[Ugnet] [abujaNig] CONSIDERING RWANDA INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL

[Edward Mulindwa]

  Strategic Considerations of the
  Rwandan Catastrophe of 1994
  If one searches for the reason of the Rwandan catastrophe of 1994 
strategic factors are more often neglected than acknowledged. But without 
taking them into account, the truth cannot be found. And justice becomes 
selective. While local actors are being punished, the often more powerful 
international culprits go untouched. The events in Rwanda in 1994 were not an 
internal armed conflict. They were caused by international intervention from 
the outside. To limit the discussion one-sidedly to the internal dynamics of 
Rwandan society and history neglects the fact that it were interventions from 
the outside, which set the conditions for the catastrophe to unfold and helped 
one side of the conflict to conduct its military operations. Western powers, 
most prominently the Anglo-American powers with the Francophone powers acting 
as competing junior partners, have caused the crisis in the Great Lakes region 
of Africa during the 1980s and 1990s in a twofold manner and are therefore
  responsible for the human catastrophe that followed.

  First, they ruined the region like the rest of the continent through the 
International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) structural adjustment policy 
economically. Secondly, they intervened with covert operations to manipulate 
simmering conflicts for the purpose of political controle. The combination of 
both led to the desaster in Rwanda in 1994. To understand this, the following 
strategic considerations must be taken into account:

1.. Events in Rwanda in 1994 have to be seen in the context of the war 
which started in 1990 and continued in the series of armed conflicts in the 
Central African region up to the present. It becomes clear that these conflicts 
are largly founded on a geopolitical strategy of Western powers, most 
prominently the United States and Great Britain, towards Africa, which can best 
be characterized as neocolonialist.


2.. The specific involvement of the US and British governments with the 
party which started the war in 1990, amounts to a far reaching political, if 
not juridical indictment of those governments for the criminal consequences of 
their actions.


3.. The economic conditions, imposed by the international financial 
institutions on the Habyarimana government destroyed the social fabric of 
Rwanda right at the time when war was launched against it, intensifying the 
sense of desperation among the population.


4.. The political struggle over the right of refugees to return turned 
into a violent powerstruggle and the ghosts of Rwanda's past, of the conflict 
between the majority and minority population groups, came back full force. The 
assassinations of three Hutu Presidents within a period of six months escalated 
the tensions to the bursting point.


5.. The Western powers never showed any serious committment to be the 
guarantor of the questionable Arusha peace agrement. After its breakdown, 
concious of its consequences, they decided against an intervention to stopp the 
carnage.


6.. Events in Rwanda and the region show, that the motivation for 
Western policy in Africa is not just interest in raw materials. It is also 
based in the devilish ideology of population controle.


7.. Those considerations show, that the often-disseminated theory, that 
events in Rwanda in 1994 were the result of one ethnic group having committed 
genocide against another ethnic group is not based on the totality of facts. 
Therefore, it is highly questionable to consider members of the political elite 
of this first group to be guilty of having committed genocide, because of their 
affiliation and government function. Such accusations become even more 
questionable in the case of Andre Ntagerura, who had been known for his 
pro-development commitment. 
  1. Anglo-American neocolonial desire.
  The October 1, 1990 invasion of Rwanda from Uganda by troops calling 
themselves members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), started a process of 
devastating regional wars, which has not stopped to this day. In Rwanda the war 
resulted in the assumption of power by the RPF in July of 1994. Two years later 
Rwandan, Burundian and Ugandan troops invaded Zaire, erased the camps of 
refugees which had fled from Rwanda and Burundi in Zaire's Kivu province, and 
drove a so called rebel force, the Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF), with 
its new leader Laurent Kabila, all the way to power in Kinshasa in May of 1997. 
One year later troops from Uganda and Rwanda again invaded Zaire, now the 
Democratic Republic of Congo, under the pretext of supporting rebel movements, 
the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD). The armies of Zimbabwe, Namibia and 
Angola intervened to save the Kinshasa government and in a stationary war faced 
the invading forces along a frontline dividing the Congo.

  The Financial Times of London ca

[Ugnet] PRIORITY ONE

[Edward Mulindwa]

 
 
 
 
Netters
 
We are getting reports of an immediate passing 
of John Cochrane. John was the leading council of the Oj Simpson , a case that 
made him world wide recognized. Few months ago John held a session in our town 
where I was one of the invited guests. More details will come up as we get 
them.
 
May this good man with a beautiful smile, rest 
in peace
 
EM
 
Toronto
 The Mulindwas Communication 
Group"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in 
anarchy"    
Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans 
l'anarchie"
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[Ugnet] [abujaNig] CONSIDERING RWANDA INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL

[Edward Mulindwa]

  Strategic Considerations of the
  Rwandan Catastrophe of 1994
  If one searches for the reason of the Rwandan catastrophe of 1994 
strategic factors are more often neglected than acknowledged. But without 
taking them into account, the truth cannot be found. And justice becomes 
selective. While local actors are being punished, the often more powerful 
international culprits go untouched. The events in Rwanda in 1994 were not an 
internal armed conflict. They were caused by international intervention from 
the outside. To limit the discussion one-sidedly to the internal dynamics of 
Rwandan society and history neglects the fact that it were interventions from 
the outside, which set the conditions for the catastrophe to unfold and helped 
one side of the conflict to conduct its military operations. Western powers, 
most prominently the Anglo-American powers with the Francophone powers acting 
as competing junior partners, have caused the crisis in the Great Lakes region 
of Africa during the 1980s and 1990s in a twofold manner and are therefore
  responsible for the human catastrophe that followed.

  First, they ruined the region like the rest of the continent through the 
International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) structural adjustment policy 
economically. Secondly, they intervened with covert operations to manipulate 
simmering conflicts for the purpose of political controle. The combination of 
both led to the desaster in Rwanda in 1994. To understand this, the following 
strategic considerations must be taken into account:

1.. Events in Rwanda in 1994 have to be seen in the context of the war 
which started in 1990 and continued in the series of armed conflicts in the 
Central African region up to the present. It becomes clear that these conflicts 
are largly founded on a geopolitical strategy of Western powers, most 
prominently the United States and Great Britain, towards Africa, which can best 
be characterized as neocolonialist.


2.. The specific involvement of the US and British governments with the 
party which started the war in 1990, amounts to a far reaching political, if 
not juridical indictment of those governments for the criminal consequences of 
their actions.


3.. The economic conditions, imposed by the international financial 
institutions on the Habyarimana government destroyed the social fabric of 
Rwanda right at the time when war was launched against it, intensifying the 
sense of desperation among the population.


4.. The political struggle over the right of refugees to return turned 
into a violent powerstruggle and the ghosts of Rwanda's past, of the conflict 
between the majority and minority population groups, came back full force. The 
assassinations of three Hutu Presidents within a period of six months escalated 
the tensions to the bursting point.


5.. The Western powers never showed any serious committment to be the 
guarantor of the questionable Arusha peace agrement. After its breakdown, 
concious of its consequences, they decided against an intervention to stopp the 
carnage.


6.. Events in Rwanda and the region show, that the motivation for 
Western policy in Africa is not just interest in raw materials. It is also 
based in the devilish ideology of population controle.


7.. Those considerations show, that the often-disseminated theory, that 
events in Rwanda in 1994 were the result of one ethnic group having committed 
genocide against another ethnic group is not based on the totality of facts. 
Therefore, it is highly questionable to consider members of the political elite 
of this first group to be guilty of having committed genocide, because of their 
affiliation and government function. Such accusations become even more 
questionable in the case of Andre Ntagerura, who had been known for his 
pro-development commitment. 
  1. Anglo-American neocolonial desire.
  The October 1, 1990 invasion of Rwanda from Uganda by troops calling 
themselves members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), started a process of 
devastating regional wars, which has not stopped to this day. In Rwanda the war 
resulted in the assumption of power by the RPF in July of 1994. Two years later 
Rwandan, Burundian and Ugandan troops invaded Zaire, erased the camps of 
refugees which had fled from Rwanda and Burundi in Zaire's Kivu province, and 
drove a so called rebel force, the Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF), with 
its new leader Laurent Kabila, all the way to power in Kinshasa in May of 1997. 
One year later troops from Uganda and Rwanda again invaded Zaire, now the 
Democratic Republic of Congo, under the pretext of supporting rebel movements, 
the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD). The armies of Zimbabwe, Namibia and 
Angola intervened to save the Kinshasa government and in a stationary war faced 
the invading forces along a frontline dividing the Congo.

