ugnet_: FW: NYTimes.com Article: Giant Stinking Flower Is, Alas, From a Proper Family
Anthea Phillipps What could this monster Rafflesia keithii in Sabah, Malaysia, have in common with the gentle violet? A common ancestor, researchers find. / advertisement ---\ THE DREAMERS - IN SELECT CITIES FEBRUARY 6 Set against the turbulent political backdrop of 1968 France when the voice of youth was reverberating around Europe, THE DREAMERS is a story of self-discovery as three students test each other to see just how far they will go. "Pure Bertolucci," proclaims The New Yorker. THE DREAMERS makes its North American premiere at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. http://www.foxsearchlight.com/thedreamers/index_nyt.html \--/ Giant Stinking Flower Is, Alas, From a Proper Family January 27, 2004 By CAROL KAESUK YOON Scientists say they have finally solved the mystery of the evolutionary origins of the plant that produces the biggest flower on earth. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/27/science/27FLOW.html?ex=1076169773ei=1en=57805a5b805e91df - Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here: http://www.nytimes.com/ads/nytcirc/index.html HOW TO ADVERTISE - For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company Check out the coupons and bargains on MSN Offers! This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Monitor: Obote Amin
TUESDAY REFLECTIONS With Kintu NyagoLessons from the Amin coup detatMonitor, Jan 27, 2004Last weeks New Vision photo, depicting youthful soldiers from the UPDFs 509 Brigade in Pader district, after having hunted down the LRAs notorious Tolbert Nyeko in torn fatigues, but in high morale, was extremely touching. Its these men, whose sacrifice at the frontline against the most brutal form of terrorism and under extremely trying circumstances, have enabled most Ugandans to lead a normal life. Its these usually unmentioned members of the UPDF that deserve the Person of the Year Award! Additionally, this photo states most graphically the case for the need to fight corruption in the army and all public offices in Uganda. January 25 is a significant day in Ugandas political development. Its the day when both Maj. Gen. Idi Amin and the NRM, through the force of arms, came to power. My focus here is with Amins blood-stained coup detat, which overthrew the besieged regime of his mentor, Milton Obote way back in 1971. Though Uganda has had five forceful changes of government, three of which were coups, Amins coup, establishing his Government of Action and Second Republic, has been the most controversial and debated. And its timing is still vividly remembered by most Ugandans alive then and across the political spectrum. My concern is whether this tragedy could have been avoided and what lessons we draw from it. Although former president Obote usually blames imperialism as the primary cause of this coup due to his then radical foreign policy, in all certainty this is only part of the story. The manner in which he conducted the affairs of state was the main cause of his first demise. This largely explains why more radical African leaders were never toppled by their former colonial masters, as for instance Abdul Nasser, Muamar Gadhafi, Sekou Toure or closer to home his Mulungushi colleagues, Mwalimu Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda. The 1971 coup had its origins in the manner in which the then ruling political elite opted to undermine the existing constitutional order for narrow short-term political expediency, while concurrently failing to institutionalise the proper management and control of the army. Obotes decision to appease the mutinying Uganda Army at Jinja Barracks in 1965 for purely tactical gain, by accepting all their demands, set the foundation for the 1971 coup. Incidentally, Amin, then a major, manoeuvred and played the instrumental role of arbiter between the political elite and the mutinying troops. This endeared him to both parties. However, earlier in 1962, on the eve of independence, the incoming Prime Minister opted to ignore advice from the departing colonial governor to summarily sack Junior Officer Amin due to the killings and excessive brutality he had inflicted on Karimojong and Turkana rustlers. Dr Obote, in his wisdom, opted to retain and promote this blood-thirsty officer. The calculation had been to buy the loyalty of the men in uniform, also bearing in mind that most had been recruited from northern Uganda, were he and Defence Minister, Felix Onama, originated. The military, in turn, was used to crush his legitimate political challengers within the ruling UPC-KY coalition led by President Edward Mutesa and Grace Ibingira, the UPC Secretary General. After cowing his political party, Obote went on, with Amins support, to abrogate the 1962 Independence Constitution, replacing it with the most controversial 1966 Pigeon Hole one! Additionally, the armed forces, including the paramilitary Special Force and the General Service Unit, were used to enforce the draconian State of Emergency and Detention without Trial regulations in Buganda. The emergency was dutifully renewed from 1966 after the storming of the Lubiri until the 1971 coup, laying fertile ground for political discontent critical in ensuring the success of any coup. The wily Amin clearly manipulated these circumstances in his favour when the chips were down. The men in uniform soon realised that they were the actual power behind the throne. However, the 1971 coup may possibly never have occurred hadnt Obote allowed Amin, his army commander, to centralise excessive authority within the military in his office. This enabled Amin to personally recruit into the army his personal supporters and place them into strategic positions. This was, for instance, the case with the armoured units that stormed Kampala, and took over government or with the communications and signals officers who kept him informed about plans for his imminent arrest. The character of Amins regime was illustrated by the first lie he offered the Ugandan public, that this had been a bloodless coup. The truth was that the manipulative Amin had ordered the massacre of hundreds of Langi and Acholi officers including most members of the Special Force and GSU! [EMAIL PROTECTED] Rethink your business approach for the new year with
