old.dswinder.com

I’ve been on vacation for the past week — w/o wifi for most of the time. I’ve tried to tweet and RT good content when connected. Sidebar.

To say ”We recognise that HIV is a serious disease but it is not the only disease affecting Ugandans,” as chair of the house standing committee Rose Akol Okullo has is an absolute cop-out and unacceptable.

In addition to the large defense fund that the article discusses, earlier this year, Uganda spent 88.2 billion shillings on a new Gulfstream for President Museveni. Yet, somehow, Uganda wants to cut funding on ARV’s to address other health concerns. I guess it would be completely unreasonable to cut the flippant spending on things like new jets.

I mean, Museveni’s old jet wasn’t good enough for him? It sure was sufficient enough in 2003 to fly his daughter to Germany for the birth of her child — At an estimated cost to Uganda of £70,000, at the high end, and £20,000, at the low.

Museveni is a darling of the United States and the West, literally getting away with murder. The legislation on Uganda and the U.S. involvement is concentrated on ridding the world of the LRA, completely forgetting that the UPDF also abducted children. The UPDF also raped, looted and killed. And the UPDF is still responsible for the displacement camps that people still live in, today.

Yeah, that’s right, the IDP camps weren’t a choice. Either you moved in or were considered amongst the ranks of the LRA, and, according to the government, thus… guilty.

Of course, then people were corralled up for the LRA to come through with warnings of anyone left in the camps the next day are considered government sympathizers and, according to the LRA, thus… guilty.

But all of this is ignored by the governments of the Western world. Mugabe is the hot word because he’s sat atop a country for a ridiculous 29 years, but Museveni is still a-OK ruling a country and marginalizing a region for 23.

It’s time that we realize that one of the biggest threats facing Uganda is Yoweri Museveni. He’s not a darling. He’s a tyrant. It’s time to hold the Ugandan government accountable for their actions. This latest proposal to cut ARV funding is just the most recent in a long line of irresponsible moves when dealing with the lives of people, and it is unacceptable.

I know nothing of Gambia, and it’s very rare that I see anything written about it in international headlines, but after reading this story, I need to read deeper. What’s described in this article are massive human rights violations. President Jammeh is mad, and yet it’s rare to hear anything about he or the country he rules over.

Wow.

What has advocacy come to?

All I can muster is “NO!”

(via uncivilsociety.org)

H/T: @bloodandmilk

…to the 1.2 people who read anything I have to say. I’ve taken no initiative to post anything in a couple few days and not much in the past couple of weeks.

I’m hoping to have a solid week of things to say in a couple of weeks, but I’ll be spending next week in the Keys and three weeks from now I leave for a stint in Uganda where internet won’t be as reliable and thus posts more sporadic.

I will try and make up for not posting by keeping a stellar Twitter feed going. To keep up with that, either pay attention to the right sidebar or follow me @dswinder.

So again, my apologies to my minor readership.

P.S. I may get to posting something today. We’ll see.

This is all in relation to the tug-of-war over rights to Migingo Island, but the salient bits are that another East African country is calling Museveni’s regime its proper name (read: “hostile state”), and this:

The Kenyan MPs, calling President Museveni an “aggressor” and an “expansionist” asked their President, Mwai Kibaki “to stand up for Kenya” against the aggression.

Despite the accurate name-calling, I don’t like the implications of standing up against agression — especially when followed by:

Some MPs in the Kenyan parliament have proposed that Kenya deploys its army on the island.

I would say neither country needs this, but I think that’s pretty well understood.

I’ve been somewhat complacent in posting the past week, and so I figured I would take a few minutes and cover some stories that are now old news, but that I had intent of discussing.

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Kenyan sues over sex ban ‘stress’ — BBC

I couldn’t not talk about this. I cracked up when I originally found out about the ban. I never could have guessed the story could be escalated to a greater level of hilarity.

I won’t make any attempt at rewording the story from the BBC — mainly because there’s a link — but it basically goes: A man named James Kimondo is suing the organizers of the sex ban because his wife took part, and as a result, he suffered ”anxiety and sleepless nights”.