  The Financial Times of London c

[Ugnet] BREAKING NEWS FROM IRAQ

[Edward Mulindwa]

 
 
 
Netters
 
We are getting reports of an attack on Abu Ghraib 
prison.  We also know that Americans have taken a whole number of 
causality. So keep watch on that one as well as it develops. Now that all press 
is in Vatican.
 
Em
Toronto
 
 The Mulindwas Communication Group"With 
Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in 
anarchy"    
Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans 
l'anarchie"
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[Ugnet] [abujaNig] Re: [camnetwork] White Privilege Shapes The U.S. | Not for long

[Edward Mulindwa]

James

By the way do you know that they are worried to become a minority because they 
fear we can treat them as they have treated us when we are a minority?

Em
Toronto
 The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas 
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"

  - Original Message - 
  From: James Ololo 
  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  Cc: rwanda ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; Congo ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; CameroonNet 
  Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 1:34 AM
  Subject: [camnetwork] White Privilege Shapes The U.S. | Not for long


  Race cards have been openly used in public in many
  occassions and sometimes it is accepted and goes
  without punishment.
  They have used race as political campaign. In Britain,
  the Labour Party used this slogan. "Torries say you're
  black, we say you are British".
  In United states, George Bush Senior campaigning
  against Micheal Dukakis had this T.V. and Radio
  commercial running.
  'George Washington was a white', voice putting
  emphasis on the word white. '6 foot 4, 'A Northern
  Heritage'. The ad mentioned all tall Republican
  Presidents along since US independence to Ronald
  Reagan. George Bush is a white, 6 foot 3, A Northern
  heritage... but Micheal Dukakis? the reader asks
  childishly and the ad comes to an end. In this ad,
  they are portraying Dukakis as a short near black man.
  They use his Greek background to tell America that it
  should not elect a Southern or near Africa Heritage
  president.

  All the same Edward, the game is about to change and
  as you can clearly see, whites are already courting
  Asia. They are clever people aren't they. When they
  try to court you, you show them your back but continue
  blaming them for your problems. Why don't you just
  court them then we get a win-win situation?. Anyway,
  US whites as we now know them will be in the minority
  before the end of this century. But they are clever,
  they could make race issues disappear from the arena
  in less than 50 years. After all, aren't we all
  Americans?

  -James



  --- Edward Mulindwa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

  > From: "Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
  > To: 
  > Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 9:50 PM
  > Subject: [Ugnet] White Privilege Shapes The U.S.
  > 
  > 
  > >
  > >
  > > *White Privilege Shapes The U.S.
  > > by Robert Jensen*
  > >
  > >
  > > Here's what white privilege sounds like:
  > >
  > > I am sitting in my University of Texas office,
  > talking to a very bright 
  > > and very conservative white student about
  > affirmative action in college 
  > > admissions, which he opposes and I support.
  > >
  > > The student says he wants a level playing field
  > with no unearned 
  > > advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he thinks
  > that in the United 
  > > States being white has advantages. Have either of
  > us, I ask, ever 
  > > benefited from being white in a world run mostly
  > by white people? Yes, he 
  > > concedes, there is something real and tangible we
  > could call white 
  > > privilege.
  > >
  > > So, if we live in a world of white
  > privilege--unearned white 
  > > privilege--how does that affect your notion of a
  > level playing field? I 
  > > ask.
  > >
  > > He paused for a moment and said, "That really
  > doesn't matter."
  > >
  > > That statement, I suggested to him, reveals the
  > ultimate white privilege: 
  > > the privilege to acknowledge you have unearned
  > privilege but ignore what 
  > > it means.
  > >
  > > That exchange led me to rethink the way I talk
  > about race and racism with 
  > > students. It drove home to me the importance of
  > confronting the dirty 
  > > secret that we white people carry around with us
  > everyday: In a world of 
  > > white privilege, some of what we have is unearned.
  > I think much of both 
  > > the fear and anger that comes up around
  > discussions of affirmative action 
  > > has its roots in that secret. So these days, my
  > goal is to talk openly and 
  > > honestly about white supremacy and white
  > privilege.
  > >
  > > White privilege, like any social phenomenon, is
  > complex. In a white 
  > > supremacist culture, all white people have
  > privilege, whether or not they 
  > > are overtly racist themselves. There are general
  > patterns, but such 
  > > privilege plays out differently depending on
  > context and other aspects of 
  > > one's identity (in my case, being male gives me
  > other kinds of privilege). 
  > > Rather than try to tell others how white privilege
  > has played out in their 
  > > lives, I talk about how it has affected me.
  > >
  > > I am as white as white gets in this country. I am
  > of northern European 
  > > heritage and I was raised in North Dakota, one of
  > the whitest states in 
  > > the country. I grew up in a virtually all-white
  > world surrounded by 
  > > racism, both personal and ins

[Ugnet] [abujaNig] AFRICAN REFUGEES DIE IN A HOTEL FIRE

[Edward Mulindwa]

 
 
 
Africans
 
With great condolence I post the news 
that most of the stations have ignored. We got a fire this morning in a Paris 
hotel, a hotel that housed refugees, mostly Africans. about 20 died in the 
inferno. Most of them kids, and many injured.  At this time The 
Communication group has a confirmed report that in the dead are mainly 
Congolese. The Hotel had 7 floors but France is well known to not follow fire 
regulations when building. The Hotel had only one exit and many died for jumping 
off the building.
 
Let me say this, there is a great 
amount of mistreatment of refugees in EU and the only way this can change is by 
Africans in those nations to use their numbers to change these situations, for I 
have personally visited these hotels in both France and Sweden and they are 
pathetic, it was a bomb waiting to blow up. And here we 
are.
 
May all of them rest in peace and can 
we who are alive ask our selves, how can we prevent this nonsense crap from 
happening again?
 
Em
Toronto
 
 The Mulindwas Communication 
Group"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in 
anarchy"    
Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans 
l'anarchie"


** Share a Smile!!!*
  ++
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 -- PJAdamz
   
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Internet Solution
Learning Yoruba can register with Gotrain247 at www.gotrain247.com for a comprehensive lesson.  From AfricaService.
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[Ugnet] [abujaNig] Re: [Ugandacom] White Privilege Shapes The U.S. | Not for long

[Edward Mulindwa]

Oh Geeez now that will really be low. No offence. 

Em
Toronto

 The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas 
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"

  - Original Message - 
  From: James Ololo 
  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL 
PROTECTED] 
  Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; Congo ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; CameroonNet 
  Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 2:06 AM
  Subject: [Ugandacom] White Privilege Shapes The U.S. | Not for long


  Dear Edward,
  I told you whites are not stupid. They know it very
  well that you will turn tables against them and be
  rest assured, you will never be able to use democratic
  principles to do to them what I also know you are
  planning, so my brother, don't bother, just live and
  let live. In fact If I were you, I would ask Pat out
  for diner. You will be both happier people.

