Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaks on Zuma, the Dalai Lama, his family and his new book in today’s NYT Sunday Magazine.
His book, Made for Goodness, comes out on Tuesday.
Tensions rising in Kigali?
Former Rwanda military chief Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa gave this interview to Upfront Africa on VOA Wednesday, following his flee from Rwanda.
Meanwhile, twin grenade attacks killed 16 in Kigali on Thursday evening. These came only two weeks after similar grenade attacks struck the capital in February.
Andrew Mwenda is Back
to blogging that is. You can reach him for comments and questions at amwenda@independent.co.ug
We are the World, not the Ones
Yes, it’s true, I am irrevocably sentimental. And I am not ashamed to say altruistic collective action can literally bring tears to my eyes. Like when everyone on the road pulls over to let an ambulance by (seriously). So that being said I reeeaaaally want to like this song. But as many others have already pointed out, I find the lyrics super problematic, and unfortunately the message also suggests that throwing money at disasters (among other things) will always be constructive. And while I love the idea of connectivity –we are the world — this bit about being the “Ones” and saving the day (actually making it “brighter” to be precise) makes me cringe every time. Also, lyrics aside, I think this collaboration could have been even cooler if there were more international artists. But in any case it’s nice to hear T-Pain singing about something other than lollipops and buying me dranks. When else are you going to see blinged out rappers singing about world peace and love? The auto-tune is priceless, “Let’s start gi-vi-in-ing!” Maybe Sachs should try that at his next event.
NYT Uganda coverage
Denise Grady explains how a woman who caught the Marburg virus in Uganda has become a medical celebrity. And Uganda tourism takes another blow. Damn.
“Michelle Barnes never imagined that her vacation to Uganda would make her a medical celebrity.
Ms. Barnes, 44, became ill in January 2008, a few days after returning home to Golden, Colo. At first, she seemed to have a typical case of traveler’s diarrhea, but she soon worsened. She broke out in a rash and developed abdominal pain, terrible fatigue, weakness and confusion. Blood tests found her white-cell count low and her liver and kidneys beginning to fail. She was hospitalized, still deteriorating. Her blood was taking too long to clot, and her pancreas and her muscles were inflamed…”
Not to mention, while demonstrating much concern for the doctors and staff in the US, there is zero discussion of the spread of the virus in Uganda from what I can tell.
Touching a raw nerve
In yesterday’s Sunday Monitor Angelo Izama wrote of widespread concern regarding the potential for electoral violence leading up to the 2011 Uganda national elections. He writes:
“In several interviews including with donor sources Sunday Monitor has confirmed that there are serious concerns about the militarisation of Ugandan society ahead of the next elections. In particular, are the military training course tailored for village level officials allied to the NRM and the issuing of military fatigues and guns to them.”
But exposing the campaign of militarisation of NRM supporters, or “election watchers”, clearly touched a raw nerve in Museveni who immediately phoned the Monitor protesting the article and spoke out publicly in Gulu, saying:
“These people of Monitor, I am going to deal with them if they don’t change their ways,” Mr Museveni later said yesterday afternoon in Gulu while officiating at the consecration of Rt. Rev. Johnson Gakumba as the seventh bishop of the Northern Uganda Anglican Diocese. “They want to scare away investors by such reporting,” Mr Museveni said.
Militarisation of the public + media crackdown = bumpy road ahead. Still, it’s not too late to prevent election violence. And it begins with exposing raw nerves.
this is madness
Ugh. Bukenya’s son is lost to yet another fatal car crash, Gen. Kazini is allegedly killed by his mistress (“reckless living” according to M7), another bus overturns killing seven people (including two who could not even be identified), a Uganda-bound plane crashes into the Kigali airport, all amongst a number of more personal losses. I am sad, but mostly angry. Almost all of the deaths and tragedies I have witnessed in the past few weeks were far from inevitable. Rosebell started a conversation that mirrors my frustration and anger. The deaths of Uganda’s elite are no less tragic than the deaths of those who perish on a bus, or plane, or languish in the country’s understaffed and undersupplied clinics and hospitals, but I wouldn’t mind so much who got more news coverage if only something was done to prevent these needless deaths in the future! Arg! How long must we mourn and suffer and cry out before something gets done? What would it take to get a high quality hospital so that we don’t have to fly abroad when we need serious medical attention? What would it take to properly police roads and public transportation? The buses will not stop overturning and cars will not stop crashing on their own. It is only people who can prevent these tragedies. They need not happen. This is madness.