ugnet_: Scientists Explore Lakefront Property, in the Sahara
Photographs from Mike HettwerA knife made of green jasper, top, and a human burial site were accidentally found in Niger at a burial and settlement site estimated at 5,000 years old. January 27, 2004 Scientists Explore Lakefront Property, in the SaharaBy BRENDA FOWLER he paleontologists were driving across the scorched and trackless Ténéré Desert of Niger, following a low ridge of rock bearing dinosaur fossils. Suddenly, someone on the team, led by Dr. Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago, spotted something dark against the tawny dunes. Getting out of their vehicles, they stepped into sand littered with the fossilized bones of modern crocodiles, hippos, camels and birds interesting creatures, to be sure, but not exactly the quarry of these paleontologists. "But then things got really strange," recalls Gabrielle Lyon, a member of the expedition who is Dr. Sereno's wife and the director of Project Exploration, a science education group. As members of the group stood around their vehicles comparing finds, Mike Hettwer, the expedition photographer, came loping up with news of human skeletons and stone tools eroding from a hillside. In search of pieces of the 110-million-year-old Cretaceous puzzle, Dr. Sereno's team had found what archaeologists in Niger say is a large Neolithic, or Stone Age, burial and settlement site tentatively dated at 5,000 years old. "It's a very important site," says Dr. Abdoulaye Maga, an archaeologist with the Institute of Research in the Human Sciences in Niamey, Niger, who visited it in 2000, shortly after the discovery. "It's the largest site that has been found and not pillaged." Though he has discovered and excavated a few dozen new species of African dinosaurs, Dr. Sereno has no experience with prehistoric human sites like this. He said his team counted 130 skeletons, including one with the remains of a stone bead necklace and innumerable stone and bone tools. He suspects, he says, that much more lies buried. "I'm not afraid of any kind of dinosaur, the uglier the better," he said. "But here for the first time I got goose bumps because I was looking at my own skeleton, a modern human." Dr. Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, an archaeologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz who has discussed the site with Dr. Sereno, said the discovery was a "big deal" and merited "serious, serious work." Fearing the site would be looted and ruined, Dr. Sereno initially told only Dr. Maga and his colleagues about its location. Because financing for archaeological work in Niger is scarce, no excavation was begun. When Dr. Sereno returned to the site in November, he saw it had deteriorated so he and his team spent two days in their two-month expedition mapping it and then applying a polymer to the surface artifacts to protect them from further erosion. He is now trying to find financing and other archaeologists to assist Dr. Maga with the excavation. No radiocarbon dating has been done yet; Dr. Maga based his dating on the presence of a thin, discoid knife made of green jasper that is characteristic of a little-known population, traditionally called the Ténérian culture, that lived in the area some 5,000 years ago. Today the Ténéré Desert, a California-size part of the Sahara that blankets much of Niger and is famous for its 100-mile-long sand dunes, is one of the driest places on earth and practically uninhabited. But five millennia ago the environment there was much wetter, and Dr. Sereno thinks the sediments suggest that the settlement may have been on the shore of a lake. "I found some catfish skulls, a bunch of them, and there was a little tail, and I'm blowing the sand off and then I run into the edge of a ceramic bowl that was around them," Dr. Sereno said. "I was looking at a bowl of fossilized catfish. Someone in the middle of a meal abandoned this bowl, and it got fossilized." Dr. Sereno's team identified five distinct areas at the site, including two large burial places of more than 100 yards in diameter. Besides the skeletons and the jasper knife, they found several large grinding stones, harpoons and fishhooks made of bone, fingernail-size arrowheads in many colors, and jewelry, including a round pendant made of the fluted tooth of the hippopotamus and a necklace made of ostrich egg shell and stone beads. Scattered across the site were fish and animal bones, including those of domesticated cattle. With the exception of a few items they plucked off the surface and have brought back to show archaeologists, the team did not disturb anything. While the history of the powerful Egyptian civilization of the same era has been widely studied, the culture of the vast interior of central Africa has begun to attract attention only in the last few decades. "There was a very rich and fascinating cultural manifestation around what is now the Ténéré desert but then was grassland and marshes," said Dr. Gifford-Gonzalez. "We're not thinking one culture. We're thinking a network