  -James



  --- Edward Mulindwa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

  > James
  > 
  > By the way do you know that they are worried to
  > become a minority because they fear we can treat
  > them as they have treated us when we are a minority?
  > 
  > Em
  > Toronto
  >  The Mulindwas Communication Group
  > "With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
  > Groupe de communication Mulindwas 
  > "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans
  > l'anarchie"
  > 
  >   - Original Message - 
  >   From: James Ololo 
  >   To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ;
  > [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  >   Cc: rwanda ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; Congo ;
  > [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; CameroonNet 
  >   Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 1:34 AM
  >   Subject: [camnetwork] White Privilege Shapes The
  > U.S. | Not for long
  > 
  > 
  >   Race cards have been openly used in public in many
  >   occassions and sometimes it is accepted and goes
  >   without punishment.
  >   They have used race as political campaign. In
  > Britain,
  >   the Labour Party used this slogan. "Torries say
  > you're
  >   black, we say you are British".
  >   In United states, George Bush Senior campaigning
  >   against Micheal Dukakis had this T.V. and Radio
  >   commercial running.
  >   'George Washington was a white', voice putting
  >   emphasis on the word white. '6 foot 4, 'A Northern
  >   Heritage'. The ad mentioned all tall Republican
  >   Presidents along since US independence to Ronald
  >   Reagan. George Bush is a white, 6 foot 3, A
  > Northern
  >   heritage... but Micheal Dukakis? the reader asks
  >   childishly and the ad comes to an end. In this ad,
  >   they are portraying Dukakis as a short near black
  > man.
  >   They use his Greek background to tell America that
  > it
  >   should not elect a Southern or near Africa
  > Heritage
  >   president.
  > 
  >   All the same Edward, the game is about to change
  > and
  >   as you can clearly see, whites are already
  > courting
  >   Asia. They are clever people aren't they. When
  > they
  >   try to court you, you show them your back but
  > continue
  >   blaming them for your problems. Why don't you just
  >   court them then we get a win-win situation?.
  > Anyway,
  >   US whites as we now know them will be in the
  > minority
  >   before the end of this century. But they are
  > clever,
  >   they could make race issues disappear from the
  > arena
  >   in less than 50 years. After all, aren't we all
  >   Americans?
  > 
  >   -James
  > 
  > 
  > 
  >   --- Edward Mulindwa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
  > 
  >   > From: "Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
  >   > To: 
  >   > Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 9:50 PM
  >   > Subject: [Ugnet] White Privilege Shapes The U.S.
  >   > 
  >   > 
  >   > >
  >   > >
  >   > > *White Privilege Shapes The U.S.
  >   > > by Robert Jensen*
  >   > >
  >   > >
  >   > > Here's what white privilege sounds like:
  >   > >
  >   > > I am sitting in my University of Texas office,
  >   > talking to a very bright 
  >   > > and very conservative white student about
  >   > affirmative action in college 
  >   > > admissions, which he opposes and I support.
  >   > >
  >   > > The student says he wants a level playing
  > field
  >   > with no unearned 
  >   > > advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he
  > thinks
  >   > that in the United 
  >   > > States being white has advantages. Have either
  > of
  >   > us, I ask, ever 
  >   > > benefited from being white in a world run
  > mostly
  >   > by white people? Yes, he 
  >   > > concedes, there is something real and tangible
  > we
  >   > could call white 
  >   > > privilege.
  >   > >
  >   > > So, if we live in a world of white
  >   > privilege--unearned white 
  >   > > privilege--how does that affect your notion of
  > a
  >   > level playing field? I 
  >   > > ask.
  >   > >
  >   > > He paused for a moment and said, "That really
  >   > doesn't matter."
  >   > >
  >   > > That statement, I suggested to him, reveals
  > the
  >   > ultimate whit

[Ugnet] Uganda Muddles Over Arrests In Congo

[Simon Nume]

Ugandans arrested
By Emmy Allio THE United Nations Observer Mission in Congo (MONUC) has arrested three Ugandans suspected to be spies in the northeastern town of Bunia. 
But Ugandan security yesterday said those arrested last Saturday could be People’s Redemption Army (PRA) soldiers based in Ituri district. The arrest coincides with an incident last week in Arua, where the Police questioned several MONUC Nepalese soldiers on charges of soliciting prostitution from a 19-year-old woman. Those arrested were identified as Moses Mugisa Alois, Stephen Kindungu and Francis Bali. They were reportedly found with a map showing positions of MONUC troops. They were arrested at the residence of Leku Apobo, a coordinator of the Ituri Pacification Commission (IPC). Leku was also arrested. 
The acting chief of military intelligence, Lt. Col. James Mugira, said, “It is probable that those are PRA soldiers. It only confirms what we have been saying about PRA presence in Ituri.” 
He said PRA officers who used to operate in Bunia included Col. Edson Muzoora, Lt. Kashilingi, Lt. Kamugisha, Lt. Michael Taupe and Lt. Mugisa. “I heard that Mugisa worked as a translator for MONUC,” Mugira said. The Congolese said Mugisa had been a spy for MONUC. 
“It appears Mugisa has been arrested after disagreeing with MONUC,” a source said. In the same Bunia jail is Kahwa Panga Mandro, the chief of the Bahema Banywagi region, north of the Bunia. 
In a letter to his wife, Kahwa said the Ugandans were being tortured by MONUC and Congolese soldiers (FARDC). “I am surprised that I am now in jail yet I have always fully supported the disarmament mission of MONUC,” Kahwa said in the letter. Mugira said it was unfair for MONUC to accuse Kahwa of receiving guns from Uganda. “I am not pre-emptying their investigations, but I think Kahwa is being detained on allegations. Uganda has never given him any guns,” he said. Ends
Published on: Friday, 15th April, 2005
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[Ugnet] PRESS RELEASE ON NRM USA DENVER-COLORADO LAUNCH.pdf

[Ed Kironde]

  

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PRESS RELEASE ON NRM USA DENVER-COLORADO LAUNCH.pdf
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[Ugnet] [abujaNig] Re: Zimbabwe Events in Washington

[Edward Mulindwa]

Yea Yea 


Em
Toronto

 The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"

- Original Message - 
From: "George B.N. Ayittey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Dr. Valentine Ojo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Affiong" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Evelyn 
Joe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Africare-Newpublications" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "AbujaNig" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2005 5:02 AM
Subject: Re: Zimbabwe Events in Washington


> EM and Dr Val
>
> I find it very disturbing that EM in Toronto expresses disappointment at
> Scott Morgan for advocating for
> democracy in Zimbabwe. My problem with EM is he/she seems to be saying
> that it is OK for Zimbabweans
> to endure dictatorship, torture, victimisation, beatings, harrassment
> poverty and man induced
> famine simply because it may not be as bad as was the case in Congo,
> Rwanda or Somalia. You attack
> George and Scott simply because they are speaking on behalf of the
> majority of black Zimbabweans. Yes, on
> behalf of black Zimbabwean Africans. It is the black Africans in
> Zimbabwe who are facing the wrath of
> Mugabe's misrule. It is us black African Zimbabweans crying out to the
> rest of the world because another
> black African is maiming us and causing us untold suffering and pain.
> Yet you insult us in our time of pain
> by insinuating that some white racist agenda is at work behind the
> scenes. World, Wake Up. Zimbabwe is
> Dying whilst you,! our fellow black Africans rush to defend an 81 year
> old tyrant, in power for 25 years who
> is plunging us back to the stone ages.
>
> I am a very patriotic Zimbabwean black African and i am not an uncle Tom
> as some of you may want to
> conclude. Facts are we have been forced out of our homeland by the
> actions of the Mugabe regime. There
> are to 2.5-3.5 million (black Africans) out of an estimated population
> of 11 million now living outside of
> Zimbabwe. All of us will not be allowed to vote this thursday and those
> at home are doing so in most unfree
> and unfair conditions. The bulk of this flight has taken place in the
> last 5 years. The reasons are state
> sponsored political violence and a ruined economy. The violence visited
> upon black Africans has remained
> below the radar as EM says simply because it has been black on black and
> it seems that EM is disappointed
> that in Zimbabwe victims have not had their limbs cut off! All you
> George and Scott bashers can live in your
> imaginary world of conspiracy theories from your colonial hangovers as
> much as you want. The number ! of
> whites affected pales in comparison to the black Africans suffering
> under Mugabe or because of Mugabe.
> Wake up you'all. How dare you insult us by alluding that the pain we
> feel now from injustice is someone
> else's idea. Who then is the racist when you are implying that black
> Zimbabweans could only be saying they
> are denied democratic space because some obscure conspiracy between
> Blair, Bush and the white farmers
> exist. For us Zimbabweans fighting for survival, we say thank you to
> George and Scott for supporting us in
> our time of need.  Finally EM, remember democracy is not an event on
> election day, it is a process. In
> zimbabwe the patern has been of food used as a political weapon,
> imprisonment, torture and murder of
> political opponents, arbitrary cancellations of opposition rallies and
> meetings, intimidation of activists and
> voters by the Mugabe militias (green bombers) muzzled press and stuffed
> judiciary (AIPPA and POSA the
> two legal instruments used to ! control free speech and association) and
> the victims have been mostly black
> African Zimbabweans. So my question to you is, whose side are you on?
>
> Andrew Mudzingwa BAAS, ATPI
> MDC-Dallas Information and Publicity: 214 458 6066
> TEXAS
>
> 







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[abujaNig] Fw: [Ugnet] White Privilege Shapes The U.S.

[Edward Mulindwa]

From: "Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 9:50 PM
Subject: [Ugnet] White Privilege Shapes The U.S.


