by religion and, on top of it all, a White House that adopts agendas seemingly animated by biblical worldviews.Indeed, there is a potent change taking place in this country's domestic and foreign policy, driven by religion's new political prowess and its role in projecting military power in the Mideast.The United States has organized much of its military posture since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks around the protection of oil fields, pipelines and sea lanes. But U.S. preoccupation with the Middle East has another dimension. In addition to its concerns with oil and terrorism, the White House is courting end-times theologians and electorates for whom the Holy Lands are a battleground of Christian destiny. Both pursuits -- oil and biblical expectations -- require a dissimulation in Washington that undercuts the U.S. tradition of commitment to the role of an informed electorate.The political corollary -- fascinating but appalling -- is the recent transformation of the Republican presidential coalition. Since the election of 2000 and especially that of 2004, three pillars have become central: the oil-national security complex, with its pervasive interests; the religious right, with its doctrinal imperatives and massive electorate; and the debt-driven financial sector, which extends far beyond the old symbolism of Wall Street.President Bush has promoted these alignments, interest groups and their underpinning values. His family, over multiple generations, has been linked to a politics that conjoined finance, national security and oil. In recent decades, the Bushes have added close ties to evangelical and fundamentalist power brokers of many persuasions.Over a quarter-century of Bush presidencies and vice presidencies, the Republican Party has slowly become the vehicle of all three interests -- a fusion of petroleum-defined national security; a crusading, simplistic Christianity; and a reckless credit-feeding financial complex. The three are increasingly allied in commitment to Republican politics. On the most important front, I am beginning to think that the Southern-dominated, biblically driven Washington GOP represents a rogue coalition, like the Southern, proslavery politics that controlled Washington until Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860.I have a personal concern over what has become of the Republican coalition. Forty years ago, I began a book, "The Emerging Republican Majority," which I finished in 1967 and took to the 1968 Republican presidential campaign, for which I became the chief political and voting-patterns analyst. Published in 1969, while I was still in the fledgling Nixon administration, the volume was identified by Newsweek as the "political bible of the Nixon Era."In that book I coined the term "Sun Belt" to describe the oil, military, aerospace and retirement country stretching from Florida to California, but debate concentrated on the argument -- since fulfilled and then some -- that the South was on its way into the national Republican Party. Four decades later, this framework has produced the alliance of oil, fundamentalism and debt.Some of that evolution was always implicit. If any region of the United States had the potential to pro
[Ugnet] Nigeria's Oil Killing Fields
successes there will be greater threat to one's life. That is obvious. That is why I am here. Because the impression oil companies give back home is that they are good people, environmentally friendly and that is what the people of the United States and United Kingdom think their oil companies to be. They don't know what is happening in the developing world in places like the Niger Delta. That is why we need people here in the U.S. to engage on moral grounds. Because the law for the most part is in the hands of the privileged for the oppression of the poor, so if you want to do things based on law it can never be fair to the general people because a few have power to make those laws to benefit them and their cronies and business partners. On moral grounds the average American should be looking at what these companies are doing for the love of oil. It is criminal K.W.: There are a lot of American churches that have missions in Africa. It strikes me that they would be responsive to a moral appeal. Have you tried to work through American churches? S.A.: I don't know which churches are American or otherwise, but what I understand the churches to be doing these days is their charity work. They are not interested in politics. Because the government will say you are now being political, you are against government. There is a lot of poverty resulting from the oil companies, so the churches do their best to heal the wounds of poverty and destruction. They are doing well in that respect. I don't expect them to do much else. K.W.: Someone asked during your panel why you don't go to the company headquarters in Europe or America and sue them there for their bribing and corruption of the Nigerian government. S.A.: The issue of suing the parent company has a lot of legal obstacles. That is why I say the law is oppressive. Under the law, they will say that is a separate legal entity. For example, Kellogg Brown & Root. They will say the U.S. division of KBR does not know what the Nigerian division is doing, so that you cannot hold them responsible. And you cannot prove most of these things. We may know very well that the company made a phone call to bring in the police to kill people, but how can we prove that? There are too many legal bottlenecks to achieving justice. Only when there is an excessive amount of violence in the community do we have a chance. Chevron is on trial right now for a killing that happened 6 years ago. There is also the expense. Even environmentalists in the U.K. cannot afford to bring legal actions against oil companies there. And then there is international law which has refused to recognize the right of individuals to sue companies. If companies as legal entities can move from nation to nation freely to do their business, then individuals should also be seen as international people. The individual should have the right to sue companies for injuries wherever they think they can do it. Now they just to tell us to go to Nigeria to sue. K.W.: But the companies have totally corrupted the Nigerian courts, so they've locked you in. They've put you in a box S.A.: That is the situation, but there a few judges that may not be corrupt and we have a chance, but what we really need is a change of attitude. Compensation is not enough. We need environmental restoration. K.W.: What percentage of U.S. oil consumption comes from the Niger Delta? S.A.: I don't know the percentage, but Nigeria seems to be the fifth largest supplier of oil to the United States K.W.: So what would you ask American people to do? S.A.: What I want American people to do is to put pressure on the government of America to hold the oil companies responsible for the damage they have caused in the Niger Delta and ensure that henceforth the companies act responsibly. The world looks up to the Americans as a people who are civilized, who are democratic and who are positive in their thinking. The American people should be able to rise up to correct this criminal behavior on the part of their oil companies. K.W.: And the companies we are talking about are? S.A.: We are talking about Exxon/Mobile, Chevron/Texaco - these are the major American oil companies. There are also the contractors: Halliburton and Kellogg Brown & Root. Mitayo Potosi _ Designer Mail isn't just fun to send, it's fun to receive. Use special stationery, fonts and colors. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Chavez Followers Get Paramilitary Training
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the accusations "ludicrous" and also denied Chavez's claim of U.S. involvement in a short-lived coup against him in 2002. Izarra said Tuesday that Venezuela's presidential guard had boosted security to protect Chavez in response to an assassination plot. Officials provided few details of the plot, but have previously demanded the United States crack down on Cuban and Venezuelan "terrorists" in Florida who they say are conspiring against Chavez. Izarra said Venezuela is considering legal options after a woman this week called for Chavez's assassination on a Miami television program. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday that U.S. concerns about Chavez's government are "shared by many in the region" - which Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel quickly contested. "The only one that is concerned is the government in Washington," Rangel said. Go to Original Venezuelan Leader Frustrates US Agence France-Press Thursday 17 March 2005 The United States, frustrated by frequent attacks from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is looking for ways to support opponents of the leftist leader in elections next year, US officials and analyst said. President George W. Bush's administration is annoyed by Chavez, but Washington has not settled on a policy to deal with Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter and the source of 15 percent of US energy needs. In August, Chavez fought off a referendum seeking his ouster after massive protests and strikes organized by his political opponents. Venezuela will hold a presidential election in 2006. The former paratrooper has accused Bush of plotting to have him assassinated and of being behind a coup that toppled him for nearly 48 hours in April 2002. The European Union, Venezuela's Andean neighbors, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United States should "find a way to keep engaged in Venezuela," said a senior US official who requested anonymity. They should also "keep reminding Chavez that what he did was win a referendum, not be crowned the emperor or king, and remind the opposition that they lost an election and they have to begin to prepare for the elections that are going to come forward," the official said. Michael Shifter, vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue, said US officials dealing with Latin American "don't know what to do" about Chavez. "There is much frustration, but there has been no decision on what path to take," Shifter said, although he said some in the US government probably want "stronger answers" to Venezuela's attacks. "The best way for the United States to deal with Venezuela is through a regional policy, but the problem is that other countries are reluctant because they distrust Washington's motives," he added. Miguel Diaz, a US-South American relations expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the region's governments, especially the leftist leaders of Brazil and Uruguay, "should be a little more worried about what Chavez represents." In addition to accusing Washington of plotting to topple him, Chavez has called Bush a "jerk" and the US government a "mafia of assassins." He also slammed US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as an "illiterate" whom he would not marry, although he said the chief US diplomat dreams of him at night. "At this point given his rhetoric and given his actions it's very hard to see how we're going to be able to improve the tone of the relationship, because he has a tendency to say whatever comes to mind, and to be very insulting, and that's a strange way to do a rapprochement," the senior US official said. Washington is concerned by Chavez's decision to buy 100,000 AK-47 rifles from Russia, fearing the weapons could end up in the hands of leftist Colombian rebels or lead to an arms race in the region. The head of US diplomacy in the region, Roger Noriega, listed Washington's concerns last week in Congress. "His efforts to concentrate power at home, his suspect relationship with destabilizing forces in the region and his plans for arms purchases are causes of major concern," Noriega said. "We will support democratic elements in Venezuela so they can fill the political space to which they're entitled," he said, without elaborating on how the US government would help. But, Diaz said, "the big secret is that the United States cannot do much regarding Venezuela." Venezuela sells about 1.5 million barrels of oil a da
[Ugnet] ugandanet
Comrade Yeobang, Yes, indeed these days, the ugandanet mail system panics unnecessarily, cutting off netters, claiming that ones inbox is full and that mail is bouncing even where one is very sure that no such a thing is the case. And then for re-instatement, it asks you to go into some maze of "confirmation". I had imagined that it was only dumb me facing this. In desparation I have since quietly changed my email from [EMAIL PROTECTED] to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mitayo Potosi = Ive been struck off Ugandanet again! I tried to re-instate my self to nno avail. My inbox is never full. Please help.Thanks. y From: Kiggundu Mukasa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: ugandanet@kym.net To: ugandanet@kym.net Mitayo Potosi _ Take charge with a pop-up guard built on patented Microsoft® SmartScreen Technology. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Dictators, Tyrants and Fools
This happened last week. Five-month-old Sun Hudson was removed from his life-sustaining machines by a Texas law signed by then-Governor George W. Bush in 1999. The law allows patients deemed unsalvageable by the hospital to be removed from ventilators and other medical apparatus, with a ten-day window given to the families of the stricken to find another facility before the plug is pulled. Sun Hudson was African-American, and neither Congress nor Mr. Bush came storming to his rescue before his death last week. Believe this: If Ms. Schiavo were an African American child, a Hispanic mother, an Iraqi wife, an Afghani grandmother, an American soldier suffering massive brain trauma from an explosion in Mosul, anyone from Darfur or the Congo, if she had been anything other than a white woman in a Fundamentalist-controlled state, we would have never, ever, heard of her. Mitayo Potosi _ Powerful Parental Controls Let your child discover the best the Internet has to offer. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Dictators, Tyrants and Fools