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 Arguing that political parties are divisive, sectarian, and unsuited for preindustrial societies such as Uganda, the NRM has prevented opposition political parties from
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/viruspgmarket=en-caRU=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_: FW: NYTimes.com Article: Ex-Inspector Says C.I.A. Missed Disarray in Iraqi Arms Program
/ advertisement ---\ THE DREAMERS - IN SELECT CITIES FEBRUARY 6 Set against the turbulent political backdrop of 1968 France when the voice of youth was reverberating around Europe, THE DREAMERS is a story of self-discovery as three students test each other to see just how far they will go. "Pure Bertolucci," proclaims The New Yorker. THE DREAMERS makes its North American premiere at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. http://www.foxsearchlight.com/thedreamers/index_nyt.html \--/ Ex-Inspector Says C.I.A. Missed Disarray in Iraqi Arms Program January 26, 2004 By JAMES RISEN WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 - American intelligence agencies failed to detect that Iraq's unconventional weapons programs were in a state of disarray in recent years under the increasingly erratic leadership of Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A.`s former chief weapons inspector said in an interview late Saturday. The inspector, David A. Kay, who led the government's efforts to find evidence of Iraq's illicit weapons programs until he resigned on Friday, said the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies did not realize that Iraqi scientists had presented ambitious but fanciful weapons programs to Mr. Hussein and had then used the money for other purposes. Dr. Kay also reported that Iraq attempted to revive its efforts to develop nuclear weapons in 2000 and 2001, but never got as far toward making a bomb as Iran and Libya did. He said Baghdad was actively working to produce a biological weapon using the poison ricin until the American invasion last March. But in general, Dr. Kay said, the C.I.A. and other agencies failed to recognize that Iraq had all but abandoned its efforts to produce large quantities of chemical or biological weapons after the first Persian Gulf war, in 1991. From interviews with Iraqi scientists and other sources, he said, his team learned that sometime around 1997 and 1998, Iraq plunged into what he called a "vortex of corruption," when government activities began to spin out of control because an increasingly isolated and fantasy-riven Saddam Hussein had insisted on personally authorizing major projects without input from others. After the onset of this "dark ages," Dr. Kay said, Iraqi scientists realized they could go directly to Mr. Hussein and present fanciful plans for weapons programs, and receive approval and large amounts of money. Whatever was left of an effective weapons capability, he said, was largely subsumed into corrupt money-raising schemes by scientists skilled in the arts of lying and surviving in a fevered police state. "The whole thing shifted from directed programs to a corrupted process," Dr. Kay said. "The regime was no longer in control; it was like a death spiral. Saddam was self-directing projects that were not vetted by anyone else. The scientists were able to fake programs." In interviews after he was captured, Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister, told Dr. Kay that Mr. Hussein had become increasingly divorced from reality during the last two years of his rule. Mr. Hussein would send Mr. Aziz manuscripts of novels he was writing, even as the American-led coalition was gearing up for war, Dr. Kay said. Dr. Kay said the fundamental errors in prewar intelligence assessments were so grave that he would recommend that the Central Intelligence Agency and other organizations overhaul their intelligence collection and analytical efforts. Dr. Kay said analysts had come to him, "almost in tears, saying they felt so badly that we weren't finding what they had thought we were going to find - I have had analysts apologizing for reaching the conclusions that they did." In response to Dr. Kay's comments, an intelligence official said Sunday that while some prewar assessments may have been wrong, "it is premature to say that the intelligence community's judgments were completely wrong or largely wrong - there are still a lot of answers we need." The official added, however, that the C.I.A. had already begun an internal review to determine whether its analytical processes were sound. Dr. Kay said that based on his team's interviews with Iraqi scientists, reviews of Iraqi documents and examinations of facilities and other materials, the administration was also almost certainly wrong in its prewar belief that Iraq had any significant stockpiles of illicit weapons. "I'm personally convinced that there were not large stockpiles of newly produced weapons of mass destruction," Dr. Kay said. "We don't find the people, the documents or the physical plants that you would expect to find if the production was going on. "I think they gradually reduced stockpiles throughout the 1990's. Somewhere in the mid-1990's, the large chemical overhang of existing stockpiles was eliminated." While it is possible Iraq kept
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 Church would not help plant my high school class-mate Joab Omino because he was a Freemason. The Church has done well to deny it. For, though I myself am not a Freemason, I know that it is a knowledge movement dedicated to an
ugnet_: 'Tri-Star boss incompetent'-Not M7?