>
>
> *White Privilege Shapes The U.S.
> by Robert Jensen*
>
>
> Here's what white privilege sounds like:
>
> I am sitting in my University of Texas office, talking to a very bright 
> and very conservative white student about affirmative action in college 
> admissions, which he opposes and I support.
>
> The student says he wants a level playing field with no unearned 
> advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he thinks that in the United 
> States being white has advantages. Have either of us, I ask, ever 
> benefited from being white in a world run mostly by white people? Yes, he 
> concedes, there is something real and tangible we could call white 
> privilege.
>
> So, if we live in a world of white privilege--unearned white 
> privilege--how does that affect your notion of a level playing field? I 
> ask.
>
> He paused for a moment and said, "That really doesn't matter."
>
> That statement, I suggested to him, reveals the ultimate white privilege: 
> the privilege to acknowledge you have unearned privilege but ignore what 
> it means.
>
> That exchange led me to rethink the way I talk about race and racism with 
> students. It drove home to me the importance of confronting the dirty 
> secret that we white people carry around with us everyday: In a world of 
> white privilege, some of what we have is unearned. I think much of both 
> the fear and anger that comes up around discussions of affirmative action 
> has its roots in that secret. So these days, my goal is to talk openly and 
> honestly about white supremacy and white privilege.
>
> White privilege, like any social phenomenon, is complex. In a white 
> supremacist culture, all white people have privilege, whether or not they 
> are overtly racist themselves. There are general patterns, but such 
> privilege plays out differently depending on context and other aspects of 
> one's identity (in my case, being male gives me other kinds of privilege). 
> Rather than try to tell others how white privilege has played out in their 
> lives, I talk about how it has affected me.
>
> I am as white as white gets in this country. I am of northern European 
> heritage and I was raised in North Dakota, one of the whitest states in 
> the country. I grew up in a virtually all-white world surrounded by 
> racism, both personal and institutional. Because I didn't live near a 
> reservation, I didn't even have exposure to the state's only numerically 
> significant non-white population, American Indians.
>
> I have struggled to resist that racist training and the ongoing racism of 
> my culture. I like to think I have changed, even though I routinely trip 
> over the lingering effects of that internalized racism and the 
> institutional racism around me. But no matter how much I "fix" myself, one 
> thing never changes--I walk through the world with white privilege.
>
> What does that mean? Perhaps most importantly, when I seek admission to a 
> university, apply for a job, or hunt for an apartment, I don't look 
> threatening. Almost all of the people evaluating me for those things look 
> like me--they are white. They see in me a reflection of themselves, and in 
> a racist world that is an advantage. I smile. I am white. I am one of them 
> I am not dangerous. Even when I voice critical opinions, I am cut some 
> slack. After all, I'm white.
>
> My flaws also are more easily forgiven because I am white. Some complain 
> that affirmative action has meant the university is saddled with mediocre 
> minority professors. I have no doubt there are minority faculty who are 
> mediocre, though I don't know very many. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. once 
> pointed out, if affirmative action policies were in place for the next 
> hundred years, it's possible that at the end of that time the university 
> could have as many mediocre minority professors as it has mediocre white 
> professors. That isn't meant as an insult to anyone, but is a simple 
> observation that white privilege has meant that scores of second-rate 
> white professors have slid through the system because their flaws were 
> overlooked out of solidarity based on race, as well as on gender, class 
> and ideology.
>
> Some people resist the assertions that the United States is still a 
> bitterly racist society and that the racism has real effects on real 
> people. But white folks have long cut other white folks a break. I know, 
> because I am one of them.
>
> I am not a genius--as I like to say, I'm not the sharpest knife in the 
> drawer. I have been teaching full-time for six years, and I've published a 
> reasonable amount of scholarship. Some of it is the unexceptional stuff 
> one churns out to get tenure, and some of it, I would argue, actually is 
> worth reading. I work hard, and I like to think that I'm a fairly decent 
> teacher. Every once in awhile, I

[Ugnet] [abujaNig] Uganda in International Court over DRC claims - BBC -11/4/2005

[Edward Mulindwa]

  Uganda in court over DRC claims  
 
Uganda is accused of massacring Congolese civilians 
  The International Court of Justice at The Hague has begun hearing a 
complaint filed by the Democratic Republic of Congo against Uganda. 
  DR Congo accuses its neighbour of invading its territory, committing 
human rights violations and massacring Congolese civilians. 

  It is also demanding reparations for destruction and looting allegedly 
carried out by Ugandan troops. 

  Uganda denies the claims and accuses the DR Congo of acts of aggression. 

  In opening remarks, DR Congo's ambassador to the Netherlands, Jacques 
Masangu-a-Mwanza, told the court that Uganda was supplying weapons to ethnic 
groups fighting in Ituri Province. 

  "Uganda is behind a network of warlords who Uganda continues to supply 
with arms. They continue to steal our natural resources," he said. In 1999 the 
DR Congo asked the court to put a stop to acts of aggression by Uganda, which 
it said were a serious threat to peace and security in central Africa. 

  In a provisional ruling in 2000, the Court ordered both sides to refrain 
from any conflict - which could aggravate the case. 

  Last year, the DR Congo, Uganda and Rwanda started peace negotiations. 

  The DR Congo filed a similar complaint against Rwanda with the World 
Court in 2002. 




 





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[Ugnet] The Africa You Never See

[vukoni]

The Africa You Never SeeBy Carol PineauSunday, April 17,
2005;In the waiting area of a large office complex in Accra,
Ghana, it's standing room only as citizens with bundles of cash
line up to buy shares of a mutual fund that has yielded an average
60 percent annually for the past seven years. They're entrusting
their hard-earned cash to a local company called Databank, which
invests in stock markets in Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana and Kenya that
consistently rank among the world's top growth
markets.Chances are you haven't read or heard anything about
Databank in your daily newspaper or on the evening news, where the
little coverage of Africa that's offered focuses almost exclusively
on the negative -- the virulent spread of HIV/AIDS, genocide in
Darfur and the chaos of Zimbabwe.Yes, Africa is a land of
wars, poverty and corruption. The situation in places like Darfur,
Sudan, desperately cries out for more media attention and
international action. But Africa is also a land of stock markets,
high rises, Internet cafes and a growing middle class. This is the
part of Africa that functions. And this Africa also needs media
attention, if it's to have any chance of fully joining the global
economy.Africa's media image comes at a high cost, even, at the
extreme, the cost of lives. Stories about hardship and tragedy aim
to tug at our heartstrings, getting us to dig into our pockets or
urge Congress to send more aid. But no country or region ever
developed thanks to aid alone. Investment, and the job and wealth
creation it generates, is the only road to lasting development.
That's how China, India and the Asian Tigers did it.Yet
while Africa, according to the U.S. government's Overseas Private
Investment Corp., offers the highest return in the world on direct
foreign investment, it attracts the least. Unless investors see the
Africa that's worthy of investment, they won't put their money into
it. And that lack of investment translates into job stagnation,
continued poverty and limited access to education and health
care.Consider a few facts: The Ghana Stock Exchange regularly
tops the list of the world's highest-performing stock markets.
Botswana, with its A+ credit rating, boasts one of the highest per
capita government savings rates in the world, topped only by
Singapore and a handful of other fiscally prudent nations. Cell
phones are making phenomenal profits on the continent. Brand-name
companies like Coca-Cola, GM, Caterpillar and Citibank have
invested in Africa for years and are quite bullish on the
future.The failure to show this side of Africa creates a
one-dimensional caricature of a complex continent. Imagine if 9/11,
the Oklahoma City bombing and school shootings were all that the
rest of the world knew about America.I recently produced a
documentary on entrepreneurship and private enterprise in Africa.
Throughout the year-long process, I came to realize how all of us
in the media -- even those with a true love of the continent --
portray it in a way that's truly to its detriment.The first
cameraman I called to film the documentary laughed and said,
"Business and Africa, aren't those contradictory terms?" The second
got excited imagining heart-warming images of women's co-ops and
market stalls brimming with rustic crafts. Several friends simply
assumed I was doing a documentary on AIDS. After all, what else
does one film in Africa?The little-known fact is that
businesses are thriving throughout Africa. With good governance and
sound fiscal policies, countries like Botswana, Ghana, Uganda,
Senegal and many more are bustling, their economies growing at
surprisingly robust rates.Private enterprise is not just
limited to the well-behaved nations. You can't find a more
war-ravaged land than Somalia, which has been without a central
government for more than a decade. The big surprise? Private
enterprise is flourishing. Mogadishu has the cheapest cell phone
rates on the continent, mostly due to no government intervention.
In the northern city of Hargeysa, the markets sell the latest
satellite phone technology. The electricity works. When the state
collapsed in 1991, the national airline went out of business.
Today, there are five private carriers and price wars keep the cost
of tickets down. This is not the Somalia you see in the
media.Obviously life there would be dramatically improved by
good governance -- or even just some governance -- but it's also
true that, through resilience and resourcefulness, Somalis have
been able to create a functioning society.Most African
businesses suffer from an extreme lack of infrastructure, but the
people I met were too determined to let this stop them. It just
costs them more. Without reliable electricity, most businesses have
to use generators. They have to dig bore-holes for a dependable
water source. Telephone lines are notoriously out of service, but
cell phones are filling the gap.Throughout Africa, what I found
was a private sector working hard to find African solutions