t into the role of mother, father, husband, wife, doctor and priest in this matter, and never mind the fact that they bulldozed Florida law again. There is also the matter of the GOP talking points memo floating around out there which specifically states Ms. Schaivo's condition is a perfect wedge with which to remove Florida's Democratic Senator, Bill Nelson. Never mind the fact that the 'Culture of Life' advocates pushing this are also greasing the skids towards more executions of prisoners, or that they support a war that has killed and wounded well over 200,000 people in Iraq. The next time you find yourself in a debate about Ms. Schiavo with a person who agrees with Bush and the Congressional majority on this, ask them about Sun Hudson. Hudson was born with a genetic disorder and was sustained by machines from the day of his birth. The Texas hospital housing him decided there was no point in sustaining his care, and Hudson was removed from his machines. He died at five months old. This happened last week. Five-month-old Sun Hudson was removed from his life-sustaining machines by a Texas law signed by then-Governor George W. Bush in 1999. The law allows patients deemed unsalvageable by the hospital to be removed from ventilators and other medical apparatus, with a ten-day window given to the families of the stricken to find another facility before the plug is pulled. Sun Hudson was African-American, and neither Congress nor Mr. Bush came storming to his rescue before his death last week. Believe this: If Ms. Schiavo were an African American child, a Hispanic mother, an Iraqi wife, an Afghani grandmother, an American soldier suffering massive brain trauma from an explosion in Mosul, anyone from Darfur or the Congo, if she had been anything other than a white woman in a Fundamentalist-controlled state, we would have never, ever, heard of her. The piercing hypocrisy found in this hue and cry over Schiavo is the simple fact that the GOP majority pushing this doesn't give a tinker's dam about her condition or her fate. They want to cobble together some kind of bastardized precedent with this to knock down a woman's right to choose, and they'd like to tag Nelson while they're at it. Beyond that, this is a smokescreen to cover their true intentions. Understand that whatever these people are making noise about is not what they actually care about. They did it a couple of weeks ago; while shouting about Social Security reform and getting everyone all fired up over that, they passed the Bankruptcy bill, the Gun Manufacturers Shield Law and opened ANWR for drilling. They've known their Social Security 'reforms' have been dead in the water for weeks, but kept pushing them to distract opponents from their true goals, which they reached in fine style. So it goes with Ms. Schiavo. They don't care about her. They want everyone looking at her, however, while they prepare to destroy the filibuster in the Senate in order to appoint a few far-right judges to the bench. Never mind that the Senate has confirmed 204 of Bush's judicial nominations, blocking only 10, which is an approval rate of 95%. The GOP majority still shouts "Obstructionist!" and is preparing to annihilate the one firebreak given to the minority that keeps truly bad nominees from becoming judges. They will try to do this soon, while everyone is caught up in the saga of the Schiavo feeding tube. These people will say anything, and use anyone as a pawn, no matter how gross or disrespectful or hypocritical or flatly illegal it may be. They do this, ultimately, because they want everything their own way, with no room for compromise whatsoever. It is their greatest strength. It may also come to be their greatest weakness. Only dictators, tyrants and fools believe they can have it all their way. Every dictator, tyrant and fool in history who has tried to have it all his way has failed in spectacular fashion. Often, that failure brings about the destruction of their family, their army, or their entire nation. Yet the lessons of history do not resonate with dictators, tyrants and fools. That, more than anything else, is why they always fail. What we have seen in these last years is mushmouthed dictators in the Executive, petty tyrants in Congress, and fools in between trying to have it all their own way. They will fail, as ever. The backlash comes. Mahatma Gandhi once said, "When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always." Always. Mitayo Potosi _ Don'
[Ugnet] No Longer the "Lone" Superpower
No Longer the "Lone" Superpower Coming to Terms with China By Chalmers Johnson TomDispatch Tuesday 15 March 2005 I recall forty years ago, when I was a new professor working in the field of Chinese and Japanese international relations, that Edwin O. Reischauer once commented, "The great payoff from our victory of 1945 was a permanently disarmed Japan." Born in Japan and a Japanese historian at Harvard, Reischauer served as American ambassador to Tokyo in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Strange to say, since the end of the Cold War in 1991 and particularly under the administration of George W. Bush, the United States has been doing everything in its power to encourage and even accelerate Japanese rearmament. Such a development promotes hostility between China and Japan, the two superpowers of East Asia, sabotages possible peaceful solutions in those two problem areas, Taiwan and North Korea, left over from the Chinese and Korean civil wars, and lays the foundation for a possible future Sino-American conflict that the United States would almost surely lose. It is unclear whether the ideologues and war lovers of Washington understand what they are unleashing -- a possible confrontation between the world's fastest growing industrial economy, China, and the world's second most productive, albeit declining, economy, Japan; a confrontation which the United States would have both caused and in which it might well be consumed. Let me make clear that in East Asia we are not talking about a little regime-change war of the sort that Bush and Cheney advocate. After all, the most salient characteristic of international relations during the last century was the inability of the rich, established powers -- Great Britain and the United States -- to adjust peacefully to the emergence of new centers of power in Germany, Japan, and Russia. The result was two exceedingly bloody world wars, a forty-five-year-long Cold War between Russia and the "West," and innumerable wars of national liberation (such as the quarter-century long one in Vietnam) against the arrogance and racism of European, American, and Japanese imperialism and colonialism. The major question for the twenty-first century is whether this fateful inability to adjust to changes in the global power-structure can be overcome. Thus far the signs are negative. Can the United States and Japan, today's versions of rich, established powers, adjust to the reemergence of China -- the world's oldest, continuously extant civilization -- this time as a modern superpower? Or is China's ascendancy to be marked by yet another world war, when the pretensions of European civilization in its U.S. and Japanese projections are finally put to rest? That is what is at stake. Alice-in-Wonderland Policies and the Mother of All Financial Crises China, Japan, and the United States are the three most productive economies on Earth, but China is the fastest growing (at an average rate of 9.5% per annum for over two decades), whereas both the U.S. and Japan are saddled with huge and mounting debts and, in the case of Japan, stagnant growth rates. China is today the world's sixth most productive economy (the U.S. and Japan being first and second) and our third largest trading partner after Canada and Mexico. According to CIA statisticians in their Factbook 2003, China is actually already the second-largest economy on Earth measured on a purchasing power parity basis -- that is, in terms of what China actually produces rather than prices and exchange rates. The CIA calculates the United States' gross domestic product (GDP) -- the total value of all goods and services produced within a country -- for 2003 as $10.4 trillion and China's $5.7 trillion. This gives China's 1.3 billion people a per capita GDP of $5,000. Between 1992 and 2003, Japan was China's largest trading partner, but in 2004 Japan fell to third place, behind the European Union (EU) and the United States. China's trade volume for 2004 was $1.2 trillion, third in the world after the U.S. and Germany, and well ahead of Japan's $1.07 trillion. China's trade with the U.S. grew some 34% in 2004 and has turned Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland into the three busiest seaports in America. The truly significant trade development of 2004 was the EU's emergence as China's biggest economic partner, suggesting the possibility of a Sino-European cooperative bloc confronting a less vital Japanese-American one. As Britain's Financial Times observed, "Three years after its entry into the World Trade Organization [in 2001], China's influence in global commerce is no longer merely significant. It is crucial." For example, most Dell Computers sold in the U.S. are made in China, as are the DVD players of Japan's Funai Electric Company. Funai annually exports some 10 million DVD players and television sets from China to the United States, whe
[Ugnet] No Longer the "Lone" Superpower
No Longer the "Lone" Superpower Coming to Terms with China By Chalmers Johnson TomDispatch Tuesday 15 March 2005 I recall forty years ago, when I was a new professor working in the field of Chinese and Japanese international relations, that Edwin O. Reischauer once commented, "The great payoff from our victory of 1945 was a permanently disarmed Japan." Born in Japan and a Japanese historian at Harvard, Reischauer served as American ambassador to Tokyo in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Strange to say, since the end of the Cold War in 1991 and particularly under the administration of George W. Bush, the United States has been doing everything in its power to encourage and even accelerate Japanese rearmament. Such a development promotes hostility between China and Japan, the two superpowers of East Asia, sabotages possible peaceful solutions in those two problem areas, Taiwan and North Korea, left over from the Chinese and Korean civil wars, and lays the foundation for a possible future Sino-American conflict that the United States would almost surely lose. It is unclear whether the ideologues and war lovers of Washington understand what they are unleashing -- a possible confrontation between the world's fastest growing industrial economy, China, and the world's second most productive, albeit declining, economy, Japan; a confrontation which the United States would have both caused and in which it might well be consumed. Let me make clear that in East Asia we are not talking about a little regime-change war of the sort that Bush and Cheney advocate. After all, the most salient characteristic of international relations during the last century was the inability of the rich, established powers -- Great Britain and the United States -- to adjust peacefully to the emergence of new centers of power in Germany, Japan, and Russia. The result was two exceedingly bloody world wars, a forty-five-year-long Cold War between Russia and the "West," and innumerable wars of national liberation (such as the quarter-century long one in Vietnam) against the arrogance and racism of European, American, and Japanese imperialism and colonialism. The major question for the twenty-first century is whether this fateful inability to adjust to changes in the global power-structure can be overcome. Thus far the signs are negative. Can the United States and Japan, today's versions of rich, established powers, adjust to the reemergence of China -- the world's oldest, continuously extant civilization -- this time as a modern superpower? Or is China's ascendancy to be marked by yet another world war, when the pretensions of European civilization in its U.S. and Japanese projections are finally put to rest? That is what is at stake. Alice-in-Wonderland Policies and the Mother of All Financial Crises China, Japan, and the United States are the three most productive economies on Earth, but China is the fastest growing (at an average rate of 9.5% per annum for over two decades), whereas both the U.S. and Japan are saddled with huge and mounting debts and, in the case of Japan, stagnant growth rates. China is today the world's sixth most productive economy (the U.S. and Japan being first and second) and our third largest trading partner after Canada and Mexico. According to CIA statisticians in their Factbook 2003, China is actually already the second-largest economy on Earth measured on a purchasing power parity basis -- that is, in terms of what China actually produces rather than prices and exchange rates. The CIA calculates the United States' gross domestic product (GDP) -- the total value of all goods and services produced within a country -- for 2003 as $10.4 trillion and China's $5.7 trillion. This gives China's 1.3 billion people a per capita GDP of $5,000. Between 1992 and 2003, Japan was China's largest trading partner, but in 2004 Japan fell to third place, behind the European Union (EU) and the United States. China's trade volume for 2004 was $1.2 trillion, third in the world after the U.S. and Germany, and well ahead of Japan's $1.07 trillion. China's trade with the U.S. grew some 34% in 2004 and has turned Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland into the three busiest seaports in America. The truly significant trade development of 2004 was the EU's emergence as China's biggest economic partner, suggesting the possibility of a Sino-European cooperative bloc confronting a less vital Japanese-American one. As Britain's Financial Times observed, "Three years after its entry into the World Trade Organization [in 2001], China's influence in global commerce is no longer merely significant. It is crucial." For example, most Dell Computers sold in the U.S. are made in China, as are the DVD players of Japan's Funai Electric Company. Funai annually exports some 10 million DVD players and television sets from China to the United States, whe
[Ugnet] Rat eating Iteso are not serious!