'Tri-Star boss incompetent' By Emma Mutaizibwa Jan 28, 2004 KAMPALA - The Managing Director of Tri-Star Apparels, Mr Vellupillai Kananathan, is not fit to run the firm, a senior presidential adviser has said. Tri-Star Apparels exports garments to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Agoa allows selected African countries to export apparels quota and duty-free to the United States. Mr Onegi-Obel with Ms Muhwezi appearing before Parliament's Finance committee yesterday (Photo by John Nsimbe). "I am on record as having said that this gentleman [Kananathan] running this company is incompetent," Mr Onegi-Obel, the senior presidential adviser on Agoa, told MPs on Parliament's Finance Committee yesterday. Kananathan received a loan of $6 million from government through the Uganda Development Bank to run the firm - but did not provide collateral. Onegi and Ms Suzan Muhwezi, who is the presidential assistant on Agoa, appeared before the committee yesterday to answer several queries about the firm. Mr Bright Rwamirama (Isingiro North) chairs the committee. The firm came under the spotlight last October after 298 of its female employees went on strike protesting the poor working conditions. Kananathan fired nearly all the girls whom he considered troublemakers. Onegi said he wrote President Museveni in February 2003 about Kananathan's incompetence. He said that government is trying to acquire shares in the firm as a risk management intervention measure. "I have triggered off a damage control. Government is carrying out negotiations to acquire equity in the firm," he said. But the MPs were angered by Onegi's news. They wondered why Kananathan, who is a senior four dropout, is still in charge of the firm. They also queried Kananathan's hefty salary. Mr James Mwandha (PWD Eastern) wondered how government would legally become a shareholder in the company. "How does government intervene in the operations of a private company? Isn't that exercise of acquiring shares [in Tri-Star] in futility?" Mr Ephraim Kamuntu (Sheema South) said that acquiring equity in the firm would not resolve the problems of the firm. "If you convert the loan into equity, don't you think that you will be compounding the problem? If Tri- Star Apparels or Uganda Development Bank collapses it is government that will feel the effect," Kamuntu said. Onegi said that the mess at Tri-Star was caused by weaknesses within the team that negotiated the Tri-Star deal on behalf of government. Onegi told the MPs that he only signed the memorandum of understanding on behalf of government. "Onegi you should resign," Mwandha said. The MPs also asked Onegi why Tri-Star Sri Lanka, which was originally hired to do the work was replaced by Tri-Star Uganda. ... I think its M7 who is terribly incompetent! This is his baby. He should , together with his fellow con-man Kananathan, resign! Gook "You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."- Malcom X MSN 8 helps ELIMINATE E-MAIL VIRUSES. Get 2 months FREE*. This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
RE: ugnet_: 'Tri-Star boss incompetent'-Not M7?
Somehow, Uganda's financial engineers, canallow/assist someone -- a foreigner at that -- borrow SIX MILLION DOLLARS(US $6M) without colateral! Where else on the planet do such opportunities exist? I've heard of taking candy from a baby but this isludicrous!It'd seem that, in Third world, when we are about to be raped, we do everything possible under the sun to assist the rapist. What to do if he skips town? Why would anyone have too much incentive to run any company from such a loan too well, after s/he has zilch assests on the line? What to do if he defaults on that loan -- who pays? No change! No change! Clear-headed leadership to protect Uganda's interests, vision, sad term, etc, etc. Original Message Follows From: "gook makanga" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: ugnet_: 'Tri-Star boss incompetent'-Not M7? Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 21:46:11 + Learn how to choose, serve, and enjoy wine at Wine @ MSN. ---BeginMessage--- 'Tri-Star boss incompetent' By Emma Mutaizibwa Jan 28, 2004 KAMPALA - The Managing Director of Tri-Star Apparels, Mr Vellupillai Kananathan, is not fit to run the firm, a senior presidential adviser has said. Tri-Star Apparels exports garments to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Agoa allows selected African countries to export apparels quota and duty-free to the United States. Mr Onegi-Obel with Ms Muhwezi appearing before Parliament's Finance committee yesterday (Photo by John Nsimbe). "I am on record as having said that this gentleman [Kananathan] running this company is incompetent," Mr Onegi-Obel, the senior presidential adviser on Agoa, told MPs on Parliament's Finance Committee yesterday. Kananathan received a loan of $6 million from government through the Uganda Development Bank to run the firm - but did not provide collateral. Onegi and Ms Suzan Muhwezi, who is the presidential assistant on Agoa, appeared before the committee yesterday to answer several queries about the firm. Mr Bright Rwamirama (Isingiro North) chairs the committee. The firm came under the spotlight last October after 298 of its female employees went on strike protesting the poor working