[Ugnet] NEWS: Muntu pins Obote over massacres

[musamize]

Muntu pins Obote over massacres
By Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi & Hussein Bogere
Monitor  19, 2005
 
KAMPALA - One of President Yoweri Museveni’s harshest critics has defended the National Resistance Army’s conduct during the Luweero war while blaming Milton Obote’s Uganda National Liberation Army for killing civilians.Maj. Gen. (Rtd.) Mugisha Muntu, the former army commander, who is now a leader of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change, said the UNLA had “committed a lot of atrocities” during the 1981-1985 war that was based mainly in the Luweero Triangle. But he also criticised Mr Museveni for betraying the cause of the war. Muntu said Museveni’s government veered so much from its original ideals that people can no longer distinguish between the NRA “liberators” and the Uganda National Liberation Army who massacred people.Addressing journalists at the FDC headquarters in Najjanankumbi yesterday, Muntu gave a chronological account of the war and pinned the UNLA for the kil
 lings.
 He said he would testify in court if the matter ever came to that.His remarks came in the wake of the recent exchange between former president Obote and Museveni over who is responsible for the Luweero massacres. The war of words was triggered off by Obote’s claims in The Monitor’s series, “Obote: My Story,” in which he accuses Museveni and his NRA of masterminding the Luweero killings. While Obote insists that it was NRA that was responsible, Museveni and government officials on the other hand say the UNLA committed the atrocities. They add that Obote should account for them and the atrocities committed during his rule. The president has threatened to sue The Monitor and Obote for “telling lies” about him. Said Muntu: “Doubt has come into the population that we were not liberators, that we were a bunch of self-seekers. It is very painful.”He said if the Movement and Museveni had stuck to the ideals that led to the war, the current deb
 ate
 would not have emerged. “This debate would be totally seen differently if it arose in the late eighties or early nineties because NRM had taken a moral high ground,” Muntu said. “That should be an eye opener to Museveni and NRMO.” However, Muntu dismissed Obote’s claims as absolute lies in an interview with The Monitor. “Those people (civilians in Luweero) were killed in broad-day light inside the camps. There is no way we could have penetrated the camps,” he said. “Besides the population would not have supported us if we were killing their own. Don’t forget also that the majority of our soldiers were from that area.”Muntu, who was the rebel NRA’s chief of intelligence, also dismissed Obote’s claims that the NRA killed parents in order to recruit their children as child-soldiers. “That’s absolutely impossible,” he said. But he remained critical of Museveni for not sticking to the ideals that took the NRA to war and appealed to him to make amends.
 “It’s not yet too late to rectify the situation,” Muntu said. “What betrayal that can be to the thousands of people and soldiers that died. That a whole sacrifice now stands a danger of being erased because of one, two, or three people! President Museveni we would like to request you to rethink. Don’t get a whole part of our history which was gained through sacrifice and subject it to oblivion because of a selfish interest of a few individuals.”Muntu said the Movement had lost the high moral ground that helped the then guerrilla group to win over hearts of the people and liberate the country. “It’s painful; because of a few selfish individuals we lost that ground,” he said. “People no longer know whether we are liberators, fighters or crooks like many others.” An emotional Muntu said, “All those people who died are now being seen as a mere statistic.” He said there was need for an independent inquiry to establish who was responsible for the
 killings.“When this debate comes up as to who was responsible for killing and who was not, we need to hear from a third party,” he said. But he added: “I have no doubt that UNLA committed a lot of atrocities. Many people were killed in camps in Kapeeka, Bombo, Katikamu and other areas.” Muntu said it was because of these atrocities that the people would run to the NRA camps. He said like in Luweero in the 80s people ran to those they felt could guarantee them protection. “Yes there is collateral damage. Anybody who has been in the army cannot deny that, but we should not forget the principle,” Muntu said. “If people feel they want to be liberated even if some die but if they achieve the objective to liberate themselves...”
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[Ugnet] Monitor Letter: Selfish business interests killing our country

[musamize]

Selfish business interests killing our countryTwo recent events have reminded me of how predictable entrenched business interests are when it comes to blocking progress in order to maintain their unfair advantage. The first of these events is the president's giving a go-ahead to the Nsimbe project. The second is the installation of the thermal power plant.We m
 ust not
 forget how we got ourselves into the $30 million bill for thermal generators. During the Bujagali Dam saga, we were bombarded in the media with unspecific allegations of corruption and imprecise scares of environmental fallout. We had parliamentary probes, and spin after spin. The short of it is, the dam never got built, and now we have to contend with power cuts and increased costs. So when I saw the circus around the NSSF Nsimbe project, I felt a strong sense of deja vu: Imprecise allegations, shrill voices with no facts, parliamentary probes, spin! The result? Well, if you think it is hard today finding a decent house in a decent area to buy, wait and see what it will be like five years from now! When shall we stop? After we have totally mortgaged the entire country to business interests? What sort of country will our children find?John KatendeMasaka
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[Ugnet] News: Obote's selective amnesia (dementia?)

[musamize]

 
Obote’s story a counterpoint to Museveni’s Mustard Seed?
It is a political autobiography, but also an apologia and defence where Dr Milton Obote hardly concedes anything that he has been held responsible for. It is right for him to put his own side of the story, though perhaps we will hear nothing that we do not know already. In my opinion, Obote needs to be judged against the situation that he inherited from the colonial era. The picture he paints for himself is that of a consistent champion of multiparty democracy and of the rule of law – someone who eschewed use of the military in maintaining himself in power. He presents Amin and Museveni as men who have used violence to take and maintain themselves in power. The two dominant elements in Uganda’s politics since independence have been manipulation and manoeuvre, and Obote was a genius in these. The objects of manipulation have been ‘the pe
 ople’
 (as a fiction, as tribes, religions, and youths), parliament, the judiciary, and the electoral process. The military (army, special forces) have been used for purposes of manoeuvre. In Museveni, Obote met his match in the game of manoeuvres and timing. Presidents like Yusufu Lule and Godfrey Binaisa, not to mention Tito Okello, who were poor at manoeuvring did not last long. Obote counting on his popularity and capacity to manoeuvre did not realise the power of former youthful UPC cadres who had become opposed to his legacy and tactics. He miscalculated when he thought to stage a heroic comeback against the forces arraigned against him, especially in Buganda. The NRA may have done their own killings in Luwero, but the UNLA pursued a scorched earth policy, killing civilians on an unprecedented scale. It would be more realistic for Obote to admit that during his second administration the army was really out of his control. 
Rev Amos KasibanteLeicester, UK
**
Former president Milton Obote is telling lies about his tenure. Iam lost when he says government soldiers never committed atrocities in Luweero Triangle. Could he tell us who de-roofed houses and emptied coffee stores left by fleeing peasants? Surely, it cannot be Museveni bandits as he prefers to call them. They had no business with iron sheets as they were known to sleep in bushes and were not coffee dealers. For the thousands of human skeletons picked from the countryside after the war, it’s inconcievable to count them on Museveni as Obote wants the public to believe since Museveni could not have killed the very people sustaining his war effort. In Kampala from 1980 - 85, shops and offices closed as early as 3 p.m., and one could venture into the city after dark only if he wanted to meet his Creator, not forgetting the notorious pand
 a gari
 operations which some of its victims have never been seen again. If this is the security Obote alleges to have brought, God forbid. The best Obote can do is to apologise to the Baganda instead of revoking memories of the dead.
Lastus KibowaE-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
**
I was amused but not amazed when I read Obote's account of why he nominated Oyite Ojok to become the Chairman of the now defunct Coffee Marketing Board. One remains baffled by the childish and stupid logic that Obote advances for justifying his actions. "I appointed Oyite Ojok the Chairman for the Coffee Marketing Board because when we came (sic) to government we found that Uganda Government had no money. There was no fuel in the country and we needed foreign exchange ... so I appointed Oyite Ojok as Chairman of the Coffee Marketing Board to give that security at the plant in Kampala for overnight work, which we did. That is how I solved the problem of fuel in the country"In typical Obote fashion, as Shakespeare once remarked, 'the devil will cite the scriptures to his cause,' he unashamedly and blatantly lies about such a scandalous matter
  of
 which he had no control whatsoever. It was common knowledge during his tenure that Obote was a weak and vacillating leader who had little control over the likes of Paulo Muwanga and Oyite Ojok. According to Muwanga's account, Oyite Ojok informed Obote that with immediate effect he would become the Chairman of CMB. Obote refused, whereupon Oyite Ojok berated him (in front of Muwanga) and said to him, "Milton, you are so ungrateful! You mean to tell me after rigging this election in your favour you dare to challenge me? We did not win for nothing." He left Obote in tears. A Kadumukasa Kironde IIButikiro Road, Kampala
 