Wasn’t the boycott a week-long? Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. If this guy was stressed out after a week without sex, then married men everywhere are scoffing at his expectations.

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Over 4,000 former rebels to receive resettlement package — The New Vision

I’m not going to begin to address a side on the issue of granting amnesty to rebels, but it seems to be sweeping across Central/East Africa, recently.

First Kinshasha and Kabila granted amnesty to rebels from the Kivu provinces — turning the CNDP into a real political party and inviting other rebels into the ranks of the government.

Now, and by now, I mean last Friday, one day after the announcement from the DRC, it’s reported that over 4,000 former Ugandan rebels will receive resettlement packages. I’m not going to comment too much because I don’t know all of the details and The New Vision doesn’t really offer much in the way of specifics… But, I’ll just say, it’s one thing to offer a resettlement package to an abductee, but, and specifically in Uganda, it’s another thing entirely to offer resettlement packages to voluntary rebels or abductors.

I’m just saying.

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And now it seems, as of a couple days ago, that the amnesty deal in the DRC is already backfiring.

Former Congo Rebels Threaten to Re-Start Insurgency Over Pay Dispute — VOA

I don’t think this should come as a shock to anyone. In fact, and I can’t remember where I saw it (I’ll update this if I find it), I’m pretty sure that Didier Bitaki made it quite clear that he was accepting amnesty on the grounds that he could and likely would rebel again. I’m just shocked at his turnaround time.

Apparently, Kinshasha isn’t meeting the demands of the rebels. Wait… Kinshasha isn’t meeting demands? And rebels former rebels demand a lot?

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And just briefly:

Have you written your letter to Oprah yet? — Denialism Blog

Though they’re calling for letters over the O’s support of Jenny McCarthy and her anti-vaccine flag waving, I say let’s steal their idea and write Oprah over her blind support for Invisible Children (here and here).

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I have another post coming up, but it’s recent, so I’ll keep it separate from my housekeeping.

Cross-posted from KnoxJazzforJustice.org:

Despite reports last week of attacks in southern Sudan, the Ugandan government insists that Kony and the LRA are on their last legs and have been defeated.

According to The New Vision:

Rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army on Wednesday attacked villages in the southern Sudanese town of Yambio, abducting an unknown number of people, according to the Sudan Tribune publication.

The Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) maintain that northern Ugandans should fear no threat of future attacks by the LRA in northern Uganda. The UPDF believes that the recent attacks are a sign of weakness by the LRA, and according to UGPulse.com:

The Spokesperson for the UPDF, Major Felix Kulaiyigye says the army is confident that the LRA can not attack Uganda. He says the LRA rebels have been severely weakened and are using the attacks on villages to confuse forces that are hunting for the remaining rebels.

Regardless of the cause of last week’s attacks, the fact remains that people continue to be abducted while the UPDF stands by their claims that they are ‘beating’ the rebels. It makes one wonder exactly what their definition of victory is.

I’m not offering much in the way of personal insight, today, but you really should give this post a close read.

Here’s the first paragraph for a preview:

In the past six months or so, there’s been a concerted push by the Congo activist community (it does exist, believe it or not) to focus on the exploitation of natural resources by the various armed groups and foreign governments operating in the region. Roughly modeled on the campaign to end the use of “conflict diamonds,” the idea is that it’s possible to end (or at least slow) the conflict in the Congo by cutting demand for minerals like tin, cassetterite, and coltan in the global market. Because many of the armed groups rely on access to the mines to earn money with which they buy weapons, the reasoning goes, getting consumers in the West to push electronics manufacturers to stop sourcing these minerals for their products will choke off the money flow to the armed groups, which presumably will convince the soldiers/rebels/bandits to go to UN demobilization camps, turn in their weapons, and return to life as peasant farmers. Et voila! Peace.

It’s nice to see that not everyone has to wrap every problem of the world into a nice, tidy, gift-wrapped box.

Pointing to Africa as the epicentre of the global food crisis, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General today called for an African Green Revolution, urging the international community to double food yields across the continent through sustainable agriculture.

Because the article is pretty self-explanatory, I’ll leave my commenting to one line.

It’s about time.