conditions. Kananathan fired nearly all the girls whom he considered troublemakers. Onegi said he wrote President Museveni in February 2003 about Kananathan's incompetence. He said that government is trying to acquire shares in the firm as a risk management intervention measure. "I have triggered off a damage control. Government is carrying out negotiations to acquire equity in the firm," he said. But the MPs were angered by Onegi's news. They wondered why Kananathan, who is a senior four dropout, is still in charge of the firm. They also queried Kananathan's hefty salary. Mr James Mwandha (PWD Eastern) wondered how government would legally become a shareholder in the company. "How does government intervene in the operations of a private company? Isn't that exercise of acquiring shares [in Tri-Star] in futility?" Mr Ephraim Kamuntu (Sheema South) said that acquiring equity in the firm would not resolve the problems of the firm. "If you convert the loan into equity, don't you think that you will be compounding the problem? If Tri- Star Apparels or Uganda Development Bank collapses it is government that will feel the effect," Kamuntu said. Onegi said that the mess at Tri-Star was caused by weaknesses within the team that negotiated the Tri-Star deal on behalf of government. Onegi told the MPs that he only signed the memorandum of understanding on behalf of government. "Onegi you should resign," Mwandha said. The MPs also asked Onegi why Tri-Star Sri Lanka, which was originally hired to do the work was replaced by Tri-Star Uganda. ... I think its M7 who is terribly incompetent! This is his baby. He should , together with his fellow con-man Kananathan, resign! Gook "You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."- Malcom X MSN 8 helps ELIMINATE E-MAIL VIRUSES. Get 2 months FREE*. This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug ---End Message---
ugnet_: Scientists Uncover Protein Key to Bouncing Back after Pregancy
NEWS Scientific American, January 26, 2004 Scientists Uncover Protein Key to Bouncing Back after Pregancy Along with the miracle of life comes the miracle of an expanding uterus. The organ, which enlarges from the size of a pear to bigger than a basketball during the nine months of pregnancy, is the most obvious example of the bodys elastic fibers at work. Now researchers have identified the enzyme responsible for this resiliency, a finding that could point the way to new ways of fighting aging and disease. The bodys elastic fibers form when a protein known as tropoelastin is polymerized. The reaction employs a chemical called lysyl oxidase (LOX) as a catalyst. Mammals can produce up to five types of LOX proteins as well as some LOX-like ones. Tiansen Li of Harvard Medical School and his colleagues genetically engineered mice that lacked the LOXL1 enzyme to investigate its effects on elasticity. They found that animals that lacked the protein had loose and baggy skin much too large for their bodies. In addition, the females suffered higher rates of pelvic prolapse, a condition in which the womb does not recover properly after giving birth. The scientists determined that LOXL1 is active in a number of other organs that experience stretching as well, including the lungs, stomach, bladder and blood vessels. The protein is crucial to generating reinforcing cross-links between elastic fibers and plays a role in determining where elastic fibers will be placed, the team reports online this week in Nature Genetics. Because loss of elastic fibers underlies tissue aging and diseases such as emphysema, the results could suggest a novel target for treatment. --Sarah Graham There are now three new levels of MSN Hotmail Extra Storage! Learn more. This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
RE: ugnet_: 'Tri-Star boss incompetent'-Not M7?
This is Midas' touch in reverse. Everything they lay their hands on turns into dross. Or to put it another way, they're so incompetent, they couldn't sell ice in hell! Original Message Subject: RE: ugnet_: 'Tri-Star boss incompetent'-Not M7?From: "J Ssemakula" [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: Tue, January 27, 2004 3:21 pmTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Somehow, Uganda's financial engineers, canallow/assist someone -- a foreigner at that -- borrow SIX MILLION DOLLARS(US $6M) without colateral! Where else on the planet do such opportunities exist? I've heard of taking candy from a baby but this isludicrous!It'd seem that, in Third world, when we are about to be raped, we do everything possible under the sun to assist the rapist. What to do if he skips town? Why would anyone have too much incentive to run any company from such a loan too well, after s/he has zilch assests on the line? What to do if he defaults on that loan -- who pays? No change! No change! Clear-headed leadership to protect Uganda's interests, vision, sad term, etc, etc. Original Message Follows From: "gook makanga" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: ugnet_: 'Tri-Star boss incompetent'-Not M7? Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 21:46:11 + Learn how to choose, serve, and enjoy wine at Wine @ MSN. This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: Onegi-Obel wants Govt to take over Tristar-M7's vision for Uganda?