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[Ugnet] Muteesa II Life & Death in Brief

[musamize]

Mutesa II
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutesa_II) 


Mutesa II, the first President of Uganda.
 
Edward Mutesa II (November 19, 1924 - November 21, 1969) was king of the Buganda region and President of Uganda from 1963 to 1966.
His full name was Sir Edward Frederick William David Walugembe Mutebi Luwangula Mutesa but was often nicknamed King Freddie by his supporters. As king he was also leader of the Ganda tribe which dominated Buganda.
Mutesa became king in 1939 upon the death of his father, King Daudi Cwa II. At the time Buganda was part of the British protectorate of Uganda. He continued his father's practices of reforming the largely self-governing kingdom into a constitutional monarchy<
 /A> system of government. When discussions began among British officials of making Uganda into an independent country, King Freddie lobbied them in an attempt to secure independence for Buganda as a country sovereign from Uganda. The efforts were both ineffective and unpopular, however, and he was briefly deposed and exiled.
Mutesa returned to Uganda and his throne in 1955. In 1962 Uganda became independent from Britain with Milton Obote as Prime Minister and Walter Fleming Coutts as Governor General. In 1963 Obote abolished Uganda's status as a Commonwealth realm and replaced the post of Governor General with a figurehead Presidency. A largely rigged election saw Mutesa get elected as Uganda's first President, a result Obote had deliberately orchestrated in order to appease the Ganda tribe.
Mutesa was not content to serve as a mere figurehead, however, and continued to feud with Obote over the future of Buganda. In 1966 Obote suspended the Ugandan constitution and proclaimed himself as the new president, exiling Mutesa to Britain. President Obote proceeded to abolish all of Uganda's kingdoms, including Buganda.
[edit]
Death
Mutesa died of alcohol poisoning in his London flat in 1969. Attributed to suicide by the British police, the death has been viewed as a possible assassination by those claiming that Mutesa may have been forcibly administered large amounts of vodka by agents of the Obote regime. Mutesa was interviewed in his flat only a few hours before his death by the British journalist John Simpson, who found that he was sober and in good spirits. Simpson reported this to the police the following day on hearing of Mutesa's death, although this line of enquiry was not pursued.Edward Mulindwa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Kasangwawo"I've already said that it was an assassination by agents of the Obote regime"That is the crap sold in Uganda, you and I have been abroad for a while and we state matters we can prove. So I am not my grand mother who still believe that Muteesa is still alive and well in UK. Every body who dies in UK has a cause of death, and I state that Muteesa's cause of death is listed , officially listed as alcohol poisoning.Kindly tell us what is officially listed as the death of this drunkard?EmTorontoThe Mulindwas Communication Group"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"Groupe de communication Mulindwas"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"- Original Message - From: "jonah kasangwawo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 
 9:30
 AMSubject: Re: [Ugnet] Buturo knows Luweero killers, says UPC> Man, are you illiterate or plain dumb ? I've already said that it was an > assassination by agents of the Obote regime, through poisoning. Is it > clear to you now ?>> Regarding Lule, I was only trying to point out to you that it would be > better if you first ask yourself in which university Obote did his > doctorate before you start questioning Lule's credentials who was an > academic. But that also seems to be beyond you.>> I'm done with your hopeless allegations on this issue.>>>From: "Edward Mulindwa" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>>Reply-To: ugandanet@kym.net>>To: >>CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED]>>Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Buturo knows Luweero killers, says UPC>>Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 20:11:55 -0400KasangwawoWhat
  did
 Kabaka Muteesa die from? This is your chance to make it public. >>Mutesa was a King of Buganda, and a Uganda president at a certain point, >>surely the cause of his death must be stated and publicly. The floor is >>yours.On Lule I will not waste my time for we have asked you many times where he >>did his professorship and you have not answered, that means you do not >>know and you do not care to research..Em>>TorontoThe Mulindwas Communication Group>>"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy">> Groupe de communication Mulindwas>>"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"- Original Message - From: "jonah kasangwawo" >><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>>To: >>Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 11:41 AM>>Subject: Re: [Ugnet] Butur
 o knows
 Luweero killers, says UPC>>>Mulindwa,>>I'm not going to do your research for you, but I'll tell you this. >>>Circumstances of Muteesa II's death clearly point t

[Ugnet] When Media Dogs Don't Bark

[Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga]

*When Media Dogs Don't Bark*
   By Norman Solomon
   t r u t h o u t | Perspective
   Monday 18 April 2005
   The recent decision by General Motors to pull its advertising from 
the Los Angeles Times has not gone over very well.

   "Blame the press," Daily Variety scoffed in mid-April, after several 
days of publicity about the automaker's move. "That's the latest coping 
mechanism for General Motors, whose slumping share price and falling 
profits have generated a wave of negative media coverage. ... GM isn't 
the first Fortune 500 company to retaliate against a newspaper's 
editorial coverage by taking a punch at its ad division. But most 
companies understand the tactic just doesn't work; it only generates 
more bad coverage."

   In the Motor City, the Detroit News business writer Daniel Howes 
told readers that the monetary slap at the L.A. Times exposes "GM's 
thinning corporate skin." Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam had this to 
say: "On the one hand, the decision, which may affect up to $20 million 
in ad spending, sends a powerful message to the Times. On the other 
hand, it sends a powerful message to the country about the idiots who 
are running GM."

   Drawing more attention to GM's financial woes, the ad-yanking gambit 
is likely to backfire. But news outlets are far from immune to 
advertiser pressure.

   By coincidence, the conflict between General Motors and the L.A. 
Times went public just as a new report highlighted the media clout of 
advertisers and other powerful interests in business and government. The 
media watch group FAIR (where I'm an associate) released the results of 
its fifth annual "Fear & Favor" report on "how power shapes the news."

   The FAIR report, by Peter Hart and Julie Hollar, provides context 
with sobering information: "A survey of media workers by four industry 
labor unions found respondents concerned about `pressure from 
advertisers trying to shape coverage' as well as `outside control of 
editorial policy.' In May [2004], the Pew Research Center for the People 
& the Press released a survey of media professionals that found 
reporters concerned about how bottom-line pressures were affecting news 
quality and integrity. In their summary ... Bill Kovach, Tom Rosensteil 
and Amy Mitchell wrote that journalists `report more cases of 
advertisers and owners breaching the independence of the newsroom."'

