And I’m off!
I’m currently sitting in Amsterdam, waiting on my connection to Entebbe.
I said I would have a couple of posts the other day, but it didn’t happen. Desole.
I was considering and even began setting up a separate blog for my time in Uganda, this summer, but I decided that was foolish, so anything I post will be right here for the time being. That being said, posts will be quite sporadic as internet will be spotty. I’ll be able to do posts through text, but Tumblr only allows one text pages worth per post.
So, look for tweets. You can follow me @dswinder or check the sidebar or both.
I won’t be retweeting or posting news stories that often, but I plan to do my best to keep a decent feed going.
Anyway, my internet time is running out, and I’m not paying another 12€.
It appears that Educate!, which I’ve talked so much about, is getting some much deserved national recognition.
Educate!’s founder, Eric Glustrom (who founded the organization when he was only 17-years old), will be on the CBS Early Show, tomorrow morning.
Congrats to Eric and everyone at Educate!.
Also, be sure to check out what Educate! is all about, and if you like what you see, remember to vote for Eric to win a $100,000 prize from DoSomething.org to go towards the new initiative being implemented by Educate!.
Go here. Click the vote tab. Find Eric’s video. Click the thumbs up.
I know I’ve mentioned Educate! a few times, and there’s good reason. Educate! is an awesome organization using culturally relevant social enterprise projects to empower students in Uganda to be leaders for their community. You can check out what I’ve said about them before, here.
Well, I’m mentioning them again because, now, Eric, the founder, is up for a $100,000 reward from DoSomething.org to go towards Educate!’s goal empowering a new generation of social leaders.
All I’m asking is that you check out more of what Educate! is all about. If you feel like they’re doing good work, vote for them. If not, don’t.
I mean, it should count for something that I’m so behind them as an organization. I think I’ve made it pretty clear how vocally critical I can be of many members of civil society. I’m looking at you, IC.
Go here. Click the vote tab. Find Eric’s video. Click the thumbs up.
My favorite line is:
He explained that the deployment was made after the Police realised that some drivers do not respect traffic laws when they are out of the city centre.
Am I to assume that Kampala police think that motorists obey traffic laws within the city center? Have they been to the middle of Kampala? I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer to that question is no… You know, seeing as traffic laws aren’t properly enforced in the city center.
News and Notes 5/25 - 5/31
Cross-posted from KnoxJazzforJustice.org:
As of late, there has been a flurry of pertinent stories and happenings in relation to the Jazz for Justice Project.
-Jazz for Justice received some surprising publicity last week when a photo of Rose, a child-mother in northern Uganda, appeared in Newsweek. In the magazine, Rose is seen receiving a prosthetic arm while a donning a yellow Jazz for Justice t-shirt. The University of Tennessee web site covered the unexpected publicity.
-Also occurring last week, a new piece of legislation was introduced in Washington that “requires the Obama administration within six months to come up with a strategy to address LRA violence, and protect civilians from future attacks and also assist communities that have been displaced by LRA attacks with $10 million in emergency humanitarian assistance.” Resolve Uganda Senior Policy Analyst Paul Ronan discusses the proposed bill with Voice of America.
-The World Bank approved a $100 million credit to go towards the PRDP (Peace, Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda). The PRDP aims to assist northern Uganda in recovering from the over-twenty-year war and close the development gap between the north and the rest of the country.
-Despite calls from the U.S. and various human rights groups, the Ugandan army says they have no intentions of embarking on a second offensive against the LRA in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. This statement was made around the same time as new LRA attacks in DRC displaced 12,000 more Congolese civilians.
-Uganda has warned former LRA combatants against renewing the war in northern Uganda. This comes on the heels of reports that two former LRA commanders have been meeting with former rebels in Gulu.
-The United Nations has commited $12 million in assistance to the 200,000 people uprooted by LRA attacks in eastern DRC.
-The SOS Children’s Village has finally opened in Gulu nearly two years since the project went underway.
-The New Vision ran a piece on the difficulties faced by child-mothers when returning to their families in northern Uganda.
-Jazz for Justice’s Lindsay McClain arrived in Uganda last week. You can keep up with her trip here. Next week, both Dustyn Winder and Erin Cagney will arrive in Uganda to begin their projects for the summer. You can go here to find out more about what all three of them will be working on while in Uganda.
Be on the lookout this week for a new page here on the Jazz for Justice web site compiling various examples of music-related projects, and remember that you can find similar art projects on the new Art-Related Projects page.
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.
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.
This and That — Housekeeping
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.
UPDF reports LRA is defeated while attacks continue in southern Sudan
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.
Africans must travel to the moon: Uganda president
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Yoweri Museveni will never cease to blow me away. I’m not attempting to insinuate that Uganda or the rest of East Africa doesn’t have a right to travel to the moon, but is it really a priority?
Shouldn’t the priority lie in, uh, I don’t know, developing a country that he has helmed for an increasingly-Mugabe-esque twenty-three years? Or maybe directing more funds towards the PRDP to help northern Uganda recover from a war that he himself was explicit in creating. Or maybe he could be working on ways to actually attain a peace deal with Kony. Shouldn’t all of these thing be prioritized over finding out “what developed nations have been doing in outer space”?
And this is why Yoweri Museveni will never stop making my jaw drop.
For more Museveni fun, be sure to check out Texas in Africa’s weekly segment, Museveni Mondays. You need to read the first installment to see what the series is all about.