An African-American man was bitter to me recently, that if we continental
Africans stopped wasting time in eating snakes and rats maybe we all would
hasten our emancipation.
My first instinct was anger at him, but then I remembered the herds-boys in
South Africa who, while grazing the animals, roast snakes. ('They hold the
tail and swirl the snake - making it "drunk" and immobile, and then put it
aside, to make fire').
Still, I was mad for our categorization as rat eaters!!
But lo and behold - hardly more than a week has passed and rat-eating rears
its ugly head; and morever, as part of President Museveni's State dialogue
with citizens!!
One wonders whether to laugh or cry!!
=
Rat eating Iteso are not serious!
It is interesting to note that although civilization has been around for
years, some citizens still hold onto outdated cultural practices. A headline
in the The New Vision of Friday, March 4, 2005: Man Eats Rat For District is
very instructive. I was stunned to read that some Iteso chewed raw rats in
front of President Yoweri Museveni, to prove their ancestry in Tororo County
and to demand that the county be elevated to district status. Such barbaric
and horrendous acts do not justify ancestry.
Rather, they portray insanity. Rodents are supposed to be a delicacy for
cats but not for human beings! The Iteso from Tororo should learn that it is
not the number of rats eaten but the number of reasons given that will
convince relevant authorities to grant them a district.
Henry Onyango,
Kampala.
_
Don't just Search. Find! http://search.sympatico.msn.ca/default.aspx The new
MSN Search! Check it out!
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[Ugnet] Remembering Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero
of God: Stop the repression." The next day, he was killed. A quarter-century later, priests such as Leclerg and Rivas try to follow his example. In poor villages along the Rio Lempa, about 60 miles southeast of the capital, they fight for land reform. They organize peasants to protest free trade. They lobby the government to reduce the debt on farmers who took out loans to form cooperatives more than two decades ago. In December 2003, they helped organize a five-day march to the capital to demand that the government finish building the dikes along the river. Rivas, 37, walked all the way to the end, where the group was met by anti-riot police. "He tells us we have to defend our rights, our communities," said Pastor Villanueva, a 42-year-old farmer and former guerrilla with a face mangled by shrapnel 20 years ago. "He is involved in everything." Villanueva joined the march because he regularly sees his corn crop destroyed and his home inundated knee-deep in water. His land is low, flat and fertile, thinly shaded by thorny acacias. The river doesn't look like much to worry about. Most of the year, it pools and gently bends around sandy shoals. But when it rains hard, the hydroelectric plant upstream releases huge surges of water from a reservoir. The river tops the banks and devastates the countryside. "It's always a fight against the government," Villanueva said. "The church is the one who goes before us." Mitayo Potosi _ Scan and help eliminate destructive viruses from your inbound and outbound e-mail and attachments. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] THE TRUTH BEHIND THE RWANDA TRAGEDY
Comrade Remegio Kintu, Thank you for your report to the Rwanda Tribunal. It is a fantastic piece of work but still in the form of draft. It could be polished and expanded into a book. i.e. You lumped Chile's Salvador Allende with murderers. Maybe you meant Pinochet. Things like those show that it is still a draft. This is not to put it down, though!! So even 2nd generation Tutsis, born in Uganda, (Ugandans for all intents and purposes) took part in the invasion. They lived among us like the snakes, or soldiers of the Trojan horse. The HM at Kabwoko. Is that the fellow in the early 1970? Finally, careful and thorough research is assumed regarding all these people and their nationalities. We would hate to tarnish the name of any bona fide innocent Ugandan. Thank you. _ Take advantage of powerful junk e-mail filters built on patented Microsoft® SmartScreen Technology. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Kako SS closed over strike
While in Dar-es-Salaam, Obote negotiated with the British Ambassador in Tanzania to, again, put him in power in our country in1980. All of you must remember what was called a British military Training team that Obote got from the British. This team was actually a mercenary company - Sandline International. In fighting the insurgents in Luwero, they and Obote recruited all Uganda's Secondary School Math Teachers into a battalion which had been promised to become the new elites in Uganda. Well they had all of them perish in Luwero. The British were controlling both sides in the war(Remember m7 in Lonhho?) So, we lost a whole generation of Sec School Mathematics Teachers. Read what is happening in Kako SS and reflect on how they made sure we would be crippled for a generation, with no Math Teachers. == Kako SS closed over strike By Michael J Ssali MASAKA - The police on Thursday closed Kako Secondary School following a one-week sit-down strike by students. On Monday, over 700 students refused to attend classes and camped at the main gate. They accused the headmaster, Mr Laban Bukenya of dictatorship and complained of lack of textbooks and furniture. On Tuesday, the Assistant Commissioner in the Ministry of Education, Mr John Agaba, and the District Police Commander, Mr James Musaanya, addressed the student following a memorandum they wrote to the ministry. In the memorandum, they claimed that there had been frequent water shortage problems and O-level students do not do science practicals until they are in Senior Four. They claimed that Senior Five students had not been taught Physics and Mathematics since they joined the school this year. Our dormitories have bats and leaking roofs, the memo stated. Agaba promised to return to the school within a week to deliver the ministry's decision on their complaints. He directed Bukenya not to dismiss any student including those that he suspected to have led the strike. However on Thursday, Bukenya gave a dismissal letter to the Chairman of the Students Council, Mr Simon Peter Kyeganwa. This provoked the students to boycott lessons and they threatened violence. Bukenya called the police, who ordered the students to return home at about 4.00 pm. Exams start next week. Mitayo Potosi _ MSN® Calendar keeps you organized and takes the effort out of scheduling get-togethers. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Hullo
Dear Mr. Kiggundu, I have been on this computer now for over three hours and I have just received a note (automatic dialer) that my mail is bouncing and I am disconnected from Ugandanet. This happens regularly and I am forced to reconnect. I suspect that, unfortunately, some postings from ugandanet do not reach me. Something is definitely wrong on that side as my inbox is all clear. Ssebo mubeere bulungi. Mitayo Potosi _ MSN® Calendar keeps you organized and takes the effort out of scheduling get-togethers. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Kako SS closed over strike
While in Dar-es-Salaam, Obote negotiated with the British Ambassador in Tanzania to, again, put him in power in our country in1980. All of you must remember what was called a British military Training team that Obote got from the British. This team was actually a mercenary company - Sandline International. In fighting the insurgents in Luwero, they and Obote recruited all Uganda's Secondary School Math Teachers into a battalion which had been promised to become the new elites in Uganda. Well they had all of them perish in Luwero. The British were controlling both sides in the war(Remember m7 in Lonrho?) So, we lost a whole generation of Sec School Mathematics Teachers. Read what is happening in Kako SS and reflect on how they made sure we would be crippled for a generation, with no Math Teachers. == Kako SS closed over strike By Michael J Ssali MASAKA - The police on Thursday closed Kako Secondary School following a one-week sit-down strike by students. On Monday, over 700 students refused to attend classes and camped at the main gate. They accused the headmaster, Mr Laban Bukenya of dictatorship and complained of lack of textbooks and furniture. On Tuesday, the Assistant Commissioner in the Ministry of Education, Mr John Agaba, and the District Police Commander, Mr James Musaanya, addressed the student following a memorandum they wrote to the ministry. In the memorandum, they claimed that there had been frequent water shortage problems and O-level students do not do science practicals until they are in Senior Four. They claimed that Senior Five students had not been taught Physics and Mathematics since they joined the school this year. Our dormitories have bats and leaking roofs, the memo stated. Agaba promised to return to the school within a week to deliver the ministry's decision on their complaints. He directed Bukenya not to dismiss any student including those that he suspected to have led the strike. However on Thursday, Bukenya gave a dismissal letter to the Chairman of the Students Council, Mr Simon Peter Kyeganwa. This provoked the students to boycott lessons and they threatened violence. Bukenya called the police, who ordered the students to return home at about 4.00 pm. Exams start next week. Mitayo Potosi _ Take charge with a pop-up guard built on patented Microsoft® SmartScreen Technology. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Kako SS closed over strike
matics Teachers. Read what is happening in Kako SS and reflect on how they made sure we would be crippled for a generation, with no Math Teachers. == Kako SS closed over strike By Michael J Ssali MASAKA - The police on Thursday closed Kako Secondary School following a one-week sit-down strike by students. On Monday, over 700 students refused to attend classes and camped at the main gate. They accused the headmaster, Mr Laban Bukenya of dictatorship and complained of lack of textbooks and furniture. On Tuesday, the Assistant Commissioner in the Ministry of Education, Mr John Agaba, and the District Police Commander, Mr James Musaanya, addressed the student following a memorandum they wrote to the ministry. In the memorandum, they claimed that there had been frequent water shortage problems and O-level students do not do science practicals until they are in Senior Four. They claimed that Senior Five students had not been taught Physics and Mathematics since they joined the school this year. Our dormitories have bats and leaking roofs, the memo stated. Agaba promised to return to the school within a week to deliver the ministry's decision on their complaints. He directed Bukenya not to dismiss any student including those that he suspected to have led the strike. However on Thursday, Bukenya gave a dismissal letter to the Chairman of the Students Council, Mr Simon Peter Kyeganwa. This provoked the students to boycott lessons and they threatened violence. Bukenya called the police, who ordered the students to return home at about 4.00 pm. Exams start next week. Mitayo Potosi _ Take advantage of powerful junk e-mail filters built on patented Microsoft® SmartScreen Technology. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] test
Mitayo Potosi _ Scan and help eliminate destructive viruses from your inbound and outbound e-mail and attachments. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Togo