Onegi-Obel wants Govt to take over Tristar By Irene Nabusoba and Mary Karugaba THE Government was advised last year to acquire a stake in Apparels Tristar to save it from collapsing. Senior presidential advisor on AGOA Jeff Onegi-Obel told a parliamentary committee yesterday that he advised President Yoweri Museveni to nominate a Government representative to the Tristar board. Onegi-Obel told the finance, planning and economic development committee that Museveni subsequently sent a directive to the Ministry of Finance on May 15, 2003. Onegi-Obel said the advisory was based on fear that the factory could collapse. He said the President has since issued a directive to convert enterprises with big loans from Government like Tristar into public equities to save them from going into liquidation. A debt can be turned into equity and that is what we are recommending. This is the least cost measure we can think of, Onegi-Obel said. He described the factory ma nagement as very incompetent and inexperienced in garment production. He said the managing director of the Bugolobi-based garment factory, Vellupillai Kananathan, is incompetent and has no experience in garment production. The gentleman you are referring to (Kananathan) is incompetent. I am saying that on record publicly. It is true that even the 56 experts from Sri-Lanka have no qualifications whatsoever. But that is the model from Sri-Lanka. They were picked from the poorest of the poor households and have even never gone to school, Onegi-Obel said. He said the finance ministry was yet to nominate a representative to the board. His remarks, however, triggered a hot debate that dragged the committee chaired by Major Bright Rwamirama into a four-hour debate, with Onegi-Obel frequently asking for protection from angry MPs. James Mwandha (PWD) asked him to resign when he contradicted himself by saying he was one of those people who b elieve that government should not risk taking a stake in enterprises with such structural ties. Fred Omach Jocham (Jonam), Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu (Shema South) and James Kakoza (Kabula) put him to task to explain why government decided to invest $6m in a company with no board representation. They also queried why government decided to deal with a foreign company when it seemed cheaper and less risky with local textile companies. Onegi-Obel was accompanied by the special presidential assistant on AGOA and trade, Susan Muhwezi. Published on: Wednesday, 28th January, 2004 Email this article to a friend. Gook "You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."- Malcom X STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: New Vision: Uganda and China must respect CITES
UWA CHAIRMAN: John Nagenda Uganda and China must respect CITES SIR I felt very sad on reading the comments of Mr John Nagenda, chairman of UWA, regarding the possible export of three chimpanzees from Uganda to the Changtsa Zoo in China. In 2002, I visited Chinese zoos in Xian, Guilin, and Beijing. I am sorry to say that the standards were appalling, and that the behaviour of the public was distressing. At Xian Zoo, I saw one lone male chimpanzee in a miserable cage with steel bars. He either sat in a dejected heap of misery or charged around madly. His food looked stale. the public were tormenting him (and the rest of the zoos animals) and throwing junk food plastic bags, and even cigarettes into the animal cages. I did not find any of the Chinese zoos I visited acceptable. Many featured ghastly shows where monkeys and other animals performed silly tricks such as riding bicycles. As members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), both China and Uganda must abide by CITES provisions. Chimpanzees are listed on Appendix I of CITES. Uganda has to certify that the chimpanzees were not obtained in contravention of the laws ... for the protection of flora and fauna. China has to certify that the recipient facility has appropriate living conditions and that the animals are not to be used for primarily commercial purposes. Let us take a look at diplomatic gifts. Unfortunately these happen sometimes. However, they should never be an end-run to circumvent CITES by allowing export of animals that would otherwise not enter trade. In one incident that took place in June 1997, Prince Charles, son of Queen Elizabeth, was offered a gift of two endangered tarsiers (small nocturnal primates resembling bushbabies) by Philippine officials. The prince graciously declined the gift of living creatures in the interests of protecting wildlife. What a wonderful example! We are pleased that Mr. Nagenda and his team will visit China to evaluate the zoo situation and we hope he will visit as many zoos in as many cities as possible. We feel confident he will return to Uganda prouder than ever of his homeland as being the best place for Ugandan animals. Dr. Shirley McGreal, Chairwoman International Primate Protection League Summerville, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] Published on: Wednesday, 28th January, 2004 ps: has anyone seen anaimals do tricks at Sea World and elsewhere in USA? There are now three new levels of MSN Hotmail Extra Storage! Learn more. This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: FW: NYTimes.com Article: Mr. Cheney, Meet Mr. Kay
/ advertisement ---\ THE DREAMERS - IN SELECT CITIES FEBRUARY 6 Set against the turbulent political backdrop of 1968 France when the voice of youth was reverberating around Europe, THE DREAMERS is a story of self-discovery as three students test each other to see just how far they will go. "Pure Bertolucci," proclaims The New Yorker. THE DREAMERS makes its North American premiere at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. http://www.foxsearchlight.com/thedreamers/index_nyt.html \--/ Mr. Cheney, Meet Mr. Kay January 27, 2004 Vice President Dick Cheney continued to insist last week that Iraq had been trying to make weapons of mass destruction, apparently oblivious to the findings of the administration's own chief weapons inspector that Iraq had possessed only rudimentary capabilities and unrealized intentions. The vice president's myopia suggests a breathtaking unwillingness to accept a reality that conflicts with the administration's preconceived notions. This kind of rigid thinking helped propel us into an invasion without broad international support and, if Mr. Cheney is as influential as many say, could propel us into further misadventures down the road. Mr. Cheney has long been the administration's most alarmist proponent of the view that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons ready for use at any time and an active nuclear program. He gave little ground in an interview on National Public Radio on Thursday. He described two flatbed trailers found in Iraq months ago as mobile biological weapons labs and claimed they were "conclusive evidence" of Iraqi programs to make weapons of mass destruction. The very next day, David Kay, who had just stepped down as the top weapons inspector, told Reuters that he now thought the much-feared stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons had not existed on