   Among the examples in the new "Fear & Favor" report 
 are these gems:

   * Last July, "when furniture giant Ikea opened a new store in New
 Haven, Conn., the New Haven Register cranked out 12 Ikea stories
 in eight straight days -- accompanied by at least 17 photographs
 and a sidebar on product information -- with headlines such as
 `Ikea's Focus on Child Labor Issues Reflects Ethic of Social
 Responsibility' and `Ikea Employees Take Pride in Level of
 Responsibility Company Affords Them.' ... The back-scratching
 reached its apex the day of the grand opening, when the Register
 heralded the arrival of Ikea and fellow super-store Wal-Mart and
 remarked upon Ikea's `astonishingly low prices -- a coffee table
 for $99, a flowing watering can for $1.99, a woven rocking chair,
 $59.' Sound like an ad? It was the Register's lead editorial."
   * In January 2004, Boston Herald readers "could easily have mistaken
 the paper's front-page ad for news. When discount airline JetBlue
 launched several new flight services out of Boston's Logan
 Airport, Bostonians who picked up a free promotional Herald that
 day found that every item on the front page was devoted
 exclusively to the airline, including the lead headline, `JetBlue
 Arrives, Promises a Free TV to All Who Fly,' and teasers like
 `Flight Attendant Gives Passenger Entire Can of Soda.' After the
 front page, the paper resumed its actual news content -- but
 nowhere did the Herald indicate that its front page was in fact a
 paid advertisement, and the 20,000 recipients of the promo paper
 missed out on the actual front-page news of the day."
   * When a TV station in Kirksville, Mo., "ran a news report that
 quoted a company that didn't advertise on the station rather than
 a competitor that did, the angry advertiser pulled its ads from
 the station. KTVO vice president and general manager Crystal
 Amini-Rad quickly apologized to the sales staff in a memo that
 also required news reporters to `have access to an active
 advertiser list ... of sources which you can tap into' for expert
 opinion and industry comment -- and told reporters that they
 `should always go' to station advertisers first on any story."
   * In Silver City, N.M., when KNFT Radio "brought on progressive host
 Kyle Johnson as an alternative to the seven hours of Rush
 Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Bill O'Reilly the station aired every
 weekday, KNFT's advertisers boycot

[Ugnet] Bush Administration 'Broke Its Own Embargo to Sell Arms to Haiti Police'

[Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga]

*Bush Administration 'Broke Its Own Embargo to Sell Arms to Haiti Police'*
   By Andrew Buncombe
   The Independent UK
   Sunday 17 April 2005
   The Bush administration has been accused of ignoring its own arms 
embargo and overseeing the sale of $7m-worth (£3.7m) of weapons to the 
Haitian government to equip its police force.

   Human rights groups say the police carry out routine executions of 
dissidents and weapons are often illegally funneled to armed militia.

   Robert Muggah of the Swiss-based Small Arms Survey, a non-profit 
group, said that last year the US effected the sale of thousands of 
weapons to the interim government headed by Gerard Latortue, despite a 
13-year arms embargo. "They are meant to brace up a shaky security 
force, but the reality is they could actually undermine security by 
jeopardizing an innovative disarmament effort just getting under way," 
said Mr. Muggah, who has spent several months in Haiti interviewing 
diplomats and UN officials for a report.

   The embargo was established after a coup that ousted the elected 
president Jean-Betrand Aristide, who was forced into exile for a second 
time last year. Washington, which had long under - mined his presidency, 
refused to help him. The weapons embargo remains in place.

   Mr. Latortue, installed following negotiations involving the US, 
France and Canada, complained the ban prevented him equipping the police.

   But according to Mr. Muggah, despite Mr. Latortue's public 
protestations, a number of arms sales have gone ahead. His report says 
5,435 "military-style weapons", including M-14 and other semi-automatic 
guns and 4,433 handguns worth $6.95m, were provided from the US.

   Haiti is already awash with guns and violence. Human rights groups 
say supporters of Mr. Aristide's political party, Lavalas, have been 
subjected to violence and oppression. The Haitian National Police (HNP) 
is also accused of carrying out a campaign of violence in the slums of 
the capital, Port-au-Prince.

   Brian Concannon, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice and 
Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), which has links to the former government, 
said: "It is well-documented that the Haitian police routinely execute 
political dissidents and suspected criminals, so with them the guns are 
already in the wrong hands.

   "But many officers - especially those illegally integrated from the 
rebel army - funnel arms to paramilitary groups that are even more brutal."

   A recent report by the human rights program at Harvard Law School 
said HNP members were "perceived variously as crooked, politicised, 
ineffective and violators of human rights".

   It added that the UN stabilization mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was 
not only complicit in HNP abuses, but that there were "credible 
allegations of human rights abuses perpetrated by MINUSTAH itself".

   Media reports have identified several Haitian Americans allegedly 
involved in an arms sale, raising suggestions that the deal was 
privately organized and sanctioned by the US, rather than an official 
sale of weapons by Washington.

   One of these, Joel Deeb, a self-styled "freedom fighter", told The 
Independent on Sunday he had been approached by Mr. Latortue's nephew, 
Youri, and given $500,000 to buy arms.

   "I was given half a million dollars in the form of a letter of 
credit," he said. "But there is an embargo. There has not been any deal 
yet. The money is frozen. Everybody is saying I have done something with 
the money, but it is still there."

   A State Department spokesman said restrictions on arms sales 
remained. He said the US would not sell arms to Haiti but would consider 
lifting the embargo on a case-by-case basis to allow third parties to 
make the sales "to be helpful" to the interim government.

 ---
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[Ugnet] Do you know of a brown nose in your hood?

[musamize]

Slap Your Co-Worker Day is Coming!!
 
Tomorrow is the official Slap Your Irritating Co-workers Holiday: Do
you have a co-worker who talks nonstop about nothing, working your last
nerve with tedious and boring details that you don't give a damn about?
Do you have a co-worker who ALWAYS screws up stuff creating MORE work for
you?
 
Do you have a co-worker who kisses so much booty, you can look in their
mouth and see what your boss had for lunch? Do you have a co-worker who
is SOOO obnoxious, when he/she enters a room, everyone else clears it?
Well, on behalf of Ike Turner, I am so very very glad to officially
announce tomorrow as SLAP YOUR IRRITATING CO-WORKER DAY! There are the
rules you must follow:
 
* You can only slap one person per hour - no more.
* You can slap the same person again if they irritate you again in the
same day.
* You are allowed to hold someone down as other co-workers take their
turns slapping the irritant.
* No weapons are allowed...other than going upside somebody's head with
a stapler or a hole-puncher.
* CURSING IS MANDATORY! After you have slapped the recipient, your
"assault" must be followed with something like "cause I'm sick of your stupid-a$$ always messing up stuff!"
* If questioned by a supervisor [or police, if the supervisor is the irritant], you are allowed to LIE, LIE, LIE! 
 
Now, study the rules, break out your list of folks that you want to slap the living day lights out of and get to slapping.and have a great day!!
 ….hmm, I guess all those psycophants we have back in the pearl better get body armour …
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[Ugnet] Nigeria takes debt case to IPU

[musamize]

April 19, 2005:
Nigeria takes debt case to IPUFrom John Abba-Ogbodo, Abuja 
DETERMINED to secure cancellation to her debt burden by creditor nations, Nigeria has taken the issue to the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU). 
A statement issued in Abuja yesterday by Mr Austin Uganwa, special assistant to Deputy Speaker said the issue of Nigeria's foreign debt was the crux of a presentation made by a delegation led by the deputy speaker to the recent IPU conference in Manila, Philippines. 
Nigeria, according to the statement, pleaded with parliaments of the creditor nations to put pressure on their governments to provide a window for this country by way of debt relief programmes, stressing that no nation could make meaningful progress with such a debt burden. 
The delegation told the conference that frustrated by the debt burden, the House of Representatives recently passed a motion urging the Nigerian government to declare a unilateral moratorium on the servicing of the debts. 
According to the deputy speaker, Nigeria with her huge population required enormous resources for development and servicing the debts would deny the citizens much-needed infrastructure. 
The move, if adopted, Opara said, would substantially assist Nigeria in meeting her obligations to the citizens. 
"A large percentage of our national earnings, which would have otherwise gone to development projects, is now being channelled to servicing debts," he said. 
Opara, in his presentation, described the debt situation as pathetic and appealed to his colleagues to assist by making their home governments appreciate the Nigerian situation. 
He also urged them to increase the volume of their investments in the country, stressing that the current administration had taken the war against corruption to an appreciable level. 
The deputy speaker pledged the support of the National Assembly for the reform process of the United Nations, noting that enlarging a vital organ like the Security Council to accommodate the current dynamics of the world was a welcome development. Nigeria's total external debt profile today stands at about $35 billion.` 

© 2003 - 2005 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited (All Rights Reserved).
 
Tiny Uganda's Red Ink is some US  $4.5 Billion -- 60% of the annual GDP, and growing furiously. Barely three years ago it stood at  $3.5Billion. 
 
Another way look at it is that every, man, woman and child in Uganda owes about $200. With rh annual per capita income in the neighborhood of $200, it would take each Uganda to work for an entire year to pay off the debt -- and that is without spending on anything else during that year.
Now of course the "Bannakyeyo" could retire the entire current debt -- all be it in 10 years ---  if every cent they annually were used to pay it off,  . er and no additional interest accrued in the mean time .
 