Opposition fury at Togo poll loss Faure Gnassingbe has already briefly led TogoFaure Gnassingbe, candidate of Togo's ruling RPT party and son of the former leader, has provisionally won Sunday's presidential election, officials say. Opposition supporters immediately poured onto the streets of the capital, Lome, erecting burning barricades. They say the poll was rigged. Many residents stayed indoors as thick black smoke wafted across the city. The army tried to install Mr Faure after his father died but pressure led him to step down and call an election. Security forces used tear gas to disperse the opposition protesters in central Lome but shops were reportedly looted in other areas. In other developments: The main opposition party has called on Togolese people to "resist" the government; Mr Faure denied vote-rigging and called on the opposition to join a government of national unity; In areas of the capital which support the ruling party, activists took to the streets to celebrate, while others patrolled with sticks and bows and arrows to guard against opposition attack; A spokeswoman for the Ecowas regional body, which sent observers to the poll, said the "anomalies... were not enough to cast doubt on the good conduct and the credibility of the election"; Some Lebanese families have fled their homes near the border with Ghana, saying they have been attacked and robbed. 'Regime' Mr Faure received 60% of the votes, while main opposition candidate Emmanuel Bob-Akitani got 38% of votes cast, said electoral commission chairwoman Kissem Tchangai Walla. "In view of these results... the candidate of the RPT has been provisionally elected," she said. ELECTION RESULTS Faure Gnassingbe: 1.4m votes (60%) Emmanuel Bob-Akitani: 841,000 (38%) Turnout: 64% Source: Electoral Commission (Provisional results)However, she said the results did not include areas where ballot boxes had been destroyed. These issues would be decided by the constitutional court which would announce the final results, she said. But the BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Lome says Mr Faure has been declared the winner by such a substantial margin that the result is not likely to be changed. Mr Akitani's Union of Forces for Change (UFC) has rejected the results. "We call on the people to resist," said UFC secretary-general Jean-Pierre Fabre. Civil war fears Mr Faure, however, urged veteran UFC leader Gilchrist Olympio to join the government. "He is in the sunset of his political career and we can benefit from his experience," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. Earlier, UFC leader Gilchrist Olympio, who was barred from standing, said his party would not serve as a minority partner in any unity government. Mr Olympio was ineligible to stand in the poll because he lives in exile following a 1992 assassination attempt. This man says he was beaten by security forces Regional powerhouse Nigeria had said that Mr Olympio and Mr Faure had agreed to share power in a bid to calm tensions. During the campaign, Mr Faure, 39 was portrayed as the candidate for a new Togo even though his father had run the country for 38 years - in contrast to Mr Akitani, 75. His support base is in the north, while the opposition is strongest in the south, including Lome. Last week, the interior minister called for the polls to be postponed for fear that civil war might break out. He was sacked and sought sanctuary in the German embassy. Seven people were reportedly killed in pre-election violence. Mr Faure's father, Gnassingbe Eyadema died in February after ruling Togo for 38 years. He had seized power in a coup from Mr Olympio's father, Sylvanus, in 1963. ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Hitler Youth and the Vatican
Hitler Youth and the Vatican By Marc Ash Thursday 28 April 2005 Pope Benedict XVI as young Joseph Ratzinger.Circa 1940. (Photo: KNA / AP) In the final stages of World War II, US and British soldiers reported that the German military was using child soldiers. Boys as young as 14 faced advancing allied forces, often fighting to the death. Death, however, was not always the fate that awaited the young Germans, some were captured. The American and English soldiers who questioned the young prisoners noted two things almost categorically: most of the child soldiers were or had been Hitler Youth, and those who had held membership in the Fuhrer's youth corps were impossible to reason with. Passionate ideological mind-sets were reportedly common among these boys. Recent worldwide press attention to the boyhood membership of now-Pope Benedict XVI in the Hitler Youth Movement has re-focused the attention of world on the origins of the catastrophic conflict that engulfed mankind in the mid-twentieth century. The debate has been focused in particular on what constituted a good German at that time. In fairness to the new Pope, there is no evidence that any member of the Ratzinger family supported or sympathized with the Nazis. There are even some accounts that put the Ratzinger family in opposition to the Nazis. That would have, by any account of the day, been risky, as the Nazis were willing to mete out their vengeance against Catholics who opposed them as quickly as against any other opposition. Catholics who resisted faced persecution and even execution. As for entry into the Hitler Youth movement itself, as Cardinal Ratzinger has pointed out many times over the years, young German boys were in fact conscripted, and attendance was compulsory. History supports this all. Two things, however, bear note. First, Cardinal Ratzinger's own recollection of induction into the Hitler Youth Movement. He said, "I was too young, but later was enrolled into it from the seminary." And second, it should be noted that, in Germany today, finding a former Nazi is not easy. Yes, there is a troubling cadre of new-right neo-Nazis. Gone, however, are the wild-eyed throngs of average Germans who were swayed, gone as though they had never existed. Fear and Loathing of Communism One theory promulgated by Adolph Hitler that has resonated with many Americans throughout the decades is the fear and loathing of Communism. It seems the red menace is as good a social motivator in America today as it was at the Nuremberg rally in 1934. Shame. Beware the left, and all that. At any rate, according to a recent New York Times article by Richard Bernstein, Daniel J. Wakin and Mark Landler, Joseph Ratzinger developed a deep and abiding disdain for the student radicalism in the late 1960s at Tübingen University. The Times authors point to a fear that students' tactics smacked of Nazi tactics, and that, they conclude, Ratzinger could not abide. But Ratzinger's words belie a greater fear of Marxism. He wrote, "Marxist revolution kindled the whole university with its fervor, shaking it to its very foundations." Some years later, he chided a left-leaning colleague over dinner, saying with some satisfaction, "Your Marxist revolution has come to nothing." Events in Russia during the first half of the twentieth century sent shock waves through all of Europe. As the kettle boiled over in Moscow there was little time to differentiate between Marxism and Stalinism. The difference was profound but ultimately the far-left proved a catalyst for the far-right and the center became a killing-field. Stalin had used the far-left to launch his own personal Stalinist dictatorship and the rest is, as they say, history. While Stalin pretended to support the goals of the Communists to gain power, Hitler used fear of the Communists to do the same. It is also worthy of noting that as the far-right attempted to gain power in the US in recent Presidential elections the far-left, specifically Ralph Nader once again opened the door. Joseph Ratzinger might have argued that the far left's capacity to empower the far right was reason enough to reject the new thinking emerging at Tübingen University in the late 1960s. But as his journey now has led him to be arguably the most influential man in the world, his early demonization of the students at Tübingen becomes suspect by its convenience. Why Does All This Matter? The Vatican contends today, as it has always contended, that they 'don't do politics.' History disagrees, particularly with regard to the Vatican's relationship with the Nazis. Serious allegations have swirled for years about the Vatican's complicity with the Nazis during and after the war. Those charges have resulted in several investigations and at least one lawsuit, but no more. The Vatican has refused repeated requests to open its archives from the period. Until they do so, the question remai
[Ugnet] (no subject)
Dear Friends living in Britain, Please fill us in about reports that the absentee/postal ballots will be used by Labour to massively rig the elections. And that Foreign Secretary Michael Short is bound to lose his parliamentary seat unless he is rigged in. At least that is what we read in some papers. Mitayo Potosi ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] The proposed federal arrangement is not tenable
Opinions | May 12, 2005 The proposed federal arrangement is not tenable By John Butime, ET AL The Federo proposal in Uganda is not tenable. The Ugandan experience of federalist arrangement has clearly shown that it is always designed to address selfish political motives. Federal arrangements in countries like US have been very successful in as far as achieving the twin objectives of the promotion of local autonomy whilst bolstering national unity and sovereignty. FOR FEDERO: Lukyamuzi The US constitution guarantees the rights of states. Unlike in unitary setups where these rights are delegated, under federalism, they are entrenched in the constitution. Powers and functions are duly shared between the federal government and the states. This federalist model is uniformly applied across the USA. The US federal arrangement operates against the backdrop of a presidential model underpinned by the twin principles of separation of powers and checks and balances. The two systems constitute a biumvirate of governance models which has yielded very strong and durable institutions like the presidency, a bi-cameral Congress consisting of the Senate which guarantees and safeguards the equality and rights of states and a House of Representatives whose membership is constituted through the election of representatives from constituencies demarcated on the basis of population size. There is also an independent Judiciary with the Supreme Court of the US acting as final arbiter in matters of national dispute. With power at multiple centres, the temptation to stage coups, the bloating of the cabinet size with its attendant extensive networks of political patronage with their accompanying administrative costs, are averted. Federalism saves this revenue for other development purposes.The Lancaster Constitution of 1962 ushered political expediency to the heart of the Ugandan federalist settlement. The delegates that promulgated this act of political settlement adopted a dual system that incorporated both federalist and unitarist aspects into Ugandas unique governance model. There was a confluence of political interests that ultimately pushed for the adoption of this model. Both UPC and KY shared the burning desire to neutralize DP, which won the self-government elections of 1961. This was possible if the number of DP MPs was curtailed through a system of indirect elections in Buganda where parliamentarians were elected by a KY controlled Lukiiko. The Lancaster federalist settlement held Uganda at constitutional ransom in the sense that the principles that defined her federal relationship with Buganda were over entrenched to the extent that it was virtually difficult to change the status quo. By virtue of the principle of concurrent powers, an amendment to the law defining the Buganda- Uganda relationship required the institution of simultaneous legislation in both the Lukiiko and Parliament with the requirement that it had to take a two thirds majority vote in both legislatures for a provision relating to the same to be repealed. In one of his treatises on the untenability of Americas loose confederation model, Alexander Hamilton, one of the architects of the US constitution argued that government could only be effective if it had a direct link with the citizenry at the grass roots level. The system of indirect elections in Buganda constituted the Lukiiko into a tier of obstruction against the realisation of this link between the national government in Kampala and Ugandan citizens in Buganda. In effect, Ugandan citizens resident in Buganda were disenfranchised. The latest episode in the federalisation of Ugandas governance landscape neither delivers federo at the doorstep of Buganda nor federalism to the rest of Uganda. It is yet another chapter in the employment of federalism as a trump card in the deadly game of political expediency whose past adverse repercussions are bound to recur. Hon. John Ken Lukyamuzi says that the federo that Buganda is demanding encompasses 4 aspects: Kabakaship, Land, Taxation and Kampala. According to Lukyamuzi, Buganda wants Article 246 which designates the Kabaka as Cultural Head of the Baganda to be revisited with a view to him ( Kabaka) becoming a fully fledged constitutional monarch. Lukyamuzi says Buganda wants the Central Government of Uganda to surrender the 9,000 square miles of land she seized by virtue of Central Government Decree Number 5 of 1975. Also at the centre of Bugandas federo demands is her right to independent sources of revenue and the designation of Kampala as a constituent part of Buganda.In the form in which Buganda wants federo to be delivered, the proposed governance model does not live up to her demands. The only gain for Buganda in the proposed arrangement is that the Kabaka will actually become a constitutional monarch, head of the Buganda regional government and will open and close debate in the Lukiiko . Otherwise, Uganda is not in
[Ugnet] Uganda needs law on pension fund investments, says expert