the eve of the war. They were eliminated in the mid-1990's by United Nations inspectors and by Iraq's own decisions, he said, and no significant efforts to make new ones followed. As for those trailers cited by Mr. Cheney, the consensus view, Mr. Kay told The Times, is that they were intended to produce hydrogen or perhaps rocket fuel, not biological weapons. Mr. Kay had earlier called the trailer assertions an embarrassing fiasco. So, too, with Iraq's nuclear weapons program. Mr. Cheney once famously declared that it had been reconstituted, but Mr. Kay called it rudimentary - hardly capable of producing a bomb in a year or two, as the administration had implied. Although administration officials cling to the hope of finding some evidence of terror weapons in a cubbyhole somewhere in Iraq, surely it is time to focus on how the intelligence could have been so wrong and perhaps avoid making the same mistakes with the next secretive dictator to come along. Mr. Kay largely exonerates President Bush and blames the global intelligence community. He believes the C.I.A. became so reliant on the much-maligned United Nations weapons inspectors that their withdrawal left it without spies of its own. Mr. Kay also believes that intelligence analysts failed to realize that Mr. Hussein became increasingly isolated and fantasy-driven in the late 1990's, a condition that enabled scientists to hoodwink him into approving fanciful weapons plans that turned into corrupt moneymaking schemes. That seems hard to believe in a land where people supposedly lived in terror of a brutal dictator. But if it is true that Mr. Hussein wrote novels while the American-led force geared up for war, then perhaps both sides of this conflict were divorced from reality. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/27/opinion/27TUE1.html?ex=1076237551ei=1en=54e1dd4095a59576 - Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here: http://www.nytimes.com/ads/nytcirc/index.html HOW TO ADVERTISE - For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company Find high-speed net deals comparison-shop your local providers here. This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
ugnet_: FW: NYTimes.com Article: White House Shows Less Certainty Now on Iraqs Arms
. / advertisement ---\ THE DREAMERS - IN SELECT CITIES FEBRUARY 6 Set against the turbulent political backdrop of 1968 France when the voice of youth was reverberating around Europe, THE DREAMERS is a story of self-discovery as three students test each other to see just how far they will go. "Pure Bertolucci," proclaims The New Yorker. THE DREAMERS makes its North American premiere at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. http://www.foxsearchlight.com/thedreamers/index_nyt.html \--/ White House Shows Less Certainty Now on Iraqs Arms January 27, 2004 By JAMES RISEN WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 - The White House began to back away on Monday from its assertions that Iraq had illegal weapons, saying it now wanted to compare prewar intelligence assessments with what may be actually found there. The evolving position followed criticism of the intelligence reports about Iraq from the C.I.A.'s former chief weapons inspector, David A. Kay, comments that increased pressure on the C.I.A. and intensified the political debate in Washington over who was responsible for shaping the prewar intelligence that President Bush used to justify toppling Saddam Hussein. While Republican leaders have focused on the C.I.A. and how it gathered intelligence, Democrats have called for a close look at how the White House used that information. On Monday White House officials were no longer asserting that stockpiles of banned weapons would eventually be found. Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, told reporters en route to an appearance by President Bush in Little Rock, Ark., that the administration would wait for the weapons search team, the Iraq Survey Group, to complete its work before drawing any conclusions about the quality of the intelligence available. But he said that whatever the group's conclusions, Mr. Bush had done the correct thing in deposing Mr. Hussein because Iraq was clearly working on chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. "We know he had the intention, we know he had the capability," Mr. McClellan said. "And, given his history and given the events of Sept. 11, we could not afford to rely on the good intentions of Saddam Hussein." Dr. Kay, who resigned Friday, said that there was scant evidence that Mr. Hussein kept stockpiles of illicit weapons, and that the C.I.A., under its director, George J. Tenet, and other intelligence agencies were wrong in their assessments. Dr. Kay has avoided placing any political spin on the flaws in the intelligence. But his comments, coming during a presidential campaign and as Congressional panels draw up reviews of prewar intelligence, had immediate political impact. On Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders used Dr. Kay's statements to argue for a more aggressive investigation by the Republican-controlled Congress into the shaping of prewar intelligence. The Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, complained that the Republican leader of the Senate intelligence committee, Pat Roberts of Kansas, was seeking to limit the scope of that panel's inquiry, even as Dr. Kay was disclosing the extent of the problem. "Unfortunately, it appears neither the administration nor the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee shares this view" of the need for a vigorous investigation, Senator Daschle said. Mr. McClellan, pressed on whether the White House still believed that stockpiles of illicit weapons would be found in Iraq - an assertion White House officials made as recently as Friday - replied, "I think it was the judgment of intelligence agencies around the world, as well as the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq, that there were large, unaccounted-for stockpiles." The special commission was the United Nations inspection team. Caught in the middle is Mr. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, who is both a Bush confidant and a strong defender of the agency. The Senate intelligence panel has drafted a report strongly critical of the C.I.A.'s handling of prewar intelligence, and is waiting for Mr. Tenet's testimony, among other things, before completing its work. He is scheduled to appear on March 4, for the first time since the committee began its inquiry last spring, a Congressional official said. Administration officials said a draft of Mr. Tenet's written testimony was being circulated for review within the government, and is expected to be discussed later this week by President Bush's advisers. Congressional officials said the written testimony was not due until 72 hours before he appears before the panel, but they said they understood that the administration was seeking to deliver the document within the next 10 days in order to influence the final report. Dr. Kay said in an interview over the weekend that he did not believe that C.I.A.
ugnet_: Scared of Wife having 2much money?