What do people care about?
I love knowledge for the sake of knowledge, but as I embark on this five-year journey otherwise known as grad school, one thing I don’t want to do is get stuck inside, both literally and figuratively. Literally, I don’t want to see the sky for only 20 minutes a day on the walk to and from the car, and figuratively (and more importantly), I don’t want to get stuck in a world where only other academics or econ-y types find my work interesting/palatable/intelligible. This has been on my mind a lot recently as I have been trying to home in on a specific research question for my first major research project/paper (which I will hereafter refer to as a field paper). I can think of lots of research questions, but certainly not all of equal pertinence to the lives of ordinary people. Which got me thinking, what would be of most pertinence? I am not a doctor, I am not a teacher (yet, anyway), I am not a civil engineer…there are many things I can’t do to improve people’s lives. So what can I do? Well, hopefully (and this is the goal anyway, I think), I will be able to provide some small insight or suggestion to help solve problems people care about. So what do people care about?
Since Uganda is mostly on my mind, I remembered a recent Afrobarometer survey asked exactly this question. Ok, not exactly. The exact question was, “What are the most important problems facing this country that the government should address?” The answers? (according to % of people who listed this concern first)
Poverty/Destitution: 43%
Unemployment: 28%
Health: 27%
Food shortage: 20%
Infrastructure/Roads: 20%
Seems pretty obvious in retrospect. But what wasn’t in the top 5? Democracy/Political Rights (3%), Orphans (2%), Political Instability/Ethnic Tensions (2%), International War (0%), AIDS (5%), and Inequality (2%), among others. Less obvious now, right? This is not to say that no one cares about these things, just that they are not the most important things for most people. Of course these things are also related to the above “most important problems”, and it could be that democracy (or something else) will solve all of these problems (I am skeptical though). Still, I think it’s always good to keep in mind what people are struggling with on a daily basis even while trying to figure out what’s up with democratic peace (for example).
Now, back to that field paper…
I’m back!
So I fell off the bloggingwagon in a major way. Apologies. But 7 weeks into grad school and back in California (for a while anyway) I think I can credibly commit to staying on-board. There’s lots to catch up on, but instead I think I’ll just pick up where we left off and fill in the gaps as we go along.
One of the most interesting things I have read so far? “Tax Me If You Can: Ethnic Geography, Democracy and the Taxation of Agriculture in Africa,” in APSR by Kimuli Kasara, Stanford Political Science PhD graduate who is now teaching at Columbia. Basically she finds that cash crop farmers who are the same ethnicity as the head of state face higher taxes than farmers of a different ethnicity. This goes against the classical ethnically-based patronage argument. A more thorough understanding of how exactly patronage works is clearly in order.
Ok, back to nuclear weapons reading.
PS This post is dedicated to Anna. She knows why.
Olara Otunnu on the way
Dr. Olara Otunnu, former UN Under-Secretary General and Special Representative for
Children and Armed Conflict, will be on his way back to his native Uganda soon. This is causing quite a stir in political circles, especially with talk of Dr. Otunnu, a northerner with longstanding ties to UPC, making a bid for the presidency in the 2011 elections. Below is an interview with Dr. Otunnu by Angelo Izama from yesterday’s Sunday Monitor:
Are you planning to come back?
It is indeed my intention to come home sometime soon.
What has motivated you to return?
Uganda is my home. One does not need any special motivation to return to one’s home. I will come back as a citizen, a son of the soil returning home. I must stress that my homecoming will bear no political labels or affiliation. It will be a completely non-partisan event, simply a much-longed-for homecoming. Continue reading “Olara Otunnu on the way”
Melina Raquel Platas 