Business | May 12, 2005 Uganda needs law on pension fund investments, says expert By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA - With a pension sector starting to assume a vital role in Uganda's economy, the country now urgently needs a law that would limit the amount of pension funds to be invested overseas, according to an expert.The continued absence of such a law, the Managing Director of African Alliance, Mr Gary Watson, says leaves the sector highly exposed and vulnerable, hamstringing efforts to expand it and position it for a more pronounced impact on the local economy. "A large well-run pension industry is only possible if pension funds are used to develop the Ugandan industry," he said. Currently Uganda has one pension fund, the National Social Security Fund, which holds about Shs400 billion, making it one of the nation's biggest cash depositories. In a paper he presented to a pension fund discussion in Kampala last week, Gary noted that pensions have historically played a central role in any of the world's mature economies; providing long term financing to businesses and starting up massive projects that transform the economy via provision of employment and large scale production of goods and services. But while NSSF has such great capacity to power the economy through provision of cheap capital to businesses, the investment decisions and choice of locations for those investments within the prevailing legal regime, rests absolutely with the managers, who are often profit driven. If left alone, pension managers would almost certainly be inclined to invest in locations that offer higher rates of return; the US, EU, S. Africa and parts of Asia. Watson said almost all other nations have put strict curbs on the maximum amount that can be invested in foreign markets: South Africa fixed hers at 25 percent, Kenya at 50 percent and Botswana, 70 percent. An assessment of the Ugandan situation, Gary suggests that the government would render it a big boost if it tied the limit at 50 percent. Uganda, he said, should imitate its regional neighbours and liberalise its pensions sector, contending that such a development would spur efficiency. But in the event of liberalisation, he cautioned, pension managers from the developed world must be compelled to administer the businesses locally so the country can benefit via expertise and technology transfer. "If the management is done in Johannesburg, Nairobi or out there in the developed world, Uganda will never develop her own investment management industry. Instead there will be a number of salesmen but no capacity building," 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/
RE: [Ugnet] $0.14 to Call Uganda
Vonage has a $25/month unlimited calls to US & Canada (http://www.vonage.com/products_premium.php), $0.14 to Uganda (mobile or landline), but $0.28 to UK (http://www.vonage.com/intrates.php#U). Where is the catch? Dear all, I dont think there is any catch. Vonage is at the forefront of VoIP. It is only because telephone companies, which have recouped their investiment a zillion times over, cheat us with these high telephone rates. There is no reason why Telephoning is not as cheap as e-mail. Uganda should have never allowed the local phone companies to charge wananchi an arm and a leg. And we warned Hon Nkuuhe - head of NRM Science policies. Regardless, Vonage and some five or so other companies are trailblazing the future. The British, under cover of South African telephony may be bleeding us now but the writing is on the wall - they will not fleece us for ever. In Canada the big Telephone companies are fighting back. They want govt to regislate them special favours and protection. They are lobying to get whole telephone-law enforcment public services disbanded and the relevant public servants who enforce these laws put out of business. Wherever you reside get more informed on this ripoff and fight back, through your political representatives. But in the end technology and the people will win. Humanity is entitled to telephony which is as cheap as e-mail. =>From: musamize <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>Reply-To: ugandanet@kym.net>To: ugandanet@kym.net>Subject: [Ugnet] $0.14 to Call Uganda>Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 11:43:38 -0700 (PDT)>>Vonage has a $25/month unlimited calls to US & Canada (http://www.vonage.com/products_premium.php), $0.14 to Uganda (mobile or landline), but $0.28 to UK (http://www.vonage.com/intrates.php#U).>>Where is the catch?>>Musamize>Usual disclaimers, and, I've never used Vonage.>>>->Do you Yahoo!?> Make Yahoo! your home page>___>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] FW: The results of your email commands
Brother Yaobang, Maybe the easier approach is to sign off your ugandanet membership, and then re-register, afresh. I also had problems with ugandanet. Mr. Kiggundu says these problems originate from hotmail. But how come your postings on ugandanet go through if really the machine has delisted you? === >From: "Y Yaobang" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>Reply-To: ugandanet@kym.net>To: ugandanet@kym.net>CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED]>Subject: [Ugnet] FW: The results of your email commands>Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 02:12:20 +>><< message3.txt >>>___>Ugandanet mailing list>Ugandanet@kym.net>http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet>% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ Content-Type: text/html; format=flowed Netters, I have not received mail from Ugandanet for the last month or so. Occassionally I get the reminders below, and when I respond, I get negative messages. I have even written to Kiggs, but wapi! Are some of us (non-southerners) being systematically exterminated from Ugandanet oba what??? y>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]>Subject: The results of your email commands>Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 16:30:13 +0300>>The results of your email command are provided below. Attached is your>original message.>>- Results:> Ignoring non-text/plain MIME parts> Invalid confirmation string. Note that confirmation strings expire>approximately 3 days after the initial subscription request. If your>confirmation has expired, please try to re-submit your original request or>message.>>- Done.>Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! MSN Messenger Download today it's FREE! ___ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
[Ugnet] Horror of USA's depleted Uranium
Horror of USA's depleted Uranium Friday, April 29 2005 @ 03:16 PM MDT Contributed by: Diogenes Views: 1355 Horror Of US Depleted Uranium In Iraq Threatens World American Use Of DU is "A crime against humanity which may, in the eyes of historians, rank with the worst atrocities of all time."US Iraq Military Vets "are on DU death row, waiting to die."By James Denver4-29-5"I'm horrified. The people out there - the Iraqis, the media and the troops - risk the most appalling ill health. And the radiation from depleted uranium can travel literally anywhere. It's going to destroy the lives of thousands of children, all over the world. We all know how far radiation can travel. Radiation from Chernobyl reached Wales and in Britain you sometimes get red dust from the Sahara on your car." The speaker is not some alarmist doomsayer. He is Dr. Chris Busby, the British radiation expert, Fellow of the University of Liverpool in the Faculty of Medicine and UK representative on the European Committee on Radiation Risk, talking about the best-kept secret of this war: the fact that by illegally using hundreds of tons of depleted uranium (DU) against Iraq, Britain and America have gravely endangered not only the Iraqis but the whole world. For these weapons have released deadly, carcinogenic and mutagenic, radioactive particles in such abundance that-whipped up by sandstorms and carried on trade winds - there is no corner of the globe they cannot penetrate-including Britain. For the wind has no boundaries and time is on their side: the radioactivity persists for over 4,500,000,000 years and can cause cancer, leukemia, brain damage, kidney failure, and extreme birth defects - killing millions of every age for centuries to come. A crime against humanity which may, in the eyes of historians, rank with the worst atrocities of all time. These weapons have released deadly, carcinogenic and mutagenic, radioactive particles in such abundance that there is no corner of the globe they cannot penetrate - including Britain. Yet, officially, no crime has been committed. For this story is a dirty story in which the facts have been concealed from those who needed them most. It is also a story we need to know if the people of Iraq are to get the medical care they desperately need, and if our troops, returning from Iraq, are not to suffer as terribly as the veterans of other conflicts in which depleted uranium was used. A Dirty Tyson 'Depleted' uranium is in many ways a misnomer. 'Depleted' sounds weak. The only weak thing about depleted uranium is its price. It is dirt cheap, toxic, waste from nuclear power plants and bomb production. However, uranium is one of earth's heaviest elements and DU packs a Tyson's punch, smashing through tanks, buildings and bunkers with equal ease, spontaneously catching fire as it does so, and burning people alive. 'Crispy critters' is what US servicemen call those unfortunate enough to be close. And, when John Pilger encountered children killed at a greater distance he wrote: "The children's skin had folded back, like parchment, revealing veins and burnt flesh that seeped blood, while the eyes, intact, stared straight ahead. I vomited." (Daily Mirror) The millions of radioactive uranium oxide particles released when it burns can kill just as surely, but far more terribly. They can even be so tiny they pass through a gas mask, making protection against them impossible. Yet, small is not beautiful. For these invisible killers indiscriminately attack men, women, children and even babies in the womb--and do the gravest harm of all to children and unborn babies. A Terrible Legacy Doctors in Iraq have estimated that birth defects have increased by 2-6 times, and 3-12 times as many children have developed cancer and leukaemia since 1991. Moreover, a report published in The Lancet in 1998 said that as many as 500 children a day are dying from these sequels to war and sanctions and that the death rate for Iraqi children under 5 years of age increased from 23 per 1000 in 1989 to 166 per thousand in 1993. Overall, cases of lymphoblastic leukemia more than quadrupled with other cancers also increasing 'at an alarming rate.' In men, lung, bladder, bronchus, skin, and stomach cancers showed the highest increase. In women, the highest increases were in breast and bladder cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.1 On hearing that DU had been used in the Gulf in 1991, the UK Atomic Energy Authority sent the Ministry of Defense a special report on the potential damage to health and the environment. It said that it could cause half a million additional cancer deaths in Iraq over 10 years. In that war the authorities only admitted to using 320 tons of DU-although the Dutch charity LAKA estimates the true figure is closer to 800 tons. Many times that may have been spread across Iraq by this year's war. The devastating damage all this DU will do to the health and fertility of the people of Iraq now, and for generations to come, is
RE: [Ugnet] $0.14 to Call Uganda
There is an interesting article that gives a fuller picture about internet based services in Canada. The players, the legal tussles going on, etc... I am still looking for, rather than me trying to give a summary. >From: musamize [EMAIL PROTECTED]>Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 12:14:59 -0700 (PDT)>>how about www.lingo.com?>>Mitayo Potosi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:>>>>Vonage has a $25/month unlimited calls to US & Canada (http://www.vonage.com/products_premium.php), $0.14 to Uganda (mobile or landline), but $0.28 to UK (http://www.vonage.com/intrates.php#U).>>Where is the catch?>>>Dear all,>>I dont think there is any catch. Vonage is at the forefront of VoIP. It is only because telephone companies, which have recouped their investiment a zillion times over, cheat us with these high telephone rates. There is no reason why Telephoning is not as cheap as e-mail.>>Uganda should have never allowed the local phone companies to charge wananchi an arm and a leg. And we warned Hon Nkuuhe - head of NRM Science policies. Regardless, Vonage and some five or so other companies are trailblazing the future.>>The British, under cover of South African telephony may be bleeding us now but the writing is on the wall - they will not fleece us for ever.>>In Canada the big Telephone companies are fighting back. They want govt to regislate them special favours and protection. They are lobying to get whole telephone-law enforcment public services disbanded and the relevant public servants who enforce these laws put out of business.>>Wherever you reside get more informed on this ripoff and fight back, through your political representatives. But in the end technology and the people will win.>>Humanity is entitled to telephony which is as cheap as e-mail.>> => >From: musamize <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> >Reply-To: ugandanet@kym.net> >To: ugandanet@kym.net> >Subject: [Ugnet] $0.14 to Call Uganda> >Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 11:43:38 -0700 (PDT)> >> >Vonage has a $25/month unlimited calls to US & Canada (http://www.vonage.com/products_premium.php), $0.14 to Uganda (mobile or landline), but $0.28 to UK (http://www.vonage.com/intrates.php#U).> >> >Where is the catch?> >> >Musamize> >Usual disclaimers, and, I've never used Vonage.> >> >>>>>>>>>>->Do you Yahoo!?> Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. Learn more.>___>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/