Kerry's gold She's rich, clever, outspoken (in several languages) and she's got money ... lots of it. And if she has anything to do with things, she'll be America's next First Lady, wife of a Democrat President Edward Helmore Sunday January 25, 2004 The Observer Last week, as she has done every week since the presidential election season began last March, Teresa Heinz Kerry was campaigning for her husband. But she was not campaigning with her husband. Unlike the typical templates for political wives - those such as Laura Bush, who know their place at their husband's side, or those such as Hillary Clinton, who have their own agenda to advance, or even those such as Dr Judith Steinberg, the wife of Howard Dean, who has avoided the spotlight altogether - Heinz Kerry runs her own discrete show in support of her husband. She has her own schedule, her own staff in Washington and her own private plane when needed, called The Flying Squirrel. She doesn't wear campaign buttons and sometimes even forgets to introduce herself as a presidential candidate's wife. On a recent tour of Latino businesses in Manchester, New Hampshire, the French-African owner of a barbershop, who'd been swapping stories with her in French about growing up in Africa, said she hadn't mentioned her husband was running for president. But, said Victor Mbuyi, 'her French was very good'. If her spouse of nine years, John Kerry, goes on to win the White House, she will make a First Lady quite unlike any America has seen before. Portuguese by birth, she was raised in Africa and educated in Switzerland. Spontaneous and independent of mind; candid and direct to the point of being impolitic, she is like her husband, a pro-choice Roman Catholic. And she is independently wealthy, to the tune of $550 million, from her first marriage to the late senator John Heinz, heir to the ketchup fortune. She remains a power in her own right as head of the Howard Heinz Endowment and Heinz Family Philanthropies, a charity with a billion-dollar endowment that gives away millions each year to environmental, educational and health causes. It is a shared passion for the environment that brought John Kerry and Teresa Heinz together. They met at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, where she had been sent as delegate by the first President Bush. That was 12 months after John Heinz, a potential presidential candidate himself, died in a plane crash. She and Kerry subsequently bonded after he recited a prayer - in Latin - at a Mass they both attended. To friends, the couple are ideally suited and it is a marriage of equals. For his part, Senator Kerry seems unfazed by, even celebrates, his wife's individuality and honesty. His prospective First Lady, he says is 'nurturing and incredibly loving, and fun, zany, witty ... definitely sexy. Very earthy, sexy, European.' Within and beyond the borders of the US, the still glamorous THK, at 65 years old, offers a refreshing and worldly perspective for a US politician's wife. The daughter of a prominent Portuguese doctor, Heinz Kerry, née Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira, grew up in Mozambique. She attended a school run by British nuns, and later studied Romance languages at senior school in South Africa, where she became involved in the nascent anti-apartheid movement of the late 1950s. At university in Geneva, she was a classmate of Kofi Annan at the city's School of Interpreters. Now fluent in five languages, she graduated and went to New York to become an interpreter at the United Nations, before marrying Heinz in 1966. 'I had no ambition,' she once said. 'I thought of myself as being married and having children, which is what all the ladies did.' That's no longer the case, if it ever was. When the results in New Hampshire come in on Tuesday night, Mrs Heinz Kerry may become a singularly important figure. 'It's not an easy choice to do this, and she feels it is important,' says spokeswoman Christine Anderson. 'But she doesn't want to be involved in policy per se or hold an official job. She would rather keep working on the issues she cares about. She wants to keep her job to run the Heinz Endowments, and she would keep doing that if she were First Lady.' Those who know her well say she is generous to a fault and, for someone who could easily have everything done for her, is well able to look after herself. 'She's a powerhouse in her own right, not just a plus-one,' says her god-daughter and Vogue magazine writer Jill Kargman. 'She has her own causes and, instead of just standing beside him, she can get up and captivate an audience as well as any politician. She doesn't have an agenda, or secret political aspirations of her own; she just truly wants to make the world a better place.' In doing so, Mrs Heinz Kerry is not afraid to speak her mind. With the perspective of an admiring foreigner, she often speaks of the demise of America's reputation abroad. 'I understand why so many of our
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 India dominates outsourced IT, accounting and financial services. Ambitious firms have now expanded to food-stamp paperwork, auto engineering, drug research, airline industry and work for the U.S. Postal Service. India has