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[Ugnet] The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

[Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga]

This article can be found on the web at
*http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050502&s=klein*

*lookout* /by/ Naomi Klein
   The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
[from the May 2, 2005 issue]
Last summer, in the lull of the August media doze, the Bush 
Administration's doctrine of preventive war took a major leap forward. 
On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator 
for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to 
Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate 
"post-conflict" plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as 
of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to 
coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different 
countries "at the same time," each lasting "five to seven years."

Fittingly, a government devoted to perpetual pre-emptive deconstruction 
now has a standing office of perpetual pre-emptive reconstruction.

Gone are the days of waiting for wars to break out and then drawing up 
ad hoc plans to pick up the pieces. In close cooperation with the 
National Intelligence Council, Pascual's office keeps "high risk" 
countries on a "watch list" and assembles rapid-response teams ready to 
engage in prewar planning and to "mobilize and deploy quickly" after a 
conflict has gone down. The teams are made up of private companies, 
nongovernmental organizations and members of think tanks--some, Pascual 
told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies 
in October, will have "pre-completed" contracts to rebuild countries 
that are not yet broken. Doing this paperwork in advance could "cut off 
three to six months in your response time."

The plans Pascual's teams have been drawing up in his little-known 
office in the State Department are about changing "the very social 
fabric of a nation," he told CSIS. The office's mandate is not to 
rebuild any old states, you see, but to create "democratic and 
market-oriented" ones. So, for instance (and he was just pulling this 
example out of his hat, no doubt), his fast-acting reconstructors might 
help sell off "state-owned enterprises that created a nonviable 
economy." Sometimes rebuilding, he explained, means "tearing apart the 
old."

Few ideologues can resist the allure of a blank slate--that was 
colonialism's seductive promise: "discovering" wide-open new lands where 
utopia seemed possible. But colonialism is dead, or so we are told; 
there are no new places to discover, no /terra nullius/ (there never 
was), no more blank pages on which, as Mao once said, "the newest and 
most beautiful words can be written." There is, however, plenty of 
destruction--countries smashed to rubble, whether by so-called Acts of 
God or by Acts of Bush (on orders from God). And where there is 
destruction there is reconstruction, a chance to grab hold of "the 
terrible barrenness," as a UN official recently described the 
devastation in Aceh, and fill it with the most perfect, beautiful plans.

"We used to have vulgar colonialism," says Shalmali Guttal, a 
Bangalore-based researcher with Focus on the Global South. "Now we have 
sophisticated colonialism, and they call it 'reconstruction.'"

It certainly seems that ever-larger portions of the globe are under 
active reconstruction: being rebuilt by a parallel government made up of 
a familiar cast of for-profit consulting firms, engineering companies, 
mega-NGOs, government and UN aid agencies and international financial 
institutions. And from the people living in these reconstruction 
sites--Iraq to Aceh, Afghanistan to Haiti--a similar chorus of 
complaints can be heard. The work is far too slow, if it is happening at 
all. Foreign consultants live high on cost-plus expense accounts and 
thousand- dollar-a-day salaries, while locals are shut out of 
much-needed jobs, training and decision-making. Expert "democracy 
builders" lecture governments on the importance of transparency and 
"good governance," yet most contractors and NGOs refuse to open their 
books to those same governments, let alone give them control over how 
their aid money is spent.

Three months after the tsunami hit Aceh, the /New York Times/ ran a 
distressing story reporting that "almost nothing seems to have been done 
to begin repairs and rebuilding." The dispatch could easily have come 
from Iraq, where, as the /Los Angeles Times/ just reported, all of 
Bechtel's allegedly rebuilt water plants have started to break down, one 
more in an endless litany of reconstruction screw-ups. It could also 
have come from Afghanistan, where President Hamid Karzai recently 
blasted "corrupt, wasteful and unaccountable" foreign contractors for 
"squandering the precious resources that Afghanistan received in aid." 
Or from Sri Lanka, where 600,000 people who lost their homes in the 
tsunami are still languishing in temporary camps. One hundred days after 
the gian

[Ugnet] Fwd: A CHANGING CONTINENT

[Kiggundu Mukasa]

Begin forwarded message:
Subject: RE: A CHANGING CONTINENT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58294-2005Apr16.html
A CHANGING CONTINENT
The Africa You Never See
By Carol Pineau
Sunday, April 17, 2005; Page B02
In the waiting area of a large office complex in Accra, Ghana, it's 
standing
room only as citizens with bundles of cash line up to buy shares of a 
mutual
fund that has yielded an average 60 percent annually for the past seven
years. They're entrusting their hard-earned cash to a local company 
called
Databank, which invests in stock markets in Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana 
and
Kenya that consistently rank among the world's top growth markets.

Chances are you haven't read or heard anything about Databank in your 
daily
newspaper or on the evening news, where the little coverage of Africa 
that's
offered focuses almost exclusively on the negative -- the virulent 
spread of
HIV/AIDS, genocide in Darfur and the chaos of Zimbabwe.

Yes, Africa is a land of wars, poverty and corruption. The situation in
places like Darfur, Sudan, desperately cries out for more media 
attention
and international action. But Africa is also a land of stock markets, 
high
rises, Internet cafes and a growing middle class. This is the part of 
Africa
that functions. And this Africa also needs media attention, if it's to 
have
any chance of fully joining the global economy.

Africa's media image comes at a high cost, even, at the extreme, the 
cost of
lives. Stories about hardship and tragedy aim to tug at our 
heartstrings,
getting us to dig into our pockets or urge Congress to send more aid. 
But no
country or region ever developed thanks to aid alone. Investment, and 
the
job and wealth creation it generates, is the only road to lasting
development. That's how China, India and the Asian Tigers did it.

Yet while Africa, according to the U.S. government's Overseas Private
Investment Corp., offers the highest return in the world on direct 
foreign
investment, it attracts the least. Unless investors see the Africa 
that's
worthy of investment, they won't put their money into it. And that 
lack of
investment translates into job stagnation, continued poverty and 
limited
access to education and health care.

Consider a few facts: The Ghana Stock Exchange regularly tops the list 
of
the world's highest-performing stock markets. Botswana, with its A+ 
credit
rating, boasts one of the highest per capita government savings rates 
in the
world, topped only by Singapore and a handful of other fiscally prudent
nations. Cell phones are making phenomenal profits on the continent.
Brand-name companies like Coca-Cola, GM, Caterpillar and Citibank have
invested in Africa for years and are quite bullish on the future.

The failure to show this side of Africa creates a one-dimensional 
caricature
of a complex continent. Imagine if 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing and
school shootings were all that the rest of the world knew about 
America.

I recently produced a documentary on entrepreneurship and private 
enterprise
in Africa. Throughout the year-long process, I came to realize how all 
of us
in the media -- even those with a true love of the continent -- 
portray it
in a way that's truly to its detriment.

The first cameraman I called to film the documentary laughed and said,
"Business and Africa, aren't those contradictory terms?" The second got
excited imagining heart-warming images of women's co-ops and market 
stalls
brimming with rustic crafts. Several friends simply assumed I was 
doing a
documentary on AIDS. After all, what else does one film in Africa?

The little-known fact is that businesses are thriving throughout 
Africa.
With good governance and sound fiscal policies, countries like 
Botswana,
Ghana, Uganda, Senegal and many more are bustling, their economies 
growing
at surprisingly robust rates.

Private enterprise is not just limited to the well-behaved nations. You
can't find a more war-ravaged land than Somalia, which has been 
without a
central government for more than a decade. The big surprise? Private
enterprise is flourishing. Mogadishu has the cheapest cell phone rates 
on
the continent, mostly due to no government intervention. In the 
northern
city of Hargeysa, the markets sell the latest satellite phone 
technology.
The electricity works. When the state collapsed in 1991, the national
airline went out of business. Today, there are five private carriers 
and
price wars keep the cost of tickets down. This is not the Somalia you 
see in
the media.

Obviously life there would be dramatically improved by good governance 
-- or
even just some governance -- but it's also true that, through 
resilience and
resourcefulness, Somalis have been able to create a functioning 
society.

Most African businesses suffer from an extreme lack of infrastructure, 
but
the people I met were too determined to let this stop them. It just 
costs
them more. Without reliable electricity, most businesses have to use
generators. They h