[Ugnet] Hallo Mr Obbo:
Dear Mr Obbo, Remember what you said: that in the articles you write you always throw in one, once in a while, to rile a few of us. How can I forget the lies you concocted that it was Ben Kiwanuka who was behind Obote's attempted assassination at Lugogo in Dec 1969. Obote himself now in his Andrew-Mwenda interviews is telling us that it was the Steiner mercenaries in South Sudan working with Amin who were the architects. Can you then ever have the decency to apologize to all who hold so dearly in their hearts the memory of the late Benedicto Kiwanuka. And by the way, due to the off-hand way you talk in your article below about Luwero and the British, I am taking liberty to copy to you a small piece I wrote for one of our discussion groups, on Luwero and what happened to our Secondary School Mathematics teachers, explaining possibly why up to today there are no teachers for A-level Physics/Maths in schools like Kako SS etc. : Read on == Brother you ask: >Does that explain how "Maths" became a big problem for test takers in the >early years of the Museveni regime? Yes but it is not even the whole story!! In the Monitor series by Obote you must have noticed that he tangentially refers to his dealings with the British High Commissioner in Dar-es-Salaam. He is not even touching on how he came to be in deep talks with the same British who in 1972 had replaced him with Amin. The weasel is a consummate liar!! (Yalimba ne nnyina ku mabega). Well, in 1980 the British put Obote in power with the express instructions to reverse whatever small economic empowerment we had gained under Idi Amin. To their disappointment they could see that OboteII was too weak to hold down the Ugandan neo-colony for them. So they looked for other 'running dogs', whom they provided with weapons, delivered up to Mombasa. There was a depot, about 30 kilometers from Nairobi on the road to Mombasa, where the Moi govt used to start the transfer of these missiles to Ugandan agents of Kayira and Emmanuel Cardinal Nsubuga. There also was a similar weapons depot near the Kenya-Uganda border, on the Kenya side. Thank God Dr Kawanga never plung DP into the innocent blood of Ugandans. One may vehemently disagree with him on any number of issues but you have to give him that. Meanwhile the same British gave 'military assistance aid' to Obote in the form of a British military Training team. And as I have said, this was actually a mercenary company - Sandline International. Note that in the charter of the OAU Obote had insisted on putting in a death sentence applicable only to mercenaries. But by 1980 Obote had become so degenerate and desperate for power that it was now him that was bringing soldiers of fortune into our country. With urging from the British/Sandline International, Obote asked the late Makerere University Physics Professor and Dean of the Science Faculty, John Illukor (and two others I will not mention) to go around Uganda to convince all Secondary Sch Math Teachers to enlist into a new UNLA elite battalion. (Catch the hen and its chicks will come automatically)!! The promise was that, as top military officers - and the country's best number-crunchers, they as the new elites would be in charge of this very important organ of state and, by extension, at the centre of power. At the same time British Zionist Tiny Rowland of Lonrho International was giving to Museveni his personal jet and missiles to his fighters. Weapons were pouring into Luwero to Kayira and the Cardinal's agents. The battalion of our Mathematics teachers was lined up on the opposite side. None of these teachers ever came out of Luwero alive. The question is: Was this 'meat grinding' of our beloved Maths Teachers a deliberate British effort to deprive our country of a whole generation of Maths teachers ? I would not put it beyond them. Furthermore, if you were a de-tribalised Ugandan you would have been shocked and revolted to see that those that were being sent in the most risky and deadly missions by Kayira and the Cardinal were non-Baganda. Obote sent all into harms way ecxept a few of his tribesmen. Museveni too never sent Tutsis to risky and deadly missions. It is only after Museveni had come to power that he collected all Kayira and the Cardinal's Baganda recruits, took them to camps in West Nile and cut their throats. Inspite of all of this Cardinal Nsubuga never stopped singing to the whole world how he admired Museveni. Even after he had killed Kayiira himself. What kind of human being was Emmanuel Cardinal Nsubuga? A man who went down his grave denying that children had ever been roasted in railway wagons in Mukula!! I only wish he had been still alive when m7 went to lay a wreath on the ground where they had perished. So dear Brother, partly, that is why there are no A-level Maths and Physics teachers in Kako SS and many of our schools. Their skulls are the ones yo
Re: ugnet_: U.S. FORCED TO ALLOW LAWSUIT ON 'LAB BIRTH OF AIDS'
Thank you so much Mr. Kiggundu Mukasa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for this URL. Netters may also want to look at http://www.indianest.com/bookreviews/001.htm for the work of Dr. Leo Rebello, in Soweto. One cannot claim that he has found a cure for AIDS but he has become a sensation in South Africa. I have heard him speak and I have never been so impressed by a Medical Doctor. Thak you Brother Kiggundu Mukasa. From: Kiggundu Mukasa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: ugnet_: U.S. FORCED TO ALLOW LAWSUIT ON 'LAB BIRTH OF AIDS' Date: 22 Feb 2003 10:14:15 +0300 http://www.boydgraves.com/news/112802.html _ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
Re: ugnet_: Population control is a GOOD thing for Africa - I disagree
What is the operative parameter here? Is it population or the rate of population increase? "Ivinicus factus sum veritabem diceus." ( I have become an enemy for speaking the truth ) St Paul! ~~~~~~~~ Mitayo Potosi From: okello oruk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: ugnet_: Population control is a GOOD thing for Africa - I disagree Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 17:56:09 -0500 (EST) Mr. Ssemakula, I still disagree. Most of the points you raised have been heard many times now. They are the same old same old stuffs. I will point out briefly, three things. This is because I do not want to get into a lengthy discussion on this is which, to me at least, is plain obvious. 1. There is Malthusian theories at work in Africa. If you have no idea what Thomas Malthus proposed over hundred years ago, then read him. Furhter population will therefore speed up the process. Unfortunately we Africans are very forgetful. I am sure you know about Thomas Malthus and what he wrote. 2. Africa is large; has got huge amount of resources. Yet even at the current population, which is by the way low for a continent its size, Africans do not consume more than one percent of global output products despite the fact that the bulk of resources being used to produce these goods come from Africa. 3. The population increase you see in Gulu is not at all the natural trend of population increase. These are people displaced by the current war in the north. Children and mothers mostly. To consider this as population increase beats all logic. Have a good one. Ocii J Ssemakula <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Mr. Oruk and other Pro-big-population folks, Today the world population exceeds 6 billion mouths to feed, clothe, educate, provide medical care etc. Africa's share (on the continent only) of that load is som 855 Million individuals, of who 701 Million call Sub-Saharan Africa home. That is enough already! To make matters much worse, of the 855 Million people on the continent 53% are unde the age of 20. In sub-Saharan Africa, this proportion even bigger: 55%. So, in a manner of speaking, our problems are already here. This is because each one of those people too will soon want the very same resources that are in shortage now, and for good measure, will also want to reproduce. Must we be doomed to never ending famines, in addition to incessant wars, all types of pests and the diesease they bear? Must Africa for ever be characterized as continent with the lowest educational attainment, poorest housing, poorest health delivery system! s, least productive agriculture, poorest nutrition etc on the planet? Do you know that in Africa today, 90% of the population depends of woodfuels for heating, cooking and lighting and that trees are not being replinished fast enough? Do you know that villages that are only 10 miles from the capital city of Uganda, Kampala, have never had electricity or portable water and do not have plumbing of any sort and their roads won't be tarmacked for at least another 50 years? Yes, I admit, there is AIDS is a a deadly scourge. But trying to out reproduce it is quite simply a losing proportion, and is ni fact worse than anything else we can do about it. You see, this bib disease with a small name may be nearly 100% fatal, BUT, it also nearly 100% preventable -- and at little or no individual cost: via safe sex -- condoms; monogamy on one hand and abstention on the other. Of course, it is imperative that people be continually educated and reminded about its dangers and incurabil! ity. That said, about 10% of Uganda's poplation is HIV-positiv! e which is a very big proportion. Still, this amounts to about 2.5 million people out of nearly 24 million. Some of scientist believe that AIDS will kill 100,000 Ugandans (who would otherwise survive were they to be HIV-free) per year for the next ten years. Did you know that Uganda is already the most densily populated country in E Africa? (Or that, Gulu Town is second only to Kamapla in population? Why is this?). Uganda is crowded enough as it is! Let us use our intellects when it comes to reproduction. Family planning is not eugenic or somehow anti-life or pro-abortion as its detractors try to demonize it, neither is it against any God or religion that I know of. Its whole point is to promote and sustainable life, above subsistence levels or mere beastly survival. Anyone who has been to India or China will have no little ot no difficulty in grasping the benefit of prudent family planning. The era when a dozen children were necessary to ensure survival of humanity are ver! y long gone, even in Africa. Unfortunately, we did not acquire new brains to help us cope with the new world with its wonders of modern medicine, etc. In this brave new wor
ugnet_: Powell Speaks with Forked Tongue
Powell Speaks with Forked Tongue Language, not truth, has been the first casualty of the West's war against terrorism by Terry Jones It was interesting to hear Colin Powell accuse France and Germany of cowardice in not wanting to go to war. Or, as he put more succinctly, France and Germany 'are afraid of upholding their responsibility to impose the will of the international community'. Powell's speech brings up one of the most outrageous but least examined aspects of this whole war on Iraq business. I am speaking about the appalling collateral damage already being inflicted on the English language. Perhaps the worst impact is on our vocabulary. 'Cowardice', according to Colin Powell, is the refusal to injure thousands of innocent civilians living in Baghdad in order to promote US oil interests in the Middle East. The corollary is that 'bravery' must be the ability to order the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis without wincing or bringing up your Caesar salad. I suppose Tony Blair is 'brave' because he is willing to expose the people who voted for him to the threat of terrorist reprisals in return for getting a red carpet whenever he visits the White House, while Chirac is a 'coward' for standing up to the bigoted bullying of the extremist right-wing Republican warmongers who currently run the United States. In the same vein, well-fed young men sitting in millions of dollars' worth of military hardware and dropping bombs from 30,000ft on impoverished people who have already had all their arms taken away are exemplars of 'bravery'. 'Cowardliness', according to George W. Bush, is hijacking an aircraft and deliberately piloting it into a large building. There are plenty of things you could call that, but not 'cowardly'. Yet when Bill Maher pointed this out on his TV show, Politically Incorrect, he was anathematized and the sponsors threatened to withdraw funding from the show. Something weird is going on when not only do the politicians deliberately change the meanings of words, but also society is outraged when someone points out the correct usage. Then there's 'the international community'. Clearly, Colin Powell cannot be talking of the millions who took to the streets last Saturday. The 'international community' he's talking about must be those politicians who get together behind closed doors to decide how best to stay in power and enrich their supporters by maiming, mutilating and killing a lot of foreigners in funny clothes whom they'll never see. And while we're at it, what about that word 'war'. My dictionary defines a 'war' as 'open, armed conflict between two parties, nations or states'. Dropping bombs from a safe height on an already hard-pressed people, whose infrastructure is in chaos from years of sanctions and who live under an oppressive regime, isn't a 'war'. It's a turkey shoot. But then the violence being done to the English language is probably the price we have to pay for cheap petrol. Language is supposed to make ideas clearer so that we can understand them. But when politicians such as Colin Powell, George W. Bush, and Tony Blair get hold of language, their aim is usually the opposite. That's how they persuade us to take ludicrous concepts seriously. Like the whole idea of a 'war on terrorism'. You can wage war against another country, or on a national group within your own country, but you can't wage war on an abstract noun. How do you know when you've won? When you've got it removed from the Oxford English Dictionary? When men in power propose doing something that is shameful, wrong and destructive, the first casualty is the English language. It would matter less if it were the only casualty. But if they carry on perverting our vocabulary and twisting our grammar, the result will spell death for many who are now alive. http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,901052,00.html "Ivinicus factus sum veritabem diceus." ( I have become an enemy for speaking the truth ) St Paul! Mitayo Potosi _ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
ugnet_: President slams Bush and Blair
s it not ironical that Mr Bush who was not elected, should deny my legitimacy established by many observer groups from Africa and the Third World. Who should the world impose sanctions on, Robert Mugabe or George Bush?" The President said power had become to those who hold it, the determinant of justice, morality and even legality and that the governing norms of the Third World had been greatly eroded. Cde Mugabe said NAM needed a permanent secretariat for institutional memory, implementation of its decisions and for constant and timeous articulation between summits.. "If we are serious about our movement and if we want also to be taken seriously, we cannot continue to manage our affairs on an adhoc or part time basis. It is time we put our money where our mouth is," he said. Cuban President Cde Fidel Castro said the former colonies of powers that divided the world among themselves and plundered it for centuries today constituted the group of underdeveloped countries. "There is nothing like full independence, fair treatment on equal footing or national security for any of us; none is a permanent member of the UN Security Council with a veto right; none has any possibility to be involved in the decisions of the international financial institutions; none can keep its best talents; none can protect itself from the flight of capital or the destruction of nature and the environment caused by the squandering, selfish and insatiable consumerism of the economically developed countries." He said after the world carnage of the 1940s, there were promises of a world peace, the reduction of the gap between the rich and the poor and the assistance of the less developed countries by the highly developed ones. "It was all a huge lie. We were imposed an unsustainable and unbearable world order. The world is being driven to a dead road and within hardly 150 years, the oil and gas it took the planet 300 million years to accumulate will have been depleted," the Cuban leader said. After his address Cde Mugabe met Indian Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee during which they discussed ways in which New Delhi could provide Zimbabwe with cheaper anti-retroviral drugs to fight Aids. The two also discussed NAM and the proposed secretariat for the organisation, which Cde Mugabe feels strongly about as a way of revitalising it to face the new world challenges. Cde Mugabe also met former Commonwealth secretary general Chief Emeka Anyaouku, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri,the President of Mali Mr Amadou Toure and the Palestinian Foreign Minister Farouk Kaddoumi. The President and his delegation are now in Bangkok, Thailand where he is expected to open the Zimbabwe Expo Centre which will showcase local products and strengthen trade between the two countries. ~~~~~~~~ "Ivinicus factus sum veritabem diceus." ( I have become an enemy for speaking the truth ) St Paul! Mitayo Potosi _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
Re: ugnet_: Population control is a GOOD thing for Africa - I disagree
To: okello oruk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Brother, me and you are on the same side. Check again!! Dont get confused by my mask. Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: ugnet_: Population control is a GOOD thing for Africa - I disagree Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 17:35:54 -0500 (EST) "What is the operative parameter here? Is it population or the rate of population increase?" "Ivinicus factus sum veritabem diceus." ( I have become an enemy for speaking the truth ) St Paul! ~~~~~~~~ Mitayo Potosi Mitayo Potosi: The age of St. Paul is long gone. Therefore, over a hundred years ago maybe. Proof: Some U.S Doctors are making it loud and clear "AIDS was manufactured in some U.S labs"! If the U.S government disagree, it should take these Doctors to court. Plain and simple is the message out there. So, this is modern era. You disagree with the truth, it is up to you. But the truth will always remain the truth. And the only solution is court. Mitayo Potosi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: What is the operative parameter here? Is it population or the rate of population increase? "Ivinicus factus sum veritabem diceus." ( I have become an enemy for speaking the truth ) St Paul! Mitayo Potosi >From: okello oruk >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Re: ugnet_: Population control is a GOOD thing for Africa - I >disagree >Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 17:56:09 -0500 (EST) > > >Mr. Ssemakula, >I still disagree. Most of the points you raised have been heard many times >now. They are the same old same old stuffs. >I will point out briefly, three things. This is because I do not want to >get into a lengthy discussion on this is which, to me at least, is plain >obvious. >1. There is Malthusian theories at work in Africa. If you have no idea what >Thomas Malthus proposed over hundred years ago, then read him. Furhter >population will therefore speed up the process. Unfortunately we Africans >are very forgetful. I am sure you know about Thomas Malthus and what he >wrote. >2. Africa is large; has got huge amount of resources. Yet even at the >current population, which is by the way low for a continent its size, >Africans do not consume more than one percent of global output products >despite the fact that the bulk of resources being used to produce these >goods come from Africa. >3. The population increase you see in Gulu is not at all the natural trend >of population increase. These are people displaced by the current war in >the north. Children and mothers mostly. To consider this as population >increase beats all logic. >Have a good one. > Ocii > J Ssemakula wrote:Mr. Oruk and other >Pro-big-population folks, Today the world population exceeds 6 billion >mouths to feed, clothe, educate, provide medical care etc. Africa's share >(on the continent only) of that load is som 855 Million individuals, of who >701 Million call Sub-Saharan Africa home. That is enough already! To make >matters much worse, of the 855 Million people on the continent 53% are unde >the age of 20. In sub-Saharan Africa, this proportion even bigger: 55%. >So, in a manner of speaking, our problems are already here. This is because >each one of those people too will soon want the very same resources that >are in shortage now, and for good measure, will also want to reproduce. >Must we be doomed to never ending famines, in addition to incessant wars, >all types of pests and the diesease they bear? Must Africa for ever be >characterized as continent with the lowest educational attainment, poorest >housing, poorest health delivery system! > s, least productive agriculture, poorest nutrition etc on the planet? >Do you know that in Africa today, 90% of the population depends of >woodfuels for heating, cooking and lighting and that trees are not being >replinished fast enough? Do you know that villages that are only 10 miles >from the capital city of Uganda, Kampala, have never had electricity or >portable water and do not have plumbing of any sort and their roads won't >be tarmacked for at least another 50 years? Yes, I admit, there is AIDS is >a a deadly scourge. But trying to out reproduce it is quite simply a losing >proportion, and is ni fact worse than anything else we can do about it. You >see, this bib disease with a small name may be nearly 100% fatal, BUT, it >also nearly 100% preventable -- and at little or no individual cost: via >safe sex -- condoms; monogamy on one hand and abstention on the other. Of >course, it is imperative that people be continually educated and reminded >about its dangers and incurabil! > ity. That said, about 10% of Uganda's poplation is HIV
ugnet_: Full text of Mugabe speech to NAM
tions deriving from similar ideologies of new imperialism. Opinion makers like former Security Advisor to President Carter, Mr Brzezinski have spoken and written freely about a new imperial power. I quote Brzezinski directly to bring out the point: "Unlike earlier empires, this vast complex global system is not a hierarchical pyramid rather America stands at the center of an interlocking universe, one in which power is exercised through continuous bargaining, dialogue, diffusion, and quest for formal consensus, even though that power originates from a single source, namely, Washington, D.C. and that is where the power game has to be played, and played according to America's domestic rules." Brzezinski states further: "In addition, one must consider as part of the American system the global web of specialized organisations, especially the "international" financial institutions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank can be said to represent "global" interests, and their constituency may be construed as the world. In reality, however, they are heavily American dominated and their origins are traceable to American initiative..." When we think about it, the philosophy that Brzezinski elaborates in his book titled The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives, should not unduly surprise us. Now Brzezinski also talks openly about American domination in the military, economic, technological and cultural spheres, and exposes a strategy that has been pursued methodically and relentlessly for some time now. Emboldened by the conviction that the North Atlantic Grouping gained a geo political advantage at the end of the Cold War, Blair's close policy adviser, Mr. Robert Cooper, argues for what he terms a "New liberal imperialismâ? which asserts that, "The most logical way to deal with chaos, and the most often employed in the past, is colonization. But colonization is unacceptable to post modern states (and, as it happens, to some modern states too). It is precisely because of the death of imperialism that we are seeing the emergence of the pre-modern world." Robert Cooper goes on: "What is needed then is a new kind of imperialism, one acceptable to a world of human Rights and cosmopolitan values. We can already discern its outline: an imperialism which, like all imperialism, aims to bring order and organisation." Again he continues, "The challenge of postmodern world is to get used to the idea of double standards. Among ourselves (i.e. the West) we operate on the basis of laws and often cooperative security. But when dealing with more old fashioned kinds of states outside the postmodern continent of Europe, we need to revert to the rougher methods of an earlier era, force, preemptive attack, deception, whatever is necessary..." Who after reading this Blair philosophy would be surprised by his irrational actions on Zimbabwe? He desires and is determined to undermine the sovereignty of my country and introduce neo colonialist rule. That we shall never allow him to achieve, and I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your consistent support and solidarity with Zimbabwe. But against these enormous challenges, which confront us we should not hesitate to take bold and far reaching measures, which seek to revitalise our movement, tinkering on the margin will just not do. We need a permanent secretariat for institutional memory, implementation of our decisions and for constant and timeous articulation between Summits. If we are serious about our movement and if we want also to be taken seriously, we cannot continue to manage our affairs on an ad hoc or part time basis. It is time we put our money where our mouth is. I thank you. "Ivinicus factus sum veritabem diceus." ( I have become an enemy for speaking the truth ) St Paul! Mitayo Potosi _ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
ugnet_: Teachers should be treated fairly
ist of expected teaching positions. This information will allow the least senior teachers to begin to apply to fill those positions that are open. Moreover, senior teachers who wish to move should be encouraged to apply to move into those existing positions. So a senior maths teacher from Budo who wishes to relocate to Kitgum High school should be able to do so without having to wait for 10 years for transfer. In the end, teachers must not be treated like they were widgets to be moved from factory to factory. Their individual integrity must be respected at all times. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ends Mitayo Potosi _ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
ugnet_: Lt Gen Sumbeiywo's tenure cut short by two years
my is like the relay. Lt Gen Sumbeiywo's ran two years instead of the expected four (the tenure for a commander is four years)," he said. He said Lt Gen Sumbeiywo's services as Kenya's special envoy to the Sudan peace talks were most valuable to the country because the conflict in Southern Sudan had a direct bearing on the insecurity in the North Rift of Kenya. The region is a paradise for cattle rustlers and bandits due to easy availability of illegal firearms from Sudan and other neighbouring war-ravaged countries. "I wish you the best of luck in your new assignment. If you succeed, you will have helped us by boosting our country's security," he said. Lt Gen Kianga was born in Machakos District in 1950. He is married to Christine and they have four children. He joined the military in 1971 and he holds a masters degree in Military Art and Science from Kansas University, USA. He has previously been given military duties outside the country. President Kibaki, who is also the Commander in Chief of the Armed forces, also appointed Major General James M. Mulinge as assistant Chief of General Staff (personnel and logistics) Major General A.S.K. Njoroge is appointed as deputy Army Commander. Major General Mulinge, son of former armed forces chief Gen (Rtd) Jackson Mulinge, shot to fame in May 2000 when a detachment of Kenyan peacekeeping troops he was leading in Sierra Leone were captured by a bandit militia loyal to rebel leader Foday Sankoh. He was honoured by Liberian President Charles Taylor who was impressed by his composure under fire. Mulinge had refused an offer of release by the rebels unless his men were freed along with him. Comments\Views about this article "Ivinicus factus sum veritabem diceus." ( I have become an enemy for speaking the truth ) St Paul! Mitayo Potosi _ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
ugnet_: How can a country stand so much looting?
How can a country stand so much looting? Funny, Prof. Saitoti's name appears at the bottom of the document, and yet some on this forum were rubishing others, with concerns about him being in the new Kenya Cabinet. http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/28022003/News/News_Goldenberga2802200334.html Mitayo Potosi _ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus
ugnet_: Fwd: Harlem Anti War March & Rally - Saturday 4/5
>Subject: Harlem Anti War March & Rally - Saturday 4/5 >Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 12:52:40 -0500 > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Brothers, Sisters, friends and Supporters: >US polls indicate overwhelming Black opposition to the racist and illegal war of "shock and awe" against the people of Iraq. People of African descent understand well the US doctrine of "shock and awe" terrorism to expand its empire that drips with the blood of people of color. On April 5th in the historic village of Harlem thousands of African descendants in the US along with people of color allies will raise their voices in protest against this WAR FOR OIL. We will debunk the myth that People of Color do not have a visible voice or presence in the anti-war movement. We will speak to our issues, give our analysis, and support allies without conditions. This is a historic moment for the world, and especially for people of color. It is no accident that African Americans comprise 30% of the 40% people of color serving as cannon fodder for the US military. A bleak future of minimum wage employment or the prison industrial complex drives our sons and daughters int! o the military. Instead of educating our kids public schools have become fertile ground for military recruitment while every obstacle is put in place to prevent our children from obtaining higher education. It is no accident that New York State's courts have ruled the public school system has the obligation to only provide our children with an 8th grade education. Not to mention the continued daily brutality and death of our young people at the hands of the police. If this is not enough, now they want the blood of our children to fight in the Middle East in a campaign of endless war (Iraq is only the first target in the region). ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! JOIN US ON APRIL 5TH IN HARLEM, LET US SPEAK WITH ONE VOICE. We need your endorsement and support to help mobilize the community of Harlem. > >Peace and Solidarity. >Nellie Bailey, Harlem Tenants Council > > > >A Call to All African Americans >& People of Color > >We must show the world that we stand >in opposition to this racist war in Iraq! >We stand in opposition to a war where most of our children's bodies will litter the deserts in Iraq. It is our children who are being sent to kill others due the economic draft that leaves them without jobs, decent homes, health care, quality education or protection against police brutality! It is our children and our families whose human rights continue to be violated by this racist government and big business. > >Join your sisters and brothers in Harlem >Saturday, April 5, 2003 @ 11 am >Assemble at Marcus Garvey Park at 124th St. & 5th Ave. > >March starts at 12:00 Noon >2 PM Rally at Harlem State Office Building >125th St. & Adam Clayton Powell Blvd (7th Ave.) > >Organizer: Black Solidarity Against the War Coalition; Endorsing groups (partial listing): District Council 1707:Raglan George/Executive Director, Brenda Stokley/Local 215, Victoria Mitchell//Local 107, Glenn Huff/Local 205, Norman Taylor/Local 215, Betty Powell/Local 95; NYCLAW; A.N.S.W.E.R.; Muslim American Society; Al-Awda NY/NJ; The New England Committee to Defend Palestine; Women in Islam; Council on American Islamic relations (CCAIR-NY); The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA); Defend Palestine Committee; Vieques Support Campaign; Prolibertad; Harlem Tenants Council; Harlem Fight Back; December 12th Movement; New York City Chapter of The National Conference of Black Lawyers; New York City Metro Area Chapter of N'COBRA; Patrice Lumumba Coalition; Black Telephone Workers for Justice; New Jersey State wide Coalition for Reparations; People's Organization for Progress; Black Workers Unity Movement; Blacks Against The War, Action for Community Empowerment;! Community Justice Center; Cuba Solidarity New York; The Emergency Committee for Palestine; New Jersey Solidarity; Monica Santana/Immigrant Rights Activist; William Camacaro/Committee in Solidarity with Venezuela; Silvia Arana/Latino Collective of WBAI; La Fuerzan de la Revolucion; NY City MetroChapter of the Black Radical Congress; The Free Mumia Abu Jamal Coalition; Valentin Silverio Partido de los Trabajadores Dominicanos; Carlos Bernales (Peru) Centro Cultural Abya-Yala ; Wilson Spencer Bloque de la Izqierda Dominicana; Luis Barrios Iglesia San Romero NYC; Working Peoples Voice Collective; Women for Racial and Economic Equality (WREE); Folk Singer & Activist Matt Jones; > >For additional information visit website:www.blacksagainstwar.com or contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > >-- >__ >Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com >http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup > MSN 8 helps ELIMINATE E-MAIL VIRUSES. Get 2 months FREE*.
ugnet_: US Warns Syria and Iran Against Meddling in Iraq
US Warns Syria and Iran Against Meddling in IraqAgence France PresseWASHINGTON, 29 March 2003 - US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterdayissued a dire warning to Tehran and Damascus to steer clear of Iraq,claiming military equipment had crossed into the country from Syria andIran-based rebels."We have information that shipments of military supplies have been crossing theborder from Syria into Iraq, including night vision goggles," he said ata Pentagon news conference. "These deliveries pose a direct threat to the livesof coalition forces. We consider such trafficking as hostile acts andwill hold the Syrian government accountable for such shipments," he said.He declined to say whether the Syrian government was behind the shipments,butstressed: "They control their border. We're hopeful that kind of thing does nothappen again," he said."There is no question but that to the extent mil! itary supplies, equipment orpeople move borders between Iraq and Syria that it vastly complicates oursituation," he said.He also said that hundreds of Iranian-backed Iraqi rebels had been seen cominginto Iraq, in reference to the Badr Corps, the military wing of the SupremeCouncil on Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the main Iran-based Iraqi oppositionmovement."The Badr Corps is trained, equipped and directed by Iran's IslamicRevolutionary Guard and we will hold the Iranian government responsible fortheir actions and will view Badr Corps activity inside Iraq as unhelpful," saidRumsfeld. "Armed Badr Corps members found in Iraq will have to be treated ascombatants," he said."We don't want neighboring countries or anyone else for that matter to be inthere assisting Iraqi forces," Rumsfeld said.Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said yesterday that he hoped Washington wouldfail to oust Saddam Hussein.I! n an interview published in Lebanese daily As-Safir, Assad als! o predic ted that,if the United States and Britain were to take over Iraq, they would beconfronted by a "popular resistance" that would prevent them from controllingthe country.Syria, the only Arab member of the UN Security Council, voted for Resolution1441, which paved the way for the resumption of weapons inspections in Iraq.It said it did so on assurances that this would avoid a war.But as war approached, it joined China, France, Germany and Russia in preventinga new resolution specifically authorizing an attack on Iraq.Assad, never known for his diplomatic language, publicly predicted thatWashington would become bogged down in Iraq as it was in Vietnam, or forcedto abandon the country as it did in the 1980s in Lebanon, now under Syriandominance.His words made analysts wonder precisely what Syria's intentions are, especiallysince the interview was published the same day as a call by the country's muftifor ! suicide attacks against US forces.Although Syria is not included in US President Bush's "axis of evil", whichgroups Iran, Iraq and North Korea, it is still on the State Department'slist of countries supporting terrorism.And like Iran, it fears that it may be the next US target after Iraq inWashington's "war on terrorism." Mitayo Potosi Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.
ugnet_: Yes, I can see
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